Iran Versus Britain, Attorney-Gate, Tornados, Iraq Withdrawl Talk, And ANS Crap (Thursday's First Hour)
Hi guys. We begin again tonight on the subject of those British hostages and in an Anderson piece we see new video released by the Iranians, this time of the British boats before they were seized. The Iranians also released maps, GPS coordinates, and a second letter by Faye Turney, the only captured female. All of this is an attempt by the Iranians to show that the British were in their waters. Turney was suppose to be freed this week, but the Iranians have changed their minds. Tony Blair thinks taping Turney and releasing the tapes is a disgrace. We get a soundbite of John Bolten trying to ratchet up the conflict and I have to wonder why this man is even relevant. Who cares what he says; he couldn't even get confirmed. Apparently the British asked the US Navy to help look for their boats after communication was lost, but obviously they never found them.
Next up we have a live interview with Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Anderson wonders what happens now. Albright notes that it would be very easy to escalate this. You don't have to tell me twice. Anderson asks if maybe the Iranians could be right about the British being in their waters. Albright doubts it, but acknowledges that some of those waters are under dispute. She again mentions how easy it would be to ratchet this thing up and would like to see another country like Russia get things under control. Yeah, good luck with that. Anderson then asks how high up she thinks the decision was made to seize the boats. Albright tells us she is hearing there are divisions in Iran and it's possible that the Revolutionary Guard did it and is now being backed up by the powers that be. Basically she's very concerned here, people. "We do not need another war at this point," she says. Hell, we don't even want the ones we've got. Albright thinks Iran is feeling empowered by the war in Iraq, but they're inexperienced at these kinds of things, so it would be very easy for this turn into another war. Okay, let's not do that.
Next up we have a Dana Bash piece on more attorney-gate fallout, but before I forget I need to note that the sound effect from hell is still torturing us. Please 360, you're killing me here. So anyway, today Former Chief of Staff to Alberto Gonzales, Kyle Sampson, testified about the whole situation and wouldn't you know it, what he and Gonzales are saying don't exactly match up. Shocking. Gonzales has claimed he wasn't involved in any discussions to fire the attorneys, but Sampson says that conversations about the subject took place with Gonzales two years ago. Oops. Gonzales' credibility at this point is about nil. After this we have two pieces from Gary Tuchman and Ed Lavandera on all those tornados that touched down. This is making me nervous. Last year was pretty bad in terms of storms and I'm not looking forward to what this year holds. No hail please. If I have to make another claim State Farm is going to drop me.
Transitioning now to a Tom Foreman piece, which is introed by using a clip from The Daily Show. I find that amusing. Anyway Tom looks at what a deadline oriented withdrawl from Iraq would actually entail. It's not going to be easy folks. First off, as if you hadn't noticed, we've got a whole bunch of people over there and all those people are using a mess of equipment. To make it more complicated, all that equipment and those people are spread out all over the country. Tom demonstrates this with his maps. It's required. When it does come time to leave, most Americans will probably do so through Kuwait and then get on ships. The Pentagon says leaving would take months. What I don't get is the argument that we shouldn't set a date because then the enemy would know and just wait for us. Okay, that sounds valid, except for the fact that if the whole process of leaving is going to take months, don't you think the terrorists would, I don't know, notice. They're going to know we're up to something anyway. I don't see how you get around that.
For discussion about leaving we're joined by retired Brigadier General James "Spider" Marks, Steven Simon of the Council on Foreign Relations, and Michael Ware. Steven is for a timeline and Spider is against. Steven is also wearing a big honking bow tie, which basically makes me unable to listen to him. Never trust a man in a bow tie. Would you trust Tucker Carlson? No, you would not. Anderson notes that some think Bush could use a timeline as a way to threaten Maliki into acting. However, Michael thinks that whole argument is a falsehood because Maliki knows the deadlines aren't real even if set. Then Anderson brings up Tal Afar and how it was cleared, but now once again rocked by violence. Spider claims this is because the US didn't hold the area like we're doing now. Okay, but are we going to hold forever? Because with that strategy is seems like we can never leave and seeing as though the army is on the verge of being broken, I'm thinking that's a problem. Does anyone perhaps have a plan C? Anderson also points out that there seems to be differing timelines when it comes to the generals on the ground and the politicians in Washington. Spider says the timetables may not mesh and this is a time when we need Congress to be quiet. Um, no. That's how we got into this mess. They've been frickin quiet for four years now. Finally, Anderson asks Michael how it feels on the ground. Michael then gives a long and impassioned answer, but I am tired, so I shall sum it up like so: it still totally sucks. And yeah, I guess I really did freeze out Steven because of his bow tie.
