Killed FBI Agent, MEK, British Hostages Released, Our Broken Army, Raw Politics, Physician Owned Hospitals, And Fit or Fat? (Thursday's Second Hour)
Hi everybody. The second hour begins with a re-airing of the Randi Kaye piece on that killed FBI agent. Then John has an interview with Bill Gavin, former assistant FBI director in New York City, but seeing as Bill wasn't actually there, he can't really tell us anything. That's right folks, time for some of that cable news speculation you know I love. After that John has a piece on bank robberies, which, it is noted, are usually non violent. My mom is a teller supervisor and she was actually robbed about a year ago. The guy said he had a gun, but she never saw it. As far as I know, they never caught him.
Next up we have a Michael Ware piece on Mujahadeen-e-Khalq (MEK), a pro-democracy Iranian group that is opposed to the regime. I've heard about these guys. Coalition forces view them as protected persons under the Geneva Convention (Oh, we're abiding by that now?) and therefore provide them with military escorts, but, and here's the kicker, the State Department lists them as a terrorist organization. Oh, that crazy State Department. That means that "no American can deal with them. U.S. banks must freeze their assets and any American giving them any support -- even transport -- commits a crime." Well, that's interesting what with all the military escorting going on. A contradiction? Easily fixed by giving MEK the designation of officially protected terrorists. Officially protected terrorists? Somewhere in a cave Osama Bin Ladin is saying, "dude, how do I sign up for that?" Though really, with all the non-bombing of his ass we've been doing these past five-plus years I imagine he doesn't really worry about it too much. Anyway MEK has been spying on Iran for years and are credited with exposing their nuclear program. However, the Shia-dominated government wants them out of Iraq. Not surprising with all their connections to Iran. All I have to say is these MEK people better not turn out to be the equivalent of a bunch of Ahmed Chalabis.
Moving on to a Tom Foreman piece about the release of the British hostages. Apparently some in Britain are mad about the gifts and smiling sendoff that the sailors and marines received. Spider Marks is mad too, "They should have dropped those gifts on the ground and said, no, we're not accepting goodies from you guys. All I want is a ticket out of here. Let's go. That didn't happen." Spider, what the hell? I would think you of all people would understand they did what they had to to get out of there. It is noted that all the videos Iran released were in Arabic, so this was really a show for Iraq. Some believe Britain was merely a pawn in the US/Iran battle in Iraq.
Speaking of Iraq, it broke out army. To discuss what this means, we're joined by "TIME's" Mark Thompson, author of a cover story on the subject. The situation is pretty bad. Mark tells us that Army forces are rotting. "They're not getting enough training. They're not practicing on the right equipment. And their dwell time, the time that they spend at home between going to war and coming back here and resting, is shrinking dramatically," he says. John notes that it is now being reported that Private Matt Zeimer was killed by friendly fire and he is included in the "TIME" story. Mark explains that though they are unsure of what led to his death, it is known that he did not get the same intense training as some of his fellow soldiers. John asks if the Pentagon has acknowledged the problem. Mark senses something better under Robert Gates-that maybe he'll increase the size of the army without being forced. I'd just like to know where we'll get the people. I mean we've already lowered the standards. All I know is any Army official who didn't see this coming a mile a way years ago is an idiot. All through 2005 there were people saying the Army would be in trouble around June 2006. Well guess what. It's 2007.
Transitioning now to Candy Crowley with some "Raw Politics." First up we get a clip of Mitt Romney stating he's been a hunter all his life, just never shot anything big. Well, Mitt, you can't all be Dick Cheney (something old guy lawyers everywhere are thankful for). Oh, but that's all a lie anyway. See, Mitt here has only been hunting twice in his whole life. Gasp. There goes that hunter vote. Watch, next we're going to see some awkward Kerry-style video of him on a hunting trip. We also learn the Democratic National Committee will sanction six presidential primary debates and Florida is trying to make it easier for ex-felons to vote. After this there is a repeat of the Joe Johns pet food piece.
Next up we have a Gary Tuchman piece about physician owned hospitals. We hear the story of a man who had neck surgery at one of these hospitals and though the surgery went well, during his recovery he began to choke and there was no doctor in the facility to help him. In fact his own wife had to do CPR on him and when a surgeon finally arrived, he yelled for them to call 911. What the hell? That is so messed up. That particular hospital was later shut down because the man died, but Congress wants to look into the whole subject of physician owned hospitals. I didn't even know doctors could own hospitals. After the piece we have Sanjay Gupta for some discussion. John wonders how common it is for hospitals to call 911. Sanjay explains that there are different levels of care and different hospitals might not be capable of some of the things that larger hospitals do. However, basic emergency care is required everywhere. Sanjay notes that before entering a facility patients should ask about labs, if there is a 24 hour doctor, medication availability, and things of that nature. Well, the man who died had surgery following a motor vehicle accident, so I'm thinking he didn't get that opportunity. Scary stuff.
