War tensions follow Bush to commencement

[rodeodance]

Source: Associated Press

War tensions follow Bush to commencement

By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer 28 minutes ago

LATROBE, Pa. - Debate may be raging in Washington over whether the
Iraq war should end. But Capitol Hill has nothing on tiny St. Vincent College, where
President Bush gave the commencement address Friday amid protests and controversy.
..............
Bush was welcomed warmly, with cheers and applause filling the school gymnasium. School officials said there had never been as large a participation rate in a graduation ceremony. And the president didn't discuss the war in his remarks.
.................

For his part, Bush focused on the importance of service. He encouraged graduates to consider careers in teaching or the military, and to make volunteering a regular part of their lives regardless.

"Today I ask you to make service more than a line on your resume," he told the 300 graduates, surrounded by about 1,600 family, friends and teachers. "Find a need that's not being met. Do your part to fill it and make a difference to our country."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070511/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush;_ylt=ArH5HCNFZxME_KhT3TPGCQbMWM0F

[NC_Nurse]

1. Like him?

Yeah, right. :eyes:

[rurallib]

2. If there wasn't a protest, they must've hand-picked the crowd

They had a debate on Cspan from this college about a month ago and there were some pissed off students at the thought of Bushie coming.

[kimmylavin]

3. How transparent.

Of course he encouraged graduates to consider careers in the military.
These are fresh bodies, and they're needed for the surge.

[LibDemAlways]

4. This afternoon C-span reran the debate that took place

at the college last month over the chimp's impending visit. The President of that college is the former head of chimp's "Office of Faith Based Initiatives" and is smitten with Pres. Dumbshit. He actually said that chimp could speak at any campus he wanted, and St. Vincent's was honored to have him. (Somehow I think he might be less than welcome at Berkeley (among others) but Mr. College President clearly lives in a fantasy world.) The students ran the gamut from kool aid drinkers to thoughtful individuals who objected to the warmongerer on moral grounds. It was all an exercise in futility as it was already a done deal. I just kept hoping that someone would approach one of the chimp cheerleaders with an enlistment form.

After rerunning the debate, C-span showed the speech. There sat chimpy smirking and mugging away like the total asshole he is. Never disappoints. I turned it off pretty quickly. I couldn't see what protests, if any, were taking place in the audience as the cameras focused only on the podium. If it had been my college graduation, I would have been mightily pissed to see that moron freak up there.

[struggle4progress]

5. Fighter Jets Force Plane to Land at Asheboro Airport

Agents interview pilot for violating presidential airspace
Last Edited: Friday, 11 May 2007, 5:29 PM EDT
Created: Friday, 11 May 2007, 5:27 PM EDT
Plane Forced to Land at Asheboro Airport
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By CARON MYERS
FOX8 News
ASHEBORO, N.C. (WGHP) -- Navy fighter jets forced the pilot of a small, experimental aircraft to land at Asheboro (N.C.) Airport on Friday after he violated presidential airspace in Pennsylvania.

Daniel Gollus was flying his RV-6 airplane from Niagara Falls, N.Y. to Asheboro when a pair of military F-18 Hornets appeared after he flew too close to St. Vincent College in Pennsylvania, where President Bush was giving the commencement address.

Jim Chaney, a pilot from Statesboro, Ga., landed at Asheboro within minutes of the RV-6 and spoke with Gollus about his ordeal.

"He said he'd seen an F-18 Hornet waving his wings and shooting flares out, and he thought he was just trying to show him what his airplane was all about," said Chaney. ~snip~

http://www.myfoxwghp.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=3180360&version=3&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1

[struggle4progress]

6. Iraq dissent in an unlikely place

http://www.latimes.com.nyud.net:8090/media/photo/2007-05/29707344.jpg
Bush speaks today at a Catholic college led by an ally, but views on the war dampen the welcome.
By James Gerstenzang, Times Staff Writer
May 11, 2007

LATROBE, PA. — President Bush could hardly have picked a better private liberal arts college to find a welcoming audience for a commencement address than St. Vincent, a Catholic school run by a loyal former White House aide in a conservative region.

Yet consider what has taken place here since Bush was invited for today's speech: Students vigorously debated the invitation at a town-hall meeting last month. A former St. Vincent College president wrote a scathing newspaper essay saying Bush had no place on the campus. About a quarter of the tenure-rank faculty wrote an open letter to Bush challenging the Iraq war as contrary to Roman Catholic doctrine. Several dozen people held a candlelight vigil Thursday night protesting the visit. And for several Sundays, nuns protested on the edge of the campus. ~snip~

"The college is fairly representative of society at large," said Dennis McDaniel, an associate professor of English who signed the open letter to Bush. "The tide has turned here, as it has elsewhere."

McDaniel said: "For many of us, there is a very strong spiritual basis for our opposition to the war, and perhaps that creates an intensity and a sense of conflict that may distinguish our feelings from someone who may simply see it as a strategic mistake." ~snip~

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bush11may11,1,121061.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=1&cset=true