Friday, January 12, 2007

Condi Gets Bashed, Selling The Surge, A Violence Spike In New Orleans, Drew Griffin Updates On Pensions, And A Stem Cell Vote (Thursday's First Hour)

Hello everyone. We're live from the Ninth Ward in New Orleans tonight and I am so excited that they're back. It's been way too long. Anderson starts the show by giving us a mini tour around his live shot area and pointing out the devastation. Usually I'd be giggling over how he always has to touch everything, but all I can think is that it's been over a year and it looks the same. WTF? WTF? WTF? Sorry. But...WTF? There's not even a word for this. Oh wait, yes there is: unacceptable. And we call ourselves the greatest country on the planet? I...I honestly don't have anything to say. What can you say?

On to a Dana Bash piece that recaps Condi Rice's no good very bad day. She addressed Congress today and in the process got verbally bitchslapped up and down over Iraq by members from both parties. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee that she spoke with has 21 members and not one supports the surge. Tough room. However, things were a little better for her in the House, but just a little. We then move to a John King piece on Bush's lonely road to sell the war and surge. It is noted that he ignores everyone and this could eventually result in a constitutional crisis. Following his piece John joins us live and Anderson wants to know if there is a plan B. John gives some theories, but notes that most think if this doesn't work he'll just try again. That sounds about right. He totals the car, but still continues to try to drive through that brick wall. Then Anderson asks if we know exactly when they discovered things weren't working. John tells us that they say it was a cumulative process, but they were keeping it to themselves. Then once they lost Congress it didn't matter anymore to keep it secret. Okay, WTF? If that's true then they just let people die on purpose. That's criminal. That's evil. God I wish someday these people would be held accountable. But they won't be. Not on this earth anyway.

Transitioning now to an Anderson piece about the march on City Hall in New Orleans. Murders in the city are out of control with eight occurring in the past 10 days. The people have had enough. The protestors carry pictures of those lost and they say that the mayor is not doing enough. Nagin had actually hoped to address the crowd, but was denied. Oh diss! They said that the march was an opportunity for them to talk to him and he'd get his chance at his own press conference. That's right! This brings us to a Randi Kaye piece on one of the recent murders. Filmmaker Helen Hill was shot to death in her home during a burglary while her husband protected their infant son with his body. He himself was shot three times and was found holding the baby who was uninjured. He is now moving to Canada and won't ever go back to New Orleans. This story is just horrific. You're suppose to be safe in your own home. Now the national guard has been called back into the city to back up the police, but the murder rate still climbs. Actually the murder rate is climbing everywhere. My own city was not long ago awarded the dubious honor of being the most dangerous city in the country, though we St. Louisans dispute that. Obviously something needs to be done, specifically in New Orleans, but also the country as a whole.

Next up Anderson has a taped interview with mayor Ray Nagin. He notes that people hear the mayor saying the words, but not doing any action. Nagin then spins and notes that resources are an issue and the criminal system was broken prior to Katrina. I sort of feel for Nagin because he's in an impossible situation, but then again, what has he done? It's been 500 days and if he was competent I think we'd be seeing better results. After this, Bart Everson, friend of Helen Hill, and Newsweek contributer Julia Reed join Anderson live. Bart notes that he is angry at officials, but also at himself because they allowed this to happen. That's pretty much how I feel about the state of the country. I'm furious at where Bush and company have taken us, but in the end, we let him do it. Julia says they can hold public officials accountable and notes that the deaths of two popular citizens (the other being musician Dinerral Shavers) has ignited the populous, especially since one was white and one was black. Bart then recounts a story of a friend being stopped by the police and tells us that he's scared they're descending into a police state.

Transitioning now to another Drew Griffin update on the pension story. He's just a busy little investigative bee, isn't he? I kind of love it. Anyway, he got nowhere in finding out who killed the committee bill that would have stopped congressional criminals from getting pensions. However, an emailer pointed out that if the committee just let the bill die than they were all responsible and CNN should name all of them. Drew then does just that. This is all very good, but please tell me they didn't need an emailer to tell them to do this. Drew then talks with a couple of the committee members to ask why they didn't vote on it and guess what? They can't seem to remember. Shocker. They also give the unbelievable answer that last year ethics weren't a big issue. And apparently it wasn't just last year. Get this; there's actually a picture of a convicted congressman on the wall of the house ways and means room. Good Lord. Anyway my hats off to CNN for going at this so hard. It looks like there's a real chance this might go somewhere and it's because of them. See what power you guys have? This is why I get so mad at you sometimes. After the piece Anderson asks us if we wished that congresspeople kept diaries since they can't seem to remember anything. Um, no. They'd end up on the internet and then we'd never hear the end of whatever sordid affairs they contained. Also Anderson, they didn't "forget". But I think you know that already.

On now to a Joe Johns "Keeping Them Honest" piece. Man, he's been a busy little bee lately too. I'm sorry, I just can't get enough of this accountability stuff. The 100 hour clock is still ticking and today the topic was stem cell research, which has basically become a proxy fight over abortion. Unfortunately supporters were unable to get enough votes for a veto proof bill, so this issue is still at an impass. At least they tried. After this we're shown some clips of Anderson interviewing Michael J. Fox before the November election about stem cell research. That's it for the hour. They're on a roll. A-

Screencaps by liberation337 and stillife.


