“I did not mean to kill the leader of the occupation forces. I was expressing what’s inside of me and what’s inside the Iraqi people from north to south and from west to east.” — Muntadhar al-Zeidi, the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush last year
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33 Comments
Some news clips never get old:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uIj0YvDBKE
Hmmmm…
Anti-U.S. protests were held in several cities, with some Islamic hard-liners setting tires on fire and others throwing shoes at caricatures of Clinton,
http://www.obamaers.com/shoes-thrown-at-hilliary-clinton/
And I care about what he thinks, why, exactly?
I suppose Bush could have expressed his daddy issues with something other than bombing countries. Oh we’re talking about the heroic shoe thrower. Nah, throwing shoes is much better than throwing chairs.
Wonder what it feels like to start a global trend?
Dennis
I would suggest sentencing to a Nike shoe factory in India.
I don’t think India wants George W. Bush in their country. Bush should probably be made to serve his sentence in Guantanamo.
Bush would have been smart to ask the Iraqi government to drop the charges and just call it “freedom of expression”. In fact, it would be a smart thing for him to do today.
Leave to duh Libs like Witt, to mangle a good joke.
His wasn’t even funny or original.
Stolen material is the modus operandi for duh Libs.
#
SolDevVB
Posted February 19, 2009 at 12:35 pm | Permalink
Hmmmm…
Anti-U.S. protests were held in several cities, with some Islamic hard-liners setting tires on fire and others throwing shoes at caricatures of Clinton,
http://www.obamaers.com/shoes-thrown-at-hilliary-clinton/
__________________
But Sol, that would be sexist to criticize her and we don’t dare be racist(ya know). It’s a good thing we have W to kick around for the next 4 years. How else could we be PC?
“bth” advises –
“Bush would have been smart to ask the Iraqi government to drop the charges and just call it “freedom of expression”. In fact, it would be a smart thing for him to do today.”
Why would he start doing a smart thing now?
Another plug for Oliver Stone’s film: “W.”
It’s not by any means a perfect movie, but it portrays Shrub with a surprisingly even hand. He’s even a sympathetic character sometimes.
And Richard Dreyfus as Dick Cheney uncanny.
“W.” is out on DVD this week. A short-wait, perhaps, on your Netflix queue.
The difference is that Hillary would agree that they should be free to express their disapproval of her. Looks like Bush wants HIS critic tortured and jailed.
Hillary is not very athletic Ben. ‘Her royal thighness’ would have taken one straight to the face.
Of course if that happened, the left here would be calling for capital punishment for the shoe thrower.
Using an airplane to hunt isn’t the epitome of athleticism.
I hear that since that incident the brand/style of shoe that Al Zeidi threw at Bush has become one of the most popular shoes in the entire middle-east, with orders of more than half a million pairs! Seems our journalist expressed quite a popular opinion both there and here! We of course threw votes, which are less colorful but more effective.
Is that shoe the same make and model thrown at pictures of Clinton?
“Seems our journalist expressed quite a popular opinion both there and here! We of course threw votes, which are less colorful but more effective.” — Jed
—-
Yes! Ours was a better way to express our feelings!
I didn’t like the satisfaction I got from watching that man throw his shoes. And I don’t ever think violence of any kind is the best way, but I sure understood his feelings.
“Of course if that happened, the left here would be calling for capital punishment for the shoe thrower.”
Perhaps YOUR left regular. Not MY left.
linda – I’m not sute I would really classify the shoe as ‘violence’. More like the proverbial slap in the face or a pie. As for there being a “better way” to do it – and what would that be?
He could’ve just flipped bush off. But, the shoes were a better expression of the same thing.
Linda,
In the middle-east, throwing shoes isn’t violence, it’s about as bad an insult as a person can throw at you.
Remember that when you go into a Mosque or a person’s home there, you remove your shoes as a sign of respect to the host in a tradition that goes back millenia. Shoes spend their lives in dirt. Throwing them is the literal equivalent of throwing mud here.
