Anderson Cooper Rightly Calls Out Rep. Steve Cohen On His Hypocrisy Regarding Inflamed Rhetoric, Fails To Touch The Facts Of The Actual Issue

Hello readers! It seems Anderson Cooper and the 360 kids are intent on driving me insane. But let's step back a bit first. See, this random Congress dude, Steve Cohen, is none too happy about the House Republicans' little health care reform repeal stunt vote. Everything's good so far, right? Well, he goes on the House floor and gets his vent on about the GOPers: "They say it's a government takeover of health care, a big lie..." Dude is speaking truth to power, woo! Go him! "...just like Goebbels." Wait, what? Ohhh noeees.

Really? REALLY, Steve Cohen? You pull this crap right after everyone's calling for a new civility? Apparently, the Congressman is not familiar with Godwin's law. Anyway, this always happens. At this point, I could write the script in my sleep. A Democrat has the facts completely on their side, they inexplicably say something extreme, the GOP freaks out (ZOMG, he's calling us Nazis!), and the media latches onto the controversy, completely brushing by the substance of the argument (welcome to your first segment on AC360).

Honestly, after watching the interview twice, Cohen doesn't come off all that badly. The show was right to call him out on his hypocrisy, and I agree with the notion that bringing up anything related to Nazi Germany is never helpful (and offensive to many), but he made a very clear distinction that his comment was about tactics, and there's some validity there. I wish he would have found another way to make his point.

But what really makes this a big fail on the 360 kids' part is that we had an entire discussion that was essentially about GOP lies regarding health care reform, and not once did Anderson, you know, talk about those lies. Can a viewer get a little fact-checking up in this segment that is supposing to 'keep 'em honest'? What lies? Doesn't that sound like a question our anchor maybe should have asked? Then he could have checked to see if they are actually lies.

Maybe Cohen is accusing them of lying about some things that are actually true. Wouldn't that be an interesting thing to find out? And if Cohen is right about the lying, that means the Republican's reasoning for trying to repeal landmark legislation is one big snow job. Maybe it's just me, but that seems like a rather big news story, no? Not for this news show, apparently! The irony? If Cohen had made his argument with more civility, you think he would have been invited on 360 to discuss? Yeah, that's what I thought. Lies can be just as poisonous as any inflamed rhetoric--maybe even more so.

After the interview with the Congressman, there was discussion with Dana Bash and Cornell Belcher. Anderson did his whole false equivalency thing, which, yeah, annoying. I'm not sure if he does it because he thinks it's a good way to position himself as neutral, or if he really is just naive. But anyway, how much are we loving Cornell these days? He's like the new Gerg, all calm and rational. I want to clone him and spread him all over cable news.



By the way, for a lesson in how it's done, I think Representative Cohen needs a pointer or two from the awesomeness that is Anthony Weiner.

Republican Incitement Results In Threats Against Democrats, Continuation Of Kids In Peril Series On Obesity, And Juarez Mayor Targeted

Hi everyone. We're kicking things off with the news that things are getting ugly out there over the passage of health care reform. The "breaking news" graphic has returned to assault our senses, even though I'm pretty sure the majority of the information we're being told is at least hours old. *Sigh*

From Dana Bash we learn that Democratic lawmakers have been meeting over safety concerns due to a series of threats. Examples: vile phone messages left for Bart Stupak, a brick through the window of Louise Slaughter's office, and various other scary incidents. Why is this happening? Well, as I've said before, look to the leaders.

Dana notes that right now Sarah Palin has a map on her Facebook page that identifies top political targets with rifle crosshairs. In her piece, she also mentions blogger Mike Vanderboegh, who is encouraging readers to break windows. Not to mention Steve King, a congressman who was caught on video egging on protesters by slapping a picture of Pelosi. When Dana tried to ask him about it, he brushed it off as an exaggeration.

Minority leader Boehner wouldn't talk to Dana, but he did put out a statement that very weakly called the threats unacceptable. Not good enough. He needs to get his own people under control (King, Bachman, etc., I'm looking at you). This is not a game.

After Dana's piece, she sticks around and we're also joined by centrist guy John Avlon. Anderson Cooper points out that Steve King was simply factually incorrect when he stated that it was an exaggeration he was inciting protesters, given that he's on tape slapping the picture. Exactly. They talk about Palin, Mike Vanderboegh, and militia movements. To John's credit, he characterizes this as clear incitement.

For the Republican's part, Dana tells us that GOPers are crying foul because House majority whip Jim Clyburn said Republicans who don't condemn these threats are aiding and abetting terrorism. Personally, I wouldn't have called it that for this very reason--Republicans always project onto the Democrats. But if families of representatives are scared to answer their phones or let their kids walk outside their house, what exactly do you call that?

Watching these first couple segments, I was ready and waiting with my can of whoop-ass, but luckily it remained unopened. The 360 kids didn't do a bad job with this like I feared they would, though admittedly Rachel Maddow's segments were better. As I've previously stated, this isn't new. We shouldn't be shocked this is happening. There has been a history of incitement by Republicans that has been clearly evident since the 2008 campaign. Surely we haven't forgotten already.

At the time, I was very frustrated with the coverage on the show, and particularly with Anderson himself. I know at this point I must sound like a broken record when it comes to my fake balance pet peeve, but to use it with regards to violence is particularly egregious. Thankfully we didn't get too much of that tonight. To try to equate the two parties on this subject would be ridiculous. And dangerous.

There will always be crazies, but the majority of the current problem can attributed to Republican/conservative leadership, both in Congress and in the media. These people need to be called out. Unfortunately for us, instead of holding the inciters accountable, CNN has decided to hire them. Your media at work.

Transitioning now to Anderson at the Magic Wall to break down polling. It seems that all demographics except for seniors overwhelming think the passage of health care reform was a good thing. Hm. Our anchor implies it's because of Medicare (probably mostly because he has a related piece to segue into). Call me ageist, but has anyone considered it's because seniors are often more easily manipulable? I know your grandma sends you all those false email forwards. I mean, the former VP candidate did kind of imply the bill would kill them.

I'm running out of time, so I'm going to kick it into high gear now. Next up, we have a Tom Foreman piece on a badly needed Medicare fix that was not included in the bill, though it has been promised. Then we have a Sanjay Gupta piece on the lack of primary doctors in this country. We've actually already seen this (cheaters!), but it is updated to include info from the legislation.

Then we continue with the Kids in Peril series on obesity. In another Sanjay piece, the good doctor goes to the home of Tiger Green, a 12-year-old who weighs 250 pounds. He used to eat a steak and drink five Sprites for lunch. Yes, his parents are obese as well. Now Tiger is on a diet and has already lost 30 pounds, which is good. Most notable about this piece is they take the kid to a hospital and do all these scans, and then proceed to surely scare the crap out of him by showing him all the stuff that's wrong. I could see doing that with an adult, but a 12-year-old?

Finally, Gary Tuchman is still reporting from Juarez, and his piece tonight focuses on Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz, law and order badass. See, the mayor has made it his mission to go after the drug cartels, and they in turn, well, are not pleased. He's been threatened with assassination, emphasized with a bloody animal head. Yeesh. But the mayor is not backing down. He has, however, hired mad security, yo. I hope they're able to protect him. I'm pretty sure we've seen this guy profiled before--either by Michael Ware or Anderson. By the way, where is Michael Ware?

The "shot" tonight is a Japanese reporter willingly allowing herself to be tasered. This is so obviously just an excuse to yet again play that video of Rick Sanchez. And I fully support that. Because it's never not funny. Speaking of funny, you know how anchors--specifically our anchor--will often making generic comments just to end a conversation/segment. How many times have we heard Anderson call something "fascinating"? He cannot always be that fascinated!

Well! After playing the clip where Rick says, "It hurts. It's painful. But no one's dead," Anderson quips: "But no one's dead. There you go. Something to think about as you go to bed tonight." Um, what? The truly hilarious part is directly after, when he repeats what he's just said, obviously realizing how bad it sounds, all the while knowing the broadcast is over and this awkward moment of hilarity is what he is leaving the viewers. His banter partner for the night, Christine Romans, was left laughing hysterically, as was I. The perils of going off prompter. Good times.

The show was okay. Nothing horrible; nothing extremely impressive. That'll do it.

More Details Of Health Care Reform, An Obese Teen's Struggle, And Violence Continues In Juarez

Hi everybody. It's official! Sorta. Today President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and he did so using 22 pens. POTUS don't play, yo. It was a very exciting moment. The vice president perhaps actually got a little too excited. But more on that later.

For now, we're kicking things off with Anderson Cooper doing his now nightly gig at the Magic Wall, this time to check out poll numbers. Well, what do you know! Public opinion on the health care reform bill? Now that's it's passed, people seem to be changing their tune in a positive direction. Gee, who didn't see that coming?

On now to Dana Bash to tell us the Republican's latest move at obstructionism. As you know, fixes to the bill still need to be passed in the Senate. This means the Republicans have the opportunity to offer up amendments that could knock the process backwards, which just so happens to be their exact plan.

The Democrats have vowed to stay together and vote any and all amendments down, but if my experience watching them over the years is any guide, there's still a chance they will royally screw this up.

Back to the Republicans, an obstructionist example Dana gives us is an amendment introduced by Senator Tom Coburn that prohibits providing erectile dysfunction drugs to sex offenders. Obviously, that's going to be hard to vote against, which is exactly why it was introduced. Clever move. And kinda douchey. Tomorrow look for an amendment that declares puppies adorable and candy delicious.

