Rep. King: My Wife ‘Is At Far Greater Risk Being a Civilian In D.C. Than An Average Civilian In Iraq’
Rep. King: My Wife ‘Is At Far Greater Risk Being a Civilian In D.C. Than An Average Civilian In Iraq’
Last night on the House floor, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) downplayed the violence on the ground in Iraq, claiming his wife is taking a greater risk by living in Washington, D.C. King said:
27.51 Iraqis per 100,000 die a violent death on an annual basis. 27.51. Now what does that mean? To me, it really doesn’t mean a lot until I compare it to people that I know or have a feel for the rhythm of this place. Well I by now have a feel for the rhythm of this place called Washington, D.C., and my wife lives here with me, and I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, she’s at far greater risk being a civilian in Washington, D.C. than an average civilian in Iraq. 45 out of every 100,000 Washington, D.C. regular residents die a violent death on an annual basis.
King’s stats are faulty. First, using the most recent 2004 data, the violent casualty rate in D.C. is 35.8 deaths per 100,000, not 45. Second, the King comparison has an obvious problem of scale, comparing the entire country of Iraq to one concentrated urban area. Taking Baghdad for instance, the Brookings Institution’s Iraq Index estimates an annualized murder rate of 95 per 100,000 Iraqis for that city, a rate more than 2.5 times as high as D.C.’s. (Brookings notes this number may be “too low since many murder victims are never taken to the morgue, but buried quickly and privately and therefore never recorded in official tallies.â€)
Even the Wall Street Journal’s opinion page noted that King’s numbers have “painted a misleadingly Pollyanish picture of Iraq.â€
Apparently, Bush hasn’t read King’s study. On his trip into Iraq today, Bush employed “extraordinarily-tight protective measures,†which were deemed necessary “because of Iraq’s tenuous security situation.†Bush “never seriously considered†staying overnight, wanting to leave Iraq immediately for the safety of Washington, D.C.
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So by all means, send yer old lady over to Iraq where she’d be safer! C’mon, what kinda husband are you to subject your wife to such danger here in ‘murka?
June 13th, 2006 at 12:22 pmI’m sure George can make room for her on his private jet… I mean Air Force One on his trip over. I’m sure he’d be happy to give a fellow neo-con’s wife a lift.
June 13th, 2006 at 12:24 pmThe reason that his wife may be safer in Iraq than DC is obvious. In DC the 2nd ammendment is illegal and only criminals have guns and therefore free reign to attack innocent citizens. In every place in America that outlaws the people’s right to keep and bear arms the crime rate is higher because the criminals know the citizenry is helpless to fight back.
June 13th, 2006 at 12:27 pmIf any of you have ever been to DC and outside the government building area you know what a shit hole it is.
Well, send that bag to Baghdad if you want to keep her ass safe, you frigging mook.
-GSD
June 13th, 2006 at 12:27 pmHey, Mr. King…there’s ZERO violence on the Moon.
June 13th, 2006 at 12:29 pmWell, Rep King, why don’t you take the missus on a romantic moonlit walk through the streets of Fallujah? I’ll provide the champagne and strawberries.
June 13th, 2006 at 12:34 pmToo.freakin’.funny.
June 13th, 2006 at 12:35 pmSo Chris, when are we going to attack DC?
June 13th, 2006 at 12:36 pmI am sure alot of Iraqis would trade a burned out house without adequate electricity, running water, and sewer for Rep King’s suburban enclave in Northern Virginia…..
June 13th, 2006 at 12:36 pmWhat did Stephen Colbert say about this administration?
That they: Produce the most powerful photo ops in the World! So true and that is exactly what this Camp David-wear your LL Bean outfits Stunt was all about. So is this whopping 5 HOUR trip to Iraq. Why not give Bush himself a weapon and send him into the red zone if this war is so ‘noble’ and that ‘democracy in Iraq’ means so much to him? Why not give the troops who are on their 2nd, 3rd, 4th tour a break Mr. President. Go hop in a humvee with your green flightsuit costume on and take out the tairsts and the ‘Saddamists’ and the ‘rejectionists’. Go out and there and see that you’re right…there’s no civil war going on, there’s no insurgency, the Iraqis get more than 5-8 hours of electricity each day, the Iraqi people love us like you say they do, there was no massacre,stop by and see the troops at the Trauma Center in the hospitals to prove to Ann Coulter they’re faking it and just greedily looking for book deals, that Employment is rising rapidly, that Oil production is booming, that the streets are safe, that the troops have all the equipment they need, go show us that there aren’t any journalists risking their lives and that they are like Laura Ingraham said…only reporting from the balconies of their air conditioned hotels in the green zone, go show us that the tairsts are in ‘their last throes if you will’, show us that all the car bombings are just Hollywood produced Media stagings from Univeral Studios, go prove for Fox News that Zarqawi’s death made things so much better, show us that children and babies aren’t being killed and blown to bits, that Haliburton didn’t allow the Iraqi people and US Troops to drink/use toxic water, that amount of Iraqi troops ready to fight for your cause are enormous-the ones that took off their US Gov’t issued uniforms when they found on the day of their ‘Graduation’ that you tricked them into thinking they would be fighting in areas close to their home and families were just a bunch of slackers! The rest are pumped and and eager to fight, go show us that the Iraqi people are better off now than they were before you invaded their country, show us that your No Bid Contracting friends aren’t ripping off the American people and the Iraqi people, that nobody is being tortured,that the government is in control, that the troops really want to be there and stay there…. now, go on, Mr Bush…go out and there and prove all of this to us! Go unbury those pesky WMD’s..’they’re in the Tikrit region, around Baghdad, north, south, east and west somewhat.’ Call Rummy if you get lost, he knows where they are. So does Curt Weldon. Or call on Geraldo from Fox News, he can draw you a map in the sand.
