Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Calling Out Greedy CEO's, Afghanistan Discussion, Sweat Lodge Update, Eva Longoria Interview, & ZOMG Balloon Boy Dad Has A Theme Song

Hi everyone. We begin tonight with Gary Tuchman bringing us the latest on those sweat lodge deaths. He's not staying long though. This is just a little whetting of our palate, if you will. I guess they figure Gary's awesomeness will keep us sticking around. They are right!

Our real top story is how all these Wall Street people keep frickin taking our money and giving it to themselves. Dudes, not cool. We all remember TARP, right? Yeah, well, top executives at recipient companies have been getting fancypants perks. But never fear, 360 is here. Says Anderson Cooper: "We think it's important to know who got what. You have to name these people. You have to hold them accountable. You have to keep them honest." Ooh, I love it when they name names.

Joe Johns has the naughty list: Jeffrey Peek, CEO of CIT Group; Ken Lewis, CEO of Bank of America; and Alvaro de Molina, CEO of GMAC Financial Services. Joe had all the numbers too, but I don't have time for that. The names are enough for you to get your hate on. Start with Ken Lewis. Let's just say I really hate Bank of America. Anyhoo! Good piece. Anderson and Joe discuss a bit more and there's a Goldman Sachs mention. Can we sic the investigative dogs on them next please?

For related coverage, we're then joined by Representative Marcy Kaptur (D) Ohio and David Walker, former GAO head. This segment can be summed up as Anderson saying, "what the hell?" and the two guests replying, "we suck at this." Okay, that's probably not a fair assessment. Marcy hits on the culture of greed, and notes that she has a bill to recoup the bonuses. I actually wish the bill part would have been fleshed out more.

There are A LOT of bills floating around out there that don't have a prayer. Does this one have a chance? If not, what or who is standing in its way? Same thing with her point about the underfunding of the FBI. Why is that? As for David, he thinks we need better regulation of the bailout program. It seems to me there are probably people--as in, Congress people--who are for whatever reason gumming up the works here. Hey 360, you know how you just named names a few minutes ago? Do it again.

Transitioning now to the subject of Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai has finally admitted that, hey, maybe he didn't win that totally corrupt election after all. He's agreed to a runoff election...in two weeks. See, thing about Afghanistan, not exactly a place you want to "winter." The snow is coming soon and all else stops--even the war, basically. Michael Ware joins us in studio and notes that putting on an election in two weeks is going to be a huge logistical challenge. Not to mention that whole fraud thing.

We're played some dueling soundbytes from Rahm Emanuel and then Secretary Gates. One makes it seem like Obama is waiting on the troop decision, while the other implies full steam ahead. Holy contradictions Batman! But Michael doesn't seem too concerned. According to him, the Afghans don't care much who wins the election. "Whether it's Hamid Karzai returning or Abdullah Abdullah, in many ways, in Afghan eyes, it is one bunch of crooks vs. another," he tells us. Yay?

For the political angle, Paul Begala and Kevin Madden are brought in. They talk Karzai and credibility. Wow, shades of Al-Maliki, anyone? Kevin hits my pet peeve by bringing up the Iraq "surge" as an example, but thankfully Paul smacks that down by saying it was more the Sunni Awakening that improved Iraq. Then Michael chimes in (I didn't even know he was still there) that there's actually a possibility of an Afghanistan Awakening, which, sounds good? I just really don't want this all coming back to us in another 20 years. Again. Also? Michael should always be kept around to chime in.

Now it's finally time for the Gary Tuchman sweat lodge story. Our intrepid reporter--who I guess has just been cooling his heels for the last 40 some odd minutes--has been talking with a former follower of James Arthur Ray. The plan was for an on-camera interview, but she freaked and canceled. Pretty weird. This is sounding more cultish by the minute. So anyway, the woman was at a retreat last year where 20 people got sick and one woman even had to be dragged out unconscious. Now after the latest retreat, three people are dead and Ray is still doing his thing. At least there's an investigation underway. The guy sounds like one sick cookie.

Next up, we have a Soledad O'Brien piece about Latinos in Hollywood. This is because of her big special, which I think is tomorrow, so uh, watch! Yeah, I don't do promotion well. Anyway, it's also because Eva Longoria is in the piece and that segues us nicely into Anderson's interview with the actress. I actually don't know anything about her except that she's a housewife, and, apparently, desperate. Wha wha wha. I'll be here all night.

Okay, there's actually serious discussion here. Eva talks about the under-representation of Latinos in film/TV roles, immigration reform, and her work as an advocate for farm workers--many of who are children. I would have liked to hear more about that last one. I think this was taped, so if there's more, they should put it online.

For "the shot" tonight, hold onto your hats people because it seems Richard Heene wrote himself a theme song. Oh yes. And Anderson is like a kid in a candy store with this stuff. So...behold: Richard Heene, Psyience Detective. And while I'm sure my regular readers have realized by now that this blog isn't edited, no, I'm not that sloppy. That's how Heene spells it. "The kids love that kind of spelling," says Anderson. It's how we roll.

What's annoying is that the song is kinda catchy in a horrible way, so it gets stuck in your head. The camera catches Anderson doing the white guy head bob, but he immediately stops once he realizes. Oh please. Like he's going to spontaneously combust if we see him bust a move. But the real award has to go out to Erica Hill who goes for the high notes. Well done. They then discuss their vast collection of creepy songs. Anyone plays Warren Jeffs and I am so kicking some ass. You have been warned.

So, I thought the show was really good tonight. Yes, look at me, I'm being complimentary. Good job, 360! Of course, now that I've said this, I can pretty much guarantee they're going to get stomped in the ratings. It's fate or something. Sorry 360. It's in writing now. I can't undo it. You can just blame the annoying girl with the blog. I'm cool with that. Until we meet again...

Labels: , , , , , , , ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com