Next up, Tom Foreman has a piece that explores how families from three different income brackets will fare under the bill. Some good info here. Also, when Tom rhetorically asked "What about grandma?" I know I can't be the only one who yelled "death panels!" Because seriously, too easy.

On now to the inevitable panel (though not a death one), tonight being rocked by Sanjay Gupta, Dana Bash, Paul Begala, and Reihan Salam of the New America Foundation. It was a decent conversation, but nothing jumped out and screamed "blog me!" Honestly, when they've got upwards of four people in the little talking head boxes, my brain goes to automatic zone out. But I do remember being pleased at Anderson challenging Paul on the CBO numbers. What can I say, I'm a sucker for accountability.

It was also during this segment that they played the bit of awesomeness that went down with Joe Biden today. It seems our veep both couldn't contain his excitement over the new legislation and forgot that he was standing in front of a live microphone. The result? We got to hear him declare the health care reform bill a "big fucking deal." Bwah!

That's right. America, fuck yeah! And that's at least one too many "fucks" than what I like to include in a single blog post (I keep this place PG13 for the kiddies!), but hey, the vice president started it! For the record, CNN bleeped out the offending word. Because they are no fun.

Transitioning now to the revelation that America is fat. But a specific growing problem is obesity among children. In a Randi Kaye piece, we're introduced to 14-year-old Maria Caprigno who weighs 445 pounds. For her, this has gone past the teasing that overweight children often endure--her health and life are at stake.

After a search, she and her family were able to find a surgeon who would perform weight loss surgery on someone her age. The procedure she underwent involved removing 80 percent of her stomach. The subject is not without controversy. What I don't understand is that it sounds like the entire family was eating poorly until around the time Maria underwent the surgery. Were such drastic measures really her only option?

Following Randi's piece, we're joined by Sanjay for his doctoring skills. The name of this series by the way (yeah, I guess it's a series) is "Kids in Peril." Really, 360? Originality in naming is apparently not their strong suit.

Finally tonight, Gary Tuchman is reporting for us from Juarez, Mexico, a place Anderson said he was warned not to go. What?! Well, that's...unsettling. Oh Gary, are you going to make me worry about you? In a piece from our correspondent, he witnesses the aftermath of a whole mess of drug cartel-related killing.

It's actually a little hard to get a handle on because one gets the sense that almost everywhere you turn there's word of another body or incident. On just one sunny Saturday there is a body in a river, then a shooting in a pickup truck 10 minutes later, and an execution style murder of an electrical store worker 30 minutes after that.

No one talks. Everyone is scared. The drug cartels rule. Says Gary: "No matter how nice the neighborhood is or how light the sky is or how many children are out on the streets, if these narco traffickers are targeting you, or they mistake you for someone they want to target, you're almost as good as dead." What a way to live.

After Gary's piece, Anderson acknowledges that CNN has received some kudos in the form of the National Headliner Awards. Team 360 along with Team Gupta won for their coverage of Afghanistan in the category of Continuing Coverage of a Major News Event. Well deserved! Also, Team Gary picked up a second place win in the Investigative Reporting category for his piece "Texas Highway Robbery?" Congrats!

The "shot" tonight is a video of a howling dog soothing a crying baby. That's exactly how my dog sounds when the tornado sirens go off, which let me tell you, is awesome. Because that's what you want to deal with when your house is about to get sucked up Dorothy-style.

The show was alright. What's with dropping Gary's piece at the end? Kinda important, no? Also, while there's still lots to report on regarding the health care bill now, I'm a little concerned that in the future they're going to take it too far. That's kind of their thing. Learn when to let go, 360. That'll do it.

ZOMG, Health Care Reform!!!

Hi everyone. Victory! After all the months and months of speeches, punditry, smears, tea parties, yelling, lies, and whatever the hell else we just went through, we are finally going to get our health care reform--though a watered down version to be sure. It's not perfect by any means, but it's going to change the lives of millions of people for the better. Social Security didn't come all at once either. Now we have a foundation of which to build. So, do you feel hopey?! Because this is definitely the change I voted for.

That all being said, after Sunday's massive C-SPAN marathon, I'm a little health care reform-ed out at the moment. And yeah, that's right, I said C-SPAN. Except for a literal minute or two here and there, I pretty much shunned our friends at CNN and their Best Political Team on Television (BPTOT). I can't take it anymore, people! Sometimes you just want them to shut it, you know? I don't need my historic moment tainted by some talking head. Anyway, like I said, I'm a little burnt out on the subject, so we're just going to blow right through some of this pretty quickly. Ready? Onward!

We begin with a recap of Sunday's festivities and then Anderson Cooper takes us to the Magic Wall for a breakdown of exactly what we're going to be getting and when we're going to get it. Very nice, though a little annoying that this wasn't all hammered home before the vote--you know, when it would have really mattered. Still nice though.

Next up, we have an Ed Henry piece about the bill that calls out John Boehner for untrue charges regarding abortion, Sarah Palin for fear-mongering about military benefits, Michele Bachmann for shrieking about a government takeover, and Barack Obama for making statements about the deficit that no one can really predict. Okay, WTF is going on? That was, dare I say, almost unbalance-y. It's like Ed told us the truth without even caring that the Republicans look like way bigger liars! My world is spinning, people. If they keep this up, I don't know what I'll do. Actually, yes I do. I'll be happy. More please.

On now to an interview with Congressman Bart Stupak, who after annoying the hell out of everyone by holding up the vote due to abortion, finally came down on the right side. And boy did he get crap for it. I'm of course referring to Representative Randy Neugebauer screaming "baby killer" at him on the House floor. Classy! That guy must be friends with Joe Wilson. For the record, Neugebauer claims he yelled "It's a baby killer!" referring to the bill and not Stupak. Okay then. We had to wait a while to get this explanation because he took his sweet time coming forward. Weren't there a bunch of his colleagues standing right next to him when he yelled? Apparently 'stop snitchin' extends beyond the inner cities.

Anyhoo! The interview with Anderson starts out on the "baby killer" subject and whether or not there should be an official apology and blah blah. Personally, I think that kind of thing is just stupid and a distraction. But Stupak makes the good point about leading by example, given there are people outside hurling slurs at elected officials. They then get stuck on the topic of the executive order with regards to abortion. Anderson challenges fairly aggressively, but I'm not sure it was really needed. In the end, Stupak pretty much schools him, and our anchor is out of ammo.

Moving on to an interview with Utah's attorney general, Mark Shurtleff, one of 11 AG's around the country who want to fight the individual mandate on the grounds that it's unconstitutional. Oh brother. I'm not a fan of the mandate (without the public option) myself, but c'mon. Also, for the record, the mandate was originally a Republican idea. Anyway, they talk commerce clause and precedent and all that jazz and our anchor does a pretty good job at feet-to-the-fire holding.

Anderson brings up a report that says those AG's doing the challenging actually are from states that received a lot of industry money. Interesting. But he only asks if this is true. I really wish they would have researched this guy beforehand with regards to that. Meh, maybe they did and it didn't pan out. I don't know. It definitely feels like something I would have liked them to pursue further. I loved Anderson's little smile when he asked Schurtleff if he really believed this wasn't political. That was the "you are telling me BS" look. I wonder if he realizes he does that. Shhhh.

Transitioning now to...the Best Political Team on Television! Yeah, you didn't think you were escaping them, did you? Tonight we get a mini version, consisting of Paul Begala, Dana Bash, Joe Johns, and Ed Rollins. And...I got nothing.

In the headlines tonight we had some Tiger Woods news. Oh, I don't actually know nor care what it was. I just wanted to point out that it was only a headline. The baby Jesus loves me! Okay, yes, this probably has more to do with historic legislation just being passed than it does with 360 deciding to take a pass on a sensational story, but, eh, I'll take what I can get.

On now to a Dana Bash piece that explores the next step of the bill: Senate approval of fixes. Yeah, it's not actually all over quite yet. But almost, people. Almost! Good piece.

Back to the BPTOT and we're talking polls. Yay? Anderson tells us that 58 percent disapprove of how Obama's handling health care. Paul then pipes up that many of those are liberals who think the bill doesn't go far enough. And according to CNN's own polling, he's right. A majority of Americans either support the bill or do not think it's liberal enough. This is not something that should be left for a pundit to add. This is context that should be included in all reporting.

Also of note is the group talking about how the parties will "sell" the bill. From Anderson: "In terms of the appealing to independents, I mean, is this socialism argument something you think that has resonance?" It really drives me crazy when they have conversations that imply facts don't matter. Socialism? There's not even a frickin' public option in the bill, much less single payer. And as I stated before, the mandate was originally a Republican idea.

They bring up the recent nastiness (people yelling slurs) as well. Our anchor notes that it's just a few people in a large crowd, and while that might be true, this isn't new. This is the same crap that's been going on since the Palin campaign. Yes, every movement/party has their crazies and it's very unfair to paint everyone with the same broad brush. The difference here is that the leadership seems to almost be embracing it, which makes them liable. I mean, Glenn Beck is practically the anointed saint of the tea party movement. That's a problem. Not to mention the Palins and the Bachmanns and the Limbaughs. You get the picture. We shouldn't be surprised people are yelling horrible things at members of Congress. Hell, we're damn lucky that's as far as it's gone.

The "shot" tonight is a remembrance of photojournalist Margaret Moth, who seems to have been one cool chick. Read more here.

The show wasn't bad. They didn't need to do the whole hour on one subject, but at least what we got was pretty factual, save a little too much punditry. Anderson seemed pretty aggressive tonight, which was nice. Maybe he just ate his Wheaties. Anyhoo, that'll do it.

