"god is with us if we are with them"--Bono at the prayer breakfast--

[rodeodance]

speaking now.


..."god is with us if we are with them"--Bono at the prayer breakfast--

c-span, sat, feb 4th
he was talking of justice (not necessarily 'eqality").
bush is sitting beside him

[donsu]

1. has Bono actually caused anything new or additional or is he just

good at traveling around with politicians and talking?

I don't follow him, so has he had any success other then promises from politicians

[Amonester]

2. Just like the nitwit$... "he wants to use the taxpayers..."

http://www.affbrainwash.com/archives/009057.php
~snip~
"Besides his blue-tinted sunglasses, oily hair and boring, self-derivative music, the fact that this crooning Irish superstar has a perpetually standing invitation to the White House is also nauseating. What virtues and unique rights does he possess that he can air his opinions to a foreign leader and actually bitch said leader into action? I want my own private session with the Head Honcho; I’ve got plenty to say. Do you think if I went as my alter-ego The Common Garden Slug I too could affect foreign policy?

Bono also seems to be suffering from the delusion that it is he alone who knows the horrifying truth about "the AIDS" and third world debt. He must traverse the world, enlightening ignorant, selfish Americans every step of they way, because, in the words of one of his cohorts, "Americans don't know about f***ing Philadelphia, let alone Africa. Trade is some very sophisticated politics. You have to particularize the drama for them. You've got to have a melody line."

Thank God for people named "The Edge" who can help Americans focus their feeble minds on "sophisticated politics." I mean, who do I think I am? I learned about world history and international affairs from reading books, while Bono "learned about South America from listening to the Clash."

"I refused to meet him at first," said Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill of Bono. "I thought he was just some pop star who wanted to use me." Wrong, Mr. O’Neill. He wants to use the American taxpayers.
~end~

My opinion too.
:hippie:

[davekriss]

3. I don't typically follow celebrity politics...

...but I did just catch the last 15 minutes of his Prayer Breakfast speech and I have to say Bono's speech was well said and well delivered. I think it's ridiculous to claim (if anyone does) that Bono's pursuits are self-serving or ego-driven, it seems to be a geniune thrust of altruism. Perhaps his charisma and leadership are not being put to good use, but what's wrong with the One campaign? The drive to get the USG to "tithe" an additional 1% to foreign aid -- well, other than I think that 1% could and should be plowed back into US programs for US poor, there's nothing negative in that.

I don't understand the skepticism I often see toward Bono when I think he does some good.


(PS/ Other than the second album, I've never been a U2 fan, so no bias here.)

[Amonester]

5. Okay. But I don't know from where that 1% could come from.

Or perhaps I know : from the tax-cuted plutocrat$' off-shore bank account$.

http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK

The Outstanding Public Debt as of 04 Feb 2006 at 04:54:00 PM GMT is:

$8,204,893,295,036.65

I'm sorry but, I don't believe one secon the tax cuts to go "there."

Even if Bono woul;d go as far as to beg for his own crucifixion...

Sorry but, there's no cash flow left.

[davekriss]

6. That's an entirely other matter (tax cuts vs. debt)

But I think Bono is suggesting a redirect of current budget. He did not ask the American people to pony up another 1%, he asked the USG to redirect what they collect (in the form of tax and debt) to aid the poor. It was a prayer breakfast; he appealed to their purported commitment to Christianity and its concept of tithing, of being judged how we treat the least amongst us, etc.

My only critique of Bono's position is there is plenty of "least" right here in America desperately in need of their share of a 1% tithe, and this pool of poor will grow because we as a nation have ceased to make the social investments (as freely as we used to) that will nurture a strong prosperity in the future (we are headed headlong into an Argentinian abyss, imo).

BTW, I rather like the body language when Bush came up to him and thereafter that reptile, Norm Coleman. Bono clearly just tolerated the handshakes, but he looked like he wanted to run off and wash his hands in disinfectant as he withdrew into a tense tortoise shell posture (body language for repressing his true feelings).

Now, on the matter of the Bush Regimes resurrection and continuance of the Reagan-Bush patterns of borrow-and-steal. We can afford much as a nation, but the Bush Regime, in power through stealth and cheat, have chosen to put in play the same transfer of wealth mechanisms of his father and Mr. Raygun. Not now, but maybe some other place I'll outline my depiction of the "skim". Kinda' like Las Vegas in days of old when people with names like "Tommy two fingers" and "Joey no bones" used to enter the count rooms and exit with satchels of cash for their "friends". The only difference today is a matter of scale.

[Amonester]

7. True. But all I can think of is "if" (and it's a big "if") because...

I don't believe even for a trillionth of a second that "it" would happen...

That "it" being: start with all the tax cuts the haves and the havemores already did profit from since the treasury looters got "selected" in 2000.

Then, and only then... Let's see what we can do...


Edit: sp.

[davekriss]

8. I think I get what you're saying here....

...that you as well as I know that the haves and havemores will not be asked to sacrifice this 1% out of their largesse, but it will in the end be another cut to Medicaid, another cut to the Student Loan program, etc.

Why, yes, I agree, I share the same cynicism. However, I applaud Bono for speaking truth in the language that the hypocrites purportedly embrace, his use of the notion of "tithing" to aid the deperately poor in the forgotten continent said to a leering Norm Coleman, and clueless George Bush, the whole cabal of selfish, greedy, murderous Republithugs now ruling the roost.

Confronting the hypocrisy, even to such a small audience as those who watched the Prayer Breakfast, is just another chomp by we termites nibbling away at the foundation of death and destruction now in place.

[sandnsea]

9. $660 billion to war

Trillion dollar US budget. Let's take 1%, 10 billion of the war budget, and help people have better lives and avoid war in the future. It should be part of our strategy on national security. I'm always amazed that people compare our poor who have food stamps and housing and Medicaid and PELL Grants, to African poor who are literally starving in huts, if they're lucky enough to have a hut.

[bryant69]

4. Is that offensive?

Mentioning religion at a prayer breakfast?

It's hard to tell sometimes.

Bryant
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