Baghdad Shootout, Dems Get Moving, Iraq Surge Talk, Bush Sucks, Drew Griffin Updates, Medical Ethics, And Malibu Fires (Tuesday's First Hour)
We begin tonight with a CNN exclusive (!!!) of a Baghdad shootout and Arwa Damon was right in the middle of it. We learn in her piece that usually insurgents fire and then run away, but not this time. About 400 US and 500 Iraqi soldiers battled insurgents made up of Al Queda in Iraq and former Baathists for approximately 10 hours. 10 hours! And I thought these guys were suppose to be in their "last throes." There were no casualties, but it still doesn't bode well for us if the enemy is able to put up a fight for that long. Arwa talks to us after her piece, but there are major tech problems that include some creepy whispering. So then we move into a Suzanne Malveaux piece that covers the surge. Maliki is promising more Iraqi troops that will then take on Al-Sadr. Uh huh. Right. And then they're all going to plant flowers and sing "Kumbayah." We also learn that the plan will include a billion dollar jobs program. Funny how a lot of insurgents actually had jobs until Bremer got rid of them.
Transitioning now to a "Keeping Them Honest" piece from Joe Johns regarding the democrat's first 100 hours. They're even keeping track of how many hours it's been. Today the House democrats tackled passing the 9-11 Commission recommendations and they almost completely succeeded. The one thing that didn't get done is that Homeland Security is under a whole bunch of committees and this is a big chaotic problem. However, the democrats won't consolidate how many committees the agency is under because it would strip power from people. Typical. The republicans are criticizing this, but, uh, guys you didn't fix it either. One awesome thing is that they passed a provision to have all cargo checked at our ports. Senator Warner is all annoyed at this because he thinks it's too costly to look in every container. Yeah well, the war is pretty damn costly too senator, but I thought we invaded to make us safe (well that was the first reason anyway). All they ever do is shriek about security and "remember 9-11", but the minute someone tries to actually improve homeland security they're all "OMG, it will hurt the economy!" And they wonder why no one believes them anymore. Anyway, great piece. I love me some Joe Johns.
Next up we've got a discussion with two political strategists: Paul Begala (dem) and Anna Perez (rep). Paul is surprised at how hard-headed Bush is being on Iraq. Oh how I love it when the dem strategists are retarded. Is he kidding? Although to be upfront, I really don't like any strategists, regardless of party. Anna doesn't think Bush is worrying about his legacy. Okay then, what is he worrying about? Because it sure isn't the bloodshed. She then goes on to criticize the democrats for not having an Iraq plan. Oh Anna, that's like five talking points ago. You better step up. Paul rightly points out that though the democrats actually do have plans, it's Bush's war and Bush's war to fix. He also mentions that these 20,000 troops for the surge aren't even new troops; they're troops that will have to stay later or come back early. Anderson asks if this whole surge thing is not a complete repudiation of Bush's entire Iraq policy. Oooh, good question. Anna spouts some spin and then says she doesn't care. I'm not kidding. She literally said, "I don't care." Anderson then gets a teeny bit of outrage on and basically states that a lot of people will care because it goes to credibility. Gold star for you Anderson. Good job. As they're going out Anna says, "Thank you. Good to talk to you." Suck up.
Moving on now to a Candy Crowley piece on how Bush just continues to get more and more sucktastic. There are charts and everything. Back after the invasion the majority of Americans were behind the preznut, but now he only has a 28% approval rating on the war because each year every theory of success has been disproven. I myself have never changed. It's nice to have everyone finally join me, but it would have been nicer if that happened about 3,000 troops ago. During this piece they mention how it's Bush's "last shot." I keep hearing this. What the hell do they mean? The last shot for his legacy? Who cares? It's not the last shot for the war because we all know they're not going to just up and leave if this doesn't work.
Transitioning now to some psychology from Tom Foreman. Okay, not from him-it's his piece. Tom brings up how most people were so quick to discount General Shenseki when it came to troop strength before the war and instead believe those who said we didn't need that many. To answer the question of why, he talks with psychology professor Daniel Kahneman who has a paper out that isn't specifically about Iraq, but definitely relates. Daniel has found that it is human nature to think that your side will always win and that you are better than others. Anderson thinks this is interesting and since I'm a former psychology student, I do too. I'm a realist, so I don't exactly fit into the hypothesis, but I know most people do. One of the major things I've learned over the past few years is that people want good news, even if it's a lie. The country hated the straight scoop from Carter; instead we wanted Reagan to tell us it was "morning in American," even if he did lie to us. Like I said, I don't fit in this. I want the God awful truth because at least it's true.
