connections. >> my man, when are you coming back to atlanta? >> we need to spend a little quality time together. >> we do, man, we're missing that time. >> you have a great weekend my friend. i'm ali velshi, some millionaires actually want president obama to raise taxes. find out why. plus the tsa, are they really going to frisk you and show off your scanner image? today we are separating fact from fiction. and a solution for long-term space travel, a superstretchy suit that actually mimics the pull of gravity. in new zealand, 27 miners are missing after an explosion ripped through a remote coal mine. rescuers are on the site of the mine right now. two men walked out of the mine with only minor injuries. the major concern is the status of ventilation in the mine. officials say rescuers won't be able to enter the mine until they're certain it's contains no methane gas. as you see in this diagram i'm going to show you, the shaft in the chilean mine were vertical, they were dug to great depth. the trapped miners survived a half a mile under ground. by contrast, the shafts in the new zealand mine are horizontal. the miners are probably a mile and a half inside the mine. but because they drill into the side of a mountain, the miners are probably only a few hundred feet below the surface. here's what the ceo of the pike river mine said about the accident today. >> we do have the advantage because we have been walking in the mine that the men and the rescuers can get in and out of the mine quite quickly. they will work through the night and they'll work until they have determined the extent of the incident and the safety of all of our employees. >> pike river mine employees insist the rescue will not be as complicated as the one in chile. the reason is that the new zealand mine is not a deep shaftded mine. the rescuers can get in and out quite effectively. joining us is the director of the miner training program at penn state college. your assessment of this situation in new zealand? >> as the ceo said, it is a serious situation, any time you have a methane explosion, you just have to, you know, cross your fingers and see how this develops. >> i would say, though, mark, that prior to this chilean situation, most people, most of our viewers looking at a mine collapse or a mine explosion would have very little hope, more often than not things don't go well. we have all changed our perspective on this. we don't know the condition of those 27 men in the mine, we don't know if they're alive or not, but at this point, what is your assessment of where the miners are and how you can get to them. >> the communication was cut, so they're isolated. we just hope that those individuals did not receive, you know, the brunt of this concussion and explosion. so we hope that they're able to get into a safe haven there in the mine. and hopefully then the rescuers will be able to get to them. >> under what conditions can they survive? what has to happen in an explosion like this if you're trapped in a coal mine. >> number one, survive the initial blast, there's going to be heat, there's going to be toxic gases, there's going to be a shockwave, debris is going to be flying around. so it's just like any explosion, which is fire ignition in a confined space, it's very, very serious. so if you survive that, you're able then to put on your self-contained self-rescuer and isolate your lungs from the toxic atmosphere. of course you want to get out of the mine, that hasn't happened here, except for a couple of the miners. now the next best thing is to get into one of these refuge dh chambers where they have food a, water and air. >> thank you very much for your time. we'll stay on top of that story for you. president obama is in lisbon, portugal right now meeting with nato allies. strategy to end combat operations in four years. >> i expressed my gratitude to the portuguese armed forces who are serving alongside us in afghanistan and here in lisbon i look forward to working with our nato partners as we move toward a new face, a transition that begins in 2011 with afghans taking responsibility for security across afghanistan by 2014. >> we expect to hear from obama shortly on how things went today. we want to update you on a sordid tale we told you last month. it involves a married atlanta-based federal judge, a stripper, drugs and guns in a parking lot. just moments ago, judge jack kemp pled guilty to three federal drug charges, kemp was caught buying cocaine, marijuana and prescription painkillers for a stripper he was seeing. he officially retired from the bench right before entering court today. nobody likes to pay taxes, but let's face it, we have got it pretty good. just ask your parents or grandparents. right now the federal tax rate is 35%. in the early '60s was it 61%? 71%, 81% or 91%? i'll tell you when we come back. if you live for performance, upgrade to castrol edge advanced synthetic oil. with eight times better wear protection than mobil 1. castrol edge. it's more than just oil. [ man ] save $523. save $345. 16 minutes could save you 16%. come on. isn't it time an auto insurer gave it to you straight? that's why you should talk to state farm. but not yet. first, talk to any one of the 40 million drivers who already have state farm. 40 million. yeah, that's more than geico and progressive combined. by a lot. 40 million drivers, more savings, and discounts up to 40%. where else are you gonna get discounts like that? but first, talk to your neighbors. chances are, they're one of the 40 million. then call a state farm agent or go online for a free discount double-check. they'll find you discounts you didn't even know you deserved. like discounts for having a safe car. so go ahead. check with your neighbors. then call a state farm agent at 1-800-state-farm or go to discountdoublecheck.com. ♪ before the break, i asked you how much of the incomes of richest americans that they had to give to the government back in the early 1960s. back then the personal income tax rate was a staggering 91%. so much for the good old days. right now of course we're quibbling over 35%. the current top rate versus 39.6%, the top rate. if the bush era cuts aren't renewed. democrats want to keep -- some republicans and democrats want to keep the lower rate at a cost to the economy of $700 billion although some argue that is offset by the job creation that will happen as a result of tax cuts. coming down on the white house side is a group called patriotic millionaires for global strength. they have signed an online letter saying, quote, we understand that cutting our taxes will increase the deficit. the country needs to meet it's obligations in a just and responsible way, unquote. 