LIVE VIDEO STREAM link to President Obama's Arizona State U. speech

By GottaLaff

UPDATED: Here's the link. I tried.

Blog titled updated to reflect the failure of the video to load.

71,000 to greet Obama today in Arizona

Meanwhile, my area is overrun with teh crazies. I mean, they are everywhere.

President Barack Obama returns to Arizona State University today to rally graduates sobered by bleak job prospects and tout the value of higher education and public service.

Obama will deliver the commencement address during what has evolved into a Sun Devil Stadium extravaganza that will pit his trademark soaring oratory against the Valley's soaring temperatures. Many of the 71,000 people expected for the speech will wait for hours in searing triple-digit heat to hear a speech that will last about 20 minutes.

The president is expected to "discuss the amazing opportunity that graduates have, the challenging world that they enter into," said Robert Gibbs, White House press secretary. As he has done before, he is likely to talk about the importance of "the choices that you make leaving college, about being involved in your community and serving a purpose higher than yourself."

Arizona State University has a case of the guilts

By GottaLaff

ASU's guilt leads to more ASU gelt:

Arizona State University says a financial aid program that's being renamed after President Barack Obama will triple the number of recipients from 500 freshmen now to 1,600 during the upcoming fall semester. [...]

The expansion was first mentioned last month when the university was criticized for not giving an honorary degree to Obama. The president will speak at ASU's graduation ceremony May 13.

Obama's Arizona State commencement speech may draw 63,000

McCain's home state.

The crowd expected to attend Arizona State University's commencement to hear President Barack Obama's speech has swelled to 63,000 and appears to be the largest U.S. audience the president will have addressed since his inauguration.

A member of the White House communications staff said Friday that Obama has spoken before many crowds since the January ceremony that officially marked the start of his presidency, but none in the United States is thought to be larger than 2,000 to 3,000 people.

For some who only dreamed of attending the Washington, D.C., ceremony, ASU's commencement on May 13 has become the Western version of Inauguration Day. The much-coveted ASU tickets were reserved within hours after the commencement office made them available to a graduating class of more than 8,000 students and to faculty and staff.

Arizona State University: "We Blew It," Alumni Rescind Donations

By GottaLaff

ASU refused to give President Obama an honorary degree because he hasn't, you know, accomplished enough yet. Now ASU explains that they would have given him the degree, but was worried about appearing insincere. Well then, let me insincerely respond: That was the best save ever. That fixes everything! You are redeemed:

The Arizona State University community is expressing anger and embarrassment in response to ASU's decision not to award President Barack Obama an honorary degree when he gives the commencement speech there next month. An ASU spokesperson now confesses, "we blew it," and concedes that the university likely would have conferred the honorary degree, but once it became a controversy, ASU administrators were too worried about appearing insincere. [...]

Nearly every email expressed shame over the decision made by their alma mater. One alumnus, Dr. Neil Francis, wrote from Thailand to say he will no longer wear his Arizona State University ball cap -- even halfway around the world. Several said that they did not believe the story when they first heard it: they thought the story was a satirical news piece or a holdover from April Fool's Day.

Many Huffington Post readers wrote in to say that they would be withholding donations. Some said they would even remove endowments from their wills. The detrimental effect that this debacle will almost certainly have on fundraising could not come at a worse time, since the state legislature has recently enacted major funding cuts. [...]

Even Republicans wrote in to say that ASU should give Obama the honorary degree. The theme centers around fairness. Those who are not Obama supporters say that ASU should not have invited Obama to address the graduating class if they were not prepared to give him the traditional honorary degree. Some even said they disagree with the tradition of giving honorary degrees but argued that if the university gives them to anyone, then Obama must surely qualify. [...]

Some questioned the motives of Saturday's announcement that ASU would honor Obama by renaming the ASU Advantage program, a scholarship for low income students, the President Barack Obama Scholars program. Carl Schuh, a doctoral candidate in the ASU Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, says renaming an existing scholarship program is good but not enough.

ASU and the state's other two universities are politically progressive, unlike Arizona itself. Unfortunately, once again, because of ASU's bureaucratic ineptitude, Arizona is perceived as racist and ignorant. It is the responsibility of ASU President Michael M. Crow to make a dramatic speech reversing what appears to be the university's stance on not honoring the President of the United States.

[S]tudents, staff, faculty, and parents want Obama to know that they honor his presidency. Quite a few alumni wrote to Huffington Post to say they are mailing copies of their diplomas to university President Michael Crow and asking him to give them to Obama. A local columnist reportedly heard the same. A few are emailing diplomas directly to the White House. According to well connected student politicos at ASU, this is not a concerted effort, but rather independent activity on behalf of a large number of like-minded individuals.

ASU now says they have not yet made a decision whether to confer an honorary degree on Obama, but he may receive a diploma (or several) when he gives the commencement address at ASU regardless -- the diplomas will just have other people's names on them.

They blew it.

Arizona State University president suggests he fears political backlash from Obama honorary degree decision

Wrong, so very wrong. I blame Bishop D'Arcy and all the other hypocrites.

Arizona State University President Michael Crow suggested Saturday in an email to faculty and students that he was hesitant to award President Obama an honorary degree because of potential political consequences to the state-supported school.

