dobbs is no hack - he went after junior as much as he went after obama. i used to watch his show more, but the last couple years he turned into a caricature and seemed to get too full of himself. you can pinpoint it to when they started using 'AND NOW...MR. INDEPENDENT, LOU DOBBS' as the intro. i never got the claims that he was a racist either - just b/c he was against illegal immigration (which he went after bush for too) doesnt mean he is racist.
He can claim to not be a racist all he wants, but his actions indicated otherwise. The amount of outright lies and fabrications he would repeat on-air about Hispanics, the guests he would have on, the indulging of tinfoil birther fantasies - all for the purpose of galvanizing (and profiting from) public xenophobia. Sorry but if that's not a variant of racism, I really don't know what is.
As a liberal, I would say that he didn't belong on CNN because CNN should be reporting the news, not presenting opinions. But I'm probably asking for too much there.
he has repeatedly propagated the "birther" false claim that Obama is not a legitimate US-born person. Lou, like all birthers, just can't accept the fact that a non-white can be the president of the US.
It's about the time. I don't watch CNN b/c of him. But I probably still will not watch CNN. I like Anderson Cooper though.
Wow. I didn't really expect that someone could be this two-faced with a straight face (or, I guess, two straight faces). source [rquoter] Dobbs Reaches Out to Latinos, With Politics in Mind Former CNN anchor Lou Dobbs, pondering a future in politics, is trying to wipe away his image as an enemy of Latino immigrants by positioning himself as a champion of that fast-growing ethnic bloc. Mr. Dobbs, who left the network last week, has said in recent days that he is considering a third-party run for a New Jersey Senate seat in 2012, or possibly for president. Polls show voters unhappy with both parties, and strategists believe Mr. Dobbs could tap populist anger over economy issues just as Ross Perot did in the 1990s. First, though, Mr. Dobbs is working to repair what a spokesman conceded is a glaring flaw: His reputation for antipathy toward Latino immigrants. In a little-noticed interview Friday, Mr. Dobbs told Spanish-language network Telemundo he now supports a plan to legalize millions of undocumented workers, a stance he long lambasted as an unfair "amnesty." "Whatever you have thought of me in the past, I can tell you right now that I am one of your greatest friends and I mean for us to work together," he said in a live interview with Telemundo's Maria Celeste. "I hope that will begin with Maria and me and Telemundo and other media organizations and others in this national debate that we should turn into a solution rather than a continuing debate and factional contest." Mr. Dobbs twice mentioned a possible legalization plan for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., saying at one point that "we need the ability to legalize illegal immigrants under certain conditions." Mr. Dobbs couldn't be reached Tuesday. Spokesman Bob Dilenschneider said Mr. Dobbs draws a distinction between illegal immigrants who have committed crimes since arriving in the U.S. and those who are "living upright, positive and constructive lives" who should be "integrated" into society. He said Mr. Dobbs recognizes the political importance of Latinos and is "smoothing the water and clearing the air." After a career as a broadcaster and Internet entrepreneur, Mr. Dobbs turned himself into a populist firebrand, campaigning against labor outsourcing, free trade and immigration. Mr. Dobbs left CNN saying he wanted to become an advocate. Immigration advocates, including Ms. Celeste, had long called for his ouster; critics in particular cite a 2007 report on his show that cited erroneous data suggesting illegal immigrants were tied to a spike in leprosy cases in the U.S. Mr. Dobbs told Ms. Celeste the report was a mistake, and blamed a reporter ad-libbing on the air. Frank Sharry, who heads America's Voice, a group that advocates for legalizing undocumented immigrants, said Mr. Dobbs's conversion isn't credible, given his history of opposing efforts to liberalize immigration policies. Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project, which seeks strict border enforcement and opposes legalization, said he admired Mr. Dobbs and will "watch him for several months before drawing a conclusion." Political strategists, however, aren't dismissing the potential power of a Dobbs run. Ed Rollins, a Republican consultant who advised Mr. Perot, said Mr. Dobbs has two big factors in his favor: name recognition and a turbulent economic time that can help a populist, third-party figure. During his Telemundo appearance, Mr. Dobbs was both defensive and conciliatory as Ms. Celeste ticked off what she said were the Latino community's grievances about Mr. Dobbs. "Many Hispanics consider you to be the No. 1 enemy of Latinos," she told him. "Do you think that the community is somehow misjudging you?" "Oh, not somehow. Definitively, absolutely," Mr. Dobbs responded. "By the way, I don't believe for a moment that the Latino, Hispanic community in the United States believes that of me at all. It has been the efforts of the far left to characterize me in their propaganda as such." Mr. Dobbs's relationship with Latinos will be crucial if he chooses to run against Sen. Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), the Senate's lone Hispanic. In response to the possibility, Menendez spokesman Afshin Mohamadi said: "I'm sure that he would relish eventually having an opponent from so far out of the mainstream who has never delivered a thing to the hard-working people of New Jersey." —T. W. Farnam and Nomaan Merchant contributed to this article. [/rquoter]
It will not sit will with his constituents who are against amnesty for illegals. It doesn't even sit well with me and I am a centrist.
