United Nations Compound Attack, Combating H1N1 Vaccine Fear -Mongering, Job News, Palin Talk (For Some Reason), & Wanda Sykes Interview

Hi everyone. We continue our week of Anderson Cooper-lessness while John King steers the ship. Our sub anchor, however, does not have the "Big 360 Interview." No, that super-sized honor actually goes to Michael Ware (ooh, unconventional!), and it's where we begin tonight. On Wednesday morning, the Taliban launched an attack on a United Nations Compound in Kabul that left eight dead. It was brutal and brazen, and actually could have been a lot worse if not for American contractor Chris Turner.

He tells Michael that when he heard the small-arms fire, he knew they were close, and immediately grabbed his rifle. Everyone attempted to evacuate and he was the last out. About 24 people hid in a washroom while Chris stood guard, keeping them safe. He downplays his actions, noting that they were in the back of the compound and most of the action went down in the front. Still a compelling story nonetheless, and a smart move to have Michael do the interview.

Transitioning now to the subject of the H1N1 virus and--I kid you not--the Magic Map is deployed. Oh John, is there any subject you can discuss without waving your hand in front of a board? Anyway, he shows us a map of the US and all the swine flu states are red. If this were election night, that map would be giving me a heart attack right about now.

Randi Kaye then joins us to talk about some of the public resistance to the vaccine that's happening on the Internets. The 360 kids are a bit behind on this angle. Bill Maher's tweet is mentioned ("If you get a swine flu shot, you're an idiot.") and I'm pretty sure it's at least a couple weeks old because I remember seeing it in real time. There's YouTube and blog fear-mongering as well. Not to mention email forwards (which Randi doesn't mention). I had to do a big debunk for a family member a couple weeks ago due to one of those.

As I've stated before, I'm in the middle on this issue. Do I think the vaccine is perfectly safe? Of course not. Nothing is fool proof and medical mistakes are not uncommon. But do I think the government is out to get us? Um, no. They don't have their act together enough to orchestrate a full blown biomedical conspiracy. There's always a risk with any medical procedure or medication; vaccines are no different. I sort of wish Randi would have done more of an in-depth fact check. This segment kinda plays like, "weird crap we found on the Internets."

Then we're joined by Sanjay Gupta, who gives us some more info on the flu, as well as a bit of an explainer on where all these crazy theories are coming from. Guillain-Barre syndrome is mentioned, though Sanjay points out there's no proof people really developed the syndrome due to receiving the 1976 swine flu vaccine. Also, I don't really endorse the reporting of Inside Edition, but I am curious about this video and would like to see it examined by a more reputable news agency.

Moving on now to an interview John has with Christina Romer, chair of the president's Council of Economic Advisors. Funny story: A few years ago, the Bush administration was trumpeting the economy because Wall Street was humming along and GDP numbers were good. But they just couldn't understand why the poll numbers on the subject were in the tank. Well, now we are through the looking glass, people. GDP numbers are up and guess who's screaming about the lack of jobs. That's right, the Republicans. Now suddenly they're all about the average American. Funny how that happens.

As for the interview, nothing hugely of note. Though the Obama administration's job expectations aren't being met in a timely fashion, there's still no gotcha because the time period given has yet to end. It's definitely a subject they should keep up on though.

Next up, we learn that Sarah Palin is sticking her nose in a New York congressional race, and apparently now we have to talk about it. Oy. I don't get this. She's not a governor anymore. She's not any kind of official. She's not seen as a credible candidate by the majority of the country. She's nothing! Why must we continue to talk about every little thing she does. Seriously media, it's time to let go. Anyway, there's talk with Paul Begala and David Frum, but yeah, totally don't care.

Moving on to an interview with comedian Wanda Sykes. Wha? When they do stuff like this, I'm left scratching my head. I'm not complaining exactly; I just don't understand why she's on the show. I can't even explain this with synergy. All CNN has been doing this week is defending their ratings by noting how newsy they are, and then they have on a comedian (and Campbell Brown had on Tracy Morgan a week or so ago).

Personally, I think they should just have some sort of (short) pop culture segment every night. When they're able to book someone, they can have an interview. When they can't get anybody, Anderson can talk movies or TV (or Levi Johnston stripping for Playgirl--*shudder*) and you know it will be entertaining. The segment would help shake up what most now agree to be a totally stale format AND it would take away the WTFery of these kind of seemingly odd and out-of-place interviews. A little fun on the news is fine, as long as it has its place.

