. >> nothing much seems to have changed unr the obama administtion at guantanamo even thoh president bush's policies were strongly criticized by barack obama and hi supporters. they areeeping the trial system in pce. the trls are not actuly happening,ut they have been taking place todaynd hefaces the sa criticis from the detains. they say the sysm is not fair, ev ibarack obama makes anges as he ans to do. those cricisms will oe again be levelled at barack oma, en if the trials ttake place at guantamo. let's say at guantana or a u.s. mitary base on e mainland. there are still to under 29 detainees being hd. on 11 have been transferred in the last six months. -- there are still 229 dainees being hel that gives you an ideaf how diffict that is for barack obama. you get the sensehat th timeli of promising to close down guantanaby january will sl. it is a ve difficu promise to make that happen within six months. >> fr guantanamo bay. in the middl east,wo weeks sincthe americ forces pulled ouof bara's -- the rocky's towns and cities. --ira's towns and cities. normal life is still something

then, secretary ostate clinton beg side lined by the obama administtion? hind the hdlines: rape as a to of war in the demoatic republ of congo. [ ♪music ] >> bonnie: hlo, i'm bonnie erbÉ. lcome to " the contrary," a discuson of news and socia trends from verse perspectives. first. sotomayorreezes to confirmati. >>> judge sonia sotomayor's nominati to the u.s. supreme court seems to be sailing ward confirmationfter a week of relatively uventful senate judiciarcommittee hearings. the humdruweek led some to questionhether confirmation hearings are necessary any longer. even on controversl issues su as abortion a the right to privacy, e revealed little about her judial philosophy. her answers to questions o aboron seemed strikingly silar to thoseiven by chief justice jo roberts and justice sael alito during thei hearings judge sotomayor remained esive onther divisive issues le gun ghts and gay marriage, citing previous supremcourt ruling she d, however, clarify he controveial comment that a "wise latina" would reach a better conclusion than ahite male. >> it w

now the obama administtion wants to beef up sharehold input. the treasury sent congress legiation today that would let sharehders vote on executive pay. the votes uldn't be binding and they wouldn't pua dollar limits osalaries. t, the new rules would give compensation comttees more independence avoidg conflicts of intert with management. >> susie: google says it second-quarter earngs jumped 19% despite slowing ad ses. excluding its, google earned $5.36 a share sily beating wa street expectations. revenues rose 3% to $5.5 billion. it's slowest sales groh rate since e company went public. that drop is due to thoverall decline in snding on online advertising. but its sear engines are still going strong. two out of every three oine searches, ul, are done on google. >> paul: gooe shares closed up $4.43 to $442.62. but ter hours, they were down almost 3%. now let's ke a look at some stocks in the news tonight. @ >> susie: it looks le china's efforts to stimulate i economy are working. itaid today growth accelerated about 8% in the send quarter. the a

and i guess the queson comes to you, do youhink that the cnese are really convinced that th obama administtion will take sts to cut the deficit once our economy' finally back on its feet? >> well, that was certaiy the message fr sectary geithner and chairman bernanke. they both addressed this question slitly different ways. mr. geithner talkingbout reducinghe budget deficit. substtially by 20 or 2013 -- not 2010. b by 2012r 203. and mr. bernank spoke about the various so-called exit straty, whichasically means the duction of fedupport for lending and other financial activies in the u.s. economy. however as said, these are perspective ans. in some cases, they have to be approved by the congress whh may prove difficult. and the real probl for the chinese is that tey really don't have too much choice. if they didn'tbelieve these plans, what would they do? they could sell tir dolla now. that would precipitate what they're trying to avoidhich is a decli in the value the dollar. so kind ofaught twain rock and a hd place i would say. >>rade issues,hey were also on the tle. the americanhave been conce

>>behind the headlines: he obama administtion created the st of ambassador at large fo global women'ssues and named melae verveer ambassador. she is known for her eensive rolodex and lifelo commitment promoting women's rights. i inteiewed ambassador verve about her new job and the role women will play next month's electionin afghanistan. >> t obama administratn, the president in particular, andhe secretary of state, understand the portance of won's issues inmerica's foren policy and vand seized it to cree this position to demonstrate its elevated importance terms of advancing our goalfor decracy and prospeus onomies aroundhe globe. and in truth, we can't solve our major global challenges today, whether they be economior security or related to the environment governance, less all people isocieties are participating, andhat means won and m. >> bonnie: one of ambassador verveer's priority counies is afghanista earlr this year president mid karzai signed a bill tha would have permittedarital rape and would have barred women from leaving the house without eir husbands' permsion. it wasn'un