Two Shows, One Blog Post: Health Care Reform, Homeless In America, Haiti, And Anderson Cooper On Jeopardy!

Hi everyone. Last night when I sat down to do Thursday's blog post I realized that I was so tired I couldn't think coherently. Good rule of thumb is to avoid putting things on the interwebs when you're operating at the capacity of a drunk person. Then on Friday I spent the broadcast flipping back and forth between 360 and "The Devil Wears Prada."

So! What follows is the result of me essentially taking two shows and smooshing them into one, emphasizing the things I want to talk about. It's not a review exactly, but review-ish. If you didn't watch, some of this post probably won't make complete sense to you. Sorry? Consider the videos a consolation prize.

We began both nights on the subject of health care reform. Anderson Cooper has been giving the Magic Wall a little love to show us the current vote count, and it's hard not to laugh at the way he practically leaps out of his anchor chair to rush over there. Don't hurt yourself, man. We're patient people. And while I'm talking about minor shallow things, the phrase "The Big Mo" really needs to be killed dead. Just sayin'.

On Thursday, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) dropped their preliminary numbers, which became a focus of that night's coverage. We also got a good piece from Ed Henry about sweetheart deals that have stayed in the final package, despite what Obama promised. Some of my fellow progressives might grumble, but this is called journalism--everyone's feet need to be held to the fire.

My only issue was that there was no focus on what was actually in the bill, something Rachel Maddow had covered a couple days prior. But! Fast forward to Friday and not only were we joined by Sanjay Gupta to explain all that, we also got another piece from Ed that finally FINALLY called out the Republicans for rebuking all of Obama's attempts at bipartisanship. I have no idea why we had to wait so long for this acknowledgment, but better late than never. Nice job.

John King joined us both nights to talk health care reform, though you don't have to be a genius to realize that his appearances were mainly just to get in some pimping for his new show (starts Monday!). He had an online dress rehearsal Friday afternoon and I just coincidentally logged onto Twitter at that time, so I thought, what the hell, I'll watch. It wasn't bad. Nothing ground-breaking though. I certainly won't avoid it (like I did with Dobbs) if I happen to have the TV on at that time, but I can't see myself making it a part of my day like I've done with 360.

Thursday night also brought a very nicely done report about a family forced to move into a shelter. As I've previously written on this blog, I believe that one of 360's biggest blunders ever was covering the height of the economic collapse in the same way they covered the election. I don't think they would have lost as many of the regular viewers that I know they have if they had instead covered it from a more human level, which is actually Anderson Cooper's greatest strength.

The piece below is real life. Though they might not be in the exact situation of this family, there are millions of Americans out there who can relate. Unfortunately, this perspective is often lost in between all the punditry. The lack of spoken narration and point of view of the daughter were nice touches, as they made the piece more raw. I hope they produce more reports like this in the future.



It seems 360 is still obsessed with The Dating Game serial killer. On Thursday, Anderson interviewed a woman who was taken by the man when she was a child, but survived due to a tip from a good Samaritan. Admittedly, it was a pretty compelling conversation. A lieutenant also joined them to speak about the recently discovered pictures of girls and women that they've been showing. Though I normally don't like crime stories, this was a good segment. Except! Why do they keep playing that stupid Dating Game footage? It trivializes a story that's important enough to stand on its own.

Sean Penn joined us live from Haiti on Friday and man, he did not look good. He also seemed pretty damn upset, which drives home the point that things are very bad there and about to get much worse. You can't really predict an earthquake, but everyone knows these rains are coming. If God forbid thousands die...there are going to be people that will need to answer for that. Video below.



There were some other things covered both nights, but that's about it for this blog post. Now, onto the fun. Well, perhaps Anderson would quibble with my definition of 'fun'. See, on Thursday the Silver Fox was on the celebrity version of Jeopardy, battling it out with Aisha Tyler and Cheech Marin. Anyone who has been watching Anderson for a while knows that he's actually already a Jeopardy champion. We know this because he never stops telling us. Like fer serious, if the conversation ever comes anywhere near the vicinity of that game show, he will bring it up and he will gloat.

But not anymore! Oh, the Silver Fox goes down in flames! Was he beaten by smarty-pants funny-gal Aisha? Nope. It was Cheech. Yes, that Cheech. Two Ivy Leaguers crushed by a pothead. Loves it. Watching Anderson play was almost painful; not so much because he was all that terrible, but because he takes it so dang seriously and you could tell he was freaking out. He made me feel bad for him! At one point I was even pep talking my TV ("Oh, there you go. You know this one. You covered that story."), which is pretty ridiculous given that: 1) I don't know him 2) He can't hear me anyway 3) It was taped!

That's the power of the Silver Fox for you--you want to trash talk and mock, but you just can't bring yourself to do it. Much. Oh also? I clearly watch 360 way too much (duh) because I knew what category Anderson was going to pick every time he had control of the board. Anyway! Though our anchor took the loss hard, he is not without a sense of humor about himself. That night he had on Cheech to congratulate him, and let's face it, make excuses for his own performance.

Anderson also shows us an email he received from Soledad O'Brien right after the show aired. It says, "Cheech Marin beat you? Seriously, that's sad." Oh snap! That's cold. (And kinda makes me love her more.) Our anchor tries to console himself by noting that he's actually the winner among CNN anchors, though Cheech points out that's damning with faint praise. Plus, Soledad might have come in last when she played, but at least she had some money on the board. The Coop had zippo--tying for second (and third, I guess) with Aisha.

Skip ahead to Friday, and I'm flipping back to 360 from my movie when I find...Erica Hill! ZOMG, did we go back in time? No, we did not. Erica was Skyped in just so that she could have a crack at mocking Anderson's Jeopardy loss as well. Too funny. She brings up our anchor's buzzer excuse and he tries to convince us that he knew much of what Cheech did, but just wasn't fast enough. Likely story. It's okay, Anderson. I still believe you're smart. Anyhoo! Great to see Erica again. I hope his loss isn't keeping the Silver Fox up at night. He won $25,000 for Friends In Deed. No bad there. You can see the convo with Cheech below.



Finally, it's been quite a week for CNN. They hired Erick Erickson and lost Christiane Amanpour to ABC. Not the best trade. I'm not going to go into my opposition to Erickson, but you can read about why he's a bad choice here. As for Christiane, I wish her all the best and bet she'll make This Week great. It's hard to imagine CNN without her. This is a huge loss for them. If they really do lose Anderson to CBS...that would be bad. That would be beyond bad. So, if we're looking at this cynically, things just got pretty good for our anchor regarding where he stands when it comes time to negotiate a new contract. All we can do is wait and see. That'll do it.

Health Care Reform Inches Closer, Dennis Kucinich Interview, Haiti Update, New Take On The Infamous Milgram Experiment, & The Sad Death Of Corey Haim

HI EVERYONE! Oh, I'm sorry. Was that too loud? Had one too many green beers, did you? I hope you all had fun getting your Irish on. I don't drink, so it was pretty much just another Wednesday for me. Anyhoo! We've got lots to talk about. That health care reform thing? We're so close! You can almost taste it. And it tastes like chicken. Or the security of knowing you're not totally screwed if you get sick(er). Whichever!

Ed Henry is on the story for us and in a piece from him we learn that Obama sat down with Bret Baier of Fox News to argue in favor of the legislation. He crossed enemy lines. You know it's serious now. I didn't get the chance to watch myself, but my tweeps thought Baier was too interrupty. No different than how he would interview Bush, I'm sure. As for what's in the bill, nobody frickin' knows, though that hasn't stopped Republicans from being very unhappy about, well, everything.

I've been a very bad little wonk these past few days. I haven't really done my required reading, so there's not all that much for me to add. From what I can gather, the bill's still pretty sucky, but it's better than nothing. According to Ed, the probable vote will go down Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! And since this is real life and not an M. Night Shyamalan movie, I'm really hoping we're not going to get some sort of 11th hour scandal twist. So attention Congresscritters: please kindly keep it in your pants for at least another week. Mmkay?

On now to an interview with representative Dennis Kucinich, former no vote. Today the liberal congressman announced he's changing that opposition to a yes. The 360 kids are doing that video clippage thing again that I like, and Anderson Cooper hits Kucinich with his past statements as well. But the Ohio representative takes back nothing, emphasizing that he tried everything he could to change the bill. I actually believe him on that. Anderson also pretty much asks if he's getting a kickback from Obama in exchange for the vote.

Kucinich denies and just basically states that he doesn't want to be THAT guy. You know, the guy who kills health care reform and tarnishes the presidency of the guy who's actually trying to dig us out of the hole the last guy dug. That guy. Also of note, is Anderson shocking me by bringing up Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake.com. Somebody's expanding their interweb horizons. Besides Huffpost, progressive bloggers rarely get thrown a bone. I rarely ever read that blog (I can't read them all, people!), but I do know that Jane has caused a lot of controversy in the progressive community.

The deal is that Jane wants Kucinich to return the donations of people who gave to him because he was opposing reform (and to be clear, I'm not saying this is what makes Jane controversial). Well, the congressman is already all over that. Wow. I'm a little impressed. Kucinich is such a perplexing person. In theory, he should probably be "my guy." We agree on so much. But then there are those moments where he's talking about aliens and you're like, "God dammit, man! Could you not have kept that to yourself?"

Joining us to boogie down at the post-interview party, are Bill Bennett and Dee Dee Myers. And the ensuing discussion was shockingly rational. I think the panels might be wearing me down, people. I'm pretty sure I only scowled once!

