Orem Flogs Grandma

This has been in the news all over the world, and I can think of no more deserving town, except maybe Provo. An Orem cop bloodies a 70-year-old woman's nose while trying to arrest her for not watering her lawn. Only in fucking Utah.

The cops of course are closing ranks and lying like rugs (not exactly unique to Utah). They claim she fell while being arrested; she says she was hit in the face with handcuffs. They claim she refused to identify herself; she says she was just trying to call her son.

Let's assume it makes sense to ticket people for not flood-irrigating their lawns during a drought. If this were the civilized world, there would have been a pre-printed ticket with the record owner's name on it for the cop to serve on the lady. Even if she didn't identify herself, hauling her off to jail wouldn't have been the first response. But this wasn't the civilized world. It was Orthomorm, which is Dark Ages Europe with SUVs.

But does it make sense to require all these green lawns in a desert? Does it make sense to make it criminal not water your lawn in a drought? Does it make sense to make a convict out of a septuagenarian pensioner who can't afford the water bill? Only in Utah.

Loose Cannon

So, now that David Iglesias isn't being a good little neoconjob whore and taking the fisting they're giving him, Chris Cannon is claiming Iglesias was fired because he was "incompetent" and "an idiot" and that there is no evidence of any political motivation in the firing. The fact that these allegations run counter to Iglesias's job reviews and Domenici's machinations and that the only reason we haven't found more political motivations for the firing is because the White House is illegally stonewalling the investigation makes no difference to Cannon. He's a true believer who will never let facts get in his way. He's exactly like 1/3 of the population of the US and 2/3 of the population of Utah: an empty brain box parked shoulder deep in his own colon.