Senate Screws Us On Cheaper Drugs, Palin vs. Terminator, Parental Abduction, And More Tiger Woods (Plus Dickens Reading and Anderson's Momma On R&K!)

Hi everyone. We begin with the news that the Senate has just voted down two proposals that would have allowed us to buy cheaper drugs from other countries. Thanks Senate! Because our friends at 360 are always "keeping 'em honest," we get played a clip of Campaign!Obama pledging to bring on the cheap drugs. Now, I love me the Daily Show-like accountability we got going on here, but one wonders, dudes, where were you four months ago?!

See, this drug deal is not new. It was first reported in August, and it would have been nice if it would have gotten some traction. I guess the news cycle was otherwise occupied. Probably trying to suck the last ratings morsel off Michael Jackson's death. I just love the media sometimes, don't you?

Anyway! Better later than never. Anderson Cooper once again takes us to the Big Wall. Is it just me, or does it feel like a "Use the Big Wall more!" memo went out to our 360 peeps? They are getting their frickin money's worth, people. Our anchor demonstrates what most of us already know: drugs are a lot more expensive here in the U.S.

Joe Johns joins us to talk about how this is essentially a trade-off; the administration gives Big Pharma what they want, Big Pharma doesn't kill the bill. Awesome for them, huh? Safety issues are brought up, which is an excuse used not to import. I'll take my chances. Finally, David Gergen shares his insider-y insider-ness. He thinks the drug companies got a "sweetheart deal," so he's got his clear glasses on there. But he's still implying reform opposition is strictly a center/right thing. I'm surprised there's been no talk of the growing progressive split.

If everything you just read wasn't reminder enough that our Congresscritters are idiots, 360 would like to demonstrate this fact to you by using a member of their Floor Crew. We'll call him Jerry, because, well, that's his name. Jerry will be spending the hour reading from Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities." No, this is not a segment about torture. See, Senator Bernie Sanders introduced an amendment to the health care reform bill that would have established a single-payer system. Though an exciting prospect, um, it obviously wasn't going to go anywhere.

Unless a senator objects, amendments are not usually read out loud. Well, guess what. Apparently a little of Lieberman's dickishness has rubbed off on Senator Tom Coburn, because he demanded the 787 page amendment be read. With the President-imposed end-of-the year deadline for getting this bill wrapped up, time in the Senate is very tight--hence people being none too thrilled with this stunt. This brings us back to poor Jerry. I guess 360 said to themselves, hey, let's make someone read something and see how far they get. And there you go. Personally, I might have rather just read the bill.

Transitioning now to an epic fight to the death battle: Sarah Palin vs. The Terminator!!! Dun Dun Dun! Alright, fine. It's actually way less exciting than it sounds. A Candy Crowley piece breaks it down. Arnold Schwarzenegger, as you know, is a green governor. While former governor Sarah Palin, likes to shoot wolves from helicopters, and isn't too keen on combating that whole global warming thing. Apparently, the two have had words. Or at least gotten snarky via Facebook. It never ends.

Moving on to an unbelievable child abduction piece from David Mattingly. We're shown video of a terrified Jean Paul Lacombe Diaz as he is taken from his school bus by Texas authorities in order to be turned over to his father, Jean Philippe Lacombe. Lacombe had presented misleading Mexican documents to a San Antonio judge, which wrongly showed he had custody of the boy. On the tape, Jean Paul calls out for help, stating that his father will hit him. Essentially, the state just assisted an alleged child abuser kidnap his son. Like I said, unbelievable.

Now no one knows the location of either Lacombe or Jean Paul. We're joined by the mother, Berenice Diaz, and Lisa Bloom. As you might imagine, Berenice is pretty beside herself given that she hasn't seen her son in two months. Surprisingly, Lisa found that the judge actually followed the law. She notes that they're presented with documents everyday and assume them to be true. Well, that's scary. Still though, you'd think the bus scene would have warranted a call to DFS.

