Transcripts For FOXNEWS Americas Newsroom 20100708

so whether you buy a couple of coffee or a brand new car, you're going to pay a little extra to the u.s. government, and even taking your own money out of your own bank account at an atm could cost you, that's right, 1 percent more under this new law. martha: this may sound strikingly similar to the vat tax used in england and other countries and it cost them a lot of money. is that what's coming here? stuart varney joins us, he's the anchor of varney & company on the fox business network. stuart, welcome, good to have you here. this idea was launched by a democratic congressman from pennsylvania and written about by lanny davis in an editorial. lanny davis worked wither skin bowles in the clinton administration. it raises the question are we starting to get the form from this debt commission, are they starting to float out there some of these ideas that they may actually try to put into action? >> that's precisely what's happening and we've been talking about it for months. what this is, this transaction tax, is another form of consumption tax. it's taxing you and everybody else, every single time you spend any money. no matter whether it's on a credit card, cash or by check, doesn't matter, big transaction, small transa. tax it. it is a consumption tax. very similar to the vat that they've already got in europe, very similar to the state sales tax which we already have in america. this will be a national 1 percent transaction tax. there is a slight wrinkle here, martha. and that is under this proposal, there would be a rebate of this tax, in other words, the government collects it, and then rebates it back to people making less than $250,000 a year. so it's a national consumption tax, rebated to the poor, and those under 250k. martha: which i find interesting on two levels, stuart. one is that any time the government takes in money and then gives it back, imagine just, you know, bureaucratically the cost of those two transactions in and of themselves, of taking the money and getting it back, second of all, i thought it was very interesting that it was referred to as a way to alleviate this tax on the poor, who apparently now fall under $250,000 a year for families. so now you have absolutely no middle class? because we're told everybody over 250 is rich, right, so now anybody under 250 doesn't have to pay this tax. >> you're right, it's income redistribution, wr-fplt rit large, it is a bureaucratic nightmare, and it's a highly politicized tax. what it actually works out f. we ever get this thing, who will get the rebate? that will depend upon your political masters. martha: we're going to get much more into this. thank you so much for setting this foundation for all of that for us this morning, stuart varney, always good to see you, sir, and we'll see you at varney & company at the business channel. gregg: breaking news on the u.s. economy, the weekly jobless claim number just came out moments ago, 450,000 americans filed for first-time unemployment benefits. that's still a very high number of claims, but better than some economists had predicted. and it represents a drop, actually, of 21,000 from the previous week. now, the labor department says today's number is the lowest level that we have seen since early may. maybe, just maybe, a glimmer of hope that layoffs are slowing a bit. but 14.6 million americans remain unemployed. martha: how about this? there are now reports that more than 46 afghan troops, about 46 afghan troops, have now vanished from the united states, they were being trained here, and vanished from a texas air force base. we're learning new details on this and a foxnews.com exclusive. remember this story, back a week or two ago, 17 were known to be missing of these afghan military members who vanished from locke lin air force base over the course of the last few years. now we're learning it could be as high as 46 people. one man left the base last thursday, according to these reports, just hours after his graduation ceremony. some of them disappeared before completing the defense language institute program. military and law enforcement officials say that desertions by federal personnel in the u.s. are not uncommon, they call the situation with the afghan deserters a growing problem. so where have these people gone? and what are they up to? that remains the big question. gregg: brand new developments in what the feds were saying was part of an international plot to bomb new york city's subway system and a whole lot more. three suspected al-qaeda members, now under arrest in norway. united states and norway had been watching these three guys for more than a year, saying they planned a bombing similar to the one that was thwarted in the new york city subway system last year. the department of justice also revealing the existence of a related plot in great britain. let's bring in now to talk about it former cia officer peter brooks, senior fellow at the heritage foundation, former deputy assistant to secretary of defense. great to see you. >> good morning. gregg: norway has 500 troops in afghanistan, roughly, they did republish those controversial cartoons of the prophet muhammad which is blasphemmist and aye man awa zero, do you think no norway was the target here? >> i think it's possible, especially heupbs zawahiri said that. i think it's possible the plots are international, i think the struggle continues britain, united states, norway, and what's more interesting to me, the fact that it seems that the central command of al-qaeda, shown by this ad nam shurkijumah is involved in plotting attacks against the west. gregg: peter, two ways to look at it. i'll pose the question that way. are you encouraged that we are making progress in connecting the dots and getting our hands on some of the bad guys, or are you discouraged that this really underscores the vast and pervasive tentacles of al-qaeda, even nine years after the 9/11 attacks? >> that's a great point. i mean, is the glass half empty or half full? i think i feel both ways when i look at t. depending upon the moment. the fact is international cooperation seemed to have worked here, it shows the real importance of intelligence, it also shows the fact that we're not out of the woods yet, and complacency would be a big mistake in the united states and around the world in terms of this al-qaeda target. so there's a lot of issues out there regarding this. but like i said, you know, we have two enemies here, terrorists and complacency. if we get complacent and let our guard down we're going to take a hit. gregg: authorities say the suspected terrorists were going to use portable but powerful bombs, peroxide, a major component. how much damage are we talking about here? >> you just go back and look at madrid in 2004, look at london in 2005, which is just five years ago yesterday, the potential plots in new york city, they like subways, there's a lot of people in them, especially at rush hour, they're encapsulated, the explosions won't be drifted off quickly, or you know, decrease its pressure, and its capability, the matters involved in the explosion won't dissipate as quickly as they had hoped, so it's an obvious target, something we need to look forward to. they're telling us what they want to do. gregg: we're still fighting a war against the taliban and indeed al-qaeda in afghanistan. notwithstanding a pullout date, roughly a year from now. what's the status of al-qaeda in its terror capabilities and if we withdraw a year from now, what does that mean for them? >> it's critically important that we remember that pakistan is part of this. a lot of these people are being trained in pakistan, they have a safe haven in some parts of pakistan, especially washington -- waziristan. what happens in pakistan is going to impact what happens in afghanistan and vice versa, getting our pakistani policy is critically important, also afghan policy. i'm not for the withdrawal at all, the arbitrary date is a mistake in my view and that should be looked at, hopefully will be looked at by david petraeus in the coming days. greg gregg peter brooks, thank you. >> thank you. martha: a new british report clearing scientists in the climategate scandal, finding that the researchers did not skew scientific data to show a rise in man-made global warming. the case surfaced after more than a thousand e-mails were released to the public. a separate investigation found there was, quote, no substance to the allegations that one researcher violated those research standards. gregg: a spy for a spy? the russians want their people back rather quickly and there are brand new reports of a swap in the work, but -- in the works but one intel expert says not so fast. he is here to explain why. martha: and two people are missing today after a sight seeing boat, you know these duck boats, they're in a lot of the major cities, it crashed with a barge in philadelphia. we're going to find out what happened, just seconds after that accident, and get the latest on the 20-year-old and 16-year-old still missing. gregg: it is some of the most eagerly awaited testimony in the rod blagojevich corruption case. blago's world. we're going to tell you who may be taking the witness stand in the trial next, and what that witness might say. >> i'm not sure how happy the obama -- i mean, they pretend they were happy. >> i know. i called rahm emanuel to confirm. >> they would hate that i would say. gregg: they had seconds to grab life jackets, that from passengers on board a sinking sight seeing boat in philadelphia, after a major collision with a barge on the delaware river, two passengers a.20-year-old man and 16-year-old tkpweurblgs still missing. the amphibious duck boat had 39 people on board, it was stalled in the water because of a mechanical prorbgs then the barge literally ran over the boat. >> before impact, i saw a couple of people jump off the boat and ten seconds later, just crashed into it. >> how many people went into