that is it for this edition. have a great weekend. we will see you back here next week. [captioning made possible by fox news channel] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- jennifer: is the second stimulus a good idea? laura ingram goes on the record i was away from the judge sotomayor's nomination. the palin mystery deepens. the by johnston says he knows. newt gingrich says he knows why. some say that the press took sides against sarah palin. it is the second stimulus package coming?

$787 billion later, some democrats say we need another one to save the economy. republicans see this as a midterm election rallying cry. who is right? we have senator richard shelby with me in washington who is the ranking republican on the senate banking committee. he opposes any talk of stimulus. i remember what you said about the first >> list. you said it was a disgrace. i can only imagine what you think about this. -- i remember what you said about the first stimulus. >> the stimulus that we put together, most of the money has not even been spent. the stimulus has not been implemented yet. now they are talking about another one. i think that this is a dumb idea. it will not work. most economists would say that we don't need a stimulus. even the washingto"the washingt"

questioned the idea of another stimulus. they said this would be the third stimulus because we had a stimulus of some kind under bush and then the big one under obama. now they're talking about another one. "to the washington post"the wasd about the credit the readiness of our paper. we cannot borrow our way to prosperity. >jennifer: what i don't understand is why so little of this has been spent. we were told at the time that these were a shovel and ready projects. why only 10%? >> obviously, a lot of shovels

were not ready to put people back to work. there is a lot of politics in the stimulus, as we all know. democratic politics. i felt this was a mistake. i know a second stimulus would be a mistake. it will not turn the economy around. i don't believe the stimulus will. jennifer: timothy geithner was on the hill today and he was meeting for an oversight committee hearing. here is what he said. >> the stimulus package is on its expected path in terms of the rate of change and in terms of putting money in the pockets of taxpayers. tens of thousands of teachers and firemen have been fired. there are some infrastructure projects that have started to take effect and they will have

an affect on the economy in the second half of this year. the consensus is that there has been substantial improvements in arresting what was the worst recession globally we have seen in generations. those are the result of the actions this congress took, the administration put in place and complementary actions put in place by governments around the world. jennifer: do you agree that the crisis would have been worse? >> i don't agree. i agree that it would be pain because we are in a world recession, a contraction of the economy. the sooner we face up to this and the sooner we straighten out our banks, that is the key to where banks can start lending. there is a liquidity crisis in this country. even after the bailout of the banks. a lot of banks are not lending.

small businesses are dying for capital and for credit. jennifer: it has been reported that the obama administration is considering using the money for small businesses. is that the answer? >> this is something that we should consider. if there's money that is out there and this money has been appropriated for the banks, the banks are lending. if we can get some money into the hands of small and medium- sized businesses, that is where your money comes from. jnniferennifer: thank you for bg here. some economists say the economy will turn around. we'll have to see if that is the case. pennsylvania gov. ed rendell is open to the idea of the second stimulus. he joins me live from

philadelphia. governor, thank you for being with us. >> good evening, jennifer. jennifer: why do you think we need a second stimulus? >> first of all, i'm not at the point where i think we need a second stimulus. senator shelby makes a point. we have not seen the crux of this first and is put into action yet. when we do, we will be able to judge how successful it is. -- we have not seen the crux of this first stimulus put into action yet. the president is not for a second stimulus but he is not taking it off the table. given the nature of the economy, this is the right position to take. let's see how it works. it is working fairly well in pennsylvania. we will see a lot of jobs created for the rest of the year. we have already stopped the loss of jobs. --if we had not gotten the

help from the stimulus, we would probably have to lay off 5000- 10,000 state, county workers. jennifer: the congressional budget office said that a quarter of the money was expected to be paid out of this year. they were not expecting it to be at the beginning of this year. is this the way for it to come out, slowly? we have made a big deal about the 10% being spent. >> is not as low as you think. we had a transportation plan approved by the federal government. pretty soon after the stimulus was signed. it is four months later and we have a good portion of our projects that have begun. this will ramp up dramatically.

