Republican Incitement Results In Threats Against Democrats, Continuation Of Kids In Peril Series On Obesity, And Juarez Mayor Targeted

Hi everyone. We're kicking things off with the news that things are getting ugly out there over the passage of health care reform. The "breaking news" graphic has returned to assault our senses, even though I'm pretty sure the majority of the information we're being told is at least hours old. *Sigh*

From Dana Bash we learn that Democratic lawmakers have been meeting over safety concerns due to a series of threats. Examples: vile phone messages left for Bart Stupak, a brick through the window of Louise Slaughter's office, and various other scary incidents. Why is this happening? Well, as I've said before, look to the leaders.

Dana notes that right now Sarah Palin has a map on her Facebook page that identifies top political targets with rifle crosshairs. In her piece, she also mentions blogger Mike Vanderboegh, who is encouraging readers to break windows. Not to mention Steve King, a congressman who was caught on video egging on protesters by slapping a picture of Pelosi. When Dana tried to ask him about it, he brushed it off as an exaggeration.

Minority leader Boehner wouldn't talk to Dana, but he did put out a statement that very weakly called the threats unacceptable. Not good enough. He needs to get his own people under control (King, Bachman, etc., I'm looking at you). This is not a game.

After Dana's piece, she sticks around and we're also joined by centrist guy John Avlon. Anderson Cooper points out that Steve King was simply factually incorrect when he stated that it was an exaggeration he was inciting protesters, given that he's on tape slapping the picture. Exactly. They talk about Palin, Mike Vanderboegh, and militia movements. To John's credit, he characterizes this as clear incitement.

For the Republican's part, Dana tells us that GOPers are crying foul because House majority whip Jim Clyburn said Republicans who don't condemn these threats are aiding and abetting terrorism. Personally, I wouldn't have called it that for this very reason--Republicans always project onto the Democrats. But if families of representatives are scared to answer their phones or let their kids walk outside their house, what exactly do you call that?

Watching these first couple segments, I was ready and waiting with my can of whoop-ass, but luckily it remained unopened. The 360 kids didn't do a bad job with this like I feared they would, though admittedly Rachel Maddow's segments were better. As I've previously stated, this isn't new. We shouldn't be shocked this is happening. There has been a history of incitement by Republicans that has been clearly evident since the 2008 campaign. Surely we haven't forgotten already.

At the time, I was very frustrated with the coverage on the show, and particularly with Anderson himself. I know at this point I must sound like a broken record when it comes to my fake balance pet peeve, but to use it with regards to violence is particularly egregious. Thankfully we didn't get too much of that tonight. To try to equate the two parties on this subject would be ridiculous. And dangerous.

There will always be crazies, but the majority of the current problem can attributed to Republican/conservative leadership, both in Congress and in the media. These people need to be called out. Unfortunately for us, instead of holding the inciters accountable, CNN has decided to hire them. Your media at work.

Transitioning now to Anderson at the Magic Wall to break down polling. It seems that all demographics except for seniors overwhelming think the passage of health care reform was a good thing. Hm. Our anchor implies it's because of Medicare (probably mostly because he has a related piece to segue into). Call me ageist, but has anyone considered it's because seniors are often more easily manipulable? I know your grandma sends you all those false email forwards. I mean, the former VP candidate did kind of imply the bill would kill them.

I'm running out of time, so I'm going to kick it into high gear now. Next up, we have a Tom Foreman piece on a badly needed Medicare fix that was not included in the bill, though it has been promised. Then we have a Sanjay Gupta piece on the lack of primary doctors in this country. We've actually already seen this (cheaters!), but it is updated to include info from the legislation.

Then we continue with the Kids in Peril series on obesity. In another Sanjay piece, the good doctor goes to the home of Tiger Green, a 12-year-old who weighs 250 pounds. He used to eat a steak and drink five Sprites for lunch. Yes, his parents are obese as well. Now Tiger is on a diet and has already lost 30 pounds, which is good. Most notable about this piece is they take the kid to a hospital and do all these scans, and then proceed to surely scare the crap out of him by showing him all the stuff that's wrong. I could see doing that with an adult, but a 12-year-old?

Finally, Gary Tuchman is still reporting from Juarez, and his piece tonight focuses on Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz, law and order badass. See, the mayor has made it his mission to go after the drug cartels, and they in turn, well, are not pleased. He's been threatened with assassination, emphasized with a bloody animal head. Yeesh. But the mayor is not backing down. He has, however, hired mad security, yo. I hope they're able to protect him. I'm pretty sure we've seen this guy profiled before--either by Michael Ware or Anderson. By the way, where is Michael Ware?

The "shot" tonight is a Japanese reporter willingly allowing herself to be tasered. This is so obviously just an excuse to yet again play that video of Rick Sanchez. And I fully support that. Because it's never not funny. Speaking of funny, you know how anchors--specifically our anchor--will often making generic comments just to end a conversation/segment. How many times have we heard Anderson call something "fascinating"? He cannot always be that fascinated!

