Politics and Sharks ... not mutually exclusive ...

Today’s Buzz ...

from last night’s Anderson Cooper 360°:
Lewis endorses Obama: Georgia Representative John Lewis announced yesterday that he was changing his superdelegate vote (and support) from Clinton to Obama. Candy Crowley reported that his decision was based on how his Congressional District had voted in the state primary, but regardless of the reason – it’s a significant setback for the Clinton campaign. Congressman Lewis is a civil rights legend for, among other roles, his involvement in the Selma March. He is also a close friend of the Clintons and was an early Hillary supporter. Not a good sign ...




Cunningham blasts McCain: John King reported that conservative radio talk show host Bill Cunningham has stepped up his new war against John McCain. IMHO – this kind of behavior is why those at the extreme end of the conservative spectrum – and those at the extreme end of the liberal spectrum – give those “labels” a bad name. To John McCain’s credit, he is standing by his comments regarding Cunningham’s slanderous and offensive remarks. Last night’s political panel (David Gergen, Bay Buchanan, Roland Martin) had differing opinions on the issue; David Gergen noted how quickly conservatives have changed their tune about McCain, Bay Buchanan supported Cunningham 100% and Roland Martin characterized him as a ‘spoiled child’. No lack of diverse opinions there!!



The panel went on to discuss the McCain – Obama exchange about Al Qaeda in Iraq, the John Lewis decision and whether Hillary Clinton really needs to win both Texas and Ohio on Tuesday to remain in the race.



Where’s Bill?: Joe Johns had a report about the ever-evolving role of super-surrogate Bill Clinton in Hillary’s campaign. Currently, he’s deploying ‘Bill 2.0’ – a ‘kinder, gentler former President’. I wonder how many more hours that will last?



Roger Clemens vs. Congress: It occurred to me this morning that Roger Clemens may be so delusional about what constitutes “truth” – that he may actually truly believe what he’s saying – and not just trying to save his career and/or Hall of Fame chances. In spite of his denial of both. But I still don’t understand why this is a Congressional matter. I agree that steroid and HGH use is wrong and is cheating and is making a mockery of the game of baseball – and I agree that anyone guilty of their use needs to be held accountable. But by Congress? Or by Congress urging a Justice Department investigation?



David Mattingly provided a background report on the pressure being applied – on the Justice Department – to investigate possible perjury charges, and Anderson discussed the entire controversy, including possible jail time for Clemens, with TruTV’s Lisa Bloom.




Chumming for Sharks: I realize I’m no ‘shark expert’, but sometimes common sense (unique to the human species) needs to override the curiosity to see predators in their ‘natural state’. Anyone who willingly participates in an uncaged shark dive where bait crates are used – is looking for the worst kind of trouble. Period. It sounded like George Burgess, the University of Florida shark expert that Anderson interviewed, would be more inclined to embrace that viewpoint than the one of shark photographer Rob Stewart, who advocates ‘free dives’.



Other News and Notes:

Anderson to speak at the University of Miami 2008 convocation:

From: The Miami Hurricane.com

The 2008 Senior Convocation will feature Anderson Cooper, anchor of CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360." Cooper will speak at the BankUnited Center April 14 with a discussion titled "A 360-Degree Look at World Events." The discussion, which is presented by the Northern Trust Lecture Series, will begin at 6:30 p.m. and is open to the university community with a Cane Card. Tickets are not required.

The Govenator and his tank: Occasionally, there are pictures that simply beg to be shred. It seems that Arnold Schwarzenegger was given the tank he had driven while serving in the Austrian military circa 1965, and it had been on loan to an Ohio museum. Well, the Governor decided he wanted the tank returned and will now be using it to give rides to children visiting the capitol (Sacramento) who have made significant improvements in their grades. A kind of ‘military-influenced’ reward … and no, this isn’t a joke. No wonder people in the Midwest (and elsewhere) shake their heads at the mere mention of the word “California” ...



About the AC360° Blog: I guess this is both good news and perhaps some not-so-good news. I’ve accepted a new job – it’s very exciting and I’m looking forward to it very much! But with it will come even more responsibilities, and I just don’t know right now if I’ll be able to keep up with the time demands of the blog as well. I know the entries aren’t massively long, but I’m not a very speedy writer, and combined with the daily screen caps (which are important), it takes multiple hours each day to produce the kind of entry that I want to publish. So until such time that I can get a better handle on the new job and what’s involved on a day-to-day basis – I’m going to have to put a ‘temporary suspension’ on the blog. Tomorrow will be my last entry, until I can figure out what amount of time – if any – I’ll have to continue contributing to this effort. I’m happy and sad at the same time. I’ll have more at the end of my entry tomorrow, but initially, I just want to say that this has been an amazing experience and I truly appreciate every single individual who has contributed to this blog – it’s been fantastic!

tonight on Anderson Cooper 360°:



Thanks so very much for visiting – have a terrific Thursday!

New Year’s Day 2008 – Part 2

More Buzz ...
Well, as I wrote earlier, I was going to give it my best shot to do another entry tonight – so lo and behold – here’s Part 2!!

