Posted on 10/20/2005 5:28:58 AM PDT by brwnsuga
Before getting on stage before his fans in a Wednesday night concert, U2 frontman Bono bent President Bush's ear about the world's poor.
The rock star and the president had lunch in the private dining room off the Oval Office, ordering from the menu at the same mess hall where White House staffers get their lunch. Bush, dressed in the classic presidential uniform of suit and red tie, also showed Bono, dressed in his trademark black jeans and sunglasses, around the Oval Office.
Bono told Rolling Stone magazine in an interview before they dined that he had no fear of meeting Bush or any other world leader.
"They should be afraid, because they will be held accountable for what happened on their watch," Bono told the magazine for an article on newsstands Friday. "I'm representing the poorest and the most vulnerable people. On a spiritual level, I have that with me. I'm throwing a punch, and the fist belongs to people who can't be in the room, whose rage, whose anger, whose hurt I represent.
"The moral force is way beyond mine, it's an argument that has much more weight than I have. So I'm not feeling nervous."
Over an hour and 40 minute meeting, Bono and Bush discussed debt relief, AIDS, malaria and world trade, said presidential spokesman Scott McClellan. McClellan said they also talked about the concerts that U2 was preparing to put on at Washington's MCI Center Wednesday and Thursday night.
In the Rolling Stone interview, Bono heaped praise on Bush for providing $15 billion to help fight AIDS in Africa, money that is helping pay for anti-retroviral drugs. He said he was disappointed that Bush and Congress had cut the Millennium Challenge program that gives foreign aid to countries that pursue political, economic and human rights reforms, but he'll keep pushing them to fund the full amount that the president promised.
Bono said he is "capable of having a row" if he doesn't get what he wants. He said he once criticized Bush for not getting the Millennium Challenge money out quick enough and was rebuked for it.
"One senator threw a newspaper at me in a meeting. 'How dare you disrespect the president of the United States!'" Bono told the magazine.
Bono said he doesn't support any president from the left or the right, but he has a hard time criticizing Bush after he has sent the money to Africa. He said he's made it clear that he doesn't support the war in Iraq, but he doesn't campaign against it because his main priority is helping the poor and disadvantaged.
"I work for them," Bono said. "If me not shooting my mouth off about the war in Iraq is the price I pay, then I'm prepared to pay it."
But, he added, "I'm a big-mouthed Irish rock star. Of course it frustrates me."
I think it's embarassing for the President to waste time on this socialist goof.
The President wastes time with goofs every day. It's part of the job.
Bono doesn't file his taxes in Ireland because there is a tax law that charges mega-stars a tax to help fund starving musicians.
Good point, I suppose.
I am surprised that Bono has enough self restraint to not 'shoot his mouth off' about the war, but I have a smidgen of respect for him having it.
I also think Bono is a goof, but he does represent people who can't represent themself and the world needs humanitarians I suppose. I will say that he needs to be more focused on ousting stupid governments that keep the people in Africa poor instead of begging off money from richer countries.
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It's more than embarassing. With all of the issues that beg for his attention, to waste time with this buffoon is an outrage.
Since when is the poor people of the world under Bush's watch?
I thought this is a UN issue?
Why cant I have a meeting with Bush? Im even a US citizen.
I agree.
Prancing, self-absorbed twit.
The thing is, it doesn't get Bush anything. No credit, no appreciation, nada, zilch. He is still hated by the left, and the MSM.
LOL! He's right up there with O'Gasbag!
I don't believe that really happened. At least not as portrayed.
"I'm a big-mouthed Irish rock star. Of course it frustrates me."
No, he's a big mouthed egotist filled with delusions about his own narcissistic self-righteous, self-importance and "wisdom".
How did this twit even get in the door of the White House? Who let him in to inflate his already over inflated sense of self-importance? Who takes this twit seriously? Why?
the spenders.
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True. The only thing it will generate is the disgust of the right.
I don't believe it, either. I'd say that at least 98 of the 100 U.S. Senators are such limp-wristed fairies that they couldn't throw a newspaper more than six inches.
Bono: Poor people are pretty poor.
Bush: They are that.
(three minutes pass)
Bono: Poor, that's what poor people are.
Bush: Poor, poor, poor.
(a minute passes)
Bono: You won't find a lot of spare change among the poor.
Bush: Nope.
(seven minutes pass)
Bono: If I had a choice, I wouldn't be poor.
Bush: Neither would they.
(four minute passes)
Bono: Isn't being poor a real tragedy?
Bush: (looking at his watch) Oh my! How the time has flown! I have to meet the Supremo Leader and Chief Big Pickle of Zimbabwe. I understand his name is Lazamataz.
Lol. I would ask the same of Oprah Winfrey.
There was a list of the U.S. states and their charitable donations.
The most charitable states were in the deep south, Alabama, Mississippi, the poorest states.
The northeast states, Massachusetts and Connecticut, for example, were the least charitable.
Some wealthy are so because they give only when it doesn't hurt.
Who the hell cares what this goofy POS thinks about anything?
Damn! Just shut the hell up and sing a song!
Or don't sing a song. Who give as rat's...., aww, the hell with it.
As long as weak-minded, socialist- leaning, "hero" worshippers with birkenstocks and foul body odor support this fool, he'll continue to assume that whatever he has to say is significant on the world stage.
President Bush should tell him to take a hike.
But then, President Bush should have done a lot of things of late, that he hasn't done.
Kowtowing to ignorant buffoons that sing bad songs is one thing he has no business doing.
Send this ass to a minion of some sort, such as the local Postmaster of Podunk, Iowa, who will give him (Bono), all the attention he deserves.
Lol. I don't even know who he is. I read "Bono" and thought of ole dead Sonny Bono.
