Some Good Legislation

Ed has proposed the best legislative idea I’ve heard of this year.

Rambo

Will Collier at Vodkapundit has a great story about an Afghani hero who saved Americans in a recent bombing there. Check it out. It is nice to hear some of the good stories coming from the middle east every once in a while.

The Government Exaggerates Terrorism Statistics

It seems that Congressman Chris Cannon isn’t the only one in our government who is making up facts about crimes in our country in an effort to artificially increase our fear of terrorism. The inspector general of the Justice Department has reported that the DOJ and FBI have been fudging the data on reported terrorism cases.

Chris Cannon: “I’m not a Bigoted Liar”

Chris Cannon is adding elements to the Trolley Square shooting that never happened:

Salt Lake Police are trying to put to rest two rumors about the Trolley Square Shooting. One rumor was spread by a U.S. Congressman…

Congressman Chris Cannon: “We go from a kid shouting Allah Akbar as he shoots people in Trolley Square.”

Was 18-year-old Suljmen Talovic yelling, “Allah Akbar, God is Great,” while shooting people? KSL found out: no.

Robin Snyder/SLCPD: “We have no indication he was yelling anything of that nature at all.”

Cannon’s staff struggled to distance the congressman from his own remarks:

Cannon’s spokesperson said he heard it on Fox cable news. It could have started with a video from inside Trolley Square. You hear yelling, but if you listen closely, it’s the off-duty police officer, Kenneth Hammond, yelling “Ogden Police Department,” or OPD.

Cannon’s people admitted to us that Talovic’s motives may never be known but said, “The Congressman readily acknowledges that the true motivation for this tragic act may never be known, but the mere possibility, raised in reports airing on Fox News and other outlets, that there could be an ideological motive speaks to [the] point he made on the Doug Wright show: That terror and fear know no boundaries and must be confronted wherever they threaten us.”

I don’t envy the job of someone on Cannon’s staff. It can’t be fun to try to explain away the flighty stories of a complete bigot.

Davis County Clipper: Klan Recruiters

I fear that by linking to the story below I am contributing to the problem. This fear is balanced by my desire to speak publicly in an effort to point out how stupid it is for newspapers to do stuff like this. My vain hope is that media outlets will consider the ramifications of the things they publish before putting stories like this out if lots of us provide them with enough public criticism.

Yesterday’s Clipper has an article and large color photo front page above the fold announcing the presence of the KKK in Davis County.

FARMINGTON — They’re everywhere, and that includes Davis County. The Ku Klux Klan. The group notorious for a history of racism, violence and intimidation has members living and working in Davis County and throughout the state of Utah.

“We have a small number of active Klan members in Davis County,” said Imperial Wizard of the Brotherhood of the Klan, Dale Fox just prior to his death recently. “The members are active, but quiet.”

Fox said the number of actual Klansmen in Davis County is at 21, but that there is a strong movement to recruit new members along the entire Wasatch Front.

I didn’t know about the Klan presence in Davis County before reading this story. I’d bet most other people in Davis County didn’t either. Now we all do. Normal people, Racists, Bigots, and other assorted idiots of every type all now know about the Klan in Davis County which is “conducting a strong movement to recruit new members along the entire Wasatch Front.”

We’d have all been better off if the Clipper hadn’t provided them so much free advertising.