Take a VERY close look at the picture below - it contains the face of the next President of the United States. A sobering thought - if you needed one, that is.



I don’t know how the non-political types are faring in Iowa right now – because even I can feel “caucus anticipation” simply through the TV screen. I’ll bet that they’ll have their own celebration this coming Friday morning!!

2 days to go: Can it get any closer? Can it get any more heated? The answers are ”probably not” and “YES!!”. If Mike Huckabee upends the Romney 'machine', even by just a couple of percentage points, and if Hillary Clinton loses by any margin – this is a different race - for the foreseeable future. McCain gets renewed traction in New Hampshire, and Obama closes in on the Clinton lead there as well.




Anderson spoke with Gloria Borger, Candy Crowley and John King about what the latest Iowa polls are showing, the Iowa Caucus process, and the Romney-Huckabee and Clinton-Obama “battles”. Does John Edwards still have a chance? Will a last-minute Iowa “surge” by John McCain make any difference? Well, we’ll all know for sure in another 48 hours or so.



Anderson also talked with Tom Foreman (also in Iowa right now) about the latest round of attack ads and whether or not they’re still effective. Tom’s verdict? Although voters tend to say they are turned off by them, there are still enough voters that are ‘influenced’ to some extent by them, so the days of negative ‘slaps’ will continue on ...



Candy Crowley also had a terrific report on those dubbed “the underdogs” on the Democratic side of this campaign – Senators Biden and Dodd and Governor Richardson. What startling statistics – almost 100 years of irrefutable public service among them – and only a combined 12% of support in the state of Iowa. While Clinton and Obama duke it out over what constitutes “legitimate governmental experience”, any one of those men trumps either Clinton or Obama in the “experience” category without batting an eyelash. And yet all three are languishing in the polls, both in Iowa and nationally. I just don’t understand it. Perhaps it’s a subtle, yet unfortunate, reflection of our country’s ‘celebrity obsession’.



Tiger Attack Update: David Mattingly was in San Francisco and reported on developments in the SF Zoo tiger attack on Christmas Day. There is continuing speculation that the tiger was taunted, possibly by rocks or other objects shot at it by slingshots. The fact that the two “friends” of Carlos Sousa Jr. haven’t even contacted his father to offer condolences or any kind of explanation as to what happened doesn’t speak very highly in their defense. Anderson also interviewed Jack Hanna and while he agrees that the tiger enclosure should be renovated, he also didn’t appear to have much sympathy for the two survivors, nor should he (or anyone else) if the allegations prove to be true.




Bhutto cover-up: Matthew Chance reported on new evidence showing that Benazir Bhutto was, in fact, killed by a bullet wound as opposed to shrapnel or a blunt trauma blow to her head. Anderson also talked with Peter Bergen; they discussed the fact that the assassination has made Musharref even less popular than he already was. The dossier that Bhutto was allegedly going to give US officials about Pakistani corruption regarding US aid being used to spy on political opponents doesn’t seem to be a motive for the assassination, as al Qaeda and the Taliban don’t believe in the democratic process to begin with. I still find it difficult to believe that the government had absolutely nothing to do with what has happened, but time will tell. Elections have been postponed until mid-February, although Bhutto’s party will probably not lose much, if any, support that it already enjoys.




Oh yeah – Anderson ‘reviewed’ the NYE celebration with Kathy Griffin. Since he apparently enjoyed the ‘sparring’ and the ratings will probably be good, I wouldn’t be surprised to see her back. Much to my (overall) disappointment.

And Gary returned to do the news bulletins – maybe if he can’t convince AC to run in the NYC Marathon, perhaps there’s an alternate “rollerblading” marathon that Anderson could take part in. Except that Gary would need to teach him how to rollerblade first ... oh well, it was an interesting thought!



Thanks very much for visiting - updates posted as needed - and one more time - Happy 2008!!

(admitting) the truth hurts sometimes ...

Today’s Buzz ...
From Tuesday’s program –

Mitt’s Sanctuary Mansion: For some reason, this sounds like an NC-17 rated film title. The main reason I wanted to comment on this, over and above the obvious “flip-flop” label, is partly because of the very sarcastic way that Mitt responded to John Roberts the morning after the debate about this very question – as to what he knew and when he knew about the hiring practices of the landscaper:

ROBERTS: Let me come back to my original question. Let me get you to clear this up for us. What is the deal with the illegal immigrants and the landscape company?

ROMNEY: Now, there's a big building here. Are there people here that have been hired by outside contractors that are here illegally? You don't know that in this country because we don't have an employment verification system.

ROBERTS: But do you know that the landscape company that you hired to work on your home had in fact employed illegal immigrants?

ROMNEY: Of course, I did not know that. As a matter of fact, the person...

ROBERTS: Do you know it now in retrospect?

ROMNEY: It's been a story in the paper.

ROBERTS: We haven't heard from your side. Do you now know that they did?

