The Real Deal On Earmarks And Researching How Dogs Think

Hi everyone. John Roberts is holding down the anchor chair tonight. I guess Anderson Cooper had a thing. The bullet points, however, always remain.

• Oh. My. God. After watching this show do bad--sometimes bordering on atrocious--earmark reporting for years, tonight's opening segment was...awesome! Context and percentages and perspective and accountability...oh 360, you make a blogger so happy. (Don't worry, the happiness totally goes away in the next few minutes.)

• John: "And, by the way, what Congresswoman Bachmann said there about the president's trip to Asia costing $200 million a day? Well, that was a lie. It didn't cost anywhere near that." Holy crap, he said the "L" word. I thought if you did that on CNN the studio would burst into flames. Calling a spade a spade. Loves it.
  

• Seriously, watch the below video. Great job meshing perspective with montages of accountability.
  

• For discussion of this, we're joined by David Gergen, Roland Martin, and...Dana Loesch. Keyboard smash! Why, 360? Why? Do you want me to email you with my polite yet strongly worded feedback? Because I'll do it! Tremble in fear.

• The fact that Loesch is on to talk about earmarks is hilariously ironic. She and the St. Louis Tea Party are shocked (so shocked!) that newly elected Senator Roy Blunt is turning his back on them on the earmarks issue. Too bad Blunt didn't have some sort of record for them to go by. You know, besides the whole being in Congress since 1997. Needless to say, many people are laughing at them right now. But I guess the joke is currently on us because CNN thinks someone as politically naive as Loesch is someone we should hear from on this issue. Anyway. You can read more of the saga here. None of this was covered on the show.

• There was really nothing of note from the actual panel.

• Dear 360, if I wanted to watch Nancy Grace, I would watch Nancy Grace. (Seriously, we're still talking about Natalee Holloway?)
  

• Randi Kaye's piece on dog communication and the subsequent interview with Cesar Milan were interesting. The part about man's best friend trying to get away with stuff is so true. The couch is the only piece of furniture where my dog is specifically not allowed. Where does he go to sleep after I've gone to bed? Yep. I knew he was doing it because I could hear him quickly jump down if I opened my bedroom door at night. He's such an old cranky man now that he pretty much doesn't even try to hide it anymore. A few weeks ago, I accidentally left a light on and later got up in the middle of the night. Unlike normal, when I walked in the living room I was actually able to see him up on the couch. What's hilarious is I don't think he realized this because he froze like a deer in headlights, eyes trained on me, no doubt thinking that if he was just quiet enough, I'd never notice. Finally, I loudly said, "yes, I can see you!" and with that he jumped down, groaning his displeasure. Ah, dogs.
  

• That's going to do it for me because your blogger is tired. The show started out really strong...and then went to the dogs. Badabum!
  

Terror Trial Verdict, AC360's Palin Obsession Worsens, Another Victim of James O'Keefe's Smears, And Anderson Cooper Meets Some Bonobos

Hi guys. A lot packed into the broadcast tonight. A little something for everyone--even furries! To the bullet points we go:

• We finally have the verdict of the first Guantanamo detainee to be tried by a civilian court: guilty of only one of 285 counts. Admittedly I haven't been following this case very closely (haven't even done by Glenn Greenwald reading yet), but I don't think this should put the kibosh on trying these people in civilian courts. It's not like guy is going to walk free.
  

• Ah yes, a statement from Peter King. Color me shocked.

• Dear Bush administration, thank you so much for breaking the law and tainting our country's moral standing by torturing people. Now we get to deal with the consequences of your actions even as we try to revert back to the rule of law. Awesome. Well done.
  

• The discussion with Kirk Lippold, Jeffrey Toobin, and Peter Bergen wasn't bad. As I said, I haven't really seen what other info is out there on this subject, so it's hard to judge the segment, but nothing stood out to me as being ridiculous. Video below.
  

• Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, this show is OBSESSED with Sarah Palin. Oh, oh, she might run for president in two years. Everyone stop everything! Yeesh. Talk about wasted airtime.
  