Transitioning now to an update on Haiti. Nearly all of the children those American missionaries took have been returned to their families. In a Sara Sidner piece, we learn more about what exactly they'll be returning home to. In some cases, the sad answer is nothing. The older children know they were abandoned by their parents and attachments have been made to their current caretakers. Such a heartbreaking situation. Good on 360 for the follow up. I'm really liking Sara.

On now to a Randi Kaye piece, that I have to say, made me ridiculously excited. We're going to talk about social psychological principles. Psychology majors represent! Okay, let me back up. The French have created this game show called "The Game of Death." Modeled on the infamous Milgram experiments (a staple of every psych 101 class), contestants were encouraged to give their fellow participants increasingly severe shocks for every answer they got wrong. As in the Yale study, there are no real shocks in this game show--the recipients are merely actors--the object being to see how far the participant will go.

A twist this time, however, is that there's a live studio audience (also not in on the experiment) cheering the shocking on. At first I was surprised this game show could even exist, but then I realized, duh, it's TV--they're not confined by ethics. The Milgram studies could never be officially recreated by professionals because they'd never pass the review board. Because let me tell you, getting approval from them is a pain in the ass. Oh also? If you think conducting a study in questionnaire form rather than working with actual subjects would be easier, you would be wrong. Lesson learned. But I digress.

Randi tells us that only 16 out of 80 participants refused to do the painful shocking. I am not surprised. The banality of evil. We like to think that we're incapable of such acts, but the truth of the matter is that the power of the situation is often overwhelming. Unless you have the self awareness to look outside yourself while you're in the moment and really analyze things objectively, there's a good chance you'll be one of the shockers. This is why everyone should be educated in social psychology.

In 2006, the Sundance Channel aired the documentary "The Human Behavior Experiments" (review here), which, using a lot of original footage, related infamous experiments such as Milgram's, and Philip Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment, to similar instances of today. Obviously Zimbardo's work correlates with the abuse at Abu Ghraib and in fact he even wrote a book about it in 2007 called "The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil." (Zimbardo's still alive and possibly bookable, FYI!)

The documentarians related the Milgram study to a series of pranks on fast food restaurants in which managers were called and convinced to do horrible things to their employees, including strip searching. In one case the manager's fiance was even convinced to abuse the employee into performing oral sex. Beyond disturbing to watch. For those that want to see the documentary, I'm sure it's online somewhere. I actually used to have it embedded in this blog, but I see the video's been taken down. Anyway, fascinating stuff.

We're going to "dig deeper" on this bad boy now and for once I'm really excited to be doing the digging. But then I see the guest is Dr. Drew and my excitement is tempered. I don't have anything against him exactly; he's just not a social psychologist. That's okay though. Shake it off. Drew doesn't say much more than what I've already inferred--i.e. your thought process can be skewed by a social situation. Anderson actually brings up the power of television, which is a good point, and something I hadn't really thought about since that factor wasn't present for Milgram. So good on that.

Next up, Dr. Drew stops playing social psychologist (and to be fair, hey, maybe he does have some professional experience in that) and goes back to being an addiction specialist in order to talk about the untimely death of actor Corey Haim. Jeffrey Toobin joins us as well for the legal aspect (someone just got arrested). Doctor shopping is discussed and I'm having Anna Nicole Smith deja vu. I pretty much zoned out for the majority of this, though I do find it sad. I read that Haim was so broke when he died that his family had to ask for donations to pay funeral costs. Awful.

The "shot" tonight is the crew learning Irish step dancing from kids of the Inishfree School of Irish Dancing. I gotta hand it to them, I would not have thought of this one. Oh 360, you so crazy sometimes. Bob really had it down there at one point. Is there anything this crew won't do? I'm just imagining the person who was flipping channels and happened to land on CNN right at this moment, going, "WTF?" Good times.

I thought tonight was the best show of the week so far. Yeah, I'm biased with the psych stuff, but I don't really have any big complaints with anything else either. So congratulations 360, everybody gets a cookie. Will the ratings give them a cookie? Who the hell knows? But they were sucko last night. Fingers crossed. That'll do it.

Health Care Reform Procedural Controversy, Tiger Woods On My TV Again, Sex Addiction, Vatican Scandal, And More Serial Killer

Hi everyone. Health care reform continues to chug along at an excruciating pace, and it's not without a bump or two either. We're in the home stretch of massive legislation, which means one thing for certain is on the horizon: confusing procedural issues! In an Ed Henry piece, it's noted that our prez has been traveling all over these here United States, promising the American people an up or down vote on health care reform (helpfully exhibited in clip form-nice).

But! Now Pelosi might use what is known as "deeming," which means that House members would be able to approve fixes to the Senate bill without having to do that whole unpleasantness of actually voting for the whole bill. This is CYA at its finest. Reform gets passed and no one has to stick their necks out politically. Everybody wins! Well, except democracy.

And as a preserver of that democracy, Ed holds Gibbs' feet to the fire on the issue. Honestly, at this point I just want them to push it through and I really don't care who they have to tie up in the House basement to do it, but good on Ed for doing his job. He also notes that Republicans, who predictably are crying like little babies over this, did the same thing themselves with immigration legislation. Ed's on a roll. I just might have to give him a cookie.

Oh Also? Gibbs and Pelosi aren't even on the same page. Democrats are so frustrating. Right side of the issues, wrong side of competency. After Ed's piece, he further explains how Republicans are cynically trying to score political points off all this. Yeah well, water wet, sky blue. What are you gonna do? Pass the bill. In the end, no one will care how it got done. Declare victory and move on. Hey, it worked for Iraq.

On now to discussion with David Gergen, who has become quite the broken record these days. Again with the hand-wringing over how the bill is going down. I think I could say his lines at this point. Does the Gerg have a glitch? Somebody give him a shake and see if he turns back into that rational non concern troll that I liked so much. The stuff he's saying, you'd swear he didn't even live through the Bush administration. Also of note, Anderson Cooper did a little challenging. Credit where credit is due (yes, I'm reaching).

Transitioning now to the news that Tiger Woods is returning to golf...which means now we get to talk about him some more. Yay? A Gary Tuchman piece gives us a sum-up of all the prior drama, and explains why golf wants him back ever so badly. I don't have to go over how he slept with the equivalent of the tri-state area, do I? Anyway! Anderson reminds us that Tiger checked himself into sex rehab and we're shown several pictures of other celebs who have allegedly suffered from the problem. Because I'm sure they want to be dragged into this.

This, of course, is all just leading up to an interview with a sex addict, that sex addict being Benoit Denizet-Lewis. There's a funny little bit of information you learn when you put his name into the Google machine. You know how Anderson told us about Tiger being in sex rehab? Well, the curious thing is that Tiger hasn't actually spoken about it. In fact, our anchor stressed several times that we really don't know his exact deal. What tabloid reporter invaded the golfer's privacy to confirm the sex rehab info? Why, it was Benoit Denizet-Lewis!

So, let me get this straight: A guy who is supposedly suffering from something very real and painful, exploits a celebrity who is allegedly suffering from the exact same thing, in order to get himself publicity. In the meantime, 360 is apparently more than happy to play this game, because they themselves are exploiting the notion of sex addiction so that they have an excuse to speculate about Tiger Woods. The golfer, by the way, has never even said he's a sex addict. Good God, I actually feel bad for Tiger here. That's how fucked up this situation is.

And no disclosure that Benoit was the guy who confirmed the sex rehab?! I mean, seriously? Wow. It's funny, I already thought the situation was pretty messed up and that was before I Googled. Someone please tell me I'm mistaken about this stuff. Otherwise, I don't even know what to say. Obviously I consider the guy's credibility pretty much shot, so at this point everything he said is moot. I guess we'll just move on because...wow. (Update: Benoit writes on his blog that he did not break the Woods story, but only further confirmed, something he now regrets. Do with that what you will.)

Next up, Abbie Boudreau joins us to update the prior reporting she did on the 96 hour rule. That was the rule that said soldiers had four days to come up with evidence that would merit turning over suspects to Afghan officials. Otherwise, they had to be released. Much controversy arose from the rule, which many felt was putting soldier's lives at risk. Abbie tells us that General David Petraeus was questioned about the matter and now the rule will be 14 days instead of four. That sounds reasonable. Yay for that.

Moving on now to a Nic Robertson piece on yet more scandal of the sex variety going down with the Catholic church. This one's actually connected to the Pope, and while I do not deny it's important, I feel like my church sex scandal quota has already been met for the week (and we're not even at the halfway point!). After Nic's piece, Anderson talks with CNN's senior Vatican analyst, John Allen. It kinda cracks me up that CNN actually has a senior Vatican analyst.

Transitioning now to a Stephanie Elam piece on that "Dating Game" serial killer guy Rodney Alcala. Actually, I find their TV show angle with this story to be completely ridiculous. The guy was a contestant once. So what? They make it sound like he actually killed people on the show. But we all know it makes it more intriguing. Anyway, the police found a bunch of pictures of women and girls in the killer's storage locker.

It's not known who they are, but in a rare move, they were released to the public in the hopes of perhaps solving some cold cases. Tips have since been streaming in. We're being shown the pictures throughout the piece. My regular readers know well how much I dislike these kind of stories, but if there's a public good to come of them I have absolutely no problem with the airing. What they're doing with this piece is one of the functions of news. My problem is with unnecessary speculation and exploitation involving stories that only touch a handful of people. Lisa Bloom follows this up with the legal lowdown.