Lastly tonight, we have Sanjay back with one of his random 'Fit or Fat?' segments. We learn that green tea is fit, not eating lunch is fat, and getting your exercise by doing housework and chasing children is fit. That basically does it, though John does note that there are, "a few more degrees of 360 coming right up." Ha. Cute.
Next up we have a Michael Ware piece on Mujahadeen-e-Khalq (MEK), a pro-democracy Iranian group that is opposed to the regime. I've heard about these guys. Coalition forces view them as protected persons under the Geneva Convention (Oh, we're abiding by that now?) and therefore provide them with military escorts, but, and here's the kicker, the State Department lists them as a terrorist organization. Oh, that crazy State Department. That means that "no American can deal with them. U.S. banks must freeze their assets and any American giving them any support -- even transport -- commits a crime." Well, that's interesting what with all the military escorting going on. A contradiction? Easily fixed by giving MEK the designation of officially protected terrorists. Officially protected terrorists? Somewhere in a cave Osama Bin Ladin is saying, "dude, how do I sign up for that?" Though really, with all the non-bombing of his ass we've been doing these past five-plus years I imagine he doesn't really worry about it too much. Anyway MEK has been spying on Iran for years and are credited with exposing their nuclear program. However, the Shia-dominated government wants them out of Iraq. Not surprising with all their connections to Iran. All I have to say is these MEK people better not turn out to be the equivalent of a bunch of Ahmed Chalabis.
Moving on to a Tom Foreman piece about the release of the British hostages. Apparently some in Britain are mad about the gifts and smiling sendoff that the sailors and marines received. Spider Marks is mad too, "They should have dropped those gifts on the ground and said, no, we're not accepting goodies from you guys. All I want is a ticket out of here. Let's go. That didn't happen." Spider, what the hell? I would think you of all people would understand they did what they had to to get out of there. It is noted that all the videos Iran released were in Arabic, so this was really a show for Iraq. Some believe Britain was merely a pawn in the US/Iran battle in Iraq.
Speaking of Iraq, it broke out army. To discuss what this means, we're joined by "TIME's" Mark Thompson, author of a cover story on the subject. The situation is pretty bad. Mark tells us that Army forces are rotting. "They're not getting enough training. They're not practicing on the right equipment. And their dwell time, the time that they spend at home between going to war and coming back here and resting, is shrinking dramatically," he says. John notes that it is now being reported that Private Matt Zeimer was killed by friendly fire and he is included in the "TIME" story. Mark explains that though they are unsure of what led to his death, it is known that he did not get the same intense training as some of his fellow soldiers. John asks if the Pentagon has acknowledged the problem. Mark senses something better under Robert Gates-that maybe he'll increase the size of the army without being forced. I'd just like to know where we'll get the people. I mean we've already lowered the standards. All I know is any Army official who didn't see this coming a mile a way years ago is an idiot. All through 2005 there were people saying the Army would be in trouble around June 2006. Well guess what. It's 2007.
Transitioning now to Candy Crowley with some "Raw Politics." First up we get a clip of Mitt Romney stating he's been a hunter all his life, just never shot anything big. Well, Mitt, you can't all be Dick Cheney (something old guy lawyers everywhere are thankful for). Oh, but that's all a lie anyway. See, Mitt here has only been hunting twice in his whole life. Gasp. There goes that hunter vote. Watch, next we're going to see some awkward Kerry-style video of him on a hunting trip. We also learn the Democratic National Committee will sanction six presidential primary debates and Florida is trying to make it easier for ex-felons to vote. After this there is a repeat of the Joe Johns pet food piece.
Next up we have a Gary Tuchman piece about physician owned hospitals. We hear the story of a man who had neck surgery at one of these hospitals and though the surgery went well, during his recovery he began to choke and there was no doctor in the facility to help him. In fact his own wife had to do CPR on him and when a surgeon finally arrived, he yelled for them to call 911. What the hell? That is so messed up. That particular hospital was later shut down because the man died, but Congress wants to look into the whole subject of physician owned hospitals. I didn't even know doctors could own hospitals. After the piece we have Sanjay Gupta for some discussion. John wonders how common it is for hospitals to call 911. Sanjay explains that there are different levels of care and different hospitals might not be capable of some of the things that larger hospitals do. However, basic emergency care is required everywhere. Sanjay notes that before entering a facility patients should ask about labs, if there is a 24 hour doctor, medication availability, and things of that nature. Well, the man who died had surgery following a motor vehicle accident, so I'm thinking he didn't get that opportunity. Scary stuff.
Lastly tonight, we have Sanjay back with one of his random 'Fit or Fat?' segments. We learn that green tea is fit, not eating lunch is fat, and getting your exercise by doing housework and chasing children is fit. That basically does it, though John does note that there are, "a few more degrees of 360 coming right up." Ha. Cute.
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