Well! After playing the clip where Rick says, "It hurts. It's painful. But no one's dead," Anderson quips: "But no one's dead. There you go. Something to think about as you go to bed tonight." Um, what? The truly hilarious part is directly after, when he repeats what he's just said, obviously realizing how bad it sounds, all the while knowing the broadcast is over and this awkward moment of hilarity is what he is leaving the viewers. His banter partner for the night, Christine Romans, was left laughing hysterically, as was I. The perils of going off prompter. Good times.

The show was okay. Nothing horrible; nothing extremely impressive. That'll do it.

More Details Of Health Care Reform, An Obese Teen's Struggle, And Violence Continues In Juarez

Hi everybody. It's official! Sorta. Today President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and he did so using 22 pens. POTUS don't play, yo. It was a very exciting moment. The vice president perhaps actually got a little too excited. But more on that later.

For now, we're kicking things off with Anderson Cooper doing his now nightly gig at the Magic Wall, this time to check out poll numbers. Well, what do you know! Public opinion on the health care reform bill? Now that's it's passed, people seem to be changing their tune in a positive direction. Gee, who didn't see that coming?

On now to Dana Bash to tell us the Republican's latest move at obstructionism. As you know, fixes to the bill still need to be passed in the Senate. This means the Republicans have the opportunity to offer up amendments that could knock the process backwards, which just so happens to be their exact plan.

The Democrats have vowed to stay together and vote any and all amendments down, but if my experience watching them over the years is any guide, there's still a chance they will royally screw this up.

Back to the Republicans, an obstructionist example Dana gives us is an amendment introduced by Senator Tom Coburn that prohibits providing erectile dysfunction drugs to sex offenders. Obviously, that's going to be hard to vote against, which is exactly why it was introduced. Clever move. And kinda douchey. Tomorrow look for an amendment that declares puppies adorable and candy delicious.

Next up, Tom Foreman has a piece that explores how families from three different income brackets will fare under the bill. Some good info here. Also, when Tom rhetorically asked "What about grandma?" I know I can't be the only one who yelled "death panels!" Because seriously, too easy.

On now to the inevitable panel (though not a death one), tonight being rocked by Sanjay Gupta, Dana Bash, Paul Begala, and Reihan Salam of the New America Foundation. It was a decent conversation, but nothing jumped out and screamed "blog me!" Honestly, when they've got upwards of four people in the little talking head boxes, my brain goes to automatic zone out. But I do remember being pleased at Anderson challenging Paul on the CBO numbers. What can I say, I'm a sucker for accountability.

It was also during this segment that they played the bit of awesomeness that went down with Joe Biden today. It seems our veep both couldn't contain his excitement over the new legislation and forgot that he was standing in front of a live microphone. The result? We got to hear him declare the health care reform bill a "big fucking deal." Bwah!

That's right. America, fuck yeah! And that's at least one too many "fucks" than what I like to include in a single blog post (I keep this place PG13 for the kiddies!), but hey, the vice president started it! For the record, CNN bleeped out the offending word. Because they are no fun.

Transitioning now to the revelation that America is fat. But a specific growing problem is obesity among children. In a Randi Kaye piece, we're introduced to 14-year-old Maria Caprigno who weighs 445 pounds. For her, this has gone past the teasing that overweight children often endure--her health and life are at stake.

After a search, she and her family were able to find a surgeon who would perform weight loss surgery on someone her age. The procedure she underwent involved removing 80 percent of her stomach. The subject is not without controversy. What I don't understand is that it sounds like the entire family was eating poorly until around the time Maria underwent the surgery. Were such drastic measures really her only option?

Following Randi's piece, we're joined by Sanjay for his doctoring skills. The name of this series by the way (yeah, I guess it's a series) is "Kids in Peril." Really, 360? Originality in naming is apparently not their strong suit.

Finally tonight, Gary Tuchman is reporting for us from Juarez, Mexico, a place Anderson said he was warned not to go. What?! Well, that's...unsettling. Oh Gary, are you going to make me worry about you? In a piece from our correspondent, he witnesses the aftermath of a whole mess of drug cartel-related killing.

It's actually a little hard to get a handle on because one gets the sense that almost everywhere you turn there's word of another body or incident. On just one sunny Saturday there is a body in a river, then a shooting in a pickup truck 10 minutes later, and an execution style murder of an electrical store worker 30 minutes after that.

No one talks. Everyone is scared. The drug cartels rule. Says Gary: "No matter how nice the neighborhood is or how light the sky is or how many children are out on the streets, if these narco traffickers are targeting you, or they mistake you for someone they want to target, you're almost as good as dead." What a way to live.

After Gary's piece, Anderson acknowledges that CNN has received some kudos in the form of the National Headliner Awards. Team 360 along with Team Gupta won for their coverage of Afghanistan in the category of Continuing Coverage of a Major News Event. Well deserved! Also, Team Gary picked up a second place win in the Investigative Reporting category for his piece "Texas Highway Robbery?" Congrats!

The "shot" tonight is a video of a howling dog soothing a crying baby. That's exactly how my dog sounds when the tornado sirens go off, which let me tell you, is awesome. Because that's what you want to deal with when your house is about to get sucked up Dorothy-style.

