Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Registration is currently closed. That means if you're not already registered, you can't comment. We will let you know if and when registration re-opens. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
An Iraqi man in Prime Minister Nouri-al Maliki’s palace threw a shoe at President Bush during a joint press conference with Maliki. The man was grabbed and dragged out screaming.
Huh, seems every major capital in the world is a home to moonbattery. He’s in a large city, it’s his civic duty to hate Bush.
That’s a calculated insult. Many Iraqis beat Saddam’s statues with their shoes when his regime fell. The bottom of the foot is considered unclean in the Muslim world.
JeffWeimer on December 14, 2008 at 1:20 PM
Anyone ever try that with Saddam?
Didn’t think so.
rbj on December 14, 2008 at 1:23 PM
JeffWeimer on December 14, 2008 at 1:20 PM
As they do the left hand, as that’s the hand you supposedly wipe with.
Scott on December 14, 2008 at 1:24 PM
the real story will be what happens to the guy after wards, no matter how much the media and the left eat this up.
That’s a calculated insult. Many Iraqis beat Saddam’s statues with their shoes when his regime fell. The bottom of the foot is considered unclean in the Muslim world.
JeffWeimer on December 14, 2008 at 1:20 PM
Ya think?
capitalist piglet on December 14, 2008 at 1:25 PM
Reportedly it was an Iraqi journalist who tossed the loafer.
This just in: MSNBC has just offered the man his own prime time show.
Details to be worked out later.
SteveMG on December 14, 2008 at 1:26 PM
Anyone ever try that with Saddam?
Didn’t think so.
rbj on December 14, 2008 at 1:23 PM
Exactly. No good deed goes unpunished, as they say.
capitalist piglet on December 14, 2008 at 1:26 PM
JeffWeimer on December 14, 2008 at 1:20 PM
Whereas, in America, getting a shoe thrown at you is just awesome.
Bush shoulda retorted, “I’m a size 11. And I have 2 feet.”
Perhaps a shoe or two can help Bush to his rude awakening from the “Democratic Iraq” dream.
Muslims can never have democracy, it is mutually exclusive.
Aristotle on December 14, 2008 at 1:28 PM
I’m sure the jails over there are as accommodating as the jails over here.
BowHuntingTexas on December 14, 2008 at 1:28 PM
Hopefully the Secret Service teaches him a valuable life lesson about what you do not do to the President of the United States.
KSgop on December 14, 2008 at 1:29 PM
Well it’s official. Victory in Iraq has produced real freedom of speech.
ronsfi on December 14, 2008 at 1:30 PM
Muslims can never have democracy, it is mutually exclusive.
Aristotle on December 14, 2008 at 1:28 PM
Bullshit.
Just my opinion.
Itchee Dryback on December 14, 2008 at 1:32 PM
Iraqi throws shoe at Bush during press conference
Foxnews is now reporting that it was not an Iraqi Journalist but actually American journalist Helen Thomas. They couldn’t tell it was here because she shaved.
portlandon on December 14, 2008 at 1:36 PM
So this was an Iraqi reporter, huh? We can rule out Medea Benjamin in disguise, then, but did he happen to be wearing pink?
capitalist piglet on December 14, 2008 at 1:36 PM
Bush shoulda retorted, “I’m a size 11. And I have 2 feet.”
Exactly!
Hopefully the Secret Service teaches him a valuable life lesson about what you do not do to the President of the United States.
I wish they’d teach some Americans the same thing.
Perhaps a shoe or two can help Bush to his rude awakening from the “Democratic Iraq” dream.
Muslims can never have democracy, it is mutually exclusive.
Aristotle on December 14, 2008 at 1:28 PM
Exactly Right!!! We should get out NOW!!!!
Damn Bush and his dreams all to HELL!!!
You would never see some joker try a pull this stunt on Saddam, and even if one did, they would have just put him up against a wall and shot him then and there.
2) One numbnut throwing a shoe does not exactly constitute evidence that Iraqis are soemhow genetically incapable of self-rule.
The experiment may yet fail, but it’s not going to fail because of a tossed shoe.
Merovign on December 14, 2008 at 1:49 PM
Bush shoulda retorted, “I’m a size 11. And I have 2 feet.”
lorien1973 on December 14, 2008 at 1:27 PM
“Thanks for the gift but those are waaaay too small for me…”
rockbend on December 14, 2008 at 1:50 PM
Exactly Right!!! We should get out NOW!!!!