41% are a minuscule faction of millionaires and millionaires are a minuscule fraction of our population. this raise my taxes campaign came out the same day that the center for responsive politics reported on the wealth of members of congress based on their own financial disclosure statement. in 2009, 261 lawmakers, almost half were millionaires. lawmakers median wealth? $911,000, up 16% from the year before. senators as a whole had a better year than house members, almost $2.4 million in median net worth compared to $765,000 for the house. in just two weeks, four million americans could use their unemployment benefits. why? my cholesterol. anyone with high cholesterol may be at increased risk of heart attack. diet and exercise weren't enough for me. i stopped kidding myself. i've been eating healthier, exercising more... and now i'm also taking lipitor. if you've been kidding yourself about high cholesterol...stop. along with diet, lipitor has been shown to lower bad cholesterol 39% to 60%. lipitor is fda approved to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke in patients who have heart disease or risk factors for heart disease. [ female announcer ] lipitor is not for everyone, including people with liver problems and women who are nurspregnant or may become pregnant. you need simple blood tests to check for liver problems. tell your doctor if you are taking other medications or if you have any muscle pain or weakness. this may be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. let's go, boy, go! whoo-whee! if you have high cholesterol, you may be at increased risk of heart attack and stroke. don't kid yourself. talk to your doctor about your risk and about lipitor. time now for your money. at the end of the month, unemployment benefits will expire for 4 million americans. legislation to end those benefits failed in congress yesterday. the battle is between saving those people's livelihoods versus the $4.5 billion price tag. for my weekend show your money, i talked about this with my co-host christine roman, rolen moore and we talked about the $1. >> we are we going to pay for that and is that the new normal, not just extending jobless benefits but a new, bigger infrastructure for helping people live who can't find a place in our economy? >> christine, you know i love you. but i disagree with one thing you said earlier. here's the but. think about this, you said there are no jobs out there in the economy. this is a tough economy, no question. but answer me this question, how is it that immigrants can come in from mexico or central america and within weeks of being here they have two or three jobs. there are jobs for people who want to work. >> picking lettuce and things like that. >> for people who are really working hard to make ends meet, working two or three jobs, when peop people aren't going out and getting a job at mcdonald's just to have a job. >> you're -- they're forcing the people below them to work two or three jobs. that's first. secondly, cnn has seen showed based upon previous data where you had immigrants from mexico who actually, some 4 million who went back because of the economy last year. don't simply assume that they're taking jobs. christine mentioned 4 million. the 4 million have children who are in school. and so it goes beyond just the 4 million. the question, you talk about housing, homeless shelters, filphilanthropy is down. >> a lot of people unemployed. you can see the rest of that discussion saturday at 1:00 p.m. eastern, sundays at 3:00 eastern. al . let me bring you up to speed with some of the top stories that we are following on cnn. coerns over ventilation have delayed efforts to locate at least 27 miners in new zealand. they're missing after an underground explosion. rescuers are on stand by trying to figure out the best way to get to them. you can see this teen with his hands up as the plain clothes officer approached him. the officer kicked him three times including once in the groin during last months's arrest. he is one of four people charged with robbery of an undercover officer. and a lot of buzz over the birth of a giant panda cub. she was born weighing a mere 11 ounces. we just learned his sex this week. you looking for a job? we'll tell you how american people are feeling about their job prospects. when i was 16, i was hired as a cashier at the walmart in marinette, wisconsin. that first job launched my career. since i've been with the company, i've been promoted ten times over the span of 11 years. today, i'm a divisional learning and development manager. we can actually help people develop in their own careers. my job allows me to make a difference in the lives of almost 100,000 associates in the northeast. if you think about it, that's almost 8 times the size of my hometown. my name is nick and i work at walmart. ♪ try capzasin-hp. it penetrates deep to block pain signals for hours of relief. capzasin-hp. take the pain out of arthritis. the latest jobs report from the bureau of labor statistics showed an increase of 151,000 jobs in october and the unemployment unchanged at 9.6%. you can look at that little green screen, we're going back into 2008 here. but those job numbers don't tell us about how the american public feels about their prospects post election. gary shapiro, is the ceo and president of the consumer electronicdiseases. >> we do care, we represent 2,000 of america's greatest technology companies and people have to buy our products. they're not luxuries, they're increasing necessities and they want to be employed to do that. >> you guys have a big show in january. it's kind of like the auto show of electronics, it's the same conversation i had with a lot of my auto friends. in the last few years we have seen pull backs because some people have had to take every day innovations and things that are advances as lucxuries becaue they're worried about their jobs. what have you found in your studies? >> we're expecting the best ever in january in terms of great new things. when there's a pull back in the economy, companies are really forced to innovate and work hash hard. what we fellow americans are saying they want a congress that's going to focus on the economy. this is certainly a message that employers are not bad, they create jobs. and that's why we're pretty optimistic, but americans are saying they like democrats, they're a little concerned about republicans, but they understand that we can't keep this spending, we have to attract the best and the brightest and