meantime, sun, the united stas isnxiously awaiting to hearomething back the overte that the obama administtion has made. e weikely to heaanything? and if we do, are we likely to like what we hear? >> i think at, to be honest, any journalistho predicts anything about iran right now uld be foolh. it very unstable, i thnk, as gideon said i ree that iran is in a tumultuous period. it's not that this rgime is going to mplodeut it may not be able to function. the factualism which is endemic to iran is even wors and i thin it's possible, you know, early signs we that the iranian regim before this election, was intrigued by the obma overtures. it wasn' clear they were gog to respond in way tatunit states would fd acceptable but they were interted. so the question is if they're able to so of pull together and paper over sme of these dierences, what wll the response be? gain, some people have suggestea posh compromise that would aow some measure of enrichment supervised by,ay the iaea. but it's unclea that iran will be fficiently organized to offer anything in t short term. >> right they're all trying t

that is not somethi is obama administtion has looked into enough. >> what about t argument that far as fundamentally changing e economy, the obama administration has lookedat green technology -- it doest create the tens or perhap hundreds of thousands of jobs that could fixhe economy. >> over time, belie, that investmes in green, our economyill pay off in jobs. i have to say to his point, it's not nest to suggest this is the only fix. barack obama and his ministration have done of things to lp the struggling econy. ll, suggest an alternative. bush was in office before and he inherited this mess. >> no, that'a really good point to make, but also,let's say if that if obama was really serious about fixing the economy, he obably wouldn't be pushing cap and trad talking about nationalizing heal care. he also woul't be talkin about passing th employee free choice if he was serious about oping thingsp to business and creating job -- >> j.p good int, buthe idea behind those programs is not enomic-related, butn any case -- >> it is ecomy -- >> i's a pleasureaving y both. we have me breaking ews

thenhere's the larger questio about their retionship with the obama administtion when it mes to thesessues of disclosure and transpancy and getting to the bottom of this illegal torture rege that we had for eight years. obama has not been happy t do that. congress makes noise and th they withdraw. so willhis be an impetus fo them to, you know, al saddle up invesgations of this and other prrams? we'll have tosee. >> well, especiallbecause if therwas an assassinationing that tice president was directing, that would be an eve clearer constutional violation than the torture pgram. i mean, there no grounds to fend that because th it's so clearly against what haseen writteas a result the church committee andso on. is there a possible mdle ground? >> well, you know, congres does eventually find middle ground, and sometimes weakens the principles that we're supposed to believe in. i think ittilleay. i think that this round of disclosurethough seems to have shked congress enough. i mean, u know, anna eschew said she was stunned by the program. they won't talk about it, but they're usingxtremelangua

why aren't peopleookingt bigger picture and thinking, under the obama administtion, there's reay onlythcare companies that are going to win, and yours is . you'reot promotional in your cas. that's part of yr problem. >> you kw me, i'm not a s gu >> you're no >> i actuall am. >> why is the focus on the next big generic and on cvs instead of how if the vernment tually pays attention toour outcom work, you will get a lot more business. >> you know, it's funny. i actually think e street does pay alot of attention to our clinic efforts. and we've gotten a lotf credit for iovation, and it'stied to our clic efforts. you know why ty don't talk about it. medco in the last two years has n over $16 billion worth of new me business. the proof is in the pding. you n either talk about the brandabl differences of medco, or you can look at the sales results. ey focus on theresults, just like you do on your . i do because, for instance, walmart moves init, and i only find out -- i think it w your d.h. blair, william blair conference that you are lower than lmart. your cts are lower than walmart. >> ab

coming just at the time when we as republicans were traction with some of r sue contsts with the obama administtion whether it's thr wasteful spending, massive increase of government governmentakeover of the heal care system. we were making real prress chalnging the administration on all of ese policies, and now this is into throw everything, at least for a day or two, everythingff track. >> now, todd -- gohe, steve. you want to jump in re? >> there's aually a rule that todd forgot to menti. that's don'treak the law. don't break the la >>e n't know about that. >> it's a rule that most -- >> wl, we do know about that, toddbecathis -- the $25,000 of severance mey which wasn't severance money, byhe y. serance money is what you give an employewhen you lay them f. it's not money you give your mistress to stayuiet, and the gift mon, the irs has a spific definition of what a gift is, and it ys tyou expect notngn return and you got no consideration in exchange. and whathese people clearly expected in return was silence they wanted to que a political scandal and it wasn't a gift, it was a payoff. was a brib

s and the big headline at least t there is that the obama administtion is no closer to investigation.where do we really stand here? >> well, it getsore and more interestin now we're gettingome ushback fr republicans and others about this secre program that everybody is talking about, and there is -- you know, as we're getting these detls we hear about tempts toet bin laden and his seni operatives and the folks in e intelligence community are sing, wait everybody we had authorization to dthis. we were trying dferent ways to get bin laden and didn't succeed, so the progm never rose to a level where whad to tell ady. if we actllhad him in our sights, were going t move on him, the yeah, with he he to notify congress, but we nev really got that clos so there ying, you know, it was a letimate program. we did what we re supposed to do, and what' all the fuss about? >> joby, i think for some peoplet me just say oneuss at leaste've heard in this hour of the show with myself and david is people are struck by the fact thatleon panetta did not learn about this program until june 23rd. he'd alread

