I had an interesting run in with Lou Dobbs on May 8th. The clip has just become available on my site. Dave Niewert at Orcinus transcribed the key part and kicked off an interesting conversation about Dobbs and macho bullying.

There was also some discussion of this Sunday at the Book SalonThe topic was Blue Grit, my new book, but scroll down and you’ll see quite a bit about machismo and cable news. See what you think.

Here’s an excerpt of the transcript:

LAURA FLANDERS, AIR AMERICA: I wanted to come back for a minute to the L.A. story, the last two stories. I think if Dr. King were alive today, he would be talking about what happened on L.A. on May 1st. When you talk about abuse, 240 rounds of rubber bullets and tear gas.

We’ve gone from legal punishment of illegal aliens to physical punishment, and it’s not helped by language like yours, Lou, talking about these [marchers] as being illegal aliens…

DOBBS: Laura, Laura, Laura, that’s ridiculous.

FLANDERS: They’re not aliens, they’re people. And the vast majority of people at these marches are utterly legal. They’re not aliens, Lou. They’re people, and you’re dehumanizing them with that language.

Check it out.

Laura Flanders is the author of Blue Grit: True Democrats Take Back Politics from the Politicians just out from the Penguin Press.