we have to focus on trade. creating jobs makes sense. we are the most invnovative country in the world. >> let's talk about this innovation movement. we have heard a lot of complaining in terms of what's not working in job creation. you've got about four basic principles that you think would make america better for innovation and better for business. free trade, ubiquitous broad band, more people to come into the united states to work and deficit reduction. tell me about this broad band deployment. it's hard to understand how this is an issue that is holding us back. people think america is way out in front on this. >> we are in some ways for people working in their offices. but people at their homes are behind many other countries. we need broad band in our future, that will help productivity, medicine, telework. the administration is doing good things in that area. they're opening up wireless broad band. they're working slowly and not getting internet access. we need the broad band out there. our country has now become a slow growth country like europe. the rest of the world is fast. that means investment is flowing elsewhere. we have to do what we're good at. we're good at innovation. we have all the technology companies. we have to preserve that for our future. that's our only hope. >> there are some americans who rated immigration reform as their highest issue. it is small, let's be honest, 8% of voters in exit polls said that was their biggest issue. you're on the other side of that, you want more immigrants to be able to come into the united states and work? >> we want the right immigrants to come here. we want the best and the brightest, the smartest who always traditionally have gone to our universities until september 11, 2001. we want them to come and stay here. we want the entrepreneurs to come here. if they're willing to hire americans, they should be able to stay. we're all related to people who came here before us for a better life. we are a nation of immigrants. that's the mosaic and the beauty of american. that's why we're the creators. we're genetically people who can do it better and we should focus on our strengths and focus on getting rid of that deficit so we can invest in the future and we'll be the high growth country again in the future. >> one of these days i'm going to make it out to the big show. it is the super bowl of innovation and we look forward to seeing it. >> we would love to have you. we have heard a lot of gripes about the real and alleged gropes at the hands of those tsa screeners. what if someone else's hands were doing the groping? and what if those enhanced pat downs were suddenly against the law? i'll have the latest on the backlash coming up. introducing bayer am. its dual-action formula delivers extra strength pain relief, plus it fights fatigue. so get up and get going with new bayer am, the morning pain reliever. my professor at berkeley asked me if i wanted to change the world. i said "sure." "well, let's grow some algae." and that's what started it. exxonmobil and synthetic genomics have built a new facility to identify the most productive strains of algae. algae are amazing little critters. they secrete oil, which we could turn into biofuels. they also absorb co2. we're hoping to supplement the fuels that we use in our vehicles, and to do this at a large enough scale to someday help meet the world's energy demands. no calorie sweetener granulated with fiber. sweet! [ female announcer ] tastes like sugar and has 3 grams of fiber per tablespoon. use it almost anywhere you use sugar. even in cooking and baking. sweet! [ female announcer ] splenda® granulated with fiber. president balm obama is in portugal at a nato summit. the president is also expected to discuss a european missile shield program and we are expecting to hear from him live, probably in about a half an hour or so. we'll bring it to you. minority farmers may finally get their money more than a decade after reaching a settlement with the agriculture department on claims of discriminati discrimination. the senate is expected to approve the more than $1 billion settlement first agreed on in 1999. qualified farmers could each get $50,000 apiece to settle their claims. 13 chilean miners are in hollywood taking in the sights. the miners were brought to l.a. by cnn to attend our all-star tribute to cnn heroes. to watch that join anderson cooper and join stars like halle berry and kid rock as they pay tribute to the people you chose as heroes. thursday night, 8:00 p.m. eastern, also meet all ten of the finalists right now go to cnn.com/heroes. people have made a lot of noise about security at airports. advanced imaging scans that see through clothing and pat downs that don't spare the groin. ron paul, republican of texas, champion of very small government has introduced the american travel dignity act. and i quote, to protect americans from physical and emotional abuse by federal tsa employees. never mind that most americans think keeping explosiveses off airplanes is a good thing. meantime, a fellow republican lawmaker is encouraging airports to ditch those federal employees in favor of private contractors. existing laws allows that to happen. check out the airports that do not use tsa but use private screeners. the rules of procedures do not change. the tsa has to approve the firm who gets the contract and they have to do the same stuff. the latest airport to contemplate a switch is sanford interfarm. >> every time i have seen tests of the system, the private screeners performed statistically significantly better. those aren't my words, those are the words of an independent evaluator. we can do better, we don't have to have 67,000 tsa employees, 3,590 in washington, d.c. administrative personnel making $105,000 on average a year. >> that was congressman john mica. through it all most of us seem just fine with the so-called intrusive screening. 81% of americans believe airports should use state of the art scanners, only 15% disagree. although some people who are objecting are not objecting to the scanners, they're objecting to the pat downs. a pro democracy leader in detention for 15 years speaks out. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] at&t covers 97% of all americans. rethink possible. and it's time now for globe tracking, first up, pro democracy leader is wasting no time in taking advantage of freedom after 15 years in detention. she was released from house arrest on saturday. while in detention for 15 of the past 20 years, her husband died in england. she hasn't seen her two sons in year s suu kyi spoke to c