June 13th, 2006 at 12:36 pmIf Rep King really believes that, he should pick a nice neighborhood outside the Green Zone and move his family to the safer environment. Using his figures based on Iraq having a population of 27 million, there are only 7425 Iraqis dying a violent death every year. I think he better go back and look and the reasonableness of his figures again. Clearly he has made a serious error.
June 13th, 2006 at 12:38 pmHey congratulations to the new Iraqi Government. They have joined a place on that tired old rightwing bumper sticker.
“All those in favor of banning weapons, raise you hand†The picture shows Hitler, Stalin and Mao.
Now they can add Nouri Al Maliki from Iraq:
“BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) – Iraq’s new prime minister promised Tuesday to show “no mercy†to terrorists and said before President Bush arrived for a surprise visit that a long-awaited security plan for Baghdad will include a curfew and a ban on personal weapons.
-GSD
June 13th, 2006 at 12:41 pmAre war-related deaths counted (e.g. car bombs, insurgency, collateral damage, deaths from American military torture sanctioned by the Bush administration, etc.), or are these stats ONLY crime-related?
According to the most conservative estimates, approximately 40,000 Iraqi civilians have died as a result of warfare over the past three years. That’s 53.33 per hundred thousand counting only Iraqi civilians killed as a result of war– not including violent crime.
I thought so.
June 13th, 2006 at 12:42 pmD.C. is a dangerous place. So dangerous that the government cut its counterterrorism fund.
What???????
June 13th, 2006 at 12:42 pmSo it’s fair to compare the ENTIRE COUNTRY of Iraq to Washington D.C.? Talk about skewed statistics. Of course the murder rate for the ENTIRE COUNTRY of Iraq will be lowered… most violence in Iraq takes place in specific places. In Kurdish controlled areas the murder rate will probably be lower than Bagdad, skewing the statistic.
June 13th, 2006 at 12:43 pmI have to say this argument is as stupid as it sounds.
Wow. I would love for King to explain why my family and friends serving in Iraq cannot leave their heavily secured areas without and armed convoy and full battle armor. Obviously, King hasn’t been to Iraq recently….
June 13th, 2006 at 12:43 pmthis has been brought up before. They compare the number of violent crimes to the population. the problem of course is DC has one 10th of the population of Iraq. If Iraq and DC had the same population. the figures would be dramatically different.
I think someone compared it to the small town they lived in of 1000 people. When a double murder occured, it meant the average jumped up to like 200 violent crimes per 100,000 people.
June 13th, 2006 at 12:43 pmI suggest that Rep. and Mrs. King relocate their household to Iraq for the duration. Certainly much safer there.
June 13th, 2006 at 12:45 pmI would like to see if Mr. King would like to take a plitical job in Baghdad and take his family with him. I mean it’s so much safer there. I wonder if there were any gays or divorces in his family….
June 13th, 2006 at 12:46 pmCongress has oversight over DC’s budget, and therefore enormous responsibility for the crime situation.
But I guess fixing the crime problem in DC would mean that you couldn’t use those attrocities to justify your raiding the treasury for Halliburton.
June 13th, 2006 at 12:47 pm“Bush ‘never seriously considered’ staying overnight, wanting to leave Iraq immediately for the safety of Washington, D.C.”
Yeah, but come on. Are you really going to rely on Bush’s decisions and considerations? And regardless… Bush has a MUCH greater chance of getting killed in Iraq then some Republican Rep’s wife. He’s the PRESIDENT!
Well… actually.. if she wasn’t wearing traditional female attire, perhaps she WOULD have a worse chance than Bush. But the whole country is out for Bush, so…. man, that is a tough call!
June 13th, 2006 at 12:48 pm[Moderated by admin.]
June 13th, 2006 at 12:52 pmI live in Iowa. Steve King is an embarrassment.
June 13th, 2006 at 12:53 pmIt isn’t the fact that his wife lives in D.C. It’s the fact that she lives with him that makes life dangerous for her.
June 13th, 2006 at 12:55 pmHere’s hoping my company, located in DC and where I’ve worked for over 10 years, doesn’t get wind of this and decide to relocate to Iraq…
As Bugs said “sheesh — what a maroon! what an ignoranamus! what a tah-rah-rah-GOON-de-ay!”
June 13th, 2006 at 12:59 pmMost of the people getting themselves killed in D.C. are involved in drugs. Very few are innocent bystanders. In contrast, many of the people being killing in Iraq are innocent civilian bystanders. If you are a reasonably prudent, law abiding citizen, D.C. is a MUCH MUCH safer place to be than Bagdad.
June 13th, 2006 at 1:12 pmWell, if she works as a whore…
June 13th, 2006 at 1:15 pmRep. King says that Baghdad is not as bad as your capitol, Washington DC. I couldn’t agree more.