the water? >> 15, 20 people. >> the tug boat was pushing a larger craft and i don't think they saw -- obviously they didn't see the duck boat and reason over it. >> -- and ran over it. >> several life preservers were floating in the water. there were people trying to catch them. very scary. gregg: the two missing attention areeld to be from a tour group from hungary, the ntsb is investigating the crash and crews hope to pull the duck boat up from the bottom of the river sometime today. martha: well, this morning's new york post screams this headline, "spy swap", and you can take a look at this picture, that picture is scantily clad anna chapman and it says can we keep her but says said to be part of the swap deal between the former cold war enemies and we are getting video of this russian prison in moscow, that's expected to be the central holding cell where people convicted of espionage for the west are kept. but exactly how do you pull this off, how do you swap these spies and is this really the best way to handle the suspected spies recently arrested in the u.s.? i'm joined by charles pink, from a firm that special shraoeuzs in corporate investigations and he has a long history of following the intelligence world. welcome, good to have you here this morning. >> thank you very much. martha: what's your take on this, is this a good deal for the u.s. to swap these folks we just took into custody, for two people, i believe, being considered? >> i'm not opposed to a swap in principle. my concern is that it has to be a fair swap. i understand the political, diplomat and even intelligence imperatives for saufp swap which dates back to the cold war when the u.s. and russians traded lots of spies, but my concern lies in the fact that i read a report today that suggested a u.s. official speaking in honesty said this would not be a fair swap. here we have the proposal to swap ten spies, russian intelligence officers, for someone who's been in prison for 11 years if you count his time in detention in very harsh conditions near the arctic circle, often in solitary confinement and one other spy and the ten russians arrested have been in jail for a week or less. martha: you were saying also to hold on to them a little bit longer, right? >> another -- >> martha: is that the idea? >> the fbi has invested ten years investigating these people at enormous cost and a lot of labor and i'm sure some people at the bureau are unhappy about the fact that they're about to be released so quickly. another interesting report that i read today said that the russians were the ones really pushing the swap, and that tells me that they want to get these people back very quickly before they start to talk, also -- >> martha: why would that be? >> they don't want them obviously to divulge secrets to us. that's the reason that both the united states and russia don't want to take this case to court, because then both our trade craft secrets might become public. and i think both sides would avoid that. there's also, when you go into court, anything can happen and i think there's legitimate concern about that. look at the recent apac case where charges were dismissed against officials charged with espionage. i'd also like to make a -- >> martha: go ahead. >> i wanted to make a broader point. when these issues bubble up, it also reveals i think americans' kind of unease with intelligence work and i think this is sort of a recent development in our history. truth is, a spy frankly saved the american republic, a spy by the name of hercules mull began during a revolutionary war was a spy for general washington and a tailor in new york city and made uniforms for british officers and uncovered a plot to assassinate general washington and imagine how different america would be if that plot succeeded. in the civil war, we had allen pinkerton who worked for president lynn -- lincoln and world war ii, the office of strategic services under the legendary william j. donovan. we know how to do this but i often feel that much like the military has lived in the shadow of vietnam since the 1970s, so too our intelligence community has lived in the shadow of the scandals of the 1970s and the church and pike committees which did damage to the intelligence community that it's never really recovered from. martha: your points are well taken, sir. let me ask you this before i let you go. how does this swap actually work? there's also reports this morning that a couple of these people say i really don't want to leave the united states, my wife is here, my children are here, haven't they sort of lost their ability to argue that at this point? >> well, that's certainly going to complicate matters. there are a lot of details that need to be worked out about those things. let me make one final point. the imperative to swap spies stems from our desire to get our people back, and that point was driven home to me when i had the privilege of attending a screening at cia headquarters a couple of weeks ago of a film about richard fecto and john downey, two cia officers shut down in china in the early 1950s held prisoner under the harshest conditions for 20 years and the cia never stopped trying to get them back, and i think we need to let people who take great risks for our country all on the world, whether they work for the cia os officers or as assets know that in the unlikely event that something is going to happen to you we will do everything in our power to get you back. so there are a lot of power ful emotions connected to this. martha: absolutely. thank you sir, charles fenk, joining us from washington, thank you. >> thank you. thank you very much. gregg: they said it would happen, the irs now saying it may have major problems dealing with the responsibility of enforcing that new health care law. we'll explain why. martha: and this is the big buzz today, folks, could it be a new castle for king james? le bron is expected to make a huge announcement tonight. will it be new york, will it be miami, will it be chicago or cleveland? all in the running. we're going to take a look at this and see if his home town should take him back or if he decides to go. gregg: i vote for l.a. but they're not even in the conversation. martha: you are! gregg first, we want to know what you think, during the commercial break, go to fox news.com, take our nonscience civic survey, which team will king james choose? those answers, coming up. mash march here's a shocker for you from the ris, a new health care law may pose challenges for them, like, for instance, keeping track of the millions of businesses and charities that have to reports payments they made to suppliers and service providers for the irs. but the irs says it doesn't have the staff or the funding to handle that record keeping. surprise surprise. and the paperwork they say will outweigh the benefits of tax collection they are set to get under the new health care law. how about that. gregg: a nationwide strike is bringing just about everything to a virtual stand still today in greece. it is the sixth general strike of the year and it comes just ahead of a crucial vote on austerity measures greece's socialist government needs to implement, huge spending cuts to get a multi billion dollar bailout from the e.u. and imf. but the changes mean, for example, pension benefit cuts, higher retirement ages, lower salaries and a host of our changes. previous strikes have sparked violent clashes. as you can see, between police and demonstrators, this one from june. greg palkot is live in athens. greg, what's happening on the streets there? any signs of problems? >> reporter: gregg, with the parliament here considering the vital austerity measures, the greeks once again took to the streets and once again, sorry to report, there was violence. the numbers were down, but they were still noisy. radicals, extremists outside of the parliament building where i'm close by here right now, taunting well-geared up riot police, dozens and dozens of them. now, we followed the protestors, greg, as -- gregg, as they moved away from the parliament and that was where there was a beating of one individual, protestors taking up sticks and setting upon a man who they believe was a plain-clothed policeman, he turned out to be a civil servant in the government. we watched as he was taken away, bloodied and in a comatose state. as our viewers recall, gregg, back in may, three people were killed in protests here. gregg: the general strike going on today, are you experiencing -- how are the reforms going so far? >> reporter: yeah, first, with the strike, gregg, once again, the #th this year, and it was quite well implemented by workers, transport hit, as well as government offices. we were down at the ports where the ferries serviced the greek islands and there was the beginning of a bit of weary to all of this. we heard from a disgruntled travel agency owner who complained about his business, we also heard from a tourist upset about disruptions, but again, these reforms do seem to be going through, the parliament is set to formally approve them tonight. they will include reforms to both pensions and labor laws, and that's a condition, gregg, of the bailout money, big-time, about $150 billion coming not just from the european union but from the u.s.-assisted imf. so after this, maybe the greeks can get back to what they enjoy doing, spending the summer on the islands. back to you. gregg: greg palkot live in athens, greece, thank you very much. martha. martha: you can't win an election without those finishicky independents, right? so which way are they leaning now just months from the november mid-term. the surprising new numbers are coming up. gregg: plus a dangerous heat wave, sweeping the northeast. that's the temperature outside our headquarters, new york city, manhattan, sixth avenue. the latest as the mercury keeps on rising. 