Anyway, the interview with Wanda is a little odd in that John focuses a bit on the White House Correspondents Dinner, where yes, she performed, but it was also forever ago. That dinner was not without controversy. Rush Limbaugh had recently remarked that he hoped Obama would fail. In response, Wanda cracked that she hoped Rush's kidneys would fail, a remark that sent a gasp through the crowd. "Washington wasn't quite ready for that one," says John.

Hey, remember the 2004 dinner when Bush pulled that great bit about how he couldn't find WMDs? You know, those same WMDs that never existed, which were used as a justification for a war that resulted in the deaths of thousands of people? Remember that? Wasn't that just Hee-fucking-larious? Listen to the press laugh. Good one, Bush! Too funny! But yeah, a crack about Rush's kidneys failing? Washington wasn't quite ready for that one.

Also? Apparently Wanda Sykes is gay. I'm not sure if I already knew this. I think I probably did, but it's not exactly something that concerns me all that much. I bring it up, because John does this really abrupt transition and starts asking her about the human rights campaign, which threw me for a second. I guess this is how they classify the interview as news.

That about does it for me. The show was okay. I think they beat the Olbermann repeat in the demo ratings last night, so...yay? It's kinda sad how bad they're getting pounded lately. A part of me thinks they should just bulldoze the format, do some outside-the-box thinking, and rebuild the show from there. But I don't see that happening. Anyway, until we meet again.

Terrorism Plots In The U.S., More Fun At The U.N., Family Pics Interpreted As Child Porn, Possible HIV Vaccine, And John McCain Interview

Hi everyone. A lot going on tonight. As I often (okay, basically never) do, this evening I sat down to watch my local news. Did I find the usual nice normal story about the latest shooting and/or stabbing? No! Terrorism has come to my neck of the woods! Well, almost. As we learn from Anderson Cooper, American Michael Finton converted to Islam while in prison, became a John Walker Lindh wannabe, and just tried to blow up a federal courthouse in Springfield, Illinois. Eep!

If that's not bad enough, we also learn that in Texas, a Jordanian in the US illegally, was plotting to give a Dallas office tower the WMD treatment. WTF? Is this crazy terrorist day? Did I miss the memo? Okay, this all didn't just go down today. From Jeanne Meserve we learn the details of how the FBI investigated and thwarted both plots. Normally all we hear about is government screw ups, so total gold star to them.

Like celebrity deaths, I guess news about crazy terrorists also comes in threes. Today Afghan immigrant Najibullah Zazi was charged with conspiracy to use WMDs. We're shown EXCLUSIVE stills of him buying stuff at a convenience store. From Susan Candiotti we learn that this allegedly included hydrogen peroxide, a shower cap, hair rollers, and nail polish. Apparently, this stuff is used to make bombs, but um, hair rollers? Maybe he likes to look pretty while he's being an evil doer.

For discussion of all this, we're joined by Peter Bergen and former FBI specialist Don Clark. They talk bombs, and then ponder what's up with all these U.S. terror plots lately. We all know that Britain has a problem with homegrown terrorism, but the conventional wisdom has been that America is cool in that area. Peter notes we might have reason to worry that isn't so. Or maybe it's just a coincidence or something. Either way, sleep tight! Le sigh.

Because one day of U.N. fun just isn't enough, we now transition to Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, getting a little pissy that Holocaust-denying Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was even allowed to speak. To lay down some analysis on this bad boy, David Gergen and Reza Aslan are stepping up to the plate. The Gerg is happy Netanyahu brought this stuff to the table, but also believes the U.N. is a place where everyone should get a say--even batshit insane, members-only-jacket-wearing dictators.

Reza pretty much agrees with the Gerg, but also wants to point out that Netanyahu isn't exactly a member of the U.N. fan club, so there are several thing going on here. They then start talking about Obama's foreign policy and the Gerg admits he's had concerns the prez isn't strong enough. May I remind you of the POTUS's awesome Jedi-like fly-killing skills? Also, he totally didn't hesitate to take out those pirates. (That seems like forever ago, doesn't it?)