What's your theory on Bush and the war? Does he really still believe in it or is he just buying time until he's out of office? Has anyone been to New Orleans recently? Stories?

8 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think he is just buying time until he gets out of office. He knows that he has already lost Iraq. He looked depressed on Wednesday night during his speech. No I have not been to NOLA, so I have no stories to share.

8:47 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh yeah, buying time. Totally. I have not been to NOLA but I went through LA a week ago and well, it looks rather forgotten to ME.

Anderson is very hands on. Me too. That's probably one of those things that really makes him interesting to me.

8:58 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That was a great show last night, I can't think of a thing they forgot to report on, Anderson should make a point to go back more often, I think he's an inspiration to the people there.
Mr Bush knows exactly what he's doing I think. He's determined to keep trying to 'win' this war so he stubbornly keeps trying different approaches (except for the right one) He knows this will be his legacy and if it still is going wrong at the end of his presidency then he'll just hand over the mess to the next administration. Why should he care?

10:32 AM  
Blogger aries moon said...

It was fascinating to watch Condi get raked over the coals by both Dems and Repubs. Every defense she tries to come up with sounds like hogwash now and no one's buying it.

Anderson really needs to go back to NOLA and the Gulf more often, he does some of his best work there and there's still so much that needs to be done. It's unbelievable how bad things still are there.

The Keeping them Honest reports have been excellent, it's fantastic to actually see some progress being made on that pension bill because CNN and their viewer's outrage. I hope they don't let this drop and stay on it.

7:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think Bush is on the Titanic and he can't dog paddle fast enough. You know it has to be bad with so many Republicans not agreeing with him. And if McCain gets in there it will just be a continuation of what is going on right now.

I have never been to NOLA, so no stories, but I loved the ones that Anderson covered on Thursday night. It was interesting to know that it was the 500th day since Katrina. In a lot of ways this show was much better than his years anniversary coverage. He had the whole gang there with the exception of Sean Calabs. It is just so hard to believe that there hasn't been any progress in the th ward. How are those people coping. You know if they owned there own home, they are still having to make payments, plus pay wherever they are living now. It was so nice to see the 82 year old man was working on his home. I hope Anderson will go back in a couple of months, like he said and follow up on this story.

Wonder what happened to the man last night. His blog had posted that Lance Armstrong would be talking to Anderson, but then he wound up talking to John Roberts. The other thing was that John was in Washington studio instead of NY. Maybe Anderson was under the weather after touching all of the things he touched in the 9th ward. lol

10:38 AM  
Blogger Dixie Girl said...

@Eliza,
I live in the suburbs of NOLA. My children went to high school in NOLA. My son's high school is in Lakeview and was submerged for a few weeks. As bad as some areas still appear, there is a lot being done. People have to understand that the entire infrastructure of the city was damaged and it is going to take years to rebuild. As in many of our historic old cities in this country, many of the underground utilities are outdated and just plain worn out. And remember, so many people have been put out of their homes, we don't have full work crews manning the shifts. Every business in and around NOLA has help wanted signs in the windows.
But on the brighter side, the Archdiocese of NOLA stated this week that 80% of the students have returned. About 75-80% of hotel rooms are back and every day more and more restaurants are reopening. Many of the chain restaurants such as Olive Garden can only serve dinner because there are not enough employees to do lunch and dinner. Repairs to the streetcar line are making good progress and will soon be back.
Many of the murders in NOLA are drug related, but don't get much attention from the police or the mayor until innocent people such as Helen Hill are the targets. Hopefully, the people of NOLA start holding Nagin and Riley and Jordan accountable for the safety of our great city. New Orleans is truly a gem. It just needs a really good polishing; we already got a good soaking.

5:34 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I really loved the Thursday show. AC always does good reports from New Orleans, except for the anniversary shows that were extremely disappointing. I don't get why Harry Shearer is so obsessed with trashing 360 and AC's work. I really don't agree with a thing that he writes about on Huffington Post. Starting to suspect he may have some mental health issues there...it is quite a sick obsession he has got going. I have actually stopped reading Huff Post.

I hope that 360 will keep up the good work. However, I have a bad feeling that we will get John Roberts in the coming week. As always, thanks for this great blog. You always turn in excellent work!

6:07 PM  
Blogger eliza said...

@jan-After Katrina I would watch Anderson in horror, going, "No! Don't touch that!" LOL. I'm so used to it now, I'm pretty much like, "whatever". I assumed Anderson would be off anyway. Probably there was just poor communication with the website people or something. I never trust that thing anyway because it always changes.

@barbara-Thanks for the update and it's good to know there's at least some progress going on. I'm curious, do you know what the general consensus in NO is regarding Anderson's reporting on the area?

@patty-Yeah, I thought the anniversary show was really bad too and even sent an email. I don't know what's with Harry Shearer. After reading your comment I went to go see what he had said now and this time I felt compelled to actually register and leave a comment. Usually I just let it alone, but I guess I was feeling fighty. Heh.

12:01 AM  

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