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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nepotism In Congress, Glenn Beck Decides To Do His Weeping Outside For A Change, And An Update From Pakistan

Hi everyone. Since I neglected to blog Friday's show, I have deprived you of my overall thoughts on the 360 kids New Orleans coverage (you poor, poor things!). Obviously this cannot stand! Don't worry, the matter will be rectified, well, now. Honestly, I'm a little torn. As a hard news junkie, my first instinct is to deem it shallow. Soledad O'Brien had a good look at the trailer situation, but there really wasn't that much honesty-keeping going on.

As I stated before, the lack of focus on the levees was rather ridiculous. Harry Shearer implies (in the comments) that further coverage on this issue was bumped. If true, that's a pretty big shame. It means they shirked their journalistic integrity for good video.

Bumpings like that wouldn't bother me much if I had confidence they would address the subject later. I do not. One thing that's always driven me crazy about this show is that they seem incapable of covering stories like Katrina's aftermath unless they are physically broadcasting from the region. Highlighting charity work or the city's restaurant situation is absolutely warranted and it is news. In fact, it seems like the most appropriate coverage to air while actually in the region. I just wish it didn't feel like a competition for airtime: accountability versus human interest.

Speaking of human interest, if they were going that route, where were the follow-ups with the people they met five years ago? Herbert Gettridge? Ms. Connie? The Kearneys? I think Dr. Henderson might have been the only one we got. For what it's worth, Tom Foreman caught up with the Kearneys, though I'm not sure when exactly this aired. In this podcast, Anderson Cooper says he keeps in contact with them by texting. Even if 360 couldn't fit them in the show, it seems like the perfect subject to blog/tweet about, don't you think? C'mon Silver Fox, you can't possibly be too busy to type a 140 character update.

Anyway. Like I said, I'm torn. It was good coverage--much of it enjoyable to watch. But as always, I would have liked to see more investigation. So, those are my thoughts. Your mileage may vary. Now let's zip back to the present day and churn out a few bullet point, mmkay?

• Why won't Anderson operate the Magic Wall live? This dude will dodge bullets and swim with sharks, but he cowers in the face of multi-touch technology? Yeah, that sounds about right.

• Admittedly, I was a little suspicious as to the origin of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation story. Right wing meme? Doesn't sound like it. That wouldn't necessary make it a non story anyway--it would just make me wonder the context. It looks like Representative Eddie Johnson has committed some stone-cold nepotism--a very big no-no. Our anchor's interview with Muriel Cooper, the senior media manager for the CBC Foundation is below.
  

• Anderson: "If multiple kids who are relatives of members of the CBC are signing off on this, I mean, it's pretty gutsy for a kid to lie like that. I would assume that they must have asked their family member who is in the CBC or who works for the congresswoman, you know, what should I do here? I'm assuming somebody told them, yes, just go ahead and say you're not a family member." Though he's probably right, you know what they say about people who assume. Let's just stick with the facts.

• Overall I thought our anchor did a nice job with that interview.

• This is possibly neither here nor there, but the presence of Melanie Sloan instantly upped this story's newsy cred.
  

• While I am pondering as to why this nepotism thing was the lede, I'm glad it's getting the coverage--even if some think it's not a big deal. This kind of crap is the root of the beltway rot. Keep it in context and I'll be a happy camper.
  

• Anderson: "Two men on a United Airlines flight from Chicago taken into custody after landing in Amsterdam. Who they are, what they tried to get on board and what authorities say they believe they were up to is raising some pretty chilling questions." Gotta say, I am decidedly unchilled. Look, we know terrorists want to commit terror. If we've gotten to the point where we catch them during a dry run and not when they're lighting their crotches on fire, I say go us! We don't even know what happened yet (and NBC News actually implied this is probably nothing). I'm going to wait a couple days to pay this story mind--if it's even still a story.

• Did you hear? This weekend former shock jock Glenn Beck decided to get all Jesus-y up in D.C. and restore America's virginity. Or something like that. What is there to say about Beck, really? He's either a man who legitimately needs psychological help...or he's a soulless cynic who is a master at exploiting the fears of a group of people who rightly or wrongly feel disenfranchised. Pick your poison!
  

• I don't even understand this rally. Restoring America's honor? Where did it go? Who took it? (I have a guess!) Beck seems to think his little gathering is going to change history. You know, just like all those protesters totally stopped the Iraq war from happening. Oh, wait.
  