Change-up now to the specific topic of Iran, with Reza noting that the priorities of the U.S. and Israel differ when dealing with the country. He thinks the U.S. needs Iran to accomplish our other foreign policy goals. The Gerg, on the other hand, thinks it's all going to be about the nukes. "I believe that the central purpose of what we're going to be focused on as an international community is whether the Iranians are willing to freeze their nuclear weapons development," he tells us.

But Reza has heard something he does not like: "David, it's not a freeze of a nuclear weapons program. It's a freeze of uranium enrichment. Let's not conflate the two. These are two different issues." Ooh, tiny polite snap! The Gerg counters that they're not separate issues, and is about to go on, but then says, "let's leave it there for now." What? No! It was just getting good. Argh! Don't get me wrong, I hate arguing, but the Gerg and Reza wouldn't do that. Instead we would have had an intelligent debate between two people who don't fall into the tired left vs. right spectrum. How often does that happen on cable news? Never. And it didn't happen tonight either.

Transitioning now to an outrageous story of how one family practically had their lives ruined just because they took pictures of their children. A.J. and Lisa Demaree snapped some normal bath time photos of their three little girls, took them to be developed at Wal-Mart, and were promptly accused of engaging in child pornography. We're shown the pictures (kids faces are blurred out) and they are completely innocent.

But what happened to A.J. and Lisa was not innocent at all. They join us live and we learn they were placed on a sex offenders list and had their children temporarily taken away. Lisa was even suspended from her job for a year. All this and they did NOTHING wrong. They're now suing the city, state, and Wal-Mart. I fully support protecting children, but it's kinda terrifying how easily the state can just take your kids from you. Hopefully they won't have any long term issues due to being separated from their parents.

For the legal lowdown, we've got Jeffrey Toobin, who differs with the Demaree's lawyer in that he believes Wal-Mart does have a responsibility to report questionable pictures. I gotta go with Jeff on this one. As much as I hate Wal-Mart, I think they're the least at fault here. But Jeff does note he thinks the people at the store and the Peoria PD must have perverted minds themselves to think the pictures were erotica. True dat. The lesson in all of this? According to Jeff (and what I wrote in my notes while watching the Demaree's interview) is use a digital camera.

Next up, swine-flu-survivor Sanjay Gupta is here to talk about a possible HIV vaccine. That would be awesome! What's interesting is that the vaccine is a combination of two other vaccines that previously failed. Also of note, is that because of mutation, there might actually be different vaccines for specific parts of the world. Complicated stuff. In any regard, availability is years away, but it's a good step.

On now to "The Big 360 Interview." Fancy-pants graphic! Anderson got himself an EXCLUSIVE with non president John McCain. In all honesty, there's not much here, but I'll expand on that in a second. For now, let's skip to the part where Anderson brings up his new favorite topic of how we're nation building in Afghanistan. And I say that without snark, by the way. You keep pressing, baby! However long it takes until this mission is better defined.

McCain responds, like Lindsey Graham the other night, by saying we need to first get the security situation under control before we can progress on other fronts. "unless we do what we did in the surge in Iraq, which is clear, hold and secure areas, then it's very difficult to defeat an insurgency," he says. I'm sorry, this is crap. Everyone paying attention knows that the "success" of the surge was brought on by a multitude of factors (such as putting insurgents on the payroll) and was not strictly due to a troop increase. So...how are we going to replicate those factors in Afghanistan? And do we want to? And dude, where is the follow up?

Anderson then reads a quote from McCain that basically says we shouldn't send men to fight a war that the public isn't behind. He brings up the recent poll numbers on the war and wonders if Afghanistan will "end up being, once again, the incredible efforts of our troops in the field bearing this thing alone." I got this one. Go out on the street and grab five people. Ask them to first give you a summary of the last episode of "Dancing with the Stars." Then ask them what they know about what's currently happening in Afghanistan. There's your answer. The troops are already bearing it alone.

Okay, then there's some more stuff, but it's all very talking point-esque. So on to the lightening round! Yes, for real. Speaking of "Dancing with the Stars," our anchor wants to know what McCain thought about Delay's (child-frightening) performance. McCain says he actually spared himself from seeing it, which leads Anderson to recommend he hit the YouTube. I will take that to mean that the Silver Fox is not a big fan of the senator from Arizona.

