Yeah, "stimulus bill". More like let's print some

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"On the pinhead front, 16-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant. The sister of Britney says she is shocked. I bet. Now most teens are pinheads in some ways. But here the blame falls primarily on the parents of the girl, who obviously have little control over her or even over Britney Spears. Look at the way she behaves. And by the way, the mother, Lynne Spears, has reportedly already sold pictures of the upcoming baby of her 16-year-old for a million bucks. Incredible pinhead."

"Millions of families are dealing with teen pregnancy, and as long as society doesn't have to support the mother, father or baby, it is a personal matter. Some Americans will judge Governor Palin and her family, and she will have a hard time running for vice president if there is much more chaos. For the sake of her and her family, we hope things calm down. This country needs a vibrant policy debate, not a soap opera."

You stopped before he was finished, and you're sort of skipping what he was talking about. He was talking about how they are weathering the down cycle in finances, not what you are making it out to be.

I thought you were one of the people on this board that had some honesty and truth. Guess not.

Even on [finance] terms, we have never been a company that tolerates facts. So in times like these, we are better positioned to weather this cycle than our competitors. We also have consistently maintained a strong balance sheet, which today following our completion of the partial sale of NDS for approximately $4.5 billion in cash. Given our strong financial position, we have the reserves on hand to cover over seven years of upcoming debt repayments. And we intend to operate our businesses and balance sheet as conservative as usual.

It is important to point out that while our earnings are challenged and there are variables we cannot control, chief enough among them the weakening advertising market, we can control how we manage our businesses. I can tell you we are doing everything we possibly can strategically, operationally, and financially to position ourselves to emerge stronger when the economy returns to some semblance of normalcy.

One of the things about our company which I am most proud is this. We are never content to accept the status quo, to not challenge conventional assumptions, we challenge ourselves and coming up with new business models or new approaches. That is the reason why we revolutionized network television with FOX or cable news with Fox News. It is the reason the UK and Italy enjoy choice in TV that they do. Why the Wall Street Journal today, is the only newspaper in the country to be growing, where social networking is now a part of the cultural landscape.

We also are leaders in most every segment in which we operate, from cable television and pay TV, in newspapers and digital media, for the simple reason that we have not been afraid to take risks where others have flinched.

I mention this today not to chest beat or go up the scape. We are offering perspective on how we are approaching our business within this difficult environment. We are not sitting still waiting for things to change or to get better, but acting now when things are perhaps the bleakest. To strengthen our businesses, challenge our assumptions and come up with new approaches that will solidify our leadership positions into the future.

We are putting all of our established businesses through the usual rigorous, strategic reviews to see if old models can be revitalized or new models created. We are making judicious, highly targeted investments to ensure that our developing businesses continue to grow. We have some of the word's most recognized vibrant media franchises in the world today, and now is the time to strengthen these franchises.

We are also working to improve operating margins at all of our divisions by streamlining costs. And as always, we are intensely focused on market share and capturing an even larger share of the markets in which we operate.

So how are we, for example, making targeted investments to better improve our competitive position? Consider SKY Italia; the numbers for the quarter as Dave explained were down year over year. Some of this is timing, some is currency. But what may not be evident from the numbers is, how much stronger our competitive position is becoming from the steps we are taking today.

More significantly, we�re making investments that will both strengthen our relationship with our customers while ensuring we remain market leaders long into the future. For instance, we launched nine new channels in Italy during this quarter, thirteen in the past six months, invested in high-quality original entertainment programming, moved cable up to higher programming tiers and increased our penetration of premium services, the single best hedge against churn.

And this quarter's results actually reflect many growth and retention initiatives. But what�s most encouraging is, despite these investments, we�re still on track to reach 90% of our original subscriber target for the year and a higher level of profitability over last year's record numbers. We are adopting the same strategy at Dow Jones and our other news brands.

Over the past year, the Wall Street Journal has added new pages and launched a luxury magazine that has attracted 30 new advertisers for the franchise. We have also revamped our website, developed mobile application and upwardly revised our pricing policy. I should say strongly revising our pricing policy.

At the same time we realized more than $100 million in cost savings since acquiring Dow Jones last December and continue throughout the coming months. Today, the Wall Street Journal is the only major newspaper to grow its individual page circulation year-over-year, up 2.4%, while nearly every other newspaper in the country is experiencing declines.

And the most recent ABC reporting period, the Weekend Journal became the country's biggest selling weekend newspaper in individually paid sales, surpassing The Sunday New York Times for the first time, and the Wall Street Journal digital network, which includes WSJ.com, MarketWatch.com, BARRONS.com, AllThingsD.com has increased visitor traffic by 76% over the past year.