Transitioning now to some Anna Nicole Smith coverage regarding her son. Ugh. Whatever. I guess they got the shakes last night when they didn't mention it. Before going out to commercial Anderson gives us a little tease of tonight's The Shot, which is Karl Rove rapping at the Radio and Television Correspondents' Dinner. "It's kind of going to leave you speechless," says Anderson. Um, scarred would be more accurate. When we come back Erica's got the headlines and hey look, my former employer TJX lost 46 million of your credit card numbers. Oops. Then we're shown The Shot and it's Rove and he's rapping and he's dancing (is that dancing?) and... I think I just threw up in my mouth a little. And is that David Gregory doing backup moves?! Oh hell no. Ed Henry this is your lucky day because you've just been given the role of my White House reporter boyfriend. David Gregory has been filling this role for about two years ever since he did the totally awesome thing of actually asking follow up questions. But we are so over now!
The whole dinner annoys me anyway because these people should not be friends. As totally awesome blogger Rachel Sklar of Eat the Press points out, "stuff is going on with Rove right now. You know, stuff about testifying and subpoenas and transcripts and non-oaths — shouldn't someone be weirded out by that? Shouldn't dancing with him feel inappropriate? Or is that just
What We Call The News?" Amen! Anyway, Anderson tells us that he went to the dinner once and didn't dig it. "I don't think all these people should be, like, hanging out, putting on little skits. It's like -- and playing with each other. Like why should the press...," then adding, "Why should the press be hanging out with the president and Karl Rove and, like, you know, schmoozing behind the scenes? I don't get it." This is the point where Eliza yells at her tv, "OMG, exactly!" Those weren't all complete sentences, but point made. Oh Anderson Cooper, sometimes when you do half a show on something like Anna Nicole Smith I forget why I love you, but then you say stuff like that and I remember. Yeah, I am easily won over. Anderson and Erica then show us a clip of the 360 crew showing how real men get their celebration on. Erica notes there's always something to celebrate at CNN and wishes Anderson a "happy March 29." Anderson is confused at the signficance. Uh, catch up Anderson. These two, I tell ya. Anyway the show was good tonight! There was news in my news. Awesomeness. B+
Screencaps by floating petals.
Next up we have a live interview with Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Anderson wonders what happens now. Albright notes that it would be very easy to escalate this. You don't have to tell me twice. Anderson asks if maybe the Iranians could be right about the British being in their waters. Albright doubts it, but acknowledges that some of those waters are under dispute. She again mentions how easy it would be to ratchet this thing up and would like to see another country like Russia get things under control. Yeah, good luck with that. Anderson then asks how high up she thinks the decision was made to seize the boats. Albright tells us she is hearing there are divisions in Iran and it's possible that the Revolutionary Guard did it and is now being backed up by the powers that be. Basically she's very concerned here, people. "We do not need another war at this point," she says. Hell, we don't even want the ones we've got. Albright thinks Iran is feeling empowered by the war in Iraq, but they're inexperienced at these kinds of things, so it would be very easy for this turn into another war. Okay, let's not do that.
Next up we have a Dana Bash piece on more attorney-gate fallout, but before I forget I need to note that the sound effect from hell is still torturing us. Please 360, you're killing me here. So anyway, today Former Chief of Staff to Alberto Gonzales, Kyle Sampson, testified about the whole situation and wouldn't you know it, what he and Gonzales are saying don't exactly match up. Shocking. Gonzales has claimed he wasn't involved in any discussions to fire the attorneys, but Sampson says that conversations about the subject took place with Gonzales two years ago. Oops. Gonzales' credibility at this point is about nil. After this we have two pieces from Gary Tuchman and Ed Lavandera on all those tornados that touched down. This is making me nervous. Last year was pretty bad in terms of storms and I'm not looking forward to what this year holds. No hail please. If I have to make another claim State Farm is going to drop me.
