Two items this week have really demonstrated the limitlessness of how inept and clueless those in the traditional media can be.
Lou Dobbs, in his weekly tirade against all things Mexican, says the following [emphasis mine]:
Calderon can’t have it both ways. He cannot fail his citizens at home and then act as the Great Imperialist Protector of his citizens who are driven by poverty and corruption to enter the United States illegally. The United States provides Mexico with an annual surplus of $65 billion in trade, an estimated $25 billion in remittances from Mexican citizens living and working here illegally, and at least another $25 billion generated by the illegal drug trade across our southern border.
Considering that Lou has previously praised Calderon for how he’s gone after Mexico’s drug lords, I know that he has some awareness that the $25 billion he’s talking about there doesn’t go to the Mexican government, but instead to criminals who are fighting the Mexican government. But somehow, he still uses that figure as if its money that the Calderon government is simply wasting. It’s as ridiculous as criticizing Hamid Karzai’s inability to strengthen the Afghan government by pointing out how much money the Taliban makes from poppies. How this man has a TV show is a complete mystery to me.
The second item has been all over the internet already, but it’s a beauty. The Washington Post’s Richard Cohen, in what appears to have been an attempt at humor, writes the following:
A survey of political bloggers showed that 94 percent of them had never been out of the country or read anything other than a Harry Potter book.
Something tells me that if every Washington Post columnist was blindfolded, put in a van, and driven 2 hours west of Washington DC and dropped off, 94 percent of them would think they were in a foreign country.
That last speculative statement would also apply to a great many high-level federal officials and members of Congress, even though they might have taken gold-plated junkets to faraway corners of the planet. They would think downtown Baltimore or Joe Bageant’s hometown of Winchester, Va was part of some alternate universe.
Cohen’s 94% surely must include FOHA — that’s “friend of HorsesAss” — and (u)SP wingnut-in-training Reporterward, who (from what I’ve heard) has never set foot in another state, much less another country. I can’t fathom such abject insularity and uncuriosity about the planet we all live on.
Even though the states on this side of the country are quite large in comparison to my old stomping grounds, where the act of going home from college entailed traveling through six states, what would it take for Don to swing down to Portland?
For the record, my life-list holds 46 states (still missing AK, AR, HI, MS), three Canadian provinces, and approximately 20 other countries on three continents. And I’m no kind of world-traveler.
Agreed, Lou Dobbs seems to have stripped more than a few gears in the past couple of years. There as a good article on him, and his on-air staff, in the New Yorker a few months ago.
But calling the Cohen barb directed at bloggers as “inept and clueless”? Lee, the entire column was a series of bad jokes, e.g., “People magazine admitted that there is no such person as Lindsay Lohan.” Cohen may be a bad humorist, but I don’t think he was seriously dissing bloggers.
That said … your observation about Washington Post columnists probably has some truth in it. :-)
N: Richard Cohen is certifiable Librul. He’s one of the 87% voting for John Effin Kerry in 2004
“Impeach George Bush by Richard Cohen”
http://www.thinkingpeace.com/p.....ts270.html
I have way more evidence!
Whatever, Mexico sucks if you aren’t part of the ruling class. We will be “Mexicans” to Canada in 30 years if we do not enact nationwide, publically-financed elections.
So, maybe Cohen was referring to Stefan.
West Va. is about 2 hours west of DC and could be considered a different country for most folks. For me those are just kin-folk, but I still skip on the raccoon pot pie.
“Something tells me that if every Washington Post columnist was blindfolded, put in a van, and driven 2 hours west of Washington DC and dropped off, 94 percent of them would think they were in a foreign country.”
Touche! So very true! But you see, Lee, punditry is an industry whose commercial appeal depends on not knowing anything.
“Something tells me that if every Washington Post columnist was blindfolded, put in a van, and driven 2 hours west of Washington DC and dropped off, 94 percent of them would think they were in a foreign country.”
Christ, they wouldn’t have to go that far. Ten blocks away from the White House is smack dab in that “Negro” part of town. They’d probably think they were in Haiti.
