A woman seated among graduates' friends and family members
shows her disapproval of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
during his remarks at commencement ceremonies
at Santa Monica College on Tuesday.
Associated Press photo by Reed Saxon
Posted on 06/15/2005 11:33:11 AM PDT by RonDog
.
Stumbling Schwarzeneggerby MARC COOPER
[posted online on June 15, 2005]
Santa Monica, CaliforniaA new high-stakes political campaign initiated by embattled California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger that seems destined to become a political battle involving organized labor from coast to coast has gotten off to a stumbling start.
One day after he ordered a November 8 special election to pass a series of ballot initiatives, Schwarzenegger was jeered, heckled and loudly booed as he struggled to deliver a commencement address at Santa Monica College Tuesday evening.
Several faculty members and at least two dozen graduating students stood with their backs to the governor while hundreds in the audience of 2,000 chanted, shouted out slogans and blew whistles during the entire course of the governor's fifteen-minute address. At times, Schwarzenegger's words were nearly drowned out by the angry, raucous crowd, and the disruption was constant.
The hostile reception offered to the governor from the Los Angeles-area community college he attended in the early 1970s was repeatedly played on local TV news shows whose cameras converged on the scene.
While Schwarzenegger read a platitudinous apolitical speech about the value of hard work, two black-robed faculty members held a sign directly behind him that read "$80 Million Buys a Lot of Textbooks."
The $80 million figure is the high estimate of the cost of the November 8 special election decreed by the governor on Monday. For months now Schwarzenegger has been threatening the Democrat-controlled legislature: Either pass his package of his proposed reforms or see them put directly before the voters in the fall. Democratic legislators, many of whom initially worked with the governor to pass bipartisan compromise measures, have refused to accept the new ultimatum. They see little incentive to cooperate with a governor whose popularity ratings in the last year have plummeted nearly in half from about 70 percent.
Schwarzenegger's call to a special election is seen by political observers as a dramatic "all-in" gamble by which the governor is risking all his political capital a full year before the regularly scheduled 2006 vote in which he is expected to seek re-election. Schwarzenegger is asking voters to approve three ballot measures that would impose a spending cap that shifts power from the legislature to the governor, redraw voting districts and delay tenure for public school teachers.
Several other measures that have already qualified for the ballot are also expected to eventually win the governor's endorsement, including a law that would effectively bar California's public employee unions from making political contributions and a parental notification law for teenage abortions.
Initial public reaction to the governor's proposals have been overwhelmingly negative. Recent polls show two-thirds of California voters think that holding the costly special election is unnecessary. Local and county government officials have also voiced their opposition to the governor's proposed spending cap, arguing it could cripple public safety programs.
Meanwhile, California's teacher and prison guard unions have announced special membership levies aimed at raising a whopping $75 million to oppose Schwarzenegger's ballot proposals. Analysts are also convinced that if Schwarzenegger endorses the measure to block union contributions, he will become a prime funding target for Democrats and organized labor across the country, turning California this fall into an early national political battlefield.
Having already decreed the special election, Schwarzenegger cannot cancel it. But he has until August to reach some agreement with the legislature to place compromise measures on the ballot. Few political insiders, however, are predicting such a harmonious accord, with the smart money foreseeing a showdown confrontation in the fall. State Treasurer Phil Angelides, a Democrat who has announced his intention to run against Schwarzenegger in 2006, predicts that the special election will become the governor's "war in Iraq"--an unpopular quagmire.
Schwarzenegger's address at Santa Monica College on Tuesday carefully avoided any mention of the issues raised by his ballot initiatives. Urging the students to stay focused on success, the governor said, "Remember one thing. There's only one obstacle: you and your mind." It's a lesson the governor himself might want to study as he nudges the state toward a standoff that few want or even understand.
Stumbling Schwarzenegger: Booed and Pooh-Poohed
["The Nation" re: ARNOLD @ Santa Monica College]
Posted by RonDog
On News/Activism 06/15/2005 11:33:11 AM PDT · 2+ views
The Nation ^ | June 15, 2005 | Marc Cooper
Schwarzenegger Jeered at Graduation Speech
Posted by NormsRevenge
On News/Activism 06/15/2005 9:18:45 AM PDT · 22 replies · 806+ views
AP on Yahoo ^ | 6/15/05 | Michael R. Blood - AP
Schwarzenegger college speech draws boos in Calif.
Posted by ambrose
On News/Activism 06/14/2005 10:30:57 PM PDT · 50 replies · 880+ views
Reuters ^ | 6/15
After Action Report Schwarzenegger at Santa Monica College
Posted by absalom01
On News/Activism 06/14/2005 9:30:07 PM PDT · 69 replies · 1,003+ views
6/14/05 | n/a
Those professors and students booing prove the old adage, "you can take the child out of the lumpen proletariat but you can't take the lumpen proletariat out of the child. People revel in having no class!
While we won the battle OUTSIDE...SANTA MONCIA - Tuesday, June 14, 2005 The governor of California was basically booed off stage during a commencement address to graduating students at Santa Monica College today.http://la.indymedia.org/images/Boos4Arnold.mov (6.37 Mb)
Boos, and chants continued non-stop through out the gov’s speech.
...things do not appear to have gone very well INSIDE the stadium. :(Perhaps the video by OUR guy (Jeffers Dodge) will show what actually happened more accurately.
We should have THAT video posted online -- soon.
Agreed. It was rather childish behavior. And the faculty behavior was outrageous as well.
