The Hollywood Liberal

Onion: The Nightmare Ticket
Onion: The Nightmare Ticket

US’ Iran weapons report ‘delayed’
US’ Iran weapons report ‘delayed’

Furman University faculty may protest Bush commencement speech.
Faculty members at Furman University in South Carolina “have suggested they won’t attend graduation ceremonies because President Bush is scheduled to speak.” Over 200 students and faculty members “signed a statement earlier this month criticizing the Bush administration’s handling of the Iraq war and environmental issues.” But a conservative student group is trying to block […]

Faculty members at Furman University in South Carolina “have suggested they won’t attend graduation ceremonies because President Bush is scheduled to speak.” Over 200 students and faculty members “signed a statement earlier this month criticizing the Bush administration’s handling of the Iraq war and environmental issues.” But a conservative student group is trying to block the protest:

More than 500 members of the Furman community signed a letter released Monday asking that administrators refuse to allow faculty members to skip ceremonies in protest of the Bush visit. […]

“Some professors seem intent on turning what should be a celebration of their students’ accomplishments into a forum to air their political differences with President Bush,” said the letter, released Monday by Conservative Students for a Better Tomorrow.

In defense of the protest, one Furman neuroscience professor said, “At a liberal arts college, we really try to train people to think critically and respect other peoples views…And we have been expressing our views in very civil ways.” (HT: Dan Froomkin)

DHS Will Face Questions on Care of Detained Immigrants
Top lawmakers in Congress criticized the Department of Homeland Security yesterday for failing to provide adequate medical care to detained immigrants, and said they plan to demand explanations today from Secretary Michael Chertoff and Julie L. Myers, assistant secretary for U.S. Immigration and …

Kennedy Returns to Cape Cod
A day after hearing the diagnosis of a cancerous brain tumor, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) left Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital and returned to his family compound on Cape Cod, hailed by crowds that lined the streets to wish him well.

Mythmaking for the Next War
At the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union had some 45,000 nuclear warheads. At the moment, Iran has none. But when Barack Obama said the obvious — that Iran does not pose the sort of threat the Soviet Union did — John McCain reacted as though his rival had offered to trade Fort Knox for a sack of magic beans. “Such a statement betrays the depth of Sen. Obama’s inexperience and reckless judgment,” exclaimed McCain. “These are very serious deficiencies for an American president to possess.” But if Iran is the Soviet Union, I’m Shaquille O’Neal. There is nothing reckless in soberly distinguishing large threats from small ones, and there is something foolhardy in grossly exaggerating the strength of your enemies.

McCain, Not Disarmed
WASHINGTON, D.C. — When one of the Democratic Party’s most astute strategists this week criticized John McCain for attacking Barack Obama’s desire to engage Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, I asked what the Republican presidential candidate ought to talk about in this campaign. “Health care and the economy,” he replied. That is a sure formula for Democratic victory, but it is one that McCain’s campaign rejects. Obama embraced that formula once it became clear that he would best Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. He began pounding McCain for seeking the third term of George W. Bush. At the same time, Obama implores McCain in the interest of “one nation” and “one people” not to attack him. The shorthand, widely repeated by the news media, is that the Republican candidate must not “Swift boat” Obama. That amounts to unilateral political disarmament by McCain.