Freelance writer and Vanity Fair contributor Judy Bachrach offers a smear of Lou Dobbs in "Lou Doubts" (poder360.com/article_detail.php?id_article=549). It's yet another example of the illegal activity-supporting establishment trying to reduce his influence in order to profit from illegal activity in one way or another.

It's not clear whether the article already appeared in VF, whether it will appear in VF, whether "Power 360" hired her to write it, or whether "Power 360" is the only group that wanted to buy it from her. It basically consists of the same warmed-over issues that were already discussed by David Leonhardt of the New York Times and in "Fear and Loathing in Prime Time" from Paul Waldman of Media Matters, combined with unattributed smear quotes from others.

1. She says that "CNN... occasionally signals that it considers Lou Dobbs Tonight the trailer park section of its nightly real estate package." That might be correct, but she fails to take into account that CNN's opinion has little validity.

2. She quotes Barack Obama lying about hate crimes doubling, simply to include his comments about Dobbs and Limbaugh. She doesn't do any real reporting in this case and point out that Obama lied. And, later in the article she quotes some hate crime statistics, so obviously she knows where to find them. Even the Washington Post's "Fact Checker" has called BHO on his lie (link), but apparently she's unable to do that.

3. She consistently gives far-left, illegal immigration-supporting groups anodyne descriptions. The National Immigration Forum is just "a center-left group"; the National Council of La Raza is just "the Hispanic advocacy group"; the Southern Poverty Law Center - a group indirectly linked to the Mexican government - is just "a civil rights organization"; and, Media Matters Action Network is just "a liberal media watchdog".

4. She consistently misspells "Frank Sherry".

5. She says "Broken Borders" was the title of Lou's initial salvo against illegal - Mexican - immigration. A search for site:cnn.com "Broken Borders" "special interest aliens" brings up 949 hits, implying that that segment doesn't just concentrate on Mexicans crossing illegally; a search for site:cnn.com "Broken Borders" "canadian border" brings up 86 hits, implying that that segment deals with the northern border as well.

6. She says (Chris Simcox of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps) organizes civilian patrols along the Arizona border - for excellent reason, apparently: he once complained he’d seen the Chinese army maneuvering on the Mexican border. The SPLC quotes him as saying (splcenter.org/intel/news/item.jsp?pid=168&site_area=1) "The Mexican army is driving American vehicles -- but carrying Chinese weapons. I have personally seen what I can only believe to be Chinese troops." I don't hold Simcox in the highest possible regard, but a real reporter would try to consider whether there could be a grain of truth in what he's saying, and might look into things like the questionable blurb from a Mexican newspaper printed here. We know that the Mexican Army has renegades or that criminals pretend to be them; it's highly likely that Chinese arms and American military vehicles are smuggled into Mexico; and, it's certainly possible that there could be Chinese people in uniform in Mexico, whether affiliated with similar fake Mexican groups or criminal Chinese groups. There have been rumors of something similar (link), but no corroboration I can find. And, of course, a Chinese company linked to the Chinese military controls the Panama Canal (link). A real reporter - and one not simply intent on writing a smear piece - would look into such allegations.

7. She says There have been dark references to "Aztlan," a supposed plan to recapture the U.S. Southwest on behalf of Mexico, and its imaginary sibling, the North American Union, a plot to merge the U.S., Mexico and Canada. President George W. Bush once described the mere thought of such a union as "quite comical," but Lou thinks otherwise. Last year he informed viewers, "that there really is such a thing and it's all part of a plan." It's extremely odd that about the only time leftists are willing to take Bush's word for anything is when he denies things like the NAU. In fact, many NAU apologists who wouldn't normally take anything the Bush administration says at face value are more than willing to regard them as the last word on this issue. She fails to point out that those who are on record as supporting something like the NAU are almost an entirely different set from those who are on record as supporting some form of self-determination or irredentism. A simple search would show examples of various thought leaders supporting both plans. For more on the NAU, see North American Union.

8. She refers to the mythical NAFTA Superhighway; even the MMFA report she references admits that it exists in a form.

9. She claims that Dobbs initially knuckled-under to pressure from the SPLC. Then, after allowing Mark Potok to mislead about their goals, she says that according to him Dobbs did an about face and his "polemics on illegal immigration actually appeared to harden". That section is entirely based on Potok's representations.

10. She takes Joe Baca's word for what went on when Dobbs met with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus; she says the air was thick with implications that he was a know-nothing racist with limited gastronomical experience. "I was asked if I'd ever eaten a taco before, for God's sake," Lou said. "Pretty amazing stuff." She follows that with Amazing indeed, as it turned out. U.S. Rep. Joe Baca (D-CA), the caucus leader, wrote columnist Ruben Navarrette of the San Diego Union Tribune that to the best of his recollection taco-talk "did not reflect the true nature of the discussion at our meeting." In other words, she considers a vile racial demagogue like Baca a credible source, and not Dobbs. By the way: Baca is linked to someone who wrote a book about Aztlan.