Damn Bush and his dreams all to HELL!!!
You would never see some joker try a pull this stunt on Saddam, and even if one did, they would have just put him up against a wall and shot him then and there.
Moron.
BigWyo on December 14, 2008 at 1:40 PM
Hold your Ad Hominems to other occasion, nitwit. I didn’t say get out. I just pointed to stupidity and futility to turn a retarded Arab-Muslim nation into a functional Democracy. It just won’t happen, sorry to break your fantasy.
Aristotle on December 14, 2008 at 1:51 PM
the real story will be what happens to the guy after wards, no matter how much the media and the left eat this up.
rob verdi on December 14, 2008 at 1:24 PM
Not the smartest thing this guy has ever done. He’s also dissed the Iraqi government by doing it to their guest. I doubt they practice dubya’s version of compassionate conservatism and I also doubt Mirandi will enter into the post event festivities. Hope it’s on Pay for View.
a capella on December 14, 2008 at 1:51 PM
Bush responded: “That really hurt! I’m gonna have a lump there, you idiot! Who throws a shoe? Honestly! You fight like a woman!”
boko fittleworth on December 14, 2008 at 1:52 PM
MrScribbler on December 14, 2008 at 1:20 PM
.
لا tase لي ، bro
ronsfi on December 14, 2008 at 1:52 PM
Aristotle on December 14, 2008 at 1:51 PM
So your original post really has no point. Other than to take a shot at Bush.
Moron.
BigWyo on December 14, 2008 at 1:53 PM
So your original post really has no point. Other than to take a shot at Bush.
Moron.
BigWyo on December 14, 2008 at 1:53 PM
Gee, you noticed? Good boy.
Perhaps next time you’ll even manage to understand a simple sentence from first reading. Take it easy.
Aristotle on December 14, 2008 at 1:59 PM
Hey, seems to me that I remember some guy in Georgia or somewhere throwing a grenade at Bush. Was the shoe loaded?
I don’t think we should make a big deal out of this, there are always going to be some idiots. After all, we have idiots too.
And no, I don’t think the actions of one man is evidence that an entire culture is incapable of democratic government.
Terrye on December 14, 2008 at 2:05 PM
They were Air Jordan’s.
Firebird on December 14, 2008 at 2:12 PM
I’m glad the iraqis are enjoying the freedom of speech our blood and treasure has bought for them.
JustTruth101 on December 14, 2008 at 2:15 PM
The media in Iraq are as dumb as the ones here, and elsewhere. It’s a great sign that Saddam is indeed dead.
Were it otherwise, benny shakar would be one of the first with his/her head on the block.
Entelechy on December 14, 2008 at 2:16 PM
NYT says that since it happened at a press conference the guy is a serious contender for a Pulitzer.
You mean, there are some people in Iraq who disagree? Amazing. It’s almost like the United States.
Attila (Pillage Idiot) on December 14, 2008 at 1:47 PM
Plankton bank members are not thinking creatures – they just float. Some are consumed by bigger fish.
Entelechy on December 14, 2008 at 2:19 PM
NYT says that since it happened at a press conference the guy is a serious contender for a Pulitzer.
snaggletoothie on December 14, 2008 at 2:19 PM
“Courage” Dan Rather would say.
Hollywood would make a movie about him, just like about Che’s ‘courage’.
It’s a great sign at how free they still are. Times are still good.
Entelechy on December 14, 2008 at 2:21 PM
Were it otherwise, benny shakar would be one of the first with his/her head on the block.
Entelechy on December 14, 2008 at 2:16 PM
How do you figure? benny shakar lives in America, Saddam wouldn’t get within thousands of miles of him.
aengus on December 14, 2008 at 2:21 PM
Perhaps a shoe or two can help Bush to his rude awakening from the “Democratic Iraq” dream.
Muslims can never have democracy, it is mutually exclusive.
Aristotle on December 14, 2008 at 1:28 PM
They’re mothers and fathers!
- Rosie O’Donnell
MB4 on December 14, 2008 at 2:21 PM
I’m glad the iraqis are enjoying the freedom of speech our blood and treasure has bought for them.