On now to another Drew Griffin update on the criminals getting pensions. I love how they're keeping on this, though the fact that their inbox is apparently overloaded with outrage probably has something to do with it. The other day we learned that Mark Kirk tried to get a bill through and now we're told that he had 21 felonies on the bill that would revoke the pension and this got cut down to...three. You can't see me, but I'm rolling my eyes right now. This bill then actually passed the House...and promptly died in the Senate. A Kerry bill got pushed to committee and didn't even get a vote. With this 360 coverage, Congress is now making more noise about this topic, but Melanie Sloan of CREW (who is awesome, BTW) says it won't happen. Don't burst my bubble, Melanie. After the piece we get Drew live and Anderson wants to know who killed the bill. He wants names, damnit! Drew explains how Congress is so screwed up that when a bill like this comes up, no one will touch it, so it just eventually dies with no murdering fingerprints. Contact your reps, people! Get them to co-sponser.
Big transition now to an Elizabeth Cohen piece on a family that has intentionally stunted their daughter's growth. The girl is nine and has the brain of an infant. She's unable to even hold her head up. The family has decided that it will be more comfortable for her to live her life as a small girl and an ethics panel agreed. Her breast buds and uterus have been removed and she was put on estrogen therapy. After the piece we get Sanjay Gupta in a taped interview to talk about the ethics and medical issues. Sanjay brings up how this is a very slippery slope and I have to completely agree with that. I don't know how I feel about the whole thing really. It kind of makes me sick, but then again, maybe this will be best for the girl. However, you have to wonder, if this is okay, where exactly do we draw the line? Another thing that bugs me is that her breasts were apparently removed to make her more transportable. That's not for her benefit then; it's for her caretakers and that's not right. The whole thing is so murky.
Next up we have a Thelma Gutierrez piece on the Malibu fire and Thelma lists all the celebrity homes in the area. However, only Suzanne Somers' house bought the big one. Aw, it couldn't have been Mel Gibson's? Yeah, that was mean. I accept your scorn. Suzanne actually watched her house burn on tv, which must have totally sucked. She's keeping it in perspective though, so good for her. The Shot tonight is Senator Sherrod Brown doing 55 pushups because he lost a bet on that football game from yesterday. Dude, get to work! Sheesh. Despite Oprah taking over some of next hour, it was a really good show tonight. There was a little bit of everything and I'm loving Drew Griffin's investigation. A-
What did you think of Tom's piece? Do you fit in that hypothesis? What's your take on intentionally stunting that little girl?
Transitioning now to a "Keeping Them Honest" piece from Joe Johns regarding the democrat's first 100 hours. They're even keeping track of how many hours it's been. Today the House democrats tackled passing the 9-11 Commission recommendations and they almost completely succeeded. The one thing that didn't get done is that Homeland Security is under a whole bunch of committees and this is a big chaotic problem. However, the democrats won't consolidate how many committees the agency is under because it would strip power from people. Typical. The republicans are criticizing this, but, uh, guys you didn't fix it either. One awesome thing is that they passed a provision to have all cargo checked at our ports. Senator Warner is all annoyed at this because he thinks it's too costly to look in every container. Yeah well, the war is pretty damn costly too senator, but I thought we invaded to make us safe (well that was the first reason anyway). All they ever do is shriek about security and "remember 9-11", but the minute someone tries to actually improve homeland security they're all "OMG, it will hurt the economy!" And they wonder why no one believes them anymore. Anyway, great piece. I love me some Joe Johns.
Next up we've got a discussion with two political strategists: Paul Begala (dem) and Anna Perez (rep). Paul is surprised at how hard-headed Bush is being on Iraq. Oh how I love it when the dem strategists are retarded. Is he kidding? Although to be upfront, I really don't like any strategists, regardless of party. Anna doesn't think Bush is worrying about his legacy. Okay then, what is he worrying about? Because it sure isn't the bloodshed. She then goes on to criticize the democrats for not having an Iraq plan. Oh Anna, that's like five talking points ago. You better step up. Paul rightly points out that though the democrats actually do have plans, it's Bush's war and Bush's war to fix. He also mentions that these 20,000 troops for the surge aren't even new troops; they're troops that will have to stay later or come back early. Anderson asks if this whole surge thing is not a complete repudiation of Bush's entire Iraq policy. Oooh, good question. Anna spouts some spin and then says she doesn't care. I'm not kidding. She literally said, "I don't care." Anderson then gets a teeny bit of outrage on and basically states that a lot of people will care because it goes to credibility. Gold star for you Anderson. Good job. As they're going out Anna says, "Thank you. Good to talk to you." Suck up.
Moving on now to a Candy Crowley piece on how Bush just continues to get more and more sucktastic. There are charts and everything. Back after the invasion the majority of Americans were behind the preznut, but now he only has a 28% approval rating on the war because each year every theory of success has been disproven. I myself have never changed. It's nice to have everyone finally join me, but it would have been nicer if that happened about 3,000 troops ago. During this piece they mention how it's Bush's "last shot." I keep hearing this. What the hell do they mean? The last shot for his legacy? Who cares? It's not the last shot for the war because we all know they're not going to just up and leave if this doesn't work.