• Anderson Cooper referring to Palin: " I mean, I'm fascinated by her." No, really? I hadn't noticed!

• Our anchor: "Have you ever seen a candidate or a potential candidate who makes their critics' heads explode in the way that Sarah Palin does?" He then continues to show me he is completely clueless on this subject. Yeah, Anderson, watching a serial liar who traffics in falsehoods become the object of the media's obsession makes my head a little explode-y. As a journalist, one would think that you would understand this feeling. Perhaps not.

• Erick Erickson--yes, sigh, he's there--brings up Bristol and "Dancing With the Stars," which leads Anderson to say: "Just in our defense, we have not discussed that on this show, though, tomorrow..." Um, yeah, you have no leg to stand on here.

• Moving on to the Bulletin, oh look, someone literally shot their TV over Bristol Palin's performance. Yeah...

• Also, the "shot"--again weirdly in the middle of the broadcast--made me die inside a little. Bristol Palin and The Situation in a badly acted PSA about teen pregnancy? No world. No.
  

• My regular readers (and Twitter followers) probably know I was particularly interested in the teachers union story. Actually, when Anderson teased it I got all nervous and had myself a little "don't f*ck this up, 360" prayer.
  

• James O'Keefe, the disgusting serial smear merchant, is at it again. This time one of his minions infiltrated a New Jersey Education Association conference, buddied up to a teacher, and got her to talk about the union, all the while taping what she said. The teacher, Alissa Ploshnick, was suspended and denied a raise. Oh, did I mention that she once saved her students' lives by literally throwing herself in front of a van? Yeah. I first read the story here and then took a day or so to look into it before tweeting out my feelings.
  

• After watching the segment twice, and after talking with the author of that blog post, I think the 360 kids did a fair job. Obviously I wish they would have been more like, "O'Keefe is teh evil!" but, uh, that was probably never going to happen. Anyway. This video by O'Keefe is being promoted by 360 guest Dana Loesch. I cannot believe they continue to have her on the show. This isn't about differing viewpoints. This is about lending credibility to someone who traffics in smears, falsehoods, and severely questionable ethics. For a show that has been deservedly earning praise lately, her bookings are completely beneath them, and quite frankly, embarrassing.
  

• The bunny suit is back! Anderson's piece about the bonobos at the Great Ape Trust in Iowa was just...wow. I mean, it's fascinating and the baby was adorable, but...I can not get past that suit! He hopped, people. He hopped. Bwah! This was way more humiliating than I even imagined.

• The carrots from Kevin (at least I hope I'm remembering his name right) was a nice touch. And please guys, never stopped the mocking.
  

• On tonight's RidicuList, Alvin Greene thinks he's going to be president because he's "the man." Oh, Alvin Greene, you're adorable. No, wait, I believe 'crazy' is the word I was looking for. Says Anderson: "We don't contest that Greene may, in fact, be the man. But president?" Ha! All in the delivery, people. All in the delivery.
  

• The show wasn't bad. If we get an intervention going for the Palin problem, it might soon even be great!
  

TSA Gets Frisky With Their Pat-Downs, Charles Rangel Still Totally Corrupt, And Dolpins Are Awesomely Smart

Hi everyone. I didn't bother blogging the end of last week because I felt like I already covered all of the suckiness on Wednesday and, well, they didn't improve. ANYWAY. Let's hope for a better one this time around. Away we go:

• Have you been lonely lately? Dateless perhaps? Well, you're in luck! Book yourself a trip and head on down to the airport security line because the TSA screeners are giving out free molestations! That's right, hide your kids, hide your wife, hide your husband too. Because though they may not be raping, they're getting pretty damn close to sexually assaulting everyone up in here.

• So, by now we're all aware that the TSA has recently unveiled scanner machines that let them see you, well, NAKED. If you don't want to be virtually stripped for a stranger, your only other option is to have a stranger get all gropey with your most private of areas. Isn't modern day travel fun? Well, passenger John Tyner didn't think so. This past weekend he put his foot down and turned his camera on. The resulting video went viral. And now here we are again having the privacy versus security debate.