the other half of our projects will almost all be under way by labor day. it will be much faster on the infrastructure side. we will see the impact of that in the first six-nine months. if we do have another stimulus, i would like to say that i think everyone agrees that the best stimulus is infrastructure. building bridges, roads, highways, things that we absolutely need. everyone knows that those produce jobs and they produce orders for pennsylvania and american factories. if we had not had a second stimulus, none of the programs that our social programs or long-range programs, let's do a tight stimulus for the american infrastructure. that will produce jobs. >> i guess what i don't understand is why want those projects in the first stimulus

package? you have $787 billion, what percentage of this was supposed to be infrastructure? >> about $180 billion for infrastructure projects. some of them long range infrastructure projects like building out the electricity grid. i think the reason is that 375 billion was tax cuts. i think that they put those in in part to try to get republican votes which, as we know, they did not fit any. -- they did not virtually get any. the tax cuts reduced the infrastructure spending. we have learned a lesson. if there is a second stimulus, let's put it all into factories, everyone going back to work, construction, manufacturing jobs produced by hard infrastructure stimulus. jennifer: the white house has been coy about whether they are

going to have a second stimulus. an economic adviser to the president was out in singapore. do you think that the white house was floating that idea through hurt in singapore? >> that is hard for me to say. it is too early for me to tell. we cannot rule it out. we have to see where the economy is. you're right. every economists i have read an hour on consultants tell us that in the last quarter of 2009, we will see growth return. not explosive return but return. -- every economist i have read tells us that in the last quarter of 2009, we will see a return to growth. jennifer: thank you for being with us. aig is handing out millions of

bonuses. wall street never learn? we will tell you who is getting the money. later, laura ingram goes on the record. will the republicans try to block judge sotomayor's nomination? one reporter says that the media took sides against the sarah palin. [ sigh ] a lot goes through your mind after an accident. but with liberty mutual, insurance issues won't, because we offer unlimited rental coverage, new car replacement, and accident forgiveness to help ease your mind. and that's our policy. liberty mutual insurance.

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jennifer: what is $2.4 million amongst friends? that is the not too given to executives at aig. -- that is about to be given to executives at aig. what is the deal?

i and a stand that you are in las vegas, steve. > what happens here stays he. jennifer: what is this about aig paying out all of these bonuses? >> do these people get it? the american people are so angry about these bonuses. i am not an opponent of bonuses or executive pay when executives make money for the shareholders and to make products that people want and the companies make a profit. we are talking about a company that was nearly bankrupt, would have been bankrupt except for the fact that the u.s. dollataxr put in $100 billion. the idea that these executives are entitled to these bonuses.

$2.4 million is a tiny amount in the grand scheme of things. the other part of the story is a leading indicator that if they can get away with this, there is an indication that the executives at aig want 10-20 times more. they want 50 million in bonuses. jennifer: have they paid any of the money back? have they made any profit? >> the company is performing a lot better than it was last year when they were on the verge of bankruptcy and had to come to washington. yes, it is performing better. they are starting to look like they will turn a profit. these bonuses we talking about, these are bonuses for 2008 when they lost money, not how they

performed over the last six-8 months. >> i thought that edward liddy and other executives said that they would forgo their bonuses through the next year. why they still talking about these bonuses? >> well, we don't know from the story from aig exactly what executives they're talking about. they're talking about some 50 managers and people who performed admirably at aig. even someone that has performed well and does their job well, if they are working for a company that is not making money, you don't make a bonus. i work for "the wall street journal" and we don't get big bonuses because it is the businesses are not doing well. i do my job. jennifer: they're looking for political cover right now. the. czar is supposed to be taking

over this mess. is he going to? >> they want political cover by having what they call the theyczacompensation czar to takr this. the important point is that if they get this $2.4 million, it does not stop here. they're coming back for more in a few weeks. jennifer: stand by, we will be coming back for you later in the show. up next, laura ingram. the the republicans have enough power to block sotomayor's nomination? newt gingrich goes on the record with greta about sarah palin's

