Anderson Cooper 360 Reports Live From Haiti With Coverage Ranging From Orphans To Quarantined Patients (Plus Snowpocalypse!)

Hi everyone. Like last night, we begin this broadcast with Anderson Cooper emphatically trying to portray the importance of the story of Haiti. He concedes it's falling out of the headlines and may seem repetitive, but the story deserves to continue to be told. In essence, he's shaking us all by the shoulders, yelling, "Care, world!"

Our first piece of the night is from our anchor, and it explores the challenge of helping kids who appear to be orphaned. We follow along with workers from Heartland Alliance as they attempt to locate family members of 10-year-old Stephanie Jacques (ph). Unicef does the same for five-year-old Kenzie Charles (ph), currently being treated on the USS Comfort. By a stroke of luck or divine intervention (I'll let you choose), the little boy's parents are located nearby. At least one family is having a good day.

Sanjay Gupta then joins Anderson to talk about the 28-year-old man allegedly pulled from the rubble after a month. He seems to be doing fairly well and is even requesting chocolate. If I hadn't eaten for a month, I think I'd be asking for every food known to man. Of course, he's no doubt not going to be able to eat much for a while.

From Sanjay, we learn that the man actually heard the bulldozers coming and feared he too would be scooped out and tossed in a dump truck like trash. Our doctor also tells us that in terms of emergent cases, things are improving. But the health of Haiti overall is very much up in the air. One wonders what the follow up situation is going to be like--if there is one at all.

Next up, we have a piece from Anderson that gives us a tour of one of the tent cities that have been popping up all over Port-au-Prince, where an estimated 450,000 are now homeless. Anderson explains that initially, people just used sheets to create their living quarters. As time goes on, however, they're beginning to scavenge for materials to make the structures more permanent.

Part of our tour occurs at night, and people are quite pleased to see our anchor, who informs us there might be a bit of drinking going on. Others are cooking and selling food. Team 360 also stumbles upon a very ill woman and subsequently secures her a way to the hospital. Somewhere in another tent city, there is another deathly ill woman with no television crew there to help her. The story of Haiti goes on.

Moving on now to a Karl Penhaul piece for the latest on the saga of the American missionaries. As we learned previously, the group actually tried to take another group of children from a tent city out of Haiti on a bus, and were prevented from doing so by a police officer. Karl finds a woman who says the missionaries offered to take her son and daughter, as her husband had died in the quake and she didn't think she could care for them. Ultimately she did not put her children on the bus.

But Karl also finds a boy who was forced onto the bus by his father. He didn't even know where he was going. An attorney for the group states he was not aware of this attempt to take children. Following Karl's piece, Anderson tells us that the little boy forced on the bus had been given toys by the Americans, but once the scheme failed, they actually asked for the toys back. How very Christian of them.

For a bit of levity, I double-checked this story against the transcript, and it says the missionaries gave the boy "Toyotas." Not quite as impressive as it would have been a few weeks ago.

Transitioning to...Snowpocalypse! SnOMG! And don't forget Snowmageddon. Kinda sad that this latest storm hasn't even happened yet and we've already blown the coolest names. Anyhoo! As you might have heard, there's some snow making it's way to the Big Apple, most of the East Coast, actually.

Chad Myers informs us that some of our CNN friends will be spending the night in a hotel to ensure they're able to deliver their regularly scheduled newsiness. As for my neck of the woods, I woke up, saw snow, heard the schools were closed, and contacted my boss to say I was moving my office day to tomorrow. Then, not three hours later, almost all the snow was gone from the streets. WTF? Snow fail. Was flippin' cold though.

Candy Crowley has the "360 Bulletin" tonight and Anderson makes sure to lavish on the praise regarding her debut broadcast as anchor of State of the Union. Last week she had noted she was a little nauseous about diving in. "No vomiting?" asks Anderson. Thankfully, Candy assures us that she refrained. "I think I might have vomited my debut on 360," says our anchor. TMI, Cooper. TMI.

On now to a Sanjay Gupta piece that takes us inside a tent of patients quarantined for tuberculosis. Yes, he wears a mask. Given how closely the Haitian population is currently living, spreading of TB is a big concern that could potentially have ramifications for us all if it begins to be carried by air travelers out of the country. Scary.

After Sanjay's piece, he discusses the issue with Anderson, who interrupts his own point about sanitation to identify and remove a bug from Sanjay's shirt. Hilariously random. But I'm thankful, since it was, uh, bugging me. Our anchor's about to have PETA on his tail. I mean, if the president couldn't even get away with it...

Next up, Anderson interviews Sean Penn. That's right, I said Sean Penn. Now, normally this is when I would hit DEFCON 5 in terms of needing to snark, but Penn is kinda the real deal and has apparently been working his butt off in Haiti the whole time. He talks about how proud he is of the U.S. military.

Anderson worries about the coming rains and the soon to be nonexistent coverage. He notes the Olympics are airing soon and fears people will get involved with watching that, forgetting about Haiti. I actually didn't think people cared all that much about the Winter Olympics, but was informed by friends that I am mistaken.

Sean thinks the games should be politicized in order to put the focus on Haiti. I can't help but think of the Kashmir quake that happened in October 2005. Remember that? Almost 80,000 people died. Sanjay traveled there that December as winter began to take hold. Everyone wondered what would happen to the homeless as it became bitterly cold.

I don't know the answer to that because Sanjay's reports are the last ones I remember. After that, the story of Kashmir just...disappeared. Haiti is probably an easier story to cover in terms of logistics, but I fear that might not be enough.

Part of Anderson's conversation with Sean is below. Because I was sincere with this celebrity segment, I now feel I must mock someone. (It's like an itch I need to scratch, people!) I believe my douchebag of choice is going to be Dr. Phil. After Katrina, like a lot of celebrities, he showed up in New Orleans looking to help. And hey, if he got some publicity for his show, all the better, right?

I remember I was with my brother watching the news when it was announced Dr. Phil was on his way. With completely sincere horror, I exclaimed, "My God, haven't these people been through enough already?!" Normally it's a line I would deliver with ironic intent, but I totally meant it, which drove my brother to practically fall on the floor laughing. Ah, memories. Seriously, what a douchebag.



Anderson and Sanjay then talk about the children being airlifted out of Haiti due to illness. We also learn that Medicare is paying 110 percent to hospitals in the United States to care for Haitian children. Um, what? Ruh Roh. My initial reaction is cue the outrage of people freaking over their tax dollars being used on Haitian kids. I don't know though. This one could go either way. Will it blow up into a big political thing or will it fall off the radar? Only time will tell. Discussion is below:



Moving on to a clip of Michelle Obama discussing childhood obesity on Larry King. A good topic and all, but are we seriously not going to talk about what's going on with Larry's hair?

Candy then returns with some more headlines, which ultimately leads to she and Anderson bitching about airline pillows and blankets. Bah. Quiet you babies. I've never even been offered one. We then move on to the "shot," which is Donna Brazile and Wolf Blitzer dancing. Sorta! Backing it up a bit, Donna got her groove thing on to the joy over the Saints' recent victory. She then asked the Wolfbot to join in, and he did--in his own special way. It kinda looks like this.

Donna then joins us in a little taped interview where she sings the praises of New Orleans' recovery and deems Anderson a "favorite son." Our anchor adds to the love-fest, name dropping some of his favorite restaurants in the area. "Anderson, next time you want some good Creole gumbo, come to Chez Donna, my house, baby," says Donna. Oh my! I do believe she is flirting. You lead the poor anchor along, but won't allow him to become your boo? Oh Donna. Such a tease!

Back with Candy again, she asks Anderson if he would have accepted a request from Donna to dance. Hmm readers, based on the history of forever, what do we think? Slow dance, probably. Anything else? Yeah, not so much. Candy actually seems a bit frightened of the Wolfbot dancing, as she should be.

