Comedy | July 24, 2009 | 57 comments

John Stewart lays into Lou Dobbs and attorney/dentist/realtor/birther: Video

bansheewail
After CNN’s Kitty Pilgrim, filling in for host Lou Dobbs on July 17, thoroughly debunked the “birther” conspiracy — which suggests, entirely without tangible proof, that President Barack Obama is not a natural-born U.S. citizen — Dobbs returned to the airwaves July 20, amazingly suggesting “the [birthers'] questions won’t go away because they haven’t been dealt with.”

On Wednesday night, Dobbs’ stark lack of factual continuity became prime target for the man Time Magazine’s readers voted America’s “most trusted newscaster.”
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57 comments // John Stewart lays into Lou Dobbs and attorney/dentist/realtor/birther: Video // Video

  • WhiteNoise
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  
    • AND THIS IS THE FINALITY

      "A cynical, mercenary, demagogic press will produce in time a people as base as itself": Joseph Pulitzer

    • 2 years ago
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  
    • Image
    • Pierce's book is a must-read wry romp through the lack of the most basic common sense and reasoning that has come to be emblematic of FOX "News" true believers, fundamentalists, and dittoheads.

      His three tenets of Idiot America are succinct and to the point:

      The First Great Premise: Any theory is valid if it sells books, soaks up ratings, or otherwise moves units. (Think Ann Coulter, as just one example, here.)

      The Second Great Premise: Anything can be true if someone says it loudly enough.
      (Think Bill O'Reilly, as an example, here.)

      The Third Great Premise: Fact is that which enough people believe. Truth is determined by how fervently they believed it. (Think of how the Bush Admininstration took advantage of this premise to persuade Americans of the "need" for a war against Iraq.)

      If you are wondering how that nice relative of yours turned into a simpleton at odds with fact and reason, this is the book to read -- and you'll have a droll journey as America's descent into idiocy is sardonically unearthed and revealed.

      At the heart of the hoodwinking of so many Americans is the right wing and corporatist success at substituting perception for reality. If you are a regular follower of Limbaugh, you accept perception -- as strategically created by Rush and his sponsors -- over fact.

      And, of course, the corporate mainstream media long ago abandoned the idea that it was supposed to ferret out facts and discredit false perceptions, so "idiot Americans" are left to wallow in their right wing media, GOP, fat wallet fundamentalist preacher ignorance.

    • 2 years ago
  • montesooma
  • wirehedd
    • 0
      wirehedd  
    • WhiteNoise:

      Coultergeist is a discredited dimwit and quoting her for anything is a great way to completely negate any credibility you might think you have.

      What's next? A quote from Mein Kampf?

      Seriously.

    • 2 years ago
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  
    • On July 23, "Idiot America" author Charles P. Pierce lectures David Shuster about Liz Cheney and idiots in America, including the "birther movement."

      FAITH vs FACTS

      "You'll get my tolerance, but not my intellectual respect for if you could you would burn me at the stake" - Bill Maher

      HAVE A MAGIC BULLET ;)

    • 2 years ago
  • royulery
    • 0
      royulery  
    • the right is really grasping at straws to not let this go. what if they find out that he is human and has a secret, as do most.
      i hope hes wearing kevlar.

    • 2 years ago
  • montesooma
  • wirehedd
    • 0
      wirehedd  
    • montesooma:

      it's been debunked with a birth certificate.

      Again, grow up and move on.

      Birther-tards don't get to decide what a "real" birth certificate is just because the real ones they see don't reinforce their idiocy and ignorance.

    • 2 years ago
  • cztheday
    • 0
      cztheday  
    • montesooma:

      Very well put, wirehedd. The real travesty here, of course, is that these so-called "patriots" on the right are eating up valuable judicial resources with these frivolous lawsuits. I think we will soon be seeing contempt of court citations and what are known as Rule 11 sanctions. The latter are dreaded like the plague by attorneys who care about their reputations and ethical standards. Once they have been received, the lawyer carries them around like a badge of disgrace.

      Of course, there is an even deeper cowardice at work here on the part of the Right -- their continued focus on birth certificates is evidence of their inability to successfully block President Obama's substantive agenda. If he was the nightmare President they make him out to be, their fearless leader, Rush Limbaugh, would have directed his minions in Congress to swear out articles of impeachment against him. Since such an action would be so outrageous as to mark the end of the Republican Party, they settle instead for trying to oust the President based on the birth certificate equivalent of the "Second Gunman Conspiracy."