You Americans are not exporting Democracy, as you claim. Rather, you are exporting murder and crime, of which you appear to have an overabundance.
What is the definition of “evil”, by the way. Just curious.
June 13th, 2006 at 1:15 pmWill TP be so good as to provide the ACCURATE stats?
June 13th, 2006 at 1:16 pmIt is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.
June 13th, 2006 at 1:17 pm-Mark Twain
If the stats are inaccurate Tracy, please back up your argument, by posting links to the “true” stats. I realize that would be more difficult then sniping from you safe corner, but sometimes in a debate, you have to provide some facts.
June 13th, 2006 at 1:19 pmObviously, its much safer in America than Iraq, otherwise Republicans would be signing up in droves to go to Iraq.
June 13th, 2006 at 1:26 pmI live in DC, in Columbia Heights. Rep. King’s comments (and the coments of trolls like #3 Chris) are ignorant, offensive expressions of cracker fear. After 15 years of living in the District, my love for the city continues to grow and my patience for ignorant crackers has ceased to exist.
As others commented, he should send his wife to Iraq. Trolls like Chris can choose: go live outside the Green Zone in Iraq or come have coffee in my neighborhood. Which would you choose? Honestly.
June 13th, 2006 at 1:31 pm‘A wise man speaks because he has something to say; a fool because he has to say something.’
— Plato
(Okay Zoo… how about a wise quotes contest? :)
June 13th, 2006 at 1:34 pm92% of DC voted for Kerry… Sounds safer to me than any red state capital city…
June 13th, 2006 at 1:37 pmWISE QUOTES CONTEST!
June 13th, 2006 at 1:49 pmOR WISE-ASSED QUOTES CONTEST!
Might as well, I’m unwrapping Idaho Code books for the zoo residents. It’s like Christmas boring.
June 13th, 2006 at 1:50 pmI expect him to compare apples to oranges. But it is not just his attempt to compare a dense urban city to an entire country, it is also his attempt to compare violent crime deaths in DC to only civilian deaths caused by war in Iraq, if you include deaths from crime attributable to the lack of security the civilian death rate increases by 50 to 100 percent.
And I also expect him to use outdated and misleading statistics. Pick an high, outdated number for the DC murder rate and then pick a low number for civilian death averaged over three years. If you look at just the past year, the number of civilian deaths from acts of war was twice the rate of 7400 that King states.
There were 3,472 violent deaths in Baghdad from January through March, a rate of 58 per 100k IN JUST THREE MONTH IN ONE CITY!
Sources include Brookings Iraq index and:
June 13th, 2006 at 1:51 pmLos Angeles Times May 7. 2006
Targeted Killings Surge in Baghdad
Nearly 4,000 civilian deaths, many of them Sunni Arabs slain execution-style, were recorded in the first three months of the year.
#31
TP posting stats from two years ago only one year after the invasion would hardly quailify as facts to counter Rep. Steve King’s stats.
June 13th, 2006 at 1:53 pmNothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
June 13th, 2006 at 1:55 pm#35
Tell alot about the type of people who voted for Kerry considering he lost the election. D.C. is a safe city depending where in the city you live.
June 13th, 2006 at 1:56 pmSo King is saying we need to start fighting the war on terror in DC.
June 13th, 2006 at 1:57 pmCAPTION CONTEST!!!
June 13th, 2006 at 1:58 pm“No, I was buying porn.”
Tracy,
either please post your true stats. You apperantly cannot argue the facts, because you know they will go against you. So instead you attempt to recast the facts as being wrong. Yet you haven’t come close to showing any of the “real facts”
June 13th, 2006 at 1:59 pmThe price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. —Plato
June 13th, 2006 at 2:02 pm#39: Perhaps you failed to notice the following in the TP post: “most recent 2004 data,” which implies the data TP is using is the most recent. If you can find data from 2005, please pass it along… Good luck finding anything more recent.
June 13th, 2006 at 2:03 pmIf we value independence, if we are disturbed by the growing conformity of knowledge, of values, of attitudes, which our present system induces, then we may wish to set up conditions of learning which make for uniqueness, for self-direction, and for self-initiated learning.
—Carl Rogers
June 13th, 2006 at 2:05 pmViktor Frankl:
June 13th, 2006 at 2:10 pmWe who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
juan # 45- hey pinche cabron! this is America speak English!
June 13th, 2006 at 2:11 pm#50 – Idiot.
June 13th, 2006 at 2:13 pmPeople that are really very weird can get into sensitive positions and have a tremendous impact on history.
One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures.
We must all hear the universal call to like your neighbor just like you like to be liked yourself.
—George W. Bush
June 13th, 2006 at 2:15 pmIn all life one should comfort the afflicted, but verily, also, one should afflict the comfortable, and especially when they are comfortably, contentedly, even happily wrong.
John Kenneth Galbraith
June 13th, 2006 at 2:15 pm#52 – Mercy, please, mercy…
June 13th, 2006 at 2:17 pmHey Zoo,
The trolls seem to be afraid of wise quotes… It’s like garlic to a vampire… I think you’re on to something with your idea… :)
June 13th, 2006 at 2:19 pmAmerica is a continent where the most predominant language is spanish. Besides I am from Argentina, so the pinche cabrón is a mexican insult. Try harder, bozo.