Anderson reminds us of weird Blitzer facts: "Wolf loves the music, you know. He was in that band when he was a kid. And he claims he was in the original band called The Monkeys. He had a band that he claims predated the actually Monkees. But I'm not sure I believe him." Unlike Micky Dolenz, our anchor is not a believer. Apparently, there is a trace of doubt in his mind. (Monkee puns! Oh, they should pay me extra for this.)

That'll do it. The show was very good tonight. Keep on truckin', 360. We'll be here.

The Public Option Has A Bad Day, Michael Moore Interview, More Polanski, Father Arrested In Japan, Job Scam, And Did You Hear CNN Has An iPhone App?!!

Hi everyone. Anderson Cooper is doing the new standing thing again. It's a nice change of pace, but I hope this isn't part of the solution to fix the ratings. Anyway, we're kicking off things with a recap of health care reform's no good, very bad day. The Senate Finance Committee quashed not one, but two amendments to add the public option to the health care reform bill.

Lest there be any confusion, the Democrats--the people we voted into office to fix health care--are the ones who just shot us in the foot (and that's not covered!). I don't think it can be said enough, but screw Max Baucus. And when I say "screw," I mean something else, but I'm trying to keep this place classy.

According to Candy Crowley, it's not over for the public option, except that it kinda is. She seems to think we'll be getting some sort of public option-lite. Until the proverbial fat lady sings, I'm not giving up hope. Jason Linkins over at Huffington Post isn't as optimistic, but he has a good write up of what happened today, and just why it's so infuriating. For my fellow public option supporters, if your senator is on the finance committee and voted no, tell them they suck! But, you know, politely.

Joining us for discussion of all this, is Michael Moore. Woo! Obviously I'm a bit biased here, but it's always nice to see a real progressive get teevee time. Michael is fired up and ready to go! He's planning on kicking ass and taking names, though actually probably not in that order. Time to challenge some of these spineless Democrats. Normally I'm not really much of a reactionary, but things have gotten ridiculous. If certain Democrats aren't going to deliver on the public option, vote them out.

Anderson seems to be perplexed by this, asking Michael if he'd really campaign for Republicans. Erm, there are these things called primaries that I think we'll start with, thank you very much. Ned Lamont ring a bell? Bueller? Sure, that didn't work out in the end, but it made Lieberman spend his money and gave him quite a scare. Michael stresses that at least two-thirds of Americans support the public option, so exactly who is Congress working for? He calls the public option, "absolutely make or break."

Then there's talk of a single payer system,which is what Michael really wants (as do I). He says that "any intelligent, or even half-intelligent, nation has either a single-payer or a national health care plan." Okay Michael, simmer down there. Needlessly inflammatory statements like that turn people off. But then he makes the very good point that despite all the calls to compromise on the public option, Obama already compromised on health care reform right off the bat by taking single payer off the table. In my opinion, a dumb move.

"Nothing is going to change. Trust me on this one thing," says Michael, referring to a bill without a public option. And I do trust him. Because as he points out, he's been right about basically everything he's been saying over the years. A lot of progressives have. Yet they are consistently marginalized and I am so friggin sick of it. Perhaps the only thing worse than living through a train wreck, is to warn that one's coming and have no one listen to you. A bill without a public option is a massive tax payer funded gift to the insurance companies. It's that simple.

Anderson wants to know why all the public option supporters aren't out at town halls making their voices heard like the opponents. Michael says he's going to do his part to organize people, but notes that probably most Americans thought that after voting in a Democratic president and a super Democratically-controlled Congress, we were kinda, you know, set. Apparently, democracy also requires batshit insane yelling.

Next, the whole vote count thing is brought up. Some senators (coughBaucuscough) are claiming they couldn't vote for today's amendments because they don't have enough votes, which Jason Linkins pointed out in the above-linked piece, is just about the most ridiculous thing ever. Michael thinks this is stupid as well, and puts on his faux "whiny Democrat" voice that I must admit is in of itself a little annoying. But I'm totally down with what he's saying. As Michael notes, this isn't how the Republicans would play this thing. They'd just do it.

"What is wrong with our side of the aisle? Where is the spine? Where is the courage?" he asks. Amen! Why is it presumed we need 60 votes? We don't. We need 51. Democrats like Baucus are really going to join Republicans and vote against cloture? Fine. Call their bluff. Make them do it. As Michael says, let the Republicans have their filibuster. We do not need 60 votes on the bill. If the Democratic caucus can come up with 51 votes for a bill with a public option there is absolutely no reason to surrender.

Moving on to some discussion with David Gergen and Candy Crowley. The Gerg is "mystified" by Michael's emphasis on the public option. I am mystified by how much the Gerg seems to not get it. He concedes that there is approximately 65 percent support among the public for the option, but then just as quickly dismisses the number, noting that you don't find that state by state. I guess we're supposed to assume that senators like Baucus who are in more conservative states are just doing right by their constituents. Yes, that must be it. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the millions he gets from health and insurance interests that are against reform.

More bizarrely, about a couple minutes later, the Gerg notes all the ways that this is now a weak bill. Uh huh. Once again, you can't mandate that people buy insurance and then not put into place anything (public option) to keep those insurance companies honest. Lots of new customers with nothing to keep down costs? I'm thinking those companies are currently saying, "yes, please." There must be a public option.

Transitioning now to talk about Roman Polanski with Jeffrey Toobin and Jeff Berg, Polanski's agent. I think this is just going to be one of those stories I skip. At least they didn't put it up top again.

So hey, did you hear that there's a new CNN iPhone application? No? Well, then you must not watch CNN, read anything on CNN's website, or follow anyone with any connection to CNN on Twitter. Yeah, me thinks there was a "promote me!" memo sent out today, because boy have they ever! And now it's Anderson's turn. So tell us, Anderson, how much is it? "Less than 2 bucks, $1.99. I mean, you can't afford not to get it. Am I right?" he says. Such a steal! Do you think that was painful for him? Eh, what's a little corporate whoring every now and then. Am I right?

We then move on to the case of Christopher Savoie, an American who had two children with a Japanese native. The couple divorced and the agreement was that Noriko (the ex-wife) could take the kids to Japan for the summer, but would otherwise live close to Christopher in the states. Things were going according to plan, until one day Noriko took the kids back to Japan. Christopher subsequently alerted police, a warrant was put out, and he was given full custody. He expected to get his kids back, but that's not how it works in Japan.

In fact, when Christopher traveled to the country himself to get his children, he was the one who ended up being arrested. Now he sits in jail, while his ex-wife has his kids. Way uncool. For discussion, we're joined by Jeremy Morley, Christopher's attorney, and his current wife, Amy Savoie. This case is pretty outrageous. I had no idea this was how Japan operates.

On now to a Drew Griffin investigative piece, but I missed some of it, so I think I'm just going to take a pass.

The "shot" tonight is a naked New Yorker with a fanny pack buying a taco from a food stand. There is so much wrong with that sentence I don't know where to begin. First of all, ew, unsanitary! And second, a fanny pack? Nakedness, fine. But a fanny pack? That's just tacky. Anyway, Anderson and Erica Hill share my revulsion and for a second there, I thought we were going to get a bastard version of "Really?!! With Seth and Amy." I think they could totally pull that off. I'd watch it.

Once again, 360 did the whole thing where they drop a good segment into the second hour. Tonight it was an interview with the mothers of those hikers being held in Iran. I'm still comfuzzled as to why they're doing the programming like this. Given the current cable news landscape, I would assume 360 is trying to build a base of loyal viewers. Yes, CNN gets mad ratings when events happen, but Michael Jackson can't always die. Cable news has changed significantly even since 360 has been on the air.