• Though I like Matt Taibbi, the debate between him and Dana Loesch was fairly irrelevant. If you like Beck, you will think Dana destroyed Matt. If you don't, flip it around. You get the picture. FYI, Loesch is from St. Louis. So proud!

• I can't believe that they spent the whole first part of that segment arguing about whether or not the rally was political and no one mentioned that the whole thing was organized through a charity and therefore they had to be mindful of their tax exempt status. Also, as Matt said, of course it was political.

• Taibbi: "This is like one of those things when you see your crazy uncle taking his pants off at Thanksgiving. You don't know whether to laugh or cry. It's so incredibly offensive, this whole business." Ha! This is pretty much where I am right now with politics. It's like, oh look, more people being crazy.
  

• Anderson: "Dana, I should just point out, just for accuracy's sake, Dr. Alveda King, she's not an actual doctor. It's an honorary degree." It's kind of funny that after all that, this is what he decides to call out. But ok, I'll take it. Annnnnd cue the tea party hysterics. Segment below:

• Claustrophobics leave the room. Gary Tuchman's piece is scary. Those poor Chilean miners. I cannot imagine being down there for months. They're basically entombed in rock.

• As for the reenactment, with these kind of things I'm always conscious of the fact that it's TV. The leader guy's all, "I'll be the last one," and I'm like, um, yeah, there's a camera person behind you. Poor camera person--never counted. Heh.
  

• Sanjay Gupta continues to bring us great reporting from Pakistan. Horrible situation. His piece is below:

• That'll do it. Show wasn't bad.
  

Heckuva Job Brownie Returns, All About Faisal Shahzad, & Nashville Is Underwater But Apparently We're Not Talking About That

Hi everyone. My blogging malaise continues, so as do my bullet points. Away we go:

• Holy Scary Lighting Batman! Tonight Anderson Cooper was coming at us live from Chicago, where it seems the studio needs some practice. I'm not a big noticer of things. Tie color on a given night? Couldn't tell you. But when I flipped over to 360 I found myself immediately asking Screen Anderson why he looked so different. Makes you appreciate the New York studio.
  

• Today Michael Brown was brought back into our lives because someone on the TeeVee inexplicably thought he was the right guy to ask about emergency management. (Can you guess which network sought his advice? Can you?!) Aside from heading Arabian Horse Associations, Brownie is apparently also skilled at reading minds, because he knows the Obama administration had their little hearts set on this oil spill disaster so that they could use it to shut down drilling. He's really used these past five years to work on his character, hasn't he? You stay classy, Brownie!

• Anderson pretty much squashed Brown like a bug, though I don't think it was that hard. Basically the whole interview was Anderson asking Brown to back up his statements and Brown, of course, being unable to do so.
  

• Anderson: "As a former government official, I would think you would choose your words carefully." Um, has our anchor met government officials?

• You gotta love the irony of a former Bush administration official accusing someone else of using a disaster for political gain.

• A nice touch from Brown at the end when he makes sure to shirk all blame off himself and onto Bush.

• Anderson's face when they cut back to him live after the taped interview was pretty funny. It's like he couldn't quite believe that conversation actually happened.
  

• Anderson told us they would put more of the interview on the website. So I went to the website and...nope. In fact, what was there was even less of the interview. What the hell, 360? It's the little things that add up and hurt credibility. (Update: It looks like they put it up Wednesday morning. I still think it should have been up Tuesday night if the anchor is directing people to the site.)

• Don't forget to set your DVR! (I still do not understand these promos.)

• I'm embarrassed to say I'd never even heard of Chandeleur Island, Louisiana. Gary Tuchman said it was the most remote live remote he's ever done. And he's done a lot of live remotes, so that's saying something.
  

• It's so sad to think about what the oil is going to do--is doing--to the wildlife.

• Less than 24 hours after Faisal Shahzad's arrest and we know a crazy amount of info on him. Yes, I am skeptical. Almost seems too easy. But maybe these guys really are just that sloppy, which, if that's the case, yay for us! I'm guessing this story will change at least somewhat with the passage of time.

• There should be no "partisan debate" about Miranda rights. Shahzad is a U.S. citizen. U.S. citizens have rights. Period. We are a country of laws. Even Glenn Beck admits this fact. It's going to be okay, conservatives. Unclench.
  

• The anti-gay white supremacist may have been secretly gay? I'm shocked. Shocked I tell you!
  

• So I guess Nashville drew the short straw when it comes to national coverage. Media missed the boat big time. No pun intended.