Our next stroke of lightening is a question about Ghadhafi's tent, specifically, uh, what's it like in there? They both chuckle and McCain says "bizarre," but let's back this train up, shall we? Okay, the other day they led with the very serious outrage (OUTRAGE) over Ghadhafi pitching his tent and now it's a joke? I think you need to choose, guys. Anyway, like I said, I wasn't hugely impressed with this interview, but I do give big props that Anderson is actually doing interviews nightly now. Variety is the spice of life. I won't love them all.

Finally tonight, David Mattingly joins us to talk about a dead census worker, which sounds like it could turn into something bigger. But I'm tired and am going to just wrap things up. The show was good again. It felt like a lot was covered and not much ridiculousness. The ratings last night were pretty good, so...lock in the formula, 360! I think you finally got it. (Watch, now tomorrow we'll get 30 minutes of speculative sensationalism.) That'll do it. Until we meet again.

The UN Gets Its Crazy On, Matt Latimer Interview, John Travolta Extorted, And Sanjay Gupta Got The Swine Flu (ZOMG!)

Hi everybody. You know what I've been thinking this country needs? More craziness. We just don't have enough of it here. Well, today I am in luck because we shipped it in from overseas! Yes, it's insanity day at the United Nations. We've been here before. Remember when Hugo Chavez called Bush the devil and said he smelled like sulfur? Or how about when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed there are no gays in Iran. Good times!

This year the cast of characters has changed slightly. Good old Ahmadinejad is up to his America-hating tricks, but there's a new star in town getting the delegates out of their seats (and making them walk out the door): Moammar Gadhafi (Qaddafi? Khaddafy? Gaddafi? We're all so confused!)

Tom Foreman joins us live for the sum up of wackiness. Let's see, Ahmadinejad stuck to his standard America dissing and, oh yeah, apparently Israel is evil. Surprisingly enough, there wasn't much mention of that whole almost-revolution thing going on in his own country. That brings us to Gadhafi who rambled on for over an hour and a half about such topics as the real source of swine flu (the military, of course) and who killed John Kennedy. Seriously. He also called Obama "my son," which I'm sure gave our prez his "oh WTF?" moment for the day.

For discussion of all this we're joined by Fareed Zakaria; Michael Oren, Israeli ambassador to the US; and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. This was a pretty good discussion, but I'm too tired to really do it justice. I will say, however, that I don't really understand why Rabbi Shmuley was a part of this. I get having him on for the tent thing, but he does UN analysis now? Of note is Anderson Cooper asking Oren if a nuclear Iran is something Israel could tolerate. He gives a long response that does not really contain an answer. Dude, you guys gonna attack Israel or what? That's what Anderson was asking, just, you know, professionally.

Moving on to the domestic side of all this United Nations stuff, it turns out our own president also gave a speech today, laying out a more inclusive foreign policy. The "Washington Times" was then all like, "worst foreign policy evah!" Wow, the "Washington Times" doesn't like Obama's policy. I am, like, so totally shocked by this. Anyway! We gotta talk about this, yo. So we're joined by James Carville and Bill Bennett. But before we get to Obama, Anderson's like, "so dudes, what did you think about that whole Gadhafi thing? How effed up was that?" I might be paraphrasing.

Also, Anderson keeps referring to former UN ambassador John Bolten as Josh Bolten, but we're totally gonna let that slide because there was a Josh Bolten in the Bush administration (chief of staff after Andy Card) and this crap gets confusing. The gist? Bill thinks the Obama foreign policy screws over our allies, while James advocates we give Obama more time to make a difference. Of note, is Anderson making the really good point that even though the world seems to love Obama, they're still not helping us that much. Case in point: ponying up NATO troops for Afghanistan. Perhaps a better defined mission might sweeten the deal.

Next up, Anderson starts talking to us about former Bush speech writer Matt Latimer and the stuff he's blabbing about in his new book "Speech-less". Apparently, Bush didn't think Palin or Obama were ready for what they were getting themselves into. As for Hillary Clinton, Dubya made "fun of her figure." Specifically, he referred to her "fat ass," but we're not told that. Are the 360 kids all prudes now? Anderson goes on to say, "The accusations have some on both sides slamming Latimer for cashing in on personal conversations that were never meant to be public. Matt Latimer joins me now." And I'm floored for a second. That was a very Colbert move. The guy is sitting there in the studio and everything and I never saw it coming.