So...given that the segments they are dumping seem to be subjects that loyal viewers would actually be drawn to, and given that (I'm assuming) appointment viewers are more likely to tune in for the live first hour broadcast, I don't get their reasoning at all. Because hey, I'm a big fan, but even I'm not going to watch almost two hours of the same thing every night. The only reason I caught the segment tonight is because Colbert had a commercial. But, anyway, I guess they have their reasons.

The show was an improvement from last night.

More Discussion Of The Tea Party Protests, Interview With Barney Frank, Annie Le Case Update, Border Funding Bungle, And An Overly Honest Doctor

Hi everybody. Anderson Cooper is coming at us from Los Angeles tonight. I know this because he actually tweeted (gasp!), but he did not elaborate. So your guess is as good as mine. Choose your own rumor! Kidding. Okay, so you know how Jimmy Carter got everyone worked up into a lather when he said racism was behind the tea party movement? Well, the news cycle is just about at that point where things quiet down. So you know what we need? Something to ratchet it back up. Enter Nancy Pelosi.

Today she got a little teary when she noted that all this anti-Obama rhetoric is very reminiscent of what she saw in San Francisco in the late 70's, which is a reference to the assassinations of Harvey Milk and George Moscone. I think we all know what happens next in this play. Occupying the role of the Republican who is angry she would even say such a thing, is Minority Leader John Boehner. So that was fun. And the news cycle has red meat for at least one more day.

A Candy Crowley piece breaks it all down. We know the drill: Socialists! Nazis! Racists! Oh my! The president doesn't want anything to do with it, and no one is actually talking about health care. This is where we are now. I don't understand why people have to get so defensive when race is brought up. I haven't heard anyone say that everyone who opposes the president is a racist. If you think you have legitimate gripes, well fine, we're not talking about you. Though one does wonder about people who claim not to be racist, yet get overly defensive when the subject is brought up.

Next up, Barney Frank is here for the "360 Interview" (there's a graphic and everything!). He starts off by talking about the assassinations Pelosi alluded to and notes he wouldn't have made the comparison. All I can think is that I really should rent "Milk" sometime. Then Frank gives us a little history lesson in partisan politics, laying most of the blame for our current situation on Newt Gingrich's doorstep. Apparently the Newster felt that the only way the Republicans could ever win was to demonize the opposition. Says a lot about their policies, doesn't it? And here we are.

Frank goes on to talk about the faith that has been lost in our country's institutions, such as the financial sector and the news media. People get their information from partisan sources now. When you can't even agree on basic facts, what can you agree on? "You guys are more in the middle, but you're in the minority in being sort of in the middle," says Frank, referring to CNN. Anderson is all over this one. "Tell me about it," he says. Aw, the Silver Fox needs a cyber high five, y'all. (Though in my opinion, CNN's problems are just as much their own doing, as they are due to competing against partisan networks.)

For our requisite panel tonight, we once again play a rousing game of "which of these people don't really seem to belong?" Barney Frank sticks around and we're joined by David Gergen, Republican Congressman Mike Rogers, and Deepak Chopra. We're back to the racism deal and we begin with Rogers, but he pretty much says what you'd assume he'd say. The Gerg reiterates his point from last night that the racism is only on the fringes. Then he starts talking about Lincoln and the negative way he was portrayed, ending with, "And it's important to remember what happened to Lincoln in April of 1865." Um, wow. There's no follow up here, which is a shame because I think the Gerg just implied something pretty big. Maybe I'm misreading.

It's Deepak's turn now and he goes from talking about the moving goal posts of reform, to the fear people feel, to how end of life care extends suffering, to all the money spent on unnecessary tests, to how there are more health care lobbyists in Washington than Congresscritters. Wow, that was quite a trip we just took. I mean, all good points and all, but quiet the mouthful. Anderson then flips the subject to Frank's totally awesome instructional video on how you deal with a crazy person.

Following the clip, Frank explains that the woman who asked the question was a LaRouche. If you're not familiar, consider yourself lucky. "I ran against one who said that Queen Elizabeth was a drug dealer. My response was that I didn't think she dressed nearly well enough to be a drug dealer," he says. I love it that the Gerg and Anderson are the ones who get a kick out of this the most. Frank then makes probably the most important point about this whole thing thus far, which I'm not sure a lot of people are getting: "There is a reluctance on the part of mainstream politicians to repudiate the angriest and least rational and least logical and unfairest people in their own wing."

This is the problem with the debate in a nutshell. As I've noted numerous times, there are legitimate reasons for people to be wary about reform, but the debate is being driven by the crazies. Why? As Frank says, "The conservatives were very happy to let them go out and attack Democrats." Both sides have their fringes, but at this point the difference seems to be that the Democrats keep their fringe on the fringe, while the Republicans are allowing theirs to represent mainstream conservatives. Example: the Daily Kos is viewed as a far left blog by many, but Truthers and 2004 election conspiracists are not welcome there. Whereas Glenn Beck, who literally tells his followers Obama is creating his own army, is seen as a leader.

Okay, so this brings us to Rogers, who admonishes Frank for not calling out Code Pink during the Bush years. Except uh, according to Frank he totally did (even threatened to have police remove them), and boy is he not happy about this accusation. Rogers also talks about how the protesters are just average people who are scared. Well, of course they're scared; you let people keep telling them that Obama wants to kill grandma. The evilness of government sticking their nose in health care is also brought up. "You mean the same people that couldn't get water to Katrina...," says Rogers. Oh no, he didn't. A Republican is using Katrina as a political football? WTF? When Obama makes some horse guy head of FEMA, then you can talk. Until then, zip it. That's enough of that.

Transitioning now to me changing the channel and then forgetting I've changed the channel. You ever do that? Anyway, when I remember what show I'm watching and flip back to 360, Tom Foreman is there live to talk about the arrest of Raymond Clark in the murder of Yale student Annie Le. We're then joined by Lisa Bloom and stalking expert Rhonda Saunders for speculation. Seriously, Rhonda even flat out admits that's what they're doing: "And right now I think everything is pure speculation. We really don't know." Yep. So the point of this segment is...? Next time I hear Anderson talk about how much he likes facts, I'm going all Joe Wilson on his ass. (With love, of course.)

On now to some actual reporting...from Drew Griffin. Yay? Yes people, I have issues with this reporter. Search my archives if you want some background. Essentially this piece is about two border crossings to nowhere. Nowhere, I guess, being Canada. Love you Canada! Anyhoo! Up in Montana they have a couple of these crossings that see very little traffic, but are getting themselves a $15 million upgrade. Sweet! How little traffic are we talking? Like under 20 vehicles per day. This is illustrated to us by having Drew sit in the middle of the road. See how he can sit there and there are no cars? Clearly no one would have understood this situation without that demonstration.

Drew tells us that once the Democrats took over Congress, the two senators in Montana--Baucus and Tester--became mighty powerful. So, of course, the implication is that this is a big old porky gift to the state of Montana. And hey, that's probably the truth. It certainly looks like it. Unfortunately, I have absolutely no trust in Drew's reporting, so there's that. After Drew's piece, he tells us North Dakota's Byron Dorgan sent Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano a note about the situation and now things are on pause. Hopefully the upgrade gets kaboshed if things are really as bad as they seem.

Next up, we have a Gary Tuchman piece that continues the series on medical malpractice. We meet cardiologist Lester Dyke, a surgeon who likes to speak his mind and is unafraid of becoming unpopular among his peers. That last part is a good thing because his opinion is not going down well with the medical community. See, while most doctors point their fingers at trial lawyers when it comes to the problem of high medical costs, Dr. Dyke has his finger trained on his own colleagues. He claims doctors are putting money-making above patient care. Whoa. Now that's guts. As you might imagine, his referrals? Yeah, not so good these days.

