Politics, An American Wrongly Detained In Iraq, More OJ (Seriously?), and Scary Laughing (Thursday's Second Hour)
Hi everyone. We begin the second hour with a repeat of the horrible Dana Bash piece. After it's over Anderson mentions that whether it's fair or not, Republicans don't have a reputation for infighting like the democrats. No, it's not fair, Anderson. Maybe you could do something about that perception. We then move on to a Candy Crowley piece about McCain pandering to conservatives. He's just given a speech in which he mentions Reagan 10 times and Bush not at all, though he does make sure to make negative references to to him. Interesting. Even though this piece was kind of negative, I still have to ask where the piece is on a democratic 2008 hopeful? Maybe it's just because no democrat has done anything official towards running yet. I guess I could understand that then. See, I can be reasonable.
On now to a Bill Schneider piece that does actually cover both parties. Bill decided to flip things around and find out which politician the parties most fear. The republicans most fear Barack Obama and the democrats most fear Rudy Giuliani. That might be a pretty good race. And neither one of them is crazy. So big plus there. Other contenders mentioned include McCain, Edwards, and Romney.
To discuss this further, joining us we have republican strategist Anna Perez and Jennifer Palmieri of the Center for American Progress. Anna thinks Hillary can't win, but she would give the republicans a really good run for their money. Jennifer is unsure if Obama will run because he's cautious and you really need a fire in your belly to go for the presidency. Anna thinks Obama is great, though probably wouldn't vote for him. Interestingly, Anna believes Giuliani is a one note candidate and she wants to know what he's done lately. Good question. According to Jennifer, McCain seems to be the candidate the democrats fear, though she stresses that 2008 is a long time away. Yes it is. We could start another war or lose another American city before that election rolls around.
Next we have a repeat of the Rick Sanchez piece and then we move onto a Randy Kaye piece on Cyrus Kar, an Iranian American who was detained in Iraq at Abu Ghraib prison for 55 days. Cyrus was in Iraq to do a documentary that had nothing to do with the war. One day his taxi was stopped at a checkpoint and forces found washing machine timers, which are often used in bomb making. Later the driver confessed that they were his, but at the time Cyrus was accused and taken away. He showed his passport and veteran card to no avail. Eventually he was proclaimed innocent and released, but not until after undergoing what he claims was abuse at the hands of his US captors. Now he is sueing Rumsfeld and others. I'd like to believe this guy is lying and I'd like to be able to say I haven't heard this kind of thing before. But I can't. I know the terrorists are trained to say they were abused/tortured, but this man is not a terrorist. He's an innocent American and this never should have happened.
Transitioning now to a repeat of the Ted Rollins piece and then we have Jeff Toobin and Lisa
Bloom again for more OJ talk. Like last hour, Toobin again goes after Murdoch, Fox, and Harper Collins. He's really disturbed about the corporate complicity going on here and he thinks it really says something about their corporate values. It's all about the mighty dollar, Toobin. He also thinks Judith Regan is crazy and muses about bringing in a CNN psychiatric analyst. Do they have one of those? I guess they'd just get Sanjay. He knows everything! Anyway, listening to Toobin I can't help but crack up because I have never seen him like this. A written recap really doesn't do it justice. Anderson mentions that he's getting emails from people that are angry they're even talking about OJ at all since it gives the book/special publicity. It wasn't me this time, I swear! Anderson's reasoning for the coverage is that people should be informed before they buy or watch. Okay, but we could have been informed with just the facts in a three minute piece. How do you explain all the rest of this? I mean, you had people call in for crying out loud. Lisa doesn't think they have to apologize because it's a legitimate news story. Uh, maybe on your network. You're not on Court TV right now Lisa, you're on CNN. I really, really hope that this is it for the OJ coverage.
Up next we have a Sanjay Gupta piece on laughter yoga, which is basically just people forming
clubs and laughing together. Laughing can actually do all kinds of good things like decrease stress hormones and boost the immune system. I completely agree that sometimes laughter is the best medicine. Whenever I'm in a lot of pain I'll usually try to laugh about it because it does work a little. However I never laugh like the people in this footage. Freaky. Anderson agrees, calling it the "scary footage of people laughing."
Finally tonight we have another preview clip from the Friday night special. I'll be blogging the special later this weekend and will be including several great Katrina related links, so stay tuned.
Screencaps by stormi0611.
Do you believe Cyrus Kar?
On now to a Bill Schneider piece that does actually cover both parties. Bill decided to flip things around and find out which politician the parties most fear. The republicans most fear Barack Obama and the democrats most fear Rudy Giuliani. That might be a pretty good race. And neither one of them is crazy. So big plus there. Other contenders mentioned include McCain, Edwards, and Romney.
To discuss this further, joining us we have republican strategist Anna Perez and Jennifer Palmieri of the Center for American Progress. Anna thinks Hillary can't win, but she would give the republicans a really good run for their money. Jennifer is unsure if Obama will run because he's cautious and you really need a fire in your belly to go for the presidency. Anna thinks Obama is great, though probably wouldn't vote for him. Interestingly, Anna believes Giuliani is a one note candidate and she wants to know what he's done lately. Good question. According to Jennifer, McCain seems to be the candidate the democrats fear, though she stresses that 2008 is a long time away. Yes it is. We could start another war or lose another American city before that election rolls around.
