More Edwards News, Pork-Filled Bill, Raw Politics, Animal Talk, Discovery Channel Special, Child Slave, And Atlanta Shooting (Thursday's Second Hour)

Hi everyone. We kick off the hour with Anderson throwing it to John Roberts, who in turn shows us an extended clip of the Edwards' press conference. After this we have a repeat of the Elizabeth Edwards profile piece and interview with her brother, Jay Anania. The interview is extended further this hour and we learn that Elizabeth had a scan because she was having some rib pain. Jay says they had both been complaining about bad backs and now he feels silly about his mere bad back. John notes that the whole thing must have been tough for him, recounting his own experience when his brother told him he had incurable cancer in 1981. Unless there's a big age gap his bother must have been pretty young. That's sad. Man, cancer sucks. I haven't had too much of it in my family I guess. Three people so far. It's one of those diseases that touches everyone. We put a man on the moon, but we still can't cure cancer.

Next up we have Anderson introing us into a Joe Johns "Keeping Them Honest" piece about the Emergency Supplemental Spending Bill. In last hour's review I sort of implied that they didn't cover the Iraq withdrawl measure, but it is mentioned in this piece. I guess I was looking for more than a sentence. Anyway, that's me keeping myself honest. This piece is all about how a bill that's meant for emergencies is stuffed with pork-filled goodness. For example, spinach growers in California can look forward to getting a $25 million bailout. Republican Activist Darryl Howard doesn't think spinach growers should be rewarded after they unleased e coli on the public, especially since it killed his mother. Oh, I can see why he might be against that. Damn. The bill is also packed with $21 billion of other stuff that Bush didn't ask for, most of which have nothing to do with emergencies. As you might remember, democrats were all anti-pork during election season. Why the change now? Well, they're essentially buying votes because they've got that Iraq war measure attached. They're sweetening the deal if you will. Republican Zack Wamp calls them out on this and I'm just about to agree with him (a republican!) and then he totally loses credibility by calling the whole thing unprecedented. Dude, did you just suffer a head injury that caused short term memory loss? Gotta love the politicians.

Next up we have Raw Politics with John and first up we've got Tony Snow actually being genuine. I'm glad they have this on video. Snow was praising Elizabeth Edward's courage...and then he went back to calling the democrats defeatists. Or, you know, something like that. We also learn that as it turns out, Rudy Giuliani is not down with this whole war on terror thing. If you're wondering if it's because he figured out you can't fight something that's not even a noun; nope that's not it. He thinks that war on terror might hurt America's image and we should instead call it the war on terror against us. Uh huh. Will someone please tell Giuliani that it is way way too late for that? Hey, remember when it was the global struggle against violent extremist or GSAVE? Fun times. Finally tonight we learn that Mitt Romney and Utah Mayor Rocky Anderson used to be BFFs and this is problematic because Rocky is all "let's impeach Bush!" Uh oh. Rocky is so off the Christmas card list. And I have to say that I enjoyed it very much to hear the words, "Anderson is a democrat," even though John wasn't referring to 360's Anderson. Damn you Anderson Cooper and your opinionless sleeves!

Speaking of Anderson, we're transitioning back to him now for a repeat of the elephant piece. Then we're joined by Suwanna Gauntlett, the Cambodia director for Wildlife Alliance. Anderson asks what the greatest threat to animals is in the country. Suwanna tells us it's the wildlife trade and owning and eating endangered animals was a way of life in the country when she arrived, even a symbol of status. By working with law enforcement she was able to cut wildlife consumption in restaurants by 95%. Wow. That's impressive. Anderson notes that the trade is big business and Suwanna agrees. She tells us that the people behind it are often high-ranking officials and rich businessmen. Anderson wonders what has shocked her most in her seven years there. Suwanna is most aghast that traditional medicine belief is not changing.

Moving on now to an interview with Jonny Keeling a producer for "Planet Earth" on Discovery Channel, which coincidentally (or not so coincidentally) they just ran a really cool commercial for a few minutes ago. I wish I could figure out Time Warner's relationship with Discovery. I don't think it's direct ownership, but it's definitely something, since Discovery even has a whole channel connected to the "New York Times." Anyway, there's not much I can blog here because it's pretty much all about the awesome video. We see lions attacking elephants, polar bears coming out of hibernation, a snow leopard hunting, and camels. Apparently Jonny was pretty close to the action. I doubt I'll have time to watch the series, but it looks really good.

Next up we have a Dan Rivers interview with Somaly Mam, who you might remember is a former prostitute that set up a charity rescuing children from brothels. One child, Shray, particularly touched her. Shray was sold by her parents and working in a brothel at the mere age of five. She's six now and has HIV, TB, and pneumonia. That's horrible. I really don't understand how a parent can sell their child. Most parents would lie in front of a bus for their children. Anyway, you can help out Somaly's charity by going to somalymam.org (or here if you prefer english). Unfortunately, going by the transcript, it seems Dan spelled her name wrong, so hopefully people aren't having too much trouble finding it.

The final piece tonight is from Rick Sanchez on that Atlanta shooting from a couple of years ago. I didn't really pay attention, though I did catch some of his um, presentation. Okay then. In the spirit of differing viewpoints, I thought I'd give you some opinions from Cambodia on 360's Cambodia coverage. It seems not everyone is happy. That'll do it.

Screencap by stormi0611.