>> jamie: topping the news now,

shouting matches, even violence at recent democrat health care town halls, putting future constituent meetings in jeopardy. missouri senator clair mccaskill's tuesday town hall at a high school is cancelled after school officials cited the safety of their staff and the senator tweeted last night and she was disappointed by that cancellation. >> rick: two terrorist suspects are dead after a raid in the -- and the investigation of last month's attacks on hotels in jakarta and authorities say five other suspected militants are in custody after police seized explosives and a car bomb and last month's attack in the end kneesian capital -- indonesian capital killed five people. >> jamie: people in a huge illegal gun and drug bust, 200 illegal guns and 200 grams of cocaine and $50,000 in cash in raids around new bedford thursday, after a 6-month wiretap probe nicknamed operation lightning bolt.

>> rick: the white house continues to push hard for health care reform. even as more and more town hall meetings are disrupted, or cancelled by americans, who say they are angry and they are scared, and joining us now, is a columnist for the "wall street journal," john fund, good to see you, john, thanks for being here and what do you make of all of the charges from the white house and leading democrats, these people showing up at these meetings are actually part of an orchestrated effort and they are not legitimately going down there to express their own views? >> well, that presumes these people have been tolled about the meeting by some outside group or going down there because they are robots. no, these are people with passionate feelings, who are very worried about the health care plan, and the 12 million americans on medicare advantage, their program will probably be terminated, in the next few years and the americans with health savings account, those accounts will be phased out. so, even if they are orchestrated in the sense that people are told to come to the meeting, that doesn't mean they are -- their opinions are not

valid and i remember when bush proposed social security reform there were rallies featuring union members and people from all kinds of senior groups and those rallies were in a sense orchestrated and that done mean the public opinion was not valid and of course, social security reform was defeated. >> rick: the president says over and over again, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. if you like the health insurance plan that you have right now, you will be able to keep that health insurance plan. but, people are not buying it. why not. >> it is partly true, but partly not true depending how far out you look, 2013 according to the house health care bill, certain health insurance policies will not be able to take in any new entrants, in other words you can stay in your plan, but, after 2013, no new people can come in, over time it makes the plan unsustainable because the plan has to be replenished with new people and the people is diverse. and so, ultimately that is a death sentence for most people's health insurance plans, over time.

>> jamie: i wanted to jump in and ask you about an article, editorial you wrote yesterday in the "wall street journal" about an upgrade to aircraft for congress. at a time when money is being spent on so many things. health care included, the stimulus plan, and now they want more planes, what is the story on this one? >> members of congress are on summer break. and this are flying all over the world on fact-finding missions. we reported on one, today's "wall street journal," that went to the south pole, last winter. now, some of these are quite valid. but, a lot of these are frankly disguised vacations, because, the spouses are accompanying the members of congress which is a sure give away. and, i think that for the air force to request two new gulf stream jets, luxury appointed is fine, because, obviously you have to replace aging aircraft. but the congress is now trying to get a total of 8 planes. 8 planes. and, these are obviously for use by the executive branch and the legislative branch but i have seen e-mails unearthed by the independent group judicial watch

where the house of representatives is constantly complaining to the pentagon we don't have enough planes and if you don't have planes you will have, quote, a very upset speaker, unquote. and that would mean speaker nancy pelosi. so i think, that congress -- >> jamie: interesting -- they only asked for one additional plane and john, definitely a controversy there, and thanks for talking to us about it and i'll continue to read your reporting on it as well. good to see you today. >> thank you. >> jamie: secretary of state hillary clinton met with south african president jake con zuma earlier as part of an effort to improve relations with the country and the two leaders meeting in the port city of durbin, a day after clinton praised an improvement in relations between the u.s. and south africa and she leaves tomorrow for angola. >> what a sight earlier this week that's two american journalists, laura ling and euna lee captured along the north korean border with china and sentenced to years of hard labor in one of kim jong-il's gulags were safely returned home to

their joyous families in los angeles and the happy homecoming, the result of rock star diplomacy by none other than former president bill clinton who personally traveled to pyongyang to win their release and what price did the u.s. pay? and was it too much, john bolten, the former u.s. ambassador to the united nations and joins us now, and, good morning, sir, good to talk to you, always, you called this a knee-jerk impulse for negotiations, and a poorly thought-out plan as far as the former president's trip over there. i just want to quote from you, secretary of state hillary clinton who was on the road and gave an interview to one of our competitors that will run on television tomorrow, she was asked about your comments, sir, and she noted, first, laughed and then she noted, similar efforts have been carried out by other presidents and members of congress, and, she summed up your position, ambassador bolten as an attempt to politicize humanitarian issues. and your response to that? >> well, that is obviously not what i was doing. i think the concern here has to be how, when we try and x-ray