• My view? We've all gone frickin' crazy. Obviously the threat of terrorism is real and sacrifices do need to be made in the name of security, but it's devastating to me to hear people say that anything is okay as long as it's done in the name of keeping us safe. When did we become such scared little cowards? Have Americans always been like this and 9-11 just brought it to the forefront? You're really willing to give up any right, no questions asked?

• The thing is, some measures have been great (securing the cockpit doors gets a gold star, for example), but a lot of this stuff isn't consistent and sometimes makes no sense. We're traumatizing three-year-olds when the cargo isn't completely secure? At some point it all starts to feel like security theater--a bunch of rules to make us feel safe. Except, now a lot of us are feeling violated. Also? Homeland security is basically a business now and if you don't think some of these measures are being pushed primarily based on profit, there's a bridge I'd like to sell you.

• Can the broadcast always start with Anderson Cooper saying, "If you touch my junk, I'm going to have you arrested." Okay, yes, he's quoting Mr. Tyner and not talking about his own bits and pieces, but still, funny.
  

• I'm glad the 360 kids dug up the info that, contrary to the claims of the TSA, scan images actually can be stored and transmitted. Because, uh, duh? Seriously, is there anyone who really believes that this stuff isn't going to some day end up on the Internets? That's why I think I'll opt for the molestation. Not to mention the radiation factor. Segment below:
  

• I found the discussion with Erick Erickson and Jeffrey Toobin highly disturbing. Why? Because I agreed with Erick and was annoyed by Jeffrey's attitude. WHAT IS HAPPENING?! Is this how the world ends?

• I fear that some of these conservatives are going to use this situation to push for profiling. For the record, Erick mentions "behavior," which I'm cool with--unless of course that's code word for "Muslim-looking."
  

• Anderson on his own personal experience with being groped: "I went through this for the first time this weekend flying out of Chicago. And everyone was very nice and professional, but I got to tell you, it feels incredibly intrusive. I had a pat-down after I had this thing, because I left my wallet in my pants. And, I mean, it's pretty rigorous." We're already all thinking the same thing, do I need to make the jokes? Yes, apparently some TSA agents have all the luck.

• Seriously though, this must suck extra hard for celebrities. Obviously it would be unprofessional and a fireable offense for Mr. TSA Groper to relay his experience, but is he legally bound from doing so? I actually don't know.
  

• Toobin on Tyner's accusation that the pat-downs are akin to sexual assault: "I'm not sure that's accurate. But so what?" So what? Oh man, when Erick is the reasonable one...I am so done. Unfortunately, he's still Erick, so he made his arguments pretty poorly.
  

• Bah. I used up all my time on the prior story, so now we're in hyper-drive. Below is the segment on Charlie Rangel walking out of his own ethics trial. Also? Yay montage!
  

• I want to mention the story in the Bulletin regarding the seventh grader whose parents are being sued for negligence after he was struck and killed while riding his bike without a helmet. I think my regular readers know where this is going. ANDERSON COOPER WEAR A DAMN HELMET! I know your bike has been stolen twice. THE UNIVERSE HAS SPOKEN.

• Having "the shot" in the middle of the show? Madness!

• Skipping ahead to Randi Kaye's piece on dolphins, which was awesome and adorable, and...can there always be dolphins?

• New segment alert! Give a warm welcome to RidicuList. No, I'm not kidding. I really hope this is some kind of inside joke about Rick Sanchez. Anyhoo, calling out Cindy McCain over her bizarre 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' flip flop? Very nice. But the segment name? Am I supposed to be laughing?
  

• The show wasn't bad. Though there were some disconcerting moments, at no time did my head want to explode. This is an improvement!
  