Candy Crowley has our headlines tonight, one of which is the news that a connection has been found between erectile dysfunction and heart disease. Earlier, Anderson teased the story by saying how much the early warning sign would shock us. Well, here we are and I'm not shocked. Why do they always do that? It's not exactly a new problem. I even wrote a whole blog post about it almost three years ago. Also? Why are they teasing a mere headline in the first place?

The "shot" tonight is some facial morphing done of our anchor because the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History is celebrating their 100th anniversary and they have a new exhibit on human origins. Yeah, I don't know what Anderson has to do with this either, but let's just go with it. So anyway, we're shown Neanderthal! Anderson, who yes, is decidedly less pretty. Amusingly, however, he still has the furrowed brow. Because that's how we know the news is serious, people! Anderson also shows Candy's (against her will!) and she's not looking so hot either. But she takes it well. These two actually have pretty good chemistry. Still miss Erica though.

Well, children, apparently the special theme tonight was sex. Oy. You know, last week when I noted that 360 seemed to be morphing into a news magazine and that was probably a good thing, in my head I envisioned them going in more the direction of, say, 60 Minutes. But I guess they have chosen the opposite direction, onward to Inside Edition. I don't know what to say except that I don't get it.

Going sensational only alienates viewers who they count on when they do real news like Haiti and whatnot. I used to watch a fair amount of CNN. Then came months of Michael Jackson coverage. Except for 360, the network lost me. The show keeps going back and forth between putting on a quality broadcast and catering to the lowest common denominator. Until they pick a side and stay consistent, they're never going to significantly grow their base of regular viewers.

Big Pharma Wins Again, Rielle Hunter Speaks Out, Andrew Young Interview, Yet Another Scandal Involving The Catholic Church, & Cookie Challenge!

Hi everyone. I took Friday off. Because that's how I roll. Well, let's get to it, shall we? Health care reform continues to slowly suck all life out of Washington. For the love of God, pass the bill! Anderson Cooper tells us that that passing might actually occur this week. I'm keeping my hopes grounded in reality.

A bunch of Congress peeps are then thrown up on the Big Wall--37 to be exact, and they actually won't all fit at the same time. We're told that they are the people crucial to health care reform. Okay, that was pretty irrelevant. I mean, what's the viewer supposed to do with 37 nameless faces that are only shown for a few seconds? People can't take in meaningful information like that.

We then move on to a Dana Bash piece that focuses on biologics, which are really expensive drugs. It's common practice to make a generic form of a drug to bring down costs, and the Obama camp wanted to make a path to do the same thing with these biologics. Their time frame was seven years. You probably know where this is going. Yep, Big Pharma released the lobbyists on Congress and wa lah! Seven years just became twelve.

The drug companies claim they need more time to make money because they need the money for research and development. Now would be a helpful time to inform us of the company's current profits. No? Well, how about the names of the Congress peeps who received campaign contributions from the manufacturers? No? Because we might like to know if some of them are the 37 that were previously put up on the Big Wall. Oh 360, sometimes you're so close, yet so far away.

After Dana's piece, Candy Crowley joins us to talk vote counts. I have a feeling some of that is going to change before the week is out, perhaps several times over.

Remember how John Edwards screwed around on his cancer-stricken wife with a woman who made videos for his presidential campaign, subsequently becoming a baby daddy and almost destroying the Democrats' chance at the election? Remember that? Yeah well, said woman, Rielle Hunter, just gave a big old interview to "GQ" magazine and now we're going to talk about it. Because it's news. I guess.

In a Randi Kaye piece, we learn a bunch of background stuff and details and...I could so care less. C'mon 360, aim higher. Anyway, pretty much all I have to say is that poor kid is going to need so much therapy.

Next up, Anderson has an interview with Andrew Young, the former Edwards aide, who for a while there claimed that he was actually the baby daddy. Oh, the drama! He then disses on Rielle, and again, I still don't understand why this is on CNN. Of note is the chyron that says, "Fmr. aide reponds to interview." That's right 360, stop doing trash TV or I will find all your typos! Be afraid.

To talk about this even further (even further!), we're joined by Mark Halperin, author of that hideous book "Game Change." Okay, at this point they're just messing with me, right? Anderson and Mark start talking about how Edwards picked Hunter up and we get this from our anchor: "I mean, he's literally, like, kind of growling across the room to her, like, come closer to me, baby, kind of stuff." I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.

I don't know about you, but I feel dirty. Lucky for us, we're moving on to a Gary Tuchman piece. Unlucky for us, the piece is about pedophilia. Yay? If you guessed that our location is the Catholic Church, you win the prize! This is a two-parter, people, so buckle up. Chicago priest Chester Przybylo is well-liked by his parishioners, but in 2006 he was accused of molesting an alter boy 20 years prior.

The Department of Family Services checked it out and found no evidence the charges were true. Przybylo then actually posted the findings on the church door, which, uh, is pretty weird. The former alter boy, Peter Galica, then 13, remains adamant that he was molested. And he's not alone. Paul Gil, another former alter boy accuses Przybylo of molestation as well. The priest denies it all and tries to dismiss it away.

Funny thing is, though Przybylo's church is now independent (the archdiocese kicked him out when the allegations first occurred), the Catholic church has chosen to settle Peter Galica's molestation lawsuit to the tune of more than $1.3 million. Strange thing to do if the accused is innocent. But we all know how excellent that church is at sweeping things under the rug. And sweeping they did!

CNN got their hands on a whole mess of paperwork that show other priests thought Przybylo was a child molester. One even saw Peter in his underwear in the priest's room. The excuse? Oh, maybe he had short pants on. You gotta be kidding me. Przybylo actually does admit to Gary that he had boys in his room. To watch TV. Uh huh. Another priest says Przybylo tried to proposition him. The excuse this time? The priest was drunk.

Then there's the accusation that he struck children. Gary asks point blank if that's true. "I went in there to just, yes, hit them a little bit," says Przybylo. A little bit? WTF? Gary asks what that means. "Just a little whack or something. You know," says the priest. No, no, I don't think Gary does know. Anyway, now the church is saying that they believe molestation actually did occur. Przybylo, for his part, claims conspiracy (naturally) and even says one of the church leaders is senile. Wow, drunks, senile leaders. This is all quite convenient.

Yeah, Gary's all over this BS: "Why is everyone out to get Father Chester?" he asks Przybylo. I'm sure you all realize by now his answer doesn't even matter. What matters is that he broke two boys (at least) who have both tried to kill themselves over the years. And yet the guy still preaches to a congregation of parishioners who seem to be a-okay with their pedophile pastor, while the church as a whole tries to pay his crimes away. Hard to imagine why some people find religion hypocritical.

For "the shot" tonight we have a cookie challenge, but I think I'm going to have to back things up a bit. See, on Friday, the Silver Fox did his semi-regular gig as a guest co-host on Regis and Kelly. Guy Fieri from the new show called "Minute to Win It," was on (which I'm sorry, looks like another example of popular culture reaching for the gutter) and Anderson and Kelly played the Face the Cookie challenge (Watch here!).

I guess I just don't get it because to me at one point our anchor looked like a pirate having a seizure. Not pretty. And I don't think I've ever used that phrase to describe the Silver Fox. Anyway! They invited all the viewers to send in videos of themselves playing. Oh yes, I very much want to look like an idiot on national television. Where do I sign up? Yeah...I'm guessing they didn't get many submissions.

Back up plan: get the crew to do it! Enter Bob Angle and Seth Greenspan. Sixty seconds go on the clock and it's all a little painful to watch. That was a long 60 seconds. Bob emerges victorious. Yay Bob! Candy Crowley has been with us the whole time. Her assessment? "And I'd just like to say, I may have laughed, but it was really stupid, OK?" Sing it, sister!

Look, I like a little silliness now and then, but when a good portion of the show has already been pretty bad, this kind of stuff just emphasizes the suck. I guess what I'm saying is, no cookies for 360 when they've been bad! Okay, Gary's team can have a cookie because they brought us a big investigative report. But all that Edwards crap (that I know we only got stuck with because Anderson and others are all fascinated) that's really neither here no there when it comes to actual newsiness? No cookie for that!

But let's leave on a good note. On Friday, Anderson also participated in Regis and Kelly's inbox segment and it was hilariously adorable. Best line goes to the Silver Fox: "Sweetie, that's the last place I'd look." Bwah! Stop reminding us! Second best line goes to Kelly: "This is the happiest I've ever been!" Well, who can blame her?! (Um, sorry Mark?) Hilarious.

So...not much more to say. I guess try again tomorrow, 360. Maybe they'll get some ratings off the Young interview, but it's no way to build a loyal viewership.

Anderson Cooper Returns To Hollenbeck, Spotlight On Insurance Companies, Tornado (!), A Haiti Update, California State Spending, And Oscar Talk

Hi everyone. This week Anderson Cooper has returned to Hollenbeck, the East L.A. neighborhood he reported on in 2005 regarding gang violence. We begin with a report from him that explores the murder of Steven Bueno, a 20-year-old who was shot in the head in broad daylight in his own driveway. Steven's father Milton shows Anderson where his son fell and where the blood spattered. This death, though tragic on its own, is just an example of a systematic problem in Hollenbeck: violence and the code of silence.

Steven wasn't alone outside that day he was shot; his friends were there with him and surely saw something, but according to police, no eyewitness has come forward. Anderson even speaks with his best friend, who denies he saw the actual shooting take place. Milton has urged his son's friends not to seek retribution for what happened, but he knows it is only a matter of time before the cycle of violence continues.

We're next joined by Dr. Steve Perry to further discuss the code of silence--or stop snitchin' movement. My regular readers know I've previously had some issues with how they've tackled this subject. While I'm still a little frustrated at their lack of investigation into the corporations behind this movement, I was pleasantly surprised to find this current discussion had more context than we've witnessed previously.

