Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it*

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer is proving Twain's adage that "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes."

The governor recently stated that most illegal immigrants are drug mules. Of course that's not true. The Border Patrol knows it's not true. Anyone living in a border town knows it's not true. Anyone who actually studies the issue will know its not true. So why would Brewer just blatantly lie? Why would she say something she knows to be untrue, something that can easily be disproved, and more perplexing, why would she continue to repeat it?

Because she isn't trying to win over intelligent thoughtful people. She is trying to win over those folks who skim headlines looking for "facts" that support whatever position they are trying to prop up...those people who are scared of anyone different and look for "facts" to support their fears.

At the signing of SB 1070 Brewer said that "border violence and crime due to illegal immigration are critically important issues to the people of our state." I am sure that they important issues to her constituents, but I wonder why the governor didnt get around to pointing out that violent crimes dropped in AZ between 2005 and 2008 despite the large growth in the population (up by 600,000)? Why didnt she mention that more than 50 years of non-partisan research on illegal immigration shows that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than those who are native born?

Why tell the truth when you can lie? By the time the truth has leaked out there's oil spweing into the gulf, another anti-gay politician has been outed, and the citizens of Arizona have roundly accepted their new laws.

~B

*Adolph Hitler