78 degrees so far. martha: let's take a look at some of the headlines, we are seconds away from the opening bell on wall street. we should see positive numbers judging from the futures this morning as investors react to the jobless claims reports and the retail numbers and things finally starting to cool down just a little bit here in the northeast, following a record breaking heat wave, several cities from washington to new york to boston faced triple digit temperatures. look at that, 78, not so bad at 9:30 in the morning, forecasters saying things look better through this weekend. we'll call this day 80 now of the gulf oil disaster. here is the latest today. the obama administration is back in court in new orleans, government lawyers are asking an appeals court there to reenstate the president's ban on deep water oil drilling, plus the "wall street journal" reporting that bp pushing to fix that gushing oil well by july 27th. that would be almost a month ahead of schedule. nearing completion of those relief wells that we heard so much about. but the oil giant is also preparing what the government is calling a backup to the backup plan, including linking that busted well to existing pipelines in two nearby oil and gas spills. phil keating is watching this as he has been throughout this entire disaster, in bell chase, louisiana with more for us. it appears bp is being i guess cautiously optimistic now about the efforts to get this thing done soon. >> reporter: martha, part of that is public relations -- i'm here in the canal and it's quite loud as the ships are coming through. they're being cautiously optimistic because of all the other problems that have happened here, plans, great optimism, great expectations, but things in the end did not work out. on the 27th of july, that is when bp had its second quarterly report, meeting with investors, they want to have good news for that. on july 20th, according to the "wall street journal" article, that is when british prime minister david cameron is going to be meeting with president obama in the white house. so between the 20th and 27th, bp officials are reportedly saying yes, we think we may be able to intercept that well and take a look at this graphic, right now the first relief welch was started may fourth, it's basically two months and one week in progress on a three-month operation but said to be a week ahead of schedule, it is now 17,780 feet below the surface of the gulf of mexico. that's within about 300 feet of where it needs to be to intercept the leaking well, and then it would initiate a series of pumping heavy drilling mud and then follow that up with concrete. ed idea here, that would finally seal this gusher. bp is hoping for this to happen but the end of the month, but we are dealing with bad weather, we've been dealing with it for the past ten days, it's hurricane season, nothing is guaranteed, bp couching this expectation as saying it is, quote, unlikely. martha: what about this weather? we've seen the two vessels hoping to step up the skimming efforts. is more bad weather coming there? >> the word is today and tomorrow could be adverse. however, starting friday, there might be a 9-day window of some pretty clear weather. it's gorgeous in bell chase right now but yesterday, along the beaches around the gulf of mexico and grand isle, there was no beach cleanup happening, all the workers had the day off the weather was so bad. skimming operations were zero yesterday, the day before, 218 barrels were skimmed but tonight, dealing with the heat in pensacola, florida, while beach korean-up crews are working at night, using flashlights and lighting rigs on the trucks, scooping up the oily tar balls there, and of course, just yesterday outside of new orleans, lake pontchartrain, 100 pounds of additional tore balls were found and bagged and taken away. it's not good. martha: no, not good. phil, thank you so much, phil keating reporting from belle chasse, louisiana. gregg: a new poll out showing the mood of a crucial voting bloc ahead of this november. it does not bode well for democrats. according to a new fox news opinion dynamics poll, take a look at that, 55 percent of independents are likely to vote for a republican congressional candidate in the mid-term elections to put a check on democratic control of congress and the white house. and a couple of "wall street journal" opsaids -- op-eds today pointing out that few democrats are actually campaigning on their legislative achievements and that the gop can take advantage of that. for a fair and balanced debate, we're joined by former bill clinton pollster better bernard whitman and mary katharine hamm as writer for the weekly standard and fox news contributor. good to see you both. mary katharine, when 55 percent of independents plan to use their vote for a check on the president and congress, what specifically are they trying to put a check on? >> well, i think the story of the year has been a shift in independents in 2008, they acted like democrats, happily voted for obama and they're shifting right now and turning quite a bit more conservative according to gallup polling and other polling. normally, independents want a put a check on party in power, and they're just cranky and the economy is bad. i think there might be more of an ideological issue here. i think people are looking at the fact that we're spending all these huge amounts of money and looking at greece and saying maybe this can't last, and so i think there may be danger for democrats in a shifting ideology here. but republicans have to walk through that door and make good on it and actually convert people. gregg: bernard, independents often dictate the outcome of elections. i want to show two polls to you. take a look at our fox news exit poll, two years ago. independents made up 29 percent of the electorate, candidate obama won a majority, 52 to mccain's 44, but take a look at the next poll, just cam out yesterday, that shows independents have turned against the president, 61 percent say they're either disappointed orangery. is that a repudiation of the president's policies and performance? >> new york city i think it's a reality that the incoming administration tpaeusd an extraordinary economic meltdown and we have done a pretty amazing job stemming the flow of that and getting us back on track, and i think -- >> gregg: then why are they angry? >> what's incumbent for the democrats is to explain exactly what we've done, for example, the economic stimulus bill that the republicans did not to decry has saved 2.3 and 2.8 million jobs, we've got 10,000 construction jobs moving across the canada the fact is that exports are beginning to grow, we're going to be able to create several million jobs by boosting exports over the next five years, and i think that over the summer and into the fall, the democrats need to be very clear about taking the case out to the american people. gregg: if all that you say is true, why are 61 percent either disappointed orangery with the president? >> because the american people are admittedly frustrated with the pace of progress. had enough -- has enough jobs grown in this country, absolutely not, but the jobless claims reported this morning were less than expected and the truth is -- >> gregg: they're blaming him, not his predecessor, they're blaming him, aren't they? >> we have to do more to get this economy started again. for example, that's why the president wants to push forward the bush tax cuts, not for everyone, which would bankrupt this country, but to folks on those -- on those folks making $250,000 a year. gregg: katharine, speaking of an op-ed, karl rove maps out a progrowth strategy for republicans, let me read it, quote, republicans must make a compelling case that allowing the tax cuts to expire will result in history's largest tax increase, killing jobs, punishing hard work and enterprise, damaging growth growth, wounding small business and postponing the moment the government finally restrains spending. i'm not hearing that from republicans. are you? >> look, i think the republicans have a chance to make some gains here, but they have to talk smartly about these things. they have to push prosperity measures as opposed to austerity measures i guess is one way you could put it, and the bottom line is it doesn't matter what analysts on tv believe about the stimulus and you can talk all day about how it wobgd, which i strongly disagree with, but what matters is what the american people believe about it and they don't think it worked. you've got keynesian or liberal -- liberal economists saying keynesianism failed partly because they didn't spend enough, but that doesn't 345er. -- matter. what it comes down torque the american people are saying we need to go a different direction. gregg: but republicans have been engaged in a blame game, let's blame the democrats, the president, and they haven't put forth their own progrowth agendas rove points out. >> what i would also say is in the past republicans have been more than happy to spend away, because there was no sort of consequence for this thing. i think the world is looking at the new situation, looking at greece, looking at europe and saying hey, there has to be an end to this kind of thing and i think the gop has an opportunity to stay true to principle and convert voters. gregg: bernard, as you know many democrats are balking, net youth stimulus and extending unemployment benefits. is that because in an election year, four-months away, they are wary of spoerlting higher spending, higher taxes, and higher deficits? >> i absolutely think that we've got to come up with a very clear plan to get the decifit under control, but that does not mean that we can possibly get away from the job creating strategies of this administration has put the country on, and if you look at the pew research poll, 50 percent of the american people trust the democrats more than the republicans to bring about the change that's needed for this country. doesn't mean the changes come in as much as we need but clearly the american people still are on the side of the democrats. gregg: