Saturday, January 26, 2008

Some Questions About Lou Dobbs

This is a touchy subject and I know I am going to upset a lot of people by what I am about to say, but I feel obligated to say it. I only hope that instead of people getting mad, they think about what I am going to say for themselves. If they do and still find they disagree with me, fine, but at least think about it first.

People talk about Hillary Clinton being a polarizing figure in politics. It could be said that in the journalism business Lou Dobbs is just as polarizing. He is outspoken and tackles issues that most of the other major networks either refuse to discuss, or choose to ignore. In doing so he has developed quite a devoted following. Mr. Dobbs has also made many people and groups angry, particularly with his coverage of the illegal alien problem in America.

As I said his fan base is loyal, at times almost to the point of idol worship. Witness some of the flattering e mails he reads on his show every evening. Also, as an Independent voter he has attracted the attention of many as a possible presidential candidate in opposition to the two mainstream political parties. Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, ALIPAC, has said that 84% of its 25,000 supporters would vote for Dobbs if he chose to run for president as an independent.

While I do think that Lou Dobbs is in fact covering certain issues that other news organizations are not, issues that the majority of Americans are not aware of, I have had some questions running around in the back of my mind for awhile now, questions that I feel need to be asked.

Anyone who has watched Dobbs for any amount of time knows that he talks extensively about our problem with illegal immigration, the war on the middle class, the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, (both in lives and dollars), the problems with imported goods, (mainly from China), our governments failure in numerous areas, and finally the attempts by the Council on Foreign Relations to create a North American Union.

When I first started watching Lou Dobbs my first thought was, 'Wow, I wonder how this guy keeps his job at CNN when he is covering these issues.' I admired his courage, and CNN's management for allowing him the forum to discuss these issues. However, after awhile I began to notice a pattern that started to bother me.

Almost immediately I began to notice that Mr. Dobbs was careful as to who he blamed for the problems he spoke about. It is acceptable and commonplace to blame the government for the problems a country faces and Mr. Dobbs is not lacking when it comes to his disdain for the failures of our government in almost every thing it does. Dobbs also places the blame on special interests who have a stranglehold on the our elected representatives. He is often heard to mention the socioethnic and corporate special interest groups that are pushing forward numerous agendas and attempting to pass certain pieces of legislation.

A good example is when he talks about the proposed North American Union. While the proposed North American Union, under the Security and Prosperity Partnership, is a serious threat to our sovereignty and something the American people need to become familiar with, Dobbs seems to fall short when it comes to fully exposing who is behind this plan. He has been heard to say the CFR is behind it, mentioning the CFR’s own document, ‘Building a North American Community’, he has yet to tell us who the CFR is, and who its members are. I find that interesting, especially since all he would have to do is ask one of his reporters,Kitty Pilgrim, for answers to his concerns. On Kitty Pilgrim’s bio page at CNN.com, it clearly states that in 2000 Ms. Pilgrim was elected to the Council on Foreign Relations. http://edition.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_reporters/pilgrim.kitty.html

I am torn between admiration for Mr. Dobbs and the fact that he even mentioned the CFR, and the lack of investigative reporting that could have been done in exposing who are members of the CFR. The CFR has an extensive roster that reaches into the very center of our nations capital, our justice system, and our media itself. It is no wonder they are not spoken of by the news. That is why I say I have to admire Mr. Dobbs for even mentioning them. However, if you look at their roster you might be inclined to ask yourself why Mr. Dobbs has not actually named names when he talks about his special interest groups. Look for yourself and see just who is listed as a member of the CFR. http://www.apfn.org/apfn/cfr-members.htm It is quite interesting that the CFR is not investigated further by Mr. Dobbs, particularly in light of the fact that Vice President Cheney is a member, a fact that he jokingly admits he withheld from people when he ran for office. http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=5140898

Could it be that Mr. Dobbs is on a short leash by both his employers at CNN, and the special interest groups themselves? If I can easily find these references as to who is a member of the CFR you would think that Mr. Dobb’s staff would also be able to uncover this same information for him to report on. Could it be that Kitty Pilgrim is there to keep him in check in case he goes too far in his coverage? Just something to think about when you give Mr. Dobbs kudos for doing such a great job of exposing this threat to our nations sovereignty.

Another area where I have questions regarding Mr. Dobbs is in his understanding of how our government is supposed to function according to the Constitution. Dobbs is quite persistent in his criticisms of the president and his administration in regards to almost every crisis this country faces. I have to admit that Dobbs is equally as critical of our Congress when it comes to their failure to protect the American people, but he is harshest when it comes to criticizing President Bush.

To give you an example of what I am talking about, just the other evening Senator Jeff Sessions was a guest on Lou's show discussing illegal immigration. Senator Sessions said we need to hear more details from our presidential candidates about what they intend to do in regards to the problem of illegal immigration. While I agree with Senator Sessions, and Lou Dobbs, that there is in fact a serious problem that needs to be dealt with immediately, I disagree with both these men on one issue.
It is the job of the president, and therefore any presidential candidates to sign into law legislation and enforce it once it becomes law. It is the job of Congress, both the Senate and the House to pass those pieces of legislation. Therefore it is the job of the Congress to do something about immigration, not the president. It would be well for us to know how the candidates stand on any considered legislation, whether they would support or oppose any proposed steps to end our problems with immigration. That would allow us to make a more informed decision as to who would best represent the people.

