Here's the piece in The Nation that they're discussing: Lou Dobbs, American Hypocrite.
There's not much more I need to say about this - except I'm not surprised. But I do have two questions:
- Dobbs was at CNN from 1980 off and on (more on than off), until 2009. You mean to tell me - that all this time - NOBODY knew (at CNN, or anywhere else in our glorious Fourth Estate - with all that access to information), had the faintest inkling - until NOW, after years of this man's obviously white supremacist rantings on immigration - that he employed undocumented workers on either of his palatial spreads?
- Who were the people who made his George Foster Peabody Award (1987), his Emmys (his show in 2004 for his "Exporting America" series, his Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005), his Eugene Katz Award for Excellence in the Coverage of Immigration (2004) among others, possible?
UPDATE: Well, I found an answer to my first question in the video below. Turns out, another kid in the Fourth Estate Sandbox - Countdown's, Keith Olbermann - knew, and broadcasted this exact same story on December 4, 2007 (click ahead to the 1:11 click)
So, why is this such a big story now? Particularly since the Olbermann rant was a good two years after Dobbs received his many awards for "excellence." Did I miss something? I'm a little slow sometimes, so maybe somebody can tell me why all the hoopla now - especially since nothing happened to him before?
5 comments:
Don’t the government “hire” (or at the very least “pay”) “illegals” when they extend social services to them? Although I am quite sure that the Tea Party and/or Republican Party are driven by racism when they lodge complaints about “illegals” using benefits, they do in fact have a point. If we are to drag people who knowingly hire illegals through the mud, then we must demand that the government not aid those illegals. In the case of Meg Whitman (currently running for California governor), she did in fact pay taxes for her housekeeper, who lied and said she was legal and presented a SS# and driver’s license. So money was paid. However, Whitman is being demonized now for not following through when the SS office sent a letter to the housekeeper about a conflicting number. Coincidnelty on that very letter it tells the employer, that by law they cannot do anything to the employee, as in firring them, that the employee must have time to sort things out. Let me tell you if an employer tried to get into my SS business, I would have a big attitude. Actually, it just happened to me in May when I did a contract/temp job. For some dumb reason I wrote my last name as a single last name when I use a hyphenated name. Sure enough, my employer got a letter from the SS office. The employer did in fact threaten to release me if I did not handle the situation in 14 days. Nevertheless, most all the farmers out here hire “illegals” and do not pay taxes because they are not recorded as employees because you know they cannot come up with SS#s. The farmers are also subsidized by the government. Here is where the nice little loop hole that says corporations cannot be accountable as humans can because they are not human but corporations, yet, those corporations as a governing/employing body can abuse/exploit whereas individuals such as Dobbs and Whitman (which I’m not trying to give either any love, just saying) can be taken out and used as an example of horrors among horrors. Supporters of immigration have created a paradox. Don’t ask for I.D or legal status when a person is in need of basic human needs and in some cases beyond that, such as food stamps, WIC, becoming a foster parent, police, fire, etc, but if anyone dares to hire them in a capacity and pay taxes then that person is a bad person. Therefore, as an American taxpayer, I am supposed to be okay with giving our tax dollars away but if I want to employ someone, I should feel okay about paying them under the table and not setting it up where taxes can be collected. That doesn’t make sense. Besides, you already know how I feel about black folks. Black folks from day one are entitled to free education up until they are PhDs and MDs if that is the track they want to go on. All the billions of dollars giving out to people who voluntarily came into this country illegally is taking away money from education.
All that to say, YAWN. When I hear about who did or did not hire an “illegal,” I’m like so what, did they withhold taxes?
