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.

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.