Wow. Fortunately for Dobbs, it's not like there are hundreds upon hundreds of hours of him on tape, broadcasting any sort of irrational distrust of immigrants to our country. Oh, wait. I encourage Dobbs to run, in either NJ or for president. He'll split the right's voting bloc in two; purity tests all around! What's next, Tom Tancredo giving his daughter a quinceañera?
At first I though this was just a joke, but after the Telemuindo interview, I guess it might be true. Despite his conversion, Dobbs would be best off moving to Idaho if he wants to have a successful state-wide political career. ********** U.S. Deports Lou DobbsCNN Host Had Been Living Illegally In Country Since 1961November 12, 2009 04.20.09 WANTAGE, NJ—Acting on anonymous tips from within the Hispanic-American community, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials on Wednesday deported Luis Miguel Salvador Aguila Dominguez, who for the last 48 years had been living illegally in the United States under the name Lou Dobbs. According to the Department of Homeland Security, federal agents stormed the undocumented immigrant's home in an evening raid just hours after the 64-year-old newscaster suddenly announced that he was resigning from CNN, and immediately placed him on an Aeromexico flight departing from Newark Liberty Airport. Enlarge Image "Dobbs," around 1970, still returned regularly to Mexico to be with his family and work as a farmer. "Mr. Dominguez did not come quietly, but in the end he came," said Sam Whitlock of the U.S. Border Patrol, who was injured during the arrest. "He pulled a knife on me, like they will, and swore a bunch in Spanish and spit on us when we finally managed to grab him by the serape and throw him against a wall. But the important thing is that he's now back where he belongs." Evidence collected by investigators indicates that Dominguez/Dobbs, who has long claimed Texas heritage, was actually born in the Mexican state of Puebla to parents of Colombian descent, neither of whom were U.S. citizens. In the summer of his 16th year, he and 14 of his brothers and sisters paid smugglers to let them ride atop packages of cocaine in the cargo hold of a fishing boat bound for Texas under cover of night. In addition to holding multiple jobs without ever obtaining a guest-worker permit or H-1B visa, "Dobbs" is reported to have collected welfare every month for nearly five decades. He appeared in good health when apprehended, having used Medicaid to obtain numerous health care services over the years, but immigration officials fear he still may have exposed the American population to the many infectious diseases illegal immigrants tend to carry, including both malaria and leprosy. CNN, as per its policy initiated by Dominguez, is complying freely with the ongoing DHS investigation into the multitude of illegal activities in which its former employee was entrenched. "No one here knew anything about Mr. Dobbs' past, and to be honest, we never asked," said a source within CNN, who asked not to be identified. "All we knew was that he was willing to take the job most American newscasters didn't want—namely, speaking out hysterically against immigration at every turn to help us gain ratings points against Fox News." After arriving in Texas in 1961, "Dobbs" is believed to have wandered around the American southeast making a meager living as a car thief, low-level drug dealer, and migrant farm laborer. At age 18, he reportedly delivered an ounce of mar1juana to attendees at an Atlanta media conference, where his harsh, booming voice and fiery temper caught the attention of none other than Ted Turner. At the tycoon's urging, the young man shaved his long, drooping mustachios, applied for federal tuition waivers, and took advantage of affirmative-action policies to gain admittance to Harvard University. In 1980, Turner gave him a job at CNN that had previously been held by an American-born reporter. When searching the former newscaster's house in Wantage, NJ, Border Patrol agents found several boxes of horded food stamps, a fully-equipped stolen-car chop shop, a 350-deck DVD pirating warehouse, and a garment facility where up to 100 illegal workers put in 85-hour weeks producing knockoff purses, shoes, and other counterfeit clothing. Many younger members of the Border Patrol team that participated in Wednesday's raid said it was "an honor and a privilege" to help deport Dominguez, as years of listening to tirades against illegal immigrants on Lou Dobbs Tonight had been a major factor in their choice of career. "This is a battle for the soul of our country," Agent Jared Burns, 23, said as he helped the 17 Dominguez children board the bus that would take them to a detention facility where their legal status will eventually be determined. "Today is a proud day for any true American." Immediately before press time, "Dobbs" arrived in Mexico City, and was surrounded by members of the international press. "¡Esos hijos de puta sufrirán por esto!" a handcuffed Dominguez shouted at reporters from the tarmac. "Sin mi vigilancia, mis hermanos y yo nos apresuraríamos a la frontera a robar sus carros y a violar sus mujeres. ¡Arriba!" http://www.theonion.com/content/news/u_s_deports_lou_dobbs