The same is true of Fox Interactive Media, where we have been investing and expanding MySpace into a global social portal, a destination that is as much about entertainment and life style as it is about social networking. We have launched MySpace music, which is off to a great start, with partnerships with a number of major and independent labels and high profile artists.

With MySpace video we are making deals with film and television producers for original content that will not only drive increased viewer engagement but also deliver enhanced sponsorship opportunities and revenue. And MySpace mobile is a great success story with new device applications now running on the iPhone and Blackberry in a popular website.

Despite a slight downturn in revenue this quarter let us not lose sight that for five years MySpace still leads the social networking category in the US and has become a substantial business that we believe will continue to grow.

Our cable television, our cable division is another leading example of judicious investment. We went from no subscribers to more than 400 million monthly subscribers in under 10 years. Because we launched properties wisely, gave them room to grow and capitalized on their success with new carriage deals. It is all in the US, I might say.

As an illustration, the Big Ten Network which we launched just over a year ago today is profitable and it is broadly distributed in Big Ten markets. And the Fox international channels, which no one even heard of a few years ago continues to expand globally and is becoming one of our fastest and most durable growth drivers. Of course the biggest success story is the Fox News Channel, which has been the number one cable news channel for 28 consecutive quarters and by a big margin.

And we continue to invest in quality movies because we know that in good times or in bad, people want to be entertained and will pay for the experience either in the theaters or at home. So while our quarterly film number is up sharply from last year, there are many reasons to be extremely optimistic about this segment for the rest of the year and beyond. First, we are emboldened by the success of our Christmas Light, particularly the strong performance of Molly and Me, and the Oscar nominated Slumdog Millionaire.

We absorbed their cost in the second quarter, and will now reap the benefits of their box office success. Going forward, we have three sequels to blockbuster films, which give us tremendous confidence; Ice Age 3, Night at the Museum 2, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

One of the reasons we are willing to make investments in our businesses and in quality content is that we have never bought into the pervasive fear that all is lost when the business hits a recession; that advertising is gone, never to return; that consumers won't pay for entertainment.

Sure, there is reason to be concerned that we are running our businesses to respond to their concern. Historically, every time we have seen a recession, mild or major, we have endured this panic and come out better. And every a time the economy rebounds, advertising comes back, usually stronger than before. I am not being flippant. I recognize that we may never return to record levels, but we do believe we can recapture a large percentage of the advertising that does return.

It�s why we continue to believe in newspapers and their brand extensions and television and film as mass media. Quite simply, as long as advertisers need to move product and fill brands, these industries will remain strong and the market leaders will be the strongest.

And when this recession ends, we will be better positioned than anyone else because we have been aggressively building market share in these businesses and we will make no compromise in that sector.

So just don't take my word, consider these facts. The Fox Network, it will win the Season�s for the 5th successive year on the strength of American Idol, which in its eighth season continues to dominate prime time and serve as an effective launch pad for new programs. In fact, American Idols rating exceeds its closest competitor by 69%, in adults 18 to 49.

Our station group, which is the number one U.S. station group in terms of market share. Sure, margins in this business have contracted drastically. Though we continue to best our competition by aggressively cutting costs and expanding into what makes these station franchises and the local news.

Today everything is on the table at the station group. We are looking at new revenue streams, we�re making inroads on the web and we are doing strategic news gathering partnerships.

We continue to gain market share in the newspaper business. Beyond gains of the Wall Street Journal, market share in the UK is up year-over-year with gains in The Sun, The Times, The Sunday Times and the News of the World. And we are also very lucky that the vast majority of our titles are not at all dependent on classified advertisements.

To put it in perspective, times may be tough right now but if our forecast is correct, we�ll make in excess of $3.5 billion of adjusted operating income this fiscal year. We also always have a strong balance sheet. We are working hard to build our franchises and we are the best run businesses in the media sector. This downturn will eventually end. And News Corporation will emerge better positioned, better capitalized, a better business than our peers.

BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "Personal Story" segment tonight, political humorist Bill Maher (search), he has a new book out called "New Rules: Polite Musings from a Timid Observer." Of course, Mr. Maher is about as polite as I am and as timid as Dracula. He joins us now from Los Angeles.

You know, you've had some celebrities on your HBO show, "Real Time," which begins again on Friday, talking about policy and war on terror and stuff like that. I get the feeling they don't know very much, but you do. So I'd like to make Bill Maher, right now, the terror czar. Bill Maher, the terror czar. Could be a series.

BILL MAHER, HOST, HBO'S "REAL TIME": I think the first and most important thing is to get the politics out of the War on Terror. You know, maybe I'm a cockeyed optimist, Bill, maybe I'm naive, but I thought that 9/11 was such a jarring event that nobody would dare return to business as usual on that one subject after that.

