You Don't Know Dick -- Utah

The good art is towards the end...

Dick Cheney was Right ... in 1992

Cheney, Speaking to the Super Adventure Club

Mitt Romney lines up with General Conference Protestors (with Dick Cheney and Chris Cannon, too!)

Sharing the program with Dick Cheney at tomorrow's meeting of the Super Adventure Club is Mitt Romney. SOme of the prominant members of the Super Adventure CLub and what they have had to say about the religion Mitt and I happen to share:

Pat Robertson (Through CBN):

"In summary, the Mormon church is a prosperous, growing organization that has produced many people of exemplary character. But when it comes to spiritual matters, the Mormons are far from the truth. "

Bob Jones III (On Larry King Live):

"KING: The argument against the Mormons is what?

JONES: Mormonism is pantheistic -- it is a religion of -- well, it doesn't teach the same thing about Jesus Christ that we teach. Mormonism teaches that Jesus Christ...

KING: Came back,

JONES: ... were brothers, that they were spirit children that God and his wife fathered in heaven, and that when there's a Mormon marriage in the temple and so forth and so on, that that couple when they die go to a planet and people it with spirit children, just like God and his wife people heaven, and that Jesus and Lucifer were brothers, and that Lucifer rebelled, and Jesus sided with the father. Therefore, he had -- the Bible teaches very clearly that Jesus Christ is God. He is not a created being, he is God. He is in essence -- he is very God of very God."

Phyllis Schlafly (not about mormonism, but interesting given the Warren Jeffs thing):

“By getting married, the woman has consented to sex, and I don’t think you can call it rape,” she said.

And, while I'm qoting things, here's a quote about the Super Adventure Club from Utah Democratic Party Chairman Wayne Holland:

“We welcome members of CNP to Utah,” said Wayne Holland, chair of the Democratic Party of Utah. “Utahns have a rare opportunity to see – or more accurately not see – what Republicans are all about. And that is policy making by the few, by the privileged, in secret.”

-Bob

P.S. Super Adventure Club is a South Park reference.

Cheney, Romney, Cannon to share podium at secret (combination) meeting

Tommy BUrr in Out of COntext:

Vice President Dick Cheney will drop into Salt Lake City on Friday to speak to the Council for National Policy, a group so private even its members are encouraged not to mention the name.

Ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will also address the group as will the Czech Republic president and Congressman Chris Cannon.

But don't expect to see any coverage of the event as the meeting of hundreds of the nation's most powerful conservative activists is confidential.

The council is a "private membership group whose meetings are closed to the media," director Steve Baldwin informed me this morning.

Who is the Council for National Policy? From Source Watch:

The Council for National Policy is a secretive forum that was formed in 1981 by Tim LaHaye as a networking tool for leading US conservative political leaders, financiers and religious right activist leaders. The group, which meets three times a year, promotes "Educational conferences for national leaders in the fields of business, government, religion and academia to explore national policy alternatives. Weekly newsletters are distributed to all members to keep them apprised of member activities and public policy issues. A semi-annual journal is produced from membership meeting speeches,"[1]

According to ABC News, "The CNP describes itself as a counterweight against liberal domination of the American agenda." [2] The "far right's answer to the Council on Foreign Relations" (Washington Babylon)

Others are not so kind to the organization and its motives. Mark Crispin Miller states that the CNP is a "highly secretive... a theocratic organization -- what they want is basically religious rule" (A Patriot Act). Barry W. Lynn, the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, told the New York Times about the CNP meeting ahead of the 2004 Republican National Convention, "The real crux of this is that these are the genuine leaders of the Republican Party, but they certainly aren't going to be visible on television next week." [3]

The founder wrote the Left Behind series of books that deal with the second coming (and does a bad job of it).

But, even though we won't be able to see what they say live (anyone know the secret handshake to get in?), we'll be able to read some of their words when they get published on the website.

I got a Vice Presidential Sneer

I checked off item #147 on my list of things to do or see before I die.

What is item #147?

Stick my tongue out at a sitting President or Vice President.

I sttod on the corner of West and South Temple waiting for the motorcade to come by yesterday afternoon. When it came, I waited for the limos and stuck my tongue out at them. I could see Dick in the second limo, but he wasn't facing me.

If you stick your tongue out at a Vice President, and he isn't looking at you, does it count?

Probably not.

