Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Facts Really Do Matter

Last week, Democracy Now's Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez sat down for an hour long interview with CNN's Lou Dobbs. Unlike on his daily propaganda fest, where he has complete control of the debate, Dobbs was forced to face tough questions from reality based journalists. Armed with quotes, clips from his show, and actual factual evidence, Goodman and Gonzales took Dobbs to task.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Lou, you said a third of the prison population are illegal aliens.

LOU DOBBS: Right.

AMY GOODMAN: The fact is, it’s something like 6% of prisoners in this country are non-citizens, not even illegal, just non-citizens.

LOU DOBBS: Right.

AMY GOODMAN: And then a percentage of that would not be documented.

LOU DOBBS: Well, it’s actually—I think it’s 26% in federal prison.

AMY GOODMAN: But you said of all prisoners.

LOU DOBBS: I said about—yes, but I—and I misspoke, without question. I was referring to federal prisoners.

AMY GOODMAN: But you didn’t say that, and so it leaves people with the impression—

LOU DOBBS: Well, I didn’t, but then I just explained it to you.

AMY GOODMAN: But you have a very large audience on CNN.

LOU DOBBS: I have a very large audience and a very bright audience.

AMY GOODMAN: And you told them that a third of the population of this country are illegal immigrants. 6% , which is under the population of immigrants—

LOU DOBBS: 6% , right.

AMY GOODMAN: —in this country, of prisoners—

LOU DOBBS: In state prisons.

AMY GOODMAN: —are immigrants.

LOU DOBBS: In state prisons. In state prisons.

AMY GOODMAN: No, 6% overall are immigrants. You said 30% are illegal.

DemocracyNow


For those who didn't get to see or hear Dobbs get his ass handed to him - here's the complete segment. It really is good to see what happens to a schoolyard bully when the big kids finally show up at the playground.

UPDATE: You Tube video has now been removed due to terms of use violation. New Live stream link - HERE

11 comments:

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

I really got a kick out of how he tried to excuse himself by saying "we didn't know" that so and so was a white supremacist, or "he just grabbed it off the internet". If he's lying, then he sees no problem consulting with racists and shouldn't be trusted, and if he's telling the truth then his show does sloppy journalism and shouldn't be trusted.

Either way, Lou loses and I'm happy.

Duke Reed said...

There are so many excellent moments in this interview. One I particularly enjoyed was this slap-down:

JUAN GONZALEZ: —because I’ve been very concerned about the lack of historical understanding of the immigration battles in our country, going back to the Irish in the 1840s. Father Joseph Fitzpatrick, who was a wonderful sociologist of Fordham University, once did a study of the criminal populations in New York City in 1859, concluded that 83% of all the criminal convictions in 1859 in New York City were Irish—were Irish, not Canadian, Scotch, English or Germans or the other bulk of the population in New York at the time, but were Irish, right? Henry McLaughlin, the—

LOU DOBBS: What in the world is your point?

JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, I’m getting to my point, but give me the time to do it. We have time on this show, unlike—we don’t do soundbites here, alright?

Duke Reed said...

This one wasn't bad either;

LOU DOBBS: … . The fact that you would focus on a couple of reports on tuberculosis, leprosy, the issue of the CCC in a flash—what amounts to a flash frame, folks—

AMY GOODMAN: And all the guests connected to it since.

LOU DOBBS: And all of those guests. How many would you say? Five?

AMY GOODMAN: Oh, I can keep going. I just thought—

LOU DOBBS: I would like—

AMY GOODMAN: —I should give someone else a chance here to have—

Unknown said...

Haha, I love that first one. Lou was like, "History? Relevant? Surely you jest!" He reacted like Gonzalez had randomly started reciting a cornbread recipe or something.

Anonymous said...

Coming from a loon pro-illegal alien CRIMINAL site like this...talking aout facts is a joke.


When will you realize you are on the wrong side of this issue?

80% of REAL Americans want illegals out of the country and deported with the first crime they commit, after the intitial crime of coming here illegaly.

You are a hater and a racist.

Pro-Migrant???
You can;t even be honest about what you are.

An illegal alien lover and a traitor to the USA.

Time to get your cerveza and head back to the third world country you came from.

Damn Mexicans said...

"You are a hater and a racist."

Time to look in the mirror buddy.

Anonymous said...

I am a WHITE REAL AMERICAN who was BORN here and is SIck and tired of being INVADED by poor spnsih speaking illegal criminals.

YOU are all racists here and insane with white hatred.

Tiem for you all to go back to your third world cesspools and leave us Real American alone.

Damn Mexicans said...

Ummm.... ever occur to you that some of us responding are white?

Damn Mexicans said...

& American & born here......the list goes on. You don't have to be Hispanic to support immigrants rights. You just have to have some common sense.

Anonymous said...

The point Dobbs makes is that Immigration is a process that includes a sponsor, a waiting job, a health screen, a criminal background check and an approved application.

That is the rule of law and the consequence of bypassing those items is deportation.

If you are caught driving and drinking, you go to jail and pay a fine.

If you are caught cheating on your taxes, you pay a fine; do jail time and community service.

If you are caught bypassing immigration law, there is only one outcome, deportation.

Border crashing and sneaking into the country or outstaying a VISA is a criminal offence and by our law, should be treated as such.

It is laughable how the word illegal has no meaning in the view of left wing whack jobs like this show.

Lou Dobbs being sideswiped by the hosts is pitiful.

Arizona and Oklahoma are now enjoying an exodus of illegals because state legislatures have come to their senses and begun to enact current Federal Law by writing State mandated enforcement.

The employers sanction law in Arizona that goes into effect Jan 1 has the open borders crowd reeling and businesses that hire illegals will either terminate those people or lose their licenses.

Good for Dobbs, keep up the good work.

The bottom line is that Americans expect the rule of law to be enforced and we have reached the tipping point on inaction from the Feds. Illegals have already committed a crime simply by bypassing the rule of law. Regardless of how many new crimes they commit or how much disease they bring, they are criminals, they overwhelm the healthcare system and overcrowd our education system and its high time they are identified, arrested and deported. Every single one.