indicate americans who are taken hostage by terrorists, and in effect that is what the north koreans did here, we want to x-ray indicate them in a way that does not increase the risk to other americans. it doesn't say to terrorist groups or rowing states, if you grab some americans, you can extract a pretty high price and in this case for kim jong-il, at a minimum the price was high level visit by a former president, and husband of the current secretary of state. and, an enormous boost in his prestige as well as a chance to get some messages directly back to president obama. we don't know whether there were other terms, i'm not going to speculate on that. i think this alone was sufficiently bad for the people to be worried about, the long term effect for other americans. >> everybody of course want to see those two young women returned home safely to their families, how would you have gone about securing their return and their release? >> well, i think you have to look at the possibilities of working harder with china, i

certainly hope the administration was doing that. it is a very, very difficult situation, and, not someone that you can guarantee a quicker return through other methods but, look at what is now -- has now happen to the three american hikers who have now been transported with this border from iraq where they stepped over a few days ago to tehran and obviously not moving toward freedom at this point, moving in the wrong direction. this is the concern i think we need to have, for americans, and millions of whom travel overseas every year that in tehran, they watched carefully what happened in pyongyang and may well have concluded they'd should try and cut a similar deal for themselves. >> rick: quickly, sir, would you expect, perhaps, mahmoud ahmadinejad to request either president clinton or president carter or president bush to make a trip over there, to secure the release of those hikers? >> here's the question, i think we have to ask ourselves. given the now, trip.

what americans in the future are not important enough for bill clinton to go and pull out? >> rick: former ambassador to the united nations, john bolten joining us this morning, live, thank you, sir always good to hear your thoughts no thank you. >> jamie: meanwhile, everybody loves a good summer road trip, right? maybe you are hitting the road? well, two congressional members, republicans are hitting the road and it's not an ordinary summer road trip for them, oh, no, they're on a mission, there they go, but one of the trippers will be joining us, next, to tell us what is going on!

>> rick: welcome, everybody topping the news now, sonia sotomayor, she's been sworn in as an associate justice of the u.s. supreme court, and one of the first cases on the docket, for her, will include citizens united, versus the international election commission a case involving the political documentary on -- unflattering one about the secretary of state hill rod claim. >> jamie: and the company that insured michael jackson's london shows may not have to write the multimillion-dollar check after all, if the pop star is found to have illegally possessed drugs or was involved in the illicit taking of drugs the concert promoter's snierns not required to cover the cost. >> rick: eunice shriver, best known to have established the

special olympics. >> chris: >> jamie: during the august congressional recess, while most remembers return to the district, kevin mccarthy and lynn westmoreland are hitting the road not just for a regular road trip, their going is to drum up support and hopefully uncover some new candidates for the g.o.p. joining us now, is the chief republican whip, congressman kevin mccarthy of california, i don't know if he's the driver or passenger and he's going and making the trip. thanks for being with us. >> thanks for having me. >> jamie: and -- you have a goal that is important and you need to go out there and cultivate potentially new candidates. do you already know who you want to meet with and talk to? >> in some districts, we do have some people we went to meet with and talk to and other districts we have to cultivate new people and if you want to grow a new team you have to plant the seed and i believe the ground is very firtal to the states we are going in, that when you look at a lot of the districts, democrats are already sitting in them, but, they really become

intense pelosi puppets it voting with her 90% of the time and i don't believe the districts agree with her and the direction they are sending washington. >> jamie: and the democrats have made these road trips in the past. you are known as a strategist. what is your strategy? >> well, my strategy is to go into these districts, listen to the people. find people with fresh faces, they can find solutions, with new ideas, with common-sense, conservative values, and encourage them to run. and build a better campaign team throughout. show this team that can be across this nation, so come next november we have a team that is willing to fight for the freedoms an liberties of this country. and actually take it back. >> jamie: can you share with us any of the names of people that you think will -- we'll be hearing more about? >> well, a lot of these that you will hear about, some of them, they don't have an idea yet that -- whether they'd even run and we're looking for people that never thought about running for office before but have been

successful in their personal lives, and, believe in the freedoms of america and we are sitting down with them and showing them they may think this seat could never have changed hand and showing them how to win the seat an encourage them and talk to constituents that are sitting there, too, who can join the team and make these candidate better. so, when we get back on the trip we'll get a long list for you, to see some fresh faces and refresh ideas and some people that are successful in different walks of life now throwing their hats in this ring like the way the country was created, put a new years together to spend some time for the country and make it better. >> jamie: we're anxious to meet the people you plan to meet with and for the record we want you to know, you saw maybe the graphic of you in the car and we did pick an economical, not a gas guzzler and have you in a good, green car! take care, congressman, nice to chat with you. >> and we'll be trading up driving. thanks for having me. >> rick: very nice, good, good t to talk to you and traded in the clunker and got cash --