moronibrand name by jumbo shrimp or virgin bnd condoms, jonathan turley on the tepid murmings fm the obama administtion about the torture investigation. th the sotomayor hearings. if the rublicans have anything damaging in disguiset is certainlto quote churchill, very effectively disguised. as sarah palinits atorming her own pay her ex-future soin-law with an overlooked bombshell. he hints she quit as govnor because she couldn't handle the pressure of doing the job. you're watching "countdown" on msnbc. >>> attorney generalric holder is serioly considering the apintment of a special prosecutor tlook at whether bush era detaineeser illegally torted. in our fourth story on "the countdow the headline comes with such huge caveats the opportunity might be squandere the decision could be soon about the same time the justice department completes an ethics report about bush administration officials who draftethe now discreditemos which auorized waterboarding and so-called enhanced terrogation. ich bris us to the caveats. any investigation into torre abuses woulde narrowly focused,imited to a small number of th

preconditionsnd they're rewriting it in very ig noble and in my view immoral image >> s is the obama administtionfting? is this an answer tohose who say, no, you have to do more because as youoint out the law would seem toimpell it? or is there some dication, perhaps, that mr. holder is stking out on his on and that there might in this be the ge of a hopeful signha this cod be broaden as time goes by rather thanarrowed or being nothin at ll? >> like a lot of civil rtarians i must admit i've grown re cical with time, th this administration. theyave tried so mitily to avoidny prosecuon or even investigation of war crimes that there is a lot of cynicism out there. i'm just not convinced. i think that attorney genel holder is finding it very har he's becoming almost a tragic, cocal figu like sergeant schultz saying, i see nothing, i see nothing, when every wk brin out compelling evidence of a war me. on topof thatwe had solers in harm' way. i tnk if the obama administration is preparing for what may come. what happens when one o our soldiers is waterboarded and al qaeda says, well, is interrogation.

how does that factor into the vision that president obama and his administtion h been talking abou inre looking for in res to their energy policy? >> mattw, do you have any insit on that? >> well, i do. i mean, you know, jay company is doing a vehicle thatcould fit into that project. the question ishether they'd able to desig vehicle that's affordable and wheth they'd be able to build enou of th over the long haul. >> do you have anyense to even stephen's pointr anybody has any -- jonathan, go ahead. >> t question for jays how much is thisar going to cost and what is e miles per gallon and all of the other things that people want to know about nowhen they're thinkingof buying a car? >> jonath, that's an awesome question it's a 50,000 car and 36 miles per gallonon the highway. weave the opportity to integrate electric power plant when the cost point comes down next two years and can mve to do that within a matter of months as opposed to a matter of year >> is there a market for a 5000 dollar car? i mean, it sms a little steep for the average americ. >> i think you need toook beyond wh

the world-- andhus it s a slip-- told president obama to speak negatively o putin on h way to moscow they gave him bad aice. >> rose: the administtion's titude, as much as you kno om all the people that y talk to in washingn, how they vied this and their attitude towards first russia second medvedev and third putin. >> i think that the administration understands that ssia is important. and i think tt the very fact that they're tking about needing to reset this relationship and that this trip ca ahead of a trip to china, for example, heartening. and i thi it shows that the know lot of wor needs to be done. ani do this that if anybody can listen to all of... all sides and all of the difrent things tha he ll hr and take it in and do somethingith it, it is probly barack obama. heill be good at listening t putin. he's going to see gorbachev, too and believe me, he's going t hear t same thing fm gorbachev. i think everything stephen i saying is right. we just have no... we have no idea in this country how many years russia has felteally abandoned by the united states. i will ner forgetjust watchingorbachev's face years ago at t malt summit

contrasts with the obama administrationwhether it's their wteful spending,assive increase of government, vernment takeover of the hethare system. were making real progress challenging the administtion on all of these policies and w this is going tothrow erhing, at least for a day or two, everytng off track. >> now, todd -- goahead, ste. you wanto jump in here? >> there's actually a ru that ddorgot tomention. that's don't breakhe law. don't break e law. >> we don't know about that. >> it'a rule that mos -- >> well, we do knowabout that, to, bee this -- t $25,000 of severance moneyhich wasn't severan money, by the way. severance money is what you ge anmployee when y lay them off. not money you ve your mistress to stay quie and the gift money, the irs has a specific definion of what a gift is, d it say that you expect thg in rern and you goto consideration in exchange. and what these ople clearly expected in return was silence. they wanted to quell a political scandal an it wasn't a ft, it was a payoff. it was a ibe, and it was illegal, and that's the one ing that they didthat's the most serious thi in my opinion. >> sve, i like th you're sitting back and relaxing and letting the publ