JustTruth101 on December 14, 2008 at 2:15 PM
+10. I’m actually pleased the guy felt free to do that without fear of immediate woodchipper vengeance. Sorry about Dana Perino’s eye and the microphone though.
inviolet on December 14, 2008 at 2:26 PM
MB4:
What has Rosie got to do with it? As a matter of fact when I think of some of the people in this country it seems to me that if bad behavior is a sign that country is not ready for democracy…then maybe we are not ready either.
You can take the Iraqi out of the trailer park, but you can’t take the trailer park out of the Iraqi.
nottakingsides on December 14, 2008 at 2:34 PM
Shouldn’t that read: Iraqi “journalist”?
Sgt. Hartman on December 14, 2008 at 2:37 PM
As a matter of fact when I think of some of the people in this country it seems to me that if bad behavior is a sign that country is not ready for democracy…then maybe we are not ready either.
Terrye on December 14, 2008 at 2:28 PM
You sound a lot like Condi Rice.
Considering her remarks about America’s “birth defect” — an egregious term for any secretary of state to use about a nation that has brought more liberty to more races, colors and creeds than any in history — I am struck anew how deeply Rice’s vision of race in America, or, perhaps, in segregated Birmingham, affects her vision of America in the wider world. It is as if Rice sees American influence as a means by which to address what she perceives as disparities of race or Third World heritage on the international level.
This would help explain her ahistorical habit of linking the civil rights movement to the Bush administration’s effort to bring democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan. Indeed, in a 2003 speech to the National Association of Black Journalists, she argued that blacks, more than others, should “reject” the “condescending” argument that some are not “ready” for freedom. “That view was wrong in 1963 in Birmingham and it’s wrong in 2003 in Baghdad,” she said. In 2006, she made a similar point. “When I look around the world and I hear people say, `Well, you know, they’re just not ready for democracy,’ it really does resonate,” Rice told CBS’s Katie Couric. “It makes me so angry because I think there are those echoes of what people once thought about black Americans.”
There’s something shockingly provincial at work here. In seeing so much of the world through an American prism of race, Rice has effectively blinded herself to historical and cultural and religious differences between Islam and the West. To put it simply, neither Baghdad nor Gaza is Birmingham. And nothing in all of history quite compares to Philadelphia.
- Diana West
MB4 on December 14, 2008 at 2:38 PM
Maybe it was “Baghdad Bob”… “President Bush is nowhere near here”
Fires1 on December 14, 2008 at 2:40 PM
The rude guy probably works for Reuters.
viking01 on December 14, 2008 at 2:40 PM
How do you say “don’t taze me bro” in Farsi?
Anyone?
jeff_from_mpls on December 14, 2008 at 2:43 PM
I guess its too much to ask that the “reporters” covering this story compare the probable fate of MSNBC’s Bagdad correspondent if he had tossed a shoe at Saddam, or Mubarak, or Abdullah, or Assad, or Imajihadwhackjob.
Something tells me he wouldnt be a hero on the front pages of newspapers all over the world. Instead, he’d be toosed opff a building, then buried alive with his tongue and arms cut off and his entire family executed in front of him.
Mike D. on December 14, 2008 at 2:44 PM
Something tells me he wouldnt be a hero on the front pages of newspapers all over the world. Instead, he’d be toosed opff a building, then buried alive with his tongue and arms cut off and his entire family executed in front of him.
Mike D. on December 14, 2008 at 2:44 PM
So Bush a great guy because he doesn’t throw people off buildings? Thats not exactly a ringing rhetorical defense.
aengus on December 14, 2008 at 2:46 PM
The well-intentioned enlightenment [sic] philosopher Hegel suggested that you can’t go through history one-handed.
Once freedom is grasped clearly, its counterpart emerges as a conceptual and historical necessity.
Not saying I agree with that, but there’s a kernel of truth to it. A free market is scary to a certain mindset, and as it becomes clear to that mindset that things are tipping toward freedom, a certain mentality craves to be a busy body and throw shoes at all that freedom, usually in the name of the children.
Old story, sad ending every time.
jeff_from_mpls on December 14, 2008 at 2:48 PM
Das Obama Reich:
What???? I would not vote for Barack Obama if you put a gun to my head. My point was that if the bad behavior of some people means that an entire culture is not ready for democracy, then what culture would pass that test?