better bernard, mary katharine, good to see you. >> good to see you. martha: all right. it is the hottest question in the country right now. where will le bron james play basketball next year, will it be new york, miami, chicago, some say he will stay at home in cleveland. tonight is the night that we find out. in an unprecedented prime time special, dubbed "the decision", but if the son of akron, ohio decides to bolt it would be nothing short of devastate fog cleveland, downtown cleveland businesses figure to lose $48 million over the season if the king as he is known leaves for a new castle in greener pastures, the cavaliers, thought to be worth around somewhere like $487 million but that could drop like a rock. he's considered a huge boost to revenues, from concession sales, parking, to the tune of $58 million a year. we will have much more on le bron and how he is move markets in these cities. he's got the sports world and even folks who don't care about basketball are hanging on every word in this story. gregg: do you care to offer your guess? >> martha: i think he's going to go to new york. i heard he was down in the west village looking at brownstones, i heard he was looking at billy joel's old brownstone, apparently it has very high ceilings, which is good for him. he dissed new jersey a little bit, he said maybe -- there was some talk about well maybe, the nets, if they moved to brooklyn but i don't want to play in new jersey. there was talk he said something like that, i don't know if he did, but personally i find that offensive, why wouldn't you want to play in new jersey of all places. i think he's going to pick new york. gregg: i think he's going to stay in cleveland. martha: no way. tkpwrao*eg tkpwrao eg -- gregg: he's going to stay. martha: i heard after he went out the side door, without a word to anybody, i thought that sounds like a guy who doesn't want to face too many people. gregg:ure viewers are incredibly start smart, they happen to agree with me. earlier we asked our viewers to weigh in on our question of the day. we are asking which nba team will le bron choose. we've got more than 3000 votes so far. wow, 37 percent say he's going to stay in cleveland, 26 percent say he'll head down to miami, 15 percent want him to play for the norcoo for new york. i don't think anybody voted for my home team the lakers. martha: don't think so, gregg. gragg gregg wouldn't that be great, though. high profile meeting between the governors in several states, it was supposed to be hosted by arizona. now it might not happen at all because of mexican opposition to arizona's immigration law. but do arizona's neighbors have its back in its dispute or are they siding with the mexicans? martha: and it's the trial of the summer, folks. we have brand new blago for you today. the former governor has no love in these tapes for some of his fellow democrats. >> why the f -- should i send lisa maddigan who gets zero support among african-americans and miss off my base. >> right. >> and okay and i don't get? martha: more from planet blago after this and the democratic congressman targeted with a million dollars price tag. we're going to tell you what that is all about, coming up. martha: big question today, are we going to see a brand new tax, a nationwide tax, that will be designed to tackle the national debt dilemma? lawmakers are eyeing something called a transaction tax of 1 percent, means u.s. taxpayers will be on the hook to bring down our $13 trillion debt. former white house adviser lanny caves -- davis wrote about it today, saying theoretically everyone would pay 1 cents on the dollar for every such transaction in america, every day, whether $3 million on a $300 million business acquisition or $300 on the purchase of a $30,000 car or even just $5 on a $500 atm withdrawal. so that lays out sort of how this would work and it's based on a democratic pennsylvania lawmaker's proposal of a bill. i'm joined now by john camney, senior economist for h.d. wing economics. good to have you with us, welcome. >> thank martha. martha: it sounds a lot to me like a vat tax, when i read this. what's the difference? >> a vat tax taxes a good that you're making throughout its production, everything from the steel in the car, all the way to the car. with this, it would be a straight consumption tax. in a perfect world, we would have only consumption taxes, but this would be a tax on top of all the other taxes we pay which are set to go up next year, so it's very problematic. martha: you know, lanny davis' argument in this piece is look, democrats and republicans need to get together, we need to basically cut spending, but we're also going to need to raise taxes. he says that's just something everybody needs to accept, we need to jump into this pool together. let me pull up a little of what he says about this whole idea overall and we'll take a look at that. he says are you confused? an idea that would raise taxes, spread the pain, pay down the national debt, and require pledges from politicians to protect those revenues. is this a liberal idea or conservative idea? i think it's both. a truly purple idea, says lanny davis. what do you think about that? >> that's ridiculous. first off, if you look throughout history from calvin coolidge to john f. kennedy to ronald reagan, the best way traditionally to raise revenues is to reduce the tax on work. taxes are a price, and when you raise the price, you get less of it. so he's wrong on the tax aspect of it alone. secondly, for republicans to fall for this would be the height of naivete, democrats have baited them with future spending cuts that never occur and what happens is we end up raising taxes, the spending cuts never occur, and history says they won't occur this time. martha: but do you agree that the fact that this is now being floated, are we sort of as a nation getting warmed up for what the debt commission is about to say? you know, is this preparation, erskine bowles and lanny davis worked together in the white house, are we getting prepared for what's to come in the form of a new national tax? >> i think without a doubt this is their plan. i just hope congress, democrats and republicans, will not fall for it, it won't work. the last thing we need at a time of economic hardship is to add must tax on top of taxes that are set to go up next year. if you look at the rent you pay, if you look at an atm transaction, this money adds up. we don't have a problem right now of washington having too few revenues. the problem is washington is out of control. we have a health care bill that's going to cost in the trillions, we've had bailouts of car companies and banks that should have been allowed to go bankrupt. martha: thank you very much. we're out of time. good to talk about you about it, john tamny. thank you. gregg: will are ways to air differences, getting physical is probably not one of the better options but don't tell that to these guys. a showdown between lawmakers in taiwan turns into an all-out brawl. wait until you hear what lies at the center of it all. cccccccccccccccccccccccccccc martha: take a look at this, lawmakers in taiwan getting a bit physical. check this out. how come that never happens in congress? maybe it should! once in a while. they're shoving, launching gar abandon bins, creating chaos in the chamber, it was about a trade bill between taiwan and china, still a bit of a battle going on. gregg: looks like my house at night when the kids are hungry. we don't need them often. the state of utah turning the tables on ufpbgle sam when it comes to eminent domain, the governor signing a bill that allows the state to take back land from the federal. setting up a supreme court battle counsel the -- down the road, it's part of our series it's your land. eric shawn has details. >> reporter: utah is fighting back. it's a state with unending vistas and untouched, breath taking natural beauty, as you can see here, but almost 70 percent of utah's land is actually controlled by the federal government, so to get some of their land back, iran governor gary herbert has signed legislation that would allow the state to use eminent domain to claim utah's federal land. the law could, for example, let the state have access to what you're seeing here, that's part of the grand ascalante, a national monument in southern utah, larger than delaware and rhode island put together, parts of it hold an estimated trillion dollars worth of coal reserves. republican legislator mike noel, a southern utah rancher, told us it's about time the state use its power to seize what should be theirs. >> we could actually be energy self-sufficient in a few short years. why the politicians won't look at that, they're held captive because it's a radical environmental community that does not want to see any development. >> reporter: others say the law will prove to be unconstitutional and the supremacy laws in the constitution clearly allows the federal government to own the land and this utah cannot just use eminent domain to try to get that federal land. >> there is a tradition in this state of being defiant towards the federal government. and i think that they are creating a movement in their own mind to have other states step up to the federal government and say we can do these things better than you can. >> reporter: the department of interior says it is now reviewing the legislation. and if you have a property rights issue or a land issue, we want to know about it or address -- know about t our address is your land at foxnews.com. gregg. gregg: eric shawn, thank you very much. martha. martha: the battle on the border, arizona governor jan brewer canceling a conference because of protests from mexican leaders. that sounds a little bit odd. now california, new pherz are stepping in to this whole discussion over this meeting and whether or not it's going to happen. you may be surprised whose side they're taking. gregg: and when michael jordan returned to the nba he sent a 2-word