      Jon's little piece on the conspiracy of forging a certificate and then waiting for the infant to become President echoed my own thoughts when I heard about this silliness.

      But we all know that most of the Birthers really DO think this is a lifelong conspiracy to get the Presidency for Obama. They actually think the world works that way! These guys belong in a circus sideshow...Step Right Up! See the "Incredibly Gullible Men" The one good thing for the circus is that their upkeep is seriously inexpensive. After all, they thrive on a steady diet of lies and innuendo...

    • 2 years ago
  • acbrooklyn
    • 0
      acbrooklyn  
    • does it really matter i mean really where he was born.not too me.i'm a union dem that wants uni healthcare so my jobless sister can travel look for work and be covered if need be,not to mention how well trickle down, worked so well,so what dobbs or anyone that question the prez ,stop being sore and respect a man that did what was thought too be impossible, nuff said!

    • 2 years ago
  • Prijedor
    • 0
      Prijedor  
    • Just because I hate Obama, I will believe what his g-ma said, about him being born in kenya and her being there, just because I hate him, because I believe in what I want to hear, not what the facts are.

    • 2 years ago
  • Saladin
  • zHellas
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  
    • CNN Chief Calls Out Lou Dobbs !!!

      FACTS GET THE UPPER HAND... FOR NOW, IN APPEARANCE...WAIT FOR THE SPIN ;)

      Let me guess...
      'Liberal Media Muzzles America Hero"
      (told ya so ;) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/28/lou-dobbs-slams-tea-baggi_n_246629.html
      or
      "Brain Leprosis Hits US Media via Mexican Internet " ;)

      Was CNN president Jon Klein hoping for an off-screen Face Off with host Lou Dobbs? Klein sent "Lou Dobbs Tonight" staffers an email on Thursday saying that the controversy surrounding the legitimacy of President Obama's birth certificate-one of Dobbs' pet topics of late-is a "dead" story. In the email, Klein elaborated that CNN researchers had determined that Hawaiian officials tossed out paper documents in 2001-thus, Obama's long-form birth certificate no longer exists and a shorter certificate of live birth that has been made public is the official record. "It seems to definitively answer the question," he continued. On Friday, however, Klein softened his tone, saying that he wasn't ordering the staff to drop the story. "He's got more than 30 years as a television journalist, and I trust him, as I trust all our reporters and anchors, to exercise their judgment as various stories evolve," Klein said of Dobbs. Meanwhile, the president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a major civil rights group, has asked Klein to take Dobbs off the air for his role in perpetuating the conspiracy theory. http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheat-sheet/item/cnn-chief-calls-out-lou-dobbs/birt...

      Meanwhile...

      "We are watching a poorly staged rendition of Wag the Dog , interpreted for the morbidly stupid and performed by the criminally insane." - Jules Carlysle

    • 2 years ago
  • ras_menelik
    • 0
      ras_menelik  
    • didn't we change it to you have to be a citizen for ..how long has the Governator been a Naturalized born American?

      Eligibility

      Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution sets the principal qualifications one must meet to be eligible for election as President. A Presidential candidate must:

      * be a natural born citizen of the United States;[6]
      * be at least thirty-five years old;
      * have been a permanent resident in the United States for at least fourteen years.

      Under the Twenty-second Amendment, no one can be elected President more than twice. The Twenty-second Amendment also specifies that anyone who serves more than two years as President or Acting President, of a term for which someone else was elected President, can only be elected President once. Scholars disagree whether a person no longer eligible to be elected President could be elected Vice President, pursuant to the qualifications set out under the Twelfth Amendment.[7]

      The Constitution does disqualify some people from the Presidency. Under Article I, Section 3, Clause 7, the Senate has the option, upon conviction, of disqualifying convicted individuals from holding other federal offices, including the Presidency.[8] Also, Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits any person who, having sworn an oath to support the United States Constitution, and later rebelled against the United States, from being eligible to serve as President, unless each house of the Congress has removed the disqualification by a two-thirds vote.

    • 2 years ago
  • orizzonte
  • wirehedd
    • 0
      wirehedd  
    • orizzonte:

      posting a blog entry from some birther doesn't PROVE anything considering his birth in Hawaii has been PROVEN beyond doubt. Why do you feel it's okay to post lies and bullshit that have been completely debunked? Do you enjoy being laughed at and looking stupid?

