Jowly Populism

Lou Dobbs isn't even worth getting angry over anymore. He's just funny. Here, he calls 500 economists "complete idiots" and "jackasses." Watch as his reporter struggles to wriggle out from having to agree with her boss that indeed he is is smarter than the 500 Ph.D.s who disagree with him. Tomorrow, watch as Dobbs strangles an illegal Mexican boy live on the air!

Related: Newt Gingrich nudges the immigration debate into a full-blown moral panic by citing one horrendous crime in New Jersey as proof that immigrants are "massacring American youth."

Comments

[joe]

OK, as it turns out, Dobbs only said he was smarter than 50 economists, and said so over the course of 30 years.

You're right, at this point, he's just funny.

[shecky]

You gotta love how well Dobbs overturns every "open borders" argument with clear, concise, devastating logic.

[de stijl]

Gingrich said that the "war here at home" against illegal immigrants is "even more deadly than the war in Iraq and Afghanistan."

When does hyperbole become offensive? Gingrich is certainly not an authority I would consult to address that question.

[Randolph Carter]

the "my opponents are fools. Fools! Oh, and they want to kill you and take your childrens' food and jobs, too." line of argument. It's always effective.

[shecky]

Gingrich pretty much needs to be kicked in the balls. Publicly and hard.

[crimethink]

Well, the one economist who was talking about immigrants being no different from apples was really stretching. Apples don't require free health care and other social services, do they?

[shecky]

Apples don't pay taxes, either.

[mtc]

"Do you remember when we used to talk about something in this country called free enterprise democracy? These jackasses have now tried to supplant that with free market (sic). Or with free trade."

Wow. Just wow. It's not that they give this guy his own TV show that really surprises me, it's that they let him walk around without a helmet on.

[Garth, Channeling Lou Dobbs]

BUT THESE IMMIGRANTS ARE BROWN FER HEVENSAKES!

[SugarFree]

Larry Flynt should put out a bounty on someone who can present evidence of Dobbs eating at a Mexican restaurant.

[Mr. F. Le Mur]

Here, he calls 500 economists "complete idiots" and "jackasses."
Obviously those 500 economists are much smarter than Friedman, and much, much smarter than the 20,000+ economists who didn't sign on.

[thoreau]

I agree with MikeP.

[Mike_P]

I think we're fools to ignore the potential of Russet potatoes as an alternative energy source.

[Mike_P]

The subprime lending crisis can be solved by my plan to turn Smurfs into gold.

[AC]

Wow. Just wow. It's not that they give this guy his own TV show that really surprises me, it's that they let him walk around without a helmet on.

I'm not sure a helmet would be enough. Maybe a set of waterwings, too.

[thoreau]

The subprime lending crisis can be solved by my plan to turn Smurfs into gold.

Or you could just extract the colloidal silver that they ingested and sell the silver...

[min]

I like how Lou Dobbs takes precisely one sentence from each free-market economist. Why can't he let them speak for themselves?

Dobbs is a coward.

[Cesar]

Related: Newt Gingrich nudges the immigration debate into a full-blown moral panic by citing one horrendous crime in New Jersey as proof that immigrants are "massacring American youth."

What a demagogue.

[Bronwyn]

Gingrich said that the "war here at home" against illegal immigrants is "even more deadly than the war in Iraq and Afghanistan."

...

Gingrich said that the "war here at home" against illegal immigrants is "even more deadly than the war in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Apparently, that bore repeating.

Perhaps the author wanted to drive home the fact that Gingrich is a hyperbolic blowhard?

[Cesar]

Don't you just love the UNLIMITED IMMIGRATION flashing on the screen during the story?

Just to drive the message home even more I guess.

[lunchstealer]

MikeP, russets are not a very realistic alternative energy source. Clearly russets would fall apart too quickly. We need to use waxy potatoes like red pontiac or ruby crescent potatoes.

[lunchstealer]

Oh, and the Smurfs were wiped out by a brutal US bombing campaign aimed, coincidentally, at illegal immigrants who default on their mortgages. However, although wild populations of Snorks have been crashing, farm-raised Snorks provide almost as much gold upon conversion as Smurfs.

[MikeP]

I don't know enough about potatoes or Smurfs to agree with Mike_P.

[Max]

Newt Gingrich has pissed away the last bit of his respectability. He's a total buffoon now.

[SugarFree]

farm-raised Snorks provide almost as much gold upon conversion as Smurfs

lunchstealer, you are so naive I can hardly believe it.

[lunchstealer]

Oops, my appologies to Mikes P and _P for the mixup.

[lunchstealer]

In Gingrich's defense, he also wants to deport citizens who are suspected of crimse, not just immigrants.

[Isaac Bartram]

Mr. F. Le Mur

Friedman's position on immigration is more a criticism of the welfare state than a criticism of immgration.

As near as I can tell, Lou Dobbs would be against immigration if we abolished every piece of public assistance in sight. In fact, since his whole sctick seems to revolve around the "unfair" competition on jobs, a country where the loss of one's job or the inability to get one would result in one starving in the cold would have even more of an incentive to keep out rivals.