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jennifer: judge sotomayor's

confirmation hearings began on monday morning. will she breezed through or will republicans tried to block a nomination? a first of all, do you think that she's going to be shown empathy on the hill? >> look, what we have seen in recent weeks is that the more time people have had to sort of digest what she is actually done by herber, more people have more questions. that is why republicans were hoping it would have more time. they don't have more time. this will start happening on monday. th"the washington post" has pointed out judge sotomayor in her actions on the court. in the case with a throw out a

life prison term for a heroin dealer she said that "judges should not show slavish adherence to the minimum sentencing guidelines." she said that "court of appeals is where policy is made." they're willing to substitute their own policy judgments and supplant the letter of the law. jennifer: what about this reliance on summary judgments? >> they are short judgments. like in the legal case, firefighters were wondering why dithey did not get the promotions. the court just dispense with the claims. they said the claims don't hold. lots of concern about that because you don't get to examine

the rationale the court when the court does not give their rationale. the reliance on a judgment. it is better not to have that track record on constitutional issues. that is another cause for concern. that has been raised repeatedly. jennifer: you mentioned frank ricci who will testify on this day. he is one of the white firefighters from the new haven case that was overturned last week by the supreme court. what will come from that? will change anyone's mind? >> it goes to the issue of fairness. when they see him up there, when they see a guy who was like many americans, struggling to get ahead, applied himself and actually did really well on his exam. in america, that means you're supposed to get ahead. instead, we had these judges to said that we don't see any

problem with a discrimination. we don't see that claim here because of some utopian notion of leveling the playing field. regular folks out there might not follow politics or the courts, they see that man and they think that this is happening in a lot more than me know and we want judges to actually stand up for the constitution. equal protection under the law. jennifer: how many republicans will vote against her? >> that is the open question. this week, lindsey gramm has said that he could see himself voting to confirm judge sotomayor. that concerns a lot of conservatives. they kind of want someone to stand up, this is what we expect of justices, not a litmus test on political views, but actually

adhering to the strict letter of the constitution. there is a lot of pressure being put on the republicans. jennifer: there was an amazing storthe san"san francisco chronicle" with the mayor wants people to eat healthier. the prison food will be better. >> avenue she wants to run for governor. the state is $26 billion in the hall. -- the hole. now they're going to reengineer the diets of government employees and inmates. gavin newsom said that the

resources are there for this. this is the nanny state on high fructose corn syrup. i have one problem, if cheezeits are taken out of the machine, i will not be able to deal with this. jennifer: if you are having a party in the government building, you cannot bring down not anymore. >> i had one of those this morning. jennifer: they say that people will get too fat. >> this is not the role of the government. the government has spent like they have no tomorrow. now they are regulating food intake. by the way, the median strips on the california freeway are going

to be planted. any public space, any patch of land, you have to plant. maybe the first lady can bring the vegetable garden concept to los angeles. jennifer: up next, a long time white house reporter says that the press took sides in the campaign against gov. pailin. speakin-- governor palin. levi johnston says he knows why judge sotomayogovernor palin is. taking its rightful place

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jennifer: love her or hate her, no one can stop talking about governor sarah palin. everyone wants to know why she is really resigning. enter levi johnston, he almost ended up governor palin's son in law. he has said -- he also says that he would not vote for her if she runs for president because he does not think she is up for the job. a long time press reporter is being shockingly honest about the treatment of sarah palin.

governor palin is outspoken about her contempt for some of the press but is that why she is resigning? greta talked about the mystery are around her decision. >> governor palin, what do you think? >> i was really surprised. i knew she was under a lot of stress and it had been very painful for her family, the letterman thing and such. you know better than i do. >> every time i have seen year, it is been on camera. i find this inexplicable. i understand not want to get attacked but the problem is in some ways, i'm surprised how she reacted. >> i wish her and her family

well. they have had a very hard couple of months. i'm very sympathetic to how much pain they have been put through and how unfair it has been. i think the challenge they will face is that if she wants to lead a public life, fighting the way through that, you cannot just be clever and step down as governor and think that the same nasty people and not going to come after you again. >> you cannot just be right. >> you have to live through it. it has been always true. washington quit after his first term because the new york newspapers were attacking martha for having teas that were so formal. he was so infuriated that he almost left. we have always had a very tough

news media and we have always had a very tough political environment. it is very painful. my daughters can tell you, they live with it from childhood on. it is hard. jennifer: now to a stunning incident caught on tape involving our fox news colleagues in jerusalem. our correspondent and crew got caught in the middle of a protest when tear-gas canisters landed near them, a fiery situationsituation became worse. >> these are israeli military clashing with peace activists. they are protesting the separation billion. take a look behind me. the barrier has stopped quite a few suicide bombings. this has been one of the biggest successes. this cuts right through

palestinian territory, palestinian land. they're open up the gate, they are trying to push the fence open. here you go, you can see the teargas coming out. they have displayed a lift this. -- they have sprayed people. >> this plain tear gas. >> ago. . they are spraying teargas. >> go. jennifer: i spoke to the crew and they are ok.

