According to the release, Napolitano and Bolling will remain with the network in different roles:

Judge Napolitano will continue his role on both FOX Business and FOX News, providing key legal insights surrounding the growing intersection between Washington and Wall Street. In addition to co-hosting The Five on FNC, Eric Bolling will also lend his unparalleled expertise on oil and energy stemming from more than 20 years on the trading floor to both networks as a commodities contributor.

Asman will retain his role as co-anchor of After The Bell at 4 p.m.

Kevin Magee, Vice President of FBN, said that, “this new lineup affords FOX Business viewers additional access to their no-nonsense take on the day’s financial events. We look forward to Judge Napolitano, David and Eric continuing to make significant contributions to both FOX Business and FOX News. In addition to daily branded segments, each of them will be showcased throughout future programming on both networks.”

Dennis Hof, the Bunny Ranch’s pimp, told Judge Napolitano that, in fact, some of the prostitutes do not prefer Rep. Paul overall, but they have been dissuaded as news came out about their favorite. “The girls like Newt, but Newt’s a cheater!” He noted that he had nothing against cheaters “at the ranch, but he is too over the top.” Hof went on to explain that Rep. Paul “gets it” even though “he’s not pro-prostitution, he’s not pro-marijuana,” but he doesn’t think it’s his place to stop people from using or doing either.

Cami Parker, a worker at the ranch, added that Rep. Paul was “the modern-day Thomas Jefferson” and while “I may not agree with drugs or with abortion personally, I agree that everybody should make their own choices.” Hof explained his relationship to the rest of the community, to shed light on the impact of a brothel in a community, and he noted that there was little opposition to the enterprise because “we give back to the community.”

Both Hof and Parker also had passionate opinions about someone else in the race, sort of: Donald Trump. “Donald Trump and his arrogance is not going to help Mitt Romney because we don’t want to hear it.” Parker agreed, noting that no one actually likes Donald Trump in the west and that he will have a negative impact on Romney’s campaign.

The interview via Fox Business below:

In other words, he then joked that endorsements from Shakira and Big Bird would be coming next.

Smith kept the joke alive. Later in the show, after Judge Napolitano teased a coming interview with the the prostitutes supporting Ron Paul, Smith couldn’t help but bring it back up.

SMITH: Pimps and prostitutes for Ron Paul, Donald Trump for Mitt Romney, we still don’t know about Shakira and Big Bird but we’ll learn in the next hour.

NAPOLITANO: Isn’t it great being in this business?

SMITH: It’s the weirdest election season I’ve ever lived through and I’ve been here for what feels like 130,000.

Not a massive amount of respect for a guy that, at one point, some people genuinely wanted to run for office.

Watch the clip from Fox News below:

According to Selim Algar and Leonard Greene of The New York Post, twin brothers Tyler and Connor Carroll were hit with one-day suspensions for organizing a Tebowing display in the school hallways:

Administrators said the weeklong “Tebowing” craze was a distraction and a hallway hazard after dozens of classmates followed their lead.

According to the Post, about 40 students participated in the Tebowing prank at its height of prankster popularity.

RELATED: This Exists: California Teen Caught In Chimney After Trying To Sneak In After Curfew

Judge Andrew Napolitano, Fox News Senior Judicial Analyst, joined America’s Newsroom to discuss the suspensions, and, after FNC showed a clip of Tyler Carrol, who is a football player, saying they did it to honor Tim Tebow, Napolitano explained that the twins would have benefited from changing their story ever-so slightly:

“If he had said we did this because we wanted to thank God for our victories, or pray to God for a victory, then the behavior would be almost absolutely protected under the First Amendment as the free exercise of religion.”

He went on to say that since they were just doing it as a prank, they had every right to be suspended.

Watch a clip of the brewing controversy below, courtesy of Fox News:

But, it seems as though Fox News may have had reason to pass over Judge Napolitano as a permanent fixture on their surprisingly high-rated show: Mediaite recently got a hold of the self proclaimed “night watchman’s” Nielsen ratings, and the numbers don’t look good. The Judge has consistently been one of the lowest rated programs on Fox Business Network’s prime time lineup –- and trending lower.