Puddbutt: Richard Cohen is a certifiable looonatic. He supported the invasion of Iraq; he believes overturning Roe v. Wade is “no big deal”;
When you go to a foreign country usually the first thing you notice is the smell. Most of them smell like shit. That’s because they don’t have functional plumbing. The second thing you notice is poverty.
On the other hand, when foreigners visits our country usually the first thing they notice is the smell. Our country smells like Republicans. That’s because we don’t have functional education.
When you get right down to it, our country smells like their country. That’s because the odor of Republicans is indistinguishable from the odor of shit.
@9 con’t:
…he thinks it’s OK to pardon Scooter boy; he asserts Democrats should ‘stop complaining’; and he avers it is too early to judge whether GWB is a inept doofus president. Clearly your claim that he is a liberal is a judgement from a planet that is far, far, far away.
4:
I think the jab by Cohen was in and of itself non-partisan. The Beltway Elite just aren’t like you and me, even as different as we are. That’s why I’ve never had a problem with term limits. You stay there long enough (regardless of what party you’re in) and you tend to lose touch with those you voted to send you there, if not reality itself.
And while actually going somewhere and experiencing things for yourself is still the best way to go, the Internets ain’t a half-bad way to learn about the world either. Thanks to my chatting with my friends in New Zealand over the last several years, I have a decent insight into life there, not to mention my beloved Mooloo Men (www.mooloo.co.nz, if you’re curious), though the missus and I still would still much rather go there instead of type.
If they blindfolded me and rendered me to Washington D.C., I’d know where I was from the GOP stench.
Proud He’s an ASS: Did you forget the Kos website Impeach calls? Of course Moonbat! memory is limited to 24 hours.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyo.....192144/040
I missed the part where you showed why Lou Dobbs is incorrect….I think he was reprinting what the mex pres actually said.
I can understand (not agree) w/ lefty ideas otherwise…but why the infatuation w/ turnig the US into East LA?
@11 Dinesh D’Souza thinks Larry Craig should fight for his job because every American has a God-given right to tap his foot in the john, if he wants to, in time with the guy in the next stall over tapping HIS foot.
@11 Presumably Dinesh wouldn’t have a problem with kids flashing gang signs in a school classroom, either.
@12 “You stay there long enough (… and you tend to lose touch with those you voted to send you there, if not reality itself.”
This problem is even worse if you were never in touch with reality to begin with.
Game, set, and match, Roger.
Some things never change. RR still has absolutely no life whatsoever. His entire self worth and salvation are contained in this blog. Pathetic!!!
I’d wager that it’s a better life than yours. At least Roger is relevant.
@20 I think of what I do on this blog as akin to Marines landing on Iwo Jima. Shooting down wingnut trolls is dusty, tedious, bloody work but I’m saving America.
JCH is a Nazi
PuddyBud says ““Impeach George Bush!”
PuddyBud, you are a disgrace to the Godly Republican Party and a traitor to Larry Craig, Jeff Gannon, Karl Rove, and all the other members of the Gay Old Party (GOP)!!!
Resign your Membership to the Kool Aide Brigade, and quit sucking my dick sir!!!
Completely Straight, RepublicansFirst!
righton @ 15:
missed the part where you showed why Lou Dobbs is incorrect….I think he was reprinting what the mex pres actually said.
Well, a couple of things.
Calderon says what he says because he’s a politician. The Mexican diaspora in the states is huge and remits a lot of money back to Mexico. No pol in their right mind wants to make 10 or 20% of the voting population feel neglected or ignored, especially when that 10 or 20 are the ones sending money back home.
Calderon needs to create better jobs. Mexico has the money to do this. The issue is getting that money out of he hands of the very rich and into the hands of ordinary people. When GDP/capita is $8500/year and prevailing wages are hovering around $5-10/day, a lot of work needs to be done. We have a very real problem here in the US that too much money is concentrated in too few hands, and very little is done to address this, citing “market forces”. Mexico’s problems are far worse.
