Skip to main content

Lou Dobbs

I have a lot of other things to write about soon, when I get over this cold and feel better, but right now I want to point out something I think is kind of funny.

If you have read my blog, you probably know my feelings about Lou Dobbs. Lou Dobbs is a CNN anchor and also has his own show. The thing that he may be best known for is his stance on immigration - anti-amnesty, pro-border fences and the Minuteman Project, outspoken about any flag being flown in the US other than the American flag, even at cultural events and demonstration (all of a sudden, I really want to go get me a Mexican flag and fly it!), and thinks that immigrants should assimilate, describing illegal immigration as an "invasion." (I personally think that he puts the "ass" in "assimilate.")

Anyway, guess whose billboards are all over East Oakland right now - especially in the Latino parts (where there are many many illegal immigrants - and I'm not saying that because they speak Spanish and I'm assuming they're illegal, but because I happen to know for a fact that many of the families around there are illegal)? That's right, Lou Dobbs Tonight billboards all over the place, where normally there are Spanish billboards for clinics or telenovelas. Now it's Lou Dobbs. Man, did some marketer get the wrong demographic, or what?
Labels:

Comments

Third Rail said…
To check out our interview with the Minuteman Project’s founder Jim Gilchrist tonight Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at 8pm EST go to http://thirdrailradio.com Feel free to call in and speak with him on-air.
2:06 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Loss

  (I have been putting off finishing this blog post for months. You'll see why)  Today, I was cleaning a bookshelf and I found the journal from one of my third-grade students, who I call Fred in my book , in 2001. I still had it because he didn't come to the last day of school to get his stuff this year and I guess it got put in a pile and somehow I've kept it with me.  He didn't come to the last day of school, probably because his family was a mess: dad in prison, mom in an abusive relationship, all the kids (understandably) acting out violently. Fred was expelled from our school in second grade for hitting a teacher. Then he was expelled from the other school, I don't know why, at the end of second grade. He came back on the condition from the administration that he be in my class because I had him as a student in first grade and he listened to me and worked well with me.  We had a really good relationship, although Fred was definitely not easy to have in class.
Post a Comment
Read more

A New Prison, Part Two

  Second very long part of the prison visit report.   After we got all the paperwork filled out and went through the metal detector, we got visitation slips with the name of the inmate, and made our way over to the other building for visitation. This is not maximum security so thankfully you can just sit next to the inmates, and not be separated by glass or have to use a telephone to talk.    First, you get a gate unlocked and go into a holding pen that is of course in direct sunlight (or rain if it's that season) and surrounded by fences topped with razor wire. You wait there until the gate at the other end is unlocked. This holding pen was a little bigger and less claustrophobic than the other prison (I do not have any claustrophobia and I came very close to a panic attack once at the other place) and they opened the other gate more quickly. Then you walk, again in blazing sunlight (or rain) to the visitation building. This one was less of a walk than the other prison but I still
Post a Comment
Read more

A New Prison, Part 1

My former student, friend, and co-author was moved to a new prison during COVID. We (myself, Mitali, and his Abuela) have visited a couple of times via the video visit functionality they set up, but we've also been trying to visit in person, ever since in-person visits were allowed again. After four of them being canceled (sometimes we were told why, sometimes not), we finally got a visit. I was super nervous about this visit. (I felt better when Mitali mentioned that she was also, because she is an inherently positive and optimistic person!) I am not proud of this, but there was a large part of me that was hoping that the visit would be canceled, just like the previous four were. I felt a little better when someone I know messaged me privately to tell me that they had had very good experiences visiting a family member in that prison. But I still didn't sleep well at all that night, worrying about the guards, the many things that could go wrong, and the projected 111-degree hea
Post a Comment
Read more