Next we have a repeat of the Rick Sanchez piece and then we move onto a Randy Kaye piece on Cyrus Kar, an Iranian American who was detained in Iraq at Abu Ghraib prison for 55 days. Cyrus was in Iraq to do a documentary that had nothing to do with the war. One day his taxi was stopped at a checkpoint and forces found washing machine timers, which are often used in bomb making. Later the driver confessed that they were his, but at the time Cyrus was accused and taken away. He showed his passport and veteran card to no avail. Eventually he was proclaimed innocent and released, but not until after undergoing what he claims was abuse at the hands of his US captors. Now he is sueing Rumsfeld and others. I'd like to believe this guy is lying and I'd like to be able to say I haven't heard this kind of thing before. But I can't. I know the terrorists are trained to say they were abused/tortured, but this man is not a terrorist. He's an innocent American and this never should have happened.
Transitioning now to a repeat of the Ted Rollins piece and then we have Jeff Toobin and Lisa
Bloom again for more OJ talk. Like last hour, Toobin again goes after Murdoch, Fox, and Harper Collins. He's really disturbed about the corporate complicity going on here and he thinks it really says something about their corporate values. It's all about the mighty dollar, Toobin. He also thinks Judith Regan is crazy and muses about bringing in a CNN psychiatric analyst. Do they have one of those? I guess they'd just get Sanjay. He knows everything! Anyway, listening to Toobin I can't help but crack up because I have never seen him like this. A written recap really doesn't do it justice. Anderson mentions that he's getting emails from people that are angry they're even talking about OJ at all since it gives the book/special publicity. It wasn't me this time, I swear! Anderson's reasoning for the coverage is that people should be informed before they buy or watch. Okay, but we could have been informed with just the facts in a three minute piece. How do you explain all the rest of this? I mean, you had people call in for crying out loud. Lisa doesn't think they have to apologize because it's a legitimate news story. Uh, maybe on your network. You're not on Court TV right now Lisa, you're on CNN. I really, really hope that this is it for the OJ coverage.Up next we have a Sanjay Gupta piece on laughter yoga, which is basically just people forming
clubs and laughing together. Laughing can actually do all kinds of good things like decrease stress hormones and boost the immune system. I completely agree that sometimes laughter is the best medicine. Whenever I'm in a lot of pain I'll usually try to laugh about it because it does work a little. However I never laugh like the people in this footage. Freaky. Anderson agrees, calling it the "scary footage of people laughing."Finally tonight we have another preview clip from the Friday night special. I'll be blogging the special later this weekend and will be including several great Katrina related links, so stay tuned.
Screencaps by stormi0611.
Do you believe Cyrus Kar?
posted by eliza at 3:38 AM
5 Comments:
I do believe Cyrus Kar. I think what happened to him is a travesty, but he's not the only person to have suffered at the hands of the US government. Unfortunately the government recently decided those imprisoned at Guantanamo have no rights.
And yet we have gang members in our supermax prison who are able to run their drug empires from their cells because the government won't spend the money to monitor prisoner phone calls all the time.
Bush is like poison now, most Republicans are backing away from him, which is no surprise, but still, too little, too late.
I enjoyed the discussion with Perez/Palmieri and I agree with Anna Perez about Giuliani, he can't coast on his 9-11 laurels forever.
Unfortunately, Cyrus Kar's story sounds completely believable. I thought I saw a story, maybe on 360, about an innocent Canadian man who was also detained unjustly, accused of being a terrorist. This sort of thing seems to be happening a lot under the current administration's policies.
Jeff Toobin was really worked up over the OJ/Judith Regan situation, I loved how he kept saying that Regan's rationalizations were "deranged". Lisa Bloom is annoying if anyone needs to do some apologizing, it's her for inflicting her grating voice and unpleasant personality on 360's viewers. I wish AC would leave her to CourtTV.
The laughter therapy is supposed to work even if you're not laughing at anything in particular, but it seems like it's more therapeutic when your laughter is genuine and not forced. Ah, who knows?
midnite,
you're right. This Syrian/Canadian guy had to change fights in the States , post 911. The American government suspected him to be a terrorist and sent him back to Syria where he was tortured. After endless pressure by the Canadian government he was released. Turns out he has absolutely no terror links. Shameful really.
Not only is Cyrus's story true but there are so many sad details that were left out of the CNN story. First of all, the washing machine timers that could be used for IEDs were found in the TRUNK of the cab. Who searches the trunk of a cab before getting in? No one I know. Also,the cab driver admitted in his first interrogation that they were his (claimed they were for his relatives repair shop). Cyrus passed a lie detector test in his first week held and the FBI was telling his family in Los Angeles he had been cleared many weeks before he was released. In fact the ONLY reason he was released after 55 days was because his family sued for his release. He was released the day before Justice Dept. attorneys were required to appear in court to explain why he was being held. If it wasn't for that who knows if they would have ever released him! If you're interested you can see the lawsuit filed by his family for his release here: http://www.aclu.org/FilesPDFs/cyrus%20kar%20habeas%20petition%20&%20%20exhibits.pdf
So it looks like everyone is pretty much in agreement that Cyrus Kar is telling the truth. A Canadian has also been mentioned, but I think I'm remembering an Austrailian that also went through something similar. Anybody know?
@anonymous 10:47-Sadly, you are correct. I've come across many Americans who actually think the people of Iran are arab. And yes, I believe the UCLA student was Iranian American. Please know that some of us in the US are just as disgusted by our government as you are.
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