June 13th, 2006 at 2:19 pmZookeeper: ;)
Mercy, please, mercy…
Comment by Zookeeper — June 13, 2006 @ 2:17 pm
If only he’d take his own advice… The one in the middle was just silly :)
June 13th, 2006 at 2:21 pm#44
I don’t have any stats that are newer than those posted by TP, but you believe that stats that are two years old that go against something said by a congressman just yesterday are valid counter facts?
June 13th, 2006 at 2:37 pmConsidering theres a war in Iraq and many people are dying because of sectarian strife caused by Americans blowing up mosques etc etc etc ,,, so the Muslims must respect each in times of peace more than christians do ??? Ill bet you than in peace time in Iran there would be no murders at all , Muslims are very friendly people more than Christians
Is that what hes saying seems to me it is
In India and Muslim countries driving my bike and pitching a tent at the side of the road , The locals come out to look at you and welcome you to there houses and feed you for free with their family,, If I pitched my tent up in America the farmer would chase you off with a shotgun bets???
That statement makes more fool America then
June 13th, 2006 at 2:45 pmIt’s always great to be reminded of how safe our nation’s capital is.
June 13th, 2006 at 2:48 pmZoo, Unbeleiveable, and Tracy,
How are ya all doin today!
June 13th, 2006 at 2:51 pmDoes it still cost $35,000 to get a car to the Baghdad airport?
June 13th, 2006 at 2:52 pm#61 – Fabulous, ForTruth, how about yourself? It’s been a few days.
I’ll check back in after lunch — I’m starving.
Juan — anytime. ;)
June 13th, 2006 at 2:56 pmCreationist math!
June 13th, 2006 at 2:57 pm.
Another GOP’er that the Nuns will be proud of!
June 13th, 2006 at 3:12 pm#50 FYI: No, it’s not America. It’s the Internet, so everybody can write in any language they want, as long as they agree with the Terms of Use of this blog, who casually hasn’t any reference to obligatoriety of any given language, be it Spanish or English. We use english because we (in this we you’re not included, Chris) are polite people, and write in the language of the hosts and the majority of the users of this page.
But, hey, the Terms of Use positively have a say about your attittude:
June 13th, 2006 at 3:18 pmYou agree to:
• Respect other Bloggers — please do not threaten, insult, abuse, intimidate or harass other Blog users.
– TP Terms of Use.
June 13th, 2006 at 3:19 pmWhen my wife leaves the castle,crosses the moat and the draw bridge goes up, all bets are off for her personal safety in this country filled with foreigners,balcks,browns,yellows,reds,the unwashed poor,prol petty burghers etc. etc.
It is our kind that are making the world a safe place…..NOT
June 13th, 2006 at 3:23 pmIf Iraq is such a bastion of peace and harmony, why the hell do we have 150,000 troops over there? By all means, send ‘em home, and send Mrs. King to Baghdad to report back all the good news.
June 13th, 2006 at 3:28 pmfirst of all # 50 was what’s called sarcasm. you libs have such glass jaws! you self procalimed defenders of political correctness have no sense of humor.
June 13th, 2006 at 3:29 pmmr spaniard if those parameters were strictly adhered to then 60% of posts would be prohibited. and who died and left you in charge? you have been one of the nastiest commentors here .
DC is dangerous if you are a lilly white cracker from Iowa. I detect a fear of dark people.
June 13th, 2006 at 3:33 pmAs a resident of King’s district, I must say that here in Storm Lake he is considered
June 13th, 2006 at 3:34 pma joke. For several years his congressional office has been located down on
Lake Avenue. He closed it up a few weeks ago due to his increasing unpopularity.
DC is dangerous if you are a lilly white cracker from Iowa. I detect a fear of dark people.
Comment by John — June 13, 2006 @ 3:33 pm
I’m not defending this moron but if I was offered a job in DC at twice my current salary I wouldn’t ltake it, it’s a dump, and has an extremely high rate of crime.
June 13th, 2006 at 3:47 pmWhich of course explains why Bush is afraid to drive by motorcade through Washington DC but does it in Bagdad… oh wait…
June 13th, 2006 at 3:47 pmyou have been one of the nastiest commentors here .
Comment by Chris — June 13, 2006 @ 3:29 pm
Chris is playing ‘Opposite Day’ again… Silly boy.
June 13th, 2006 at 3:55 pmon the fence- what’s the matter ya afraid of a little “diversity”?? I have worked in DC and you are right it’s not a nice place.
June 13th, 2006 at 4:00 pmopposite day?? what’s that liberalspeak for the truths that you don’t like?
#70 – Chris you’re falling back on the passive-aggressive position of, “Can’t you people take a joke?” All we can do is go by your usual tone. Stop defending yourself, and own up to being a jerk.
June 13th, 2006 at 4:05 pmOK, let’s send King’s wife to Baghdad.
June 13th, 2006 at 4:15 pmGee, I don’t remember there being daily car bombs in D.C. Only a fool would think that walking or driving in Baghdad is as safe as doing the same in D.C.
If it’s so safe, then please, Rep. King, why don’t you fly into Baghdad with your wife and spend your summer vacation there? Have fun!
