Mother Jones: House GOPer Links Illegal Immigration to Animal Snuff Films

[marmar]

When the House GOP passed over Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) for the chairmanship of a key immigration panel, the conventional wisdom was that Republican leaders were wary of elevating a bombthrower whose headline-grabbing remarks about illegal immigrants might stoke the base but alienate moderates and Latinos. The job on the House Judiciary's immigration subcommittee went instead to Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.), a 13-term, by-the-book conservative without much of a national profile. But if House Speaker John Boehner and his deputies had concerns about extreme rhetoric, they should have perhaps take a closer look at Gallegly's past remarks—including eyebrow-raising statements linking illegal immigration to heinous crimes against animals.

Like King, Gallegly is an ardent immigration hawk who wants to take away birthright citizenship and backs an across-the-board crackdown on illegal immigration. But his other pet issue is animal cruelty. For years, he has campaigned against so-called "animal-crush" fetish videos, "where small—and sometimes large—animals were crushed to death under the stiletto heels or bare feet of scantily clad women for the sexual excitement of the viewer," as Gallegly himself once described it.

During the last Congress, Gallegly's biggest achievement was the passage of an animal-cruelty bill that outlawed videos that depict the "drowning, impaling, burning and crushing of animals." He also used the opportunity to combine his two biggest crusades, arguing that those who commit despicable violence against animals are also likely to be linked to illegal immigration.

In a July 2009 op-ed for The Hill, Gallegly argued for the passage of his animal-crush bill, noting that such snuff films are somehow connected to illegal immigration and crime: "Gang activity, illegal gambling, drug trafficking, illegal immigration and acts of human violence all go hand in hand with animal cruelty." (The piece had been posted on Gallegly's official congressional website, but it has since been taken down.) ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/01/elton-gallegly-immigration-animal-cruelty

[DCKit]

1. Sounds entirely too similar to some Republicans obsession with "Teh Gay" and buttsex.

Someone has a very guilty conscience. Probably one hell of a collection of crushing videos - for research only purposes, of course.