>> jamie: $4500 goes far i guess! >> rick: coming up a gathering of the best of the best of the most talented, air guitarists. >> jamie: you'd put on a good performance but you can't beat griff jenkins, he was there the u.s. air guitar national championships in washington, wait you have to stick around for that. >> the air guitar championship in washington are ready for people to get their air on! let's see it! ♪ ♪

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>> rick: jamie you will want to dust off the guns and rose cents cd's for the next story. >> jamie: done, rick! i'm all over it! >> rick: the finals of the u.s.

air guitar championship, going down in washington, d.c., last night. >> jamie: who else would we send, griff jenkins, there and took over the whole place and wait until you see the, first he's joining us from the capitol where he's more reserved and we saw a preview, nicely done. >> i work on it and the definition of air guitar is the imaginary stimulation of allowed electric guitar music and man did they jam last night and they were judged on technical merit and stage presence and that intangible quality, their airness and with stage names like the shred and the destroyer and william ocean and they rocked the stage, without guitars, last night! take a look. >> welcome... to the 2009... u.s. air guitar championships! [cheers and applause]

♪ ♪ [cheers and applause]. >> presenting... the 2009 championship belt, mr. william ocean! [cheers and applause]. >> congratulations! congratulations! >> thank you, dude, thank you. >> how do you feel. >> incredible, dude, incredible, i me, when i -- i had the

feeling i was going to win, next thought -- tonight i'm going home an practicing for finland, right here, right now. >> right here, right now, and william ocean, and this is his stage name and i don't know his real name, he's headed to finland where he'll compete against 17 other countries and last year's u.s. air guitar world champion was an american. hot licks hoolahan and it looks like he'll try and keep the tradition going and bring it back to the red, white and blue! rick, maybe they'll let you, stand by! >> rick: listen, i wouldn't mind as long as i can get a cool bandanna like you were wearing. >> jamie: samurai griff, you are not even moving, so straight-laced today. >> i needed something to match my vans and needed black and white up top and little on the bottom, that was the plan, and my stage name would have been... the griff-enator but i decided to jam on the side, i was barely letting a tenth of my potential

out! >> jamie: nicely done. >> thanks, guys. >> rick: i heard a lot of metal, heavy metal, for my money think best guitarist out there is prince, did you hear any purple rain last night. >> there wasn't any prince and a lot of throwbacks and led zeppelin and ac/dc and the song they were jamming to was the hot band, wolf mother! check 'em out! they are quite strong! >> wolf mother! the griff-enator, thanks very much, buddy. >> see you guys. >> rick: coming up next a group of senior citizens says it's not about the money! >> jamie: no, they just want to play cards for pots of 50 cents or a dollar and we'll tell you why new york -- the new york town is shuffling their -- shutting down the games! ♪ ♪

>> actually do the job and $800 repair on computers and instead of having to pay $800 for a computer repair is crazy and when you have a couple of computers running on the network, it is crucial. and so, you know, not having to pay for that... >> they are having great success while there are many web site, to put people in touch with each other and old-fashioned word of mouth is how many get their bartering done and asking people to talk with neighbors, friends, family members about service and you can offer really does the trick and reps with the international reciprocal trade association are seeing the huge increase as well because businesses are looking for new ways to do business in the economic disaster we're in. >> in the united states, we are looking at approximately 250,000 businesses, they are involved

with barter networks. and, they are doing about 11 billion dollars a year in business transactions. >> and, i've got a lot of these web sites listed on my twitter page, too long to get to in the report go to twitter.com/laura ingle for more, back to you. >> jamie: thank you so much. >> rick: gambling is a big issue in one new york town, but we're not talk about high rollers. the town of balled winsville put a stop to low stakes gambling in kentwood senior center, twafrn crime the issue, the seniors were forced to end the 50 cent bridge gace and pinochle games and the mayor, joining us live on the phone and why do you have to get involved with this, mayor? >> it is unfortunate i had to. really, it is -- stem from the center itself, we had two groups of card players and one playing for money and one not playing for money and they, i guess, couldn't agree on the time and

place to -- i guess to play cards and complain was lodged with our director, senior center, and being a new employee and understanding how sensitive the issue was, she brought it to my attention, and i was forced to look at it. through a strict interpretation not only of the policy, but of new york state law. >> rick: i have a grandmother who likes to play low wage cards in south florida who would not be happy with this story. i think she's actually watching. are you going to be able to work out a deal, sir? >> well, we are trying to. i reached out to state legislators to see if in the -- we can change this. and allow for penny-ante gambling. >> rick: the mayor of baldwinsville, with a little problem on his hands and good luck working this out! and that's it for all of us her