Transitioning now to a Tom Foreman piece, which is introed by using a clip from The Daily Show. I find that amusing. Anyway Tom looks at what a deadline oriented withdrawl from Iraq would actually entail. It's not going to be easy folks. First off, as if you hadn't noticed, we've got a whole bunch of people over there and all those people are using a mess of equipment. To make it more complicated, all that equipment and those people are spread out all over the country. Tom demonstrates this with his maps. It's required. When it does come time to leave, most Americans will probably do so through Kuwait and then get on ships. The Pentagon says leaving would take months. What I don't get is the argument that we shouldn't set a date because then the enemy would know and just wait for us. Okay, that sounds valid, except for the fact that if the whole process of leaving is going to take months, don't you think the terrorists would, I don't know, notice. They're going to know we're up to something anyway. I don't see how you get around that.
For discussion about leaving we're joined by retired Brigadier General James "Spider" Marks, Steven Simon of the Council on Foreign Relations, and Michael Ware. Steven is for a timeline and Spider is against. Steven is also wearing a big honking bow tie, which basically makes me unable to listen to him. Never trust a man in a bow tie. Would you trust Tucker Carlson? No, you would not. Anderson notes that some think Bush could use a timeline as a way to threaten Maliki into acting. However, Michael thinks that whole argument is a falsehood because Maliki knows the deadlines aren't real even if set. Then Anderson brings up Tal Afar and how it was cleared, but now once again rocked by violence. Spider claims this is because the US didn't hold the area like we're doing now. Okay, but are we going to hold forever? Because with that strategy is seems like we can never leave and seeing as though the army is on the verge of being broken, I'm thinking that's a problem. Does anyone perhaps have a plan C? Anderson also points out that there seems to be differing timelines when it comes to the generals on the ground and the politicians in Washington. Spider says the timetables may not mesh and this is a time when we need Congress to be quiet. Um, no. That's how we got into this mess. They've been frickin quiet for four years now. Finally, Anderson asks Michael how it feels on the ground. Michael then gives a long and impassioned answer, but I am tired, so I shall sum it up like so: it still totally sucks. And yeah, I guess I really did freeze out Steven because of his bow tie.
Transitioning now to some Anna Nicole Smith coverage regarding her son. Ugh. Whatever. I guess they got the shakes last night when they didn't mention it. Before going out to commercial Anderson gives us a little tease of tonight's The Shot, which is Karl Rove rapping at the Radio and Television Correspondents' Dinner. "It's kind of going to leave you speechless," says Anderson. Um, scarred would be more accurate. When we come back Erica's got the headlines and hey look, my former employer TJX lost 46 million of your credit card numbers. Oops. Then we're shown The Shot and it's Rove and he's rapping and he's dancing (is that dancing?) and... I think I just threw up in my mouth a little. And is that David Gregory doing backup moves?! Oh hell no. Ed Henry this is your lucky day because you've just been given the role of my White House reporter boyfriend. David Gregory has been filling this role for about two years ever since he did the totally awesome thing of actually asking follow up questions. But we are so over now!
The whole dinner annoys me anyway because these people should not be friends. As totally awesome blogger Rachel Sklar of Eat the Press points out, "stuff is going on with Rove right now. You know, stuff about testifying and subpoenas and transcripts and non-oaths — shouldn't someone be weirded out by that? Shouldn't dancing with him feel inappropriate? Or is that just
What We Call The News?" Amen! Anyway, Anderson tells us that he went to the dinner once and didn't dig it. "I don't think all these people should be, like, hanging out, putting on little skits. It's like -- and playing with each other. Like why should the press...," then adding, "Why should the press be hanging out with the president and Karl Rove and, like, you know, schmoozing behind the scenes? I don't get it." This is the point where Eliza yells at her tv, "OMG, exactly!" Those weren't all complete sentences, but point made. Oh Anderson Cooper, sometimes when you do half a show on something like Anna Nicole Smith I forget why I love you, but then you say stuff like that and I remember. Yeah, I am easily won over. Anderson and Erica then show us a clip of the 360 crew showing how real men get their celebration on. Erica notes there's always something to celebrate at CNN and wishes Anderson a "happy March 29." Anderson is confused at the signficance. Uh, catch up Anderson. These two, I tell ya. Anyway the show was good tonight! There was news in my news. Awesomeness. B+ Screencaps by floating petals.
posted by eliza at 2:14 AM
4 Comments:
Contrary to how the British and Americans treat their captives,these people look like they are being treated very well by Iran.if u observe and research carefully ,Americans treated their captives during the afghan and iraq wars in a very inhumane way inspite of the fact that 90 percent of the captives were innocent civillians who were not even guilty of the crimes they were alleged to have committed.