October numbers to date prove to be Napolitano’s lowest rated month for total viewers (P2+) since May ’11, and the absolute lowest rated month in the demo all year, averaging a measly 50,000 total viewers, with 8,000 in the demo. He’s also down 10% in total viewers, and a whopping 43% in the demo just since last month. To make matters worse, he loses more than half of the audience that the network’s top-rated Lou Dobbs Tonight brings in on a regular basis.

This can’t be going over well with the top brass over at Fox – and in fact it’s not. A recent Reuters exclusive report by Peter Lauria uncovered an internal memo from network head Kevin Magee reminding the staff to stop trying to be Fox News and to focus on actually being, shocker, a business network. Mediaite can’t help but wonder if that was, in some way, directed at Napolitano, whose show FreedomWatch is the only prime time program that rarely, if ever, focuses on business or the economy. The memo stated “If we give the audience a choice between FNC and the almost-FNC, they will choose FNC every time.” With no other show is that more apparent than with FreedomWatch.

Napolitano has enjoyed a growing media presence; he has a very active presence on Twitter and a new book out. But his nightly show on FBN and his numerous guest appearances on Fox News are clearly a very important promotional platform.

Could it be that the Glenn Beck protégé might be following in his mentors footsteps…off of the Fox News airwaves?

Oh, well, that’s good to know.

“Can I just point out, they call each other comrades, they have the support of the Nazi Party and the Communist Party. These people are fringe, they’re about to go away, as soon as the weather gets cold, they’re done.”

Man, it’s a good thing climate change doesn’t exist since Winter is the only thing protecting us from the radicals.

However, I’ve got to wonder what’s going to stop the protesters in the parts of the country (and, ahem, world) that don’t get cold?

Really, it seems like Bolling is fooling himself here. And, in the words of co-host Greg Gutfeld, it seems these folks need their own “tortured metaphor.” Again, with apologies to Mr. Napalitano, of course.

Watch the segment from Fox News below:

The one-time temporary show originally seemed designed purely to diminish the image of loss that came from the departure of one of the network’s biggest stars, Glenn Beck. In the week before it’s launch, even one of its stars seemed doubtful that the show would maintain much of Beck’s audience. And, while plenty of the Beck faithful did join him on the Interwebs, it soon became clear that “Fox News in that time slot” was a big star as well.

It didn’t hurt that the channel struck upon a good formula: a show that was more substantive than Fox & Friends but still cheerier than Beck’s had become. It also didn’t hurt that they got a piece of Beck’s trademark headline-grabbing controversies from the likes of Greg Gutfeld and (particularly) Beckel. However, as of yet, the show’s scandals have remained in the “live curse word and silly hyperbole” variety without getting downright scandalous. This has helped the show gain back some of the advertisers that Beck lost due to much publicized boycotts. In fact, the press release about the show’s promotion makes special mention of “Blue Chip advertisers.” While Beck’s now in the boycott-immune land of paying subscribers, it’s easy to imagine how happy the Fox News bean counters are to once again be receiving checks from bigger clients.

Another interesting thing in the press release are the hosts named. The show has had a steady rotation of Fox personalities but, in this latest list, names like Andrew Napolitano and Monica Crowley aren’t mentioned. Both appeared frequently during the past few months but it would appear will no longer be regular contributors. Geraldo Rivera was also on original releases about the show and is no longer mentioned.

Anyway, whoever the titular five are, this has to be seen as a win for everyone involved.

Read Fox News’ press release below:

FOX NEWS CHANNEL’S THE FIVE TO CONTINUE AS SCHEDULED PROGRAM

FOX News Channel’s (FNC) ensemble opinion show, The Five, has been picked up as a scheduled program for the network’s 5 PM/ET timeslot, announced Roger Ailes, Chairman and CEO of the network. The lively roundtable of five co-hosts will be comprised of rotating FNC personalities Dana Perino, Bob Beckel, Eric Bolling, Juan Williams, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Greg Gutfeld and Andrea Tantaros.

