BushCo snubs Carter, but gets one in return

[Terre]

and I'm a happy camper.

In a Newsweek WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Richard Wolffe and Holly Bailey
Newsweek
Updated: 12:44 p.m. ET April 7, 2005

on the MSNBC website is their column titled Presidents and the Pope:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7420076/site/newsweek/

Page 2 - last paragraph:

<snip>

"That account barely grasps the extent of the Holy See’s opposition to the war in Iraq, as Clinton suggested in his own unsubtle way. But just in case President Bush has forgotten, there’s another reminder of his tensions with the pope at the funeral on Friday. The president and his delegation occupy a worse seating position at the funeral than the Iranians.

I hope it's in the nose-bleed seats.

[JI7]

1. i hope those Iranians are Muslim also

[Swede]

2. Chances are pretty good of that.

:)

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. or Zoroastrian

though I'm sure they are probably Muslim, as the Zoroastrians are mostly underground in Iran now.

[frictionlessO]

6. I've heard theres only about 50000 left....

They of the holy fire gifted to them by Jesus..... supposedly they still have it going somewhere.

[rodeodance]

10. they did so semi -embalming-enough to last the days till burial

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

25. Many in the Bombay area

where they are called the Farsis.

[kliljedahl]

4. If Jimmy Carter were there

They'd be in the front row. Except, with no embalming it probably wouldn't be such a prime spot.


http://www.kliljedahl.net

[juajen]

15. I heard an explanation of that

I don't believe there is any odor. Though he wasn't embalmed, there was a formaldahyde (sp.?) solution to preserve for the few days he would be on view. I heard a priest explain it today. Embalming would preclude them from being able to claim sainthood if his body was exhumed and found to be in good shape naturally. There is every liklihood that Pope John Paul II will be canonized, of so "they" say.

[tuvor]

5. I'll bet the Pope had a hand in arranging the seating.

Good one, JP2!

[annabanana]

7. I understand he left detailed instructions. ................. n/t

[rodeodance]

Clinton got his dig in also--(intelligences vs dummy talk)

.....In fact, both former presidents spoke to reporters about their memories of the pope. And their own accounts spoke volumes about their different, and often awkward, relationships with the Vatican. Bush 41 told how the pope opposed Operation Desert Storm in 1991, citing what the former president called the pope’s “standard position on the use of force” and his concerns about “the long length of the war.” The former president lamented the fact that he never engaged in a discussion about the concept of a “just war”—which was widely debated before his son’s war in Iraq. The pope, and his envoys, made it abundantly clear to the current president that the Vatican did not think the recent war in Iraq was a just war.


Clinton, in contrast, claimed the pope’s support for his intervention in the former Yugoslavia. “I think he favored what we were doing in Bosnia and Kosovo because it was in response to an immediate killing policy by Milosevic,” he told reporters. “I think he favored defensive wars, if you will, or wars in defense of innocent people being slaughtered. I think he thought that you shouldn't initiate war, even against oppressive people, unless there was some immediate human tragedy pending. That was the feeling I had in dealing with him.”

President George W. Bush, for his part, acknowledged that the pope opposed the war in Iraq. “He spoke to the poor; he spoke to morality. And of course, he was a man of peace,” he told reporters earlier this week at the White House. “And he didn't like war, and I fully understood that and I appreciated the conversations I had with the Holy Father on the subject.”

That account barely grasps the extent of the Holy See’s opposition to the war in Iraq, as Clinton suggested in his own unsubtle way. But just in case President Bush has forgotten, there’s another reminder of his tensions with the pope at the funeral on Friday. The president and his delegation occupy a worse seating position at the funeral than the Iranians.

[saltpoint]

16. Another sparkling example of Dubya's range:

===
President George W. Bush, for his part, acknowledged that the pope opposed the war in Iraq. “He spoke to the poor; he spoke to morality. And of course, he was a man of peace,” he told reporters earlier this week at the White House. “And he didn't like war, and I fully understood that and I appreciated the conversations I had with the Holy Father on the subject.”
===

The actual words of the President of the United States here, as in so many other examples, would not pass muster in most high school English classes. It's a PR cul-de-sac at best.

A good high school English teacher would red-slash Dubya's entire paragraph.

_____
on edit: Dookus, sorry. I got confused on whether this should be a response to the OP or to the passage in your post. Partly both, maybe. I'm trying to multi-task tonight and not exactly pulling it off. Really liked your juxtaposition of presidents' quotes.

[burrowowl]

20. Clinton

presided of over 23,000 bombs dropped on Iraq after Gulf War I (approx. 2090 bombs a year, around 6 a day). Did the Pope support him for Bosnia etc.? If so he is a participant of the destruction of a fairly prosperous nation were some Muslims and Christians were friends and good forbid 'intermarried'.
Be careful of the 'hand of the U$ and corporatism'.

[rodeodance]

12. more like the Pope's spirt is saying--'keep him at a distance"--I may be

a Saint someday and Bush will contaminate me"

[Terran1212]

8. Bush : 0, Vatican: 1

If only the Catholics would begin to embrace more progess in social issues...

[rodeodance]

9. it is the Church male heirarchy that opposes 'social issues'--not Catholic

in general.

[ScreamingMeemie]

11. And it will...it's in the hands of the people to change the Church.

:hi: Money changes everything...even the Church.

[fooj]

13. Does anyone else feel the wind shifting directions?

Peace!

[cry baby]

18. I'm beginning to feel a cool breeze. nt

[SpiralHawk]

14. This could have REPRECUSSIONS

If there's one thing we know, it is that his Imperial Bushness does not take snubs lightly. This shitty seating assignment is gonna rub his "aristocratic" nose in it in front of the whole TV planet.

Bush may have a REACTION to the seating snub and somehow, someway demonstrate to the world what a petty, petulant pusillanimous personage he really is.

I'd bet an organic, whole-wheat, wild-honey-dIpped doughnut the he's gonna do SOMETHING -- on camera or off -- to demonstrate to everyone how "important" he is.

[Swamp Rat]

21. What's he gonna do?

The Pope's already dead.

[lwin]

22. Freedom bomb the Vatican

And claim he had to do it to free all those poor Cardinals being "held in one of dem con-claaaaves, forced to work day and night".

[flyarm]

24. yeah he's important enough to sit behind the iranians!! where is

tony blair and the prince??..i just have to know!!!..i am laughing my you know what off...i just love it...pjp2 you were the greatest!!!...even on exit!!
this is one happy catholic!!

go get em cardnials!! i love it!!!

hey * how about those seats???

how does the rear end of the iranians look about now????

* in prayer....hail mary!!! full of grace...grace?? what i though i was here with pickles!! and the condi sado masichist gal!!

pickles you are dead meat putting me behind the iranians...its that freaking black thingy on your head..you got us the cheap seats!!

heyyyyy * are you starting to feel like bob uker yet??????????

wow this makes me giddy!!

fly

[fooj]

26. I love your indominable spirit, fly! LOL!

Peace!

BTW- Make that 2 happy Catholics!!!

[cry baby]

17. GOOD! nt

[FreedomAngel82]

19. I think it's funny

and he deserves it.

[flyarm]

23. ohhh you made my funeral watching night!!

thank you holy father!!

i know this had to be by design of pjp11..thank you and bless you dear father!!

fly