Backing Insurgents, Not Checking Cargo, Raw Politics, Church Versus State, More God's Country, And Germany Hates Scientology (Thursday's Show)
Hi everybody. Again I've slacked off. I don't even know how I used to do two hours of this. Did you guys catch the end of Larry King with him holding up an iPod? Like Larry King knows what an iPod is. You know they handed that to him and he was all, "What the hell is this?" and they were all, "Just hold it up." Ah, Larry. Anyway, we begin with Anderson Cooper playing us a depressing little soundbite from the US Ambassador to Iraq and this intros us into a Michael Ware piece on how insurgent groups are now fighting al Qaeda. We're played some fairly disturbing video of the insurgents going all non-Geneva Convention on some suspected al Qaeda and then another video from Anbar where they taunt the suspect...before executing him. Oh boy. The US position is we do not allow or encourage that, but the military is apparently backing these guys. Now, I'm sure our hearts don't bleed for al Qaeda, but one wonders when exactly these guys are going to turn on us. Or do we not remember backing the mujahideen to fight the Soviets? You know things are bad when backing the guys that used to be trying to kill you seems like the good option.
Next up we're joined by Michael Ware and Brigadier General David Grange for discussion. Anderson wonders if the strategy currently being used in Anbar could work in the rest of the country. Michael explains that basically it already is working in the rest of the country because everything is run by militias. The difference is that Anbar's militias are US backed and all the others are Iran backed. So yay for us for getting in on the action? Anderson then echoes my concern of whether these guys will turn on us in the future. David says sure, there's the possibility, but we can't kill everyone in Iraq. Really not making me feel better here, David. Anderson points out that Maliki has his boxers in a twist over the Anbar strategy because it could create new militias, but, um, he has his own militias. Yep, "pot calling the kettle black," says Michael. He believes the government's fear is that, "America is backing these guys as a balance against the very government America created and has lost influence over." That is so messed up. They then talk about the fact that some of these guys we're backing are the same people that killed Americans. But David says there's no way you can prove that. So it' s okay then? Finally Anderson wonders how likely it is a pullout will cause a full civil war if we're not there already. Michael says it's practically guaranteed and the Shia are almost excited to get on with it. Okay, Michael obviously thinks we shouldn't pull out, but he never says what we should do. Anderson, help a blogger out here and ask him please.
On now to Anderson telling us that we might not know this, but they don't actually screen all the cargo before putting it on a plane. Actually I did know that, which is why the whole security dance we do of taking off our shoes and putting our mouthwash in plastic bags is pointless. Besides, the left has been having an aneurysm about this for years. Same thing with the ports. Anyway, we're then intro-ed into a Jeanne Meserve piece on House and Senate legislation that has FINALLY been passed to maybe change the screening process to include cargo. Of course not everyone is happy. We meet a reptile shipper that's afraid the new rules would cause cargo to be checked by hand and that could lead to many mishaps, including loose critters. Oh, snakes on a plane!!! I have had it with these motherf...you know the rest. Yeah, that joke was just waiting to be made. Okay, so what this all comes down to is business versus safety and really, I haven't actually seen any proof that the inspections would hurt business. It's like with global warming when everyone was shrieking about how dealing with it would hurt the economy. You don't hear that so much now. The irony here is that the people (the Republicans) who have used the threat of terrorism to their political advantage for years are the same people trying to block these inspections. Of course the news never shows you the votes for you to know that. That would be too helpful.
Joe Johns has the "Raw Politics" tonight and we begin by learning that, whoops, it seems Fred Thompson did some lobbying for an abortion rights group, something the anti-abortion crowd probably isn't too happy about. Money over principles. Go ahead and declare, Freddie, you'll fit right in. Next we learn that Rudy is claiming to be a strict constructionist, which is basically a code phrase to conservatives to let them know he'll put up people they want. Awesome. Finally, Joe tells us of a spouse spat going on between Edwards and Clinton. According to Joe, Elizabeth Edwards thinks John is better on women's issues than Hillary and, "Now, Bill has fired back, saying his woman is better on women than her man." Oh, now that just sounds dirty. Speaking of dirty, next Anderson goes to play us some YouTube clips and something horrific pops up on the screen. I'll go ahead and describe it since I'm sure most of you immediately ran from the room screaming. It's a Larry King head on a dancing bikini-clad body. With suspenders. So, uh, 360, why you gotta traumatize your viewers like that? Can we not get a disclaimer or something first? I mean, seriously, nightmares, people. Nightmares. For his part, Anderson acts (and acts very poorly I might add-but we love him anyway) all upset and sorry and says whoever put that in there "will be dealt with very firmly." Ha! Yeah, you lay down the law! 360, please don't do that again. Seriously, I think I threw up in my mouth a little.