bob dole is ok after surgery. he had a problem with open sores on his legs. they decided to operate immediately on him and they performed a skin graft. he hopes to be out of the hospital by his birthday, july 22nd. up next, the vice chairmen of gm goes on the record. there is important news, the man you will meet next was pulled from retirement to try to save gm. a stunner from michael jackson's father, did someone tried to kill the king of pop? you will hear in joe jackson's own words. pringles super stack can. i love kids! i'm responsible. ahhh! [squeak squeak] stop, stop! ahhhhh! whoa! being a parent's a lot of work.

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jennifer: there is more ahead but let's go to our new york news room. >> president obama are rising in ghana with his family. he will deliver a speech to lawmakers there tomorrow. the first family will also tour an oceanfront fort that was used to ship slaves to the americas. the obama administration might use money to provide further help to businesses. one idea under consideration is to help banks provide small businesses with low interest rate loans. mother nature may not cooperate

with nasa, forecast that the storms are threatening to delay the launch of the space shuttle. this mission is already a month late because of a potentially dangerous-gas leak. we now head back to "on the record." jennifer: just when he thought he was out, they pulled him back in. robert lutz planned to retire. now he is staying on. moments ago, he talked about the exit from bankruptcy protection and the future of the company. thank you for being with us. >> good to be with you, thank you. jennifer: you are supposed to be retiring and they have asked you to stay on to oversee this new gm, what is going to be new and why should someone by one of your vehicles? >> the key reason is not because

we have emerged from bankruptcy, it is the fact that over the past five years, we have completely revamp our product line and i would say that we are building the best cars and trucks in our history. that is generally corroborated by the special press. that is the number one reason. i think that the public can have a lot of confidence in us because for the first time, we are a fully competitive company with a sound balance sheet, with a lot of the billion dollar legacy costs and interest charges. we are now going to be a leaner company, we are no longer debt- ridden. we are going to move fast. we have consolidated down to four brands. this is a very fast-moving and successful company. >> tell me about those four

brands, how did you decide which to keep? we heard talk about the camaro that is going to be manufactured. tell us how you chose which brands to keep. >> the camaro is not only going to be manufacturer, is going into production in a couple of months. this is white hot. we are retailing about 9000 a month. this is an amazing success. we have not even started advertising it yet. how did we select the brands? chevrolet is one of the largest brands in the world. it is approaching 5 million units of sales in note world. even if it was an independent car company, they would be large. this is our value brand around the world whether it is middle east, asia, chevrolet is our

core brand. cadillac is another no-brainer. this is a luxury brand. we cannot exist without a luxury brand at the top. this is one of our focused brands. this eased on important branis . gmc has the best overall reputation. a lot of people said that if i'm going to buy a truck, i want and gmc. this is a very strong brand. the wick, we get down to the choice of whether we keep the wic or pontiac. -- buick, we get down to the choice of whether we keep buick or pontiac.

jennifer: i am not hearing you talking about any hybrids, are you under pressure from the government to make these more fuel-efficient? these don't sound like a new fuel-efficient vehicles. >> i was afraid that we would get under a lot of pressure from the government because that is what everyone was saying. the government is going to make you do nothing but green cars. my worry was that they were going to make us produce vehicles that the american government does not want to buy. i realize that they had one overriding objective and that is to make general motors into a streamlined successful company. they absolutely want us to keep producing camaro is, corvettes, full-size pickup trucks, sport- utility is, so forth.

