Bush narrowly avoids Saddam statue treatment

[Guest Aloysius]

[Westside Steve]

Hopefully it'll be as funny when Obama is assaulted.

WSS

[Guest Aloysius]

Didn't say it was funny. And I'm not sure shoe-throwing qualifies as assault.

[DieHardBrownsFan]

That was plain piss poor Secret Service protection. They should have gotten him when his arm rose.

Bush moved pretty quick. I'm impressed.

[calfoxwc]

Sorry, Al, but you show up here to compare Pres Bush to saddam?

 

saddam's statue was attacked by hundreds of Iraqi citizens.

 

Bush had two shoes thrown at him by one "reporter".

 

Anything to be negative.

 

The title is garbage though. Thought you left because of stuff like this.

 

You say you didn't think it was funny. Do you think it is? If not,

 

what is the point about the invalid title of the thread?

 

 

 

 

[Guest Aloysius]

Cal, spare me the sanctimonious bullshit.

 

I didn't compare Bush to Saddam. I connected one act of Iraqi shoe-throwing to another. And that's what any person with half a brain did the second they saw that clip; I just put it into words.

 

More importantly, I started a thread to get a sane, topical discussion going here, just like I did when the terror attacks occurred in India. I think guys like Ate, Chic John, and DieHard appreciated when I "showed up" to start that thread.

 

And DieHard's response here was a good one. I came back here to respond with this article about how Bush waved off secret service help, which was a fairly selfless thing to do.

 

DH wants this kind of stuff discussed, Chic John wants more people posting, but you want me to stop posting here because you get a whiff of your own BO & smell hypocrisy? Please.

[Westside Steve]

Didn't say it was funny.

 

Sure ya did.

C'mon you made the Saddam statue joke.

And I see the humor in it.

All I'm saying is many of you guys would be outraged if it happened to Obama.

"Hey it looks like he barely escaped the Rodney King treatment."

 

 

And I'm not sure shoe-throwing qualifies as assault.

 

Really?

You're a pretty smart guy Alo.

I don't believe you aren't sure of that.

WSS

 

 

 

[Vegasdogg]

A way off target throw. A mile from the intended target. Hey look everyone, Derek Anderson is in Iraq.

[Mr. T]

If the shoe was on the other foot say the left, and this man threw shoes at Obama.

 

Then instead of the media asking for this mans release from custody.

 

They would demand a public hanging.

[We need Tom Tupa]

Assault: an attempt to cause or purposely, knowingly, or recklessly causing bodily injury to another

[calfoxwc]

No, Al - after all the scandal in Chicago, and the Obama admin stonewalling the media on the subject, you have no comment, but

to post a simple video anti Bush, with a comparison to saddam ?

 

You left, now you come back, and I did take part in the India terror discussion (my friend from India used to have lunch at that hotel once

every week, and has plenty of relatives in Mumbai)... but this is why you LEFT, only it was coming from

the "right" side.

 

Several of us are trying, working to be more respectful, less partisan against Obama to make this forum a better place

for ALL sides... and now this?

 

 

You don't think the shoe throwing incident funny? Or, you think it's a serious clue as to ... what?

 

If it was Obama who had shoes thrown at him, would you compare him to saddam ?

 

I'm going to make a pic of Obama with shoes on his head. But I won't post it, unless

further provoked a good bit...

 

I'm not being sanctimonious, I'm being critical. mz the pussy did the same thing.

 

I'm sure we all miss your GOOD stuff. But the partisan whatever video, with a

dramatic totally overblown analogy to feelings about saddam and throwing

shoes at his statue?

 

Ya think there are ANY Iraquiis who think Bush ever allowed ANYTHING like what saddam

and his sons did?

 

You can do better than that, Al. mz the pussy verbally jabbed and left again, now you are

jabbing.

 

My advice, is just stay here, and discuss both sides of the issues. But so far,

you haven't said a peep about Chicago, or the Obama admin (to be).

 

is it okay if I throw shoes at this thread you started? (don't worry, though, I won't compare you

to saddam, you have pretty good stuff when you hang around a while, without the partisan sniping)

[Guest Aloysius]

Here's an interesting AP story:

 

Across Mideast, Arabs Hail Shoe-Hurling Journalist

 

And here's Spencer Ackerman:

 

A jokey text message going around Saudi Arabia tells recipients that yesterday was the International Day for Shoes in Iraq.

 

What's not funny is that back in Baghdad al-Zaidi is being interrogated, which probably means he's being tortured. Iraqis are demanding his release, and for good reason: he's not been charged with anything. Citing official sources, the AP reports that he's being "tested for alcohol and drugs," and I'd guess that the Maliki government is floating such un-Islamic behavior on al-Zaidi's part as a way of preventing Iraqis from venerating him into a national hero while the government puts the screws to him.

 

Too late. This is the reaction in the Middle East:

 

"Al-Zeidi is the man," said 42-year-old Jordanian businessman Samer Tabalat. "He did what Arab leaders failed to do."

In Sadr City, they chanted, "Bush, Bush, listen well: Two shoes on your head."

@Steve & Toop: on the "is shoe-throwing assault?" question, you're both right that shoe-throwing would technically qualify, just as someone throwing a pie at someone speaking at a college campus would. Both acts are stupid & wrong, but I'm not sure that either rises to the level of requiring charges be filed. Only because this involved POTUS does it rise to the level of seriousness requiring the guy be arrested and (hopefully) put through an actual legal process.

[calfoxwc]

Well, if anything like this happens to Obama, we'll see how the "discussion" goes.

 

I predict if it gets posted, libs will leave again.

 

But conservatives are very tolerant.

 

Still waiting for Al to comment on the Chicago corruption that has been giant news

well before the other shoe dropped. ROF,L

 

("I saw his sole"... that was the funniest thing since Reagan's "Honey, I forgot to duck"

by a pres.

 

Has Obama ever been funny? I think not... we'll see.

[Guest Aloysius]

Interesting blogpost on NYT's website:

 

‘Shoedenfreude’ and Shame: Reaction From Around Iraq

 

It's nice to see that Iraqi elites were ashamed by what the journalist did. And from scanning through all the different reactions, it appears that the strongest support for al-Zaidi is coming from young, working-class Shiites.

 

An American military patrol in Najaf on Monday was pelted by shoes thrown by supporters of Moktada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric.

 

[...]

 

In the holy Shiite city of Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad, demonstrators chanted: “Bush, Bush, is a cow, your farewell was by a shoe,” and, “The shoe got its goal straightly, but Maliki turned it away.”

[Guest Aloysius]

[calfoxwc]

Okay, you're forgiven. That is freakin FUNNY. ROF,L