fax, saying, quote, i'm back. martha: that's one way to do it. gregg: well, this guy has a different view. the media circus, le bron james using a prime time special to make his choice public. >> ♪ >> ♪ should i say or should i go. >> ♪ >> ♪ each brita filter can take up to 300 of those bottles out of the equation. bret: we're getting breaking news in the potential story involving a spy swap, united states and russian. a new agency is saying this a russian spy convicted of trying to help the united states, named in a possible swap has actually appeared in vienna, and apparently is not inside a russian prison. lots going on. new developments in this russian spy case in new york signaling a possible cold war-style spy swap. ten of the 11 suspects in the matter set to appears in federal court later today in lower manhattan, an attorney for one of the suspects saying the case could be resolved by the end of the day. david lee miller is live outside the courthouse. david, how close are we to a swap? >> reporter: it looks like we are very close to a swap. as you reported a moment ago and it bears repeating, igor is reported to be in sraoe and i a. he is the man the rugses have been holding. he signed a confession saying he was a spy that provided military secrets to the united states. reluctantly he signed that paper and he is now in sraoe and i a. sources say that he is the only one of the spies held by the russians that will be sent to the united kingdom. ten others are going to be sent as part of the spy swap to the united states. the other individuals with one exception have not yet been named. things are moving forward here in new york city at a very rapid pays. this morning a short time ago i talked with a lawyer of one of the accused spies, juan lazaro and she says in a few hours time, 2:45 an arraignment will take place, and if as required he has to plead guilty to make a deal he will do so. here now a portion of that interview. how is your client going to plead? >> not guilty. >> reporter: if he has to plead guilty for some type of a swap deal to happen, will that change his plea? >> yes he will, obviously if he has any type of a deal he's going to plead guilty. >> reporter: that attorney said that she was prohibited from elaborating on any of the details of any type of swap arrangement, but a short time ago someone did tell me that it is very likely the ten defendants who are held in the building behind me, or who will be in the building behind me for the arraignment are going to leave this building dates today but they will not do so through the front door. back to you. bret: any idea why the united states is working so hard to make this deal happen and so fast? >> reporter: there are essentially a couple of reasons that it's in u.s. interest to make this swap happen. number one, it might help smooth over u.s.-russian relations that have somewhat suffered because of the way the arrests went down. number two it would allow the u.s. attorney's office, the justice department the fbi to keep secret key evidence here that they might otherwise have to present in court, and hr-s lee it would also save the united states government a significant amount of money, the trials no doubt would be costly. back to you. bret: david lee miller live in new york city *rbgs break, breaking news on that story. martha: a battle over the border that is happening within our border. arizona jan brewer canceling a planned meeting between u.s. and mexico border state governors. that was going to happen in phoenix, after all six of the mexican governors threatened to boycott it due to arizona's new immigration law and her decision has drawn a big reaction. brewer saying that she's disappointed that the mexican governors have had this response to her state's law and she saw no alternative but to cancel the meeting. her federal governors in the state are the not so sure about this whole thing. california's tkpwafz tkpwafz -- governor governor schwarzenegger, and bill perry expressing a willingness to move on and do the conference somewhere else, seeming to support the foreign protest over the actions of their sister state. william la jeunesse is looking into this story. he joins us live. what have you learned about this decision. >> reporter: so much for solidarity. this conference is held between the four border states and the six mexican border states to the house. this year the conference was scheduled for phoenix. but the six mexican governors wrote to arizona and said we are not going to attend in protest because of arizona's tough new immigration law. two weeks ago governor brewer wrote to the mexican governors and said listen this would have been a very good opportunity for us to get together and discuss the law, but because they refuse to attend brewer said yesterday she had no choice but to answer he will the meeting. from her perspective according to her office the mexicans essentially killed this meeting, martha, by their refusal to come. martha: i mean it is surprising that we're getting this response from the other governors who deal with the border issues in california, new mexico and in texas. what can you tell us about their reaction? >> reporter: brewer had expected support from governor richardson in new mexico, governor schwarzenegger in california and governor perry in texas, but let's take a look at what happened, because they are also appearing to hang her out to dry. this, quote came from governor richardson yesterday, he said, governor brewer doesn't have the authority to cancel the border governor conference. she may not want to host is for political issue but that is no reason to sid sidestep the tough issues having migration and violence. now, let's go to governor schwarzenegger and his response. he said he believed that the border conference is a valuable forum providing a platform for ten border states to work together on mutual concerns. he's proud of the success they've had over the years e. looks forward to continuing the dialogue again at an alternative site. governor perry was more noncommit al. he basically said he was disappointed. he would be willing to talk about it. just because they didn't have the conference this year doesn't mean they won't have one next year. martha: thank you very much, william la jeunesse. was canceling that conference the right move or wrong move and what does it mean for the relationships between these border governors. the chairman bill bray is going to weigh in on this moments from now. bret: leaping from the sports page the front page, lebron james announcing his future nba plans tonight. he is among the most sought after players in league history and the drama surrounding his decision, one for the record books. his choice may mean a shot at a championship for one city and financial ruin for another, and a whole lot more of the shuffling going on. rick leventhal is at the boys and girls club in green itch -- greenwich, connecticut. what is the mood there. >> reporter: not the biggest media circus we've seen but a dozen satellite trucks from local and national media that have gathered across the street from the greenwich boys and girls club and quite a bit of security here. police cars that were here a moment ago have left. that large white satellite truck will be handling the broadcast for espn and you can see some of them gathering, this is all where it's going to happen tonight. bret: the owners of the nicks, the stock skyrocketed yesterday when the announcement was made that it would be made in neighboring connecticut. why the boys and girls club. >> reporter: they new they create a lot of buzz with this announcement tonight. they convinced espn to give them all the national spots in their hour-long show and created their own ad agency to sell ads which will raise about a million dollars. five of the six sponsors lebron is a pitchman, including nike, mcdonald's, spraoeut, vitamin wrats -- sprite, vitamin water. though say more than 18 million people might watch this show tonight. bret: they have officers in new york, greenwich is right in between. is there any indication of where lebron might end up playing? >> reporter: well there is a lot of speculation because we are in greenwich we are less than 15 miles from the nicks travel facility and less than 35 miles from madison square garden. carmelo anthony which is his good friend eug getting married in greenwich this weekend. there are a lot -- there is a lot of talk about the teams wo wooing lebron james. the nicks kind amare stoudemire, but the miami heat are leading the charge right now because they resigned dwayne wade and resigned kreurb bosch. i guess it comes down to if he wants to play in on a dream team in miami or a big fish in a big pond in new york. bret: rick leventhal on the scene, you have the best story of the game. martha: he always gets the best story of the day. she was kidnapped as a child and then held captive for nearly two decades eventually giving birth to two children. you'll remember this unbelievable story. if that is not bad enough there are shocking new revelations in the jaycee dugard case. the new report that will leave people shaking their heads in disbelief. bret: giving new meaning to the term drive-thru some video came you cannot miss. we'll show you all of it coming up. -p  martha: this has been an unbelievable story to follow this week and now a potential suspect in the kidnapping of that little 4-year-old missouri girl. he is deed now after reportedly shooting himself. the kidnapping victim, this beautiful little girl, 4-year-old alisa maier of missouri turned up at a carwash 70 miles from her home, that was one day after she was literally snatched out of her front yard by a man that was described by the witnesses in that front yard. police acted on a tip and they tried to question convicted sex offender paul smith at his home yesterday afternoon. officers say smith spray painted his car in the driveway when they got there, and that he pulled out a gun as they approached