ROMNEY: Well, it's in the paper. Come on, John, you're smart enough to know. The answer is you hire contractors at your home, to paint the home, to put on a roof or to do a driveway and the contractor that we hired is a legal contractor. The man who runs the company is here legally and it turns out after a globe investigation that some of his employees were not legal.

And yet – it was verified by the Boston Globe that the morning after the YouTube debate, there were ‘at least’ two illegal immigrants working at the Romney home through this same landscape company.

Illegal immigration is a major hot-button topic in the Republican race, and when a candidate chooses to make the issue a centerpiece of his campaign, shouldn’t there be some kind of ‘internal audit’ that occurs beforehand?

I really liked the way Candy Crowley explained that there are ‘narratives’ woven about each candidate, consisting of both issues and symbols. I was also glad to be able to see Candy, John King and Anderson get a chuckle about the thought of “not adding fuel to a fire, just see how long it burns on its own”, as it involves whatever self-induced ‘trouble’ the Romney campaign may be in at the moment. I wonder if this will overshadow his upcoming “Kennedy-esque” speech about the Mormon faith? Frankly, I see that as a move of desperation, and I doubt that very many will be swayed by it.



The truth about Iran: I began writing about this story yesterday, and I’m glad that 360° spent a significant amount of time on the subject last night. Not necessarily because of the content of the report, but because of the reaction to it by the Bush administration. If anyone had any doubts that this country is being run under the auspices of an elected monarchy, and that the ‘leader’ is anything other than an irresponsible, delusional fool – there are no doubts that should remain. To continue on with the same lying rhetoric (yes, I’ve used the word that no one else would last night) about Iran cements the fact that one of the largest security threats to this country and its future – resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC. I would add the address for Cheney’s house, but we should know by now that he’s usually holed up in a secret bunker somewhere – with very little natural light – or contact with indisputable reality – since he makes up his own (reality, that is).

This certainly isn’t to say that Iran should get any kind of ‘free pass’ – but we are, as a nation, continuing on with the saber-rattling and pursuit of sanctions – rather than giving any form of meaningful diplomacy a microscopic chance of working. I was very pleased to see that the discussion panel for this topic last night consisted of David Gergen, Christiane Amanpour and Reza Aslan. Three of the most knowledgeable, sane voices to weigh in on this crucial subject.




Seth Tobias: John Zarella reported on this story and was right – there are some things money just can’t buy. One of them is the guarantee that your spouse will, at least, not do anything to hasten your demise in order to inherit your fortune. Seth Tobias was a high-living hedge fund manager whose wife, Filomena, allegedly found him floating face down in their pool one day this past September. She also wouldn’t let police enter the home after her 9-1-1 call for help, and had the pool drained and resurfaced a few days after the incident. I don’t quite understand why the toxicology report results haven’t been determined yet, but this just seem like it’s case where we haven’t yet seen the last of Filomena’s involvement.



Cults in America: This story is very close to being too sick and perverted to comment on, but I feel sorry for the suicide victim and his surviving family members. Randi Kaye reported on The Family International – a group that was born out one originally called the Children of God and headed up by a ‘prophet’ named David Berg, who engaged in sex with children and justified it as being done in the name of Jesus. Randi's story revolved around Ricky Rodriguez – a young man who had been sexually abused by several adult women in the cult, including his mother, Karen Zerby, and his nanny. After fleeing the cult, Ricky was obsessed with exacting revenge for his treatment, and ended up killing his nanny in 2005. Without much hope of finding his mother for similar revenge, he became even angrier and more disturbed. Shortly thereafter, he committed suicide.

How very sad. I've thought for a very long time that there should be some kind of “safety net” for those who want to leave a cult – whether it’s this one or FLDS or Scientology or whatever – where people can get assistance with re-establishing their lives absent the influence of the cult.




There was one video during the first news bulletin that I kind of chuckled about, and I’m not going to comment further or post a cap – but the second video shown during the second news bulletin qualifies as 100% sick – as well as 100% cruel. I found myself cheering for one the fish to inflict significantly permanent damage to whatever perverted freak would jam his arm down a fish’s throat and through its gills. Allegedly it’s called “noodling” – I think it should be called “criminal” and the bastards should be arrested. Period.

Moving on ... I hope everyone is looking forward to the CNN Heroes Tribute – tomorrow night at 9:00 PM EST. And unless Christiane is hosting a portion of it from London, I hope that she was getting on a plane bound for NYC shortly after her live appearance on 360° last night!



And it seems that Anderson has just blogged (WOW!) and is sending an apology out for not blogging as frequently this year as he possibly should have. Good grief - no apologies needed – we know that he’s an extraordinarily busy guy - his entries don't have to be anything spectacularly lengthy or mind-boggling - we just like to hear from him every so often - a few words here and there about what's happening and how he see things would be terrific!! If he threw in a few behind-the-scenes tidbits about the pre-taped interviews or other ‘shareable factoids’ about the show – that would make it even more special! Anyway – we understand that time is valuable and gets away from us all too easily!

Thanks for visiting - updates posted as needed – have a terrific day!