      It's amazing how far some bigots and morons will go to disparage someone they just can't deal with losing to. It's a pathetic joke like every birther out there.

      Get over it, he won the election, he's the President and he's an American NATURAL BORN CITIZEN.

      It's been proven, grow up and move on.

    • 2 years ago
  • WhiteNoise
  • randomprojection
  • BKsaysAction
    • 0
      BKsaysAction  
    • cable news isn't news anymore folks, It's entertainment. Go read a paper or watch a nightly news program. Cronkite said he never liked the idea of 24 cable news because they never really double checked their facts. This is a great example.

    • 2 years ago
  • BullDogg
    • 0
      BullDogg  
    • The State of Hawaii issues birth certificates to anyone under the age of one no matter where they were born. And we all know that you have to be born in the US to be president. That is why this is such a good story. Obama's certificate makes no mention of where he was born. It just says that he was born, which was confirmed by the current governor of Hawaii. But no matter, he is president and the two houses would never vote him out if he admitted to being born in Kenya or on a ship on his way to Hawaii.

    • 2 years ago
  • wirehedd
    • 0
      wirehedd  
    • BullDogg:

      uh, no, they don't. The doctor who attended his birth in the hospital filled out the cert of live birth and his birth was recorded AT the hospital when it happened.

      Why would you try to say something that is a bald faced lie like that? You really don't think anyone would be stupid enough to believe that do you?

      really???

    • 2 years ago
  • WhiteNoise
  • jh64487
  • bailey78
  • artemis6
  • DaveLepelletier
    • 0
      DaveLepelletier  
    • Q. If Lou Dobbs thinks that there are still unanswered questions, why doesn't he, as a newsman, send a staffer to Hawaii to obtain a copy of the birth certificate?

      A. Because a misinformed debate brings in more ratings than a rational discussion with a purpose.

    • 2 years ago
  • MinneapolisMafia
  • ras_menelik
  • Tankguy
    • 0
      Tankguy  
    • The fact that right wingers are desperate enough to still be pontificating over whether or not Obama was born in this country just shows how defeated and infantile the right wing is. Its funny how they never made this much noise about GW Bush's stealing of first election. A logical thinking person would be far more concerned about the legitimacy of a president's election than the origin of his birth.

    • 2 years ago
  • MinneapolisMafia
    • 0
      MinneapolisMafia  
    • Tankguy:

      Alex Jones at www.infowars.com has been consistent for years. He slammed Bush daily. Many do not like his style of delivery including me but I promote him because his facts are sourced and documented. I have spent hundreds of hours researching his reporting because I couldn't believe it only to find out it's all true.

    • 2 years ago
  • MinneapolisMafia
    • 0
      MinneapolisMafia  
    • Tankguy:

      Right or Left...more divide and conquer. The fact remains that we are at war killing and imprisoning peaceful people.....

      the best of the 'right' Ron Paul
      the best of the 'left' Dennis Klucinich

    • 2 years ago
  • current89
  • MinneapolisMafia
    • 0
      MinneapolisMafia  
    • current89:

      snopes is wack! They don't mention Build 7 at all!? I don't even care about where that scum bag was born. He is continuing the wars and that is good enough for me to denounce him as the President and call for his Impeachment! He is a war criminal just like Bush.

    • 2 years ago
  • MinneapolisMafia
  • jh64487
  • MinneapolisMafia
    • 0
      MinneapolisMafia  
    • I really don't care where this piece of shit was born! LOL! He is still continuing the wars on terror and drugs and has doubled the tripling of government that happened over the past 8 or so years! Wake up folks! John Stewart is a fine entertainer but a distraction along the lines of CNN or Baseball, ect.... the facts of the tyranny remain.

    • 2 years ago
  • lordsbassman
  • cztheday
    • 0
      cztheday  
    • MinneapolisMafia:

      So Prez O "doubled the tripling of government?" And you say this was "tyranny" on his part, correct?

      Can I assume first that you mean the FEDERAL Government? We both know that he has neither power nor influence with regard to state, county or municipal governments -- but believe me, there are a fair number of regular contributors here at Current who DON'T understand jurisdictional differences, so I want to be sure we are at least on the same chapter if not the same page.

      So limiting ourselves to the feds, you say that he "doubled" a "tripling," suggesting two separate events. Did he or Bush do the initial "tripling?" Now as to the nature of these events...do you mean the number of Federal gov't jobs? The size of the federal budget? The size of the deficit? The debt?

