Utah Valley State College, 6:15pm, April 26th

Finally, it was happening.

The blue sedan carrying Ralph Nader, his assistant Matt, the superheros Ashley and Eric, and myself pulled up in front of the McKay Events Center. The press conference started in 15 minutes, so Ralph and the crew rushed up to the press room while I took my camera to the main arena. I wanted to see if anyone was showing up.

Don't worry Kossack Readers, Part Three of my BYU Protest/Dick Cheney/Ralph Nader story will come on Monday. I'm filming all day today and won't be able to finish it. But, until then:

Northbound, I-15, Utah, April 26th, 2:40pm

My cell phone rang as our rental car sped by the digital screen for the McKay Events Center. The words "RALPH NADER" flashed in 20 foot tall letters. I quickly set my camera down and flipped my phone open. It was Bryan Young.

"Yeah?"

"Hey, Steve. Pat's crew just got pulled over by the Secret Service. They were at the airport trying to get a shot of Cheney's motorcade and I guess they looked suspicious."

"Holy crap. Are the Secret Service confiscating their cameras?"

"No. In fact, they're still filming. Bomb sniffing dogs and all."

"Dogs? What dogs? Are you kidding me?"

"No, man. Friggin dogs were jumping on top of his car and sniffing for explosives. And they got it all on camera."

"Oh, my God. That's awesome."

PART ONE OF THREE
Provo, Utah. April 26th, 6:40am

I woke up in a panic. I was still in my clothes and I was on Ashley Sanders' couch. My video camera was on the coffee table three feet away. I knew we were late. I looked at my cell phone and saw the time. Crap. I jumped up and ran into the kitchen to see Ashley stumbling out of her bedroom, cell phone to her ear. "Yeah, sorry. We'll be right there." She hung up and looked at me with bleary eyes. "Let's go." I grabbed my camera and we jumped into her roommate's car.

We had a live interview with FOX 13 at 6:45am. We wouldn't make it, but the reporter said they could delay 5-10 minutes. We sped to the campus of Utah Valley State College (UVSC) seven miles away. We passed underneath an overpass where someone had hung a sign that said, "BYU LOVES DICK". I couldn't believe the day was already here.

Today is the day. It's all come together. In only 3 weeks, a grass roots effort by Brigham Young University students to organize their own "alternative commencement" has seen more miracles to give even the worst pessimist hope. But the question still lingers... will the people come?

Dick Cheney will be flying into Utah in a matter of hours to speak at the "official" BYU commencement. They're closing down the interstate. Graduating students will endure 2-3 hours of security checks and long lines. There will be 4 protests occurring throughout the day. He will not be greeted as a liberator.

BYU, however, has decided that Dick Cheney has served humanity so greatly, that they are giving him an honorary doctorate degree for social service. How cute.

The Daily Herald credits The Daily Kos for saving the day for a group of plucky BYU students against Dick Cheney.

This was a glorious day. I have never experienced the full power that grass roots activist efforts could have until today. I wrote a heart-felt blog entry on The Daily Kos this afternoon pouring the facts and expressing my feelings about the uphill battle that anti-Cheney BYU students are fighting to organize their own "alternative commencement".

The Daily Kos is such a huge and popular blog, that I expected my entry to quickly disappear into the woodwork.

Blood, sweat, and tears have all been spilt in the battle being fought by anti-Cheney students at Brigham Young University (BYU).

In the last three weeks:

-Organize protests against Dick Cheney's approaching graduation speech
-Start a petition
-Organize an "alternative graduation" ceremony
-Find speakers for the alternative ceremony
-Find a venue for the alternative ceremony
-Publicize everything
-Raise the $25,000 to pay for all of it

They have three more days to finish...

The title pretty much explains it.  Brigham Young University stepped on some protesters toes as soon as the clock struck one and the time for the scheduled protest expired.  

The campus of Brigham Young University was electric with controversy today as it was the site of two protests surrounding Dick Cheney's upcoming visit to speak at their commencement ceremony.

On one end of campus were the "anti-Cheney" demonstrators sponsored by the BYU Democrats. Between 100 and 200 strong at any given time, students and faculty members raised signs displaying their distaste for the policies espoused by Dick Cheney such as war profiteering, torture, preemptive war, lying, using the "f-word", lying, etc.

BYU had "given them permission" to voice their opinions. Well, not really "voice" their opinions, BYU said they could sit down on some side walks and hold up signs, just not shout chants or yell anything. And they only had until 1:00pm to do it. Having received permission to protest, the ecstatic students remained peaceful and sat inside BYU's designated "free speech" zone in the middle of campus. Over the entire three hour demonstration it was estimated that 700-800 faculty and students were able to participate.

Orrin Hatch has been making phone calls on behalf of a coked out record producer, but won't on behalf of legal immigrants in his state facing deportation

Bryan from "This Divided State" has a roundup on the Rumsfeld situation and an idea about a politcal move for Bush...

The campaign of Pete Ashdown, Orrin Hatch's Democratic opponent in the midterm, asked us at "This Divided State"to write up an immigration policy for the campaign wiki.

SEAN HANNITY: "I am extremely angry at what they have done with that video footage. I plan on suing them."

Hannity is referring to the documentary film THIS DIVIDED STATE in which he gave a now infamously horrendous speech that many have labeled a "hate rally".

The 9 minute clip of his speech is now available for the general public to view and judge for themselves. Seriously, this is civil discourse at its worse and is a disappointing glimpse at the mentality of the general Bush supporting crowd.

Colleges and Universities nationwide are slowly becoming corporations that are controlled and run by those with money, power, and political agendas. A new documentary film and a new book examine this frightening trend.

As you may or may not know, I made a documentary film entitled THIS DIVIDED STATE. The film chronicles Michael Moore's controversial visit to Utah Valley State College 2 weeks before the 2004 presidential election. Protests, bribery, and death threats descended upon the school in a fanatical effort to cancel Moore's speech.

From The Huffington Post: The maturity of civil discourse in the United States is in the toilet. Sean Hannity asked a recent guest of his show his opinion on the Danish cartoon controversy. 30 seconds into his guest's response, Hannity blurts out, "I don't care about your liberal point of view." And then later, "You're a disgraceful human being." Wow, what a class act.

Unfortunately, this kind of absurd name-calling is not an isolated incident. Every day, the news pundits yell and scream at each other as they try to paint the nation red or blue. Complex issues such as the Iraq war and domestic spying are simplified into punch lines and one-liners. And I believe it was George W. Bush who set the current precedent for getting along with each other: "You're either with us or you're with the enemy."

STATES OF GRACE is an edgy, new indie film that just hit the national market. It's been controversial from its origin, especially with Mormons in Utah. The film follows the lives of 2 Mormon missionaries who get caught up in a gang war in Los Angeles. Watch the trailer on the website and see for yourself. It's a harsh PG-13 film that deals with violence, sex, and religion and many Mormons are up at arms about it. As you may know, one of the biggest theaters in Utah banned BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN and now, it seems they may want to ban a movie about their own culture.

Credit Card companies are vultures and they are, I believe, in part, responsible for the financial crises low-income and/or young Americans find themselves in these days. Bear with me, I'm going to go on a well researched rant about companies like Citibank and MBNA, etc.

You can read my full rant here: http://thisdividedstate.blogspot.com/...

A major Salt Lake City movie theater pulled the film "Brokeback Mountain" just HOURS before is was scheduled to open Friday night. This, of course, is a blatent example of bigotry, douchery, and motherfuckery.

I live in Utah and here's the real story: THIS gay DIVIDED STATE BLOGSPOT