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Annapolis, Md. - President Obama used a commencement speech before Naval Academy graduates on Friday to urge them to follow an “inner compass” and to warn that rising numbers of sexual assaults in the military threatened to erode America’s faith in the armed forces. The president praised the military as the nation’s “most trusted institution,” but took note of the recent cases in which service members have been charged with sexual assault. He said those people “threaten the trust and discipline which makes our military strong.” “We need your honor, that inner compass that guides

Original title: 'As an African-American you have to work twice as hard': Obama tells Morehouse graduates he has a 'special obligation' to help less-fortunate black people ----------------------------------- President Barack Obama told graduates from the traditionally African-American Morehouse College yesterday that 'as a black man' he feels a 'special obligation' to help those less fortunate them him. In a personal commencement address to the college in Atlanta, Georgia, the president spoke about racism and how, given different opportunities, he could have ended up in prison or unemployed. President Obama also told graduates of the college, where Dr Martin Luther King Jr...

Ivy League schools usually cloak their jealousies in politesse, but President Obama’s decision to give the commencement speech at Barnard, and not Columbia, his alma mater across the street, has unleashed online exchanges as nasty as any hair-pulling, eye-gouging schoolyard brawl.

Please watch the video and vote for one of the three finalists. This decision is too important to be left in the hands of uncaring government bureaucrats or Obama.

My daughter called me tonight..."Dad...you'll never guess who is our graduation speaker...I'm in the car with Maggie...[laughing]..."So I say: "Obama!" And she said: "I told my friends I'm not going!" (I raised all good conservatives).

President Barack Obama has been announced as the Commencement speaker for the spring graduation at my alma mater, the University of Michigan. President Obama will receive an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree.

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Mary Ann Glendon was "the heroine of the Notre Dame commencement tragedy" in May, an official of the National Right to Life Committee said as the Harvard law professor and former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican received the organization's Proudly Pro-Life Award Oct. 6. Anthony J. Lauinger, vice president of the pro-life organization and the father of eight University of Notre Dame alumni, said Glendon's "principled refusal" of the Indiana university's 2009 Laetare Medal led the National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund to honor her at its awards dinner. The Laetare Medal, established in 1883,...

Bishop John M. D'Arcy Fort Wayne, Ind., Aug 25, 2009 / 11:35 am (CNA).- Bishop John M. D'Arcy, whose diocese encompasses the University of Notre Dame, is not letting the issues raised by the university's honoring of President Obama lie dormant. Instead, the Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend has penned a poignant article for the upcoming edition of America magazine that calls on the renowned university to evaluate the consequences of its failure to respect the authority of the bishops. In an article that will be the cover story of the Jesuit-run America magazine on August 31, bishop D’Arcy...

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...

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. Inside the Beltway has obtained the academy's list of prohibited items for this year's graduation exercises, which, besides ceremonial swords, includes umbrellas.

From today's you couldn't make it up if you tried file.......Obama's protectors have ordered graduating Midshipmen....and I suppose Commissioned Officers through Flag rank...to leave their swords at home. Full Dress White includes "wear sword". More to the point...those badges of office have been earned in a manner Obongo and his minions just wouldn't begin to understand. Important traditions that inspire are kind of lost on the red banner crowd, apparently. Further, ceremonial swords never seemed to bother the Secret Service for any previous President. And before World War II, the swords were not particularly "ceremonial", I've seen some of those...

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.

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. Inside the Beltway has obtained the academy's list of prohibited items for this year's graduation exercises, which, besides ceremonial swords, includes umbrellas. Yes, cell phones and texting are still allowed.

In my last of a series of reflections on Barack Obama's Notre Dame appearance, I will focus on the speech itself and Fr. Jenkins' words (and lies) leading up to it. While many pro-lifers now seem sad that there was no one in the arena (save a few brave hecklers) to counter the cleverly deceiving abortion addresses by the priest and the president, I contend their lies were subtly undercut by the most poetically appropriate protestor possible—the cries of a baby.

ANNAPOLIS | President Obama on Friday promised the U.S. Naval Academy's graduating class that he will not send them into combat unless absolutely necessary and will always make sure they are properly prepared and equipped, in an apparent swipe at the Bush administration and the Iraq war.

President Barack Obama delivered his commencement address at the University of Notre Dame on Sunday, and he appeared to dive right into the very issue that made his visit to the Catholic university so controversial — abortion. The President’s appearance at Notre Dame came even as seventy Catholic bishops denounced the university’s invitation. Protests and debates roiled the world of American Catholicism and a major media event was assured. The President began his address with a call for common ground, noting that the generation represented by the young Notre Dame graduates would face daunting challenges. “Moreover, no one person, or...

“ ‘ Take a bite of the apple, Eve,’ and then he slithered away.” That was the online reaction, in its entirety, by one reader of the “ California Catholic Daily” web site to a story about Barack Obama’s May 17 commencement address to University of Notre Dame graduates. Temptation wouldn’t be tempt­ing if it’s repellent. Satan promised Eve great knowledge, not the great suffering he actually intended for her. Is a person more likely to as­sent to do wrong if the invitation comes from a glowering hothead or a smiling master of winning­sounding words? Come with me, graduates, into...

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,...