      And regardless of WHAT was being increased -- HOW did OBAMA increase spending when the President has no such authority? I am sure you remember that Bush had to go to Congress just to get 50 billion or 100 billion to continue to fund our invasion of Iraq and our slaughter of thousands of women, children and infants.

      I have been observing your string of posts, MM. You seem to make a great deal of the notion that YOU (personally) don't believe this or that fact. Usually, however, one must establish a reputation for a certain degree of intellectual rigor before one has earned "the benefit of the doubt." But these wild allegations (the double tripling) and clear unfamiliarity with government processes and structure don't inspire confidence in any of your other representations. Quite the opposite, in fact.

      Doubtless you will rage and rip and tear in response to this. But my criticisms are sincerely as tame as I could make them. I am not trying to make you look bad or to be an asshole about this. It is just that I think your posts would command a lot more respect if you said something like "Obamal to Congress: I will veto any bill that does not at last double annual deficit." At that point, you at least have SOME kind of evidence and confirmation to back up your allegations...

    • 2 years ago
  • MinneapolisMafia
    • 0
      MinneapolisMafia  
    • MinneapolisMafia:

      Ah HAH! Well some one read what I wrote and had a decent response! Thank You! YES indeed the President tripled has no power! This is what I was fishing for. Yes When Bush was the puppet President the Fed Reserve tripled our Debt'. And Yes in the last 9 1/2 months so much money has been printed (some say 24 trillion) that one can say that that tripling has been doubled while Obama has been puppet President of 2008-2012! This is exactly where I'm attempting to pull all the Sheep ( I do not mean You, sir) to look at the power structure. The President is under the Fed Reserve and it's Banker Cabal and the Military Industrial Complex! This is the killing machine that Obama cannot stop! If he tries to Blatantly stop the wars on drugs and terror and (like Kennedy printing Silver Notes) attempts to usurp the Fed Re-swerve ;-) he will be 'Kennedyed' -aka offed-aka made an example of-. This is where I tell Obama fans, sure he may be a charming man, even a nice man, but if does anything for We The People, Biden will be President? It saddens me to say crap like this, but I believe it has to be said.

    • 2 years ago
  • CreditFigaro
    • 0
      CreditFigaro  
    • MinneapolisMafia:

      And yet, still no facts or anything of value.

      You know that federal reserve surplus is funneled back into the federal budget, right?

      Of course, much (about 50% or so) of the interest that the government pays on t-bills (the federal reserve's tool of monetary control) goes to china, right?

      This deficit does make some people rich. However, the majority of investment in our country is NOT in the public debt. The largest finance firm in the world manages much more money, alone, than the balance of the public debt.

      What is the ultimate goal, here? To try to tell us that... wait, corporate interest is... in control of the country?

      Isn't that what most liberals have been saying all along?

      Isn't that an incentive to do all the things that improve the public good and fuck rich people in the ass? Such as:

      Nationalized, single payer healthcare

      Increased taxes on the rich. How many people are going to be upset about a 50%, 70%, 90% marginal tax rate on those who earn more than 1 million bucks per annum? (that does weaken all of those super rich people you are saying control the country... doesn't it?

      Legalizing pot

      Reduction of the military

      etc.

      Come on, man. Get on the bus with the rest of us.

    • 2 years ago
  • MinneapolisMafia
    • 0
      MinneapolisMafia  
    • MinneapolisMafia:

      The truly 'rich' don't pay taxes.... bottom line is I'm not into big government.... Sure we could both post links and big long replies here. Brother I am on the love hope and peace bus. We're in the same boat. It's ok. I believe all of this is much more corrupt that most people on Current....not really that big of a deal. hugs

    • 2 years ago
  • CreditFigaro
    • 0
      CreditFigaro  
    • MinneapolisMafia:

      haha, yeah, there is plenty of evidence to suggest major corruption on a level that we don't quite fathom.

      Like: Why congress seems to need so little in campaign contributions to become so corrupt?

      If it was working like a free market (i.e. not influenced by something else) wouldn't two competing sides of an issue have to up the ante constantly? You'd think that the cost to buy out the government would appreciate with the relative value that it nets the "investors." Oddly enough, campaign contributions remain "pocket change" and yet interest groups see tremendous returns on their "investments."

      Curious.

