thank you so much as always ira epstein of the lynn group. online items china warns that u.s spending may be out of control...on our website...hear why experts say it's time for america to pay attention. plus, you ever wondered how a cell phone call goes through?... paul eggers takes you behind the scenes at a cell phone switching center...you can catch these stories and more on our website, firstbusinessx.com. and straight ahead on the show.... with the summer movie season almost over...can studios hold on to their yearly gains?...we'll find out when we talk to our movie industry analyst...after the break. with two-thirds of the summer movie season over could your reporter be the last blockbuster of the season? and can steal hold onto their gains david sikich is back with us to talk about these issues. welcome so its still alive but is the best over for the summer movies? the son of lease season isn't over obviously but the point on things start winding down of weeks gone six weeks ago and the movies are front loaded early in the season for

and for that, we are jined tonightrom washingn by keith epstein. he is investigator reporter or "businessweek" whe specialty is cber security. good to you havback. >> good toe here. >> how c we be sure that the north koreans are the ones behind these cybertacks? is. >> well, we can't know for sure, at least n fom the evidence thus so far presented that we have. the sout koreans, of course, blame pyongyang. the south koreans bla pygyang for a lot of things. we'll needee some idence. >> andow cncerned should we be that some of the websites tt were hit, i understand, include the u.s.reasury department, the secret svice, federalrade commission, and the transportationdepartment. they were all down, at least one time or another, during the july 4tholiday weekend. >> the truth is, martin, not very. these attacks appearo have een, barring some psentation new evidence, e old-style pranksterish, so-cled denl of servic attacks. in which can, in which e perpetrars, usually hackers, often in the pa teenagers, targetertain sysms and flood them. flood them with f

we are joined by julian epstein, former majority council for the house judiciary committee. great to have you with us today and good to see you, terry, let me start with you and ask what the feeling. >> chris: she said she wants a bigger platform, with a lot of the same issues. so, the question is, how does the g.o.p. feel about the fact that palin may remain as the leading spokesperson, for conservative values? >> well, you know, i felt that over the last few months, like she was really the leader of a state that was almost as far away as another country. and, it is tough to play both roles of national spokesperson, for a big part of the republican party, and, run a state that is so disconnected from the every day hustle and bussal of a -- bustle like a place like washington, d.c. and look forward to here joining in the national debate and, you know, the first couple of days after she was the announced vice presidential pick, she electrified the country, and electrified the republican party. and i hope she gets another chance to reintroduce herself, to the people of this co

and for that, we are joined tonight from washington by keith epstein.e is an investigative reporter for "businessweek" whose specialty is cybersecurity. good to you have back. >> good to be here. >> how can we be sure that the north koreans are the ones behind these cyberattacks? >> well, we can't know for sure, at least not from the evidence thus so f that we have. the south koreans, of course, blame pyongyang. the south koreans blame pyongyang for a lot of things. so we'll need see some evidence. >> and how concerned should we be that some of the websites that were hit, i understand, include the u.s. treasury department, the secret service, federal trade commission, and the transportation department. they were all down, at least one time or another, during the july 4th holiday weekend. >> the truth is, martin, not very. these attacks appear to have been, barring some presentation of new evidence, the old-style pranksterish, so-called denial of service attacks. in which -- in which the perpetrators, usually hackers, often in the past teenagers, target

mike soraghan and ed epstein, is this health care debate democrat versus democrat? >> i said that the republicans role is to play spoiler. it indicates that there are no republicans that they can pick off any considerable number. the democratic differences are so great. and some meaningful tort why did it -- why it is hard to pass this bill. >> the republicans are out there as, not as naysayers, but their view is completely different than the democrats. the democrats say that they want a bipartisan approach, especially in the senate, where the 160 votes. i think it is not really practical because their views about the basic nature of the government's role in health care remains different than the democrats. the democrats have to cobble this together on their on. and it is the president's number one priority. how can they let him fail. they did this before under bill clinton. bill clinton wrote his own plan and it never got even to first base in congress. this is the furthest along that they had been in a national health-insurance system since truman proposed it. >>

gene epstein has been economic editor and columnist barron's since 1993. he is the author of how to read between the lines when the media manipulates the number. thomas woods is the author of nine books including the church and the market, and the politically incorrect guide to american history. this event was part of freedom fest 2009 held in las vegas. for more information, visit