For example, Anderson notes that some people may be afraid of coming forward, and he questions the adequacy of police protection. But he also relays that the officers he's talked with say there have been no problems in that area. My guess is there is very little trust of the police in this community and if that's the case, it wouldn't be surprising if there's a huge gap between what's true and what's perceived. And perception is everything.

Steve says those who fail to come forward are "cowards." I'm not sure that's exactly helpful. Though to be fair, he then goes on to talk about how this is really a community-wide problem with a lot of roots in the school system. They also bring up how all these rappers who promote stop snitchin' don't even live in rough neighborhoods anymore. In fact, Steve tells us 50 Cent lives in a mansion in Farmington, Connecticut. Ha! Yeah, it's a hard knock life for him.

Transitioning now to President Obama speechifying at Arcadia University and getting all up in the health insurance companies' grill. For more, we're joined by Ed Henry who tells us that people are excited because Campaign Obama is back! He and Anderson then, fer serious, spend the majority of this segment talking about Obama's passion and fieriness. Good lord.

Moving on to an interview with Wendell Potter, Cigna whistleblower. Awesome. I love this guy. Wendell says what you and I pretty much already know, but can never be said enough: the insurance companies are a for profit business. They don't care about you. They don't care about your sick mother. They care about money going into the pockets of their stockholders and answer only to investors.

They know they're the only game in town, so they don't care if their constantly rising premiums cause a little lost business (people who subsequently become involuntarily uninsured)--there's no where else for us to go. As Wendell says, yeah, they're down with parts of health care reform--specifically the part where everyone is forced by law to buy their crappy product with no public option to keep them honest. Seriously, this world needs a lot more Wendells.

Now for the other side, because the studio will explode if every issue is not split equally down the center, regardless of how truly equal a debate may be. We're joined by Mike Tuffin of America's Health Insurance Plans, and things get interesting right off the bat. Anderson informs us that they had actually asked Mike to be on with Wendell, but his people said he wouldn't do that. Our anchor then asks why and we're met with a deer in the headlights look from Mike, who goes on to stammer about how he'll discuss anything Wendell said. The implication is that Anderson's statement isn't true, but you know, he never actually gives a denial.

Our anchor is then put in the confusing position of wondering if his staff screwed up or the guy is lying (or, even, Mike's people made the request without his knowledge). So he simply tells us that they were told by his people that he wouldn't be on with Wendell, which is pretty much all he can do. Anyway! Regardless of what the hell just happened, big kudos to Anderson. Situations like this should always be disclosed, but too often they're not. And if Mike's nervous reaction was any indication, he sure wasn't expecting that little piece of information to be brought up.

Mike begins by talking about how most insurance is employer-based with private insurance buyers being a small percentage. Yes, and what about all the people who are stuck in a job they hate because it provides them insurance they can't otherwise get due to pre-existing conditions? We can't keep relying on employer-based insurance. People need to be able to afford it and qualify for it on their own. This is about choice, which I thought Republicans loved. When my father died, my mother not only had to deal with that extreme life stresser, she also had to change careers because her job at the time (which she loved) did not provide insurance.

Oh, about those pre-existing conditions? Mike here says they'd just love to do away with all that. But their hands are tied (TIED!) due to the pesky voluntary-ness of the current insurance system. "If people get insurance only when they're sick, for instance, or when they're headed to the hospital, you're going to have exploding premiums," he tells us. On the way to the hospital? Really? Car insurance is mandated by law, yet strangely I haven't heard of people placing calls to agents from accident scenes. I mean, c'mon. Plus, where's the guarantee premiums won't explode anyway? You know what that was called? The public option.

We now pause this broadcast to bring you breaking news footage of a big freakin' tornado in Oklahoma. The video was taken by storm chaser Andy Gabrielson, who apparently is insane. As I watched, the phrase, "What are you doing, you idiot!" came to mind. I'm torn between being blown away by what is admittedly amazing video, and being annoyed they're encouraging this sort of thing by having Andy via phone to talk about it. Oh well. If he didn't talk to 360, he'd talk to someone else.

Moving on to some news from Haiti. First, Anderson informs us that Charisa Coulter, one of those American missionaries, was released today. Only Laura Silsby remains. Our anchor also does a taped interview via Skype with Matt Marek of the Red Cross from Port-au-Prince. Anderson brings up all the people who are apparently still in need of help. Matt concedes there's much more to be done, but does a little Red Cross back-patting regarding how many people they've assisted.

They then both talk about the rains and the new fear of mudslides and floods. It never ends for those poor people. Matt tells us that right now they're working on meeting the immediate needs of survivors, but have also implemented a plan to begin moving people from the camps to transitional shelters or even more permanent living situations. I imagine that's going to take a long, long time.

Next up, we have a Ted Rowlands piece on California, which was good, but I think I'm going to skip ahead due to time limitations.

Finally tonight, we're joined by Joy Behar to talk Oscars. Boy were they a snoozer! I only watch these award shows so I can chat/tweet during them. I think everybody and their mother had a live-blog running. I participated in three myself, thank you very much. The only thing mildly interesting that happened was the Kanye moment, and even that wasn't all that thrilling. They don't make them like Roberto Benigni anymore. Joy would like to see Snooki at the next awards. Seriously, does she want me to cry? Because I'll cry.

The show was pretty solid tonight. I mean, yeah, we had the requisite throw-two-sides-up-like-they're-equal for the insurance debate, but the segment wasn't too bad. There were other little hiccups as well that I've already pointed out. Again though, good show. I am, however, a little annoyed that they keep putting good pieces in the second hour that I know are being missed by people who would want to see them. Tonight the piece in question explored how the Twitter war between CNN and Ashton Kutcher led to the distribution of thousands of malaria nets. Check out the blog post.

Sneaking in pieces during the second hour is something I mentioned in my special weekend blog post, which mostly focused on ratings and CNN's systemic problem. For those of you who commented, thank you. I will try to chime in myself when I have more time. Everyone else feel free to jump in. Anyway, it was great to see Anderson update his Hollenbeck reporting. For those wondering, I hear a Kiki update is scheduled for Thursday, emphasis on 'scheduled.' To up our nostalgia, Anderson even whipped out the old field t-shirt. Ah, memories. That'll do it.

Health Care Reform (Maybe) Moves Forward, Charles Rangel Steps Down, And A Tsunami Scare In Chile

Hi everyone. I'm back from my brief sabbatical. Mostly. I was suffering a bit of blogging burnout, and to be honest, with a few exceptions, I haven't exactly been feeling the show lately (apparently I'm not the only one!).

These past few days have brought us a fair amount of metaness: the previously linked bad ratings and Anderson Cooper's possible, but not really, but maybe(!) move to CBS. I do want to do some musing on all that, but I think I'll save it for a post (hopefully) this weekend. For those of you who like that kind of thing, be sure to check back then.

For now, on with the review! I'm still easing back in, so I'm skipping any indepth-ness. We begin with an Ed Henry piece that's all about President Obama's latest health care push. Feeling deja vu yet? Yeah, not much new here. Although apparently he's thrown Republicans a few more bones so they can continue to not vote for the bill. Also, reconciliation, though not spoken, was hinted.

After Ed's piece, Anderson whips out a quote from Campaign Obama that states 60 votes would be needed to pass health care. Normally I like the whole Daily Show-esque-ness of holding people accountable with their prior words, but meh. If Obama's committed a crime here, it was assuming Republicans would ever act like reasonable people. The White House has made more than enough compromises.

For discussion of all this (because I guess we must), we're joined by Donna Brazile, Bill Bennett, and David Gergen. There is literally nothing of note here. As Anderson throws us out to commercial, we're shown a tease of more panel discussion to come, which apparently contains a heated exchange between Donna and Bill.

So this is what it's come to. Don't change the channel; people are going to yell! Hey Anderson, you might not be the one getting hot under the collar, but I think you still just became what you hate.

Before we get to the promised argument, we have a Dana Bash piece that breaks down the reconciliation process. Also explored is the fact that the Senate and the House don't exactly trust each other. This was a good little explainer. Bravo.

Back to our mind-numbing panel, yeah, Bill and Donna go at it about something. I don't know. Does it matter? I love how Bill has taken it upon himself to speak for everyone by stating what Americans do and don't want. Yeah, that's not annoying. Also? If I hear David Gergen whine about bipartisanship one more time, I just might have to kick a puppy.

Transitioning now to the news that Charles Rangel is stepping down from his powerful perch of chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee due to epic corruption. Okay, probably not epic depending on the comparison, but corruption none the less.

Joe Johns joins us live to explain that Rangel broke a rule regarding having travel expenses paid by outside interests. The embarrassing picture currently making the rounds of him sleeping on a beach isn't exactly doing him any favors. Rangel defends himself by throwing his staff under the bus (blaming them for errors), which you gotta admit, kinda douche-y.

Joe reminds us that Democrats came to office fighting a culture of corruption and implies that now the tables could be turning. Anderson is quick to agree. Okay, yes, it seems that the Democrats might have been slow in fixing this Rangel problem (though even that I'd have to look into more), but a culture of corruption? What, one guy? Do you people even remember the Bush years?

Anderson at the Magic Wall now, providing us some technological activity, and setting up a throw to a forth-coming Randi Kaye piece by showing us the top five richest members of Congress. In Randi's subsequent report, she introduces us to Linda McMahon, yes wife of Vince and co-founder of World Wrestling Entertainment.

