Huckabee Invokes the Bono

Oh no he di'n'.  Mike Huckabee invoked the name of the Bono at the tumultuous conclusion of his "sermon of negativity" to the masses gathered in Tampa last night.  Bono, one, if not the only non-partisan figure in Washington, had his good name and extra-ordinary words dragged through the mud last night by the increasingly hostile Huckabee.  This was a breach of their "friendship" and I'll be interested to see if Bono has something to say about it.  I'll try to link the video later, but for now, enjoy the text from Bono's friend, and notice how he never ends the "quote" from Bono.  Ass-hat.  To turn Bono's "extra-ordinary" quote into a political attack on Obama is an outrage!! 

"Sometimes, we're so close to the picture, we can't really see it clearly. I've worked with Bono for the past few years in the ONE campaign to fight AIDS and hunger and disease around the world.

He's an Irishman and a great humanitarian who told me of his admiration for America. He said we're more than a country; we're an idea.
He reminded me that we are an exceptional nation with an extraordinary history who owes it to the generations coming after us to leave them an extraordinary legacy.
If we don't change the direction of our nation now, our bequest will be nothing but an extraordinary shame.

But we can do better.

President Obama is out of gas; Americans are out of patience, and our great Republic is almost out of time."

Close to the Bone-o

Forward to 2:00 to hear Bono's sexual dysfunction story. Need I say more?

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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1/2 U2 Entertains Clintons

I loved this!

What Hath Mitt Wrought?

I've spent part of the morning amusing myself on Wikipedia reading about the Golden Plates and Joseph Smith.  I don't hold it against Romney, he was born into it, but it's a delight to see the Christian/Fountainhead followers try to bend themselves into accepting a Mormon as their leader.  I suppose if you can merge the philosophies of Christ and Rand, anything is possible (with Rupert at the helm).  My favorite quote from Wikipedia about Smith's wife Emma:

In 1843, Emma reluctantly allowed Smith to marry four women who had been living in the Smith household—two of whom Smith had already married without her knowledge. Emma also participated with Smith in the first "sealing" ceremony, intended to bind their marriage for eternity. However, Emma soon regretted her decision to accept plural marriage and forced the other wives from the household, nagging Smith to abandon the practice.  Smith dictated a revelation pressuring Emma to accept, but the revelation only made her furious.

"Wait honey, I'm having a revelation from God.  He's saying you need to accept it, you know, the 'me having sex with all the other women' thing.  Yeah, so, um, that settles it!" 

How'd it work out?

Joseph's death threw both the church and Emma's family into disorder. Emma was left a pregnant widow—it would be on November 17, 1844, that she gave birth to her and Joseph's last child together....
Nearly two years later, a close friend and non-Mormon, Major Lewis C. Bidamon, proposed marriage and became Emma's second husband on December 23, 1847.

You can't make this stuff up!  Oh wait..... read for yourself, the story of the Golden Plates.

Here's an engraving of Joseph Smith  receiving the Golden Plates and the "seer stone spectacles":

It reminds me of this picture, Bono handing the Pope his sunglasses:

Bono Hitches a Ride

Oiler Brule gave lift to hitchhiking Bono

This was better than Spidey on AI.  So, Paul McGuinness is Bono's assistant?  Heh.

U2 on FRINGE, again...

U2 makes it's way onto FRINGE again, with Peter giving his freshly deflowered Bolivia (aka Fauxlivia) tickets to go see U2 in concert.
How romantic!
But keep watching the clip... Peter's been working on the "end of the world" machine. And it looks suspiciously like "The Claw". Or something you could hook up to "The Claw".
We already know there is no U2 on the other side.
I said it before and it worked, so I'll say it again:
"I'm hoping it comes back into the plot later on..."



U2's "The Claw"

Fringe & U2: Worlds Collide

So... no U2 in the alternate universe, huh? Who's Bono? I'm hoping it comes back into the plot later on...

BonObama Meet Again

P043010PS-0100, originally uploaded by The White House.

Bono misses with a wild right hook, as Obama scoffs....

Update: @U2 has people writing captions for this photo.

I guess it should have been obvious... "Ow, my baaaaack!" U2 cancels North American leg of 360 Tour because of Bono's unexpected back surgery.

Bono 5-0

Bono turns 5-0 today.

Dang, brothr! (read about U2BROTHR's experience)

Wikipedia has a well-done Bono page, worth checking out if you've ever wondered how this singing shaman became the biggest rock star the world has ever known.

Oh, and the Washington Post has a special article for Bono's 50th, titled "Bono at 50: The Leader We Need". A sentence in the last paragraph begins, "Bono, like Abraham Lincoln 150 years ago...."

