Lou Dobbs is an A&&.

So there I was, sitting in my hotel room, feeling sick as a dog in Quebec City, last week, channel surfing and trying to get some work done. And I see Lou Dobbs. He’s “interviewing” a leader of one of the Hispanic immigrant movements who are going to protest in a couple of days. He’s really just haranguing the man. Okay, that’s what Lou Dobbs does. Fine. But he shamelessly took advantage of the guy’s language issues. The guy was obviously bilingual, and had to think for a second before framing his answers (actually, if Lou Dobbs had me in his sights, I’d think carefully before speaking, too–second language or not). That’s just rude.

But even more stupid: the guest answers a question with something about the support that undocumented immigrants give to the economy. Lou interrupts him, starts nearly yelling, and insisting that it’s a known fact that illegal immigrants are a net drain on the economy of the U.S., what with all the social services they use up.

A year ago, I would have wondered. Now, however, I’ve been studying what we know and don’t know about illegal immigrants. The latter category far outweighs the former, not surprisingly. But what little there is out there suggests (pretty strongly) that undocumented immigrants in the U.S. contribute more to the economy than they take from it. Yes, that’s what I said. Few people know that this research is being done, and maybe we’ll find later that it’s different; but that’s the state of the science right now. I don’t think anyone has any evidence to the contrary.

Lou spoke as if he had some kind of special knowledge. Right Wing America probably bought it. He’s full of crap on this particular point, however; and it disturbs me to see someone pretending to be a journalist, while spouting untrue information in the service of making a few preach-to-the-choir boo-ya points with his predictable demographic.

Ass.

And that’s how I end up yelling at televisions in hotels in foreign countries.