Our Leader's brother Jeb Bush has written a letter (PDF) to Rep. Tom Tancredo regarding the latter's recent comments that Miami is like a third-world city.

First, I've (thankfully) never been to Miami, but I have heard others portray it as a "capital of the Americas", as in South America. A little research would probably reveal many sources saying similar things without complaint from the PC Police.

While Tancredo's statements could have been much more precise, I have little doubt that parts of Miami are reminiscent of San Marcos. And, I can attest that large swaths of Los Angeles are similar to foreign countries, with some of them being run like it. And, I vaguely recall a 60 Minutes segment that portrayed Miami - or at least their mayor or city council - as being ripped out of the third world (that's not the more recent Hiassen piece, and if anyone knows the episode I'm thinking of, please leave the details).

Second, the Letter From Jeb is a real letter, and not just another "late-night e-mail exchange".

Third, you know those direct mail solicitations that have a long letter with the pitch, and then they also have a "hand-written" note on a separate, smaller piece of paper for those who didn't buy the letter? Well, if you look at the PDF file, you'll see that Jeb - perhaps intentionally - used that same trick, adding a hand-written note at the end of the letter.

Fourth, El Lider's brother's letter could have been written by a Democrat who doesn't like Republicans, and it gives power to the Democrats rather than helping the Republicans. And, Jeb tries to "Hispanicize" the issue, whereas as far as I know Tancredo did not specifically mention one specific group. Jeb's only tangible evidence in opposition to the apparent Tancredo claim of "ethnic enclaves devoid of English" is to provide three irrelevant examples:

Miami Coral Park Senior High School has the largest number of Hispanic students in the nation scoring a 3 or higher in the AP Calculus AB and AP Psychology. Miami Palmetto Senior High School has the most Hispanic students across the country scoring a 3 or higher in AP Chemistry and Miami Sunset Senior High School sets the national record for Hispanic students scoring a 3 or higher in AP Macroeconomics.

You can certainly tell a lot of fibs using statistics, and those aren't even plausible fibs. Do those figures remain the same when translated into percentages rather than numbers of students? How do those students stack up against non-Hispanics in the same school? How do all the Hispanic students in Miami stack up against all the non-Hispanics? How do they stack up when compared to non-Hispanics in other cities? And so on and on.

He finishes his letter with this:

If there is a lesson to be learned from this, perhaps your naive comments serve as a good reminder for everyone to lessen the anger, frustration and emotion surrounding the issue of immigration. Overheated rhetoric won't solve this issue. We need a comprehensive solution that will require cooler heads to prevail.

This technique is similar to that discussed here, as those who use lies and emotionalism to push massive immigration accuse those on the right side of engaging in those practices. In this inversion, those who support our laws are hotheads; those corrupt anti-American politicians who try to work around our laws are the only ones who are rational. And, of course, "comprehensive" is a codeword for a massive amnesty for illegal aliens.

Tancredo has responded:

''America, because of the many places, cultures, races, and religious origins of our citizenry, depends on a few things to hold us together. One is the English language,'' Tancredo said in an e-mail addressed to Bush. ``That is something that fewer and fewer Miamians share. Unfortunately fewer and fewer Miamians think of themselves as Americans.''

Bush's eight years in office come to a close in January, and he has said little about his future, but has not masked a desire to move back to the Miami area from Tallahassee. His Mexican-born wife, Columba, is said to favor Miami and Bush himself took heat when he first went to Tallahassee in 1999 and complained about the lack of Starbucks coffee shops there.

Bush launched a real estate venture in Miami and co-founded the first charter school in the state in Miami's Liberty City...

...But Tancredo suggested he had ``simply said something most people (even in Florida if our calls and e-mails are a measurement of sentiment) believe is true.

''We, as elected officials, should encourage the discussion of this issue rather than castigate those who attempt to bring it to light,'' Tancredo wrote.