Transitioning now to 360's new segment "God's Country" and a piece from Tom Foreman regarding the church versus state issue. Some people believe that whole separation thing is a myth and there's apparently even a tour you can go on-Heritage Tours-to learn all about how without the Bible our country wouldn't exist. Uh huh. We meet Rod Parsley, pastor of a mega church, who subscribes to this belief. Mega churches freak me out. Just putting that out there. Tom brings up that little document called the Constitution and how it "decrees that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." But Pastor Rod doesn't think that means "surrendering of our citizenship to express religious faith." What? Who's asking you to surrender? No one's asking you to surrender. Anyway, this guy is one of those anti-gay, anti-Islam Christians, so, yeah, there you go. I wish this piece would have gone into the founding father's writings more to debunk what Pastor Rod is preaching. The info is out there and to make it a "this side says this and the other side says this" type of deal is not helpful. And kind of lazy. Kudos for bring up the Constitution and Jefferson, but c'mon.
Next up we have tonight's "What Were They Thinking?" Apparently the good people at the Pottery Barn kids' catalog are 360 fans. Or it's a really weird coincidence. Anyway, Erica points out that on one page there is an Anderson diaper bag and blankets that separately say Cooper and Erica. And if that wasn't enough, there are two bundle mes laying together with the names Erica and Cooper. BTW, I totally had to google up "bundle me" because I had no idea what she was talking about and didn't know if that's actually what she said. The transcript? Also confused. Okay, so Anderson wonders if Erica's husband might be feeling a little jealousy, but fear not, she's married a secure man. "Clearly doesn't have anything to be nervous about," says Anderson. Yeah, I suspect not.
The rest of this stuff I'm just going to kind of zip through because I'm running out of time. Up next we have a David Mattingly piece on young Christian conservatives and, ruh roh, it seems they're on to the fact that the Republicans are a bunch of liars. Not good news for the GOP. But the kids are alright. After David's piece we've got Tom at his graphic wall to show us what issues are important to the different denominations of Christianity. Then we've got a weird little transition to a Randi Kaye piece on how Germany has blocked the filming of a Tom Cruise movie because they are not down with Scientology. This, of course, requires the airing of the Matt Lauer "you're glib" clip. I swear, someone at 360 either hates, or is fascinated by, Scientology. Or maybe both. The Shot tonight is the tale of Pepper Ann, the money eating dog. $800 in cash to be exact. But don't worry, the owners have gotten most of it back. They just have to wait for, um, nature to take its course. Ewww. That'll do it for me. B-
Next up we're joined by Michael Ware and Brigadier General David Grange for discussion. Anderson wonders if the strategy currently being used in Anbar could work in the rest of the country. Michael explains that basically it already is working in the rest of the country because everything is run by militias. The difference is that Anbar's militias are US backed and all the others are Iran backed. So yay for us for getting in on the action? Anderson then echoes my concern of whether these guys will turn on us in the future. David says sure, there's the possibility, but we can't kill everyone in Iraq. Really not making me feel better here, David. Anderson points out that Maliki has his boxers in a twist over the Anbar strategy because it could create new militias, but, um, he has his own militias. Yep, "pot calling the kettle black," says Michael. He believes the government's fear is that, "America is backing these guys as a balance against the very government America created and has lost influence over." That is so messed up. They then talk about the fact that some of these guys we're backing are the same people that killed Americans. But David says there's no way you can prove that. So it' s okay then? Finally Anderson wonders how likely it is a pullout will cause a full civil war if we're not there already. Michael says it's practically guaranteed and the Shia are almost excited to get on with it. Okay, Michael obviously thinks we shouldn't pull out, but he never says what we should do. Anderson, help a blogger out here and ask him please.