I knew throwing the shoe was an expression of great disdain. I agree, Ben and Jed, that bush wasn’t hurt and all that, but he could have been. I loved Jed’s line about how we used our votes! That was quite an effective way to show our disgust! I wish bush was big enough to see this as a cultural way of expressing disapproval and use his influence to intervene, but when was bush any kind of big man? Never.
I remember when bush ‘flipped off’ the press. I’m just so happy he is in the past! Everything about being rid of him makes me happy!
“As for there being a “better way” to do it – and what would that be?”
I don’t know. I guess sometimes you just don’t do anything. He was beaten, he faces up to fifteen years in prison, and bush isn’t worth that kind of sacrifice (to me!). I’m a coward, he was brave.
He said in court, “I wanted to restore the pride of the Iraqis in any way possible, apart from using weapons. I was expressing what’s inside of me and what’s inside the Iraqi people from north to south and from west to east. I am charged now with attacking the prime minister’s guest, We Arabs are famous for being generous with guests. But Bush and his soldiers have been here for six years. Guests should knock on the door. Those who come sneaking in are not guests.”
During the news conference, Zaidi said, he became enraged as Bush provided an upbeat assessment of the security situation in Iraq. “I did not know what achievements he was talking about,” Zaidi said. “I was seeing a million martyrs, seas of Iraqi blood, the desecration of mosques, the raping of Iraqi women and the humiliation Iraqis endure every day, every hour. Because I am a journalist, I know all about that.”
Maybe he needed to do that no matter the consequences. He and his countrymen have suffered much at the hands of bush.
Linda,
“I loved Jed’s line about how we used our votes! That was quite an effective way to show our disgust!”
I still wouldn’t have minded a picture of Bush buried in a huge pile of paper ballots. Maybe even a video of his feet withering ala the Wicked Witch Under Dorothy’s house!
Ahhh. Another thread by the Eagle in it’s miserable attempt to capture hits to help it’s dismal advertising revenue figures.
Libs bite easily.
Is the guy going to jail in an Iraqi prison, or something? I imagine 6 months to a year is all a person should serve in prison for throwing their shoes at a world leader. At least they weren’t shoe bombs. Now if Ex-President Bush’s reflexes weren’t so good, and he was pegged in the head with one or both shoes, then the guy should serve an extra year in prison. If I was Bush, I would of gave the guy a pardon, or told the Iraqi government to pardon him.
That would be the big thing to do, so don’t hold your breath.
The man’s shoes were a representation of what many Iraqis felt about Bush.
Shoes and feet are considered among the lowliest of body parts by Iraqis. [Recall Iraqis hitting the statue of Sadam with their shoes...].
Guess their notions of liberation were different from those of GWB.
I, for one, am glad that my country paid billions of dollars for this wonderful war…
The man’s shoes were a representation of what many Iraqis felt about Bush.
===============================================
And now how they feel about Obama and Clinton!
And thanks for stating the obvious Davis. It’s only been in the news for months.
MH,
I’ll add a second to your comments about seeing “W”. My daughter and her boyfriend took me to see it in the theater. I’d read that there were humorous parts to it. Unfortunately I found no humor. In fact, it made me a little sad that the man was our president.
It isn’t by far Stone’s best film. There were too many inaccuracies in it, but it did give a good overall view of our beloved (ahem) Dubya.
To be fair, I bought the DVD last week. After all, I have Fahrenheit 911. They’ll make good “bookends”. ;) I also picked up “Religulous” this week. Yes, I’m a DVD junkie, especially when movies aren’t allowed in the theaters long. I tend to go to movies after they’ve moved to the “cheap seat” theaters. I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, but the reaction of the clerk who took my money nearly made me laugh out loud.
BTW, “Milk” will be out on DVD March 10.
I wish both of those shoes had caught bush right in the teeth. It would have been a fitting close on the worst administration in history.
Maybe Al Zeidi should be sentenced to 60 days of target practice.