    • 2 years ago
  • MinneapolisMafia
  • cztheday
    • 0
      cztheday  
    • My six months participating here at Current have been eye-opening in a number of different ways. I find that I have both MORE hope for our nation and LESS hope for our young people than before.

      But perhaps the most dismaying observation has been how many people sincerely appear to believe that History is more a matter of interpretation (or wishful thinking) than fact. To the contrary, while we can (and do) debate the MEANING of the facts, the facts themselves are immutable. So if, for example, the Declaration of Independence was issued on July 4, 1776, we can debate whether that timing had certain ramifications during the War, no amount of debate can change that date to July 3rd.

      But those are precisely the kinds of mind-numbing discussions I see every day now. If a certain fact is inconsistent with some commenter's view of the world,,,he or she will just make up a "better" fact and then attack the character of any who dare to correct them. Call me old fashioned, but I see this kind of conduct as being...bad.

    • 2 years ago
  • hammywill
  • eden49
  • wirehedd
    • 0
      wirehedd  
    • cztheday:

      You got that right CZ. It is bad and wrong and rampant.

      When people are being lied to daily without access to the actual "facts" they then feel a need to rely on the "opinions stated as fact" that they ARE exposed to.

      This, my friend, is the basis of the modern right wing philosophy. Who needs truth and facts when we can tell them what we want the facts and truth to be?

    • 2 years ago
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  
    • cztheday:

      INDEED...

      “One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It is simply too painful to acknowledge -- even to ourselves -- that we've been so credulous“ - Carl Sagan

    • 2 years ago
  • couldntfindausername
    • 0
      couldntfindausername  
    • cztheday:

      I see the problem as stemming from the habit of insisting that everyone is special and "entitled to their opinion" with no regard to its basis in actual fact or intellectual analysis.

      Personally, I employ a bullshit detector type strategy to anything presented as "news". It's simple really, just ask yourself whether the idea smells fishy, or how big a chunk of belief are you being asked to swallow.

      In this case the idea we are being asked to swallow is that a man rose to the presidency of the US without anyone in power, any institution, any investigators, any background checks or any of the thousands of bureaucrats involved noticing that he wasn't, in fact, American. At the same time, we are expected to swallow the notion that one little psychotic woman in a meeting DID notice it.

      Lunacy of the highest order.

    • 2 years ago
  • WhiteNoise
  • jubal
  • pjacobs51
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  
    • STEWART & COLBERT RULES OVER A WASTELAND !

      The INMATES : A SOAP MADE IN USA
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzPJPHVjc78&feature=channel_page

      The mere fact that one has to be well informed to get the jokes is the prerequisite that puts the Stewart fan above the... what 95% of the rest of Americans in political awareness & literacy ?

      Even better, it proves that life outside the Mindfuck Inc. rhetoric & dumbing down of america is entirely possible. Olberman & Maddow are direct consequences of this trend... YES the powers that be realized that there is money to be made in intelligent media ...

      Now if the rest of us could learn how to read ;)

      WHILE ON THE OTHER HAND...

      "As long as each individual is facing the television tube alone, formal freedom poses no threat to privilege" " Noam Chomsky

      Just for the fun of testing this, oh so wonderful new found openness in media & expression of dissent; ask Obama, as Michael Moore did with W, to see the tape shot by one of the numerous cameras that were confiscated around the Pentagon on 9-11� hey, I love a good 757 crash as much as a good caper ;)

      You"ll see how far facts, logic & science will bring you in America...

      Have a "magic bullet" !

      Meanwhile...

      "We are watching a poorly staged rendition of Wag the Dog , interpreted for the morbidly stupid and performed by the criminally insane." - Jules Carlysle

    • 2 years ago
  • shroomfairy
  • bansheewail
    • 0
      bansheewail  
    • The disinformation infecting US politics only makes us weaker as a nation. The "truth" used to be the ultimate goal of professional journalism. The craft is being destroyed by those who are more interested in power-brokering and pandering than they are reporting the news. Meanwhile, the fake news becomes the news because it's so fake. And, the real issues we should be discussing never make it into a sphere of dialogue rooted in reality. This betrayal divides and confuses us all. Is there anything more Unamerican?? We quibble over wheather or not our President is an illegal alien, while Goldman Sachs hands out millions in taxpayer bailout funds as bonuses to executives that drove their company into the ground. "Watch the birdy, America.......NO! over here......watch the birdy......"

    • 2 years ago
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