Free Republic

MERCED, Calif. – The final price of the University of California, Merced's commencement ceremony featuring first lady Michelle Obama was more than $1 million — surpassing the original estimate tenfold. Private contributions and interest on a private endowment fund have helped cover the cost. UC spokeswoman Patti Waid Istas said that nonstate dollars and other contributions will be used to cover the remaining balance of around $362,338. The school had budgeted $100,000 for the May commencement ceremony. The price tag ended up being $1.04 million. The address attracted about 12,000 visitors, requiring additional transportation, audiovisual and multimedia needs and other...

Merced Sun-Star Thursday, Jul. 02, 2009 Cost of bringing Michelle Obama to UC Merced? More than $1 million By DANIELLE GAINES Dgaines@mercedsun-star.com The total cost for last month’s commencement ceremony at UC Merced has finally been tallied: $1,047,338.82. Private contributions of more than $185,000 (including in-kind-gifts) added to $500,000 in unrestricted interest earnings on a private endowment fund, managed by the UC Office of the President, have helped offset the cost of the event. The balance will be covered by non-state dollars from campus sources and offset by any additional donations that may be made, according to a press release...

Members of the graduating class of 2009 at Florida's Pace High School have expressed their objections to ACLU restrictions on statements of religious faith at their school by rising up en masse at their ceremony and reciting the Lord's Prayer. The incident happened just days ago, but has been virtually ignored by media outlets throughout the region, according to officials with Liberty Counsel, a legal team representing Principal Frank Lay and teacher Michelle Winkler in their battle with the ACLU, which had complained that faculty and teachers were talking about their beliefs. Nearly 400 graduating seniors at Pace, a Santa...

Santa Rosa County, FL - Nearly 400 graduating seniors at Pace High School stood up in protest against the ACLU and recited the Lord’s Prayer during their graduation ceremony on Saturday. Many of the students also painted crosses on their graduation caps to make a statement of faith. This event follows a lawsuit the ACLU filed against the Santa Rosa County School District, claiming some of the teachers and administration endorsed religion. Liberty Counsel represents Pace High School Principal Frank Lay and school teacher Michelle Winkler. The graduation prayer protest by the students was preceded by a lawsuit filed six...

The Perky Katie is so funny, no really, she's a complete fool, throwing any hint that she's an objective journalist right out the window. You'd probably get more objectivity watching Al Jazeera...

Actor and Christian Stephen Baldwin said he felt God lead him to speak at Trinity Christian Academy’s graduation. “I just want to convey the importance of following Christ,” he said. “I am blessed for one specific reason. “I know for sure I am saved and born again and the spirit of the living God dwells within me.” Baldwin’s spiritual journey started several years ago when his Brazilian housekeeper told him that it was prophesied to her, in Brazil, that she would lead her future American employer to Christ. Baldwin’s wife became a born-again Christian first and then Baldwin followed his...

(video) Joe Biden's teleprompter falls over in the wind while addressing the Academy graduates, and he makes a very funny joke about Obama's reliance on the 'prompter. This will make the BEST OF JOE reel for sure!

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) ― Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made a surprise return to her alma mater on Monday, picking up an honorary degree from Yale University 36 years after earning her law degree from the Ivy League school. Graduates celebrating commencement at Yale erupted in cheers as Clinton was introduced. In keeping with Yale tradition, the names of honorary degree recipients are a closely held secret, although word began trickling out Sunday of Clinton's participation. None of the 10 honorary degree recipients spoke during the morning ceremony held for the university at large, where Yale handed out...

Cadets graduating from West Point were praised by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Saturday for having the courage and patriotism to join the military in "a dangerous new century." Gates noted that the 970 members of the U.S. Military Academy's class of 2009 were preparing their West Point applications in late 2004, even as American forces were battling fiercely in Fallujah in Iraq. "You made your decision to serve knowing not only that America was at war, as did every man or woman who joined the military after September 11, but that this war would be bloody and...

