Later today, President Obama gets a preliminary report on what went wrong in the country's airport security systems. One of the things the report will mention is how U.S. intelligence agencies intercepted a call back in August that warned of a terror attack being carried out by a Nigerian man. Despite that, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab got onto a plane in Amsterdam with PETN on his person.

We talk to New York Times reporter Eric Lipton, who broke this story. And we are also joined by international security analyst Bob Ayers, who's had a 30-year career in the intelligence services including the CIA, military intelligence and the National Security agency. He tells us why it's so difficult to fix the nation's intelligence system.

• Afghanistan Takeout:  At least 8 Americans are dead after a suicide bombing at a remote base in Afghanistan. Details are still emerging, but reports say most of the dead are CIA employees, which could make this one of the most deadly events in the intelligence agency's history. Anand Gopal, from the Wall Street Journal, joins us from Kabul.
• Sports Takeout: After allegations of player abuse, Texas Tech head football coach Mike Leach was fired yesterday - Ibrahim Abdul-Matin explains why.
• Astronomy Taketout: Jack Horkheimer is the writer and host of PBS' "StarGazer," as well as the director emeritus of the Miami Planetarium; he joins us to talk about the rare event of seeing a 'blue' moon on New Year's Eve.

The 2010 census is just around the corner. It's the once-every-decade tally of who lives where in the United States. One of its provisions requires counting prisoners in the place where they are incarcerated, not where they originally lived. Here to tell us why that's a problem is Peter Wagner, executive director of the Prison Policy Initiative. Also joining us is Jim Lehman, a state senator from Dodge County, in Wisconsin. His county has a population of just over 10,000, of which nearly 2,000 are prison inmates.

It looks like one of Russian President Dmitri Medvedev’s New Year's resolutions is to encourage all Russians to think twice about reaching for their favorite drink.

As of January 1st, he’s setting a higher minimum price for Vodka in Russia. It’s an attempt to cut alcoholism in the country with the highest per-capita alcohol consumption in the world.

But how popular is a forced New Year's detox with ordinary Russians? We ask Boris Maksimov, a reporter with the BBC Russian service; he joins us from London.

It’s Thursday, that’s our day to talk technology here on The Takeaway. And it’s also December 31st, the last day of the year to give to a charity if you want to deduct your donation from your taxes.  This is a big week for charities who rely on online giving.  Last year at this time, donors made nearly five times as many contributions compared to an average week, and their gifts were nearly 60% larger than usual.

Stacy Palmer, editor of The Chronicle of Philanthropy, says this is crucial time for many charities, but only the most savvy at utilizing the power of a great website and social networking tools will reap most of the benefits today.  Deyan Vitanov, CEO of the philanthropy navigator site Philanthropedia.org says that's exactly why he helped found their website, so people who want to give have many choices online.

Below, a list of sites Stacy Palmer recommends if you want to give to a charity online before the year ends.

• Charity Navigator • http://www.charitynavigator.org/
• Philanthropedia • http://www.myphilanthropedia.org/
• The Better Business Bureau • http://www.bbb.org/us/Find-Business-Reviews
• Guide Star • http://www2.guidestar.org/
• The Chronicle of Philanthropy • http://philanthropy.com/

This year, the housing market dropped like a stone before slowing and gaining, somewhat. But how much longer until Americans feel ready to buy? We talk with housing expert Robert Shiller, co-creator of the Case-Shiller home-price index, to review 2009's housing downs and ups.

Today is New Year's Eve, and that means citizens of the world will be ringing in 2010 when the clock hits midnight. We're leaping through time zones with reporters from across the globe for a look at how some cities are getting ready to celebrate. Tristana Moore is a BBC Correspondent in Munich; Phil Mercer reports for the BBC from Sydney, and Anna Sale is a producer for The Takeaway in New York.  Sale called in from Times Square, where many hundreds of millions around the world will watch the ball drop at midnight EST.

On Wednesday, a suicide bomber killed eight American civilians in Afghanistan, according to U.S. officials. The incident happened at Forward Operating Base Chapman, which is located in a highly hostile area near the Pakistan border.  It is still unclear how many people were injured and whether or not the bomber was targeting the civilians, reportedly CIA employees.  With the latest is Marvin Weinbaum, former State Department analyst on Afghanistan and Pakistan, along with Peter Greste, BBC correspondent in Afghanistan.

Have you done any thinking "outside the box" this decade, or encountered any "game changers?" Here to tell us more about the catchphrases that became a part of our lexicon in the 2000s is Ron Rosenbaum, columnist for Slate and author of "The Shakespeare Wars: Clashing Scholars, Public Fiascoes, Palace Coups." He recently wrote an article about the decade's memorable catchphrases. From the innocuous ("Just sayin"), and the smug ("How's that workin' out for you?") to the spiritual ("It is what it is"), and the stylish ("Stay classy").. there's a catchphrase here for everybody, and a surprisingly apt top pick.

It began with a contested election, ended with a new leader promising change, and in between was defined by the threat of terrorism, distrust of the government and the loss of thousands of lives both abroad and on American soil. MSNBC political analyst Richard Wolffe talks with us about the high and low points of the past ten years in politics, and shares his predictions for what's ahead.

We sprint around the globe from east to west, beginning with a call from the future: Phil Mercer, BBC correspondent in Sydney (where it's already 2010) describes the fireworks display claimed to be the biggest in the world; Tristana Moore, BBC Correspondent in Munich, muses on similarities between German and American party habits; and Laurie Raimondo, with the Times Square Alliance, describes New York's preparations for tonight's ball drop.