You would think that Mr. Dobbs, and Senator Sessions would be aware of this simple fact about how our government was supposed to function. I would hope that all Mr. Dobbs was suggesting is that we find out exactly where our presidential candidates stand in a bit more detail than the generalities we have heard up to this point in the campaign.

While Mr. Dobbs expects our presidential candidates to be forthcoming with specific details about how they would deal with the illegal immigration problem, Dobbs himself has not been so forthcoming in his reporting on the problems this countries economy is facing.

Mr. Dobbs does a very admirable job of reporting on the loss of jobs to foreign workers, both imported and outsourced. Yet he fails to discuss the issue of inflation in any great detail. According to the dictionary, inflation is defined as an abnormal increase in the volume of money and credit resulting in substantial and continuing rise in the general price level.

Economics is a complicated and often boring subject that even I do not understand fully. Yet I do understand a few basic things. Our countries currency used to be backed by gold. As long as there was gold backing the paper we could only print a finite amount of paper money because there was only a finite amount of gold with which to back it. Since our government removed our currency from the gold standard we have given the banks, particularly the Federal Reserve Bank, the ability to print money at their whim that has no backing whatsoever. While all paper currencies by their very nature are fiat currencies, that is they are only paper currencies backed only by the authority of the government, when you begin printing more and more paper that is backed by the promise of the government, you end up with inflation, as per the dictionaries definition.

It amazes me that Mr. Dobbs does not understand, and expose this problem to the people of America. I find it amazing because prior to Lou Dobbs Tonight, his show was entitled Lou Dobbs Moneyline. You would think that anyone who hosted a show that covered financial matters would understand this basic principle, especially so considering that Lou Dobbs graduated from Harvard with a degree in economics.

Another concern with Mr. Dobbs is his sudden push to get people to change their party affiliation to Independent. When talking about independents in America one need only look at the long list of parties that are considered to be independent for you to realize that they are fragmented and often disorganized. There is the America First Party, the American Independent Party, the Constitution Party, the Libertarian Party, the Peace and Freedom party. The list goes on and on ad naseum.

While it is commendable that Mr. Dobbs would encourage voters to become more active in their government, the simple truth of the matter is that for the people of this country to register as independent is nothing more than a token gesture to show our general lack of support for the current state of affairs in government. With so many independent parties running around, not one of them could field a candidate that stood any chance of winning, particularly at the national level.

This ties in to my last concern with Mr. Dobbs, his refusal to talk about candidate Ron Paul. Ron Paul is the closest thing our country has to a living founding father. He more clearly than all the other candidates understands, and legislates, strictly according to the Constitution. He understands more thoroughly the economic problems our country faces. Yet Lou Dobbs refuses to support him, instead he urges us to register as independent, which as I already stated is nothing but a token gesture.

While I respect Lou Dobbs for the job he is doing, I think he falls short in many instances. The issues which he covers, while at first may appear to be groundbreaking, are in all truth subjects which a portion of the public were already aware of. He seems to be holding back from going into greater detail as to who is behind the curtains of the corporate and ethnocentric special interest groups. He could very easily name names and make people aware of the people who are causing this nation great harm. Yet you never hear him mention people like the Bilderbergers, the Trilateral Commission, the Rockefellers and the many other corporate and global interests that are planning and managing the demise of America.

I know I may have upset many of you who think that Lou Dobbs walks on water. I cannot deny that he has done an outstanding job of keeping the issue of illegal immigration on the minds of his viewers. He has done more than anyone else in the news media when it comes to standing up for Border Patrol Agents Ramos and Compean. Yet I feel that there is more that he could be doing. It leaves me wondering if he is allowed to spout off with just the right amount of righteous indignation, but only up to a certain point. Is he kept on a very short leash that gives his viewers the impression that he is more informed than the rest of the media, when in fact he is in fact being himself controlled by those very same special interest groups he rants about? I only ask that you examine these questions with an open mind and not follow him blindly like the followers of people like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O Reilly, and Sean Hannity. That is all I ask.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I will admit that I don't spend a lot of time with aby of the talking heads..Like you, I see so much hypocricy in the political dung pile called your side and my side that it was only a matter of time before those pointing that figer realized that 3 of them are pointing back at him..Neirher O'really nor Dobbs nor any one that claims a non spin or a balanced reporting pedigree to my knowledge has ever done an in depth expose on the greatest lie ever to be ignored by we the people; The Federal Reserve Corp..all else is misc until that pack of treasonous scum bags are either in prison or sent back to there foreign port..without our gold abd without a "National Debt " ever being brought up again

neal said...

Not only is the FED the greatest lie to ever be perpetrated against the American people, it is the greatest crime because it was followed by the federal income tax which allowed the banks to print our money, loan it to the government, then tax the people to pay the interest on the loan.

Our government has lied to us so many times I cannot begin to count them. There are the lies we were told about the Civil War, the lies about WWII, the lies about our need to go into Iraq...

How anyone could believe one word these candidates for office say is beyond me.