• The "shot" was clearly chosen just so Anderson would have an excuse to again watch Rick Sanchez getting tasered. Oh, I'm on to you, Silver Fox! I've always considered our anchor a bit of a masochist, but now it's dawning on me that he's also kinda a sadist. The man definitely enjoys watching a good tasering.
  

• That's it from me. This bullet point may or may not contain a unicorn.

And Then We All Hated BP

Hi everybody. I know I've been scarce around these parts lately. I just haven't been in the blogging mood, and to be honest, I'm still not. So, I figured I'd split the difference: bullet points!

• The show kicked off with the attempted bombing in Times Square, but since that time we've had some actual breaking news. Authorities have arrested Shahzad Faisal, a Pakistani-born naturalized U.S. citizen. Avoiding cable news tomorrow might be a good recommendation. It's not that this story isn't uber-important, but theses things tend to make the news peeps go, well, stupid. And you know how much I love speculation.

• That's not to say 360's coverage of the story was particularly terrible. There was speculation, yes, but they kept it fairly reasonable, and perhaps more important, short. Would this have been the case with the absence of the other big stories? I have my doubts.

• Randomness: Does this mean that Times-Square-Shirt-Changing-Guy was not an evil terrorist, but just a dude who decided he needed to immediately be wearing another shirt?
  

• Did you guys catch that new promo where they pimp out the "Big 360" interview and instruct us to set our DVRs? Gotta say, I don't think most people's hearts would be breaking over missing a Dr. Phil appearance. Or Shakira. Or basically anyone in the commercial.

• Continuing with the promo, once again, I completely do not understand CNN. Ask them about their ratings compared to their competitors and they're all like, "we do the REAL news!" But you turn on the TV and their promos are telling you, "hey, we have Dr. Phil! We have Shakira!"
  

• Nice job on the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 and the reporting from Gary Tuchman on the waivers that volunteers were initially forced to sign.
  

• Randomness: Anderson Cooper's use of the phrase "rogue attorneys" amused me. I'm not quite sure why.

• Good segment with Douglas Brinkley and Riki Ott. I always appreciate BS (in this case from Rush Limbaugh and Congressman Gene Taylor) being knocked down. I'm telling you, 360, create a nightly segment called "This is BS" and you might make a little ratings headway. Okay, we can talk about the name.

• I also liked that Anderson brought up the unbelievably stupid Obama's Katrina meme. I suppose some might argue that it shouldn't even be mentioned, but he knew full well that Douglas was going to squash it down like a bug. I see what you did there, Silver Fox. You know, I try to be a nice person, fair, try not to insult. But then you hear someone say this is Obama's Katrina and you think, "my God, why are you so stupid?" Of course, in reality, most of them aren't stupid, but just that cynical. I'll let you decide what's worse. Also? Jason Linkins for the win.

• While I enjoyed watching our friends at 360 hold BP accountable, I'm afraid at this point I have basically zero hope of the company actually being held accountable. It's like that concept doesn't exist in this world anymore. Oh sure, maybe they'll even get hauled up to Capitol Hill. And maybe our Congresscritters will put on their VERY ANGRY faces and make them answer hostile questions. But in the end? Nothing will happen. The people will pay the bill and scrub off the animals while BP continues making their billions. It's depressing, but true. I'd love for someone to prove me wrong.

• How come Tom Foreman can operate the Magic Wall live, but Anderson Cooper can't? (Sanjay Gupta didn't either, for those playing at home.)
  

• Tennessee just gets a headline? Sucks to be them.

• Gary's priest story was so infuriating. Speaking of the world's lack of accountability, huh?

• I like how Anderson discovered on live TV that the "shot" was nothing but a fake video. You'd think that someone would maybe, like, check that.
  

• Sanjay Gupta did a good job when he subbed. I feel a little guilty about not blogging any of it. I still love you, Sanjay!

• I was going to blog about Michael Ware leaving, but now he's not...I think. The whole situation is pretty bizarre. I wish him well.

• That's it for me. Put this bullet point in your pocket and save it for later.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Possible Terror Plot Uncovered, More Tea Party Talk, Michelle Obama Takes On Health Care, Teen Traces His Roots, And Blitzer Is No Jeopardy Champion

Hi everybody. Anderson Cooper is once again coming at us from Los Angeles, and we begin with some nice scary terrorism news. An Afghan national living in the U.S. is being questioned by federal authorities regarding a possible terror plot AND he has admitted ties to Al Qaeda. Awesome. From Jeanne Meserve we learn that the guy's name is Najibullah Zazi, but she really doesn't know all that much else.

