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.

Racism In The Tea Party Movement (With More Craziness From Mark Williams), Joe Wilson Gets Pwned By Congress, And Investigating Medical Malpractice

Hi everybody. We begin once again with the sense-assaulting "breaking news" graphic. Since that seems to be their default show opening now, regardless of what's actually "breaking," I think it would be more productive if I only noted it when they didn't use the thing. Way to make something utterly useless, huh? Anyway, Anderson Cooper tells us we're awaiting a police conference on Annie Le, but we'll get to that in a bit.

Right now we're talking race and politics, with a former president thrown in for good measure. Apparently Jimmy Carter did a little chatting with Brian Williams (BriWi to the cool kids) and he thinks a lot of these tea party people who we've been seeing get their crazy on have an issue with our prez's skin color. Ruh roh. Don't get me wrong, he totally has a case here, but mix racial accusations and a former Democratic president, and you've got all the ingredients needed for a full on news cycle freak out.

To begin said freak out, we're joined by Roland Martin and, oh look, tea partier Mark Williams is back. His appearance last night was quite popular. Given 360's new tendency to ratings pander, and the fact that Mark is clearly a fame whore, you should see my totally shocked face that he is once again on my television screen. Oh well. Buckle up kids, it's gonna get bumpy.

Anderson first gives the floor to Mark, who has to get in his requisite Carter diss. He of course denies the racial accusation, but does admit there is a fringe to his movement. I guess that would be fringe-fringe. Roland, not surprisingly, agrees with Carter, and starts name checking all the people in the conservative movement who have recently said or committed racist acts. Example: Glenn Beck saying Obama has a hatred of white people. It's also noted that threats against Obama are up 400%. I'm actually not sure if that number is accurate, but I would believe it.

Mark thinks that's it's not race that's different about this administration, but that Obama is a big old thief. Taking all our money AND borrowing from China. Wait, how is that different from the last guys? He's also got his undies in a twist over Obama supposedly bowing to the Saudi king or whatever. Um, hello, Bandar Bush ring a bell? All this nonsense goes on while Anderson, I dunno, takes a nap or something. Wake up, Cooper! Finally our anchor cuts in to tell them to stop talking over each other.

Roland then gives a long explanation as to why this is all racist, but I'm not really sure he's selling his point. I suppose that's okay though since Mark is back to freaking out about the socialist gardening he brought up last night. I don't even know what the hell we're talking about anymore. Earth to Anderson. Bueller? Roland asks Mark if he would denounce the witch doctor signs and he says he would. But dude, you called him an "Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug," on your own blog!

Then Mark tries to act like he bears no responsibility for inciting all these wackjobs. Oh, and he implies Roland is a race-baiter. That about wraps it up. "Good discussion," says Anderson. Dude, what have you been watching? So, um, yeah. That was fairly dumb. I take back my comment from yesterday that they should have this joker on to hang himself with his own rope. This is just about sensationalism now. More reporting, less idiocy please. Here's the video, if you're interested.

Speaking of idiocy, today Congress took out their big ruler and smacked Representative Joe Wilson on the wrist. Joe Johns has the latest: Okay, we all remember the "you lie!" incident, right? Well, today the idiot got formally punished. But was it all a waste of time? Joe's semi-snarky copy would imply that it was. I'm pretty meh about the situation. Was it a fairly pointless thing to do when they should be working on more important things? Yes. But I've seen them to do worse. You know, like that whole war thing.

For discussion of this, we're joined by Alex Castellanos and Paul Begala. I'm just going to cut to the good stuff. Alex actually tries to claim that if we're going to censure Wilson, we should also censure Obama, since he also used the word "lie" during his address. Oh. My. God. He can't be serious. Anderson is a bit more awake during this segment and is sporting his trademark "even I can't take this BS" smirk. He points out that, um yeah, Obama was talking about allegations about death panels, which uh, were factually inaccurate. "Are you equating that to some guy, a congressman yelling out at the president?" asks Anderson.

But Alex seems to deny that what Obama said was accurate. This is the problem, nobody can even agree on what's a fact. "Alex is entitled to his own opinion. He's not entitled to his own facts. There are no death panels," says Paul. Booyah! Just keep saying it. Later Paul brings up how Kanye West said Bush didn't care about black people and how Democrats distanced themselves from that statement. Man, that guy is coming up everywhere these days.

Anyway, Alex tries to claim that none of this racial subtext was around before the election, which leads Paul to be all, uh, did you see the Sarah Palin rallies? Seriously, have these Republicans suffered some kind of collective head injury? Next they all talk about the asshattiness of Mark Williams. The segment wraps up with Alex talking fiscal conservatism, a legitimate issue to disagree with the president on. Too bad most of the opposition insists on focusing on insanity.

Transitioning now to Tom Foreman talking about the latest in the Annie Le murder case. He tells us that the police have a person of interest in custody. (The suspect has since been arrested.) For discussion of all this, we're then joined by forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht and criminologist Jack Levin. Why, I'm not quite sure. These kind of things continually frustrate me.

This is a show that defines and prides itself on being fact-based, yet here we are with two segments of speculation. Cyril even goes as far as to peg this as an "if I can't have her, no one can," crime of passion. And he could be right. Or he could be widely widely off the mark. That's the funny thing about spouting shit when you don't know all the facts. The show is better than this, or at least they pretend to be.

From one missing girl to another, we're next joined by Dan Simon, who tells us the cops are searching the Garrido property where Jaycee Dugard was held. They're looking for a link to two other child abductions in the area. One girl looked a lot like Jaycee and was her age, so of course everyone goes, "ah ha!" About 15 years ago two young girls went missing in the St. Louis area and later turned up dead. They were almost the same age with the same blue eyes and blond hair. Parents were freaked that there was a serial kid killer on the loose. There wasn't. The cases weren't connected. Let's not jump the gun here.

Our final piece of the night is from the always awesome Gary Tuchman. He's tackling the subject of medical malpractice and does so by sitting down with two of the nation's top trial lawyers: Les Weisbrod and Todd Smith. The attorneys aren't very big fans of capping malpractice settlements and they don't think it would help costs anyway. I am not shocked that I am hearing this from trial lawyers. Apparently punitive damage malpractice verdicts are way less common than everyone thinks. In fact, Weisbrod claims he's had seven or eight over a 30 year period. What? That doesn't seem right, but wow.

Gary reminds us, however, that settlements are often paid before cases get to a judge. Doctors claim this leads to defensive medicine. Gary brings up his orthopedist friend who "takes care of (his) broken bones." Just how many broken bones has it been? This is because of the roller-blading, isn't it? Anyway! Ortho friend's main sentiment is that sometimes life just sucks even when everyone does their job right. Amen, ortho friend, amen.

My opinion? Um, I agree with everyone! As someone who's seen way more than her share of doctors, I can tell you that sometimes they suck. Like, a lot. And I sure as hell want to retain my right to sue them for everything they're worth (no, I never have). I can also tell you that they do put patients through expensive invasive procedures just to cover their asses. Yes, I've had this happen. So...quite the pickle. Uh, good luck with that, guys.

That'll do it. The show was okay. It's getting pretty clear they're ratings pandering. I wish they'd stop.