On now, strangely, to another abduction case. We're played an interview Anderson had with David Goldman, which was taped literally as he was on a plane to Brazil that was about to take off (we can hear the announcements). He's taking the trip to finally (hopefully) get his son. The back story: In 2004, David's wife Bruna Bianchi took their son to her native Brazil for a two-week vacation. But that vacation turned out to be indefinite. They never came home. Bruna divorced David and remarried in Brazil. She then later died and her new husband took custody of David's son. It's been a battle ever since. Let's hope the battle is truly over.

Time for your Tiger Woods news! We're given some Magic Wall action, and since the subject falls in the medical realm, we also get some Sanjay Gupta action. But I'm skipping ahead because...meh. We're not off the Tiger train yet though. Now we're going to do some sister network promotion, by showing a clip of Robin Meade talking Tiger with Spike Lee and Charles Barkley. They're worried because they can't get in touch with him. Well, I hope the guy's okay. This too will pass. Can we be done with this story now?

No, apparently we cannot. Because now Anderson's going to talk with Robin about the talk she had with Spike and Charles. My head is spinning. The fact that Tiger changed his number is brought up, but then the train just completely derails because the next thing I know, we're talking about the Real Housewives. No, really! Why do all conversations with our anchor end with the Real Housewives?

To make this even more bizarre, the Silver Fox tells us a story about his encounter with Charles Barkley at a Turner company party in New Orleans. From the delivery here, I'm assuming Mr. Barkley was a little sloshed, but don't quote me on that. It seems he yelled our anchor's name, tried to kill him with a bear hug, and then said something along the lines of: "You try to keep them mother******* honest. But you can't keep them honest. They ain't honest!" Well said. Someone should sew that on a pillow. And you know Anderson just kinda stood there and nodded until he felt comfortable enough to pretend he had a phone call.

Speaking of Mr. Cooper, he finished up a co-hosting stint on Regis and Kelly this morning, and who was in the audience. His momma! You and I know her as Gloria Vanderbilt, American royalty. I'm not all that familiar with her, to tell the truth. I know she made jeans and isn't shy about writing books about the sex (no, I have not read them). Ahem. Anyway, she tells a story about a young Silver Fox. Take a gander at the vid. Oh, and bonus inbox!

We wrap up the night by checking back in with Jerry. Only made it to page 41. He does not like this book, people. He does not like this book at all. Poor Jerry. Eh, it can't always be about dancing to "Single Ladies."

The show was okay. It felt like there wasn't a lot of there there. I really wish they'd go more in-depth on the health care stuff, but I've learned not to hold my breath. I hope they stay on the Jean Paul case. This isn't true crime sensationalism. There's a real chance media exposure will help find that kid. That'll do it.

CT Scans And Cancer, The Latest On Health Care Reform, Earmark Reporting Sans Context, And Talking To Larry King About "Nine"

Hi everyone. We're going a tad unconventional tonight and kicking things off with health news. The skinny? ZOMG, CT scans will give you cancer! Okay, actually, no. Well, maybe. Basically what researchers have found is that no one really knows how much radiation you're getting when you undergo a CT scan, and that could possibly lead to 15,000 deaths per year. It's obviously a legitimate story, but I still can't help hearing "Dun dun dun!" in my head. Why? Well, because 72 million CT scans are performed in this country every year, some of them no doubt saving lives. I wouldn't say the risks outweigh the benefits.

My guess is this is our lede tonight because Anderson Cooper saw the report and got a wee bit freaked out. Our anchor notes that he's undergone these scans due to a history of heart disease on his father's side. In fact, the Big Wall is employed to show us one of his scans performed in 2004. Weird. Then we talk with Sanjay Gupta, because this is a medical story, so it's required. I actually join Anderson in the crappy my-dad-had-heart-disease club, and have had more than my share of tests, yet I'm still not the least bit freaked about this. It's always something. Good to know, but not something I'll be losing sleep over.