In making the announcement, Ailes, who created the show, said “The Five is unlike any show in news and politics, from the co-hosts’ chemistry to the provocative, yet fun presentation style. It has quickly connected with the audience, and I’m pleased to install it in our daily lineup.”

The Five originally began as a summertime replacement program for Glenn Beck in July and has steadily increased viewership since its debut. According to Nielsen Media Research, the program was the sixth most-watched show in cable news with an average of 1.4 million total viewers in the third quarter of 2011.

Since its launch, The Five’s total viewership has increased by 16 percent, to nearly 1.5 million viewers in the Nielsen month of October to date. In the key 25-54 demographic, the program is up by 26 percent, averaging 349,000 viewers this month to date, drawing national advertisers back into the 5 PM timeslot.

Paul Rittenberg, Executive Vice President of Ad Sales for FOX News added, “The Five’s viewership growth and unique appeal has led to the time period once again being embraced by FNC’s Blue Chip advertisers.”

FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as political and business news. A top five cable network, FNC has been the most watched news channel in the country for nearly ten years and according to Public Policy Polling, is the most trusted television news source in the country. Owned by News Corp., FNC is available in more than 90 million homes and dominates the cable news landscape, routinely notching the top ten programs in the genre.

Judge Napolitano seemed a bit perplexed at how the President’s voucher proposal without Congressional approval would meet the requirements of the Constitution, asking how the President would be able to get away with it. Gillespie retorted that he would likely in “the same way he got away with not consulting Congress about bombing Libya.” Comparing President Obama to President Bush, Gillespie noted that he was “following suit in a lot of ways” with the Bush doctrine of “excessive use of executive power and just trampling the Constitution.” He added that, in this specific case, it was worth noting that “No Child Left Behind is a terrible law in virtually every way,” so a reform may be helpful but, as Judge Napolitano added, the real problem was the federal government involving itself in K-12 education at all.

Then the Judge proceeded to continue to link Libya to the No Child Left Behind proposal. “He announced this today,” he noted, “Where’s the Congress? On vacation? When he bomed Libya, where was the Congress? On vacation. Is this a new pattern?” Gillespie wasn’t as quick to blame this on the President, instead accusing Coungress of “not holding to their constitutional obligations” by making the President stay accountable to them. “Maybe the problem is that Congress is taking too many vacations,” he added, though on a serious note warning that the growth of executive power was, according to him, facilitating America’s “rapidly becoming a banana republic.”

The segment via Fox Business below:

While Greg Gutfeld and Dana Perino were speculated that the statement was a veiled attack on Fox News, guest host Andrew Napolitano thought Obama was excusing his own failings, and Andrea Tantaros contributed by claiming she uses the New York Times for toilet paper, Beckel went right for MSNBC:

“First of all, the President also ought to know, when he talks about that, I don’t know of six people that watch MSNBC. I don’t want to pick on a rival but they’re not a rival. They’re like a kindergartner playing baseball against the Yankees.”

Ouch.

To keep things jovial (and certainly Napolitano was enjoying the comment), Beckel ended by waving hello to “Chris,” presumably his 5pm rival.

Watch the segment from Fox News below:

Epstein, who wrote about being released on Thursday but with little detail, could not answer Judge Napolitano’s question as to why he was arrested, though did note that he and the second reporter, Peter Tucker, were charged with disorderly conduct and “unlawful entry” (to a public meeting?). He explained that he faced no resistance from police as he filmed Tucker’s arrest, but once Tucker was taken away, officers attempted to take the iPhone on which he recorded the scene, threatening to delete the footage. “Luckily, they didn’t delete anything,” he noted, and “Reason sent a lawyer and I was out by that afternoon.”

That said, Epstein confessed that he still “didn’t really know, to tell you the truth” why they were both removed from the very public and seemingly innocuous meeting, which Epstein was attending to report on potential legislation involving medallions. “What kind of a government do we have that watches us with cameras everywhere we go, but recoils in horror and uses force when we try to watch the government with cameras?” Judge Napolitano asked. Epstein agreed with the theme of the question and added that a similar problem occurred in the Supreme Court, where cameras are still not allowed.