I can remember seeing some Code Pink moron with red paint on her hands get in a hearing where Condi Rice was present. She was ringing her blood reds at Rice. I was just glad the crazy woman was not armed.
Terrye on December 14, 2008 at 2:49 PM
MB4:
What is your point? I can remember reading that Winston Churchill {a man I much admire} did not believe that the people of India were capable of self government. He was wrong. The idea that an entire culture is to be judged by the actions of a few is ridiculous. If it were the Germans and Japanese would not have their own governments today. In fact it was Churchill {once again} who said a Hun alive is a war in the making.
Terrye on December 14, 2008 at 2:52 PM
aengus:
No, Bush is not a great guy because he does not throw people off of buildings, but Saddam was a bad man because he did. He also did not allow for things like freedom of the press nor did he hold press conferences for domestic journalists where people could you know…actually asks questions.
Terrye on December 14, 2008 at 2:54 PM
Craig Fenson, Homeland Security Spokesman, reports the name of the show tosser as I-Sheet M’Drurz
I can remember reading that Winston Churchill {a man I much admire}
Terrye on December 14, 2008 at 2:52 PM
How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property – either as a child, a wife, or a concubine – must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.
- Winston Churchill
Here was the new Koran of faith and war: turgid, verbose, shapeless, but pregnant with its message.
- Winston Churchill (Equating “Mein Kampf” to the Koran in his book the “The Gathering Storm”)
MB4 on December 14, 2008 at 2:58 PM
Muslims can never have democracy, it is mutually exclusive.
90% Muslim and currently a peaceful democracy. The constitution establishes a secular state and provides for freedom of religion, and the government largely respects this right.
That’s a calculated insult. Many Iraqis beat Saddam’s statues with their shoes when his regime fell. The bottom of the foot is considered unclean in the Muslim world.
JeffWeimer on December 14, 2008 at 1:20 PM
Absolutely right. It is an insult of the highest order. From all talk coming from the bowels of radical Islam thus far, President-elect Obama isn’t going to get much more respect.
That’s a calculated insult. Many Iraqis beat Saddam’s statues with their shoes when his regime fell. The bottom of the foot is considered unclean in the Muslim world.
JeffWeimer on December 14, 2008 at 1:20 PM
Absolutely right. It is an insult of the highest order. From all talk coming from the bowels of radical Islam thus far, President-elect Obama isn’t going to get much more respect.
The act of throwing a shoe is democracy in action. You think anyone would oppose Saddam let alone throw a shoe at him? In a democracy, the punishment fits the crime.
Blake on December 14, 2008 at 2:59 PM
Let me introduce you to the nation of Mali
The exception that proves the rule.
aengus on December 14, 2008 at 3:01 PM
Mein Kampf and Koran – same show just under a different tent.
Condi Rice and Terrye – same show just under a different tent.
MB4 on December 14, 2008 at 3:02 PM
MB4:
Like I said what is your point? You hate all Muslims and consider them all to be the enemy blah blah blah. Not complicated at all.
Terrye on December 14, 2008 at 3:02 PM
MB4:
Mein Kampf? Funny, I was just thinking how easy it would be for you to come up with your own final solution to the problem.
Terrye on December 14, 2008 at 3:04 PM
Let me introduce you to the nation of Mali
90% Muslim and currently a peaceful democracy. The constitution establishes a secular state and provides for freedom of religion, and the government largely respects this right.
jimmy the notable on December 14, 2008 at 2:58 PM
What is the latest count of Christian churches in that country?
Synagogues?
Approximately will do.
MB4 on December 14, 2008 at 3:13 PM
MB4:
Mein Kampf? Funny, I was just thinking how easy it would be for you to come up with your own final solution to the problem.
Terrye on December 14, 2008 at 3:04 PM
Winston Churchill equated Mein Kampf and the Koran. I guess you admired him before you didn’t.
MB4 on December 14, 2008 at 3:15 PM
You hate all Muslims and consider them all to be the enemy blah blah blah. Not complicated at all.
Terrye on December 14, 2008 at 3:02 PM
If that hate, blah, blah, blah is the best you can do, you should give up.
MB4 on December 14, 2008 at 3:19 PM
MB4 on December 14, 2008 at 3:13 PM
The population is 1% Christian, no mention of Jewish people. There probably aren’t any.