kitty
And of course I must note that I am not advocating denying human services to “illegals,” I’m just saying there is some motive in the paradox. Prostitutes, strippers, drug dealers, waitresses/waiters and the like are always hounded and under scrutiny if they are paying proper taxes. I always wonder how drug dealers can be charged with tax evasion when technically their product is not taxable, because, it is not legal. How does that work? Am I showing my ignorance here? I had a friend that went and plop down $50,000 on a brand new vehicle (make and model is anonymous on purpose) and was visited by officials within weeks. They wanted to know where she got that kind of cash because she didn’t have anything on record showing she was making that kind of money. Little did she know when her “boyfriend” sent her to buy the vehicle with the cash, he didn’t tell her why she was sent to buy it instead of him. That was a few years back, maybe times have changed. How is it perfectly okay to hound waitresses and strippers and question their income to tax ratio but not be okay to question how an undocumented worker is getting paid. The restaurant does not get in trouble, the waitress gets in trouble. But with immigration we are expected to make the restaurant the bad and the undocumented worker the good. Not saying I don’t think the restaurant should be held accountable in the case of the waitress, because I do. If they paid her enough she wouldn’t have to worry about underreporting her tips, but when you don’t even get minimum wage what in the world will encourage you to be honest about your tips? This is where the Republicans racism and love for big business get them in trouble and lose support from non-Republican people. If there were not an automatic assumption that Republicans were racists and wanted big business to get away with murder, perhaps people would support them when they have a good idea. On the other hand, this is how the Democrats get themselves in trouble and lose support. They are not even willing to take an ideal, even if originated from the Republicans and removed the racism but keep in concepts that are good for U.S. citizens. Instead, they just take the position if the Republicans are for they must be against. I hate them both and do not trust either to have a moral compass or have my interest in mind.
And Keith Olberman hates women. He makes money off his little self-righteous rants.
Hey Miss Kitty (seems that sign-in problem fixed itself)!
Part I (cuz I'm long-winded):
"If we are to drag people who knowingly hire illegals through the mud, then we must demand that the government not aid those illegals."
Not an "either/or" for me Kitty - more of a "both/and" (sort of).
In lieu of comprehensive immigration reform, Yes! We are to drag ALL people who knowingly hire undocumented workers through the mud, particularly if they have, as Dobbs did, "...heaped scorn on the government for using contractors that hire undocumented immigrants. On CNN in 2007, he called private firms that oppose verification requirements for their contractors' employees ridiculous."
We should, because working human beings 24-7 all Kunte-like, is against the law - for e'erybody.
This fool's screaming daily, “Don’t do as I do, do what I say do!” Lyin’-assed, megalomaniac.
"Whitman is being demonized now for not following through when the SS office sent a letter to the housekeeper about a conflicting number."
No, she’s being demonized for lying and breaking the law. I, for one, think both she and Dobbs should be held accountable for that. While $24/hr's nothin' to sneeze at (if you work 40 hrs/week, that is), that's what the housekeeper is doing with her civil suit (even if somebody put her up to it, which she denies)
You said, the letter "…tells the employer, that by law they cannot do anything to the employee, as in firing them, that the employee must have time to sort things out." Whitman hypocritically, and in an, "I am above the law" way, did exactly what it said she could not do, by firing her - for votes! So, according to the letter, she broke the law, (after having apparently, already - broken the law, for years before, because she knew, or should have known - based on a preponderance of the evidence (standard of guilt in a civil action) - about the woman's questionable immigration status.
They need to stop pandering to "real Americans" for votes ("lyin' for 'lection" as my grandmother would say) or ratings or whatever. Especially when they're doing - for their own benefit - exactly what they rail against, even though they have the cash to pay a citizen for their services - which would certainly be exceedingly more, due to: "the federal Fair Labor Standards Act—which requires time-and-a-half pay for hours worked beyond a forty-hour workweek—and a Florida law that requires overtime pay for any workday longer than ten hours."
Anything else simply fosters an environment for human beings to be taken advantage of.
Our immigration "problem" is nothing more than the politics of divide and conquer writ large. In 2002, I remember approximately 200 Haitians jumping, and/or throwing their children overboard into Biscayne Bay with the hopes they'd somehow make it to the much-touted, "land of opportunity" - all while the Coast Guard rounded up as many as they could, like cattle, and herded them off to Krome detention center for however long before being deported back to Haiti (we’ve been messing in their politics since their independence! Pretty much got that down pat).
While Cubans, because of the political, "Wet Foot/Dry Foot" Cuban Adjustment Act (I think they want their old “playground” back among other things, but that little stumbling block - Castro, keeps them fomenting rebellion by offering immigrants perks) - needed only to touch land and they're released into the waiting arms of family members.