The segment via Fox Business below:

[h/t Reason]

Also, this:

Anthony Weiner from henceforth after his personal indiscretions were disclosed, he was going to rendered impotent, basically, there in Congress and he wasn’t going to be able to be effective.

Watch the segment, from Fox Business. And stop giggling:

h/t Breitbart.tv

The debate this time was on the “Battle Over Boeing” that’s been brewing in South Carolina. In summary, the National Labor Relations Board has filed a complaint with Boeing after it built a plant in South Carolina to build 787 airplanes. Their claim is that the choice to build there, in a right-to-work state, is a means of retaliation against Washington state union workers who went on strike in 2008. Meanwhile, Republicans like South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley have been demanding a comment from President Obama on the complaint since the new plant would be a boon for her state.

Anyway, Bolling and Bernero took their familiar roles with the Mayor siding with the unions and the host defending free enterprise. The two old sparring partners got their good licks in. Bernero told Bolling that, were Fox to treat him the way Boeing does their employees, he’d “probably switch over to MSNBC” (how much you wanna bet he’d been saving that quip up since the two last fought?). Bolling, meanwhile, asked the Mayor how his union-loving ways were working out over in Michigan (ouch).

The volume level was raised and continued like that all the way through the next segment of the show as representatives from American Islamic Forum for Democracy and CAIR practically blew a gasket screaming at each other.

So, if Bolling is the guy to take over when Beck leaves (they only need to remove half of the big “GB” insignias all over the set!), we can see what we’re getting. There won’t be any lengthy, twisting monologues any more, but things sure won’t be boring either.

Check out the clip from Fox News below:

Napolitano claims that some reports suggest the Obama administration knew Bin Laden’s location in Pakistan since August, and asked Beck “did they time it for when the President’s poll numbers were worst?” At first Beck avoided engaging in such dialogue, instead focusing on how uncomfortable it made him feel to see people in the streets joyously celebrating Bin Laden’s death, when for him it just re-opened old wounds. However, Beck later became comfortable with the public showings, realizing Americans are “so desperate to feel good for something.”

Napolitano then asked, without a photo of Bin Laden’s body, how do we know he’s dead? Beck replied “you don’t . . . but I believe in this particular case he’s dead,” and then smartly suggested people who doubt Bin Laden’s death would never be satisfied with a picture anyway since they would claim it was doctored. Just when it seemed like Beck escaped the segment without contributing to Napolitano’s increasing conspiratorial tone, Napolitano repeated one last time his question of whether Beck thinks this assassination may have been “politically timed.” Beck finally relented, seemingly almost to please his self-described “mentee” and replied, “I don’t count anything out with this administration.”

Watch the clip from Fox Business below:

Interesting that Beck chose Freedom Watch, the Fox Business show his friend Judge Andrew Napolitano to give his first interview on his somewhat sudden announcement yesterday. Beck repeated the narrative that he’d been considering leaving Fox News for sometime and had been leaving clues in his rhetoric for the past year (which while true, not a lot of people took terribly seriously.) Again, Beck’s future media plans appears to be bigger than just a 5PM show and syndicated radio programs, and we are only left to wait and see what Beck has up his sleeve.

As for who should take the spot at 5PM? Well Mr. Beck reveals in the following clip who he things should take the spot. Its not yet clear that Mr. Ailes will heed Beck’s advice on this (or any other issue for that matter.)

Watch the clip, courtesy of Fox Business below:

Judge Napolitano didn’t leave much space for interpretation as to what his stance is on the “unconstitutional and undeclared war of choice” in Libya, introducing the two Congressmen with a mini-commentary in which he argued that “Libya posed no threat to the United States and yet bombs away, morals and the Constitution be damned!” He found much agreement with this stance from the Republican and Democratic representatives, who both repeated several times that military action without congressional approval was unconstitutional. “It exceeds the War Powers Act, exceeds the mandate,” Rep. Kucinich argued, concluding that the Obama administration is “dangerously close to being an imperial presidency.”

Rep. Paul agreed, but refused to ignore the bigger picture: “we have 900 bases around the world… that’s where the problem is.” He also subscribed to the imperial vision of Obama’s action, calling the invasion “a form of neo-colonialism,” but blaming it also on “neo-conservatives’ efforts to remake the Middle East and the whole world.” Rep. Paul did add that “we do get a lot of encouragement from young people” and had hope that the efforts of young people would get America out of Libya as quickly as possible.

