So, to justify calling up the Texas National Guard, Rick Perry is telling everybody that “criminal aliens” have been charged with 642,000 crimes in Texas.

That sounds just awful, doesn’t it?  But, Rick Perry left out some stuff.

1.  Crimes is rather a broad thing.  That number includes minor class B misdemeanors — minor graffiti and first-offense drunken driving.

2.  These crimes were not all committed by people who crossed the border illegally.  To make things seem dire, Perry throws in the 40% of those here illegally because they have overstayed their visas.

3.  That number covers a 10 year period.

4.  According to the Texas Department of Pubic Safety …

More than 8 percent of the total arrests per month are foreign nationals, regardless of immigration status,” it said of the period between January 2012 and July 2014.

That actually compares favorably with the general population. In 2012, noncitizens made up 11 percent of Texas’ population, so they were arrested at a lower rate than Texans as a whole.

In short, someone who is here legally is more likely to commit a crime than someone who is here illegally.

5.  While there are no specific crime rates only for those who cross the border, we do know that the recent influx of unaccompanied children has not caused crime to increase along the border.

State Rep. Robert Guerra is a Democrat who represents Hidalgo County — the scene of the heaviest influx of Central Americans. In preparation for an interview Thursday, he called the heads of all of the county’s police agencies, who said crime either is the same or down.

Guerra said Perry’s inaccurate claims about border violence do material harm to border cities that have lower crime rates than most Texas communities.

Oh, so what would be Rick Perry’s reason for wanting to hurt economic growth along the border?  Because they are all Democrats?

Look, I’m not saying that Rick Perry fudged on the truth maliciously to make himself look good, but … oh hell, that’s exactly what I’m saying.

He’s a sumbitch, y’all.