(Part II):
On a human tip - aside from the politics - saying those who look like me are "less than, sub-human and/or undeserving" just continues to perpetuate their "divide and conquer" bullshit. Now with Mexicans, I just think they’re scared shitless those Brown brothers will get together here and say, “We’re taking all OUR shit back!” :-)
People who do wrong shit live in constant fear that the same shit will happen to them!
Either way Miss Kitty, I won't be complicit in doing to anybody else, what was, and continues to be, done to us. We're talking about PEOPLE'S lives here.
As for demanding the government not aid them, I said "and" (sort of), because they don't need "aid." What they need – is a clear path to the same citizenship opportunity made available to the European immigrants who came here - and later became "white." Once they get that, no "Dream Act" - which would again, pit them against each other, and us - would be necessary. See, this is how they keep shit stirred up so people won't pay attention to how they're fuckin' over all of us.
I’m right there with you that ”Black folks from day one are entitled to free education up until they are PhDs and MDs if that is the track they want to go on.” But that’ll never happen because we’ve let them “civilize” our common sense right the hell out of us! Now, we're tryin’ to be like white Mike, talking this "Race to the Top" bullshit. Education ain't no race! When we had some damned sense, we should’ve demanded more than being able to sit next to Miss Ann & Mr. Charlie’s chirrun!
I wouldn’t marry myself to the belief that “All the billions of dollars giving out to “people who voluntarily came into this country illegally is taking away money from education.” I’d say there’s plenty of money for education were it not for war, and “studies,” and politickin’ and shit.
I’m just saying there is some motive in the paradox.
I’d say there are plenty and varied.
”I always wonder how drug dealers can be charged with tax evasion when technically their product is not taxable, because, it is not legal. How does that work?”
Drugs weren’t always illegal here, Kitty. They started out being – wait for i-i-it – MEDICINAL! Here’s a link to a History Channel documentary, I watched awhile back:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQlk01sxO_E
Ved-d-y interesting (please do watch it)!
Your question has to do with the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act Pub. 238, 75th Congress, 50 Stat. 551 (Aug. 2, 1937) and tax stamps. In other words - how could they get their hands on that cash! It’s never about what they say it’s about Kitty. And the powers-that-be, culminating in Tricky Dick, saw it as a great, legal-cuz-they-said-so (here we go again) “divide and conquer” tool, pointing the finger at “dem damned Mexicans, Niggers and Chinks” coveting their alabaster beauties! Hm-m-m, sounds pretty much like what they’re still parroting today. Ah-h, such is progress.
”How is it perfectly okay to hound waitresses and strippers and question their income to tax ratio but not be okay to question how an undocumented worker is getting paid. The restaurant does not get in trouble, the waitress gets in trouble. But with immigration we are expected to make the restaurant the bad and the undocumented worker the good.”
It’s not okay to do the former (for the reasons you mentioned, but I’d exchange “living” for “minimum”). But it IS okay to do the latter, IMO. I don’t see it as bad or good where either the waitress or the undocumented worker is concerned - because they’re both dealing with “power” from a pretty “powerless” position. Through that lens, it’s an issue of what’s fair and right given that imbalance for me (guess I’m just not a “survival of the fittest” kinda girl).
Republicans weren’t always assumed, as racist as they are today - and it was the damned Democrats back in the day who were racists (think Exalted Cyclops, Robert Byrd and from SC, the seemed-like-he’d-live-forever, Dixiecrat-turned-Republican senator, Strom Thurmond)! Republicans did some shit in their “becoming,” influenced by that bunch and their Weevil successors which stamped them - at least for me – racists. Even if they have a good idea, the Kizzy in me would still be suspect! :-)
”I hate them both and do not trust either to have a moral compass or have my interest in mind.”
Now that’s some critical thinking! :-)
And Keith Olberman hates women. He makes money off his little self-righteous rants.
Does that make his having reported this long ago any less accurate? And shit, Kitty! They ALL make money off their little self-righteous rants – No?
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