The opposition to the efforts in Libya from both sides of the aisle– when represented by Rep. Kucinich and Rep. Paul– isn’t remotely surprising, but the neck-snapping narrative shift from a month ago, when Newt Gingrich was slamming President Obama for being “Kenyan” and “anti-colonial” to him now being “imperial” and “neo-colonial” is striking. One wonders in light of the Libya intervention whether the more conservative right will stick with Gingrich’s assessment or go with Rep. Paul’s.

The segment via Fox Business below:

With serious claims like that on the table, Judge Napolitano went straight to the core question: “Is the President lying?” Shaffer refused to flat-out call the president a liar, but did say that he thought it would be “less than honest to say we have no boots on the ground,” and that certainly he could not imagine “large-scale combat units” traveling in Libya. With such an extensive operation, however, Napolitano argued that it was possible there were troops on the ground “before two Tuesdays ago… before he told us he was going to send them there.” Shaffer added that the intelligence gathering operation also required it– “we don’t necessarily understand who the good guys are and who the bad guys are,” so talking to people in Libya is key.

The discussion via Fox Business below:

For another take on anonymous commenting, check out our own Alex Alvarez’s column on the subject from Monday here. Oh, and, in case you’re wondering, the ruling only affects Indiana. Mediaite’s headquartered in New York. Y’all are safe.

Check out the clip from Fox News below:

Frequent Fox News contributor Andrew Napolitano weighed in on the ruling, telling Smith he saw it as an “affirmance of Free Speech” protecting even the most brash and hateful of speech, no matter what person or institution is at the receiving end of such speech. He added that the concept of “free speech zones” such as those near the Maryland military funeral in question can be a dangerous one because it insinuates that areas outside of those zones do not allow for such freedom of speech. Free speech zones, he warns, can give the impression that the Court approves of states suppressing free speech by confining it to certain areas.

Watch the segment for yourselves, via Fox News:

Here’s the quote that got him started:

“Well, back in the 17 and 1800s we didn’t have a little thing called ‘The War on Terror’ where you have to get to the bottom of things quickly and, if we wait, people argue, to go through a judge, then sometimes that terrorist can already do the dirty deed.

Without missing a beat, Napolitano responded, “That is not a serious argument to be made.” He then went on to describe the many speedy situations he and other judges have signed warrants including doing so in his “gym shorts.”

Wait, Napolitano in his gym shorts? I’m sorry, folks. After Beck’s spanking comments yesterday, I promised I wouldn’t put anymore images of news broadcasters bottoms in your heads. My bad.

It doesn’t make the clip any less entertaining though. Check it out from Fox News below:

(h/t)

“Their purchasing power is higher. The percentage of poor who have electronic appliances in their homes and who can afford them, whether they have them or not, is vastly greater than it was thirty years ago, so what is the left complaining about?”

Watch it here, from Fox Business:

A total of six people – including Judge John Roll and nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green – died during Loughner’s shooting rampage outside a Tuscon, Arizona Safeway, where Giffords was conducting a meet-and-greet with her constituents.

Fox News reports that Lougher was “smiling” and wearing glasses during his court appearance today. His lawyer, Judy Clarke, had one arm wrapped around Loughner’s shoulders (which, judging from his reaction after imparting this bit of news, Shepard Smith didn’t like too much).

Andrew Napolitano appeared on Fox to discuss the case:

Loughner has already been charged with “attempted murder of federal officials while they’re performing their jobs” – which is a crime punishable by life in prison. More difficult to prove is whether Loughner chose to seek out and kill Judge Roll as he was serving in a professional capacity. Then, as Smith and Napolitano mention during the segment, federal murder charges are likely to come Loughner’s way, so the burden falls on his lawyers to help their client avoid the death penalty by convincingly proving that he isn’t merely a monster, but an insane monster. Said Napolitano:

Basically, the government has to prove that he was sane rather than he needs to prove he is insane. But history teaches, if he doesn’t put some affirmative evidence on suggesting, demonstrating that he is insane, then the insanity defense will fall, because juries presume – most of us do – that if a person plans and plots a killing, and they were sane enough to do that, they knew they were shooting a person and not a sack of potatoes.