[Isaac Bartram]

In Gingrich's defense, he also wants to deport citizens who are suspected of crimse, not just immigrants.

(1) Wow, I wonder where to.

(2) Wow, this is "In Gingrich's defense..."? What would you say against him? 🙂

[Cesar]

In Gingrich's defense, he also wants to deport citizens who are suspected of crimse, not just immigrants.

Hah, that reminds me when I watched Bill O'Reily once and he said he was against the death penalty. So I thought, gee, maybe hes not so bad after all.

Then he said we should have Gulags in Alaska in place of it. And I was reminded what an asshat he is.

[MikeP]

Gingrich said that the "war here at home" against illegal immigrants is "even more deadly than the war in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Not that Gingrich is a great guy, but that bit from the AJC article is not a very accurate account of what he says in the column being summarized...

There is a war here at home, and it is even more deadly than the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Far more Americans are being killed by violent, evil people here in America than in our official military "combat zones" overseas.

The truth is, all too many Americans are being killed. But what is so completely senseless is having the lives of three young, achieving students cut brutally short by someone who not only should not have been in the United States in the first place but also, after two previous arrests for violence, should not have been on the streets. Instead, the suspected killer should have been in jail awaiting trial, sentencing, prison and eventual deportation.

Most every mention of illegal immigrant in Gingrich's column is preceded by 'felon', 'criminal', or 'violent'. In this sense he is far superior to Lou Dobbs who is most scared by the adjectives 'hard-working' and 'employed'.

[Cesar]

But aren't crime rates lower than they were in the 1970s, before hispanic immigrants started coming here in large amounts?

[de stijl]

MikeP,

It's cleaner, but still pretty sleazy.

He goes from "More people die in America at the hands of violent, evil people than in combat" to "three people were killed by an illegal immigrant" which rhetorically lays all violent deaths in America at the feet of one dude.

[Smappy]

Obviously those 500 economists are much smarter than Friedman, and much, much smarter than the 20,000+ economists who didn't sign on.

Yeah, or the 299,999,500 people in the U.S. who didn't sign on either! Please. Saying there are 20,000+ economists who didn't sign on doesn't mean there are 20,000+ economists who disagree. To draw that conclusion you would need 20,000+ economists to sign a statement saying you shouldn't have open borders.

[joe]

Gingrich has been waving bloody shirts like this for a long time. It's nothing but a cheap political ploy.

When Susan Smith deliberately drove her SUV with her kids inside into a lake, then climbed out, Newt Gingrich stood on the beach where she went into the water and said that Democrats made this happen. I don't think the poor kids had even left the morgue yet.

[S.A. Miller]

Friedman's position on immigration is more a criticism of the welfare state than a criticism of immgration.

Which do you think will happen first? End of the Welfare state or End of Illegal Immigration?

I would be all for unrestricted immigration if we get rid of the welfare state. Problem is, I don't see the welfare state going anywhere anytime soon.

[MikeP]

Which do you think will happen first? End of the Welfare state or End of Illegal Immigration?

By "End of Illegal Immigration" do you mean the end of laws against free migration? Or do you mean that if the US buckles down enough, then illegal immigration will end?

I would be all for unrestricted immigration if we get rid of the welfare state.

Would you settle for even longer periods of time before immigrants -- or even their citizen children -- can partake of the welfare state?

The fact that a native person born of a native family receives welfare should not be held against an immigrant who neither seeks nor wants welfare for himself or his family.

[Franklin Harris]

It's really funny how after Lou Dobbs failed at capitalism (his web site, Space.com, now under new management) he suddenly returned to CNN and went on an unending rant about how evil capitalism is.

[Matthew]

joe

Did Gingrich actually do that? Really?

If so, wow.

[SugarFree]

Matthew,

"I think that the mother killing the two children in South Carolina vividly reminds every American how sick the society is getting and how much we need to change things," he said. "The only way you get change is to vote Republican."

Source

[Swimmy]

I think this is an important point libertarians need to address: Friedman's views on immigration were inconsistent and wrong, a concession to popular politics born of his often ill-fitting pragmatism. He never established a solid demarcation between his immigration exception to freedom and others he would not except--like, for instance, the drug war, which he opposed. Drug use could arguably increase the size of the welfare state. Numerous other activities could do the same thing, but Friedman would have undoubtedly defended them in the name of freedom.

He failed to distinguish properly, making this an intellectually inconsistent position. Immigration opponents like to use it as a "gotcha" for economists, who often have too much reverence to simply say Friedman was wrong, when that is, in fact, the proper response--especially considering the completely workable nature of laws that would deny temporary workers many state benefits.

[Taktix?]

Didn't read the thread yet, but did anyone notice the font says "War on the Middle Class" at about 4:24?

[DT]

Lou Dobbs should invite Professor Tabbarok onto his show. That's something I would enjoy watching.