"...It seems rather churlish to stage a political protest at a non-political event like this college graduation.permalink on Captain's Quarters blogIt hijacks an evening that should have focused on the graduates, instead of some selfish and self-serving political opponents of the Governator. But if they wanted to protest, they should have observed enough decorum to allow Arnold to at least be heard by the audience in attendance.
Actions like this point out a political narcissism and absolutism that reveal nothing but the immaturity of Arnold's opposition." - Captain Ed
What idiots those people are. Not only was their behavior incredibly rude, they missed out on the speech he was giving, about how hard work will enable one to succeed. I would love to hear someone like him; he's got an incredible story to tell and is very motivating to most people.
I live in Michigan and wish we have a governor like Arnold. But thank God he's a strong guy; this type of insult probably won't phase him in the least. If anything, he'll probably be emboldened.
Go Arnold!!!!!
Kids cry when their candy is taken away from them.
...Several faculty members and at least two dozen graduating students stood with their backs to the governor while hundreds in the audience of 2,000 chanted, shouted out slogans and blew whistles during the entire course of the governor's fifteen-minute address...THIS is the part that really "chaps my hide."
Where the heck was CAMPUS SECURITY during this disruption?We virtually shut down both A.N.S.W.E.R. and the "union thugs" OUTSIDE -- totally dominating the print, radio and TV media coverage of the off-campus protests -- with POSITIVE "pro-Arnold" interviews, signs and photographs...
...but we got sandbagged by the lax security INSIDE. :(What ever happened to CONFISCATING "whistles" at public events?!?
Be happy in knowing all their raised union dues for the financing of this plot against California and the Gov will all end up a dark hole with no results.
I love that Dems, unions are spending tens of millions and going broke over a dead end for them.
Arnold and the people will win in the special election IMO.
My understanding from other accounts is that the graduates were upset because they couldn't hear the speech. I guess free speech means only free speech for some. What a bunch of "kids", faculty and all.
...Schwarzenegger scheduled the campaign stops around delivering the commencement address Tuesday at Santa Monica College. The speech was greeted with protests.Opposition to Schwarzenegger's visit had been building over the last month.
Opponents chanting "hypocrite," blowing whistles and waving signs complaining about the upcoming special election tried to drown out his speech.
Most of the 600 graduates could hear Schwarzenegger recount his arrival at Santa Monica College in 1970 and the classes he took there until 1974.
But the chants and catcalls from opponents were too loud for most of the graduates' relatives and friends to hear the governor's 16-minute speech.
About 25 graduates and seven faculty members turned their back on Schwarzenegger during his address.
Two faculty members on the podium with the governor held up a sign with the message: "Honor your promises to our children. Respect teachers." Before the ceremony, about 600 protesters gathered outside the college stadium to complain about a 44 percent increase in community college fees last year under Schwarzenegger.
The fees rose from $18 per credit to $26 per credit. But the governor has proposed no increase this year, and the community college fees remain among the lowest in the nation.
Bruce Smith, the college's spokesman, said 95 percent of the protesters weren't from the college.
Santa Monica College Professor Guido
The post gives his phone number and it is the correct number. I think we should all give him a call. But remember, be polite.
Guess what party they most likely belong to?
Schwarzenegger Jeered at Graduation SpeechBy MICHAEL R. BLOOD, Associated Press Writer Wed Jun 15, 9:16 AM ET
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's return to his alma mater turned into an exercise in perseverance when virtually his every word was accompanied by catcalls, howls and piercing whistles from the crowd.
Schwarzenegger's face appeared to redden during his 15-minute commencement address Tuesday to 600 graduates at Santa Monica College, but he ignored the shouting as he recalled his days as a student and, later, his work as a bodybuilder and actor.
"Always go all out and overcome your fears," he told the graduates. "Work, work, work. Study, study, study."
Inside the stadium, the drone from hundreds of rowdy protesters threatened to drown out the governor's voice at times. Many in the crowd erupted in boos when a police officer pulled down a banner criticizing the estimated $45 million cost of the Nov. 8 special election that Schwarzenegger proposed Monday.
The governor is backing three ballot initiatives that call for imposing a cap on state spending, stripping lawmakers of the power to draw their own districts and increasing the time it takes teachers to gain tenure.
At times during Schwarzenegger's speech, cheers and boos mingled, and the graduates themselves appeared eager to hear the governor. Many applauded at one point when the noise from the bleachers briefly subsided.
"It didn't matter. I just ignored them," graduate Ray Lewis, 21, of Los Angeles, said when asked about the racket from protesters. Schwarzenegger's "political views and all that had nothing to do with the graduation," Lewis said.
Schwarzenegger has been feuding for months with groups he calls "special interests" — teachers, nurses and other public employee unions who accuse him of selling out to big business while shortchanging education, health care and other programs. Those groups have hounded Schwarzenegger at his public appearances.
The special election "is a waste of money that you could be using for education, hospital care. He's wasting it on his vanity election," said Sue Cannon, a nurse who was among the crowd outside the stadium.
About two dozen Schwarzenegger supporters also rallied outside the stadium. One of them, Ben Eisenberg, who heads the Santa Monica College Republicans, said the ceremony "should be about the students."
Schwarzenegger left the stage almost immediately after his speech, speeding across the infield in a golf cart surrounded by sprinting security guards. Across the field, he pulled up toward a waiting SUV and a large steel gate was closed behind him.
Schwarzenegger took general studies classes at the two-year community college between 1970 and 1974. He later took correspondence courses through the University of Wisconsin-Superior, where he earned a degree in 1979.
The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
Your first post? What a moron.
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