What the hell does that have to do with Washington? Linda is rolling in the dough and she plans to use $50 million of it to represent you! Well, provided that you live in Connecticut, where there's a senate seat that Linda has her eye on.

The rest of the piece explores the notion that being really rich is a huge plus when running for Congress. Because this is a shocking fact. Gee 360, how else will you blow my mind tonight? Also? Gratuitous WWE clippage! Something for everyone! So there's that.

Moving on now to Sanjay Gupta doing some explaining of the new confusing prostate cancer screening guidelines. I zoned out during this segment (mesmerized by Sanjay's pearly whites and Anderson's blue, blue eyes?) because I'm no where near the ages they're talking about. Oh, also I don't have a prostate.

Transitioning now to really amazing video from Chile. There was a large aftershock today and while Karl Penhaul was filming, they issued a tsunami warning. We see him and others running for their lives.

After his piece, Karl explains that the warning was legitimate--it came from a naval base--but thankfully no wave materialized. He also informs us that outlying villages are still in need of aid. The death toll of the earthquake is currently at 802. I feel kinda guilty for not focusing on Chile as I did Haiti. Karl has done great work, as has Soledad O'Brien.

The "shot" tonight is the new totally awesome video for OK Go's song "This Too Shall Pass," which reminds me of the board game Mousetrap for some reason. Then again, I am weird.

Speaking of weird, when Googling up that video for you fine folks, I originally came upon this video for song. It's also fairly cool, but dudes, you gotta let a blogger know when there's two versions. Otherwise she's going to spend some time pondering whether or not she just hallucinated the last five minutes of the broadcast. Just sayin'.

The show was pretty forgettable. I liked the Dana Bash piece. I wish Karl had been given more time. Everything else I really could have done without. It's not so much the content, but the unbelievably bland way they serve it to us. Also, is this show seriously not going to mention Iraq before the elections? Check out Michael Hastings on the Rachel Maddow Show if you're behind. That'll do it.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta Breaks Down The Bipartisan Health Care Summit

Update: Hey guys. I'm taking a bit of a blogging break and will most likely return on Tuesday or Wednesday. In the meantime, you can check out my new Chile Twitter list for on-the-ground updates on that situation. What a world we live in, huh?

Hi everyone. Keeping with our revolving roster of CNN talent, tonight Sanjay Gupta finds himself in Anderson Cooper's anchor chair. The walking toothpaste commercial has subbing duties? Oh yes. I suppose it makes sense, given that those two letters behind his name do tend to denote some skills regarding health care. And that is what we find ourselves talking about tonight. Well, health care reform, anyway. Well, health care insurance reform. Well,...yeah.

Today our prez and congress peeps from both sides of the political aisle locked themselves in a room for a gazillion hours to talk argue posture about that whole health care bill thing. At least, that's what the Internets told me was the impression you got from the news people on the TeeVee. I wasn't able to watch the summit (job thing kept me busy-gotta keep that insurance!), but apparently cable coverage was sucko all around.

Now, for the aftermath. We begin with an Ed Henry piece that meticulously analyzes statements made by the participants and fact checks them against verifiable data. I kid! That would be way too helpful! No, this is all about who got in the best zingers and pushed their talking points. Speaking of which, did you see Obama telling McCain "the election's over"? (I know you did, since every media outlet has played it a zillion times.) All together now: oh snap! Thanks media! (To be fair, there was a fact-check in this piece regarding CBO numbers.)

Next up, discussion with David Gergen, Dr. Bernadine Healy of U.S. News & World Report, and cardiologist Dr. Sandeep Jauhar. I'm not really sure what to do with this. Dr. Healy accused Obama of having a rigid "one-size-fits-all" policy for every American and I would have liked to hear more about that complaint--specifically whether or not it has any merit. But this is cable news, so...yeah. These panels can be rather worthless.

On to Jessica Yellin at the Magic Wall to explain reconciliation. You know all that stuff you learned in your high school government class? Forget all that. See, we live in bizarro world where 41 votes can actually quash the majority. Operating in a sane system, a simple majority of 51 votes would be able to pass health care reform. Well, that sane system exists and it is called reconciliation.

Thing is, it's usually only used for important stuff like budgets, and hey, it's not like health care reform is crucial or anything. I'm sure those millions without insurance can wait. So anyway, the threat of this maneuver has predictably sparked outrage (OUTRAGE!) in Republicans, but Democrats need to man up and tell them to suck it. Also? Stop jerking us around on the public option. This was an informative little segment. Good job.

Back to the panel now. Not a lot to note here, though the Gerg does do some eye roll-worthy hand-wringing over passing the bill along party lines. Newsflash to the Gerg: the Republicans are never going to vote for this. Ever. The actual legislation doesn't even matter. They will not vote for it. The Village needs to get over themselves and realize that bipartisanship is not the end all and be all. As for public polling? Americans want reform, they just don't know if they want what's being proposed. Gee, I wonder why.

Hey, you know how I said the summit was a gazillion hours long? Well, this necessitated a need to break for lunch. And CNN thinks it would be helpful if we took a look at the menu. Obama had the chicken, you know, in case you were wondering. Thanks media!

Moving on to a Tom Foreman piece on the day's showmanship, because I guess we haven't covered that enough yet. He brings us the health care reform summit in four acts. Act one, bitching over speaking time. Act two, Obama called everyone by their first name, while they were forced to call him Mr. President (suckers!). Act three, props. Gotta tout that massive bill. And act four, monologuing. Remember, the thing went on for hours. Tom does not mention if this play was a comedy or tragedy.

Next up, Sanjay lays some facts on us regarding tort reform. About a million people claim injury due to malpractice every year, with about 85,000 of them filing suit. Only a fraction see any money, though there are always the rare cases that see a lot of money, thus causing people to get up in arms. Sanjay tells us that according to the CBO, malpractice payouts only amount to two percent of health care costs.

But! Defensive medicine costs us about $850 billion a year, and some malpractice insurance is so high in some places that doctors can't even keep practicing. This segues us into discussion with Anthony Tarricone, president of the American Association of Justice, and Dr. Albert Strunk, vice president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecology. They duke it out on tort reform, but meh. I'd rather just hear Sanjay give us more facts on the matter. I've learned nothing here because I can't trust these people and no one is holding them accountable.

After that segment, we get Sanjay's piece from yesterday on hospital costs, which you might recall I praised. The country would be in so much better shape on the overall issue of health care reform if the majority of coverage focused on fact-based reporting. For the love of God, stop with the horse race focus. This is life and death here. Anyway, since our CNN friends didn't do it, check out factcheck.org to find out the summit's untruths.

Transitioning now to discussion with Dan Buettner, author of "The Blue Zones." I guess it's that time again. It seems like every year or so Dan shows up on 360 to say the exact same things about living longer. But I'm not really complaining. Who doesn't want tips for living longer? So, according to Dan, first thing you need to do is make sure to eat a big breakfast. Ruh roh. Great, first one and already I'm going to die young.

Then there's the suggestion to eat less meat and more vegetables, which sounds reasonable. And finally, have lots of sex! Oh my. Okay, the actual word Dan used was "regular" and he clarifies that he doesn't know if sex made the group he's referring to live longer or if they lived longer to have sex. Hm. The world may never know.

For the "shot" tonight...happy birthday Jessica Yellin! She had the headlines for us and now she is being presented with a carrot cake, with candles and everything. Jessica is way more excited about this than the Silver Fox ever is for his surprises. She blows out her candles and wants to slice that sucker right there. But the hilarious (and some might say cruel) part is when the cake's calorie and fat content pop up on the massive wall behind her. You know, we'd probably be a much fitter country if every American had their own Magic Wall that did that.

The show was okay. I vaguely recall Sanjay anchoring the broadcast once a couple years ago and not having the best time of it. Maybe I'm misremembering. In any regards, he did a very smooth job tonight. But I have to say, I'm a little disappointed because his medical expertise was underused. We actually had ourselves a doctor and he barely challenged anybody on anything. I think we get more from him as a panelist. The factual reporting was all good (though way too brief). I think I made clear how I feel about the horse race reporting. That'll do it.

Killer Whale Attack, Medical Costs, Red Tape In Haiti, Toyota Coverage Continued, And More Broken Government

Hi everyone. Jessica Yellin continues to hold down the fort for the MIA Anderson Cooper. We're kicking things off tonight with a killer whale attack at SeaWorld that resulted in a fatality. Details are still a bit fuzzy. Depending on who you talk to, the female trainer either fell into the tank or she was actually grabbed by the mammal itself. It's a horrible story and a story worth reporting to be sure, but top story?

Out of everything that occurred in the world today, this is what 360 has determined most important? Given their recent stellar reporting on Haiti, this pathetically blatant ratings grab is rather depressing. The killer whale coverage goes on for almost a third of the show, including a Randi Kaye piece, statements of a witness, a phoner with someone tangentially connected to the story, and a bizarrely defensive interview with Jack Hanna. All topped off with rather ghoulish B-roll of the trainer playing with the whale in happier times. Yeah...

Brianna Keilar has the "360 bulletin" and we learn that Lieutenant Michael Lohman pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in the case of the police officers who shot two unarmed men during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I totally missed this. Good on them for following up.

Moving on to Sanjay Gupta live and then a subsequent piece that is all about those dreaded hospital bills. He tells us that something as simple as an IV bag can put you back $280. Why does everything cost so much? Well, hospitals buy the equipment at cost from manufacturers and then mark it up to include administrative costs and other factors like the uninsured. Interestingly, many hospitals operate in the red, while supply companies are mostly doing okay. They should delve into this further.