him and killed himself. they say he then shot himself in the head and died later at the hospital, and everyone just breathing a sigh of relief that he decided to let that little girl go, it's an unbelievable outcome and the best of all possible outcomes for that little girl and her family. how about this story, shocking new rev hraeugtss in the investigation of the kidnapping and 189-year captivity of a california woman. documents now are saying that parole agents spoke with jaycee dugard and the two children she bore to her abductor while she was in captivity according to a state attorney general's report. she was held in the backyard of convicted rapist phillip garrido. the state of california has settled with the duggard family for $20 million for the botching and unbelievable way that that whole case played out. bret: border state governors are divided as we told you moments ago in a live report. the governors of california and new mexico, maybe texas as well a bit miffed at arizona's governor for canceling a meeting with governors from each sides of the border. mexican governors threatened to boycott it because of her immigration law. brian bilbray is is here, a republican chairman in the house. they say they are not going to go to arizona. they said it violates civil rights and has probations -- provisions based on ethic and cultural prejudices. do you think these mexican governors don't even understand that their mexican laws contain none of the civil rights protections they are claiming and complaining about here? >> look, i just got back from meeting with the mexican congress and the trouble is -- this dialogue of what do you do, it's like they've got to wake up. these governors from mexico you've got to understand, they are attacking their best ally north of the border. arizona knows how out of control the border is south of the border because they are losing control on their side. i mean they kid -- the kidnap capitol of the country is tucson. to take these cheap political shots at arizona when they have more at stake than anybody on this thing. the only alternative to controlling our side of the border if it gets out of control is we'll have to shut down everything along the border. that is going to impact mexico a lot more than it's going to impact the people of arizona. this thing is a misguided attack. bret: congressman u.s. federal law allows u.s. immigration officers to stop anybody, any time, anywhere for any reason to ask for documentation. >> reporter: absolutely and it has always been. bret: they are not tkphraeupbg about -- complaining about the long-standing federal but. they are complaining about the law that prohibits that. >> there are 63 other jurisdictions that have had the same program under the federal 287g, i didn't hear them come unglued at the 63 other agencies. you didn't see them come unglued at all the sanctuary cities that have been obstructing the federal government on immigration. you didn't see them suing anybody for obstruction of the federal programs then. the ha pock kraeus see swings out. this came out before people even read the arizona law. this is based on the crime that arizona has committed, doing something. bret: i have to ask you about the governor of your state, governor schwarzenegger, he's siding with the mexican governors, and so too is bill richard season -- richardson and we just aired their statements about the whole thing. the mexican governors say we want to have it elsewhere. those two governors say okay we'll do it elsewhere we are not going to side with jan brewer. >> i think these are the same people that are attacking arizona are the same ones that are taking us in california. governor schwarzenegger should remember that. frankly in california, in san diego right where i grew up on the border we have secured our border to a large degree with these barriers and these tactics, that the same people attacking arizona attacked us then. what we've done in california is pushed the problem over into their backyard and they now are the killing grounds of this uncontrolled border. for mexico, for a governor of mexico to attack arizona when you've got thousands of people being killed in mexico by the same cartels that smuggle drugs and illegal aliens you can't separate that crime issue. mexico has to wake up and understand that their best ally fighting these cartels are people like arizona that is willing to do the right thing even though they take the political heat. this thing just is a ton irk that they can take these type of cheap shots and that's coming from our own governors and the governors down south. our own governors got the latitude, they can get away witness, mexico is in no position to be self-righteous and point fingers. i went down into mexico a couple weeks ago i was stopped six times for a mexican to talk about our pores, and i understand. bret: we're going to have to leave it at that. congressman brian bilbray thank you so much for being with us. >> any time thank you. martha: this is coming in from foxnews.com, it's an interesting development in the arizona immigration lawsuit. foxnews.com is -- reporting that the attorney for the justice department who will lead this arizona case is tony west, tony west is part of what has been guild the gitmo 9. it's a group of attorneys within our justice department who has represented terror suspects. he represented john walker lynn in a controversial case. tony west is going to be the attorney for the arizona lawsuit case in our justice department. he represented john walker lynn. we'll be right back. ♪ [ woman ] when i grow up, i want to take him on his first flight. i want to run a marathon. i'm going to work with kids. i'm going to own my own restaurant. when i grow up, i'm going to start a band. 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[ female announcer ] together we can discover the best of what's next at aarp.org. bret: check out this frightening videotape. one second you're having a nice dinner and the second you're surrounded by rubble, a driver in australia losing control of a car and cashing through a window throwing a nine-year-old girl in a red shirt out of her chair. her father, of course, scrambling, my gosh, her father jam blink to see if she is okay. and, you know what she pretty much was okay. a police sergeant says the car crashed into a bus and rec shade into the restaurant. incredibly nobody especially the little girl was seriously hurt. i don't know how that is possible but thank goodness. martha: thank goodness is right. this is a story that we are keeping a close eye on right now, and let's see the jobs numbers first. here is a look at the jobless claims numbers taking an unexpected dip right now dropping 21,000 to 454,000. economists say that this is still far from signaling strong job creation. president obama calling this the summer of recovery as he campaigns for democrats out there. the president is set to depart for missouri where he will stump for a senate candidate. he will go to heaven help to campaign for senate majority reid. major garrett is live where he is following this story for us. talk to us a little bit about the economic angle today. >> reporter: welcome to this setting we found in kansas city. just to my right is smith electric. it's a police that makes electric batteries for large delivery trucks. your coco cola, pepsi truck, cable trucks, those kind of electric batteries are now supported by the recovery act. president obama is going to come here and talk about how the initial infusion of stimulus cash plus the investment that initial investment leveraged created jobs in a green economy. he's going to have a fund-raiser. to put those jobless claim numbers in context, yes they h-r down 21,000 from the previous week but the rolling four-week average is still about 466,000 initial jobless claims, that is the highest, martha since march of this year and to some degree statistically undercut the president's message that the economy is recovering solidly and is in the midst of what the white house likes to call recovery summer. the president is going to come here and talk about what is happening at smith electric, with the back tkropb of persistent unemployment across the country. martha: let's talk a little bye of politics major. this is the first time that he is appearing with robin carnahan. what is it about his choice to go out there and support her specifically. >> reporter: for whatever reason robin carnahan was out of the state. this time they'll be together in kansas city. there will be two fundraisers there one a high dollar there, 1,000 to $30,000 to attend then. -- one. then they have a grass roots razor, the tickets were priced from $35 to $250. because the economy is tough here they had to slash the prices to that fundraisers just to get a crowd. the $250 tickets were cut to $99. robin carnahan has trailed right year. the republican roy bl u.n. t is leading. it's a very close race, open seat race democrats have to hold if they are going to protect their sitting in the senate. president obama lost missouri by 4,000 votes to john mccain becoming the first democrat elected in modern history to win the presidency but lose missouri. martha: what do we get for 17 bucks, like a chips and dips fund-raiser. major thank you so much. we'll be following the coverage here throughout the day. always good to see you. this is a story we think is going to get a fair amount of attention. foxnews.com broke this story that the lawyer who represented the man known as the american taliban. john walker lindh, he ended up getting only 20 years in prison, some people thought that was a pretty light sentence for him. now the attorney who represented him, his name is tony west, he, we are learning, will be heading the u.s. versus arizona lawsuit which is over the continue version alimmigration bill. we'll have the very latest on this story. tony west from the department of justice a controversial person because he represented john walker