Elvis Presley & Bono Duet on Vertigo

This just made my day, I love it! Simply Amazing!!

Bonobama

Somebody had to say it. Thanks Robert A. George of the Philadelphia News.:

"He is both harbinger and embodiment of the current political mood. Note that Bono and Barack Obama are the same age. Though one hails from Ireland and the other America-via-exotic back-story, they see the world through similar (sun) lenses: They put a premium on post-partisanship....

...Bono dismayed fans by meeting with the late Jesse Helms -- who pronounced Bono as "genuine" and "well-prepared" in trying to get aid to Africa that would actually get to the people who needed it. This is the sort of common sense you wish every cause-chasing Hollywood-type would follow. With that post-partisan pragmatic approach, Bono sounds like Obama (or, more accurately, Obama sounds like Bono).

Ironically though, Andrew Sullivan who loves and admires Obama's pragmatic sensibility, dismisses Bono for his "opaque" lyrics. Right -- and no one has accused Obama of high-flying rhetoric that appears not to mean anything at first glance?!?! The similarity between singer and politician are pretty strong."

Thanks George! (Hey, I can say that without using it in a disparaging way!)

Bono 'Stood Up' by Palin/McCain

from CNN:

NEW YORK (CNN) – John McCain and Sarah Palin’s meeting with Bono was canceled Wednesday due to scheduling reasons, according to the campaign.

Instead, McCain and Palin will chat with Bono by phone this afternoon about the ONE Campaign, the U2 front man’s initiative to raise awareness of AIDS and global poverty.

Unlike McCain and Palin’s other meetings with dignitaries in New York this week, most of which had been open to reporters and photographers, the Bono meeting was listed as closed to the press, at the rock star’s request.

And it looks like McCain won't show for Letterman tonight
From Drudge:

EXCLUSIVE: LETTERMAN MOCKS MCCAIN CANCELLATION
Wed Sep 24 2008 17:41:58 ET

David Letterman tells audience that McCain called him today to tell him he had to rush back to DC to deal with the economy.

Then in the middle of the taping Dave got word that McCain was, in fact just down the street being interviewed by Katie Couric. Dave even cut over to the live video of the interview, and said, "Hey Senator, can I give you a ride home?"

Earlier in the show, Dave kept saying, "You don't suspend your campaign. This doesn't smell right. This isn't the way a tested hero behaves." And he joked: "I think someone's putting something in his metamucil."

"He can't run the campaign because the economy is cratering? Fine, put in your second string quarterback, Sara Palin. Where is she?"

"What are you going to do if you're elected and things get tough? Suspend being president? We've got a guy like that now!"

No debate with Barack on Friday? Maybe he should just suspend his campaign altogether.

I hear there's plenty of work for the poultry industry... ducking and being a chicken.
Booooo! I want my Palin/Bono photo-op. I feel cheated.....

McCain to be there, too

Ya know, for that Palin-Bono meeting.

Bono's keeping a blog this week, at the Financial Times.

I'm really looking forward to seeing photos from this event.

Bono to Meet Palin

According to tvnz and others:

Palin, the Alaska governor who Republican presidential nominee John McCain picked to be his running mate earlier this month, will meet with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Wednesday. She has meetings with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the same day. The appointments are in addition to meetings the campaign previously confirmed for Palin on Tuesday with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe as well as a sit-down with former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Palin will also meet with U2 lead singer and activist Bono on Wednesday.

And look who Bono took to church in NYC yesterday:

Bono Eulagizes Tom Lantos

Bono's tribute to former Rep. Tom Lantos

All you need its love, love.

Bono's Gift to Bush: Pride

From the Christian Science Monitor:

"But Durbin singled out for praise Mr. Bush's request that Congress reauthorize his AIDS relief plan and double the plan's funding with an additional $30 billion over five years.

"I applauded ... his renewed commitment to the global AIDS fight," Durbin said. "Of all the things this president has done in the foreign-policy realm, it is the one thing that he can point to with pride in years to come after his presidency.""

Maybe Bono should have lobbied Bush on more issues....

Bloomberg to Toss Hat in Ring?

The NY Times speculates that Michael Bloomberg may run for president as an independent. I like a lot of things he has to say about elections, parties, and the Constitution:

Mr. Boren declined to say which candidate would be strongest, but suggested “some kind of combination of those three: Bloomberg-Hagel, Bloomberg-Nunn.” He said Mr. Bloomberg would “not have to spend a lot of time raising money and he would not have to make deals with special interest groups to raise money.”

“Normally I don’t think an independent candidacy would have a chance” said Mr. Boren, who is the University of Oklahoma’s president. “I don’t think these are normal times.”

