Iraq, Midterm Politics, Iraq, Midterm Politics, Iraq, Midterm Politics...(Monday's Show)

Hi everybody. Did you enjoy your extra hour this weekend? We need to do that every weekend. Yes, I know, eventually we'll end up with daylight at three in the morning, but that's the price I'm willing to pay for extra time. We've got Anderson back and he's rocking the young republican tie. Also back is the annoying intro. Apparently what they're going to tell us about campaign contributions is "enough to give you heart burn." Oh my. I'm popping the antacids in sheer anticipation.

We begin with the news that CBS is reporting we might need an additional 100,000 more Iraqi security personnel to help get things stable in Iraq. Um, I thought the increased numbers of trained Iraqis weren't making any difference. I think the problem here is quality, not quantity. Jamie McIntrye and John Roberts (still in Iraq) join us live to elaborate on the topic. Jamie says that although US troops will need to train these new Iraqis it doesn't necessarily mean US forces will need to increase. A big problem with the Iraqi troops is that some of them are only loyal to certain areas. Remember when all those Iraqis ripped off their uniforms in protest over their assignment? Not good. John Roberts says that there are some cases where Iraqis take the lead, but they have a long way to go.

This intros us into a John Roberts piece where we learn there are complaints on both the US and Iraqi sides regarding how long it's taking to train these troops. Prime Minister Malaki is also complaining about the lack of weapons for the troops. The troops themselves are unhappy with their lack of pay, armor, and medical care. They're forced to go to civilian hospitals and apparently terrorists go there specifically looking for soldiers to kill. I can't even imagine what these guys go through. One of the major mistakes made was the disbanding of the Iraqi army, which is brought up by an Iraqi commander. Thanks Bremer. You did a heckuva job! After the piece John joins us live again to say that the US believes the Iraqi forces are getting better, but he's witnessed some eye rolling over their poor performance.

Transitioning now to a Bill Schneider piece that focuses on, what else, polls! The Poll Man informs us that democrats are more enthused about this election than republicans. You're dang right I'm enthused. I'm so enthused I even spent hours this weekend calling people to get out the vote. And I'm not really down with calling strangers, so that's saying something. Bill also talks about the fact that the Saddam verdict may come down right before the elections and could be an influencing factor. Before work this morning I caught some of American Morning and apparently people have been emailing Miles that Bush/Rove are going to fix it so the verdict happens on the eve of the election. Miles referred to the emailers as the "grassy knoll crowd," which both amused and offended me simultaneously. I don't know how likely that scenerio is, but I put nothing past these people. Nothing.

On now to a John King piece on a Kentucky race where Bush had been really popular in the district, but now the republican is running away from him. We've heard this before. Same story just different districts. Bush is toxic and the republicans will do anything to save themselves. We get it. Moving on now to a Candy Crowley piece regarding the abortion ban that's on the ballot in South Dakota. The interesting thing is that hardly any abortions take place in South Dakota anyway. There's only one clinic and that has to be staffed with doctors that are flown in because they can't get anyone in state to work there. If the ballot measure wins there will be a ripple effect that could go to the Supreme Court, but opponents are hopeful that the silent majority will come out and defeat the ban. For the life of me I will never understand this focus on banning. Abortions will still occur whether there's a ban or not. Why not focus on reduction instead?

After the piece we have Candy Crowley, John King, and Bill Schneider live and hey, Candy is in St. Louis and standing not far from where I just was yesterday. I wonder if she flew in today or yesterday. If yesterday, she got to see 500,000 St. Louisans in the streets. We're a baseball town, baby. Anyway the trio talk about how the republicans have more money and are more organized, but the democrats have more enthusiam and when it comes to enthusiam versus money, enthusiam wins. I'm not positive, but when everyone was talking I swear I saw Bill kind of raise his hand to make a point. That is too cute. However, that kind of politeness would get him squashed on Fox News.

Next up we have a Mary Snow piece on the Wolfbot's interview with Lynn Cheney about her lesbian book. Some background is probably required here. Okay, this all started when Virginia senator George Allen brought up the fact that his opponent, Jim Webb, wrote a book with some racy passages in it. Then during a news conference Webb brought up the fact that you could find lesbian love scenes in Cheney's book, "Sisters". I'm not exactly sure how it went down, but to me it looks like she was maybe already booked for the Wolfbot's show for her children's book and then the Wolfbot laid this stuff at her feet. Go Wolfbot! Cheney of course denies that her book has any lesbian love scenes because she has apparently forgotten that other people can read and actually check that out. And to their credit 360 has checked it out and guess what? She's a big liar. Of course you already knew that, didn't you? Also, for the record, Webb could have just as easily brought up Scooter Libby's book. We all remember this gem:

At age ten the madam put the child in a cage with a bear trained to couple with young girls so the girls would be frigid and not fall in love with their patrons. They fed her through the bars and aroused the bear with a stick when it seemed to lose interest.

And liberals are the perverted ones.

Transitioning now to a Barbara Starr piece, but first Anderson totally poses for us. He's working that new studio! In the piece we learn that an audit has uncovered 490,000 unaccounted for weapons that were suppose to go to Iraqi forces. Uh oh. You can pretty much guess where they are now. Sometimes I think they're actually screwing things up on purpose. As I've said before, either our leaders are evil or they're so incompetent that they're not even capable of flipping burgers at McDonalds. It doesn't matter what the truth is because either way we're pretty much screwed. This whole story reminds me of the big Al Qaqaa weapons cache controversy that broke right before the 2004 elections. It was a huge deal for those few days, but once the election was over, poof, down the memory hole it went.

On now to a Gary Tuchman piece on the little town of Bagdad, Arizona. Quite the name, huh? And yeah, it's basically the whole reason for this story. Not much here. Bagdad is a copper mining town that strongly supports the war and have sent a lot of their own. After the piece Anderson says, "that looks like a nice place to go." I'm sure it's a lovely town, but for some perspective, remember this is a guy who went to a genocide museum on vacation. Just saying.

Transitioning now to a Keeping Them Honest piece from Drew Griffin. Hey, are we done with keeping people related to Katrina honest? Because it's been a while. After the elections I'd like to see them go back. Anyway, this piece is about the exciting topic of campaign contributions. Apparently if you send a politician money they might use it to wine and dine people or even send it to a completely different politician that you might not like. Now I'm confused. Why is that stuff okay, but it wasn't okay for Harry Reid to use the money to give his doorman a tip? What's interesting is that even politicians running in practically unopposed races still raise the dough because money buys votes and access in Washington. Ahh, ain't politics grand? This is why we need clean elections.

Finally tonight, The Shot is a music video they found on youtube of Apache by The Shadows. And you're pretty much going to have to go to youtube and see if yourself because I've got nothing. It's...no, I have no words. Anderson is clearly amused and says he is reminded of Doug Henning. Erica has no idea who he is talking about and she shouldn't feel bad because neither do I. Anyway, he's having so much fun with this that he distracts himself and almost forgets to pimp the O'Brien twins. He also mentions he has a cold, which actually I didn't notice. Vitamin C drops, Anderson. They work, they're quick, and they taste good too. Feel better. Good show. B

Screencaps by bcfraggle and stillife.

Happy Halloween everybody! Anyone doing anything spooky? I have to say I'm probably going to find next Tuesday night much scarier than this one.