So, knowing that his visit with the First Presidency would be brief, I waited.

Then, here came to motorcade back down North Temple Street again. And, out came my tongue again.

This time, Dick Cheney was looking at me.

And his facial expression changed, and his head turned to keep looking at me as he went past.

The facial expression I got was a sneer.

-Bob

BYU Protest Video

At the very successful anti-Dick Cheney protest at BYU a couple of weeks ago, the protest violated the terms of the protest agreement.

You see, the protest was from 11-1. At 1:01, time was up. Pack up your signs and go home. Actually, collect ALL of the signs and dispose of them.

Our frinds at This Divided State were there with cameras rolling. They are shooting a Documentary that is shaping up to be part two of "This Divided State."

Go see their video here.

-Bob

BYU Democrats: Not an Oxymoron (OxyMormon?)

Diane Bailey, President BYU College Democrats sent an email to their listserv about a planning meeting for their big rally the day Dick Cheney comes to town. She then talked about last week's protest:

We have really done something special at BYU. Aerial photographs show that we had at least 400 protesters and onlookers during class, and even more between classes. According to BYU spokeswoman Carri Jenkins, this was the first student political protest on campus in over 15 years! (And it looks like that last protest had all of about five people). We were personally interviewed about our protest by Newsweek, the New York Times, National Public Radio, the Associated Press and many other news sources. The AP story ran all over the nation, and even reached newspapers in France, Iran, and Great Britian. Liberal and conservative blogs such as the Huffington Post, GOP Nation, the Daily Kos, By Common Consent and Think Progress posted our story. The protest at BYU made the front page of the Daily Herald, KSL, the Deseret News, the Salt Lake Tribune, and, you guessed it, al-Jazeera's website.

At BYU, suddenly hundreds of once apathetic students were talking about the issues and voicing their own opinions. Our demonstrators answered questions and engaged in peaceful political dialogue with students of all backgrounds. I think that before our protest, most members of our local community had only been exposed to anti-Mormon protests, which are typically offensive, loud, and hate-filled. We showed our community that protests can be positive catalysts for discussion and compromise. On the national scale, many people were surprised to learn that not everyone at BYU supports Dick Cheney's actions. We corrected misconceptions that BYU students are all conservative robots (in fact, maybe we did Mitt Romney a favor). Finally, we let thousands of people know that the people of America will not blindly endorse the immoral acts of Vice President Dick Cheney; we love this country too much to do so.

Free speech rocks.

About four years ago, I was invited to speak on behalf of the Howard Dean Campaign to the BYU Democrats. People laughed at me when I told them I was going down there. "It's a waste of gas money to speak to two people." Seriously, that's what someone said.

36 people crammed into a room that had a capacity of 28. Like last week's protest, many who were there were Democrats, but several Republicans and non-political types showed up out of morbid curiosity. Things were very positive, and I wished I had brought more flyers.

Anyway, it's good to see BYU students getting engaged in the political process. (no pun intended, I promise...)

-Bob

(P.S. All photos from BYU Democrats)

Kudos to BYU Democrats

I know I said it yesterday, but from all accounts, the Dick Cheney protest at BYU was a success.

Not only that, but they did what most protests don't seem to do. Instead of preaching to the choir, the educated the public. From YDEMS:

Several people came up to us and asked questions, like "What's Waterboarding?" or "What does Dick Cheney have to do with Habeas Corpus?" Other's sat down next to us and tried to understand why we are protesting. Overall, I think the protest was a great success and the one on Apr. 26 should be even better.

It's not often that I have praise for BYU. But I'll do it this time...

-Bob

BYU Democratic Rally A success, Republicans Fail To Draw A Crowd

Mike Jones at Utahania took a peek at the dueling protests at BYU today:

Conservatively, (I am a conservative after all) the anti-Cheney protest by the BYU Democrats drew 2 times as many people as the pro-Cheney protest staged by the BYU Republicans. The Republican protest drew about 3 uniformed ROTC students while the Democrat one appeared to draw none. It was hard to spot military uniforms through all the people at the Democrats' protest. Graduation should be interesting. I'll bring a camera to this one.

The Tribune backs up that comment, putting numbers at about 200 for the Democrats and about 75 for the Republicans.

This despite the fact that the Republicans had free food and football.

Good Job BYU Democrats!