But of course, we found out that nothing could be further from the truth. And your president, my president too, but the one you voted for...

O'REILLY: You don't know that. Were you looking over my shoulder there? I could have voted for Nader. I could have voted for Kerry, but Kerry wouldn't come on the program, so I wouldn't vote. But I could have gone for Ralph. Ralph's a friend of mine.

MAHER: Yes. Anyway, I said the guy you voted for, President Bush, you know, how come this guy, who was supposed to be such a kick-and-take- names kind of guy, how come he has not been able to get the politics out of this?

You know, as a guy who's been accused of treason, I'll tell you what real treason is: Treason is when legislators vote against homeland security measures because it goes against the wishes of their political or financial backers. Treason is the fact that, as a terrorist, you could still buy a gun in this country because the NRA (search) lobby is so strong.

O'REILLY: OK. But you're getting into the political, and I agree with you. I think that the country should be united in trying to seek out and kill terrorists, who would kill us.

But I'd like to have some concrete things that you, Bill Maher, the terror czar � and take this seriously, this could be a series � what would you do?

All right, so you've got bin Laden. You've got Al Qaeda (search). You've got a bunch of other lower-level terrorist groups. What do you do to neutralize them?

MAHER: OK. Well, first of all, you discounted my answer, which is get the politics out, but OK.

MAHER: We'll let that go. Keep going. I wouldn't worry that much about bin Laden. I mean, capturing bin Laden at this point, it doesn't really matter whether he's dead or alive. He's already Tupac to the people who care about him and work for him. Capturing bin Laden, killing him would be like when Ray Kroc died, how much that affected McDonald's.

O'REILLY: It would be a morale booster. But I understand. You're not going to send...

MAHER: A morale booster, right. Well, we've had plenty of morale boosting. We've had plenty of window dressing. What we need is concrete action.

In the book I wrote before this one about terrorism, I suggested that we have a Secret Service for the people. I said whenever the president goes anywhere, he has very high-level, intelligent detectives who look around at a crowd. They know what they're looking for. They're highly paid. They're highly trained.

We don't have that in this country. We should have that. We should have a cadre of 10,000 highly trained people who would guard all public events, bus stations, train stations, airports � and stop with this nonsense that this robotic sort of window dressing...

O'REILLY: OK, so you would create a homeland security office that was basically a security firm for major targets and things like that. It's not a bad idea. Costs a lot of money. Costs a lot of money. It's not a bad idea.

MAHER: Costs a lot of money compared to what? If you paid 10,000 people a salary of $100,000 a year, that would, I think, cost $10 billion or something. That's nothing. There's that much pork in the transportation bill before you get...

O�REILLY: You would create a super-security apparatus. OK, that's not bad. That's not bad. How about overseas now?

MAHER: What we need to do is what I call get Israeli about this. Because the Israelis are not afraid of profiling. The Israelis are not afraid to bury politics in the greater cause of protecting their nation. We don't act that way. You know, I'm afraid 9/11 really changed nothing.

O'REILLY: Boy, your ACLU (search) pals aren't going to like that. You're going to lose your membership card there.

O'REILLY: Oh, sure you are, just like I voted for Bush. You're a member of the ACLU. I can see the card right in your pocket there.

MAHER: Bill, I'm not a joiner. I'm not a joiner. I don't like organizations.

O'REILLY: They won't have you, Maher, let's be honest about that. All right, now, in your book, which is very amusing, by the way � if you want a few laughs buy Maher's book.

O'REILLY: You take some shots at FOX News, which is your wont, and I just want to know why you think we're so fabulously successful here.

MAHER: Well, I think that question has been answered many times. It's because the conservative viewer in this country, or on radio the conservative listener, is very predictable. They like to hear what they like to hear. They like to hear it over and over again.

O'REILLY: All the surveys show that the viewers are all over the map. They're not conservative in a big bloc. Some of them are moderate. Some of them are Democrats. Some of them are Moroccans. I mean, they're everywhere. That's your analysis? That just the conservatives watch us?

MAHER: Well, I think mostly the conservatives do watch you. That's not to take anything away from what you guys have achieved over there. It's a very well-produced broadcast, and they have excellent personalities like yourself, Bill. Who could resist watching you when you get home from work at night?

O'REILLY: Anyone who doesn't watch here is misguided. We identify them as such.

But look, I think there's more to it than � you're in TV. You know the ratings game. I mean, if you don't provide a product that is satisfying people, no matter what your ideology, they tell you to take a hike.

There's a guy over at MSNBC. He's a very conservative guy. He was hired and nobody's watching him. They hire liberals. Nobody watches them. Air America (search). Nobody's listening to it.