June 13th, 2006 at 4:16 pmIf its so much safer in Iraq, why did Bush stay only five hours under all that security with no one knowing he was going to be there. This idiot lives in la-la land.
June 13th, 2006 at 4:25 pmopposite day?? what’s that liberalspeak for the truths that you don’t like?
Comment by Chris — June 13, 2006 @ 4:00 pm
No it’s a playground term used by first graders (well, when I was in first grade anyway). I was implying that you’re being immature. Comprendez?
June 13th, 2006 at 4:31 pmI live in the District and not the suburbs. I live in SE DC, Capitol Hill neighborhood to be exact (like most residents around me I am not involved in politics). Small houses in my neighborhood sell between 600K and 1.5Mil. The people who live there are educated, urban and happy- just like most of the city. The crime rate in my district are higher than most suburbs, but lower than most other large cities around the world (there are a lot of sources that provide this type of data so I won’t list any). All this is beside the point completely- just the obligatory shout out.
A white politician pointing out the high violent crime rate in DC as the punch line in his argument is pathetic. I would wager first that he lives in VA anyway- not DC (I would guess this just because he is a Republican, and DC proper is over 90% Dem.). And if he does live in DC I would bet his wife is in a place filled with BMW’s and Whole Foods far from any violence.
The SAD fact is that of those ~35 deaths per 100,000 over 98% are black or Latino. Look for yourself, look for the statistics of acts of violent crime against whites in DC. Statistically a white person in DC is safer than a white in almost any small town. A very sad truth you never hear politicians bring up. I checked for some research a while ago, and whites in DC are nearly twice as “safe” from violent crime as whites is suburban Albuquerque. Crime in DC is all about race and economics. If you want to compare it to a warzone, fine go ahead, but then lets start talking about who are the losers in the war in DC? Who is dying Rep. King? Do you want to go there?
The only time a politician should ever bring up violent deaths in DC is to speak out about black on black crime, minority crime in minority communities, and what the hell they are going to do to FIX it! What is he going to do to help the people! The only time a politician should it up is to remind people of the economic inequity that puts the minority population of DC (well segregated in most cases) in a situation of poverty that leads to violence.
How did they get there Rep. Steve King? White flight? Block busting? US Apartheid ended less than 40 years ago!? I bet that SOB Rep King has never even set foot in a community in DC in which the residents struggle, where violent occurs. His wife probably just drives from Saks at Mazza to Georgetown Park and back.
And for those who say DC outside the federal buildings is a “shit hole” (Chris I think?) thank god dim souls like you don’t have the wits to know where to find the actual neighborhoods in town. Just drive in, check out the big-ole airplanes in the big-ole museum, eat some ice cream, not to hard now, and drive back out… Repeat in NYC, San Fran, London, anywhere too busy for your little head. Hurry back out to cracker barrel now.
June 13th, 2006 at 4:35 pmAnother example of liars figure and figures lie. Please,by all means, send Dubya, Elmer “ready-shoot-aim” Fudd and Rummy along with their spouses on the first available charter jet. Set them up in a nice quiet suberb. Maybe in Basra. We do not want to take any chances with something happening to them in DC
June 13th, 2006 at 4:42 pmAll the conservatives tell us that it is not that bad in Iraq and that the news media only reports the bad news. If it’s not that bad then why don’t we leave? According to Hannity and his ilk
June 13th, 2006 at 4:52 pmthe only bad thing about Iraq is the reporting from the liberal media. Fine – lets call them on it,
say its not that bad, and leave. Seems logical to me.
Not to defend this esteemed lawmaker, but this is a bit of an apples to oranges comparison. Mr. King was speaking of the safety of the mythical average citizen of Iraq. Not of the safety of President Bush in Iraq. Or of the safety of his wife in Iraq.
Of course, Mr. King’s wife, is hardly the “average” D.C.er also.
The only reasonable comparison would be the safety of the spouse of an Iraqi parliment member in Baghdad compared to his wife’s safety in D.C. Or the safety of a random median Iraqi (if we could agree on who that person is) in Baghdad vs. random median American in D.C.
President Bush’s (or for that matter, Rep. King’s wife’s) safety in Baghdad is beside the point.
That said, this guy’s phony point is pretty weak.
June 13th, 2006 at 5:01 pmOh boy if DC is so dangerous to Republicans, then why do they want to get elected to the House or Senate? Just stay in your guarded homes in your own States you damn GOPers!
June 13th, 2006 at 5:01 pmNothing short of a bumbling fool would get up in congress and make that statement! Its not just a foot in the mouth, its the whole damn leg. Can’t Iowa find another “deep thinking, intellectual” to represent them? He should at best call a few Iraqis and ASK THEM if they feel safe. No wonder congress is in deep doo doo; with assholes like that spewing it out, its bound to build up!
June 13th, 2006 at 5:13 pmMy cousin is over in Iraq right now. I would be more than happy to let the Representative send his wife in my cousin’s place.
June 13th, 2006 at 5:20 pmHey Rep. King
June 13th, 2006 at 5:35 pmDon’t let the door hit you on the way out!!!
It would be interesting to hear what MRS King thinks of her husband bringing her into his delusions.
June 13th, 2006 at 5:54 pmI think everybody is missing a better view of this.
Bring the troops home.
