Bush Apologizes to Wiccan Soldier's Widow for Meeting Slip-Up

Source: Washington Post, September 1, 2007

President Bush has apologized to the widow of a Wiccan soldier after she was excluded from a Nevada meeting this week that the president held with the families of soldiers killed in combat.

(snip)

On Thursday, after publicity about the omission, the White House and the military scrambled to put things right. Stewart said she received phone calls from Department of Defense officials, who told her that her name was inadvertently left off a list of guests they forwarded to the White House.

Bush, who had been in Nevada for a speech to the American Legion's national convention, also called Stewart and, in a conversation that she said lasted about five minutes, expressed regret over her exclusion. She said she told the president about the Wiccan faith.

"I don't know whether you believe me or not, but I hope you know that this president would not dishonor a soldier," she said Bush told her.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/31/AR2007083101954.html

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Setting aside the gaffe of Ms. Stewart's non-invitation, it struck me as pathetic (yet appropriate) that the President of the United States has to preface a statement to a citizen with "I don't know whether you believe me or not."

Other presidents have not had to begin statements by acknowledging their own total lack of credibility. Have they?

:sarcasm:

No wonder no one believes his sorry ass.

president would not dishonor a soldier..."

Two words, Motherfucker,

FUCK YOU!

"I am not a crook."

Sheesh.

Talk about dishonoring soldiers, what are we fighting for?

Edited to add video:

Country Joe McDonald at Woodstock

the list, I will believe him about this "over-sight". She is better off not meeting with 666.

invite the mother to the Whitehouse and do it personally.

DOH! What am I smoking???

Nevermind!

White House is the ONLY way he can convince me or anyone else that it wasn't deliberate because she wasn't a "Christian". He could find time in his "busy" schedule as it would only shorten his bike ride or an afternoon nap by 5 minutes. Come on Mr. bush...you can do it because you honor the troops...don't you?

"I don't know whether you believe me or not, but I really didn't want Katrina to sink under the Gulf and all those people end up stuck dehyrdrating on rooftops."

"I don't know whether you believe me or not, but I really didn't want you to think Saddam had anything to do with 9/11."

"I don't know whether you believe me or not, but.."

No, I don't. I don't believe you.

I have no words.

might not have a comeback for that until a long time after the fact. I would want to replay his words to him and ask him why bother having a pro-life position if he really believes it is okay to question the value of a person's life.

She honored her military man. Now she's called * and crew on this deal.
One helluva woman there.



:applause:

that the evil a person does comes back to them three-fold. I would settle for having even a fraction of the evil B*sh has done come back to him.

what you do in life always comes back to you. I am not a Wiccan and I've seen it happen over and over, even to myself. What goes around, comes around and so it will be to *. I sure wouldn't want to be him or Cheyney for that matter. They have a lot to pay for.:evilgrin:

caused so many families throughout this world who will never be the same or happy again. I just hope they have the balls to be riddled with guilt for the rest of their lives. Actually I hope they can't stand the guilt any more and end their own lives. That's the only way they can prove to me they are truly repentant. Maybe ALL those who are quiltey...including war profiteers could all do it together in one mass suicide.

Sorry agent Mike or the FBI or the CIA or AT&T or anyone out there watching or snooping on the internet...especially anti-bush sites...just wishful thinking.

Republicans in general no longer seem to know what the word even means. Check out this document, which lays out the "rationale" for right-wing authoritarianism with blinding clarity.

Hint: they are afraid. Very, very afraid.

she returns stuff in spades. I've seen it happen to a former friend of mine.

I agree, because I don't know what in the hell I was up to in that past life of mine, but it was apparently no damn good!

If that was true, Bush and Cheney would have melted, Raiders of the Lost Ark-style, on national television quite some time ago.

Intentional? I bet it was.

snip
The Wiccan faith is based on nature and emphasizes respect for the earth. Some Wiccans call themselves witches or pagans.

snip

Just don't let the Taliban find out about this honor

but it's my impression that Bush is doing better since Rove left. I mean, it's like a big ship. You have to have the engine astern for a while before anyone notices that you've changed direction. And then he's still very limited in his ablities.

Of course, in many ways that is exactly what he is.

I've never read where he's done such a thing

duh

the ancient Japanese one.

You know, with the knife?

Inadventent omission, my ass.

when he was governor of Texas:

"I don't believe that Wicca is a religion," -- just before he endorsed the idea of the Ten Commandments being posted in public buildings, including schools.

Check out this link:

http://www.positiveatheism.org/writ/bushwicca.htm

And yes, Wiccans believe in the three-fold-law. Bush's evil WILL return to him three times over.