I mean, there's got to be a reason why we're No. 1, a punch line for you, and No. 2, you know, becoming the most powerful news network in the world.

MAHER: Well, I think, as I say, it's a well-produced product. You know, your program moves along, always at a clip that never seems to bore. You know, you move along to the next topic, the next guest. It never sort of drags. I don't think a lot of people know how to produce that stuff that way.

O'REILLY: All right. It's bells and whistles and my charming personality. That's what I thought it was.

Last thing: You know, one thing I like about Maher is he's not a hypocrite. He drives a little hybrid vehicle. Right? You putter around there. Does it have training wheels? What's it like?

MAHER: Actually, I had the Prius hybrid for three years. I was one of the first ones to get it right after 9/11. And I traded it in a few months ago for the Lexus hybrid.

O'REILLY: I think we should all cut back on our energy consumption, and I think we should all get these hybrids as fast as we can.

Hey, Bill, always nice to see you. Thanks very much. Good luck with the season on the TV show.

Watch "The O'Reilly Factor" weeknights at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET and listen to the "Radio Factor!"

Content and Programming Copyright 2005 Fox News Network, L.L.C. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Transcription Copyright 2005 eMediaMillWorks, Inc. (f/k/a Federal Document Clearing House, Inc.), which takes sole responsibility for the accuracy of the transcription. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material except for the user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon Fox News Network, L.L.C.'s and eMediaMillWorks, Inc.'s copyrights or other proprietary rights or interests in the material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.

Then let's get out of there and let them control their government. Let's take off the *training wheels* (like Murtha has been saying) and let them learn to ride their *bike* while we observe from the periphery, there if they need us to *catch* them. As long as we are there doing it for them, they will never do it on their own. And by agreeing to amnesty, we're publicly telling the world that the lives of our soldiers aren't important, regardless of how you try to spin it.

And, yes, the media is eerily silent about this. The last article I read last week indicated that the Iraqi Prime Minister was AGAINST amnesty for anyone who kills an IRAQI but was in FAVOR of amnesty for anyone who kills AMERICANS. What a wonderful plan.

Do you have a link to an article or anything where he states that? I agree with you to some extent on that point. My only issue is that within the 6 months it takes to get a different bill ready to go kids in middle-income and lower-middle-income families with be spending another 1/2 year without health insurance, and what if the new bill gets held up for some reason - then it's just more waiting for something I think we should have had long ago - access to affordable heath insurance for America's kids. Poor people are already receiving free healthcare on Medicaid, obviously, but many middle-class children are slipping through the cracks. I just didn't see any articles where Bush said the illegal immigrants were part of the reason he was vetoing the bill. He always seems to be saying positive things about the hispanic community in generaly because he seems to want the hispanic vote (for his party).

I think all presidents are given too much power. Hundreds of representatives that we took the time and effort to vote for can have their bill vetoed by 1 guy with entirely too much power. A decent number of Republicans voted for the expansion to the SCHIP bill as well, and I definitely applaud their courage to go against their leader. If the plan is so seriously flawed, then why did those Republicans feel so passionate about voting for it and trying to talk the President into signing it? If the bill is allowing tons of immigrants onto it, then that is an issue, but aren't illegals getting hoards of free healthcare already just because they are poor? I don't want them to get free healthcare, but it seems like they are already, so is this issue really the best battleground to fight the illegals, or is this just a symptom of a far greater problem that needs to be dealt with on a greater scale? I just don't want the fact that illegals are sneaking onto the SCHIP program to be the only reason we don't pass the bill. If illegals receive a free hospital stay should we close down the whole hospital? Of course not. Maybe not the greatest analogy, but I think you get what I'm saying. If you do have a link to an article I would be happy to read it, as I want to know as much about this issue as possible.

let this Country down with his behavior. That doesn't mean I don't think he did good things for this Country. Certainly, he did not harm the Country like the present administration has. There are many reasons I don't think John McCain should be the next president. I believe that anyone who is going to cast their vote in November should find out the facts about both candidates and make an educated decision, taking everything into consideration. This is an important election. We are facing many serious problems and we need the best person in there to do the best he can.

this is all way over my head... anyone make any sense of it who is willing to share?

'did not have sexual intercourse with that woman....Ms. Lewinski" ? Still, it was some kind of sex, wasn't it?

And frankly, if you think sex can be done only the way the 'parts fit' um........ zzzzzzzzzzz

Hyperbole, anyone? Seriously, if the bill itself is 900 pages long, then how could the Republicans have added "thousands of pages of amendments" to it so it wouldn't pass? Unless you're talking Obama Math, of course....