LOU FOR PRESIDENT?: What’s Behind Lou Dobbs’ Leaving CNN?
by DAVID FOLKENFLIK

Lou Dobbs, one of CNN’s founding anchors, quit the cable news channel Wednesday evening after months of tensions with executives, saying he would seek new ways to advocate his often inflammatory views.

In his announcement, broadcast live on CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight, Dobbs said he had won an immediate release from his contract and hinted at a continued high profile in public life.

“Some leaders in media, politics and business have been urging me to go beyond the role here at CNN,” Dobbs told viewers, “and to engage in constructive problem-solving, as well as to contribute positively to a better understanding of the great issues of our day.”

BIG BROTHER IN THE UK: Every phone call, email and internet click stored by ’state spying’ databases

By Richard Edwards, Telegraph Crime Correspondent
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All telecoms companies and internet service providers will be required by law to keep a record of every customer’s personal communications, showing who they are contacting, when, where and which websites they are visiting.

Despite widespread opposition over Britain’s growing surveillance society, 653 public bodies will be given access to the confidential information, including police, local councils, the Financial Services Authority, the Ambulance Service, fire authorities and even prison governors.

They will not require the permission of a judge or a magistrate to access the information, but simply the authorisation of a senior police officer or the equivalent of a deputy head of department at a local authority.

Ministers had originally wanted to store the information on a massive Government-run database, but chose not to because of privacy concerns.

However the Government announced yesterday it was pressing ahead with privately-held “Big Brother” databases which opposition leaders said amount to “state-spying” and a form of “covert surveillance” on the public.

It is doing so despite its own consultation showing there is little public support for the plans.

Richard B, Spinzone, TEABAG NATION AT WAR WIT ITSELF

An interesting thing has happened on the way toward teabagger solidarity: the board of directors of the national organization, Tea Party Patriots, has sued its founder, Amy Kremer, because Kremer seized control of the organization’s websites and databases, took her ball and went home. On Tuesday, a Georgia judge granted Tea Party Patriots, Inc. a preliminary injunction, directing Kramer to return control of the teabagger web domains, email contact / marketing lists, etc. to the national organization, and to not further represent herself as speaking for the teabaggers. Ben Smith at Politico has some of the details, but not all.

There’s more.

During Glenn Beck’s little 9/12 rally in DC (and before and since that time) the national organization has collected quite a bit of money, in dues, donations, and product sales. Apparently, either Kremer or the national organization is resisting a call for accounting from its membership. According to a series of posting on the TPP mail list:

THE TRUTH IS RARELY IN FIRST DAY STORIS

Now, in the past day, he is finally getting his due as the original account begins to fall away. The cop who saved the day is a black man, not a white woman. What else will turn out false about Fort Hood claims from military, e.g. the “Allahu Akbar” shouts by Hasan? Was there any reason that the military deliberately boosted Munley and slighted Todd?” — Greg Mitchell in HuffPo

EUROPE TRACKS SWINE FLU MORE HONESTLY THAN US

IT AIN”T OVER TILL ITS OVER: HERE WE GO AGAIN

Despite concession, 23rd House race tightens

ALBANY, N.Y. - It turns out that the special election last week for the 23rd Congressional District seat in New York may not be over after all.

Although conservative Doug Hoffman conceded and Democrat Bill Owens was sworn into Congress last week, the routine recanvassing of votes shows Owens’ lead has narrowed to 3,000 votes. The final outcome will depend on how as-yet uncounted absentee ballots break.

Hoffman admitted defeat when he was told he was down by more than 5,000 votes.

If the count overturns the election, Owens could be removed from office.

The Syracuse Post-Standard first reported that problems in some counties resulted in underreporting of votes for Hoffman on Election Night. Hoffman’s campaign is monitoring the recanvassing. Owens’ spokesman didn’t immediately return a ca

Good Riddance to the MSM, Katrina van den Heuval, The Nation

DO YOU LIVE IN FLORIDA

Feel free to share with others to help raise awareness to this unique event!

Apparently, Murdoch ’steals’ content too

AND ANDY BOROWITZ WITH THE FINALLY THE REAL STORY

Lou Dobbs Returns to His Planet; ‘My Work Here is Done’ Bids Earth Farewell, Boards Rocket

NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report) - Controversial CNN host Lou Dobbs bade the people of Earth farewell today as he embarked on a long voyage back to his planet of origin.

Standing on a launching pad with his rocket ship at the ready, Mr. Dobbs addressed a crowd of dozens who came to wish him a safe trip and godspeed.

“People of Earth, farewell,” he said. “My work here is done.”

In his farewell speech, Mr. Dobbs acknowledged the irony of his being an alien but insisted that he had been on Earth legally.

OH PAREE

I love Paris when the weather is as mild as it has been. I will be screening my film PLUNDER tonight at the American University and then Saturday at a private event hosted by Marie Roget Biloa, editor of Africa International Magazine. Later I will be interviewing with APTN.

Yesterday I hung out with the great verteran foreign correspondent Mort Rosenblum. We talked about the demise of international news on his boat on the Seine. He is a journalist of conscience and talent, editor of a new magazine called Dispatches that fuses excellent reportage and photography.

Later in the evening I dropped in at a poetry reading at a wonderful book shop, VILLAGE VOICE BOOKS (no connection with the pub) on Rue Princess. Veteran beat poet Jerome Rothenberg was showcasing the work of MARGOT BEDERSHEVSKY who did a hypnotic and very sexy reading from her new book BEAITIFUL SOON ENOUGH. My old friend Nelcya Delanoe, a writer and Professor, who I met decades ago in Cambridge, invited me. We later went out to some fabulous Vietnamese food.

Earlier in the day I did a tourist thing reconnecting with the legendary and the great at the Orangerie Museum at the Jardin des Tulleries.. The work was by Matisse, Money, Picasso, Modigliani et. al, Nuff said. The scape was well worth the price of admission. I am here through Sunday.

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