If Mr. King is so concerned that DC is more violent than Iraq, then by all means we should bring the troops home to help bring DC under control.
And further, I say to really protect DC we millitarize it. Troops everywhere, every pedestrian, car, everything checked out by the troops. Then log every interaction so we can make sure that no terrorist or murderers are walking the streets endangering the fine people of DC. Of course, this also means that every movement of all congress people, senators and senior administration officials would have their every visit with lobbiest, hookers, indicted staff, etc., would be tracked. Then we would know exactly what our law makers are doing. Talk about accountability.
The first comment would be a good argument, the second just an exremist point of view.
June 13th, 2006 at 6:04 pmIt figures…This was a republican right???Case closed….
June 13th, 2006 at 6:11 pm“There are men of ambition so depraved, who would rejoice to be called WICKED, if with that they could appear what the corruptions of the world and the servility of historians have denominated GREAT.
“But these same men would never have courage to consummate their crimes, were they taught that these crimes would render them CONTEMPTIBLE, and still more, RIDICULOUS.”
— “Causes of the Troubles in Ireland”, William Sampson (1817)
June 13th, 2006 at 6:22 pmhttp://rewinn.com/8032.html
the republicans say dumb things. i agree with cooment number1
June 13th, 2006 at 6:23 pmI’ll own up to being a jerk zookeeper if you’ll do the same. It sure is funny how nasty all you libs here are to any dissent from your lockstep ideology.
June 13th, 2006 at 6:24 pmChris,
you are unable to post without including such gems as leftards, commies etc. don’t expect civility if you are unable to be civil. And no we didn’t start it, you did.
June 13th, 2006 at 6:33 pmChris, I am a jerk; a bitch; an asshole, a shithead; an idiot; a slut; and a liberal. Now you…
June 13th, 2006 at 6:37 pmWow, I’m new to all this. Sure impressive bickering and name-calling! I read this log of posts because I wanted to comment about the point of all this, which seems to have been forgotten in all the consternation. A member of the US House of Representatives stood up and used the public record to show that he is as staggering an imbecile as any of the fairly spectacular imbeciles ever to have polluted our Congress. His wife, lilly-white and wealthy, is in more danger in her preciious enclave of Washington DC privelege than she would be walking the streets of Bagdhad? Get real! They’d be picking her bones clean in fifteen minutes over there! Sweet tapdancing Jesus it’s no wonder the USA is going down the toilet.
June 13th, 2006 at 7:11 pmThen go there with your wife, sir. But there is ONE thing that is still dangerous. Don’t take a helicopter ride to the Green Zone, because apparently our “brave” president risked his life by doing that one. Even FOX says that’s dangerous.
Tell me, which part of DC do you think is most dangerous in king’s mind? The chocolate outside, or the marshmallow center?
I know it’s the marshmallows in the center. So does the rest of the world.
Maybe (non) rep. king was right after all, but he was just being coy.
June 13th, 2006 at 7:14 pmalright I’ll admit to jerk, asshole and shithead but not idiot, slut,bitch and especially not liberal. Well I am a liberal on issues like the enviornment and believing that health care is a right. I have my beliefs and you have yours.
June 13th, 2006 at 7:20 pmkrazny you attack and denigrate people who I admire in the most vile and nasty terms. Do you expect to just get a free ride, to not get challenged?
Why is it liberals use sexual innuendo to disrespect these women? I thought feminism and not degrading women was a liberal cornerstone. I gat pissed when you attack the messenger and not the message. You want to disagree, I’ll respect that but you want to use every sexual perversion and personal slander then you are gonna get it with both barrels from me.
I get pissed at what I see as gross hypocrisy and the lack of civil discourse between anybody of dissenting opinion.
#101 – Thanks for your response, Chris. I said I was all of those things, because I have been all of those things at some point in my life. No one can claim to be all good all the time, and I will readily admit my faults, as well as my very fine attributes. As you demonstrate by your liberal attitude about the environment and healthcare, most people are not all liberal or conservative. (Except neo-cons, they are all neo-con). We are probably more alike than we’d like to admit, but passions run high these days, and I think it’s good because these are interesting times. We have forgotten how to listen. As a mother (one of my very fine attributes), I found my sons always heard much better when I spoke in a low voice, than if I shouted. I apologize for calling you a jerk.
June 13th, 2006 at 8:10 pmI’ve got $10 to chip in on the ticket. Since it’s so safe, I’m sure Rep. King and his wife would love to visit. Maybe they can find a nice hotel just outside the Green Zone.
June 13th, 2006 at 8:28 pmOn Bush’s helicopter ride today, it was reported that he wore a 25 pound flak jacket. Mrs. King will look very stylish as she wears that everywhere she goes in “safe” Baghdad.
June 13th, 2006 at 8:42 pmPlease chris show me when I have attacked someone?
June 13th, 2006 at 8:44 pmBest thing would be to set the representative himself down in the outskirts of Baghdad and have him try to make it to the Green Zone.
June 13th, 2006 at 8:57 pmI listened to this moron from Iowa speak for 5 minutes last night and the VERY FIRST thing I thought was how bogus the argument was for comparing violent death statistics in one of our country’s most violent cities to the overall violent death rate in the ENTIRE COUNTRY of Iraq! How about comparing DC to Baghdad?