Cadets graduating from West Point were praised by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Saturday for having the courage and patriotism to join the military in "a dangerous new century." Gates noted that the 970 members of the U.S. Military Academy's class of 2009 were preparing their West Point applications in late 2004, even as American forces were battling fiercely in Fallujah in Iraq. "You made your decision to serve knowing not only that America was at war, as did every man or woman who joined the military after Sept. 11, but that this war would be bloody and difficult,...

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Nobody protested President Obama’s commencement address Friday morning at the United States Naval Academy. Nobody told Mr. Obama he was undeserving of an honorary degree. Instead, under a nearly cloudless blue sky, the president was treated to a 21-gun salute, a Blue Angels flyover — and a respite from the controversy that has dogged him at two previous graduation ceremonies.

SWORDLESS SAILORS Graduating midshipmen of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis are being told in writing to leave at home or in their vehicles all "ceremonial swords" and anything else "that might be considered a weapon or a threat by screeners" for Friday's outdoor commencement ceremonies featuring an address by President Barack Obama.

Obama vows not to send people to war without cause By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press ANNAPOLIS, Md. – President Barack Obama promised graduating midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy on Friday that, as their commander in chief, he will only send them "into harm's way when it is absolutely necessary." In his first address to military graduates, Obama also pledged to invest in the men and women who defend America's liberty, not just in the weapons they would take with them into battle against 21st century threats. "I will only send you into harm's way when it is absolutely necessary,...

(CNSNews.com) – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will give the commencement speech at Johns Hopkins University on Thursday. That Pelosi, a liberal Democrat, is speaking at the school should come as no surprise as a new report shows that liberals dominate as speakers at the top colleges and universities in America while only five recognizable conservatives have been chosen as commencement speakers this year. One conservative was even dis-invited as a commencement speaker after his invitation to speak became public, according to the Young America’s Foundation (YAF), which released its report on Wednesday. “For the past 16 years--the time period...

I don't see ONE seat empty...I even saw Obama logo on hats...When you own the young, you own the country. America is gone. I am so so so sad...

Good news for Vice President Biden’s office! The Veep successfully delivered the commencement address at Wake Forest University without disclosing top secret information.

SOUTH BEND, Indiana (Reuters) - President Barack Obama urged both sides in the abortion debate on Sunday to pursue a "fair-minded" discussion as he sought to quell a firestorm over his invitation to speak at Notre Dame, a premier U.S. Catholic university. Notre Dame's decision to confer an honorary degree on Obama and invite him to be the keynote speaker for the commencement sparked petitions and several days of protests. Some students vowed to boycott the commencement. But the speech itself drew mostly cheers, applause, standing ovations. Critics who said Obama's support for abortion rights violated Catholic Church doctrine had...

MERCED, Calif. – First lady Michelle Obama praised graduating students at California's smallest, youngest public university for their determination to succeed, urging them to give back to their communities. In her debut as a commencement speaker on Saturday, Mrs. Obama evoked the struggles of California's founders — settlers and former slaves, trailblazers and immigrants — to encourage the 493 members of the school's first full graduating class to use their newfound skills to lift up those around them.

...But the reality for American consumers is that whether you buy that the science is settled or not, the political science is settled. With the media cheering them on, Congress has promised to “do something”. CO2 regulation is coming, whether it will do any good or not. Indeed, President Obama‟s hope of shrinking the now the massive federal budget deficit depends on vast new revenues from a tax on carbon energy – so called “cap and trade”. Harry Reid has promised cap and trade legislation by August. The long term goal with cap and trade is „80 by 50‟– an...

SOUTH BEND, Ind.—President Barack Obama confronted the issue of abortion head on Sunday at Notre Dame, acknowledging that differences over the issue are largely irreconcilable but issuing a plea to those on both sides to tone down harsh rhetoric and search for “common ground” he believes is possible. “I do not suggest that the debate surrounding abortion can or should go away,” Obama said. “No matter how much we may want to fudge it – indeed, while we know that the views of most Americans on the subject are complex and even contradictory – the fact is that at some...