I've never heard a U2 song. At least, not that I'm aware of. I read U2 and think of ole Gary Powers.
Am I out of it or what? :o)
Is Big Pickle the name of the chief or is Lazamataz the name of his Big Pickle?
I'm easily confused here.
This is going to cost the American taxpayer BIGTIME.
Ditto. There was an old saying taught in business school, "The closer you are to familiarity the further you are from respect."
Be careful with your critiques of Bono. His policy goals--succoring the poor through policy rather than through individual charity which affords the give the opportunity to imitate Our Father in Heaven who makes the rain fall on the just and unjust alike--are leftist, but he is hardly a socialist. He very much supports African development projects which institute small-scale capitalism (the only thing other than Christian charity that's ever worked to succor the poor, at least without introducing odd new social pathologies).
He happens to have used the leisure of rockstardom to become one of the leading authorities in or out of government on African development issues. (And no, his ideas aren't all leftist.) As a result he's probably the only rockstar worth inviting to the White House, that's how.
Oh puh-leeze!
Nope! No messianic 'Ego' here.
Do the world's poor include those who've paid for a full price ticket to a U2 concert?
Why isn't Bono, with all his money, going out and helping the world's poor himself? I think he would get a lot more done that way rather than hobnobbing with world leaders.
Any pictures of this meeting?
A matter of perspective, I suppose. "Leftist" and "socialist" are the same thing, to me.
Now, veronica. It doesn't appear that you're reaching out. It'll work. I just know it. :)
LOL - wonderful!
“I'm throwing a punch, and the fist belongs to people who can't be in the room, whose rage, whose anger, whose hurt I represent.”
His punch will also land on people not in the room, the American taxpayer, whose rage, whose anger, whose hurt will be ... ignored.
Maybe we could put Bono and Mary Landriu in the ring and let them throw punches at each other. Put it on pay-per-view and use the proceeds to buy a Mercedes for an African kleptocrat.
If the President did want to meet with Bono he would not. There is obviously something that Bono says about his cause that has touched a nerve with "W" and on this plain they are of like minds. Time will show if it has been waste of time, or time well spent. :)
If the President did want to meet with Bono he would not. There is obviously something that Bono says about his cause that has touched a nerve with "W" and on this plain they are of like minds. Time will show if it has been waste of time, or time well spent. :)
Interesting idea. On the one hand, I don't think any of us should be "afraid" to meet the President. You just look him in the eye, hold out your hand, and say, "Nice to meet you, Mr. President!" On the other hand, for someone who's not even American to act like the President of the U.S. is morally answerable to him is ... goofy.
That's the most disturbing part of all this.
Thanks :)
Uh-oh...
now Dubya's gone and leaked the code name of another CIA operative...
Pretty bad timing, IMHO.
"That's the most disturbing part of all this."
I know.
Bono: Did you know that there are poor people in the world?
Bush: Yep.
.
<wind stirs in the background>
.
Bono: That's pretty much all I had. Um,.. Here, I can do shadow puppets.
<holding hands in beam of sun light>
This is a doggy. Ruff! Ruff! And now a butterfly <flapping hands>
Bush: That's just great Mr. whoever you are.
<Bush reaches under desk top and presses button, ....nothing,>
Bono: I know, there's this trick I do with my toes and a lighter. Is this place fireproof?
Bush: Gee, I don't know.
<furiously pressing button, .... still nothing, presses intercom switch>
KARL! We need to talk!
Karl: Sure boss just taking care of a few lose ends.
<positioning the cross-hairs over Norway, Karl gives the Natural Disaster Selector wheel a good spin. When it comes to rest on "A plague of sexually confused water buffaloes" he hits the execute button>
How can I help?
Bush: What's wrong with my Washed-Up Entertainer Trap-O'-Doom?
Karl: It's clogged up George. We have a guy coming in tomorrow to clean it out but frankly we're going to have to come up with another method for dealing with Washed-Up Entertainers.
Bush: Why's that?
Karl: It's the Trap-O'-Doom sharks. Wimpy leftest meat is bad for their digestive system.
Bush: <He watches Bono attempting to remove his shoes. Hopping up and down on one leg Bono crashes into various vases, paintings, thermonuclear bomb activation switches>
How about a Trap-O'-Doom goat. They'll eat anything.
Karl: No I,...
Bush: A Trap-O'-Doom gopher? platypus? COME ON KARL! Give me something!
Karl: Look George I know it'll be rough but you're going to have to get him out of your office the old fashioned way. You're going to have to talk to him.
Bush: <sigh....> Hey Bono.
Bono: <trying to flick lighter with the one hand not entangled in shoe laces>
Yeah?
Bush: Do you have any hobbies?
Bono: Like shadow puppets?
Bush: Other than shadow puppets.
Bono: <with a sad forlorn look>
no....
Bush: <helping Bono to his feet>
Do you know anything about ant farms?
Bono: Is that where they grow ants?
Bush: <walking Bono out of his office>
Not quite. Ant farms allow you to take car of a colony of ants.
Bono: Are ants poor?
Bush: Well that's one way of looking at them,...
Bono: Great! Something to take care of! A purpose!
Bush: Let's see if we can get you an ant farm
<note to self: ask Karl about Trap-O'-Doom ants.>
My guess is about three months prior to the mid-term elections.
Why doesn't Bono meet with Putin, Chirac, the Prince of Monaco, etc. to get them to fleece THEIR taxpayers for the benefit of the socialist/communist/dictatorship/thug-led black holes of the world?
Why GW granted an audience to this rebel-with-a-pickpocket cause is beyond me. I hope he checked his wallet and got Bono's autograph before the for-show, spartan "staff menu" lunch broke up.
Leni
Great verbiage!
Who elected you?
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