[zoboomofo]

I was watching a bit of Paul Martin's "House of Commons" warming party this afternoon. For the non Canucks, our lame duck Prime Minister Chretien is finally stepping down so that his sensational former cabinet minister can get down to business. For simplicity, I'll now refer to our bespectacled rockstar, Bono, as

.


So some of you know that Martin befriended

during

's drop the debt for Africa campaign. This was the reason Bono made an appearance during Martin's party convention. Although Bono - I mean

- is no Paul Anka, his appearance would seem to be very good for Martin's image. The problem is that

missed the memo to not embarrass the host. I watched his awkward, unpolished speech that didn't celebrate Martin as much as pressure him to keep his promises to

re debt, AIDS. Man I haven't felt that uncomfortable since I put my thong on backwards. I thought that somebody backsage would yank him offstage with a hooked cane fer sure. Ouch.

Well I thought I'd share that with you for a laugh. They should show that clip in classes on 'how not to do public speaking'.

 

[chillysalsa]

I'm sure they expected

to rant on about those issues, he's a man on a mission and it was his only real connection to Martin.

I didn't find the speach too weird, maybe because I was expecting it to be like that. In all, it was actually really good and

raised a couple good points.

The weird thing for me was when I contrasted it to Bush's state of the union from address last year (not the equivalent type of event, I know, but anyway) the contrast between them is frightening:

Here's

trying to tell Canada how we can prevent people in foreign countries from hating us and thus having reason to attack us, and meanwhile, there was Bush, telling how they need to increase defence funding because everyone was scared at who might attack them next.

 

[mbriant]

I haven't seen the speech yet, but I'm a little concerned our soon-to-be Prime Minister's seemingly star-struck nature has already clouded his judgement. Celebrities have always been used as image boosters for the Politician(s) involved in the convention. Bono's actions sound somewhat underhanded.

I doubt it was Martin's intention to give Bono a soapbox for his "forgive Africa's debt" campaign and practically extort Canada's participation in the program by publicly challenging and cornering Martin.

I can't help but think Martin thought he had more of a personal connection going with Bono, but wound up bushwacked.

It'll be interesting to see how aggressively, if at all, Martin moves forward on forgiving Africa's debt. Although forgiving Africa's debt is a noble thing to do, it also means that whoever's doing the forgiving gets screwed. More than likely it'll be the Canadian taxpayer.

 

[Zanth]

I love

 

[zoboomofo]

The bit about the 'It's cheaper to not make enemies than to defend against them' was cool, but the goofy stereotype that followed about Canadians being nice made me wince. I mean, what's that all about? I'm an *********.

I had to switch the channel because it looked like

lost the crowd a bit by then. I don't think Jean was too impressed with him, but Paul kept a brave face. I have to give Bono credit for having the guts to take advantage of this high profile stage, but bushwacking your ally? It was unreal. I waiting for the Shriners to come out.

Here's to

putting the "oh no" back into boner...BONO.

 

[Zanth]

Well given that I despise Paul Martin, Jean and the entire Liberal party (not to mention Canadian politics in general...) I think Bono did it right. "Hey man, you said if you made it to power you would make some change. In fact you promised me this. Well buddy, I'm here to remind you of that promise."

I think it is as good a time as any

 

[pearle]

Here is a link to a video of the event if anyone is interested.

Pulse 24

 

[Zanth]

blocked....