this is provided that we have to meet the future fuel economy regulations. as long as we have the technology that meet the fuel economy regulations, the u.s. government wants us to keep her fulfilling the needs of the american public because they realize this will be the only way that we will be successful. jennifer: there is a case being brought by stillwater mining, they say that your buying out a contract with them. they say that this will hurt them. they say they will lose a lot of jobs. how do you respond? >> i respond by telling you this is the first i have heard of it and i know absolutely nothing about it. jennifer: how many jobs will be lost in the restructuring? how many plans will be

closed? >> we have said that there are additional plant closings. i am not going to start listing plans and say which ones are in what country or region. as fritz henderson reiterated, we will reduce our salaried employees by 35%. we hope to illuminate a lot of executive positions because we now have a much leaner company. we are going to increase control. we are going to get down to 60,000 employees or so in the u.s. and that is a drastic reduction.

all of us a very much regret seeing people go and seeing plants closed. that is just the way it is. when the company has to go to a smaller market size, which we have to, we are about 9 million vehicles for the entire industry. this is about half of what was being sold a couple of years ago. you have to make a downward adjustment. so did the suppliers and the suppliers to the suppliers. that is life. jennifer: thank you for being with us. he is optimistic but what does the future hold for gm? we're joined by steve again. have you made any money? >> that was a fascinating interview. he is an impressive person.

i have a red camaro and i love that car. jennifer: i was going to ask you if you were going to get one. tell us, this is all sounding very nice today. we did not focus enough on the jobs being lost. gm used to have 50% of the market share, it is down to the low teens. is gm set to come back? >> i hope so. they owe us about $30 billion. that is what we put into it. we are the shareholders of the company. i was very cheered by the fact that he said that so far there has not been a lot of government intervention, congressional

intervention. i don't think that will last code right now they have 535 boards of directors and those of the members of congress who are going to be sticking their fingers into the affairs of gm for years to come. that makes it very difficult for them to make cars that make money. the fear is that they will need a lot more taxpayer handouts in the years and months to follow to remain in business. how much do we put into this company? -- we will need a lot more handouts to allow them to remain in business. jennifer: there is paid by american clause in the legislation. sho-- there is a buy american clause in the legislation,

will this be a problem? >> i am not in favor of these provisions. it will make it difficult for gm and chrysler to make money. these are protectionist measures. you are hearing from canada and other countries objecting to these provisions. by the way, this is an example of what i was talking about, about congress intervening and telling them how they're going to run their affairs. i am not sold on this fuel efficiency thing. i think that congress will demand that they make these green cars that many americans don't want to buy. >> thank you very much. up next, the best of the rest. joe jackson, does he think that his son was murdered roland burris explains his plans for 2010 -- joe jackson, does he think that his son was murdered? roland burris explains his plans

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jennifer: you have seen our top stories but here is the best of the rest. does michael jackson's father think he was killed? he talks to abc news. >> what is going through your mind? >> i could not believe what was happening. i just cannot believe it. i do believe it was foul play. jennifer: meanwhile, a doctor of jackson's became upset at the start because he was self rejectininjecting with demerol. one body guards said that he picked up prescriptions for jackson under a different name.

roland burris is not running for election in 2010. he has come under fire for his question will contact with rod blagojevich's staff. that is thenot the reason that he decided not to run. >> this has become far too expensive in this country. i am making this decision, i was called to choose between spending my time raising funds or spending my time raising issues for my state. i will not be a candidate in the 2010 election. i will not run for the u.s. senate seat. jennifer: the british royal family is now on twittered but

do not expect any from queen elizabeth about her personal life. when it comes to the royals, this will be much more stiff. not exactly like paris hilton's account. they will keep people posted on what the family is up to. making official announcements about upcoming events. when the cows come home, they are going to be full from chicken, that is the hope. today is cal appreciation day at -- cow appreciation day at chick-fil-a. they have a kit you can download if you don't have a costume. who could forget the infamous case of lust in space?

remember this woman, she is that astronaut who is charged with kidnapping. she became enraged about a male astronauts relationship with another woman. the couple that set her off is now getting hitched. they got engaged during a canoe trip in alaska. no. nowak -- no word if nowak will get elected. coming up, last call. conan o'brien had a bad experience at an airport and he is making himself heard. yeah, i guess... magic man. he's a magic man. what? i just want to be squeezed.

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jennifer: everyone has a horror story when it comes to flying but khan in a bind is getting revenge for all of us. >-- conan o'brien is getting revenge for all of us. >> one airport was closed down after 78 total scrawled on the tarmac. official-- tourtles