The Carpetbagger Report reports the latest Steve King Howler:
Twelve Americans are murdered every day by illegal aliens, according to statistics released by Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. If those numbers are correct, it translates to 4,380 Americans murdered annually by illegal aliens. That’s 21,900 since Sept. 11, 2001.
Now, as a rule, immigrants to enter the United States illegally are loath to commit crimes — they know that the quickest way to deportation is to get arrested. But let’s put that aside and consider the merit of King’s apparent belief that there’s a rash of homicidal immigrants rampaging through the country.
As this elected member of Congress sees it, there are 12 murders a day committed by illegal immigrants. He’s not talking about car accidents; King is specifically referring to literal murder. He admits that there’s no actual data from law enforcement sources on this, but King insists his report is accurate.
Captain’s Quarters, a very conservative blog that generally supports the Republican line on immigration, took a good look at King’s numbers and wasn’t impressed:
Asinine hardly begins to describe this report. Conservative decry junk science; bad statistics are just as bad. It took me all of 10 minutes to check this data, something that Rep. King apparently couldn't bother to have his staff do, and a standard fact check that WND declined to perform. It seems that some people will believe almost anything as long as it can be used to demonize illegal aliens. They just know it, because some other groups have anecdotal evidence of it.
The regular ol’ scare tactics haven’t been as effective as the right had hoped, so King and his like-minded allies have had to ratchet things up a bit by effectively telling the nation, “Support the far-right on immigration reform — or some Mexican guy might kill you.”
I'm a bit of an extremist in the other direction on immigration - I think any human being should be able to move to any country at any time, or else we should end the hypocrisy and tear down the Statue of Liberty with its "huddled masses" rhetoric that we don't really believe anyway.
Or maybe I'm not such an extremist:
Four out of five youngsters believe people should be able to live in any country they choose, a BBC global survey of 15 to 17-year-olds suggests...
I accept that folks may disagree with me about this, though too often the reasons are intentional or unintentional racism. I keep coming back to my theory that people are paranoid and uncomfortable when they hear someone in front of them in the Wal-Mart line speaking Spanish and they conclude "Those Meskins are talking about me!" You've got a right to your opinion, but it needs to be bnbacked up with FACTS, and King's bigotry is bad enough without flat-out lies.
The Leach valedictory is getting close to the point of overkill. No more link love till he actually does something. Hey, old media: how about some coverage of the guy we actually elected? Or even, for the sake of variety, a shot of Jim Nussle's empty Capitol Hill office? Notice how quiet Nussle has been? What lobbying job is HE gonna take?
Briefly noted:
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