There are many definitions for democracy. I am partial to the following one myself, although others may prefer the definition of mob rule.
In political theory, democracy describes a small number of related forms of government and also a political philosophy. Even though there is no universally accepted definition of ‘democracy’, there are two principles that any definition of democracy includes. The first principle is that all members of the society have equal access to power and the second that all members enjoy universally recognized freedoms and liberties.
Do you really think this is at all compatible with Islam and the Koran?
MB4 on December 14, 2008 at 3:31 PM
Based on this site they were all driven out, converted, or killed before the country became a democracy in 1991.
jimmy the notable on December 14, 2008 at 3:28 PM
Very convenient.
MB4 on December 14, 2008 at 3:33 PM
How do you figure? benny shakar lives in America, Saddam wouldn’t get within thousands of miles of him.
aengus on December 14, 2008 at 2:21 PM
It was meant symbolically, not in the abstract, i.e. “benny and his”. Besides, I don’t know where any of you really live, nor should I.
Those on the far right deserve Obama as much as those on the far left. Can’t you at least recognize that this Jordanian reporter would never have dared such a move under Saddam?
Yes, I’m with you on the lack of religious and all sorts of other freedoms over there.
Entelechy on December 14, 2008 at 3:35 PM
nor did he hold press conferences for domestic journalists where people could you know…actually asks questions.
Terrye on December 14, 2008 at 2:54 PM
You still talking about Saddam or did you shift gears to Osama Obama?
Do you really think this is at all compatible with Islam and the Koran?
MB4 on December 14, 2008 at 3:31 PM
If a nation were to follow the Quran to the T, probably not. But there are moderate Muslims, Muslims who haven’t been radicalized by fanatic Imams. I won’t even say they’re in the majority in the world. I do believe that Islam is a political ideology. But there are many different shades of everything.
According to freedomhouse.org, mali is “Free.” Not “partly free” Not “not free.”
Free. According to an organization that lists Iraq as “not free,” another Muslim country is listed as “free.”
Maybe its only a matter of time before it descends because, as you claim, Muslims simply cannot exist in a democracy, but maybe it won’t. Freedom is not something that the average person will readily give up.
It was meant symbolically, not in the abstract, i.e. “benny and his”.
I just think its important to note. When conservatives watch the Yuri Bezmenov video the bit they always remember is where he describes the fates of the useful idiots who will be executed due to the ideological threat they represent to the new regime by their idealism.
The bit conservatives always forget is that Bezmenov actually says that conservatives will be executed first, even before the useful idiots. I think the reason this is forgotten is because the “leftists will be executed first” meme becomes a kind of seductive revenge fantasy for many conservatives.
Those on the far right deserve Obama as much as those on the far left.
I don’t know what you mean by this statement. Who are the far right in this context and why do they deserve Obama?
Can’t you at least recognize that this Jordanian reporter would never have dared such a move under Saddam?
Oh, I know that! I just don’t think its a very salient point.
The argument seems to go something like this: The reporter would not have been able to express himself under Saddam. Bush freed him from Saddam. Therefore he should not express himself around Bush out of gratitude.
In the 1980s the CIA used to argue that it wasn’t fair, that the KGB had an advantage over them because the latter operated a police state whereas they were always being investigated by Congress.
aengus on December 14, 2008 at 3:54 PM
Freedom is not something that the average person will readily give up.
The average free person, no. However the average Muslims will not readily give up Islam and freedom usually cannot compete with that.
aengus on December 14, 2008 at 4:00 PM
I suspect a lot of people in the middle east would say WE aren’t fit for democracy either, because we’ve let it destroy our humanity; we’re materialists who as a nation have grown morbidly obese and spoiled rotten and are now watching our treasure go down the tubes because of our lax attitudes.
I don’t think there’s much basis for the arrogance being shown by some commenters against middle east culture. It might have been valid a hundred years ago, but America is in its waning years. We’re in no position to preach.
jeff_from_mpls on December 14, 2008 at 4:09 PM
I don’t think there’s much basis for the arrogance being shown by some commenters against middle east culture.
Its not arrogance. Its just that the propositional content of the Koran is incompatible with democracy. I doubt Muslims in the Middle East or elsewhere would regard that as an insult because they don’t make a fetish of democracy the way we do.