For the other side, we also hear from gastroenterologist Carlos Cardenas, who denies that Dr. Dyke has been blacklisted for his comments. These men practice in McAllen, a very poor county in Texas, yet home of the second highest health care costs in the nation. Says Dr. Dyke: "The doctors are able to profit not just from being physicians like we have traditionally, but by ordering tests on equipment that they own or X-rays on equipment that they own, or sending patients to facilities that they own or have a financial interest in." Now that sounds like something that needs a big investigation.

But Dr. Cardenas says he thinks the county does extra testing--or utilization, as he calls it--because the patients are sicker. It's an interesting debate. This has been a good series. I wish they were doing their whole "dig deeper" thing on this stuff instead of giving us panels filled with speculation.

For the "shot" tonight, Susan Boyle is baaaack. Meh. I'm over her. The show was okay. They're starting to become too panel-focused again, but at least Anderson is doing actual interviews now. Also, in case I forget to pimp tomorrow, Jack Gray will be live-blogging the Emmys this Sunday. All the cool kids will be there! If you're not familiar with Jack Gray, grab some chicken fingers, wrap yourself in a Snuggie, and click on his name in my links. That'll do it.

Update: I'm getting lots of hits on Gary's story. Here's the video for those interested.

Apparently America Is Not Post-Racial Quite Yet, Updates On the Garrido And Annie Le Cases, And The Physician Side Of The Medical Malpractice Issue

Hi everyone. No point in small talk. Off we go! Anderson Cooper begins by telling us that Jimmy Carter is sticking to his comments from yesterday, that race plays a factor in all these tea party protests against Obama. You know, I thought we had solved this whole racism thing a few months ago when Obama tossed one back with a cop and a professor. Who would have guessed that wouldn't do the trick?

In a Candy Crowley piece, we get a recap of how we got to here. Remember how yesterday I said that mixing a former president with accusations of racism equals one big media freak out? Welcome to the freak out, already in progress. For the record, the Obama camp won't touch this thing with a 10 foot pole. They know better than to agree with Carter, lest they hear shrieks that the prez is playing the race card. What he thinks privately, however? Well, I guess we're going to need another off-the-record leak to find out who else the commander in chief thinks is a jackass.

For our requisite panel discussion, we're joined by David Gergen, Roland Martin, conservative activist Nic Lott, and singer John Legend. The lineup sorta makes me feel like I'm playing a game of guess which one doesn't belong. I love John Legend, but I'm not exactly sure why he's on my television right now. Then again, he's intelligent, well spoken, and yes, hella hot (hello!). So I'm not exactly complaining here. I mean, we've got John Legend and no Mark Williams. This is pretty win-win for us.

Roland totally has Carter's back and talks a bit about code words that are used to imply that someone is of the "other." Nic, unsurprisingly has a different view and notes that no racial slurs came from the podium during the protests. Oh well, that's something to brag about. When you have to specify where the racial slurs did not come from, you're not doing so hot. John thinks there's truth to what Carter said, but the comment just inflamed and distracted. Pretty much what I said. Media freak out. Now no one's talking about the real issues. Then John starts saying that he doesn't want a race war, though I'm not sure anyone has actually advocated for one.

Commercial break now and when we come back we learn that Bill Cosby plays for Team Carter. Not sure I would have guessed that. Also, am I the only one that briefly saw NBC's Andrea Mitchell? That would be a weird thing to hallucinate. Anyhoo! The Gerg hits us with some polls that show Carter is not alone. But then he says he thinks that when it comes to most protesters, the racism charge is libelous. "Seven previous presidents have tried to bring health care reforms of this kind. All seven have failed. And, as I recall, all seven were white," he says. Yes, but talk to the protesters and they'll tell you this is not just about health care reform.

John says that he believes there is some racism going on, but also talks a bit about the legitimate fear of government intervention. Hey there, mister. Quit being so reasonable. This show already has a Gerg. Anderson brings up the Nazi signs that people had under Bush and tries to equate it with what's happening now. I don't think it's the same. It sounds terrible, but Hitler/Nazi accusations are like a default these days. If they were just calling Obama a Nazi (and I hate that we're at a place where I'm using the word "just" in that sentence), I wouldn't be as disturbed. This goes beyond that.

Nic claims that the majority of the protesters have legitimate concerns and the crazies are just a small fringe. This is what drives me nuts. You know what, there are legitimate concerns to be had. But we're not hearing about reasonable people working with Obama to alleviate fears over deficit spending. No. These protesters are screaming about how Obama wants to kill your grandma and turn us all socialist. They are not credible people and they are clearly not interested in doing anything that doesn't involve destroying the president's agenda. For Pete's sake, one of the tea party organizers called him a "racist in chief."

John brings up the idiocy of Rush Limbaugh and Nic counters that he's not a legislator. "Rush Limbaugh is a legitimate mainstream conservative," says John. Bingo. Nic again tries to dismiss, by saying Rush didn't march. Um, wasn't the whole 9-12 thing the brain child of Glenn Beck, a man who has said that the president has a hatred for white people? A man who is clearly batshit insane? (Seriously, I watched his show a couple weeks ago and it was one of the craziest things I'd ever seen.)

Anderson then explains the Rush incident that John brought up. Apparently there's a video of white kids beating the crap out of black kid and Rush basically chalked it up to it now being open season on white kids. You know, because Obama is president or something. For the record, it appears it was kids just generally being idiots, which I'm told happens sometimes. Nic doesn't agree with Rush's comments, but then says he might have been joking. What?! "Oh, no, he wasn't joking," says John, adding that Rush speaks for a lot of conservatives.

To wrap up, Nic, David, and John all seem to agree that we are not a racist country at heart. However, John notes that Carter was talking about a certain fringe that is racist and he shouldn't be demonized for saying so. Amen. Now can we please try to find our way to sanity? No? Well okay then.

Transitioning now to the news that bones have been found on the Garrido property, which, actually, I thought we already knew. Testing will have to be done to figure out if they're human. For discussion, we're joined by criminal pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht and former FBI agent and profiler Candice DeLong. You all know I'm not really into the speculation. Anderson seems to push the theory that the other missing girl case really matches Jaycee's, but Candice talks him down. Good for her. There just aren't enough facts yet.

We then switch to the Annie Le case and learn that the cause of death was strangulation. Pretty horrible. In a Tom Foreman piece, we get a sorta profile of Raymond Clark, a person of interest. Tom does the whole lame talk-to-the-neighbors thing. Seems pretty pointless to me. Also, at this point I hope this really is a bad guy because otherwise he's kinda having his life ruined right now.

Then we're back for more speculation with the prior guests, but I've had enough and skip out to MSNBC. Sorry guys. That's how I roll now. Anyway, when I come back, Erica Hill is wrapping up a piece about another Yale murder and how they jumped the gun with the suspect. Afterward, she gives us a little "where is he now" with info she got from his LinkedIn profile, which I find amusing. You think of journalists with their fancy sources and whatnot, but nope, sometimes they're just Googling just like you.

Our final piece of the night is from Randi Kaye and it continues this week's medical malpractice series. Tonight we meet OBGYN Dr. Wendy Fried. Her malpractice insurance clocks in at about $170,000 a year. Um, wow. Apparently her specialty is sued a lot. She had her turn in 1998 when a patient suffered a uterine rupture that required an emergency hysterectomy. Mom and baby made it, and it seemed like everyone was happy--Dr. Fried was even invited to their Christmas dinner.

But then she was slapped with a lawsuit because the patient felt the hysterectomy was unnecessary. In the end the jury found that Dr. Fried did nothing wrong. But that didn't resolve her feelings of betrayal--she had slept at the patient's bedside, and it's led to her practicing defensive medicine. So there we go. Another side to a complicated issue. This is a good series. Too bad they're dropping it at the end of the show like they don't care.

The "shot" tonight is adorable. Just watch. The show was okay. Same old, same old.