"Since my appointment we have not awarded honorary degrees to sitting politicians, a practice based on the very practical realities of operating a public university in our political environment," Crow wrote in the message, obtained by POLITICO.

He added: "We are a young and emerging university in a new and politically complex state."

Arizona is home to Obama's 2008 opponent, Sen. John McCain, and also has a Republican governor and GOP-controlled legislature.

On a related note- Bishop D'Arcy urges people to stay away from anti-ND, anti-Obama rallies. Let's see how much reverence that piece of slime Terry has for the Bishop's decision now. What do you think will win, his quest for attention or the rule of the church?

Arizona State to Start Barack Obama Scholarship Program

By GottaLaff

After all that fuss about not giving President Obama an honorary degree, Arizona State is acting all apologetic and trying to compensate and stuff:

Arizona State University announced on Saturday that it would expand a scholarship program in the president's name.

In a press release sent out by ASU spokeswoman Sharon Keeler, the university "apologized" for the "confusion" over the past few days. Its president Michael Crow, meanwhile, framed the "President Barack Obama Scholars" program as a higher honor than the honorary degree, one that would "affect the lives of thousands of students" and be "an honor befitting, not only the president's exceptional achievements, but also his values as an individual." [...]

ASU undoubtedly faced an intense amount of media and political scrutiny for its decision to not offer Obama an honorary degree. [...]

The expansion of the scholarship program is an effort to temper these emotions. But for the cynics, the fact that the announcement came only after a day of vocal complaints - and didn't include giving the degree from the president - is not likely to go unnoticed.

You can read the release in its entirety here.

And now, back to our program.

Awww, darnitall! Contestant Number 44 didn't buzz in on time to get an honorary degree. Ohhh, sorry. Who knows, maybe if he'd just had a few more accomplishments under his belt, he'd have won this round! Please accept these parting gifts, and thank you for playing, "CYA"! See you next time!

Good-night, everyone!

H/t: BuzzFlash

Obama may get ASU honor after all

My guess would be that the cash cow alumni didn't like this.

Michael M. Crow, president of Arizona State University, tells POLITICO that the school is reconsidering its widely mocked plans not to give President Barack Obama an honorary degree when he speaks at commencement on May 13 and will “honor him in every way possible.”

“There was no intended slight,” Crow said by telephone from his office in Tempe. “We had not yet talked about what honors we might give him as our commencement speaker, and we still have a month to work all that out. We don’t want anyone to think we do not recognize what he has achieved and what he means in America.”

A formal decision has not been made, but it was clear from Crow's comments that the university is headed in that direction. ASU risked becoming a national punch line if it did not quickly retreat from its policy against conferring honorary degrees on a sitting politician.

Arizona State: "No honorary degree for you, Mr. President!"

By GottaLaff

We gave you the video of Lawrence O'Donnell and Pat Buchanan going at it over President Obama's Notre Dame speech. Fun stuff. Good times.

Now we give you this mind-bogglingly ("bogglingly"?) absurd Arizona State University bit of stuntery ("stuntery"?), via DKos:

This is hilarious. Not even Notre Dame did this:

An [Arizona State University] academic committee has decided President Barack Obama won’t receive an honorary degree when he addresses this spring’s graduates at a May 13 ceremony, the Associated Press reported Wednesday. Honorary degrees are traditionally offered to commencement speakers as a way to call further attention to their contributions and to thank them for their appearance.

University spokeswoman Sharon Keeler said the committee decided Obama hasn’t served long enough in the White House to properly judge his legacy.

"His body of work is yet to come," Keeler told the AP. "That’s why we’re not recognizing him with a degree at the beginning of his presidency."

Wow. Really? Obama hasn't done enough yet? Writing two bestsellers, organizing the biggest and most well-funded grassroots campaign for President, becoming President, being the nation's first black President to boot.....the dude even won two friggin' Grammy awards too! But nope, ASU thinks Obama's resumé is small fry. [...]

The East Valley Tribune also points out the inherent hypocrisy in ASU's decision, noting that they conferred an honorary degree to Barry Goldwater in 1961, three years before he was the Republican nominee for President. Sure, the guy was an Arizona man, but ASU also handed out honorary degrees to non-Arizona politicians like Kim Campbell, the first female Canadian prime minister. [...]

Clearly, this is all good news for McCain. I don't know how any serious journalist in the media can conclude otherwise.

The author left out a few other accomplishments during Obama's 2 + months in office, like this and this, and this, and... well, you know the rest. I'm thinking all that makes him honorary degree-worthy.

So what is it with universities and President Obama?

Obama to honor graduates at three schools

The President's coming to town!! Whooo hooo!! I don't think that President Obama writing off winning Indiana as a one time phenom.

WASHINGTON, March 20 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama will deliver the commencement address at three upcoming college graduations, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said.

Gibbs told a briefing that Obama will serve as the Class of 2009 commencement speaker at the Arizona State University, the University of Notre Dame, and the United States Naval Academy.

The president will speak to Arizona State graduates on May 13 and follow up that commencement by addressing Notre Dame graduates on Sunday, May 17.

Midshipmen at the Naval Academy will hear from the president on May 22, Gibbs said.