Mr. Bloomberg, who has tried to seize a national platform on gun control, the environment and other issues, has been regularly briefed in recent months on foreign policy by, among others, Henry A. Kissinger, his friend and the former secretary of state, and Nancy Soderberg, an ambassador to the United Nations in the Clinton administration. (and Bono!)

Advisers have said Mr. Bloomberg, a billionaire many times over, might invest as much as $1 billion of his own fortune (he spent about $160 million on his two mayoral races) on a presidential campaign.

But they warned that while they were confident of getting on the ballot in every state, the process was complicated and fraught with legal challenges, and that Mr. Bloomberg would begin with an organizational disadvantage, competing against rivals who have been campaigning full time for years.

Still, the mayor said this month at a news conference, “Last I looked — and I’m not a candidate — but last time I checked reading about the Constitution, the Electoral College has nothing to do with parties, has absolutely nothing to do with parties. It’s most states are winners take all. The popular vote assigns electoral votes to the candidate, and I don’t think it says in there that you have to be a member of one party or another.”...

...“You know,” he replied, “if it’s a three-way race, the public has more choice than if it’s a two-way race, and has more choice in a two-way race than a one-way race. Why shouldn’t you have lots of people running, and what’s magical about people who happen to be a member of a party?”

Ladies, are you considering voting for a woman just because you can?
Bloomberg's single! And he hangs out with Bono! That will be more fun to watch than Hillary, Hillary, Hillary, right? Who's with me?
Leave your party affiliations aside and bring your Constitution, we're taking America back! Anything to break the two-party system will help, doing it with a centrist like Bloomberg might be the best thing we can do.

"Bono Can Unite Us"...

...so says the Washington Post:

"Bono seems to provide for many in official Washington a form of inspiration, reaching into those corners of the soul to find whatever remained of the sense of optimism and altruism that drove them into public service in the first place. What Bono demands in return is the means to save the lives of millions.

"Why are people listening?" Bono says. "Because I actually believe in America and they know it and I'm not sure if they do sometimes. It is a little odd and eerie to have an Irish rock star recite the Declaration of Independence like it's a great poem, but it is a great poem. And that poetry is what's missing from political dialogue right now. And this country is parched, parched from the lack of such political lyrics, and I'm going in saying, 'This is who you are.' "...

..."And then he is gone, off to catch a private jet to New York, where he will greet the famous of that metropolis by their first names.

He leaves behind a city awash in its own bile. We are once again faced with our own disagreements over earmarking and vetoes and overrides and cots. What we do now is wait -- wait for Bono to return, the one person who can unite us."

Bono on a Train

Just heard from an old friend who lives in NYC and he writes:

"I just got out of the subway- was on the "6" train going downtown and on the train right beside me was your man Bono. Couldn't f'ing believe it."
Thanks for the tip, Stu!

This isn't Bono's first train trip...it seems he does this kinda traveling pretty often as Matt from @U2 writes in this column:

"Bono took Amtrak from D.C. to Philly the afternoon of the 21st on his way to speak with the World Affairs Council. I know, because @U2 reader Dan M. has a friend who works for Amtrak, and this friend tipped him off to Bono's arrival at 30th Street Station that afternoon, and Dan M. ended up with a brief but private audience with the biggest rock star in the world"

Read the story for the full version

Fleeting Expletives

From Wayne Friedman at TV Watch:

"From whom do you want to hear vulgarities?
From honored World War II veterans — or Bono, Cher, and Nicole Richie?"

Wait a minute Wayne! That should be: "From honored World War II veterans and Bono — or Cher and Nicole Richie?"

"...Even the FCC ruled that broadcasters shouldn’t be penalized for airing Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” movie about the invasion of Normandy during World War II, because of the repeated use of vulgarities.

The FCC said deleting the expletives “would have altered the nature of the artistic work and diminished the power, realism and immediacy of the film experience for viewers.”

But somehow when Bono at the Golden Globes feels honored, or maybe drips with sarcasm, that’s not art. Because, as we all know, the FCC knows art.

As he might say, this is really, really great — f@#king brilliant."

Bono crosses the line between respected humanitarian and potty mouth rock star... It was OK for Nixon on 60 Minutes, OK for some movies on TV, but not others....looks like a judgment call...I know, let's start a new bureaucracy to look into and regulate this so-called "speech"!

I think he's purposely poking fun at our fear of swear words.

I dig the term "fleeting expletives", that is just so funny.... Bono got away with it because they thought it was genuine, from the heart, part of his art? ....and live. I think he slipped it in there on purpose, he's done it before (1993 Grammys). He can get away with it because he says the "f" word in a "fleeting" manner. And he's Bono. Not Cher or Nicole Richie for crying out loud. Can't we just get back to thinking about poor Paris in that cold jail cell....