More Iran, The Bush/Blair Relationship, Rumsfeld War Criminal Charges, Crazy Florida, Jobless Veterans, and War Rock (Tuesday's Second Hour)

Hello. The hour begins with a repeat of the Aneesh piece and then we move into an interview with "Jawbreaker" author Gary Berntsen in the studio. Gary thinks we shoulder be talking with Iran, but unfortunately we do not have overlapping interests with the country when it comes to Iraq. Iran wants the south of the country because there are a lot of religious sites there and the US obviously doesn't want to just hand over a chunk of Iraq.

Up next we have a John King piece on the breaking Bush/Blair bond. Blair seems to be moving away from the White House lately in that he wants to talk with Iran. I guess he feels he has nothing to lose. He'll be stepping down soon and he's already seen as Bush's poodle by a lot of his country. Sucks for him. After this piece we have repeat coverage of what happened in Iraq.

We then move on to a Brian Todd piece on the possibility of Rumsfeld being charged as a war criminal. Oh what a happy day that would be, but totally not going to happen. Basically what's occuring here is that Germany has sweeping criminal laws, so the group Center For Constitutional Rights wants the Germans to investigate Rumsfeld because they believe he is one of the architects of torture. The group actually tried this two years ago too, though back then there was basically no press in this country so the only place you most likely would have heard about it would have been blogs. Something that's different now is that Janice Karpinsky, one of the ones who took the fall for the torture, has agreed to testify against Rumsfeld. Interesting, but still, never going to happen.

To discuss this further we have Jeff Toobin and what does he think about the whole situation? "This is ridiculous!" Why don't you tell us how you really feel, Toobin? I'm mean, he's seriously bugging out here people. I think most CNN viewers probably know this charge is going nowhere, but I find it highly ironic that Toobin here is much more exasperated about discussing this than he was when it came to sensationalist coverage on John Mark Karr. These charges may not go anywhere, but it's a worthy topic to discuss. As they wrap up, John King snarks on Toobin, musing as to whether it is the first semester of law school that one learns the "ridiculous" section of law. I think it's the third semester, John, the third.

Next up we have a Susan Candiotti piece (I think if was her) and I actually had a distraction, so I didn't get to see the whole thing. The breakdown is that in Sarasota County, Florida there is a race that has to be recounted because the machines didn't catch all the votes. Voting machine problems? In Florida? I'm shocked. My sister is actually in Sarasota right now, but she's at school and still registered to vote in Missouri. Anyway, to make it all even more ironic, it's Katherine Harris's old seat that's up for grabs.

On now to a Dan Simon piece on the struggles some veterans are facing when they come home and try to enter the work force. Recruiters usually promise enlistees that the skills they learn in the military will help them land a job when they go home, but that's not happening. In fact, the unemployement rate for veterans between 20 and 24 years old is double what it is for nonveterans. Some of the problem is that this is the first time some of the veterans are getting a real job, but vawatchdog.org has actually found discrimination against veterans among employers due to fear of mental illness. That's messed up. You'd think the army would have some kind of great transition program, but I guess not.

Moving on to a Randy Kaye piece on Josh Hisle a soldier who uses music to deal with the war. Josh initially believed in the mission, but after going to Ramadi for his second tour, his views changed. Now he likes to rock out and sing songs that sound suspiciously anti-war, though he doesn't really call them that. Surprisingly his songs have been well received in the military and it's a good thing because he has three years left and could be called back. It's hard for me to judge his music by the snippets they play, but I think I'd probably listen to something like that. I like music that says something. Anyway, I'm kind of jealous of Josh because he got to jam with Neil Young. Too cool.

Lastly tonight they rerun the Chris Lawrence piece. Hey, remember when the other day I pondered as to whether the gang at 360 just sits around and watches youtube all day? Well today I read this on the 360 blog:

Starting today, we're going to bring The Shot to the 360 Blog. The Shot is a piece of video or image that catches our eye. It's not necessarily news, or even new; we just like it.

But with tranquilized bears falling from trees and other crazy videos out there, how do we ever choose a shot? If we find ourselves huddled around one person's desk watching something laughing, it has a good chance of making it on air.

They do just sit around and watch youtube all day! Bwah! Okay, I'm sure there's, like, news work going on and stuff too, but still.