lindh is now going to be the lawyer from the white house who -- from the department of justice i should say who heads up the fight against arizona. check out foxnews.com, you can learn more about this story, more about tony west. we will bring you more right here after the break. carpools, conferences, microwave dinners. they blur one into the next. we lose ourselves in the fog of everyday life, and drift away from what matters. but like a beacon in the night, it finds us. the light of more than 100 lighthouses, burning through that fog, and beckoning us back to what's real and true. this light shines for us all. this light is pure michigan. your trip begins at michigan.org since our beginning, we've been there for clients through good times and bad, when our 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healthy - and get on with my life. it comes from liberty medical. and now, it's not only where i get my diabetes testing supplies - but it's where i get my prescription drugs as well. if you're on medicare, the cost of your diabetes testing supplies as well as your prescription drugs may be covered. liberty takes care of all the paperwork with medicare and sends the prescription forms directly to your doctor for approval. then, on your schedule, packs up this box and sends it right to your door with no charge for shipping. liberty assures you have everything you need to manage your diabetes, including most brand name meters. call now and we'll send you a free meter. plus, a free cookbook when you join. call liberty. they can help you live a better life. call the number on your screen. bret: turn now to big news involving the bp oil leak and the future of drilling in the deep water. bp's managing director telling our sister publication, the "wall street journal," that if all goes perfectly the leak could be stopped before the end of the month. that is just in time for the oil giant to report second quarter earnings and talk to their investors. the journal also reporting that bp is still working on back up plans in case its current efforts don't work, including connecting the well to existing pipelines in nearby gas and oil fields. all of this coming as the oil industry goes head to head with the obama anministration in court over the white house's efforts to suspend deep water oil drilling. brian wilson is live in washington with more on that. brian, first of all admiral thad allen has been briefed this morning or briefing this morning. anything new? >> reporter: well, he said that they are two or three days away from adding additional recovery capacity. they say that that should allow the collection of some 50 to 53,000 barrels a day that's at the upper end of what they think may be coming out of that well. he also said you can see the briefing is on going now that there is work going forward on a second containment cap that would capture i guess about all of the "there. as for the relief wells that they are talking about, they are now at 17,780 feet, a couple hundred feet to go with the first well to intersect with the existing target well. he says the target date as far as the government is concerned remains mid august. he says look, we could get breaks, things could happen quicker than that but he's sticking by the mid-august prediction. he admitted there is not enough st. paul skimming going on, something you hear a lot of from the various states involved. bret: what about the effort legally. the obama anministration heading back to court to temporarily stop drilling in the gulf. >> reporter: well the court in louisiana threw out an earlier why for a pause in drilling at be depths below 500 feet. now the obama anministration is back in court with a revised argument. they say they need the pause because they need to revise rules and regulations, they need to do inch strebgs -- inspections and they say there is no way they could handle another spill were there to be one. there's only been one major spill in u.s. coastal water in the 60 years they've been drilling, one major spill at least but that is their argument. others say this is an overreaction that kills jobs that are desperately needed in the gulf. this will be ultimately decided by the courts. so far the louisiana court has not look favor leon this request by the obama anministration. bret: it appears to be a winning argument if you say, look you wouldn't shut down the entire auto industry because one line of cars has a problem. that seems to have resonated with a judge. >> reporter: we've been drilling here for 60 years, it's a bad disaster no doubt. this is the worst one they've ever had in 60 years. bret: brian, good to see you, thanks. >> reporter: you bet. ♪ martha: check that out, right? well that is where the focus is today. there he is as the rumor mill runs rampant over lebron james, the nba free agent has cities courting him desperately and his decision comes tonight in a prime-time announcement. will king james leave cleveland behind? they would be very sad about that in shrefd. however ends up picking up lebron, whoever he chooses is going to get a whole lot more than just an all-star forward. he's a two time mvp, six time all-star. he's worth 43 pill dollars in salary ao and endorsement and has the ability to move the stock market as we witnessed over the course of yesterday and today all in one. jack jackson is the cleveland california leers on fox sports ohio.com and he's been following the story every since lebron has been playing there. and zach joins us as well. obviously it would be a very sad day if lebron changes his mind and heads out of there tonight. >> it would be. lebron is not real shy but i think he really is loyal. i think he knows how good he has it here. he's certainly enjoying the attention, he always does. ultimately i don't think he's going anywhere. i think he looks at -- martha: do you think he's going to have a 9:00 one hour special tonight to go to greenwich, connecticut and stand there and say, oh, no change i'm staying where i am. >> yeah he's enjoyed not only the 7-day build up that is beneficial but the three-month build up and the three-year build up. he's lived up to the expectations. the lebron brand is huge, he doesn't need anything outside of akron or cleveland. he loves the people here, the people love him. he knows what it would mean to be the person to end the drought. martha: i can hear the passion in your voice, i know you've been following this all along and you'd love for him to stay there. nobody knows what is going to happen tonight. robert tuckman you have another idea about what you can expect. >> all due respect to zac, sounds like a guy who must have been born in ohio, i do think you're right, in terms of him having to press conference, 9:00 greenwich, connecticut. very close to the new york nicks practice facility i do believe that lebron is going to leave cleveland. i don't know where he's going to go. i think it's between miami and new york. martha: you guys know a whole lot more about basketball and lebron james than i do. when i hear that somebody is real estate shopping in the west village and had their eye on a brownstone they liked very much you can't deny zac the temptation, and maybe i've been in new york too long the temptation of the big apple, of playing for the new york nicks, of being the person who brings this team back to glory. that's a pretty big enticement. >> there are temptations in a lot of places. lebron has certainly earned the right to shop himself to dream. there is nothing to say that he doesn't already have a police or two in new york. as a matter of fact i think he does, he has places in lots of cities, lots of money and attention. i think his hometown roots will ultimately win out. i know the guy pretty well i've been around him for a longtime. martha: they say he's going to make the announcement in the first ten minutes. if he stays i'll be very happy for you. i think there might be a lot of miami people and new york people shot. the dolans shall the primary holders of the stock. they made about $20 million yesterday. i think the stock has pulled back late bit today. that is an indication that people want to take the profits from a huge run up yesterday or they know somebody. >> i think lebron james can be considered the one-man sometime must plan for the city and state of new york with the budget issues they are having there. it's hard to understand what this one guy can mean from advertising and sponsorships. the new york nicks are owned by cablevision which is a publicly held company. on one day the dolans took in $20 million, that's great that's one year of his salary. at the end of the day when you look at what he means in terms of the financial impact it's incredible. being in new york rather than miami or cleveland is going to expose him to a lot more opportunities. martha: if he really wanted to go to the best state of all he would play for the nets in new jersey. >> they are moving to brooklyn. martha: don't get me started on that. >> they started building that arena. martha: i know i'm going to vote for the nicks and i know that zac is rooting for the cavaliers, and robert it sounds like you're in the nicks camp as well. >> can you tell. martha: good to have you guys here, best of luck to everybody in all these cities. we'll see what happens. bret: breaking news, the attorney who represented the american taliban john walker lindh is now heading up the u.s.