Christine O'Donnell Plays Victim Card, More Dirty Politics, & Interview With Sean Penn Regarding A Cholera Outbreak In Haiti

Hello readers! It seems I am just full of blog fail. Sorry people. Distractions have abounded. I'm going to be honest upfront and say that this may very well be the only full post this week. There's some extra work I need to do and then...World Series! I'll try to make the bullet points extra awesome for you to savor. Away we go:

• Poor Christine O'Donnell. Damn the media and their tendency to do things like ask questions and comment on past statements. Sexist! I can barely play my tiny violin through my tears, y'all. I mean, it's so hard to be a white Christian woman these days. Am I right?

• Ok, so yeah, we've heard this song and dance before. In fact, I think Sarah Palin made this role a sensation. She actually had a teeny part of a leg to stand on. O'Donnell? Not so much.

• The 360 kids did a very nice job at showing that it was actually Republicans who started all the criticism. Plus, um, Christine O'Donnell has said a lot of stupid shit. Well done.

• As I said last week on Twitter, I am loving 360's use of montages (tonight's showed O'Donnell's hypocrisy on constitutional knowledge). They've used them on occasion throughout the years, and pretty much every single time I've given out cookies, noted the similarity to the Daily Show, and encouraged them to keep it up. Now suddenly they're doing them every night, so...yay!

• Anderson Cooper: "So, there's no doubt that liberal media outlets had a field day with Christine O'Donnell's past controversial comments about everything from evolution to witchcraft." Probably being biased here, but the phrase "liberal media outlets" sets my teeth on edge. Though perhaps not true, it feels like he doesn't speak this way when the situation is reversed. Anybody? Also, one wonders if he would characterize Fox News as a conservative media outlet.

• Our anchor: "Now, if you look up the definition of sexism in Merriam-Webster's dictionary, there's actually a couple of them." It seems 360's love affair with dictionary.com is officially over. Yeah, that was neither here nor there, but it's the little things that amuse.

• The 'Keeping Them Honest' segment can be watched below. They did an excellent job holding a candidate accountable...who probably has no chance of winning. Le sigh. Kinda wish the energy would be spent on closer races.
  

• For discussion, we were joined by Paul Begala and Dana Loesch. Oh, yay. Blah, blah, blah. *stabs self in eye*

• Also, Frank Caprio, the Democratic nominee for governor in Rhode Island, does not take kindly to be snubbed by the president. Back in 2008, Lincoln Chafee (a former Republican) endorsed Obama. Chafee is running against Caprio as an Independent, so POTUS has decided not to endorse anyone. Now the Democratic nominee wants Obama to take the endorsement and shove it. Oh my. Personally, I'm torn. Politically probably stupid, but perhaps it shows integrity? Though not my first pick, it's not like Chafee is teh evil or anything. Anyhoo, you know what this apparently needs? More pontificating! Oy.

• Dana on the Paul/Conway debate (context not needed for my point): "And I thought it was weird, the way that it was allowed to go on in this debate, which I also found at the same time, but then I kept waiting for them to get amped up and reach behind their chairs and grab pillows and start girl-fighting because it was just getting right to that line. It was so close." Irony alert! What have we been talking about for a good portion of this show? Help me out here, Paul: "That's sexist, Dana." Ha!
  

• Oh my God, they're still pushing Parker Spitzer. No, not even Nate Silver can save this show.

• Tom Foreman's segment seemed kinda weak. WTF was with all the suspicion about AFSCME? ZOMG, so many letters! Sure, maybe everyone doesn't know the acronym, but it's not like voters can't Google. It pops right up and is very clearly a union. Such mystery! Anyway, that just makes me ponder if they were being balance-y and I subsequently doubt the whole segment when it's very possible I shouldn't. Oh wells. Segment below.
  

• The tornado segment with the Eric Meyers phoner seemed weirdly out of place to me. Cool video though. At least he had a reason for being out in the elements. I'm tired of dumb asses getting on the teevee after doing completely dangerous/idiotic things. But that wasn't the case here.

• Now on to the terrible news that there's been a cholera outbreak in Haiti. Not good. Not good at all. Anderson talked with Sean Penn about the current situation and the status of pledged aid.
  

• Finally tonight, a bit of cable news catnip: hiccup girl arrested for murder! Dun dun dun! Obviously it's horrible that a man lost his life, but I can't help rolling my eyes at the ridiculousness of this Randi Kaye package. "Before a doctor helped to cure her hiccups with acupuncture Jennifer Mee had tried all kinds of remedies. Sugar, peanut butter, vinegar, pickle juice, even breathing in a bag. But it seems the only remedy she needs today is a good, strong defense." Yes, I'm cringing.

• That'll do it, people. The show was okay. They've really been owning their "Keeping Them Honest" brand lately. Also, glad we heard from Sean Penn. I will perhaps be back for a brief post or two before next week, but no promises. As always, catch me on the Twitter.
  

Following Campaign Cash And Bullying Prevention Awareness

Hello everyone. If you missed it, be sure to check out my latest newsy musings post. Anderson Cooper, Jon Klein, and Rick Sanchez--oh my! Tonight the bullet points are back, though they will admittedly be leaning heavy on the video. Let's get this party started! Or, you know, keep people honest. Whatev!