Later, Napolitano explained that psychiatrists will spend weeks with Loughner in order to grasp “what went on in that crazy head of his.” When Smith seized on Napolitano’s statement and pondered its legal implications, he then clarified that “crazy” doesn’t mean “insane,” at least from a lawyer’s perspective.

Watch video from Fox News:

(Also: Please, please tell me y’all also caught Smith referring to Loughner as “this” near the beginning of the segment.)

An interesting discussion about the role of Government with relation to citizens rights and legislating “morality” crosses over to a theater of absurd when Napolitano hypothetically asks his guest how it would be different if he were to buy her dinner before the two got intimate, or if he had simply paid her before and for getting intimate. Quan handles the potentially awkward question reasonably, but not before telling the host “what you are talking about usually requires a steak dinner” in a hamfisted metaphor about vegetarians wanting to outlaw carnivores.

To his credit, Napolitano is pretty fearless and dispassionate in this interview, even though its one of the more interesting and bizarre interviews we’ve seen on Fox Business.

Rep. Paul, who is also a regular guest on the program, chatted for some time with the injustices of having a “secret government” like the Federal Reserve with Judge Andrew Napolitano, calling the agency “as unconstitutional as it gets” and its practices “immoral,” “wrong,” “bad economics,” and “built on counterfeit money.” In light of the recent diplomatic cables, however, Rep. Paul seems to have found hope that there is a concrete way to take the Fed down:

“What we need is more Wikileaks on the Federal Reserve. Can you imagine what it would be like if we have every conversation of the last 10 years with the Federal Reserve people and the Federal Reserve chairman, with all the other central bankers of the world, and every agreement and quid pro quo that they have? I mean, it would be massive. The people would be so outraged.”

Later in the discussion, Judge Napolitano asks Paul directly about his views on Wikileaks, to which Paul replied, “in a society where truth becomes treason, we are in big trouble.” He also called the desire to charge Assange for treason “wild,” given he is an Australian citizen, and questioned what difference in media there was between Wikileaks and the New York Times that prevented one of them from being prosecuted over the other.

Having the support of American legislators is certainly a new thing for Assange, as most have either refrained from commenting or called him a terrorist. Paul and the libertarian-leaning American commentators seem to have been won over, though Paul made it clear nothing would make them happier than seeing the semi-anonymous group take down the Fed. The discussion from last night’s Freedom Watch on Fox Business below:

Now there’s a new marketing strategy out, in ads playing on News Corp. cable news networks but also across the dial, that features Fox News talent tag-teaming with Fox Business hosts – including one with Glenn Beck and somtime-fill-in Andrew Napolitano.

The ad begins “Two networks, twice the power,” and features ominous music over Beck and Napolitano addressing the camera from their respective studios. “America is in trouble,” says Beck. “The government is slowly killing the constitution and forgetting what makes us great.” Says Napolitano: “Personal freedoms are on the line. over-regulations are strangling small business.”

It ends by the pair declaring: “Two networks, solving America’s problems,” and the tagline, “Fox News: The Power To Inform, Fox Business: The Power To Prosper.”

The idea that either network is in the business of “solving America’s problems” is a stretch. But the new promo of grouping similar personalities on each network could pay dividends for FBN, a young network still fighting to attract more and new viewers, and to compete with industry-leader CNBC. Napolitano is a well-known host, thanks to his past and current work on FNC, and he’s actually on the way up at FBN too – he says he’ll begin hosting Freedom Watch nightly in prime time during the week beginning next month.

Other ads feature the teams of Megyn Kelly and Liz Claman and Bill O’Reilly and Eric Bolling.

While NBCU may be looking to separate NBC News and MSNBC further, News Corp. is hoping to tie FNC more closely to FBN, to boost the brand. Here’s the Beck/Napolitano ad:

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“Freedom Week” let’s Napolitano expand his program, and expand his reach, to the FBN audience – and also could serve as a try-out for a regular spot in the line-up.