I don’t know what you mean by this statement. Who are the far right in this context and why do they deserve Obama?
Those 20% Republicans who voted for him, the 5% who stayed home, and the others who voted for Paul, Barr, or their goat. They deserve to be ‘raped’ by Obama, first and foremost in their wallets, but also in many other ways. Not to excuse the fact that we had two horrible candidates, from both sides.
Therefore he should not express himself around Bush out of gratitude.
Oh no, as I expressed in the main thread on topic, below, I’m very happy now that he did it. No gratitude needed, none demanded. This is better than all that.
In the 1980s the CIA used to argue that it wasn’t fair, that the KGB had an advantage over them because the latter operated a police state whereas they were always being investigated by Congress.
aengus on December 14, 2008 at 3:54 PM
On this topic we could talk for 4 weeks and not be done. Come over and we will. You’ll be surprised.
Entelechy on December 14, 2008 at 4:20 PM
I just pointed to stupidity and futility to turn a retarded Arab-Muslim nation into a functional Democracy. It just won’t happen, sorry to break your fantasy.
Aristotle on December 14, 2008 at 1:51 PM
Oh. You mean like Israel?
Guardian on December 14, 2008 at 4:42 PM
I hope someone will keep us posted as to what happens to this idiot shoe thrower.
SC.Charlie on December 14, 2008 at 5:40 PM
Let’s see some so called Arabic justice, cut the bastard’s foot off.
Muslims can never have democracy, it is mutually exclusive.
Aristotle on December 14, 2008 at 1:28 PM
Bullshit.
Just my opinion.
Itchee Dryback on December 14, 2008 at 1:32 PM
in rebutal, I could make a weak case for Turkey, and another poster mentioned Mali. How this winds up is unknown, and if (big if) Iraq emerges as a stable democracy it will be have ahuge impact on the rest of the world. I’m sure that a reader of History could find that same opinion about democracy applied to English speaking Christians in the past (1776 ish) as well, yet it did happen.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Registration is currently closed. That means if you're not already registered, you can't comment. We will let you know if and when registration re-opens. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
US is exporting BDS, it seems. That’s good for the economy right?
lorien1973 on December 14, 2008 at 1:12 PM
Was he yelling, “Where’s my g****m bailout!?”
fiatboomer on December 14, 2008 at 1:14 PM
Huh, seems every major capital in the world is a home to moonbattery. He’s in a large city, it’s his civic duty to hate Bush.
jimmy the notable on December 14, 2008 at 1:16 PM
It’s the holidays and he’s sentimental for the “old days” – so feed him into the wood chipper feet first.
Blake on December 14, 2008 at 1:18 PM
What’s the Arabic phrase for “don’t tase me, bro!”?
MrScribbler on December 14, 2008 at 1:20 PM
That’s a calculated insult. Many Iraqis beat Saddam’s statues with their shoes when his regime fell. The bottom of the foot is considered unclean in the Muslim world.
JeffWeimer on December 14, 2008 at 1:20 PM
Anyone ever try that with Saddam?
Didn’t think so.
rbj on December 14, 2008 at 1:23 PM
As they do the left hand, as that’s the hand you supposedly wipe with.
Scott on December 14, 2008 at 1:24 PM
the real story will be what happens to the guy after wards, no matter how much the media and the left eat this up.
rob verdi on December 14, 2008 at 1:24 PM
Yes, but only once
Scott on December 14, 2008 at 1:25 PM
Ya think?
capitalist piglet on December 14, 2008 at 1:25 PM
Reportedly it was an Iraqi journalist who tossed the loafer.
This just in: MSNBC has just offered the man his own prime time show.
Details to be worked out later.
SteveMG on December 14, 2008 at 1:26 PM
Exactly. No good deed goes unpunished, as they say.
capitalist piglet on December 14, 2008 at 1:26 PM
Whereas, in America, getting a shoe thrown at you is just awesome.
Bush shoulda retorted, “I’m a size 11. And I have 2 feet.”
lorien1973 on December 14, 2008 at 1:27 PM
Perhaps a shoe or two can help Bush to his rude awakening from the “Democratic Iraq” dream.
Muslims can never have democracy, it is mutually exclusive.
Aristotle on December 14, 2008 at 1:28 PM
I’m sure the jails over there are as accommodating as the jails over here.