RIP Patrick Swayze, Tea Partier Mark Williams' Craziness Causes Unintential Hilarity, Annie Le Murdered, And Bonus Kanye West On Leno

Hi everybody. Well, the 360 kids have made it back stateside safe and sound and for that I am thankful. Now only if we could get the same quality coverage in studio that we got out in the field. Eh, a blogger can dream. Though not a huge Jay Leno fan, I have to admit, I was a little curious about his debut tonight, so I did some flipping. You have been warned.

We kick things off with the God-awful annoying "breaking news" graphic telling us that Patrick Swayze has succumbed to pancreatic cancer, which of course is very sad. Way, way too young. In an Anderson Cooper piece we're given Swayze's career highlights: "Dirty Dancing," "Ghost," "Red Dawn," "The Outsiders," "Point Break," "To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar." He had a good career. "Ghost" and "Point Break" are two of my favorites.

Barbara Walters then calls in to talk about the interview she did with Swayze after his diagnosis. This all kinda feels excessive to me. It's always strange to see how celeb deaths rate when it comes to news coverage. A bigger news day he might have just been a headline. Anyway, we learn that Swayze was a Texas cowboy who loved his horses, which leads Anderson to share an amusing colloquialism he first heard from Reagan: "there's something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man." Interesting.

Next up, Erica Hill tells us what people have been saying about Swayze online, but I totally turned to Leno and watched a musical car wash number. Sorry. Then we're joined by Dr. Anton Bilchik for the medical angle. Because we always have to have the medical angle. It's pancreatic cancer. What is there to say? It's deadly and the symptoms are subtle. Kinda a bitch.

Transitioning now to tea party coverage. But before you get your "woo hoo" on, it ain't that kind of party. Candy Crowley gives us the low down in a piece. On September 12, angry citizens took to the DC streets and opened a can of crazy on America. Oh my was it ever crazy. The gist of their message? Government bad! Oh, and Obama is a Nazi. But are they racist? Um, hello! Yes. Not all, but yes, some of them are clearly having a bit of an issue with the country being led by a black man. Once again, no mention of Glenn Beck (who basically orchestrated this thing) by CNN. I wonder if that's a policy or something.

Now it's time for the fun part. For discussion, we're joined by David Gergen, James Carville, and tea party organizer Mark Williams. I'm a little torn about again seeing Mark on my television screen. After all, he's essentially just a dude who hates the president. Why should we listen to him? Not to mention the fact that it appears CNN is breaking their own policy to have him on. But then again, he comes off so poorly that it's almost like CNN is giving him the rope to hang himself. So yes, stick him on TV and let him represent the opposition. Please.

Anderson begins by noting that the protests may have been bigger than liberals would have guessed. Um, really? Because I heard they were at most about 70,000 people, which is a pretty small percentage of the population and not even as large as anti-war protests. And we all remember how those protests totally stopped the Iraq war. Oh, wait.

Anyway, Anderson goes on to wonder if maybe this is really about people being mad their presidential candidate didn't win. Mark brushes that off and says the protesters are "working stiffs" who are being called "Nazis" by their government. Um, come again? WTF is he talking about? Who in the government is calling people Nazis? Perhaps he is confusing that with the last government calling the opposition "morally or intellectually confused." THAT actually happened.

OR maybe he's confusing the government with himself, because Anderson is all, um, actually you're the one that called Obama a Nazi. Mark flat out denies the charge, which leads Anderson to note that it's on his website. Ha! The Internets never lie, Mark! But it turns out his site doesn't call Barack Obama a Nazi. It calls "Mubarak Hussein Obama" a Nazi. You see how that's different? Do you?! Also, Mark wants us to know that Obama is "taking the seeds of socialism planted by George W. and fertilizing them and watering them until they go into full bloom" Zoh my God the president is gardening! The horror!

Since Mark claims to have been against Dubya's socialist seeding as well, Anderson asks if he protested back during that administration. Mark assures us he did. I call BS. This would be the perfect time for 360 to be all, "oh really?" and then whip out a clip of him praising 43, Daily Show-style. Now, of course you can't prove a negative. But one wonders why this wasn't all researched beforehand. That wasn't a question asked for the viewer's benefit. It's clear that Anderson does not know the answer.

The floor finally gets thrown to James, who acknowledges that a lot of people turned out, but is disgusted by their behavior. Specifically the signs that read, "Bury Obamacare with Kennedy." Classy, no? Mark tries to argue that only three people had those signs, but James notes it was confirmed by CNN that they numbered in the thousands. Then Mark tells James he needs to get out and see America. Because obviously the true Americans agree with Mark. See how that works?

Anderson then turns to our favorite voice of reason. Bring us home to sanity-land, David! "I think that, Anderson, we're going off the rails here in some of these demonstrations," he tells us. Looks like it's been one too many Nazis for our Gerg. He even wonders if the country's partisanship is becoming ungovernable. Mark finds this outrageous, noting that in the 60's we had cities in flames. And the Gerg is like, um, yeah, everyone sane condemned that. Yet here's Mark standing up for the crazies. Even James is like, hey, if you want to align yourself and the Republican party with people who scream "you lie!" at the president, then get on with your bad self.

Next Anderson gives us a little Maureen Dowd, noting that he's sure Mark reads her column "religiously." Dowd thinks the protests have an undercurrent of racism. Yeah, they do. But Mark of course dismisses this, pointing out that he's seen "exactly three" of those "witchdoctor signs" during his travels. Three again. What a coinky-dink. Like celebrity deaths, I guess offensive Obama signs always come in threes. Anyway, Mark thinks those fringe people are "no more part of mainstream America than are the hippies who wear nipple clips and feather boas in San Francisco's streets during so-called peace demonstrations." Um, nipple clips and feather boas are racist?

Anderson throws Mark a bone and says that he understands his argument here, but notes that on his website he calls Obama "an Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug and a racist in chief." And this is where your blogger loses it. You can't even be mad at this point; it's just too freakin insane. Just sit back and laugh at the WTFery, people. For the record, Mark is full on embracing the crazy, which reduces poor Anderson to having to ask if he really thinks Obama is an Indonesian Muslim. (And I love the little eyebrow cock--even Mr. Opinionless Sleeves can't deal with this BS.) I'm practically falling out of my chair at this point. The fact that Carville is currently laughing his ass off as well isn't helping.

But the Gerg apparently still thinks this guy is worth getting angry about. "You think he's a racist in chief? Racist in chief? Is that what you called him? That's unbelievable," he says. Aw, it's gonna be okay, Gerg. The crazy cannot be reasoned with. Anyway, Mark continues to cling to his whole "working class American" meme because, obviously, Obama supporters don't work and aren't really American.

Anderson tries to wrestle us back into reality by bringing up a quote from conservative David Frum. Even he thinks things have gotten out of hand. Well, this is what happens when you let the Sarah Palins of the world define your party. I think it's about time to wrap this all up. There's some more back and forth and Mark tells James, without irony, that it's hard to take him seriously when he's acting "irrational." Yes, we wouldn't want anyone to start acting irrational.

Mark also goes off about the "corporate takeover of D.C." Which is why he wants to protect insurance companies? Uh huh. Bottom line, Obama is the change that millions of us voted for. It's not our fault Mark isn't part of that group. You can see the second half of this whole exchange here. Also, apparently Mark was not happy about his appearance, which he relays in a blog post here, calling his segment, "perhaps the most outrageous thing to come out of CNN’s AC360." Well he's sorta right.

Interestingly, this post has been edited. If you do a Google blog search, you will see that he originally portrayed his segment as a "three against one," even saying that Anderson ganged up on him. The new version just focuses on David and James. Afraid of the wrath of Cooper? Too bad the Internets never forget.