The FoxBusiness.com has a full breakdown of each show, and says:

From our privacy to our property, Judge Napolitano explores whether ‘We the People’ are getting the freedom we deserve. Catch The Judge as he takes on some of the most hotly-debated issues facing Americans today and seeks to make sure your rights aren’t being wronged.

Freedom Watch gets a first run Saturday’s at 10amET, and is repeated throughout the weekend on the young business network. While it is not the #1 show on the network – it does have a hefty audience compared to the rest of the channel, and a chance to get a regular, every day run could help boost it even further. The 9pmET slot puts it right after another new, up-and-coming show on FBN – Money Rocks hosted by Eric Bolling. Bolling tweeted yesterday: “Great news! Freedom Watch w/ @judge nap airs at 9p fbn next week. I would be thrilled if he’d make that permanent! Tell him, will ya?”

Also this weekend’s show, featuring Karl Rove, gets a Fox News replay tonight at 9pmET (via Johnny Dollar).

For a show that got its start as an hour on FoxNews.com’s “Strategy Room,” it has developed a grassroots following online, cultivated by companion, independent sites like FreedomWatchOnFox.com. This run is the next step. It shows the growing interest in the country in libertarian issues – or, at least, a different, unique voice in the sea of right and left.

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Well the nearly three-year-old business network still doesn’t release ratings publicly, but a recent claim about a new program, Freedom Watch, got us to investigate – and we found out what #1 really is.

Last month while speaking at the American Revival rally, Glenn Beck claimed Freedom Watch, hosted by his “good friend” Judge Andrew Napolitano, “is now the number one show on the Fox Business Network.” The comment was picked up by a couple outlets.

That would certainly be surprising – it has only been on for less than two months, but more importantly, it airs Saturdays at 10amET. (It is also repeated at 8pmET on Saturday and 7 and 11pmET on Sunday.)

We asked a source inside Fox Business who has seen the numbers to share ratings data for the new show. The source gave Mediaite a peek at the numbers for the show and while it has performed okay, it’s by no means the highest rated show on the network. Instead, that belongs to the show that has been the highest since it debuted back in October – Don Imus‘ morning show. That program averages around a steady 110,000 total viewers, occasionally topping CNBC’s Squawk Box. Other strong performers are John Stossel, Stuart Varney and Neil Cavuto.

Instead, Freedom Watch has been more volatile, occasionally reaching into the 90,000 total viewer range but more often averaging around 44,000, like it did July 24. From what we’re told the encores average in the 40,000-50,000 total viewer range. In the A25-54 demographic, the program got 9,000 July 24.

While the total viewer average is low, it does show that the program, a weekend morning show, is developing an audience. And as it continues to feature high profile guests – from Sarah Palin to Ann Coulter to Beck – those numbers will likely grow.

An FBN spokesperson would not comment on the numbers, citing the fact the network is still not a full service client of Nielsen.

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While the lion’s share of the interview focused on the alleged transgressions of Bush and Cheney, Napolitano and Nader did not leave Obama off the hook, ostensibly calling the sitting President “the prosecutor, the judge, the juror and the executor” because he has the power to kill Americans on foreign soil, if they are considered to be engaged in acts of terrorism against America.

(H/T Think Progress)

Last week’s premiere of the Fox Business Network libertarian-leaning commentary program Freedom Watch was all about promoting the show, bringing the Fox family’s biggest attraction, Sarah Palin, to the fore but, in the process, it gave up a little bit of its unabashedly small-government voice. This week, Judge Napolitano brought back all the elements that made Freedom Watch so popular online: bold libertarian commentary challenging the status quo on controversial issues. While the entire lineup this week– including John Stossel, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, and Reason editor Nick Gillespie, among others– was full of soundbites questioning everything from the Iraq War to BP’s $20 billion escrow fund, the bulk of the program was dedicated to Glenn Beck and his bludgeoning of, among others, Woodrow Wilson, Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt, and, of course, President Barack Obama.