And the second thing I thought about was how DELIBERATELY DECEITFUL those comments were.
I could only make it through 3 Republicans before I realized that no Democrat was going to speak and whatever was going on there was not fair and ballanced – just a bunch of preching to the choir.
June 13th, 2006 at 9:05 pmzookeeper, i too apologize for the venom. you are right about these days we live in . Everyone is polarize and everyone is pissed off. i don’t know why but I have my suspicions. everything about politics and public discourse is getting meaner, people are getting meaner and I for one don’t have any answers as to how th check the trend. It is sad , the only time I really saw America coming together was right after 9/11. Then of course it did not last long before the fertilizer hit the ventilator . I can’t even discern when all the venom-mongering started. The Clinton years, Bush 1, Carter, Nixon? I remember those times and I do not recall the anger and hate I see now among everybody and it scares me sometimes andI don’t scare easy. sometimes it seems the whole country is so divided that it almost seems that civil war and Balkanization are imminent. Scary but how the hell does America come together again?? what is going to take? a meteor hitting, another major terroist attack? I am old enought to remember when democrat and republican were not insults.
June 13th, 2006 at 9:19 pmKrezny I did not go back and look for attacks so maybe a truce is in order .
happy trails
What Rep. King from Iowa is really saying is this: sure, they got turrists in Baghdad, but they got black drug dealers in Washington! And corrupt government! (Darkies, you know.)
Seems to me I heard that about 1400 excess bodies got to the Baghdad morgue in May. DC’s death toll can’t be that high, or it’d be in the News.
June 13th, 2006 at 10:12 pmThank you, Chris. It’s people like us (all of us at TP) who will bring this country back to greatness. Who knows why we got this divided. I see it as far back as the betrayal of Nixon; Iran hostage situation; inception of the Moral Majority; 24 hour news, etc. Now is the time we have to figure it out.
June 13th, 2006 at 10:13 pmWhat a numb nob. Another morally bankrupt apologist for what most people in the world now feel is a totally failed administration. They’ve lied to embroil us in a disastrous and illegal war, which their incompetence is losing and which is quickly spiralling out of control and verging on civil war; they’ve stolen two elections and made it impossible to trust our voting system; they’ve presided over the most corrupt House and Senate ever; they’ve steadily, behind the scenes, evicerated the environmental progress made over the last 100 years. In fact, this administration, I call Bu$hco., has done more to make the world more dangerous, and to make the United States of America a pariah in that world. We may never again attain the stature this president and his criminal cohorts have so brutally wasted in their headlong grab for oil money and power. Shame on them, and shame on us for not stopping them, for not insisting that they be tried in the world court at The Hague for their manifold crimes. I truly feel that that may be the only way to regain the world’s respect, and urge all readers and thinkers to work toward impeachment of Bu$hco. and send them to prison where they belong.
June 13th, 2006 at 10:43 pmDear TP:
Can we have the ability to post pictures back, please.
June 13th, 2006 at 10:57 pmZookeeper and Chris > America will cease being divided when the Dubya Dunce Decider who is a divider and NOT a uniter is gone from the presidency! Bush has poisoned the well of civility in America and has enabled hatemongers like Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, etc to spew venom on the entire nation!
June 13th, 2006 at 11:52 pmWilliam J. Rice
June 14th, 2006 at 12:17 amRead what Rep. King has to say then go look at the photo of Snow and Barlett in Iraq from this post on AMERICAblog
June 14th, 2006 at 12:32 amWilliam J. Rice #112, mmmmm…. that post didn’t come out like I planned it. What you said? Aw right! Very succinctly put. ;-)
Oh, and Steve #92, that’s a good idea of yours — in theory. The idea of eyeballing politicians as they wend their way from expensive lobbyist dinners, to “poker” assignations at the Watergate is truly tempting. Sort of a pork bellies meets silicone. Who knows, it could be the new “Reality TV.”
But I don’t know if we want the streets of Washington patrolled by troops whose “hecka va job commander” plays fast and loose with the Constitution. The last time that happen was the Saturday Night Massacre and Nixon. And I don’t want to go through ALL that again… :-|
June 14th, 2006 at 12:40 amWhat an idiot that King is. I haven’t looked at where he got his figures from, and I just read over this real quickly right now because it’s late, but it is obvious that something is very wrong with his figures.
If he is talking about violence (death and serious injury) per 100,000, is he including all of the injuries to innocent civilians? If you look at U.S. casulties, approximately 2500 military personnel have been killed; approximately 18,000 have been injured. That ratio is approximately 1:7.
If you apply this same ratio to the 40,000 some odd innocent Iraqis who have been killed, that would be approximately 280,000 innocent Iraqis injured. Now, I know you cannot do this, but with some 40,000 innocent Iraqis killed, how many have been injured? Must be a tremendously high number.
Does King include the American casulties (death and injury) in his figures? If not, he should. Keep in mind that the Americans are wearing body armor and are carrying guns. If they didn’t, their casualty rate would be much higher. How many people in Washington D.C. wear body armor?
It is amazing how ignorant some people are not only in the data they believe in, but also in the belief that the American public will believe them!
