The Beginning of the Birther Party or Just Another Crazy Tea Party? Group With Racist Ties Urges Lou Dobbs to Run for President

BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Meg White

Oh, this is just what Lou Dobbs needed.

First, Media Matters gave him hell for "mainstreaming" the already-debunked claims of the birther movement. Then, Dobbs' boss at CNN gets a letter from the hate groups watchdog Southern Poverty Law Center suggesting the pundit be fired for his "trading in falsehoods and racist conspiracy theories, questioning President Obama's American citizenship." At the same time, an e-mail from said CNN boss was leaked on TVNewser which indicated that he thought the birther thing was a non-story anyway, instructing Dobbs and his team to drop it. Meanwhile, CNN went around pleading other cable news networks not to show a devastating ad attacking Dobb's "racially-charged paranoia."

As if all that weren't enough, now Dobbs has a group that espouses "hysterical fear-mongering and xenophobic, anti-Latino conspiracy theories" encouraging him to run for president.

The Web site for the Raleigh N.C.-based Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee (ALIPAC) says they support "those who legally immigrate, but we DO NOT support any amnesty, visa expansion or 'Guest Worker' program designed to reward illegal aliens or legalize their presence in the U.S."

But the Center for New Community's Building Democracy Initiative, whose mission is "to counter emerging threats to civil and human rights," produced a report on ALIPAC in 2005 finding that the group's approach "is to criminalize and demonize immigrants, withhold public services and pretend that immigrants, regardless of their documentation, make no contributions to our society."

"Americans for Legal Immigration–PAC is a relatively small organization that has, like a number of techno-savvy political groups, made a relatively big splash by taking on a hot-button issue and making creative use of the Internet," the report continues. "ALI appeals to the worst aspects of American nativism, and attempts to dress up its positions with rule of law rhetoric. No such rhetoric can hide the fact that its attacks are opportunistic, sensational and disconnected from reality."

As if supporting Lou Dobbs for president weren't enough proof of a disconnection with reality, the Anti-Defamation League reports that ALIPAC associates with and is promoted by white supremacists.

(Note: This ALIPAC is not to be confused with American-Latino Immigrants Proudly Assisting the Community, also known as ALIPAC. Publisher Tony Cheek clearly knows the 'net territory he's occupying, writes in the "About Us" section of ALIPAC.net, "For those who thought they would find Anti-Immigrant Rants, or crazy talk about foreign invasions, or Zero-Population spew, or some sick joke or cartoon making fun of Mexicans, keep steppin'. Chances are you typed in the wrong address -- and no, I won't help you by linking to those particular sites. You'll have to Google them yourself").

Alright, more on "crazy talk about foreign invasions" later. Let's get back to the "Lou Dobbs for President" movement.

Over at ALIPAC.us, the anti-immigration group put out a press release defending Dobbs' recent birther rhetoric and "encouraging activists across America to contact talk radio shows and other show hosts in defense of Lou Dobbs."

The release uses the ignorant language commonly found in anti-immigrant sentiment ("These groups are trying to take Lou's job"), as well as driving home the urgency by inflating the severity of the criticism ("By trying to deprive Lou Dobbs of his livelihood and liberty, these groups are attacking all First Amendment rights in America." That's right, all of them, including the totally unrelated rights of freedom from an established religion and to peaceably assemble).

The group also takes pains to legitimize birther claims by insisting "Lou Dobbs [was] silenced because he dared to say that Obama should show his birth certificate for the job just like most Americans have to" (personally, I can't think of one instance in which I've had to produce my birth certificate to get a job. But then, I work for the liberal media, which wholeheartedly accepts foreign commie infiltrators as employees).

Clearly, the settled matter of the president's birth certificate is a tangential issue to the anti-immigration lobby. But latching their cause onto the recent Dobbs/birther uproar just might be the trick to get them back into the limelight. Heck, it worked before. According to the Building Democracy report referenced above, ALIPAC first launched itself onto the national scene when they inserted their North Carolinian noses into Los Angeles' business, attacking a billboard ad for a local radio station there as a sign of the mythical reconquest of the American Southwest by Mexicans.

The Lou Dobbs for President movement has been brewing online for at least the past three years (though the earliest mention I found was a facetious one from Jon Friedman, the media editor for MarketWatch, in March 2006) but the birther movement may be just what the pundit needs to kick off his 2012 campaign.

To give you an idea of the sort of person who would vote for Dobbs, here are a couple of unedited comments from the guest book of LouDobbsForPresident.com -- which is paid for by ALIPAC -- (bold emphasis is mine):

• You go Lou you could save us while what we have now is trying to destroy it. Too many people don't know we are on the edge of what could be the beginning of the destruction of this country as we know and love it. And that's the problem, they're either too blind to know it, they're too stupid to know it, or God forbid they're for it. God bless America and you go Lou! Don't ever let them stop you and they can go straight to hell for thinking they can change OUR country, never NEVER will they stop our first amendment rights! THIS IS AMERICA!
• Keep up the great job Lou! This country is being invaded and Obama welcomes them. The borders need to be CLOSED NOW and laws ENFORCED NOW. Let the deportation begin. You are the only one to report on this problem, PLEASE don't EVER stop.
• Who want a stanist worshiper as President? God save America from this evil man."

Yes please, Lou: Save us from those terrible people who worship Stan.

Now, it's not just the paranoid folks at ALIPAC who have Dobbs' back. Secessionist action movie star and Glenn Beck devotee Chuck Norris recently wrote a blog entry supporting Dobbs' call to see the president's birth certificate.

So what does Dobbs do now? Call in as a guest on the Don Imus show, of course! Yeah, that ought to remove the stench of racist paranoia.

Next thing you know he'll be courting Alcoa for sponsorship of his show, to offset the cost of his new collection of tinfoil hats. Or maybe he can squeeze a campaign contribution out of the Pioneer Fund.

I just hope he has his birth certificate handy.

BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS

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