Beck challenged the notion that FDR was a popular president, noting that “people were frightened beyond belief of the overreach of FDR,” proof of that being the passing of term limits immediately after his death. He also confessed to Napolitano his greatest fear, and it’s not hard to guess: “that they [the Obama administration?] will use an emergency to fundamentally transform the country into something you don’t recognize.”

He also answered questions as to where he saw himself within the framework of the Tea Party. Asked by Napolitano whether he was more of a Sarah Palin than a Ron Paul, Beck chose the latter, although was hesitant to call himself a libertarian because “I don’t think they want me in their camp sometimes.”

Video below:

The full transcripts of the tapes released so far are available for perusal, along with all the documents presented to the jury, on the Illinois US Attorney’s Office page. Most of the tapes verge on the mind-numbingly banal: Blagojevich spends a few conversations asking confidante Alonzo “Lon” Monk about a particularly bad bout of cold, Monk asks a donor for directions to his place, etc. But a great deal of the focus of the conversations is fundraising, and it is readily apparent that Blagojevich’s brother, Rob, was under a lot of pressure to collect $4 million at the end of December 2008, and to trade anything, even laws, to get the money. One potential donor in particular was feeling significant economic stress in his business, losing $9000 a month, and Blagojevich offered to sign a bill that would help him. In a completely unrelated instance, Blagojevich had his people push him into donating into the Blagojevich war chest. For some reason, the donor grew concerned that the public would draw some sort of correlation between the law and the money, which Lonk explained to Blagojevich in late November:

MONK: Say, and say look he’s, he’s concerned about signing the bill, but you got, he’s gonna sign the bill and all of a sudden you guys are gonna say…
BLAGOJEVICH: Correct, or you know all of a sudden you’re going to give him a contribution. Now we’re concerned.
MONK: He’s gonna sign the bill and all of a sudden you’re going to give a contribution. Yeah, I don’t wanna say that.
BLAGOJEVICH:     Right.
MONK: ‘Cause then he’s gonna say you’re right, you know we can’t do it right now.
BLAGOJEVICH:     Right.
MONK:     So, I wanna say…
BLAGOJEVICH: You could say he could sign the bill right after the first of the year. I think you just say that. He’s gonna sign all his bills, he’s signing all, he’s doing all his bills right…
MONK: No. Look, I wanna go to him without crossing the line and say, give us the f**kin’ money.
BLAGOJEVICH:     Right.
MONK:     [unintelligible], give us the money and one has nothing to do with the other…

Of course, this has little to do with the charge that Blagojevich was out to sell President Obama’s senate seat, and neither do most of the transcripts. The closest to clear language about that potential trade actually has Blagojevich coming out clean. In another conversation with Monk, Blagojevich tells him that he refuses to answer phone calls from Jesse Jackson, Jr., and advises Monk to do the same, and warns that Jackson will offer them “all kinds of stuff” for the seat:

BLAGOJEVICH Yeah, he’s gonna, he’ll offer you fund-raising and all kinds of stuff.
MONK Right. Have you, has anybody talked to him?
BLAGOJEVICH I haven’t. He’s got people callin’ (BEEP) me.

The only other mentions so far of the senate seat are all up to interpretation: things like Monk saying “what are Rod’s talking points as far as the senatorial candidate? I mean I know what’s goin’ on,” and mere mentions that it’s an issue that is on the table.

As for the hair references? The SNL crew could not have come up with better lines. One of the most singular (and completely legal, as far as we know) conversations released was between the Blago brothers, in which they evaluate one donor, “Ivan,” by the fact that his wife can appreciate a good coif:

ROBERT BLAGOJEVICH: That guy, I’ll tell you what, I was very impressed. He’s got a very delightful wife. I had a chance to visit with her. She loves our hair by the way.
BLAGOJEVICH: Yeah.
ROBERT BLAGOJEVICH Loves your hair and loves my hair and because it’s all real. (Laughs) I guess. It’s kinda interesting. Very well read lady. Anyway, yeah, ah, and that’ll all go in the bank today.

Fox News had Judge Andrew Napolitano on earlier in the day to give a legal evaluation of the transcripts, who concludes that the tapes, despite the now traditional harsh language, were “not as bad as the prosecutor made them out to be”: