Obama Shunning Fox News: Well, That Didn't Last Long

The Huffington Post reports that President Barack Obama will be giving an interview to Fox News next week. Placed in the context of the supposed "boycott" and "war" his administration had waged on the highly-partisan "news" network, this revelation will intrigue quite a few people. Per the article:

The interview will take place in China next week and comes just one day after it was reported that Obama Communications Director Anita Dunn -- the so-called general in the administration's war against Fox News -- will be stepping down.

I'm not surprised. While I hate Fox News, I was not one of the anti-Fox News people applauding the White House's public opposition to Fox. I thought while that tactic may have worked during Obama's campaign, it seemed both unwise and inappropriate for the president of a free press country to appear to be at war with a major network no matter how insane the network's staff, anchors, and how biased its reporting.

Nevertheless, I do think President Obama should withhold the meat and give Fox News crumbs. He should not squander much of his valuable time on a network that persists in reporting the news inaccurately and fueling crazy conspiracy theories about the government under Obama. He is a man for whom the right wing ramped up to vilify before he even completed a full year of office. In fact, it was fairly early in his administration that the opposition's hatred of Obama matched the passion it took Bush's opponents eight years to build. Clearly they're with Limbaugh who immediately said after Obama took office, "I hope Obama fails."

If ever there was a case of whiners singing la-la-la-la with their fingers in their ears, it's the right in how it has handled Obama's brief time in office, and Fox News has actively promoted sticking fingers in the ears. Should anyone take a moment to pull those fingers out, that network of partisan pundits is waiting to cram heads with misinformation and viral paranoia.

Fox News is not a news network. It's a conservative opinion mill, a right-wing propaganda machine. Always has been. But the POTUS has to be stronger and cooler than a network of wackos.

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Is Lou Dobbs Leaving CNN to Fight a Shadow Communist Regime?

I'll admit upfront that that's a snarky and misleading blog headline even though it's written in the form of a question, but as I listened to Lou Dobbs say farewell to CNN this evening, despite his eloquence and gracious tone, I kept thinking he sounds like a man he thinks he's been backed into a corner. Furthermore, it sounds like he's saying the Democratic-controlled congress and the President don't represent him.

Well, he has been one of the people in the news to keep promoting the birthers belief that Obama is not a U.S. citizen. Maybe he really believes what he's saying and he's said. Here's part of the resignation speech he gave tonight on CNN:

I truly believe that the major issues of our time include the growth of our middle class, the creation of more jobs, health care, immigration policy, the environment, climate change, and our military involvement, of course, in Afghanistan and Iraq.

But each of those issues is in my opinion informed by our capacity to demonstrate strong resilience of our now weakened capitalist economy and demonstrate the political will to overcome the lack of true representation in Washington, D.C. I believe these to be profoundly critically important issues and I will continue to strive to deal honestly and straightforwardly with those issues in the future.

Unfortunately, these issues are now defined in the public arena by partisanship and ideology rather than by rigorous empirical thought and forthright analysis and discussion. I'll be working diligently to change that as best I can. And, as for the important work of restoring inspiration to our great free society and our market economy, I will strive as well to be a leader in that national conversation. (Full transcript at CNN)

I've never paid attention to Dobbs, but I know he's had some other bloggers addled and angry, and some activists have called for his resignation or that CNN fire him. Here are some posts that will school you on what's rocked Mr. Dobbs's world lately:

• Soldedad Obrien, Lou Dobbs, and CNN's Latinos in America: Professor Kim at BlogHer examines in part of this post the following and has video of Dobbs:

  Unfortunately for O'Brien, her colleague Lou Dobbs has so angered Latino activists and bloggers that her quality work is at risk of being ignored. For years, Dobbs has been pushing the narrative that that porous borders and uncontrolled immigration, primarily from Mexico, has weakened the US economy and made us more vulnerable to crime and terrorism.

• There was a Drop Dobbs campaign. See DropDobbs.com (Dobbs vs. the Facts), and Media Matters has also kept Dobbs under a microscope and one of its writers asked why CNN would keep a man who doesn't subscribe to fair and balanced reporting. He's obviously partisan.
• At the blog Anyway I Have To, the blogger wonders at Lou Dobbs's double talk on Obama's birth certificate.
• At Hatewatch, part of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a staff blogger explained Why I Urged CNN to Take Dobbs Off the Air

  For years, Dobbs has been trading in baseless, conspiratorial claims that originate on the radical right. Most recently, he’s given credence to the utterly discredited claim that President Obama was not born in this country and so is not eligible to be president. It’s a claim that’s been debunked many times over. CNN’s legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin called it “a joke.” But it’s a claim that continues to circulate in radical right circles. James von Brunn, the neo-Nazi accused of killing the Holocaust Memorial Museum guard, for example, promoted the claim on the Internet and berated the media for not taking it seriously.

• And Professor Tracey at Aunt Jemima's Revenge has had a pet name for Dobbs. She calls him Looney Lou.
• Over at Crooks and Liars a while back: Lou Dobbs Emulates Glenn Beck With Attack on "Czar" Ron Bloom for Quoting Mao-tse Tung
• At Hufffington Post, the July 24 article Major Civil Rights Group Demands CNN Remove Lou Dobbs From The Air:

  The SPLC isn't the first group to have demanded the removal of Dobbs. Yesterday, the progressive watchdog group Media Matters blasted out a press release to reporters charging that "CNN has a very serious Lou Dobbs problem."
  
  And it seemed as though the message was starting to sink in. TVNewser reported today that Jon Klein sent a memo to a group of Dobbs' staffers explaining in no uncertain terms that the whole "birthers" story is "dead." (However, as the Huffington Post article goes onto say, Jonathan Klein, who is president of CNN, backtracked with the tough talk.)

• Finally, Dobbs complained last month that people have been making threats, shooting at his family,l as Field Negro discusses, and writing on Dobb's resignation, he indicates he thinks Dobbs is headed for Fox News.

Lou says he's moving on to opportunities better suited to him since he and Klein agreed it would best for CNN to release him from his contract. Perhaps he's off to give Rush Limbaugh a run for his money or as I suggested in the beginning of this post, to spin his wheels fighting shadows.

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Michelle Malkin: Right But Still Wrong on Ft. Hood

Just caught a good post at Pam's Coffee Conversation, "When Michelle Malkin's Right, She's Right." Pam's addressing Malkin's comment on Fox News regarding the Fort Hood tragedy during which Major Malik Nadal Hasan, a U.S. soldier, licensed psychiatrist, and Muslim went on a shooting spree, killing 12 and wounding 31 at Fort Hood in Texas, Nov. 5.

Pam allows that Malkin is right on the point that the military missed some "red flags;" however, Malkin thinks the military missed danger signs because it worships the "false god of diversity," which, if you know anything about Malkin, you know she's probably lumping all kinds of beneficial diversity into that criticism and her sympathizers will most likely interpret her coded language to mean the military has gone astray by recruiting people from different ethnic groups and religious sects.

At that point, Pam, while asserting that what Malkin says sounds like an insult to our military men and women, delivers incisive commentary that Malkin misses a bigger red flag regarding army recruitment policies, which is not diversity but a "rush to war." She reminds her readers of loose recruitment policies under George W. Bush that lulled recruiters into turning blind eyes to felons, racists, and gang members entering our armed forces all in the name of increasing troops quickly.

So, if the military was willing to overlook gang members, overt racists and felons, then it wouldn't come as a surprise to me if they may have overlooked an Islamic jihadist or two. To be clear, I said "IF".

Of course, Ms. Malkin may not read the San Francisco Chronicle or be a fan of Paula Zahn but there were other signs that the recruitment demands placed on the military by the Bush administration's rush to the war in Iraq and lack of an exit strategy would have serious consequences. Where was her concern then?

Oh yes, I forgot. Ms. Malkin was busy labeling anyone who expressed a concern about the war as a "traitor", "a coward" and "an enemy sympathizer." Read Pam's full post here.

Pam is referring to the 2006 San Francisco Chronicle article she quoted about unacceptable criminal types joining the armed forces and a 2007 Paula Zahn news report along similar lines.

I recall reading a Salon article in June, "Neo-Nazis are in the Army now" and the same concerns at the Southern Poverty Law Center in July, "SPLC Urges Congress to Investigate Extremism in the Military," regarding a letter it sent to Congress.

In 2003, Fogarty was sent to Iraq. For two years he served in the military police, escorting officers, including generals, around the hostile country. He says he was granted top-secret clearance and access to battle plans. Fogarty speaks with regret that he "never had any kill counts." But he says his time in Iraq increased his racist resolve.

"I hate Arabs more than anybody, for the simple fact I've served over there and seen how they live," he tells me. "They're just a backward people. Them and the Jews are just disgusting people as far as I'm concerned. Their customs, everything to do with the Middle East, is just repugnant to me."

Because of his tattoos and his racist comments, most of his buddies and his commanding officers were aware of his Nazism. "They all knew in my unit," he says. "They would always kid around and say, 'Hey, you're that skinhead!'" But no one sounded an alarm to higher-ups. "I would volunteer for all the hardest missions, and they were like, 'Let Fogarty go.' They didn't want to get rid of me." (Salon.com)

In an email thread this summer about the military's loose-recruitment standards, I said:

It's like hiring a nanny who you know for a fact really wants to seduce your husband and take over your family, and so, you take her in anyway, sit her down and tell her all your family secrets, what bedtime stories the kids like most, your favorite cooking tips, special bill management system, and what gets your husband off in bed, and then you pay her while she learns your household because she does windows and good help is hard to find. ... Insanity. (Nordette aka Verite in email thread)

And the insanity is even stranger when you consider what the SPLC had to say in its letter.

... since 1994 the military has discharged more than 12,500 servicemembers simply because of their homosexuality. "It seems quite anomalous that the Pentagon would consider homosexuals more of a threat to the good order of the military than neo-Nazis and other white supremacists who reject our Constitution's most cherished principles," said Mark Potok, director of the SPLC's Intelligence Project, which monitors extremist activity. (SPLC)

Seems some of our military policies are bass ackwards, and so Pam is right that Malkin is right on one point, somebody's missing some red flags, and really, Congress should look into that.

For the record, I think Hasan didn't get the closer scrutiny he deserved because he is a doctor.

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Starry Night in Texas, a Tale in Limerick Verse

Starry Night in Texas
By Nordette N. Adams

A man flew to Dallas one Sunday
To meet a young lady on Monday
They'd connected online.
Her pictures were fine.
He thought he should marry her one day.

The woman arrived at the bar
to meet the man who'd flown far.
She hoped he would see
though she was a he,
their Internet love was on par.

The man who flew in carried flowers.
As he looked for her, minutes seemed hours,
but then there she stood,
and he stiffened like wood,
feeling he might need cold showers.

She wore a red dress as she said.
Even better her hair was quite red,
but she opened her mouth,
and the voice that came out
revealed he'd been mostly misled.

Looking the gent up and down,
her smile went to flat, almost frown.
His build was much smaller,
She'd thought he'd be taller.
Online he looked white, not so brown.

Romantics, they dared not tempt fate.
They'd come way too far not to date,
so sat down at a table
to unravel their fables
and honestly look at their state.

"By now you may see I'm a man,
but I'll love you the best that I can,
like a good wife," she said,
"and keep you well-fed.
Let's not go astray of our plan."

He felt badly misleading her so,
and told her what she did not know:
"The reason I'm small,
and not very tall
is I'm not that man you've called Joe."

"If I were to strip and undress,
you'd see that I've strapped down my breasts.
What can I say
but my real name is Faye,
and I promise to give you the best."

Two people walked into this bar
not knowing they'd each traveled far
to take one last chance
at finding romance,
wishing upon the same star.

(c) Copyright 2009 Nordette N. Adams

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New Orleans literary calendar, Nov. 10-14

Here are New Orleans literary events (book signings, writers' groups meetings, poetry readings, book sales, book discussions) for Tuesday, November 10, through Saturday, November 14. ... Please visit the New Orleans Literature Examiner for more information.

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Oprah & Anderson Cooper's Big Book Event

Tonight is Oprah and CNN's big literary event, the world's largest book discussion. The billionaire talk-show host will join Anderson Cooper and millions of readers in an exploration of her Book Club choice, Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan. You may register for the discussion, which will be simulcast LIVE ... Please read more at the African-American Books Examiner.

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Play CNN's News Challenge Game

O.K. CNN wants to make the news fun, get you more engaged and they're doing it with a new online game called CNN Challenge. Pick an anchor as your news guide, and then answer questions about current events. You can even play with a buddy. Do you know the news the way you think you do?

I call the game new because I just learned of it today on Twitter. I'll need more rest before I play.

At the blog, Thoroughly Anderson Cooper (yes, somebody's dedicated to Anderson), a fan writes, "Listen to the ominous music starting from frame one, its very good especially for the occasion, but please don't get scared."

Read some of the comments on this game at CNN.

I mention CNN so much, it's obvious I favor them, and maybe it's also because I go for the underdog. So many news networks are going for opinion over news and so many people are eating that up that CNN's losing ground, I think. Perhaps this is also why the network's revamped its website and is trying new ways to attract viewers.

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Sapphire's Push: Merciless Honesty (book review)

I first became aware of the buzz about Sapphire's debut novel Push in 1995 or 1996. The novel gained attention for its distressing storyline but possibly more because the novelist received a $500,000 advance, a sum unheard of in those days for a first novel. Well, unheard of except that another writer that year had received even more, Jacquelyn Mitchard.

The two women appeared on a morning news show. I think it was Good Morning America, Sapphire for Push and Mitchard for The Deep End of the Ocean, a novel also notable as the first pick for Oprah's newly-established book club. Mitchard's book terrified suburban mothers, pricking their worst fears, the disappearance of a young child. "How could she even write such horror," people asked. That was more than a decade before incidents like that of the non-missing Balloon Boy glued some of us to our television sets.

And Push was another ghetto tale, but one about a girl, the victim of unspeakably heinous child abuse. Beatings, cruel words, incest.

So, both new novelists had hit the jackpot and both stories involved children in peril, but after that commonality, these stories diverged. Just three years later, ... Please continue reading full post at BlogHer.com.

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