The show was alright. What's with dropping Gary's piece at the end? Kinda important, no? Also, while there's still lots to report on regarding the health care bill now, I'm a little concerned that in the future they're going to take it too far. That's kind of their thing. Learn when to let go, 360. That'll do it.

Live From The Otay Mesa Border, Inside A Drug Tunnel, Violence In Juarez, And Obama's Nobel Peace Prize Speech

Hi everybody. Pack your bags, because it's field trip time! Tonight Anderson Cooper is coming at us live from the Otay Mesa border because 360 got themselves EXCLUSIVE access to a recently discovered big-ass tunnel connecting the U.S. to our neighbors to the south. Longtime viewers might be feeling a bit of deja vu, as we went on a similar tunnel trip in early 2006. In fact, they've rerun that footage so much over the years that I initially thought we've actually seen a bunch of these tunnels.

The broadcast kicks off with our anchor showing us around his live shot, and then we go right into a clip of him taking us inside the tunnel, obviously filmed earlier in the day. This is vintage Anderson. Touching everything. Playing show-n-tell. The excited out-of-breath delivery. A few years ago you could have chalked that last one up to being out of shape, but we all know that doesn't fly anymore. Ahem.

If you thought the 2006 tunnel was impressive, this one is even more so. Though not complete, it boasts air vents for circulation, electricity, and even a phone system. I think my favorite part is the entrance, which is located in the bathroom of a commercial warehouse in Tijuana. There's a super-secret drop floor (well, not so secret anymore). I know this thing was built by a drug cartel (so, you know, bad), but you gotta admit, that's pretty awesome.

We watch Anderson climb down a ladder into the tunnel and then take an elevator-like contraption (yes, there's an elevator!) down 90 feet, all of it dug out of rock. After that there's a bunch of walking and climbing and stooping (and almost falling!), and as someone who is mildly claustrophobic, the whole thing was a bit disconcerting.

Back to our anchor live, we're joined by Mike Carney, the deputy special agent in charge of investigation for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Diego. We learn that when completed, the tunnel would have come up in a commercial warehouse in the U.S. It was most likely going to be used strictly for funneling drugs and money, as building it probably cost upwards of a million bucks and allowing it to be used for human traffic would increase the chance of discovery. Too late!

Moving on to a Michael Ware piece about the extremely dangerous city that is Juarez, Mexico, located just across the border from El Paso. We're first told of a slaughter of 17 people that occurred at a drug rehab center. One cartel heard a rival cartel was trying to recruit from the center, leading to a mass execution. In Juarez, the drug cartels are brutal. They kill men, women, and children--over 2,000 dead from drug-related violence so far this year. Michael spends an afternoon and evening tracking the violence, and by my count he reports at least 17 deaths. Pretty insane.

Transitioning now to a Candy Crowley piece on Obama's Nobel Peace Prize speech that he gave today in Oslo. The fact that this speech comes a mere couple of weeks following the announcement that he is escalating the Afghanistan war is lost on no one. Awwwkward. You'll have to decide for yourself on the level of irony here because I didn't watch. Apparently, conservatives are happy with the speech, so there's that.

For discussion of this, we're joined by David Gergen, Huffpost contributor Tanya Acker, and former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson. Of note is Anderson bringing up a quote from John Bolten, who panned the speech, claiming it "followed the standard international leftist line." Okay, I know we've gone through this before. What part about Bolten being batshit insane aren't you people getting? Like, seriously, why is he quotable? To my surprise, Michael (sorta) backs up my insanity point, stating that Bolten suffers from "Obama derangement syndrome."

But then he has to ruin the bi-partisan-y kumbaya feeling I'm having here by attempting to re-write history. The Gerg notes that he thinks Obama made a clear distinction between Iraq and Afghanistan, the former not being a just war. Michael disagrees, and starts talking about human rights and human dignity. Dude. That is not why we went into Iraq. Sure , the whole "liberating the people" was one of the excuses thrown out there at one point when they were desperately trying to get something to stick. But Iraq was sold to us on a plate of fear. WMDs. Don't try to make Iraq about human rights.

Back to the tunnel again for repeat footage. Then we're joined by Steven Tomaski of the DEA in San Diego and Richard Salinetti of the U.S. Border Patrol. There's lots of wow-ing over the tunnel's amazingness. We also learn that increased border security is driving the cartels underground. I guess it's nice to know that progress is being made somewhere. These cartels are persistent. Once the underground problem is tackled, they'll probably start pole-vaulting over.

Next up, we have an Erica Hill piece on Roman Polanski, which is followed by related discussion with Jeffrey Toobin, but I'm taking a pass on this story.

The "shot" tonight is a happy 38th birthday shout out to veteran photojournalist Neil Hallsworth. We're treated to a couple of pics of Neil hard at work, and then a surprise live shot, which clearly thrills him. Hey, if you're showing behind-the-sceners...Charlie Moore back there anywhere? What? No reason. Anyway! Did you know you can experience Neil's awesomeness on Twitter? Well, now you do. Unfortunately, that doesn't include experiencing the sexy accent (oh, I'm a sucker for accents).

The show was pretty good. Very old school. A nice change of pace, anyway. That'll do it.