How can anyone forget the ghastly images of Abu Ghareb where American soldiers tortured men ,boys,women and in a few documented incidents underaged girls.Men were tortured and photographed ,women were made to show their breasts,and according to a report some unpublished pictures show the gang rape of iraqi women and girls.The pictures which were made available clearly showed extreme torture being used which would put even the nazi's to shame.
The British have a history of violence ,The sun published many reports of British soldiers torturing ,pissing and killing on detainees.In one incident an innocent waiter from basra was brutally murdered by british soldiers .The british were involved in the systematic gang rapes of captive masai women in kenya,the incident was reported to be in hundreds.
If one considers these atrocities by the british and american soldiers with their captives and detaines,then one can clearly see that iran has treated these prisoners with extreme dignity,on the one hand where american and british soldiers made their female detainess naked and gang raped them,In this clip the iranians have showed a lot of respect to the female british detainee by covering her and treating her with respect ,This clearly shows the difference in the way the American and British treat women ,and how the middle eastern people treat their women.We should learn from them .
In the clip of this incident shown on the net, (http://news.yahoo.com/photo/070330/photos_ts/2007_03_30t050114_450x323_us_iran_britain_tv&g=events/wl/032307iranbritnavy;_ylt=AgHYRJTx2o4esx8HyB14XkBg.3QA)
the british soldiers were seen eating food ,sitting very calmly and confortably unlike the pictures and clips we have seen of the Americans and the British treating their prisoners,who were made to eat their own faeces rather than food,and were hooded ,naked and paraded.
As a neautral i feel that the iranians have treated these prisoners in the most humane ways as possible ,and after watching what the Americans and the British did in abu ghareb and basra respectively ,i have come to the conclusion that the iranian culture seems far superior than the American and British culture just because of the simple fact that the American and British culture promotes violence against women,torture against prisoners,rape of prisoners,humiliation of prisoners,while the iranian culture promotes the opposite which u can clearly see ,COVERING THE WOMAN AND TREATING THE WOMEN WITH RESPECT ,AND ALSO THE MEN GIVEN GOOD FOOD AND KEPT WITH DIGNITY,WAY TO GO .AS A NEAUTRAL I NOW FEEL IRAN IS A GOOD COUNTRY WITH GOOD PEOPLE LIVING IN IT .
Contrary to how the British and Americans treat their captives,these people look like they are being treated very well by Iran.
I think the keyword here is look. The Iranians are the ones that released the video, so we are seeing what they want us to see. It's PR. I'm not saying they're not being treated humanely, but we have no idea what's going on off camera.
Also, while there are documented atrocities by the US and British, one needs to take everything they read with a grain of salt. Not everything you read really happened. Everyone is also fighting a propaganda battle. You have to remember, the first casualty of war is the truth. I don't think any side is perfect here.
I could see past Steve's bow tie, but the 'let's be frank' was killing me. The kid in me wanted Anderson to literally refer to him as Frank, just once, just to see if anyone got it. I was a little distracted by that.
Best line of the night (other than anytime Anderson & Erica chat) was Michael Ware talking about Nuri al-Maliki and deadlines: "They really don't become a stick to beat him with anyway". So encouraging.
And all I can think about the British sailors and marines is where is this going to go? What's the end result? The alarmist in me can almost smell 'invasion' in the air...and I'm trying to keep my inner skeptic from thinking something is fishy about all of this.
They're using these people as pawns, to get troop withdrawl. Naturally they're going to show video of them being treated humanely. And I'm not saying the other shoe is going to drop (and I sure hope it doesn't), I just think it's a little to early to be patting anybody on the back.
p.s. New sound effect = bad. I'm already watching the screen here people, I don't need a noisy alert to draw my attention to the graphic, I can see it just fine. And that's my two cents on that.
The kid in me wanted Anderson to literally refer to him as Frank, just once, just to see if anyone got it.
Ha! That would have been funny, though probably not appropriate.
Yeah, this whole hostage thing is freaking me out. At least the British are being calm about it. But at this point the slightest misunderstanding could cause a war.
I still don't know why cable news feels the need to assault our senses with sound effects and graphics. It's ridiculous.
Post a Comment
<< Home