Ok, time to watch Kanye West on Leno. Last night at the VMA's he stormed the stage and stole Taylor Swift's moment, confirming to the world he's a total ass. Now he's chatting with Jay. Awwwkward. I flip over just in time to see him take the chair. Leno has gotten softer in his new time slot. Instead of doing a Hugh Grant, "What the hell were you thinking?" he goes all Barbara Walters and almost makes Kanye cry by asking what his late mom would think about the situation. Now, normally I would totally be manipulated by this, but no! He's been acting like a total ass since BEFORE his mom died and now he's going to use that as an excuse? That's some stone cold douche-baggery there.

Back to CNN, we're in the middle of a Tom Foreman piece on that missing Yale co-ed, Annie Le. Except she's not missing anymore. She's dead. Very sad.

Erica Hill has the "360 Bulletin" and hey, guess who we're talking about again? Kanye. "I actually watched just the beginning of that, because the rest of it was pretty much unwatchable. I felt so bad for her," says Anderson. This kinda cracked me up because I did exactly the same thing. When did MTV become so unwatchable? I barely even knew who Taylor Swift was before last night. I only turned it on because people were talking about it on Twitter. Everything is infinitely better when there are people to bitch with online. How do you think I got through any of Bush's State of the Unions? Anyway, we also get played the requisite Obama/Kanye mashup. C'mon, like you didn't know that was coming.

The "shot" tonight is the classic SNL Chippendales skit with Patrick Swayze and Chris Farley. Two entertainers both taken too early.

The show was just okay. Hopefully they're still getting back into their studio groove. I guess we'll see.

Live From Afghanistan Day Four And Representative Joseph Wilson Is A Massive Tool

Hi everyone. A slight change-up tonight: Anderson Cooper is coming at us from Marine Forward Operating Base Geronimo. He's also coming at us from THE FUTURE! In Afghanistan, it is currently the morning of September 11th. Eight years. It seems longer. It seems like yesterday. Anyway, Anderson does his whole update, previewing spiel of which we've grown accustomed. Actually, he cuts in and out like that throughout the first half of the show, but your blogger here doesn't feel like getting all detail-y, so our anchor's just going to have to cool his heels for a bit. Catch you later dude.

On to the politics! Ok, I think at this point everybody and their momma knows that South Carolina representative Joseph Wilson decided to play crazy town hall person during Barack Obama's address to Congress. The Republican's outburst of "you lie!" was rightfully met with an immediate "oh no he din't!" among the sane of the nation. In a Joe Johns piece, we get a clip of Wilson's apology. Well, that is, if you define "apology" as something the party leadership made him do.

In explaining the situation, Joe tells us that "President Obama made a debatable claim that illegal immigrants would not be insured in his health care reform plan." Um, debatable? No, not debatable. In fact, easily fact-checked. Wilson was WRONG. In Joe's defense, he later acknowledges this fact while talking to us live, which makes the line in the piece all the more troubling.

Another troubling aspect of this piece is that we're told Wilson lost his cool on C-SPAN when a Democrat claimed the US sold weapons to Iraq, but we're not told whether or not the Democrat was right. He (basically) was. Anyway, while the Republican leadership might have metaphorically sent Wilson to the corner, the crazy base is in full on support mode. They even have t-shirts. No, I'm not kidding. And I fully support the effort. I am always behind anything that makes the demonstrably stupid identifiable by sight alone.

Suddenly, Wolf Blitzer is on my television. Oh, what the hell? See, this is why I call him the Wolfbot. The guy is ALWAYS there. You can't tell me he's not a robot. Anyhoo! He's got himself a panel consisting of Candy Crowley, Roland Martin, and tea bagger--ahem--tea party organizer, Mark Williams. The Wolfbot asks Mark if he agrees with Wilson. Surprise, surprise, he does. According to him, Wilson "absolutely spoke the truth." Then he starts talking about court battles and how illegal immigrants already get covered and Obama can't stop that and blah blah.

So really, this has nothing to do with the bill. This is about being pissed off at the status quo, yet hating Obama, and wanting to destroy anything he proposes. Blitzer then throws this nonsense to Roland, instead of flat out telling Mark he's full of crap, which he is. This is one of CNN's biggest weaknesses. Not everything is a debate with equal sides. WILSON IS WRONG. Why is this so hard?

Pausing this ridiculousness, we're joined by Dana Bash who has the low down on the meeting Obama just had with 17 conservative Democratic senators. They're saying it sounds like Obama is willing to negotiate on the public option. No offense Dana, but please go away because you are making me sad.

Back to our panel, Mark has just been asked if he thinks John McCain is a liar as well, given that he agrees with the POTUS. Predictably, he dodges and changes the subject. What does he change it to? Socialism of course! Good lord. This is pretty much where I stop listening. But there is one more noteworthy exchange. Mark says there is nothing he likes about Obama's plan and Roland asks if that includes the provision to ensure coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.

Mark acts like he'll be able to find coverage no matter what, which indicates he doesn't know anything about this subject. "You're not going to find them, Mark. They're not going to cover you," says Roland. To which Mark replies, "Well, there is probably a good reason, because it's a bad risk." "Wow," says Roland. Exactly. I mean, seriously, wow. Probably a self-described Christian too. Roland then asks if he would still feel that way if his wife got sick. Mark tries to dodge and then goes with the lame excuse that in the private sector a company would form to take on high risk cases. Um...when? He realizes this already happens, right? What planet is this man from? I am so done with this.

Transitioning now to an Anderson piece in which he goes out on a joint patrol with the Marines and the Afghan National Army. Assisting the Afghans is rough going for the Marines. First of all, there are a limited number of interpreters (aren't you glad we kicked out all those evil gay linguists?!) and the Afghans, quite frankly, aren't up to Marine-level snuff. They go into villages that they know have Taliban, but the locals will deny it because trust is low.

Although one man they meet does give them info (and CNN thankfully blurs his face). Anderson asks him if he trusts the Marines and he says he does. Hey, I have a question: WHERE IS YOUR HELMET, SILVER FOX?! Ok, I'm better now. It's just that in that clip he was the only one (besides the locals) not wearing one. Later, we see some of the Marines with theirs off too and I don't feel quite as shouty. Also, there's a bit of excitement of the nail-biting variety when someone throws a flare and the Marines have to snap into action. (They find nothing.) Everything is scary in Afghanistan.

Moving on now to a taped discussion with Peter Bergen and Michael Ware regarding why we're even in the country. Many Americans no doubt think it's to hunt down Al Qaeda, but that's not really an issue. Peter notes, however, that the Taliban have adopted a lot of Al Qaeda's technique, IEDS being a major one. He seems to subscribe to the theory that if we leave, the Taliban could take over and once again harbor Al Qaeda.

Michael calls that a big assumption and sounds pretty skeptical about the whole premise. So...I still pretty much have no idea why we're there. If it is about fear of Al Qaeda organizing, why Afghanistan? They can set up shop in any unstable country (and have). Are we going to invade all of them? We really want to do Somalia again? And if it's not about Al Qaeda, then what is it about? Ok, so we're nation building. Why that nation and what do we want it to look like when we're done? The debate of Afghanistan has barely begun. Also? We still don't know where the frick Bin Laden is.

Next up, we have a Sanjay Gupta piece on little toddler, Malik, the boy who fell down a cliff and suffered a hematoma. As reported previously, Special Forces choppered him to a military hospital, where he underwent surgery to relieve pressure on his brain. Now he's improved enough to go home, but doing so is not an easy task. He lives in the remote mountains where a helicopter cannot land, so he is taken to a primitive clinic.

From there they will have to carry him home. Yes, carry. Malik's prognosis is good, but the docs are going to need to do some mountain climbing for home visits. It makes me proud that people from the U.S. would do that to provide a little Afghan boy with the health care he needs. It's also kinda ironic given the current debate in this country.

After Sanjay, Anderson is talking to us, but we can't hear him. They subsequently play b-roll and we hear an urgent whispered, "what's going on?" I don't know. What is going on? Sorry, 360, but sometimes you make your technical difficulties amusing.