Transitioning now back to the Big Wall to take a look at how President--excuse me--Senator Lieberman took down health care reform. The math is done. You know the deal here, people: 60 votes needed. The Dems had 58, which left two more votes to get from a pool of Lieberman, Ben Nelson, and Olympia Snowe. Now party leadership is trying to buy Joe-mentum's vote by ditching all the best parts of the bill. If you're looking to join the "I hate Joe Lieberman" club, raise your hand. I get to be president.

Dana Bash actually sat down with the current most hated man in D.C. for a short interview. Lieberman claims this isn't a vendetta against the Left, which I think is crap. We all know he felt burned when he was primaried out of the party. And yes, he is that petty. This guy was hated long before health care reform (hence the primarying). Whenever the Republicans needed a Democrat to provide bi-partisan support to whatever idiotic legislation they had cooking, Joe was there. Standing on principles? Puhleese. Love of attention, more like it. Lieberman tells Dana that he doesn't enjoy being hated. Well, there's a real simple solution for that: stop being such a dick.

For discussion of this, Dana sticks around and we're joined by Michael Gerson and Tanya Acker. One point brought up is that Lieberman just left the door open to run as a Republican. After everything he's putting the Democrats through. See what I mean about being a dick? Can't say I'm surprised though. From what I understand, he won his seat as an Independent by getting the Republican vote. Anyway, this whole thing has left me with a strong urge to throw my shoe at the television. Definitely not the first time, won't be the last. Best to move on now before I have to self-impose another cable news ban like the one I had after my 2005 Robert Novak-inspired incident. Ahem.

Next up, earmarks! Oh joy. See, when it comes to reporting on the little buggers, CNN has a history of being...oh, what's the word I'm looking for? Bad. That's it. They have a history of being bad. But they're persistent (and consistent) about it, as they've been on the story for years. Back in 2007, there was no transparency with earmarks, which is a legitimate issue and I supported their reporting at the time. But now the rules have changed, yet our 360 peeps are still pretty much going, "ZOMG, earmarks!"

Joe Johns takes us to the Big Wall for a breakdown of some of the pork in the new omnibus spending bill. One item mentioned is $655,000 for equipment at the Institute for Irritable Bowel Syndrome Research in Los Angeles. As someone with a family member who is having a horrific time dealing with IBS, I fail to see how this is outrage-inducing or laughable. That's the thing about earmarks; one person's unnecessary spending is a Godsend to someone else. I could go on and on about my problems with this coverage, but actually, been there, done that.

Earlier this year, my friend Arachnae did a guest post about the subject, which is unfortunately just as relevant today. Give it a read if you're so inclined. After Joe, Anderson has an interview with Senator Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) who is advocating that Obama veto the omnibus bill due to the spending. Good luck with that.

Transitioning now to Larry King sitting with Anderson in studio to talk about the interview he just did with the cast of "Nine." No, really! I'm not complaining, but it's a little strange. To make it stranger, Anderson asks which of the ladies caught Larry's eye. Says the suspendered-one: "Fergie ain't bad." Oh, now that's just disturbing. Dude, you're like 157-years-old. Don't be the creepy old man. I'm just sayin'.

Then there's discussion about the singing by the actors and how they hadn't done that before (except Nicole Kidman has, but hey, who's counting). Next thing I know, they're talking about the Johnny Cash movie "Walk the Line" and Anderson is telling us he bought the soundtrack, which features Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix. This was one of the very rare nights where I was watching with someone else. Said my viewing partner to Anderson: "Why don't you just buy a Johnny Cash album?" Yes Anderson, why?

The "shot" tonight is our anchor being his charming self on Live with Regis and Kelly. There's confuzzlement over eyebrows, an impersonation of a botoxed lip-injected person in denial...oh, the fun was had. You can watch the host chat here. And hey, bonus inbox! Just because. Don't say I never get you anything.

The show was okay. I found the top story choice and the Larry King segment both to be a little odd, but not bad. Can't be as charitable about the earmark coverage. And the Lieberman stuff makes me want to pull my hair out, though I suppose I can't really blame 360 for that one. That'll do it.