Afghanistan/Iraq News, Bill Clinton Makes Nice, Micro-Targeting, The "N" Word Redux, Drew Griffin Is A "Terrorist", And Democrats In Utah

Hi everybody. As you can probably tell by my lack of substantial blogging, I've been crazy busy lately. And it's kind of a bummer because, wow, we've had some pretty good shows these past few days. But before I get to 360, I simply must relay the mind bogglement that I heard at the end of Larry King. The show was focused on environmental issues, I think, and one of the guests was John Stossel. As they were wrapping up, Larry did some pimping of a future Stossel special: "John Stossel investigates sex in America. That's a hot topic. Might even be environmental. Think about it." So, per Larry's instructions, I did think about it and my conclusion is, WTF? Also? UFO Friday! I swear, so much amusement.

Anyway, time to start with the show and we open with Afghanistan. Woo! Well, actually not so much with the "woo" because you know how we were just told they were going to send some more much needed troops to the country? Yeah, well now not so much. Sorry Afghanistan, no troops for you! Apparently we simply don't have enough to send. Gee, I wonder how that happened. But even though we're screw ups, we shouldn't have to do all the heavy lifting. Come on NATO countries, man up.

The coverage then moves on to everyone all a-twitter over Obama's upcoming vacay to Iraq and Afghanistan. Well, actually the beach-lounging will probably be nil, but there will be pictures! Lots and lots of pictures! Because the media? Oh, they're ready. And this makes McCain very sad. Obama is totally all up on his foreign policy turf! So, of course McCain goes into attack mode and there's talk that this is all just a photo-op. Of course it's a photo-op. He's a politician, what do we expect? But it's not just a photo-op. And before the McCain camp gets all high and mighty, they might want to recognize the pot-calling-kettle-black situation they're in. Or was that some other dude that strolled through a "safe" Baghdad market while being protected by 100 American soldiers, three Blackhawk helicopters, and two Apache gunships?

For discussion of all this, we've got Candy Crowley with the politics, Peter Bergen with the facts on the ground, and for a change of pace, Sebastian Junger. A lot of good talk here. Some points of note: Anderson asks if it's fair that the media is going so ga-ga over the Obama trip when McCain hasn't gotten that much coverage when he went. Again, I'd have to point out his disastrous market stroll, which proved that there is such a thing as bad press. It might be in McCain's favor that the press isn't all up on him like they are Obama. Actually, I'm positive it's in his favor and I wish the press would get with it. There's also some talk of Obama's vagueness on what he considers a "residual force." And I should point out that no one has said anything about the contractors. Kind of an important issue everyone is being mum about. At the end of the segment Anderson tells Sebastian he'd love to have him back on. Then do! And, psst, you don't even have to wait until one of the candidates talks about Afghanistan again.

We transition now to a Gary Tuchman piece on how Bill Clinton has apparently finally accepted that his wife lost and it's time to get behind Obama. It also gives 360 a chance to retread through some of the primary crap one more time. Meh. I am so over Bill. Am I supposed to be excited that he's no longer acting like a child? He's still a rock star of the party though, so I hope he really gets out there and gives it his all. There cannot be a President McCain.

Next the show moves on to a Tom Foreman piece on micro-targeting, which basically involves the campaigns knowing every single thing about you. Looked at porn online last night? Oh, they totally know. Though pioneered by our friends on the Republican side of the aisle, it's the Obama camp who is currently winning the race to live in Orwell's 1984. So, yeah, it's creepy, but there's no going back now. And since Obama is kicking interweb butt, I say, stay gold pony boy! Also? I love the awe of the seemingly discovery that this new fangled Internet thingee is important!

On now to . . . drama on The View! Wait, that's news? Apparently the "N" word came up today, specifically Jesse Jackson's hypocritical use of the word. So anyway, Elizabeth gets all worked up about why we can't all just sing Kumbayah and buy the world a Coke. Or something like that. It's a little convoluted, causing Anderson to say he doesn't understand what she's even saying. We then get a piece from Jason Carroll that feels way too much like deja vu. Look, we know the deal here, right? Black people have taken a horrible nasty word and empowered themselves by changing its meaning. But white people still can't say it. And the debate as to whether anyone should ever say it rages on forever. You can apparently mark Elizabeth down under the "never say it" column. 360 then has a discussion about it, but it all feels rather pointless to me. Also, memo to anyone ever sitting in front of a camera or near a microphone: Don't say or do anything you don't want the world to see and/or hear! Because besides CNN, Harry Shearer is always waiting.

Next up, we've got an update on CNN's own little terrorist, Drew Griffin. To recap, Drew did an investigation into the amount of air marshals we have flying with us. Turns out? Not many. And the TSA was none to happy about this info getting out. Now, long story short, Drew has found himself on the terrorists watch list. The latest development is that representative Sheila Jackson Lee wants an investigation into why Drew has suddenly been deemed an enemy of the state. Man, I wish I was shocked or surprised, but I'm just not. And as bad as it is for Drew, it's probably actually going to be a blessing to a lot of people that got stuck on the list. Think about it, would regular Joe Schmo get this kind of coverage? You know there's thousands of people that are probably wrongly on that list. I think they said it contains 400,000 names. If there are really that many terrorists out there, we're in trouble. I love how Drew is all, "I will find that terrorist with my name!" Careful there buddy, you're already on the list. Next stop, Gitmo.

We've now come to the Crime and Punishment part of the program, but I couldn't care less, so we're moving on to Producer Jack Gray's very cool little documentary about democrats in Utah. At first I thought it would suck to be surrounded by all that red, but it actually might be kind of fun to have so many debating partners. As long as they're not the crazy kind. I'm liking these little films.

Gary Tuchman has the headlines tonight and we learn there's trouble at the St. Louis based Wachovia. Oh, WTF? We just lost Anheuser Busch to InBev. Seeing as though Wachovia owns blocks upon blocks here in downtown St. Louis, this is not good. Hopefully it's just a minor thing that will go away. Anyway, on now to "Beat 360" and guess who the staff winner is tonight. Why, it's our very own anchor, Anderson Cooper! I would've pegged him for never entering. And I agree with Erica Hill, the fix is totally in. Although I do enjoy the phrase "the Internets." He's so down with the lingo. Next thing you know he'll be doing the intro in LOLcat: "The news. I haz it." The Shot tonight was something horrible from Hamas disguised as a kid's show. We'll leave it at that. The show was good tonight. Fingers crossed it continues.