And so mote it be!

but I am very much interested in the genuine practice of Wicca (as opposed to kids who declare themselves pagans just to piss off their parents after they leave for college). I respect the emphasis on nature and harmony and all of that. But I've always wondered, since seeing the witchcraft episode of "In Search Of..." a million years ago, what actually is the gist of the verb "mote"? Does it differ from "may" or "might"? I assume that there are subtleties involved.

based on very old practices and principles. We draw our traditions from everywhere. 'Mote' means might or may, and I think it's Masonic. So mote it be is our way of saying 'amen'.

(and doesn't Amen mean "so be it"?) but I'd still wondered about the specifics. I respect your openness about the "newness" of Wicca...I'll admit that I have no patience for people who profess to be following in the "Druid tradition", because no one alive today knows exactly what the Druids were up to. Everything has to start somewhere...there's no shame in being new.... So better to be upfront about it rather than invent some bogus backstory that can't hold up to scrutiny. Thanks.

That goes for modern Druids as well, who got their start -- or restart -- in the British Isles over a century ago.

There's an abundance of written material on the movement, and if you are interested in following up you can PM me.

Hekate

You are correct - Mote is an old word and of saying "will". The group of Wiccans I trained with and the group that I now practice with use the phrase "So mote it be." almost like a Christian congregation might use amen - to signify agreement and the wish that whatever has been stated or requested will be done. For example - I might call the east quarter saying something along the lines of "powers of east, of air, of intellect and new beginnings, we welcome you here and ask that you add your strength to our circle of protection. So mote it be. And everyone attending the circle would respond So mote it be.

Strayhorn tried to deny a TX Unitarian Univeralist church tax exempt status because she said that the congregation didn't hold a "single belief" therefore it was not a church. Til the media and lawyers got involved and only then did she reverse her decision.

I can't even imagine a scenario where the evil he has personally harbored and promoted returns to him, personally, threefold. It would take many lifetimes...

It would be nice if he felt the weight of Tyr's Justice, or stood before Osiris and the Judges of the Dead, or had to be tested by Mannanan mac Llyr or had to make his case before Zeus on Olympus. I wonder if his God will allow for a temporary change of venue to any or all of the above.

Partly because my utter contempt for the creature (with apologies to all other creatures) is so intense that giving it an amusing spin is better for my blood pressure. ;) Sorry if you've heard it before.

Bush dies of a heart attack and goes to hell. The devil tells him that hell is overbooked with all the evil repukes and others, some of whom weren't quite so evil as the boy king. Junior would be given the chance to choose which of the current residents gets a reprieve so that he can take their spot in hell.

They walk to the first door, open it, and there is Ronnie Raygun, in a fish tank, furiously treading to keep his head above water. In his fatigue, he occasionally goes under then rises, sputtering and coughing. Boy king looks on, horrified, and tells the devil he can't swim and most definitely doesn't want to take Raygun's place.

In the next room is Richard Nixon, atop a large pile of huge rocks. He swings a heavy sledgehammer repeatedly, sweaty and dirty. Junior says he likes trimming the brush at his ranch but this rock job looks like hard work, no thanks.

The door to the last room is opened. There's Bill Clinton lying nude on a bed with satin sheets. Monica kneels over him doing, ahem, what she does best. Excitedly, Junior tells the devil this is it, this is the job he'd like.

Done! says the devil. Monica, you're free to go.

"I don't know whether you believe me or not, but I hope you know that this president would not dishonor a soldier."

He didn't say -
I don't know whether you believe me or not, but I hope you know that 'I' would not dishonor a soldier.

Cheney made him do it.
Cheney said it was OK to apologize.

which means he STILL owes her an apology.

He only dishonored his WIDOW--because she made him look bad by forcing him to recognize that not everybody worships Jesus Christ!

:mad:
rocknation

He dishonors firemen, diplomats, and anyone he meets without a carefully-vetted script. He's known belligerent--if clumsy--insults, but imagines that he is capable of civil discourse when he's on the defensive. He isn't.

what a fucking bigot, though I'm not surprised.

Roberta Stewart...was left off the invitation list for the private meeting...even though other members of her husband's family were invited.

When she heard about the exclusion from her mother-in-law, Stewart said, she concluded that it was done because of her public fight to force the federal government to engrave the symbol for the Wiccan faith on her husband's marker on a memorial.

This is right out the Bush White House playbook--the Valarie Plame chapter. Humiliate, smear, taunt, lather, rinse, repeat!

At least I can take some comfort from his "I don't know if you believe me or not." The fact that he felt the need to say that confirms his guilt.

:headbang:
rocknation

I wouldn't want to upset anyone.

"This president?" THIS PRESIDENT??? Not "I would not dishonor a soldier?" Is he THAT repulsed by the prospect of being held accountable for something? If he didn't want to take the blame, the VERY LEAST he should have said was "I would NEVER ALLOW a soldier to be dishonored!" Frigging PSYCHO!!!

rocknation
:wow:

publicity......