Latimer's boss wrote in "The Wall Street Journal," that this is all just sour grapes because the dude never became a speech writing star. It seems the only person that comes out smelling like roses is Rumsfeld, who Latimer is working for right now. Okay, I remember Rumsfeld and I find it really hard to believe that he comes out looking good in any book. Latimer defends himself by saying he just wants to show people what Washington is really like. "I tried to do it in a good-natured way. It's a funny situation, it's a funny system, but it also has a lot of problems and challenges," he says. Washington is fun! Whatever.

On now to a Randi Kaye piece on the alleged extortion of John Travolta over his son's death. The Travolta family was in the Bahamas when his son became deathly ill. John wanted to fly him to a hospital in Miami, rather than let an ambulance take him to a hospital on the island. To stop the ambulance, he signed a liability form. People who were with John when his son died, then threatened to make private medical information public if he didn't pay up. This is really disgusting. Who does this to a grieving family?

We're then joined by Steve Helling of "People Magazine," who was in the courtroom for John's testimony. Basically no one knows what was on the document that Travolta signed. Again, really disgusting.

Finally tonight, we're joined by Dr. Sanjay Gupta...BECAUSE HE GOT THE SWINE FLU!! And I have to say, after watching this segment, swine flu has never been so hilarious. Anyway! Two weeks ago when CNN was in Afghanistan, Sanjay got really sick--the sickest he's ever been--and a diagnosis of H1n1 was confirmed by the clinic there. But the good doctor is doing much better now and he's talking with us by satellite (because he's not in NY, not because he's sick).

It turns out our anchor also didn't feel so great in Afghanistan. Now, regular viewers know Anderson has a tendency to not sleep and get run down during field shoots. So yes, I noticed he was sick, but really didn't think it was anything noteworthy. But apparently it was a little more serious than just needing a vitamin. We learn that Anderson actually went to Sanjay with his symptoms (horrible cough, chills, light-headedness) and even asked if it was swine flu, but the doc said probably not. Oops.

Sanjay knew that the swine flu is associated with high fever, which neither thought they had at the time, but seemed to forget about the fact that they were in the desert. So yeah, it was hot there anyway and when Sanjay finally took his temperature it was 102. As Sanjay is relaying this information, we get a cough from Cooper. "Are you coughing right now?" asks the doc. Ruh roh!

Anderson answers in the affirmative, leading Sanjay to say, "I don't think we're contagious, though." You don't think? "I love that I just learned that I may have had swine flu from you via satellite," says Anderson. Bwah! Sanjay then tells us how much having swine flu sucks and Anderson's all (paraphrased), "um, should I get this checked out?" Man, wouldn't you love to see the control room right now. They're probably all, "doood," followed by ponderings of just how much contact they've had with Anderson lately. Our anchor is a bit comforted that he didn't have the fever, so maybe it's not really swine flu. Maybe. But he has had the cough for two weeks. He should get a chest x-ray if he hasn't had one already.

Anyway! They talk some more and they both start coughing. You can tell Anderson is trying so hard not to, which is kinda adorable and hilarious...and I hope he really doesn't have swine flu or I might regret saying that. I can't help cracking up though. The coughing has to be partly psychosomatic because he just got through almost the whole show without a cough and now he can't stop. Anderson tells us he might get checked out. Off camera we hear Erica Hill say, "the entire studio is gonna get checked out!" Bwah!

Anderson notes that unlike Sanjay, he didn't take any time off work following their trip. Oh man. Nobody is holding the elevator for the Silver Fox tonight! Well, if we tune in a few days from now and find a repeat of Campbell Brown or something, we'll know it's because all the 360 kids got the swine flu. Good job, Cooper! Kidding. I've grown attached to you, so get better. Also? Seeing as how you all slept in that one room in Afghanistan, I think you have some calls to make. How's Peter Bergen feeling these days?

Update: video!

If our anchor finding out on national television that he might have had the swine flu isn't fun enough for you, check out tonight's "shot." It's a dancing baby! Oh we love the dancing babies. This one dances to Beyonce's "Single Ladies," which Anderson calls, "the hit that makes almost everyone want to dance. Notice I said almost everyone." Then he mouths "not me." Well, of course you don't feel like dancing. You just found out you might have the swine flu! This may never get old.

I thought the show was pretty good tonight. We had a lot of variety and not much ridiculousness. Kudos, 360. Normally I'd give you a cookie, but I think tonight some Purell might be better appreciated.