Bushisms and Other Ridiculous Ideas

Dear Lou,

I have been a regular viewer for over a decade, dating back to Moneyline. Oftentimes we differ, but I have consistently respected your comments and opinions, and your dedication to fair reporting and to exposing injustice whereever you find it. But I have no compunction about calling your bluff on this one. I hope you take the time to read what I have to say.

I watched your program Lou Dobbs - 22 September 2006, and the report and commentary regarding Hugo Chavez's public remarks in New York. During the broadcast you made two conflicting statements which demonstrate that we are a nation victimized by ignorance resultant from media sound bites predigested for the short attention span appetite; media included.

In one statement you rejected uncivil discourse with the sentence: "I take exception to all name calling." Yet on five occasions you engaged in it, to wit:

Don't feel ashamed ever to be Hispanic because of the actions
of this idiot... they are idiots out there doing all sorts of nonsense...

I really think in 2006 and I really fervently believe this, I think we have come a long way from listening to some idiot from Venezuela, who is a certified, card carrying idiot, have any reflection on anybody in this country except for those people who showed up to, you know, hold hands with him, like Danny Grover (sic) and a few of the other jerks.

In the interest of retention of the moral high ground and in me as a card-carrying viewer, please continue, as you have for so many years, to rise above trivializing yourself with such indignities.

Chavez's public remarks in New York, although distasteful to many, threatened no one and are protected by virtue of the fact he was standing upon U.S. soil when he made them. It is this protection that makes us what we are--or are supposed to be-- as a nation: the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. And the fact is that George W. Bush is a self confessed--yet untreated--alcoholic, who is known to have a bad temper.

Further, I ask you to consider some of Chavez's words in his address to the his Remarks by President Hugo Chavez at United Nations:

What type of democracy do you impose with marines and bombs?...

The imperialists see extremists everywhere. It’s not that we are extremists. It’s that the world is waking up. It’s waking up all over. And people are standing up...

Yes, you can call us extremists, but we are rising up against the empire, against the model of domination...

Yesterday, the secretary general practically gave us his speech of farewell. And he recognized that over the last 10 years, things have just gotten more complicated; hunger, poverty, violence, human rights violations have just worsened.

Lou, are these the words of an idiot, of a jerk? Frankly, I can easily imagine these pleas superimposed among similar words of our own forefathers during the Second Continental Congress' debate over independence.

Wasn't it Benjamin Franklin who said something about: 'A Rebel,' when referred to in the third person is a traitor, yet in the first person is a Patriot?

Chavez's ego notwithstanding, he is right about one thing. The U.S. is becoming increasingly unpopular around the world, primarily for one reason: George W. Bush. His policies and rhetoric taste of tyranny at home and abroad.

Finally, like you, there is a lot to like about Charlie Rangel. When Cong. Rangel Condemns Chavez's Attack On Bush, he is not without support.

George Bush is the President of the United States and represents the entire country. Any demeaning public attack against him is viewed by Republicans and Democrats, and all Americans, as an attack on all of us.

But as one of all Americans, I do not feel attacked or threatened; moreover ashamed of what this President and his administration have done to foster such hostility from the rest of the world towards all of us as a free nation and as democratic people.

You should too, Lou.

Sincerely,
JR Ford
UP (Unsubstantiated Press)
St. Petersburg, Fl.
sixtimeseven@aol.com

"There is no such ideal as the moral philosophy as Neo-Conservatism. It is but a perverse euphemism for the immoral discipline of Neo-Fascism." -- JR Ford, Jul 2006.