The "shot" tonight is Anderson talking with some members of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines. We hear from Zachary Bennett, Mark Scozer, Kyle Campbell, Shane Brandon, and Isabella the IED dog. Ok, we don't actually hear from her, but you get the drift. Stay safe guys.

The show was pretty good, though I'm sure you can tell I thought the political coverage was a tad lacking. Oh CNN, will you ever learn? Probably not.

Live From Afghanistan Day Three And Analysis Of Obama's Address To Congress Regarding Health Care Reform

Hi everyone. Anderson Cooper kicks things off from Patrol Base Jaker with a little sum up of the patrol he went on today. Then he shows us a shot of Michael Ware and Sanjay Gupta, before completely switching subjects to health care and throwing us back to the states, where we're suddenly looking at The Best Political Team on Television (TBPTOT). Hey guys, long time no see. So anyway, we're all over the place! I realize I'm probably the only loser out there actually taking notes of this broadcast, but a little less schizophrenia would make my job easier. Okey-dokey?

Also? Aw, our anchor is tired. How do I know? Well, because when he tells us that Barack Obama is taking "ownership" of health care reform, "ship" is not how he ends that word. This leads us into an "extended" clip of Obama's address tonight. I thought the speech was very good, but I would have liked to hear him say the public option is a must. Mandates with no accountability is just a massive giveaway to the insurance industry.

Following the clip, Anderson gives things over to John King (sans Magic Wall-gasp!) for some TBPTOT-wrangling. The snap polls are out already (they don't call them 'snap' for nothing, people!) and things look good for Obama. But Candy Crowley grabs the position of parade-rainer, reminding us that Bill Clinton saw similar numbers after his address. And we all know how that turned out. Plus the poll is only of those who watched the address.

David Gergen doubts any minds were really opened tonight and I'd probably have to agree. It's not like the death panel camp is going to be all, "we were so wrong!" Ed Rollins is skeptical about Obama's claims regarding paying for reform, and again, I don't hear anything to disagree with. I don't really believe that reform won't add to the deficit. The difference with me is that I don't care, or rather, I think health care reform is more important.

Jumping back to Afghanistan, Anderson intros another clip, this time of Obama correcting falsehoods. Then we're flung back to the studio with TBPTOT and Paul Begala talks about how the address actually shored up Democratic support. John King notes that Obama called the death camps a lie, actually using the word "lie." Isn't it awesome when someone calls a spade a spade? Our media should try it once in a while themselves.

Then the convo moves on to the big buzz of the night, which was South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson screaming "you lie!" when Obama said his health care plan did not cover illegal immigrants. I mean, seriously, WTF? This isn't a town hall, dude. A few things: first, I don't think any of TBPTOT actually mention his name, which is weird. Second, oh my God, did you see Pelosi's face? I wasn't paying attention to her when I initially watched the speech, but that was some reaction. And it's probably hard for her to react to anything. I mean, I'm not saying Botox, but, uh,...yeah.

Later we learn that Wilson apologized, which is good, but he's still been branded one of the crazies of the Bachmann/Palin variety as far as I'm concerned. Oh, and in case you're wondering, according to David Gergen, no, Obama's statement was not a lie. We're then shown a clip of the Republican's rebuttal, given by Congressman Charles Boustany, who made such an impression that I had to go look up his name because I had already forgotten it by the time I sat down to blog. He's no Kenneth the Page.

Paul then talks a little bit about the bone Obama threw Republicans regarding malpractice reform and the political coverage wraps up with Tom Foreman, the poor sap charged with reading through the White House online forum. "In the end, there was plenty of talk about Nazis and socialism," he tells us. I'll bet. Just call "Godwin" and you win!

Anderson again. Again telling us what they will be showing us, which is basically what he's been doing every time we see him. C'mon guys. It's time to actually show us what you'll be showing us. Viewers are going to start to feel jerked around. Anyway, then we're off to Erica Hill with the day's headlines, one of which is the hijacking of that Mexican airliner. Good on them for just giving us the facts. Another night I could see endless segments of speculation. You regular viewers know what I'm talking about. One of their Achilles' heels.

Also? Ellen Degeneres on American Idol next season? I did not see that one coming. Erica takes the opportunity to do a little teasing of the Silver Fox: "I don't have any details on whether or not she will be judging some of the dancing portions. But, you know, maybe you could get in on that. Just a thought." Our non-dancing anchor has no comment.

On the way out to commercials, they're starting to show messages from the troops to back home. Sweet idea. A non sweet idea is the massive overplaying of their special Afghanistan graphic. Moderation kids. Try it. After some pics of illumination rounds being fired the night before, Anderson gives us some info about the raid performed by British commandos to rescue "New York Times" reporter Stephen Farrell and his translator.

Both were taken hostage on Saturday. Unfortunately the translator and a British commando were killed. Translators--or fixers--are sometimes treated as afterthoughts in the press. But they have names and they have stories. Meet Sultan Munadi. He just lost his life.

Moving on now to a Sanjay Gupta piece in which he tags along with an elite medical DUSTOFF crew--those charged with transporting a patient to the hospital. It's a tough job and the clock is always ticking because they only have an hour before the patient bleeds to death--the golden hour. The run Sanjay goes on is an effort to save two Afghan locals, who in the end will survive. The operation is led by Sergent Nate Dabney, father of three boys. It's sad he has to be away from them. Following Sanjay's piece, he gives us another update on the two-year-old we met on Monday. He's walking now (with assistance)!

Next up, we have a clip of Anderson in a vehicle in full on protective gear, including helmet. He explains that he's in the lead vehicle of a convoy on their way back from patrol. It's a slow dangerous process given that they're returning on the same road they used originally. Taliban could be waiting for them. In fact, we're later told that a short time after this clip was filmed, an IED was exploded on that very road. Man, the 360 kids are a lucky bunch. Let's hope they stay that way.

In a subsequent Anderson piece, he gives us a tour of Patrol Base Jaker, which houses about 50 marines at any given time. It is a place that can get to 120 degrees and the only AC around is the guy we're looking at. Food is all MRE's, which come with a bonus side of moon dust, the stuff that coats everything. Entertainment consists of working out with old weights and if you want to golf? Well, welcome to world's biggest sand trap.

As for the bathroom facilities, Anderson points us to a pipe sticking out of the ground without further explanation. "Well, it's obvious what the pipes are for," he says. Oh my. There are also four communal toilets for, uh, the other. Speaking of which, Anderson also talks with Lance Corporal James Steven whose has the lovely job of burning shit. And yes, I mean that literally. What does he think of his position? "It stinks." You don't say.

At the end of the piece we start to hear from another Marine about what he likes about the base, but they totally cut it off. WTF, guys? So we bounce back and forth between the states and Afghanistan a bunch of times just so Anderson can keep summing up the same info, yet you can't show us the whole piece? I feel bad for the guy that got cut off.

Next up, Peter Bergen explains that we got into this mess that we're in because we tried to fight the war on the cheap. Hm, that sounds familiar. Sigh.

Our final piece of the night is from Michael Ware. He travels to Kandahar, birth place of the Taliban and Michael's home before he moved to Iraq. The whole city is anxious because the Taliban are once again a big presence, which wasn't the case a few years ago. It turns out that Michael is friends with Ahmed Wali Karzai. Yes Karzai, as in brother of Hamid. Man, that Aussie knows everybody. Ahmed is now the leader of the family's tribe. I'm not really familiar with the tribe thing. There's a future piece for you, 360. Anyway, Michael also shows us the aftermath of a bomb blast and it's all pretty depressing.

To leave us with something lighter, the "shot" tonight is Sanjay's quarters and video of him sleeping. We see a snippet of it during a preview, but when it comes time for the actual clip, um, I don't see Sanjay. Did I blink? So...not really sure what happened there. Anderson tells us Sanjay doesn't even know they have the video. Didn't they once show video of him falling too (during Planet in Peril I think)? Boys are so mean.