Sanjay also gives us an update on Kimberly, who you might remember as the girl with a brain injury that he operated on in Haiti. An organization called Can-Do saw his reporting and has brought supplies to Kimberly's family. She has also been able to secure a home, so that's great news. If only every Haitian child had exposure on a major news network.

Continuing with Haiti coverage, we're joined by Soledad O'Brien who tells us of a new aid road-block: taxes. Previously, relief supplies weren't taxed and everything just kinda freely flowed into the country. But now the government is holding things up at customs until they can determined that what's coming in really deserves to be tax free. The only way around the wait is to pay customs taxes and a lot of organizations simply don't have the money. And it should go without saying that time is of the essence.

Worse still, the government basically wants people to just give them their supplies for confirmation and then they'll give them back...whenever, I guess. Seeing as how trustworthy the Haitian government can be, organizations aren't too keen on this idea. How frustrating. Good reporting.

Transitioning now to a clip of Akio Toyoda (Toyota CEO) testifying before Congress. This segues us into a piece from Ted Rowlands, which investigates Exponent, the company that compiled the initial report that basically let Toyota off the hook for all their vehicle problems. Exponent was hired by, surprise, surprise,...Toyota. Funny how that happens. Known as the "masters of disaster," they're the ones who get called when a big corporation gets into hot water. Exxon Valdez oil spill? Yep, Exponent was on the case. You get the picture.

Now charges of junk science are being thrown around, which Exponent vehemently disputes. This kind of things seems to happen all too frequently and I'm glad it's finally under the microscope--at least in this case. Way too many cozy relationships.

Speaking of that, we next have a piece from Joe Johns that looks at whether the National Highway Traffic Safely Administration (NHTSA) was out to lunch when they should have been catching this Toyota scandal. Joe tells us that since 2000 they have received 2,600 complaints about sudden acceleration in Toyota cars, and State Farm alerted them to the problem in 2004. At that time, a preliminary evaluation of the vehicles was conducted, but then shut down after they failed to find defect trends.

A technical test was conducted in 2007 that determined floor mats to be the culprit, but a FOIA request on the test resulted in few details. So what's up with the NHTSA? A lot of "under" charges going around: Understaffed. Underfunded. Under-qualified. But there's the whole industry incest thing too. Some Toyota employees used to work for the NHTSA. So there's that. Tell me again why regulation kills freedom?

It's broken government time. Jessica sits down with John Avlon and Peter Beinart, and oooh, they brought listicles. A smorgasbord of people who are keeping our government all non worky, if you will. How cute. We'll start with John. His top picks include Nancy Pelosi (because she's polarizing and partisan and we can't have that), Dick Armey (because he's astroturfing the tea parties--a fact that would have been excellent for 360 to mention in any of their coverage on that subject), and Rush Limbaugh (because...seriously, do we need a because here?).

Peter's highlighting Frank Luntz, Mitch McConnell and Olympia Snowe for putting shrewd politics over good governing. We're all familiar with the Party of No. These people only care about their own power, screw the average American. Anyway, I'm on the fence about whether or not I liked this segment. I guess it's good to call these people out.

Congrats to Jessica for winning a Gracie award.

The show was...weird. The top story choice and the fact that it went on so long was so below them. Yet the rest of the broadcast was actually pretty good. Lots of solid reporting. I guess that'll do it.

Toyota Lobbyists, Central Falls Teachers Fired, Pushing Through Health Care Reform, And A Good News Story Out Of Haiti

Hi everyone. No Anderson Cooper tonight. In CNN's apparent continuing quest to confuse me, we've got Jessica Yellin pulling anchor duties. Well this is new. I'm not sure I've seen her host 360 before. Admittedly, most of my confusion up top here is due to the fact that, well, I just woke up.

Yes, your blogger was napping. Sue me. I pretty much spent the first five minutes or so of the broadcast just wrapping my head around Jessica being there, so yeah, my indepth-ness is going to be of the not variety.

We begin with the subject of Toyota, and how they kinda seem to be trying to kill us. This is all very important of course, but again, I was all discombobulated. So, from some clippage of congressional testimony, we go into a Drew Griffin piece that explores just what the heck is wrong with the cars. The company has previously blamed things such as stuck pedals, but evidence seems to be pointing more and more to electronic issues.

On now to a Joe Johns piece about all those lovely lobbyists Toyota has hired. Ugh. I think we all know that seedy deal by now (though it should absolutely be reported). We also learn that Representative Jane Harman has recused herself from the congressional investigation due to her husband's business dealings with the company and stock holdings. Good for her. Others like Senator Jay Rockefeller aren't stepping aside.

Particularly of note, is the notion that this mess might not be so much that lobbyist money convinced regulators to look the other way, but that the regulators just didn't have the resources to deal. As Joe points out, it's not that far-fetched given how much the Bush administration loved them the regulation. Thanks conservatives!

Transitioning now to the story of Central Falls High School in Rhode Island, which was covered on the program last night. In a Randi Kaye piece we learn that, it's official, the teachers are getting fired. To recap: the district is very poor with horrible statistics when it comes to student performance. But the teachers make between $72,000 and $78,000 per year.

In an effort to shape things up, the superintendent put forth a plan that mandated more time with students. The union for the teachers claims that scores have actually improved as of late and they just wanted to work out details of a plan moving forward. The district says the teachers actually refused the new schedule. I guess the truth is in there somewhere.

In a taped interview, Jessica talks with superintendent Fran Gallo. She assures us the teachers will finish out the school year, but she seems pretty set in this decision to terminate. Some of the teachers may be hired back if they reapply. I guess that's something, though probably rather humiliating. Dr. Gallo also notes that the teachers have complicated things by bringing the students into the issue. I'd be interested to hear more about that angle.

Now for the other side, we're joined by fired teacher George McLaughlin. He seems to think this was all avoidable. First of all, he doesn't accept the district's performance statistics because they have a transient student population. He also kinda disses on the superintendent and how little he believes she knows about the community. Finally, he resolutely states this was not about money. In fact, he seems pretty open to working out details.

I think this was a better format to explore the story that what we had last night, though I still don't feel like I have all the facts. George appeared to think there's some sort of agenda going on, and admittedly the superintendent came off pretty unwavering. I guess the big question is whether the teachers are looking out for the students or just themselves. I don't know the answer to that.

Next up, Dana Bash joins us live to report that reconciliation in health care reform is on the table. Woo hoo! Once upon a time, I had a notion that someday we'd really live up to this whole democracy thing. The system would work and everyone would have their say. But you know what? Screw it. Ram that sucker through!

We spent years watching the Bush administration and Republicans jam legislation down our throats with nothing we could do to stop them. I didn't really want the Democrats to be like that. And they haven't been as of yet. They've bent over backwards so many times for Republicans that they're all going to need chiropractors, with nothing to show for their efforts. Well, enough! It's time for my side to be the jerks. At least in this case we get health care reform.

Of course, it's not without risk. Obviously that whole planned summit thing is going to be painted (accurately) as a farce. Not to mention the overall politically controversialness of the move. But doing nothing might be worse politically (and it will certainly be worse on the nation's health). Plus the base is pissed. No more kowtowing to the stupid centrists who quit when things get hard. I'm through with getting my hopes up on this, but it wasn't a bad day.

From here we have a "broken government" segment with Ali Velshi and Peter Beinart. An okay discussion. I'm taking a pass.

Moving on to Gary Tuchman live with actual good news out of Haiti. The six orphans he reported on last night are going home. Woo! As I'm sure most of us suspected, the previous problems were all just a miscommunication and they really did have the prime minister's signature to take the children. So yay. The aftermath of this mess was also not without difficulty. Gary tells us that when the women went to get the kids at the orphanage...they were gone. Turns out they had been moved to yet another orphanage without telling them. What a day.

All this info sets the very adorable (taped) scene of Gary interviewing the three women while they're all holding kids. And when I say all, that includes Gary. He's got Malichi (ph) who is a little chatterbox and quite enamored by Gary's comically ginormous microphone. At one point he tries to eat it, which hey, it happens. The whole time Gary's doing that thing where you're trying to hold the kid in a way that he can't reach anything. Heh.



Also? The women didn't have a ride, so CNN was kind enough to load them and the six kids into their van. During the interview those boys seemed to be hitting the kinda wound-up crabby stage that kids get in. That might have been a long ride. In any regard, once again, yay. Happy ending! We all know that's not the case overall. Anderson Cooper was on Charlie Rose the other day discussing Haiti and you can see the show here. I thought it was a very good indepth conversation, and I especially found Robert Maguire very informative.

The "shot" tonight was billed as a countdown of Olympic mishaps, which I was going to say was in poor taste given what happened to the luger. But it turned out to be something completely different. Instead, it was a salute to CNN's own "Olympic-ish athletes." Okay, yes, they are totally stretching the Olympic relatedness, though who am I to reject trainwreck-y video?

First up, we get a picture of Tom Foreman receiving first aid treatment after attempting (and apparently failing) a jump onto a desk. Now, why this was attempted, I can't tell you, but I do know at some point he landed that jump. Then there's David Mattingly getting hit by a carp, which let's just face it, who doesn't want to watch that over and over. Anderson sure does.

Finally, perhaps the greatest piece of video CNN has ever broadcast: Rick Sanchez getting tasered. It hurts! I cannot tell you how much I have watched that video over the years. And I laugh every damn time.

The show seemed pretty good. But don't forget the wars, guys. The Iraq election is just around the corner. I know it's the new forgotten war and everything, but the troops who are there now and the troops who paid for that country's future with their lives deserve better, as do the Iraqis.