Great American Whoppers || Will Utahns swallow Cannon's claim?

Great American whoppers I

So there I was...sitting in the tree, wondering where the heck that deer went...

With a crucial Utah GOP party convention looming on Saturday, and with the companion amnesty bill in the Senate now at 60 co-sponsors -- making it filibuster-proof -- a lot is riding on whether Utahns' will swallow the Cannon whopper.

But Congressman Cannon and his paid lobbyist friends in Washington are telling people in Utah that the bill isn't an amnesty because it only gives permanent legal status to temporary legal workers; illegal aliens, they point out, can only get temporary legal status.

When the glaring subterfuge was pointed out to a worker during a phone call yesterday to Cannon's Provo office, the worker responded that it was "just semantics."

The man might pretend he's "technically" correct, but he's telling a lie, of course, the kind that even schoolchildren laugh at.

The question now is: Will delegates to the Utah state GOP convention on Saturday see through the dishonesty and send a message to the old Washington insider establishment? Or will they swallow Chris Cannon's whopper and give Washington the green light for amnesties and business as usual?

As bad as amnesty is, Cannon's AgJOBS bill is actually much worse than an amnesty, and we hope to have a detailed report on it ready before the convention delegates in Utah vote on Saturday.

Unfortunately, it's up to us to do this, because we can be sure the Salt Lake Tribune won't.

It's a shame that the American media is so generally deficient and irresponsible in its treatment of immigration policy -- a policy that, in opposition to the wishes of the American people, is radically, needlessly, and irreversibly remaking the country in ways no one can predict.

In Utah, the immigration issue and the question of whether Cannon's AgJOBS bill is an amnesty, has been at the center of political debate for weeks. But we have yet to see a single news article looking into the actual details of the bill -- let alone an editorial in the grand tradition of a free, responsible, and civic-minded American press chastising the local Congressman for not playing straight with the folks back home.

Instead, we get the Salt Lake Tribune publishing editorials attacking the "harsh" critics of the Cannon "guest worker program," and unleashing a reporter named Kirsten Stewart to do her best to throw the election on Saturday to Cannon -- a reporter who admitted in an email to ProjectUSA that Cannon feeds her information for her articles.

Americans have known since the days of George Washington that there is no quality more important in our elected leaders than simple honesty. Please take a minute and call Congressman Cannon's office in Provo, UT and leave a message for him telling him to level with his constituents. His bill is an amnesty. He should own up to it and stop playing the old Washington insider game.

"Many leaders, including Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch and Rep. Chris Cannon, are seeking to create reasonable guest worker programs that will serve the needs of the workers, their employers and national security. Their reward has been harsh criticism from people who delude themselves into thinking there is enough barbed wire in the galaxy to overcome the law of supply and demand."

Congressman Cannon is like so many politicians. In his arrogance, he believes the American people are not paying attention to issues but he forgets we now have computers!! We are now keeping a sharp eye on men like the Congressman who are not looking out for the best interests of the citizens.