David Doss Out As AC360 Senior Executive Producer, Also Anderson Cooper Dons Bunny Suit At Request Of Apes

Hello readers! An odds and ends post for you! Given all the breaking news of the Chilean miners the last week, I really haven't had much to say. It was great to finally have a story to celebrate. Special shout out to Gary Tuchman and his producer Ismael Estrada for all their hard work. Check out Ismael's 'producer's notebook' here.

Last week also brought us some meta news in the land of 360: Senior Executive Producer David Doss is moving elsewhere at the network. He's been with the show since I started watching regularly, so this is no small tidbit. What it means exactly is anybody's guess, but I hope it results in a better quality newscast.

I know many regular viewers are pretty excited about this announcement. Personally, I always put more of the blame for the show's problems on Klein than I did Doss, but hey, what do I know? I just think some of those viewers might be longing for the so-called "Red 360," which I suspect was never as good as they remember it being. In any regard, that show is long dead.

Doss suddenly being out definitely makes one wonder about those rumors that he and Anderson Cooper were butting heads. Honestly, I can't imagine Anderson butting heads with anyone, but again, hey, what do I know? It just seems weird that it took five years for it to happen.

Anyway. The best part out of all of this? Charlie Moore is taking over! Will we soon be seeing more of AC360's Waldo? One can only hope! What? No specific reason! It can't always be about the Silver Fox, people. Ahem.

In seriousness, he seems to get along well with Anderson, which I would assume means they have the same sort of vision, which I hope means good things for we the viewers. See Mr. Moore, we're not scary, really! We just want quality news. You will get on Twitter now, yes?

Okay, people. Something else happened last week, and it was, shall we say, strange. The normally Twitter-averse Silver Fox shot out the following tweet:

From ac: in IA for story on ape communication. The apes asked me to dress as a rabbit. Weird, huh? http://twitpic.com/2xd7lq

And that twitpic was the following, so yes, weird!

Honest to God, my first thought was photoshop. Because seriously, the man who refuses to merely dance in front of cameras is going to put on a bunny suit and then send the picture to hundreds of thousands of people? Anderson Cooper, I do not understand you!

Where to even begin? What does one mock first? Perhaps the casual vagueness of the initial tweet. He's just there chilling in a bunny suit because apes told him, y'all! You know, just like every Wednesday! Did the Silver Fox really think he was going to send that picture out into the world with less than 140 characters of explanation and the Internets were not going to have a collective WTF seizure? Needless to say, the next day our anchor decided to give us a little more info:

From ac: lots of questions re yesterdays bunny costume. Doing story on bonobo chimps. the researchers sometimes dress up as a rabbit....

...when chimp indicates that is what he wants on a complex lexigram chart. I thought it was a joke, but the chimp wasn't laughing

Oh, he was laughing. On the inside, Anderson. On the inside.

But I think my absolutely favorite part of all of this was his last tweet:

From ac: who knew bunny suits had so many fans online? Going to post more pics. Find out whats up with the bunny tonite on 360

Up until this point, I had been trying very hard not to think about that dark corner of the interwebs that surely became quite excited by this whole situation. "Who knew bunny suits had so many fans online?" Bwah! That is either some mad subtle snark or one of the most naive things he's ever written. But I'm going to go with snark. I have my reasons.

So! That should be an interesting piece. Below is Thursday's "shot," which contains more explanation and more pictures of hilarity.



To put the 'end' on this post of odds and ends, finally, I give you this little morsel that I happened to come upon a week or so ago. Apparently, our friends at AC360 enjoy doing the news and science experiments! You see, if what I've linked to can be believed, there has been a piece of chocolate crumb cake sitting just outside our anchor's office since 2003. And it has disturbingly not changed in all these many years!

I hope Charlie Moore's new duties don't force him to give up the very important task of cake-keeper. That would be tragic. Specifically amusing to me, with any other show I'd be WTFing all over this post. But as I read, my initial reaction was, "yeah, that pretty much sounds exactly like something the 360 kids would do." Yes people, our news-givers are kinda weirdos...and it's part of why I love them. Suddenly the bunny suit doesn't seem that out of the ordinary, huh?