The main point is that Dobbs is playing very fast and loose with remittance numbers. The implication is that this firehose of money from the US flows directly into the federal coffers of Mexico for Calderon to use. This is a bald-faced lie. The trade imbalance is the property of Mexican farms and factories. I would be curious as to how much of it stays in the country at all. Drug money? Again, whose is it? Where does it go? On to the Mexican tax rolls? I don’t think so. Even remittances from the diaspora, which is probably the “stickiest” money of the three groups is not a direct contribution to the Treasury. Remittances buy goods, which in turn are taxed (somewhat) which provides Calderon with spending money.
did you read what Calderon said? it goes well beyond pandering; go read up on Atzlan and mexican ambitions beyond its borders.
If he wants to softly invade us, maybe we should take some oil fields. He (mexicans being descended from euro invaders plus mix of local indians) has no more claim on our SW than we have on his SE
@26
The reason why Lou Dobbs is incorrect is because he avidly refuses to acknowledge the role that we play in creating the situation that Calderon is dealing with. As I pointed out, American consumers are giving $25 billion annually to the cartels who we then demand that Calderon destroy. The ensuing cycle of violence is playing a significant role in the diaspora and why we now have so many illegal immigrants here. Calderon has every right to point the finger at us over this problem.
I read exactly what Calderon said. He said if the United States is not going to protect the diaspora, Mexico must.
I suppose you could read that as support for liberating the Southwest. I consider that reading to be a crank position. Mexico doesn’t work. The reason there are so many Mexicans in the United States is precisely because Mexico doesn’t work. Good tortillas, Spanish mass and Spanish techno on the radio is one thing. Governance by corrupt thieves is quite another.
Nobody, not the Americans in the Southwest, not the disapora wants California to become Alta California again. Why on earth would you kill the goose that laid the proverbial golden egg to turn Cali into a poor, sprawling colonia?
On the subject of “illegal aliens”, I’d like to offer a brief excerpt from Thursday’s floor debate in the House of Representatives (emphasis added):
That Barney, he’s such a kidder…
righton,
You seem to be good at spouting Michelle Malkin’s and Lou Dobbs’ nonsense on this “Aztlan” thing. Now why don’t you go read what it is really all about.
I’ll follow up on my earlier message to righton with some more observations.
There are sovereignty movements all over the place. There are people who believe the Pacific Northwest and BC should merge into an independent country. There is a Hawaiian sovereignty movement. There are people on the dry side of Oregon, Washington, and the Idaho panhandle who want their own state.
Nobody thinks much of these, and there’s two reasons for this. First, they are little more than pleasant daydreams. Second, the people who support them are Americans (a few Canadians support BC joining the Pacific Northwest, but they’re like us except for their funny spelling).
Atzlan is a concept dreamed up by people also largely like us. Second and third generation urbanized Chicano activists who haven’t skipped any meals lately and have no idea what life in Mexico is like, nor any concept of how hard the Southwestern money tree would be shaken by the Mexican kleptocracy were it actually handed over.
Of course it’s popular in Mexico! Free legal entry to the land of milk and honey.
It is not a real plan. It is another silly daydream. All the grownups on both sides of the border know this.
The American Nativist movement has picked up on this and turned it into a rallying cry for protecting the borders from those god damned Mexicans. Nativists are stupid to a one and ignorant of American history. I do not say this lightly. There is usually a kernel of proper thinking and good sense even in the most wrong-headed ideas. Nativism is an old theme in American politics. There have been anti-German movements, then anti-Irish movements, anti-Chinese movements, anti-Italian movements, anti-Jewish movements and so on and so on. Every new stream of immigrants to the US is going to ruin the fabric of the country because they’re strange, so damn foreign, too many of them, and not Protestant.
A funny thing happens along the way. The children of immigrants generally grow up to be English-speaking, Americanized, and reasonably affluent. Can you imagine a serious anti-Italian or anti-Chinese movement in 2007? It wasn’t that long ago, y’know.
What the nativists really fail to get is what makes the US such a great country. The social grid here is pretty light. It’s not like Mexico or Italy where you are socially required to be Catholic, or like Japan where you have to conform to Japanese mores and adopt the doctrine of wa (one-line translation: give and get along. Don’t raise your head up and make a fuss).
It’s not a bad place, and it will survive a wave of Hispanics just fine, thanks.
@312
Good comment!!!
oops -1 on the above
above 2 dammit, 2