The Real Deal On Earmarks And Researching How Dogs Think

Hi everyone. John Roberts is holding down the anchor chair tonight. I guess Anderson Cooper had a thing. The bullet points, however, always remain.

• Oh. My. God. After watching this show do bad--sometimes bordering on atrocious--earmark reporting for years, tonight's opening segment was...awesome! Context and percentages and perspective and accountability...oh 360, you make a blogger so happy. (Don't worry, the happiness totally goes away in the next few minutes.)

• John: "And, by the way, what Congresswoman Bachmann said there about the president's trip to Asia costing $200 million a day? Well, that was a lie. It didn't cost anywhere near that." Holy crap, he said the "L" word. I thought if you did that on CNN the studio would burst into flames. Calling a spade a spade. Loves it.
  

• Seriously, watch the below video. Great job meshing perspective with montages of accountability.
  

• For discussion of this, we're joined by David Gergen, Roland Martin, and...Dana Loesch. Keyboard smash! Why, 360? Why? Do you want me to email you with my polite yet strongly worded feedback? Because I'll do it! Tremble in fear.

• The fact that Loesch is on to talk about earmarks is hilariously ironic. She and the St. Louis Tea Party are shocked (so shocked!) that newly elected Senator Roy Blunt is turning his back on them on the earmarks issue. Too bad Blunt didn't have some sort of record for them to go by. You know, besides the whole being in Congress since 1997. Needless to say, many people are laughing at them right now. But I guess the joke is currently on us because CNN thinks someone as politically naive as Loesch is someone we should hear from on this issue. Anyway. You can read more of the saga here. None of this was covered on the show.

• There was really nothing of note from the actual panel.

• Dear 360, if I wanted to watch Nancy Grace, I would watch Nancy Grace. (Seriously, we're still talking about Natalee Holloway?)
  

• Randi Kaye's piece on dog communication and the subsequent interview with Cesar Milan were interesting. The part about man's best friend trying to get away with stuff is so true. The couch is the only piece of furniture where my dog is specifically not allowed. Where does he go to sleep after I've gone to bed? Yep. I knew he was doing it because I could hear him quickly jump down if I opened my bedroom door at night. He's such an old cranky man now that he pretty much doesn't even try to hide it anymore. A few weeks ago, I accidentally left a light on and later got up in the middle of the night. Unlike normal, when I walked in the living room I was actually able to see him up on the couch. What's hilarious is I don't think he realized this because he froze like a deer in headlights, eyes trained on me, no doubt thinking that if he was just quiet enough, I'd never notice. Finally, I loudly said, "yes, I can see you!" and with that he jumped down, groaning his displeasure. Ah, dogs.
  

• That's going to do it for me because your blogger is tired. The show started out really strong...and then went to the dogs. Badabum!