julian epstein, democratic strategist. joe watkins, republican strategist.nd steve muscles mullsberg, as well. watkins, start us off. it's over for obama, isn't it? >> it's chain you can believe in, but not change anybody likes. who likes bigger government? who likes a health care plan that's going to cost us $1.5 trillion that won't work? who likes all of the pork that we're about to see spent by congress that we're going to have to pay for? >> right. and nancy skinner, who likes higher taxes? do you like higher taxes, nancy? they're going to raise your taxes. >> come on, please. what honeymoon, dennis. there never was a honeymoon. traditionally that means the other party realizes they lost the election like when bush helped get us tax cuts. president obama did not get a single vote on the stimulus bill that is working. and i heard dennis, you said it's working. so there is no honeymoon. these polls, people are reacting to the economy. and the economy is slowly recovering, but it's not there yet and that's what we're seeing in the slippage in the numbers. >

here to ce off arejulian epstein, democratic sateg and former chf democratic council to the house judiciarymittee. alsoith us, ron christ our friend, repuican strategist anron is also a form special assistant to president bush, and rmer deputy assistant for mestic policy to vice priden chene ron, let's start with you. see more hirsch is alleging dick cheney wasrunning a secret program at essentially involved assassination teams. we don know obviously whether that's true orot or whether it's a wild thry. but i it is ue would you acknowledge that's flatly against the law? >> i think this whe situation from everything that we've heard over the course of the week -- >> ron, before u -- know where yore g. stes or no, if that was happening -- >> it is -- >> if they were running an assassinatn ring, you would ree that's against the law. >> i'm not eve going to answ that. to suggest the vice president of the united stes was running an assassinatioring is absurd its . it'sothe policy of the amican government to assassinate foreign leaders. the bush administriohas that. consistently follod the law. i

gene epstein has been the economics editor and a columnist for barron's since 1993.e's the author of econo spinning how to read between

brian: julian epstein says that we need a new round of stimulus.rad disagrees, former bush assistant. julianne, we have spent maybe 8% of this stimulus plan? why are there already calls for a second round? >> i agree that we have to try to speed that money out. that is the money, the infrastructure spending, we have gotten a lot to the states and unemployment benefits. i think that the reason is that the president has inherited the worst economic crisis since the great depression. there are signs of the economy getting better. the banking and financial sectors in particular. jobs reports are particularly disturbing. if we are worried about japanese-style deflation with wages going down, most mainstream economists have endorsed the short-term spending approach to stabilize the economy. >brian: how is giving money to states to fill budget gaps, mostly going to pay interest on debt that they go anyways, those may be things that they need, but is that disingenuous to college stimulus? >> ask brad that question. president bush did that in 2003. brian: t

julian epstein and alex johnson are here. al alex, let's bring you in on this.s how republican lawmakers are handle it. you have this video of a writer following some congressman who won't say, yes, the president deserves to be president, he was born in the united states. what do you make of this? >> well, i mean, look, i think most sensible minds are coming around on this issue, not even coming around, have the right position on this. look, barack hussein -- excuse me, barack obama -- >> did you deliberately do that? >> that was a mistake. i was thinking about his name and i was thinking he should have stuck with barry as he had -- >> what thank -- that is a repu thing to say. >> let's not get too wound oup. >> let's not get too wound up by an argument people are making that's perceived as racist, that the president is how a terrorist or -- >> and he should have kept his name? >> that was not my implication in any way. >> go ahead, julian. >> i don't know if we can let alex dig himself out of the mud here. i'm not quite sure what the meaning of that last statem

catch-22 so what you do, don't do anything, he epstein's which in my mind is an only time i have ever seen him abstain from anything which is kind of ironic. and dickinson of sense for that -- they both are opposed to independence so it is three to two. pennsylvania comes on born july 19th new york comes on board -- and never use the declaration of independence saying the unanimous declaration, that was not printed on july 4th because it was a unanimous, they didn't have a york. they were actually printed up on august 2nd so they could change the wording. see how technical and gets -- with the soaring its richer when you follow it in all these individual mod of actions and what people are really doing. check this out -- the next item after the declaration of independence is entered in the congressional journal on july july 4th, i don't have the exact words but it is about robert morris dealing with some as a charity from the supply and the soldiers and he is not even the moral one. he is not the man of the people of magoo shows you what -- so many stories i could go on forever. i real