-arizona lawsuit on behalf of the government suing. judge napolitano is going to be here with the latest on this story after the break. is this a distraction, is it a good idea? yeah. you must really care about him. what? you gave him fiber. this tastes way too good to be fiber. they're delicious crunchy clusters with sweet honey and half a day's worth of fiber. you care about my fiber? not really. [ male announcer ] fiber one. fifteen percent or more on car insurance? can fútbol announcer andrés cantor make any sport exciting? ha sido una partida intensa hoy. jadrovski está pensando. está pensando. veamos que va a hacer. moverá la reina o moverá el caballo? que tensión. viene... viene, viene, viene... gooooooooooooooool! geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. this is power with efficiency. this is an interior that exceeds even the promise of the exterior. this is the all-new jaguar xj. the stunning result of taking a very different road. martha: breaking news this hour, the lawyer who represented the american taliban, john walker lindh, interestingly enough is now heading the u.s. versus arizona lawsuit. judge andrew napolitano joins us now. very interesting don't you think? >> reporter: greg knows this, lawyers know this that there is a revolving door between private practice and the government. martha: of course. >> reporter: i will tell you, his boss, lanny brewer is formerly a well-known well sought after negligence defense lawyer in -- criminal defense lawyer. it is not unlikely that mr. west has political views consistent with the attack on the arizona statute. it is not unlikely that he has political views consistent with the representation of john walker lindh, but there is no reason to question his intellectual honesty, because lawyers do this all the time, and particularly prosecutors prosecute bad guys, leave the government and become the most sought after criminal defense lawyer. martha: it will get attention for this reason. there were a number of this people, some of them in the keep america safe group, liz cheney, deborah burlingame, some very active in the keep america safe organization came out and talked about this group that they called the gitmo 8. though said there were a lot of attorneys within the department of justice who had represented terrorists and they felt that they -- that that presented some kind of conflict of interest for them in doing work for the department of justice and working to bring in those kinds of people. what do you think about that? >> reporter: you no, mr.-- you know, mr. west is at such a level, it's not a presidential appointment but it could not be made without the president's knowledge and consent. obviously this is who he wants running this part of the justice department. the branch is the civil part. they don't prosecute people, they file civil lawsuits who they think has violated the government. they filed a civil lawsuit against the governor of arizona saying we don't want you to enforce the law because we think it violates the constitution. martha: all attorneys make choices about who they are going to represent. >> reporter: and the happiest attorneys are those that don't practice law. [laughter] martha: so when you look at this situation and you look at who he's chosen to represent in the past john walker lindh, a lot of people have thought he shouldn't have gotten off with a 20-year sentence. he skillfully managed to figure out a way to have him convicted of basically cohorting with the taliban but not of trying to kill americans. all of this because of this is going to come back into sort of the dialogue as people look at the arizona case. is that distraction from the arizona case. >> reporter: i don't think it's a distraction from the arizona case but it reminds people that elections have consequences, and these are the type of people the president has entrusted the enforcement of our laws too and that's a political judgment that people can form. in terms of how the case against arizona is litigated in federal court it will probably be litigated in an effective professional way. but this is a sideshow and you're right about that. martha: judge napolitano thank you for coming in with the breaking news. good to see you judge. >> reporter: my pleasure. bret: ever miss your favorite show and end up watching it on the internet? there are changes coming to the website hulu that you're going to want to hear about straight ahead. #- we make meeting times, lunch times and conference times. but what we'd rather be making are tee times. tee times are the official start of what we love to do. the time for shots we'd rather forget, and the ones we'll talk about forever. in michigan long days, relaxing weather and more than 800 pristine courses make for the perfect tee time. because being able to play all day is pure michigan. your trip begins at michigan.org. >> reporter: environmentalists at odds over mother nature. they are building iron roads over mountains. dan springer is live in british columbia, canada, dan. >> reporter: deep in the eastern british columbia mountains there is a controversy dividing lovers of the back country. it is over the iron road. big in europe but new to north america. she's memory steel eubs cables and steps give access to heights previously reserved for expert climbers. we join a group of novice climbers to see for ourselves. our guide bruce says that it will actually help preserve wilderness. >> we need people to be exposed to this if we are to keep the wilderness. >> reporter: to environmentalists say the cables violate the first rule of climbing, leave nothing behind, they view it as cheating and worse december crating nature. >> to come across an iron ladder right out there in the middle of nowhere might be a little bit of a challenge to the conservation community. >> reporter: no one in our group is a technical climber, however even with the steps it's a major challenge. there are shear faces and scary cliffs all at death defying heights. now we come to the bridge. it is 160 feet across two peaks and i am walking on 2y4's held toegt by -- together by cable and chains. it is what brings people here and gives people nightmares. bret: dan made it all the way across. i'm sorry we had technical difficulties as he was introducing part of his story. but a okay and we got the point. [singing] [singing] martha: you can see why it's such a big hit, fox' glee racking up 19 emmy nominations this morning, a huge pull for glee today when they announced the emmy nominees. now you're actually watching this on the online site hulu, which is partly owned by the parent company of fox news. it started out as a free website where viewers could watch videos without paying anything, you can still do that for the most part. now they are adding a premium service that will start charging you. jason tyler is the ceo of hulu and we welcome him here. hello, good to have you here today. >> thank you very much for having us on. martha: i did an informal poll this morning and people fall into two camps they've either a never heard of hulu or they know all about it and watch it all the time. for those who don't know what you guys do, tell us how does hulu work and if you miss a show how do you find it? >> it's an online video service and we focus exclusively on premium content. so the notion of hulu is that you can find what you want, when you want and how you want it. and so it's basically being able to as a consumer have the media service you dreamed about as a kid in terms of watching great hit television, great television from the vault and a whole lot of other premium content. martha: talk to me about this new hulu premium one. i do remember one time trying to find last night's episode of mad men and i couldn't pull it up and find it because it wasn't on there. if i'm a premium customer and i pay, is it $9.99 a month. >> 9.99 a month. martha: what do i get. >> there are three things you get. this is brand-new in preview period. there are three things that make it special. one is you get more content. you get more content. glee for example that got so many emmy nominations this morning you can see the entire past season, current season of glee. that is every episode from the current season, along with 40 other top television programs on tv. you get a lot more content. you can watch it on your ipad, iphone, internet-connected tvs . device access is huge. it's all in hd. martha: it sounds like a great service. talk to me about the big philosophical dived here and the question of paying for stuff on the internet, and we all do google searches maybe a hundred times a day. are we going to have to pay for stuff like that? is this a new precedent to pay for stuff we do online. >> it's not a precedent. the hulu that 30 people come to and love, that is not going away. that service is only going to grow and live long. this is an incremental service that is complimentary to the hulu service. you have hulu and hulu plus. it's giving owners an option as to where they put their content. it's not a precedent in any way. there's always been great subscription models out there. martha: are we going to end up with everything basically being free with advertising on the internet or end up paying for everything? >> it's not going to be an either or, it really is not going to be an either or. i think it's going to be the continent and the consumer are each going to make decisions. the content is going to listen to what the consumers are doing and the consumers will ask what they value. if they value device access and that i think they'll subscribe. if they are okay with a free window and free ad support that's what they will choose. martha: thank you for being with us today. interesting stuff. >> thank you very much. bret: we are getting new details on suspected al-qaida members bussed in norway, those suspects thought to be part of an international plot to bomb cities around the world including new york. new information on that investigation, including the background of those who were in custody. martha: an alleged russian spy set to go before a federal judge in new york. new signals that the wheels are now turning on a possible spy swap. how quickly will these people be gone? and during the commercial break head over to our website foxnews.com, you can read all about the background on the spy case and so much more. check it out. we will be right back when you're done doing that. #- gregg: tonight is the big tphaoeurbgts le bron james, big announcement.

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