VP Cheney at BYU: It's Michael Moore/UVSC all over again

While I like that there is opposition to Dick Cheney speaking at BYU comencement, I do not agree with the calls to cancel the speech or find annother, more liberal, speaker.

Why?

It's looking way too much like the controversy 3 years ago at UVSC.

There has been lots of discussuion on the Mormons for Obama listserv about this. Some of the comments disturb me in their similarity to comments from 2004.

And that scares me.

-Bob

BYU. Utah, and Irony

So BYU and the University of Utah have invited Vice President Dick Cheney and President Thomas S Monson to be their graduation speakers.

One is second in command of a secular instution. The other is second in command of a religious organization. Both are literally a heartbeat away from being the leader of their respective groups.

However, the irony lies with the fact that BYU (the religious School) has the secular leader, while the University of Utah (the secular schhol) has the religious leader.

-Bob

Hatch makes deal with either the Devil or Cheney on NSA

Let's just pretend for a moment that I wanted both apple pie and chocolate cake for dessert. They are both delicious, and I'm an adult, so I can do what I want. So, I announce to the world that I am going to eat both apple pie and chocolate cake for dessert tonight. Rob, Shaun, and Ethan all post on here that it would be an insanely bad deal to even eat dessert, because dessert is full of sugar and stuff. So, Shaun and I go into secret discussions, and Shaun and I announce that we have reached an agreement. If I promise not to eat chocolate cake, he will consider allowing me to eat pie for dessert. Rob and Ethan hail this agreement was breathtaking and a move in the right direction for the country as a whole.

That's a little bit how Orrin Hatch's deal with Dick Cheney feels.

From USA Today:

WASHINGTON — A last-minute deal Tuesday with Vice President Cheney averted a possible confrontation between the Senate Judiciary Committee and U.S. telephone companies about the National Security Agency's database of customer calling records.

The deal was announced by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the committee chairman, and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. They said Cheney, who plays a key role supervising NSA counterterrorism efforts, promised that the Bush administration would consider legislation proposed by Specter that would place a domestic surveillance program under scrutiny of a special federal court.

In return, Specter agreed to postpone indefinitely asking executives from the nation's telecommunication companies to testify about another program in which the NSA collects records of domestic calls.

If passed, Specter's legislation would give the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court power to oversee the NSA program and render an opinion on the constitutionality of conducting domestic surveillance without a warrant. The court, established by the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), normally considers case-by-case requests by intelligence agencies to conduct surveillance inside the USA.

So, instead of the current law, which gives the courts a case-by-case review in these matters (well, they're supposed to, the law is being broken), They'll now have the authority to decide if it is unconstitutional (I thought that was the job of the Supreme Court).

Of course, if the FISC finds it unconstitutional, don't you think the Bush administration will just ignore that as well? They already ignore FISA.

-Bob

P.S. -- I'm hungry for some reason....

Cheney's Got a Gun Part Trey

Albuquerque Journal:

Years before the vice president accidentally shot a lawyer on a Texas quail hunt, Cheney himself was on the receiving end of an errant shotgun blast during a quail outing in New Mexico, a prominent Carlsbad Republican says.

The spin coming from Republicans when Cheney shot the guy was that it's a freak accident.

Lightning does strike twice.

-Bob

Cheney's Got a Gun Part Deux

This video proves that Cheney wasn't at 30 yeards or only 30 feet. e was around 10-15 feet away from Wittington when he shot him.

Cheney's Got a Gun

There have been a few blogs of late (Tom, BYU-I Dems, to name a couple) have been complaining about all the attention being paid to Dick Cheney's hunting accident.

However, I'm glad to see the media waking up. Maybe now they will start asking questions about the CIA leak (signs this week point to Cheney being the guy), The illegality of the NSA spying, why Bin Laden hasn't been found, etc. etc.

And, I want the following questions answered:

~Why did everyone say there was no beer involved, then Cheney said that he had had "a beer?" Which was it? None? One? or the unspoken more than one?
~Why is a man who is taking several cholesterol and heart meds drinking even "a beer?"
~Why hasn't he been charged with Obstruction of Justice for refusing to talk to the police immediately?
~If I were to shoot my friend, the first place I would go is the hospital, not dinner.
~If the property owner was asked to tell the media, why did she wait 18 hours, only then calling a friend at a local paper to tip him off? If I am asked to call the media, I tell the paper, the TV stations, anyone else I can get to.

-Bob