Transitioning now to some psychology from Tom Foreman. Okay, not from him-it's his piece. Tom brings up how most people were so quick to discount General Shenseki when it came to troop strength before the war and instead believe those who said we didn't need that many. To answer the question of why, he talks with psychology professor Daniel Kahneman who has a paper out that isn't specifically about Iraq, but definitely relates. Daniel has found that it is human nature to think that your side will always win and that you are better than others. Anderson thinks this is interesting and since I'm a former psychology student, I do too. I'm a realist, so I don't exactly fit into the hypothesis, but I know most people do. One of the major things I've learned over the past few years is that people want good news, even if it's a lie. The country hated the straight scoop from Carter; instead we wanted Reagan to tell us it was "morning in American," even if he did lie to us. Like I said, I don't fit in this. I want the God awful truth because at least it's true.
On now to another Drew Griffin update on the criminals getting pensions. I love how they're keeping on this, though the fact that their inbox is apparently overloaded with outrage probably has something to do with it. The other day we learned that Mark Kirk tried to get a bill through and now we're told that he had 21 felonies on the bill that would revoke the pension and this got cut down to...three. You can't see me, but I'm rolling my eyes right now. This bill then actually passed the House...and promptly died in the Senate. A Kerry bill got pushed to committee and didn't even get a vote. With this 360 coverage, Congress is now making more noise about this topic, but Melanie Sloan of CREW (who is awesome, BTW) says it won't happen. Don't burst my bubble, Melanie. After the piece we get Drew live and Anderson wants to know who killed the bill. He wants names, damnit! Drew explains how Congress is so screwed up that when a bill like this comes up, no one will touch it, so it just eventually dies with no murdering fingerprints. Contact your reps, people! Get them to co-sponser.
Big transition now to an Elizabeth Cohen piece on a family that has intentionally stunted their daughter's growth. The girl is nine and has the brain of an infant. She's unable to even hold her head up. The family has decided that it will be more comfortable for her to live her life as a small girl and an ethics panel agreed. Her breast buds and uterus have been removed and she was put on estrogen therapy. After the piece we get Sanjay Gupta in a taped interview to talk about the ethics and medical issues. Sanjay brings up how this is a very slippery slope and I have to completely agree with that. I don't know how I feel about the whole thing really. It kind of makes me sick, but then again, maybe this will be best for the girl. However, you have to wonder, if this is okay, where exactly do we draw the line? Another thing that bugs me is that her breasts were apparently removed to make her more transportable. That's not for her benefit then; it's for her caretakers and that's not right. The whole thing is so murky.
Next up we have a Thelma Gutierrez piece on the Malibu fire and Thelma lists all the celebrity homes in the area. However, only Suzanne Somers' house bought the big one. Aw, it couldn't have been Mel Gibson's? Yeah, that was mean. I accept your scorn. Suzanne actually watched her house burn on tv, which must have totally sucked. She's keeping it in perspective though, so good for her. The Shot tonight is Senator Sherrod Brown doing 55 pushups because he lost a bet on that football game from yesterday. Dude, get to work! Sheesh. Despite Oprah taking over some of next hour, it was a really good show tonight. There was a little bit of everything and I'm loving Drew Griffin's investigation. A-
What did you think of Tom's piece? Do you fit in that hypothesis? What's your take on intentionally stunting that little girl?
posted by eliza at 12:51 AM
4 Comments:
I enjoyed Tom's piece but I'm afraid I have to classify myself as an ex-hawk, the reason being:
Three years ago I drove through a red light, totalled my car and found out later I was driving uninsured. Oh well I always did like doves...lol
BTW nobody was hurt and I haven't driven a car since.
OMG that thing with the little girl is sort of sick, but I remember that I don't know the whole story. We're only seeing what's being presented. But what's presented looks pretty awful!
Remember 9-11, yeah? Okay. Well, there is tons of extra security being tossed everywhere (like NJ, where I had to show 6 points of ID to get my driver's license). This woman was screaming in there "do I look like an effing terrorist!?" because they wouldn't give her a license renewal, due to her passport having her middle name on it and her license NOT having it. Well, guess what. Lots of terrorists don't LOOK like terrorists, now do they? (Of course, lots of them do....) Anyhow. First 100 hours... and apparently they were watching football. Whatever.
@anonymous-Wow, I guess you thought you could do no wrong, huh? I probably have a little bit of hawk in me, but mostly I've always understood that everyone thinks they're special but if everyone was actually special, no one would be.
@sharla-I understand the passport thing, but I think it's ridiculous that we have to take our shoes off at the airport yet they don't check all the cargo. It just seems like some of the security provisions are just window dressing, while they don't do things that would actually make us safe because they think they would cost too much.
It was disturbing to hear about the 10 hour insurgent battle. The situation in Iraq is certainly not improving no matter how they try to spin it. I heard that creepy whispering too, it kind of sounded like AC, but someone was saying "cut the video" and it was cut.
Anna Perez's "I don't care" remark was infuriating and I'm glad AC called her on it.
I hope the plan to cut off the pensions of the criminal Congress folk won't die, it's good that 360 has been focusing on it.
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