Author booed for anti-Bush remarks

The Left needs to worry about being just plain rude. You see it here on BS and in many other places. The person interviewed from Manchester had it right in that the speaker reminded him of Michael Moore. Rudeness might sell on the Dean campaign or at Cannes but it won’t work with the American people.

 

While I probably wouldn't quibble with anything he said, I wish people would quit using commencement speeches (is that spelled right? it looks funny.) for political purposes. Seems tacky.

 

Yeah! Liberals need tact lessons from Bill O'Rielly and Sean Hannity.

 

I don't care what they say. Just don't want Americans, who pronounce the letter "H" at the beginning of a word, to say that the graduation is "AN HISTORIC OCCASION."

I'd boo anyone who did that.

Anyway, everyone has a policital agenda. The last part of Bush's commencement speech at Louisiana State sounded like a recruitment speech... or the state of the union address... I wonder if he was wearing the hypnotie.

 

Leave it to the pro-Bush types to call the guy who spoke, rather than the people who booed, rude.

 

"Some students and most of the faculty responded with a standing ovation, and Doctorow resumed speaking. He attacked Bush for giving the rich tax breaks, doing "a very poor job of combating terrorism" and allowing the government to subpoena libraries "to see what books you've been taking out."

Many parents and relatives of the more than 1,300 undergraduates were livid over the address, saying afterward that a college graduation was not the place for a political speech. "If this would have happened in Florida, we would have taken him out" of the stadium, said Frank Mallafre, who traveled from Miami for his granddaughter's graduation.

Bill Schmidt, 51, of North Bellmore, shared the outrage. "To ruin my daughter's graduation with politics is pathetic," the retired New York Police Department captain said. "I think the president is doing the best he can" in the war against terrorism.

Many students also called Doctorow's speech inappropriate. Peter Hulse, 24, of Manchester, England, said, "He's a bit like Michael Moore," the documentary director who provoked booing at last year's Oscars' ceremony by criticizing the war in Iraq."

What a ********ing looser school Hofstra sounds like.

Is it even accredited? They probably offer a business major for undergrads. A trade school for the rabble?

I wish Doctorow had started his speach telling everyone that his Father had helped him write it.

 

"Some Hofstra professors said Doctorow was on target in discussing the war. "I thought this was a totally appropriate place to talk about politics because that's the world our students are entering," said sociology professor Cynthia Bogard. "I only wish their parents had provided them a better role model." "

A-********in'-men.

 

I am glad this loser was booed and the students had the good sense to recognize the loser for what he was! Some of these graduates have learned common sense and know that:

Tax breaks were are are not just for the rich! I got a tax break, my neighbor got a tax break, compliments of the President... we are not rich!

The Patriot Act does not indicate that government types are spying on you nor does it mean your library books are being screened!

The President has done a good job on anti-terror planning and is preventing terrorism within this country. The preventative changes he has developed have prevented a terrorists from holding this country hostage...no acts of domestic terrorism since 09/11...

The E.L. Doctorow's of this world point to the President as the one responsible for terror, but fail to point to the real terrorists! The E.L. Doctorow's of this world criticize this administration for its economic plan but fail to present any kind of economic plan on their own. The E.L. Doctorow's of this world are borish and deserve to be booed!

The E.L. Doctorow's of this world criticize, but have no solution!

IntheNet

 

I disagree. My commencement speaker was Barbara Erenreich (for undergrad we, for some ungodly reason, had good ole' Julius Caesar Watts, who'd beaten us in a Bowl game) who's not one to stay quiet. She regaled us for an hour about the evils of the Bush administration. Granted, this was Berkeley, and although we weren't quite as liberal as the undergrad student body, but it was still uncomfortable. Tacky does seem like a good word. She publishes books, goes on TV. At a speech to graduates, is her political philosophy really necessary?

 

The best commencment speach I ever heard was by Mr. Rogers.

There were many wet eyes when he told the graduates "You are special, just the way you are."

 

Just a note: Hofstra is on Long Island, a Republican stronghold until all the Republicans were jailed for bribery and embezzlement and Nassau County had to declare bankruptcy.

 

All hail the hypnotoad!

 

I'm not not licking toads!

 

EL Doctorow is on the Diane Rehm show right now.

http://www.wamu.org/dr/index.html


It'll be interesting to see if they talk about (right now they're talking about his book) that speech and what he has to say for himself.

 

The booing was the surprising part. Politics at commencement addresses are par for the course. Why else would they choose political figures so often? My brother graduated from Penn State Abington a couple weeks ago, and the CEO from Sallie Mae gave the address. The guy went on for 35 minutes about how we have to support the war and the President and if we did we would be rich like him. It was horrible. I thought the speech was inaccurate in many places (he literally compared Bush to Lincoln) and he rambled on without making a single point for most of the speech. Still, I didn't boo. It wasn't my place to boo. It was my brother's graduation. As they always say around this time of year, "this is their day." If Kevin wanted to boo the guy, he was more than welcome. Same thing with these folks from Hofstra (not a rinky-dink school fwiw. Best known for giving Wayne "Green Lantern" Chrebet to the Jets). These parents and grandparents who booed and caused problems were ruining the graduation of the folks in the caps and gowns. It's their graduation. Let them boo if they want. Everyone not wearing a cap and gown should sit down, bite their tongue, politely clap at the end, fake-laugh at the bad jokes, and cheer like they were at a football game when their kid's name is called. Other than that, they should shut the hell up. The graduation, and by extension the commencement address, isn't for, about or directed at them.

 

The Chancellor of my university spoke at my graduation. Which is tradition. It's a boring commencement address, sure, but it cuts down on the controversy, and it gives you one last chance to regret the beaver you passed up along the way.

Demosthenes, I apologize in advance for the word "beaver". I was going to go with "slut slot", but I know you don't like talk like that.

 

Let's just say that, thank God, all young people are not moronic boobs who fall mindlessly into the liberal/Dem camp. A ton of kids are graduating nowadays who were born and raised during the glory days of Reaganism. They know better than to believe the lefty bull.

 

I should know better than to respond to anything you post at this point, but based on what has been posted so far, it seems that the majority of the jeers came from the crowd- ie: parents and grandparents. Also, the Reagan era was far from "glory days." It turned excess and wild deficit spending into casual policy. Fiscal conservatism for Republicans officially died with Reagan.

BTW, just for my own ********s and giggles, now that your boys Galvan and Forchetti are out of the Metros and away from mean ol' coach Bradley who wouldn't start them even though they were the best two players in the league, how are they playing? Tearing up Boca Jrs yet? Just curious.

 

"Cooter" is a bit too redneck. Plus, it conjures visions of Ben Jones, which won't do anything for your mood.

And "cooch" is out, because it's too close to "cooter".

 

Isn't he Dick Cheney's chief of staff?

 

Juan is with the Inferiores.



Jose is with the Juveniles.

They are both happy to be where they aren't treated like dirt.

 

I agree. Iregardless of whether I agreed or disagreed with him, I don't want to hear that crap at my graduation.

 

William Bennett lectured us on "morality" at my graduation.

Probably went out and blew $50,000 on gambling that night, the prick.