Peter Bergen then joins the conversation and Anderson says the following: "I have got to say, I am, and I think there's a lot of people who are very skeptical when they hear about these kind of raids or arrests. Oftentimes, kind of on further inspection, it turns out to be just a couple guys sitting around talking, who never had any access to any weaponry or anything." Bingo. I am definitely one of those skeptical "lot of people."

Time and time again we hear about some plot, everyone freaks out, and then later we find out it was just a couple of yahoos who thought they could actually take on a whole army base or something. So while I definitely think this is important for 360 to cover, and though Peter seems to think this one is the real deal, I'm still going to let this thing percolate before I expend any real blogging energy.

Transitioning from one kind of craziness to another kind of craziness. Yeah, we're still talking about the controversy over the protests over health care reform. The POTUS could really use not having to deal with this right now, but deal with it he must. Media blitz! In a Joe Johns piece we get a sum up of our prez talking to the media, broken down by network, which is sort of weird and amusing. On a related note, while we're talking about networks, did you guys see Rick Sanchez taking on the lies of Fox News? Booyah! Now that's what I'm talking about.

Back in the piece, we also learn that Joe Wilson speaks! What does he say? Meh. Nothing that interesting. He claims that if he could do it again he wouldn't. Whatever. For discussion of this, we're joined by Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council and Jennifer Palmieri of the Center For American Progress. Honestly, there is nothing of note here, though Tony does manage to bring up Prop 8. Quite the one trick pony, isn't he? Well, if you count abortion too, I guess he's two tricks.

On now to an Erica Hill piece on the Obama administration's latest move in the health care reform debate. Time to deploy the misses! They're hoping she'll be a force to be reckoned with. After all, she brings to the table a 75 percent approval rating among women, personal health care stories, and fantabulous arms! Unlike with Hillary Clinton, Michelle will mostly just be playing the First Lady role in this situation. I wish her good luck.

Next up, we have a Randi Kaye piece on the murder of Annie Le, which is followed by discussion. But I can't take this coverage anymore, so I switched to Jay Leno. Drew Barrymore was on. She drove a car around a track that had a cardboard Ed Begley Jr. It was weird. So...there's that.

Moving on to a cute Soledad O'Brien piece, in which we follow 14-year-old Donovan Rogers on his journey to trace his genealogy. Malaak Compton-Rock (wife of Chris) started this really cool program called Journey for Change, which took Donovan and 29 other Brooklyn kids to Africa, so they could learn to appreciate and take advantage of the opportunities they have. One part of the program is DNA testing.

The idea is to help the kids learn where they come from. When the big reveal finally comes, we learn that Donovan has roots in Sierra Leone. "I'm complete now. I know more about me and where my ancestors come from. And now that I know this, I'm going to take it further and discover more of that culture, because that's who I am," says Donovan. Cool kid. I hope Malaak is able to expand her program in the future. I really liked this piece, and judging by the look on Anderson's face when it was over, he did too. Yeah, I might have aw-ed. Sue me.

For the "shot" tonight, this just in to The Situation Room: Wolf Blitzer, like, really sucks at Jeopardy. That's right, the Wolfbot came face-to-face with one Mr. Alex Trebek and the result was humiliating, crushing defeat. The most winceable part is when he's informed that even though he's in the negative, it's celebrity Jeopardy, so they're going to make an exception and let him keep playing. Man, that had to burn his beard. So, Anderson and Erica Hill are sympathetic to their colleague's public embarrassment, right? Oh hells no! They're loving this.

To be fair, our anchor (who is a Jeopardy champion himself, thank you very much) somewhat has the Wolfbot's back, noting that it's really more about the buzzer than what you know. Uh huh. Right. And if anyone thought they were getting out of here without seeing a little of the Silver Fox's appearance, well, you don't know him that well. "Oh, you have tape. Excellent," says Anderson, as Erica intros. Yeah, because he didn't know that was coming.

Anyhoo! You can check out Anderson's big win here. If you're like me, you will be amused by the combination of overly intense seriousness mixed with that quirky dorkiness we all know and love. Also? "They told me I might be able to come back on this year," says Anderson. That would be really cool. But are there really that many celebs waiting in the wings that Anderson Cooper has to wait and see if he's been picked to come back on? I guess Alex Trebek really is our overlord.

Finally, goodbye to producer Jason Rovou, who is headed to the home of the suspendered-one. Good luck, Jason. I did not know you, but you rock a bee suit like nobody's business. On a related staffer note, don't forget Jack Gray's live-blog on Sunday! Fun will be had.