On now to Anderson telling us that we might not know this, but they don't actually screen all the cargo before putting it on a plane. Actually I did know that, which is why the whole security dance we do of taking off our shoes and putting our mouthwash in plastic bags is pointless. Besides, the left has been having an aneurysm about this for years. Same thing with the ports. Anyway, we're then intro-ed into a Jeanne Meserve piece on House and Senate legislation that has FINALLY been passed to maybe change the screening process to include cargo. Of course not everyone is happy. We meet a reptile shipper that's afraid the new rules would cause cargo to be checked by hand and that could lead to many mishaps, including loose critters. Oh, snakes on a plane!!! I have had it with these motherf...you know the rest. Yeah, that joke was just waiting to be made. Okay, so what this all comes down to is business versus safety and really, I haven't actually seen any proof that the inspections would hurt business. It's like with global warming when everyone was shrieking about how dealing with it would hurt the economy. You don't hear that so much now. The irony here is that the people (the Republicans) who have used the threat of terrorism to their political advantage for years are the same people trying to block these inspections. Of course the news never shows you the votes for you to know that. That would be too helpful.
Joe Johns has the "Raw Politics" tonight and we begin by learning that, whoops, it seems Fred Thompson did some lobbying for an abortion rights group, something the anti-abortion crowd probably isn't too happy about. Money over principles. Go ahead and declare, Freddie, you'll fit right in. Next we learn that Rudy is claiming to be a strict constructionist, which is basically a code phrase to conservatives to let them know he'll put up people they want. Awesome. Finally, Joe tells us of a spouse spat going on between Edwards and Clinton. According to Joe, Elizabeth Edwards thinks John is better on women's issues than Hillary and, "Now, Bill has fired back, saying his woman is better on women than her man." Oh, now that just sounds dirty. Speaking of dirty, next Anderson goes to play us some YouTube clips and something horrific pops up on the screen. I'll go ahead and describe it since I'm sure most of you immediately ran from the room screaming. It's a Larry King head on a dancing bikini-clad body. With suspenders. So, uh, 360, why you gotta traumatize your viewers like that? Can we not get a disclaimer or something first? I mean, seriously, nightmares, people. Nightmares. For his part, Anderson acts (and acts very poorly I might add-but we love him anyway) all upset and sorry and says whoever put that in there "will be dealt with very firmly." Ha! Yeah, you lay down the law! 360, please don't do that again. Seriously, I think I threw up in my mouth a little.
Transitioning now to 360's new segment "God's Country" and a piece from Tom Foreman regarding the church versus state issue. Some people believe that whole separation thing is a myth and there's apparently even a tour you can go on-Heritage Tours-to learn all about how without the Bible our country wouldn't exist. Uh huh. We meet Rod Parsley, pastor of a mega church, who subscribes to this belief. Mega churches freak me out. Just putting that out there. Tom brings up that little document called the Constitution and how it "decrees that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." But Pastor Rod doesn't think that means "surrendering of our citizenship to express religious faith." What? Who's asking you to surrender? No one's asking you to surrender. Anyway, this guy is one of those anti-gay, anti-Islam Christians, so, yeah, there you go. I wish this piece would have gone into the founding father's writings more to debunk what Pastor Rod is preaching. The info is out there and to make it a "this side says this and the other side says this" type of deal is not helpful. And kind of lazy. Kudos for bring up the Constitution and Jefferson, but c'mon.
Next up we have tonight's "What Were They Thinking?" Apparently the good people at the Pottery Barn kids' catalog are 360 fans. Or it's a really weird coincidence. Anyway, Erica points out that on one page there is an Anderson diaper bag and blankets that separately say Cooper and Erica. And if that wasn't enough, there are two bundle mes laying together with the names Erica and Cooper. BTW, I totally had to google up "bundle me" because I had no idea what she was talking about and didn't know if that's actually what she said. The transcript? Also confused. Okay, so Anderson wonders if Erica's husband might be feeling a little jealousy, but fear not, she's married a secure man. "Clearly doesn't have anything to be nervous about," says Anderson. Yeah, I suspect not.
The rest of this stuff I'm just going to kind of zip through because I'm running out of time. Up next we have a David Mattingly piece on young Christian conservatives and, ruh roh, it seems they're on to the fact that the Republicans are a bunch of liars. Not good news for the GOP. But the kids are alright. After David's piece we've got Tom at his graphic wall to show us what issues are important to the different denominations of Christianity. Then we've got a weird little transition to a Randi Kaye piece on how Germany has blocked the filming of a Tom Cruise movie because they are not down with Scientology. This, of course, requires the airing of the Matt Lauer "you're glib" clip. I swear, someone at 360 either hates, or is fascinated by, Scientology. Or maybe both. The Shot tonight is the tale of Pepper Ann, the money eating dog. $800 in cash to be exact. But don't worry, the owners have gotten most of it back. They just have to wait for, um, nature to take its course. Ewww. That'll do it for me. B-
posted by eliza at 3:29 AM
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