• The 360 kids kick us off with the question of just where (where!) all this cash is coming from to pay for these shiny campaign ads we all know and love. Issues of transparency and factiness? Be still my news-loving heart!

• Okay, they didn't actually get to the bottom of anything, but points for effort! In seriousness, the fact that they couldn't get anywhere is the story. And a very important one at that.

• But to prove the point that they really did try to find out, we're shown clips of staffers actually making calls. Because that's necessary. Look, the 360 kids know how to use phones! Sorry guys. I don't mean to rain on your five seconds of fame, but it had to be said.

• We then had discussion with Jeff Toobin and Bill Allison, editorial director of the Sunlight Foundation. I love that foundation! The talk mostly revolved around the Supreme Court decision that basically said corporations are like people and have the right to screw us over by buying elections. Or something like that! Very good segment.
  

• Next we had Tom Foreman tackling the ads in the narrowing Connecticut senate race between State Attorney General Dick Blumenthal and former WWE CEO Linda McMahon. Yes, the WWE stands for what you think it stands for. We're told that it's just come out that WWE teamed up with "Girls Gone Wild" several years ago for a pay-per-view event of scandalousness. As we're told this information by Anderson Cooper, we're played a racy clip of scantily clad women. There is licking involved. C'mon 360. I commented to a friend that it was a very Fox-like move to pull, and she reminded me that no, no, Fox would have played the clip and then had those ladies on for an interview afterward. Touche. Score one for CNN...I guess.

• We're played an attack ad against McMahon, which is followed up with this from Anderson to Tom: "A lot of body-slams there. So, what's true here?" Ha. Ha. Ha. I see what you did there. Yeah...don't do it again. Heh.
  

• As for the actual fact-checking, not bad. Yay for context! Video below:
  

• For those wondering if our anchor still has a cold, I would take that sneeze (which sounded like it went directly into the mic--sneeze attack!) as confirmation. Aw. (This is why I could never be on live television--the possibility of these things is just too nerve-wracking.)
  

• We had Gary Tuchman live for some Sharron Angle news. Funny story! See, Angle is running against Harry Reid in Nevada, but Tea Party candidate Scott Ashjian is also running, and apparently Angle is nervous about this third guy stealing some of her mojo. How do we know this? She met with Ashjian in the hopes of getting him to drop out and instead...he recorded the meeting! Oh, lollers. So now, after criticizing Reid for backroom dealing, she's caught on tape trying to make it worth it for Ashjian to step aside. Angle, apparently, forgot that politics is a contact sport and you should always be on guard. Hide your kids, hide your wife, cuz they be recording everybody up in here! (Yes, yes, Ashjian is a douchebag for doing that.)

• From the crazy politics, we next moved onto sadness. Oh, sadness. Randi Kaye had a piece on the heart-breaking death of Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi, a teen who jumped off the George Washington Bridge after his roommate, Dharun Ravi, secretly streamed video of Tyler kissing another man.
  

• At the top of the broadcast, Anderson noted that they'd be looking into Tyler's life and the life of his roommate, which totally made me cringe. Given that his death was likely precipitated by a gross invasion of privacy, examining Tyler's life too closely would have been in very poor taste. I was relieved to see that this was not the case. The piece actually spends more time on Ravi. We get the requisite conversation with the neighbor (this is so out of character for him!), and, well,--you know the drill. The piece is below:
  

• Randi's piece was followed by a very good conversation with Jeffrey Toobin and Rosalind Wiseman regarding the subject of bullying. Toobin made the great point that everyone needs to be careful about how much we really want to bring law enforcement into the issue. He's right, that could easily turn into a disaster.

• Anderson brought up the anti-gay groups who are actually fighting against bullying prevention measures and Toobin followed up with the win (emphasis mine): "Let's be clear, too. These groups don't think homosexuality is normal. They think it's wrong. They think it is a menace to society. So they are the ones who are making it harder for kids, who feel isolated enough as it is, to come forward. I mean, this is not some sort of value-neutral approach by these conservative groups. They are trying to make homosexuality an outcast condition, and that's part of the problem." These groups can't be treated as just people with another point of view--kids are dying.

• Kudos to Anderson for noting the "that's so gay" issue, especially in regards to "The Dilemma" movie trailer (with Vince Vaughn). I didn't remember until the moment our anchor brought it up, but I watched that trailer online a week or so ago (yeah, sometimes I sit around and watch movie trailers. I'm a loser--now you know). Anyway! Yes, I was shocked (and I don't shock easy). WTF?! Seriously, watch it. So unacceptable. Also, I like that Anderson name-checked Queen Latifah. I mean, c'mon.

• The good news? There's actually a PSA campaign underway to combat this, and I have seen one of their ads on TV. Here's another one. The bad news? Apparently it's needed worse than I thought. No sooner had I tweeted about that trailer, than I found myself in a debate with someone--an educated non-bigoted someone--who thought the movie line wasn't a big deal. So...ugh.
  

• Toobin: "We should see which company makes the movie. It may be our own." You all know I hate the celebrity interviews, but having Vaughn or Latifah on to answer for this would be kinda awesome. Yeah...never gonna happen. Segment video below:
  

• The segment on the Mexican pirates:
  

• The "shot" was Levi Johnson in a music video. Yeah,...I don't think so. But I do now have a suddenly urge to get some Purell, so thanks for that, 360.

• The show was good! Everybody gets a cookie!