More Iran/UN Talk, Dumping The Helpless, Wrongly Imprisoned, And ANS Crap With Even More Perspective (Thursday's Second Hour)

Hi guys. Sorry about the delay. We kick off the hour with a repeat of the Tom Foreman piece and are then joined by Abbas Milani, "the director of Iranian studies at Stanford University and co-director of the Iran Democracy Project at the Hoover Institution." Abbas thinks the UN resolutions have maybe gotten the Iranians to rethink their position, but Anderson points out that critics think the UN has failed when it comes to Iran. Abbas notes that now they seem more willing to negotiate. Also, in the past Iran had played the US against the rest of the world and now everyone is united against Iran. Anderson again states that Ahmadinejad is not the one with the power here. You just keep saying it Anderson! Abbas says that Ahmadinejad's small role is diminishing even more because he's failed on the domestic and economic front. Anderson then asks who would be hurt the most from an attack on the Strait of Hormuz, pointing out that Iran depends on the oil too. Abbas agrees, stating that shutting down that oil would bring every car in the country to a stop. Oh, the traffic jam from hell.

Next up we have repeat Michael Ware and then we move into a Randi Kaye piece on skid row. Hmm. Anderson's in LA, they do a skid row piece. It's like clockwork. I kid 360 though because it's an important topic. It's kind of sad that they keep covering this and it's apparently not getting better at all. What happens is that hospitals in LA are essentially dumping their patients when they can't find anywhere to take them. Sometimes they literally dump them in a gutter, which is what happened recently to a man who was wheelchair bound with a colostomy bag. He was found crawling disoriented in the gutter with his property bag in his mouth and covered in his own waste because the colostomy bag had broken. That is so entirely messed up. How could anyone just dump someone in a gutter? The city is now invesigating 55 cases of dumping from LA hospitals. But get this, it's not illegal to dump people. Why the hell not? Everything is for profit now: healthcare, news,...war. After her piece we get Randi live and Anderson notes that legislation has been introduced to make dumping illegal. Yay! Randi states that fines and possible jail time might deter some dumping, but the Southern California Hospitals Association is against anything that would criminalize hospitals. Well, maybe if they didn't act like criminals this wouldn't be an issue in the first place. Randi then points out that one wonders why the most recent case was released at 1:00 in the morning. Um, that's a good question.

Transitioning now to a Gary Tuchman piece on James Waller, a man falsely charged with the rape of a 12 year old boy. Yikes. Apparently the victim said a black guy did it and he was the only black guy in the complex. The jury only deliberated for 46 minutes. Damn that sucks. James did 11 years and then got out on parole. From there he worked to clear his name, but during that time life sent him an even bigger blow: his wife and unborn daugher were killed in a car wreck. So if you think your life sucks, just know that you could be James Waller. Man. At that point he wanted to die, but he kept fighting and eventually hooked up with the Innocence Project, who got him a DNA test that proved his innocence. So yay for him! But guess what that means? Yeah, somebody just got away with raping a 12 year old boy. After the piece we get Gary live and Anderson notes that the governor still needs to authorize James' exoneration, but he's taking forever. Why? Gary agrees the governor doesn't seem to be in a big rush. Okay, who is this govenor? Oh, Rick Perry. That explains it. Jerk.

On now to our requisite ANS crap. As per usual, I'm not blogging the content, but we've got some choice quotes here. First from Anderson, "As I said earlier, I've only watched a few minutes of this, but I had to turn it, because I wanted to scream at the screen every time I saw these people -- 'There's a war on! There's a war on! There's a war on!'" You sing it man! It's like he's in my head. We're totally soul mates. Okay, maybe not. Anderson, I hear you freaking about the courtroom drama, yet here we are talking about it and I don't see a gun to your head. Perhaps it's off camera. Oh there it is. It's shaped like a Nielsen box.

Okay, so then we get this from Toobin, "...there was something pathetic about Anna Nicole Smith's life that was on display here. Is that this woman was an ATM machine with big breasts." WTF, Toobin? No you didn't. Are you actually going to make me want to defend a dead slutty former playmate? Because that ticks me off. Don't make me put you on notice. Anderson again, "Well, I mean, and also, in terms of contribution to society, I mean, you know, I'm sure she was a nice person and she had children, and I'm sure she loved them and stuff. But it's not as if we're talking about something that really matters to anyone other than a -- or should matter to anyone but a small circle who stand to reap the benefits of this, but clearly people are fascinated by this." Exactly! This is my big beef with the news sometimes. James Kim. Runaway bride. Guy who flies small plane into New York building. So much coverage for people that are quickly forgotten. Oh, and I am not fascinated, Anderson. I'm pissed. After this there's repeat autism stuff and we're out.