The show was really good again, though I felt like there was a lot of wasted time tonight regarding teases. But given that they had less than an hour after Obama's speech ended before going live, you can't really fault them too much for rough edges. Keep it up, 360!

Live From Afghanistan Day Two And Domestic Politics

Hi everyone. Anderson Cooper is once again coming at us from Patrol Base Jaker and he updates us on what is turning out to be a craptastic day in Afghanistan. Four Marines were killed on patrol and there was a suicide attack at the airport in Kabul. Also, NATO is admitting that civilians were killed in Friday's bombing and America's General Stanley McChrystal is launching an investigation.

Oh, and no more booze at the command post in Kabul. Why? Well, apparently (though not independently confirmed by CNN) McChrystal's underlings couldn't even answer his questions following the bombing because they were too drunk and/or hungover. Um, what? Anderson then starts intro-ing all the contributors he'll be talking with, but I pretty much miss all the names after he notes that Michael Ware had a close call with a roadside bomb. Um, WHAT?!

We move on to a conversation with Peter Bergen and Candy Crowley. Anderson and Peter talk about the amazing PR disaster of forces being wasted after killing people with airstrikes. "This is a war zone. You shouldn't be drinking," says Peter. You think?

Candy then hits us with the political angle: Afghanistan, I'm afraid the American people just aren't that into you. Thing is though, as Anderson points out, the strategy at this point is looking suspiciously like nation building and well, you need a significant amount of troops for that. In other words, political clusterfuck ahead. It'll match the real one already going on in the country.

So, our president is in a bit of a pickle, especially seeing as though most of the opposition to the war is coming from his own side. Good American that I am, I'd like to help our commander in chief out with a little useful advice: don't lie. Don't manipulate intelligence to support your agenda. Don't hire a PR firm to sell your war--and it is your war now--by manipulating language and plastering the word "victory" everywhere because their focus groups told them people like that. Don't hide behind the troops. Do. Not. Lie. Because we'll know.

Next up, we have a piece from Michael Ware, who if he was a cat, would probably be on his frickin eighth life by now. Michael travels to Kandahar and hooks up with his police chief friend, Mullah Gul Akund, who he hasn't seen in six years. And aw, he's so excited. Given that the guy has been a target of the Taliban for eight years, it's amazing he's even still alive. Michael then goes on patrol with him. In the dead of night. Oh Michael, why you gotta cause a blogger so much stress?

So they're driving and we hear that they're about to enter "the most dangerous place." Oh excellent. And then...kaboom! IED. Michael and the other occupants of the car are okay. According to our crazy Aussie, it detonated a "heartbeat" too soon. Thank God for heartbeats. And thank God for fearless journalists, even if this one is currently giving me an ulcer.

Following Michael's piece, he joins us live and talks a bit about the political limbo Afghanistan finds themselves in due to the apparent election corruption. He tells us the election is a blow to the US, the whole war plan is up in the air, and we don't have enough troops. I think what I love most about Michael is his optimism. Kidding. We need all the realism we can get.

Coming back from commercial, we see a picture of, well, sand. But we hear Anderson talking and then the camera very slowly pans over to him. I know I'm not the only one who began unconsciously motioning with my arm to move the camera. You know, since we can all control shot angles from our living rooms. Just me? Anyway, I guess that was an oops because, um, not really the right time to be getting all artistic with the camera work. Wow, what an irrelevant paragraph I have just typed.

Transitioning now to some domestic politics. Our prez is giving his big address to the joint session of Congress on Wednesday and today he met with Democratic leaders to synchronize their watches. Or something. Ed Henry joins us with the low down. When it comes to the public option, Speaker Pelosi will fight all the way for it, Hoyer (number two guy) doesn't think it's needed, and Obama isn't willing to make it a deal-breaker. Glad to see everyone is on the same page.

Then there's Max Baucus and his bill, which seems to be big on fining everyone, including individuals who don't buy insurance. And the bill has no public option. So basically, there's nothing to keep the insurance companies honest (a co-opt? please.) and then it makes everyone buy insurance from them. Sounds great...if you own an insurance company.

Subject change-up now and Candy is back to talk about Obama's speech to the school children, AKA Commie Chat 2009. They then play us a clip of the indoctrination without a disclaimer. Hide the children! Obama tells the kiddies to work hard and spend time studying. Oh the humanity! So okay, as Anderson and Candy note, pretty basic speech. Maybe even a little--gasp--conservative. I'm really glad we all had that big freakout.

Transitioning back to Afghanistan, Anderson givens us some info regarding life for the Marines in Helmand province, much of which can be found in his blog post from today. (Yes, he actually blogged. I was surprised too.) This intros us into an Anderson piece about sweeping for IEDS. And here I was just getting rid of the ulcer Michael gave me.

Anyway, we meet Lance Corporal Phil Howard who is the point man on patrol, which is basically the most dangerous job, like, ever. If someone's getting blown up, odds are it's going to be him. I remember when IEDS were rare in Afghanistan. Now they're the number one threat. Marines on patrol walk spaced out 10 to 15 meters apart to minimize casualties. And yes, our anchor is walking that way too. IEDS can be anywhere, especially in the brush. We see Anderson take a rather big leap down as he follows the patrol. I'm sure that was fun for the cameraman.

Anderson talks to other Marines as well and they tell him of their efforts to gain the locals' trust. A lot of tea-drinking going on. See, the problem is that the United States has a bit of a history when it comes to Afghanistan and skedaddling. Some of the Marines risking their lives today are now paying for situations that occurred before they were even born. The Afghan people aren't really too keen in choosing sides when they're not sure if one side is going to stick around.

Moving on to a Sanjay Gupta piece, once again from Camp Dwyer. We meet Major Augustus Brown, the only vascular surgeon in the whole country. Um, wow. No pressure there or anything. Major Brown has sacrificed a lot for the people of Afghanistan, including witnessing the birth of one of his children. His six-year-old takes his deployments the hardest, but gave him a little stuffed dog as a good luck charm. Aw.

Camp Dwyer keeps Major Brown busy. They used to see 80 patients per month, but in August they were up to about 230, a number sure to grow. In fact, they're stretched so thin that our own Dr. Gupta was asked to assist. In a way it must suck to be his colleague. It's like, oh, so you're just a brain surgeon. Not ambitious enough for two careers, huh?

Anyway, following his piece, Sanjay tells us that Dr. Brown is a reservist and therefore only required to stay in country for 90 days. But he volunteered for a year. What an amazing guy. I feel for his family though. Sanjay also gives us an update on that two-year-old with a brain injury we met yesterday. So far, so good. Let's hope it keeps on that path.

Finally, the "shot" tonight is a dank, dark, crowded room occupied by men. Sounds kinda seedy doesn't it? But really we're just getting a tour of the living quarters of our anchor and crew. In case my prior description didn't already imply it, Anderson lets us know that it's "kinda smelly" as well. I never would have guessed. This ain't the Hilton that's for sure. There aren't even any chairs. They sit on boxes and containers. This is where they work, eat, sleep, and bathe. Bathe? Where? Never mind. I don't even want to know.

We see producer Charlie Moore and cameraman Neil Hallsworth working at the computer. Oh Charlie Moore, I'm still waiting for you to get on Twitter. Just a little FYI for you to ponder. Anyway! Ms. Erica Hill has been doing the headlines throughout the broadcast and she and Anderson talk about the dust and sand in the country that apparently coats everything. He tells us they try very hard to keep it out of the computers and camera equipment, "but everything else you just kind of give it over to the dust." How very Zen.

I should probably point out that our peeps here were in no way complaining about their quarters because they know the Marines have it much rougher. Just thought I'd note that, lest they look like douches. Anyway, wow, great broadcast. This is CNN done right. More please.