Will Guantanamo facilities get $150M in upgrades?

>>> the white house is work, on shifting over side of its lethal drone program from the cia to the military. according to the "the wall street journal ." the move would make the controversial program subject to international law . strikes would be undertaken with the consent of host governments, while many in washington believe the program will be more effective under the cia, the proposal reflects a growing consensus it needs to be on legal, sturdier footing. yesterday the senate kicked off hearings. senators on both sides expressed concerns over privacy. some members are mulling possible federal regulations . the faa estimates 30,000 drones could be flying in the u.s. skies in the next 20 years and richard haass is shaking his head. it's impossible to consider.

>> i think the white house was caught by surprise by the bipartisan pushback by the drone program. 30,000 drones? this is a new world we are unprepared for. this is a wild west , if you will, in the skies.

>> the great news for law enforcement officers the ability to have a bird's-eye view over neighborhoods that have been problematic and dangerous in the past, but there are so many concerns also about civil liberties . quite a balancing act.

>>> two more. despite promises to close down guantanamo bay .

>> he is going to do that his first year after he is inaugurated.

>> isn't it already closed?

>> no. 2010 , january 20th , 2010 . he promised that during the entire campaign.

>> 2008 , you mean?

>> 2008 .

>> but he promised a year from the day i'm sworn in, which would have been january 20th , ten. i'm going to close gitmo because it represents everything that is wrong with the united states of america . george w. bush and dick cheney shredding the constitution.

>> they did. it's kind of hard to undo that.

>> however, we would never do such a thing. here is some scotch tape . seriously, if if it is so immoral, you close gitmo .

>> really some what do you do?

>> you close gitmo is what you do.

>> okay. that would be --

>> if the united states gets into office and he realizes that it violates our most basic constitutional principles as a people, you don't ask what the costs are. you do it. but as mike barnicle said, he got the briefing.

>> in chicago .

>> in chicago . and it's called the o sh briefing for a reason, mike, isn't it?

>> yeah.

>> you find out you're not as smart as you thought you were when you're a state senator and then a two-year u.s. senator -- no, then a two-year u.s. senator running for president, a guy that really didn't do a lot of homework when i was in the u.s. senate and wasn't quite as smart as he thought he was when it came to this, was he?

>> i think it would apply to anyone but this case it applied to the president elected to the united states . the day blagojevich was arrested in chicago and the president got his first full intelligence briefing and the code name for the briefing was holy cocka. he opened up the book and saw the first -- he went, whoa!

>> that is only part of the story. the other part of the story you can say -- i agree that you make a promise like that, you should try to fulfill it. hold on!

>> hold on. john, this is important. people say how could he say that? yes, every president goes into his job ignorant, right? but not all go in as self-righteous as this president did, condemning the past administration as being immoral and being enemies of the united states constitution . that's the point i'm drawing here.

>> yes, and i take that point.

>> i'm not sure he actually said that.

>> my point it was something more implicated than the holy crap briefing which is the question of what to do with these people was a matter of politics. it's a matter of democracy. found out no support. very hard to figure out where you would put these people in the united states because you have to have the consent of states to allow those people to be housed in their states. without that consent you have a huge counundrum.

>> if you're going to keep it, keep it nice.

>> nobody knows what we are talking about. read the story.

>> just fight over themselves, even though nothing to fight about.

>>> the u.s. is considering 150 million dollar overhaul of the guantanamo bay facility. the plans include a new hospital, guard barracks and dining hall . lawyers for the detainees unrest is growing and hunger strikes have recently tripled.

>> an operating budget in guantanamo bay of 177 million. over 1 million for each of the 166 detainees. the obama administration says it's committed to closing gitmo efforts which have been repeatedly blocked by congress.

>> not just blocked by congress. you can't just --

>> that's ridiculous.

>> you're worried the people will get tortured and killed.

>> no, back into action.

>> you can't just release them. what it is -- we used to teach at the kennedy school when i was a professor there the difference. it seemed like a good idea at the time. the more people learned about it, they realize you try to do would make a bad situation worse. this is a good example of policy continuity --

>> hold on one second. $10 million. you don't have white house doors but $10 million being spent for a legal meeting complex where lawyers can meet.

>> what are you for? opening it or closing it?

>> you got the mlb --

>> i get they do have the mlb package!

>> bob bowman did that for them.

>> it's something. what else you got?

>> i was going to talk about the pope but you went on too long. bantering about gitmo .

>> what did the pope say?

>> it's about sex.

>> the pope is talking about sex?

>> did he in a certain way and it's fascinating. it's a good conversation and i'm not going to waste it on the last 20 seconds of this block so we will save it.

>> that's what you call a deep tease! that's a tv term!

>>> coming up on " morning joe ," in two days we will celebrate the third anniversary of president obama signing his health care act into law.

>> we will ask kathleen sebelius about that and she joins us later. campbell brown will be here and "the washington post " ezra klein . up next the top stories in the politico playbook. first, bill karins with a check on the forecast.

>>> no good news and another snowstorm moving across the country. most likely sunday into monday. let me show you the stark contrast between this start of spring and last year. last year at this point the blue on the map and the purple show you where the snow was. no snow pretty much east of the ms river and through the midwest. only 20% of the country this time last year was covered in know. look at the map currently. 30% of the lower 48 covered by snow and we have snow pack from maine tlhrough the great lakes and upstate and wisconsin and minnesota. the winds coming down from canada over the snow, it just doesn't have a chance to moderate and warm up. look how cold it was yesterday. high temperatures in the 20s in the great lakes. we should be almost near mid-40s to near 50 this time of the year. this morning is very cold once again from fargo to minneapolis, chicago , just another bitterly cold day out there and the winds over the central plains especially as long as we have the snow on the ground it's going to continue. be careful driving in connecticut this morning. a little coating of light snow out there. pretty much from westchester, new york, through areas of southern connecticut , that could produce 1 to 3 inches of snow later today in areas especially of southern rhode island and southeast portions of mass including the cape. the forecast, cold day in the new england area and light snow. new york city we saw snowflakes overnight but no problem around the big paeapple. you're watching " morning joe ," brewed by starbucks.