. >> mike soraghan and ed epstein. >> thank you for having us. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] >> the health care bill will likely not seen in action soon in the senate. it is possible the house could consider a bill before leaving town for the summer recess. house democratic caucus chairman john morrison plans to hold a meeting tomorrow starting at 4:00 eastern -- john larsen plans to hold a meeting starting at 4:00 eastern. he said that the meeting will go as long as necessary to answer every question members have. >> how is c-span funded? >> publicly funded. >> donations, maybe. i have no idea. >> they get their funding for the taxes. >> federal funding. >> maybe, i don't know. >> how is c-span funded? america's cable companies created c-span as a public service, a private business initiative, no government mandate, no government money. >> "q&a" tonight. susan jacoby on the ongoing fascination on the trial of algar heiss. >> now, virginia governor and democratic n

. >> my nadine name is epstein. sad news the taco bell dog died. gidget. gidget, she had a stroke at the age of 15. that's pretty good. >> she had a good career. >> she had a good career. >> for awhile, everyone was saying that. >> hard of hearing, but so frank. come on. and she's -- >> you're not comparing frank to a chihuahua? >> my husband cooked dinner last night. we had a wonderful couple over. i don't know if you know doug morris and his wife monique. >> dropping names now. >> head of universal music group. but he is such a sports fan. so it was fun to see this guy who like, i talked to bono every day, you know, sort of excited to meet frank gifford. >> yeah. >> you a big sports fan? >> i'm a basketball fan, knick fan. >> you don't like frank gifford? >> i love frank gifford but i'm not that into football. i love your husband. >> you didn't play football? >> no, i was skinny. i was 100 pounds. i played basketball in college. >> what happened? >> 100 pounds ago. i went bad. but you know what? >> i heard the cra

here now, julian epstein and conservative radio talk show host, ben ferguson.now the rules, let's start the clock. julian, i'm going to start with you, you get 20 seconds second. less than 50% now. is he taking on too much? >> the last president, president bush the public didn't like, didn't like his philosophy, execution, thought the iraqi war was badly handled, katrina badly handled. now finally have a president engaged. the economy is starting to come back and concerns about the health care deal with process questions, poll people whether they want reform they want reform. >> ben ferguson, you get 20 second? >> people look at this health care bill and realize you are going to get subsidies out of this white house for families making $88,000, doesn't gut kut it talk to hillary clinton and said how did it go your first go-around with health care? not working and they can't afford it right now mainly. >> wow, that was 15 seconds. gonna cost too much money, julian, in the end cost too much money that is the argument. >> i'm not so sure but i think are some legit

bingaman, i want to make a unanimous consent consent request that jonathan ep scene, a professional -- epstein with the substantial energy, be granted floor privileges for the national authorization act of fiscal year -- through fiscal year 20 106789 3r50 without objection, so ordered. mr. menendez: with that, mr. president, i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call ththeclerk will. quorum call: quorum call: reid mr. president? i ask unanimous consent the call of the quorum be vitiated. i ask unanimous consent the call of the quorum be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. reid under an order of may 5 and under s. res. 18 i made a temporary appointment of sheldon whitehouse to serve on the "help" committee while retaining my authority to make a permanent appointment to the "help" committee. i now announce as of today, july 15, senator franken is appointed to serve on a permanent basis to the slot occupied by. mr. shelbybysheldon whitehouse. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. reid: mr. presiden

professor richard epstein at the university of chicago college of law called it only "wrong" and ill-thought-outut make i -- there's more. judge sotomayor has twice ruled that the second amendment is is not a fundamental right and does not protect americans from actions sphwaits and localities that prevent them from lawfully exercising their ability to bear arms. as with the ricci and dyden cases, judge sotomayor gave the losing parties short shrift and did not explain her analysis. in one case she disposed of the party's second amendment claim in a mere one-sentence foot footnote. in another case, argued before the supreme court in the district of columbia vs. hemmer she gave this cursecy treatment devoting only one paragraph in an unsigned opinion to this important issue which is unusu unusual, indeed, for a case of this significance. the losing parties in the cases might not have belonged to groups the president had if mine when he articulated empathy standard. they underscore the hazards of such a standard. they had important constitutional claims. they deserved to have their claims treated