June 14th, 2006 at 1:03 amWe chewed over this one in another forum a week or two ago. As with there, I will assume that his “annualized death rate” in Iraq means only violent deaths, and that 2004 is close enough to that number for comparison with the U.S. I select 2004 because it’s the most recent year in which we have complete information from the FBI on violent deaths in this country, and because we couldn’t have had even reasonably good information out of Iraq any earlier than the middle of 2003.
The FBI: “In terms of the rate of offenses for each of the four violent crimes, aggravated assault had the highest rate, estimated at 291.1 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants. There were an estimated 136.7 robberies, 32.2 forcible rapes, and 5.5 murders for each 100,000 resident population in 2004.”
Comparing the U.S. to King’s number on Iraq shows us to be five times less violent, on average, than Iraq. With only 6.6 murders/100,000 inhabitants in cities collectively, and 12.5 murders/100,000 inhabitants in cities of 250,000 or more, one wonders about the fairness of comparing almost any place in this country to Iraq.
While we’re at it, why don’t we compare the deaths of 2,464 coalition soldiers and an estimated 1,002 Iraqi security personnel in a country a tenth as populous as the U.S., to policemen killed in the line of duty in the U.S.? If you add those together and divide by 25,000 (assuming an Iraqi population of 25 million), you’d have something like 14 people charged with public security killed per 100,000 inhabitants. I would bet money that 30,000 police officers were not killed in the U.S. during the same time period; in fact, I would bet not even a tenth that many.
June 14th, 2006 at 1:37 amThe Internet belongs to America. Seriously, I want that on a bumper sticker.
Anyway, this is hilarious. Nice to know our elected officials are no more intelligent than the fine specimens of redneck that populate most of our friendly neighborhood trailer parks.
I mean, you can call yourself a republican, a democrat, a liberal, or a conservative, but dumb is just plain dumb.
June 14th, 2006 at 2:05 amIraq’s new tourism slogan: “DC minus those pesky IEDs”
June 14th, 2006 at 2:06 am“Wise Quote”- “Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.” -John Kenneth Galbraith
June 14th, 2006 at 4:47 am#122 – Also one of my favorites, Cyra. We kind of lost steam with that contest, didn’t we?
June 14th, 2006 at 10:31 amJesus mary and joseph I have never seen nor heard such intelligent analysis. Thank your lucky stars for such thoughful men of courage, they have turned America into something to really be admired for our benign foreign policies, and outreach to those less fortunate than us. Steve King you are my hero for showing what America is about, helping fight terrorism wherever it is found while at the same time spreading the ideals of democracy. There is a place at the table here in Iraq for you and your wife. There is a hot new restaurant in Fallujah, and after that we’ll go dancing.
June 14th, 2006 at 10:56 amfalse analogy making dumbass
June 14th, 2006 at 11:12 amI agree that the crime stats for Wash DC are off the chart! Those stats would improve significantly if we could get some clean up on aisle 1600!
June 14th, 2006 at 3:38 pmTRS. Typical republican s#$@! Some people will believe anything. What does it say about someone gullible enough to believe this? Sounds like your typical republican voter to me.
June 14th, 2006 at 4:39 pmBetween King, Grassholey, and our other repugnaticans, it’s embarrassing to admit I’m from Iowa sometimes.
June 14th, 2006 at 4:46 pmGSD said “Hey congratulations to the new Iraqi Government. They have joined a place on that tired old rightwing bumper sticker.
“All those in favor of banning weapons, raise you hand†The picture shows Hitler, Stalin and Mao.”
Hey GSD, don’t forget adding Bush to the picture. After Katrina, the feds were trying to confiscate ALL firearms in New Orleans.
June 14th, 2006 at 5:31 pmReality based dave, it was not the feds it was nagins police who did the confiscations and got rightfully sued by the NRA and other gun rights groups. The NOPD was ordered by the courts to to return all lawfully owned firearms and now several states have laws that the rights of lawful gun owners acnnot be violated during times of emergencies like Katrina.
June 14th, 2006 at 6:42 pmOne of the main reasons if not THE main reason that democrats lose elections is that they have become the party of gun control and I find it funny that in all the debates about ‘06 & ‘08 that nobody is discussing it.
[...] I would imagine there are times when making fun of Helen Thomas is appropriate. And then there are others that just aren’t. Congressman Steve King, one of the biggest jackasses in Congress, recently said this about the veteran White House reporter: “There probably are not 72 virgins in the hell he’s at,” King said about al-Zarqawi. “And if there are, they probably all look like Helen Thomas.” [...]
June 22nd, 2006 at 4:16 pm[...] ThinkProgress, a progressive political commentary, came to several logical conclusions which make King’s numbers shaky at best: [...]
July 5th, 2006 at 11:34 am[...] Rep. Steve King (R-IA) and others have claimed that living in Iraq is less dangerous than living in Washington DC. King claimed on the House floor, “my wife lives here with me, and I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, she’s at far greater risk being a civilian in Washington, D.C. than an average civilian in Iraq.” [...]
October 11th, 2006 at 10:20 am[...] Rep. Steve King (R-IA) has also tried to claim that living in Washington, DC, is as dangerous as living in Iraq. Comparing the murder rate in any U.S. city with the situation in Baghdad only underscores how out-of-touch some conservatives are from the real situation on the ground in Iraq. [...]
November 14th, 2006 at 3:48 pm