BowHuntingTexas on December 14, 2008 at 1:28 PM
Hopefully the Secret Service teaches him a valuable life lesson about what you do not do to the President of the United States.
KSgop on December 14, 2008 at 1:29 PM
Well it’s official. Victory in Iraq has produced real freedom of speech.
ronsfi on December 14, 2008 at 1:30 PM
Bullshit.
Just my opinion.
Itchee Dryback on December 14, 2008 at 1:32 PM
Foxnews is now reporting that it was not an Iraqi Journalist but actually American journalist Helen Thomas. They couldn’t tell it was here because she shaved.
portlandon on December 14, 2008 at 1:36 PM
So this was an Iraqi reporter, huh? We can rule out Medea Benjamin in disguise, then, but did he happen to be wearing pink?
capitalist piglet on December 14, 2008 at 1:36 PM
Exactly!
I wish they’d teach some Americans the same thing.
Bob's Kid on December 14, 2008 at 1:37 PM
Exactly Right!!! We should get out NOW!!!!
Damn Bush and his dreams all to HELL!!!
You would never see some joker try a pull this stunt on Saddam, and even if one did, they would have just put him up against a wall and shot him then and there.
Moron.
BigWyo on December 14, 2008 at 1:40 PM
He’s the Dem’s new “Hamid the plumber”
abinitioadinfinitum on December 14, 2008 at 1:42 PM
Cheney was right — in Iraqi culture, this is how one greets liberators.
benny shakar on December 14, 2008 at 1:43 PM
Eid el footer?
Shy Guy on December 14, 2008 at 1:44 PM
Some great posting but this takes the cake!
katy on December 14, 2008 at 1:45 PM
benny shakar on December 14, 2008 at 1:43 PM
You mean, there are some people in Iraq who disagree? Amazing. It’s almost like the United States.
Attila (Pillage Idiot) on December 14, 2008 at 1:47 PM
Now that’s freedom!
t.ferg on December 14, 2008 at 1:47 PM
1) “No thanks, I’ve already got one!”
2) One numbnut throwing a shoe does not exactly constitute evidence that Iraqis are soemhow genetically incapable of self-rule.
The experiment may yet fail, but it’s not going to fail because of a tossed shoe.
Merovign on December 14, 2008 at 1:49 PM
“Thanks for the gift but those are waaaay too small for me…”
rockbend on December 14, 2008 at 1:50 PM
Hold your Ad Hominems to other occasion, nitwit. I didn’t say get out. I just pointed to stupidity and futility to turn a retarded Arab-Muslim nation into a functional Democracy. It just won’t happen, sorry to break your fantasy.
Aristotle on December 14, 2008 at 1:51 PM
Not the smartest thing this guy has ever done. He’s also dissed the Iraqi government by doing it to their guest. I doubt they practice dubya’s version of compassionate conservatism and I also doubt Mirandi will enter into the post event festivities. Hope it’s on Pay for View.
a capella on December 14, 2008 at 1:51 PM
Bush responded: “That really hurt! I’m gonna have a lump there, you idiot! Who throws a shoe? Honestly! You fight like a woman!”
boko fittleworth on December 14, 2008 at 1:52 PM
MrScribbler on December 14, 2008 at 1:20 PM
.
لا tase لي ، bro
ronsfi on December 14, 2008 at 1:52 PM
So your original post really has no point. Other than to take a shot at Bush.
Moron.
BigWyo on December 14, 2008 at 1:53 PM
Gee, you noticed? Good boy.
Perhaps next time you’ll even manage to understand a simple sentence from first reading. Take it easy.
Aristotle on December 14, 2008 at 1:59 PM
Hey, seems to me that I remember some guy in Georgia or somewhere throwing a grenade at Bush. Was the shoe loaded?
I don’t think we should make a big deal out of this, there are always going to be some idiots. After all, we have idiots too.
And no, I don’t think the actions of one man is evidence that an entire culture is incapable of democratic government.
Terrye on December 14, 2008 at 2:05 PM
They were Air Jordan’s.
Firebird on December 14, 2008 at 2:12 PM
I’m glad the iraqis are enjoying the freedom of speech our blood and treasure has bought for them.
JustTruth101 on December 14, 2008 at 2:15 PM
The media in Iraq are as dumb as the ones here, and elsewhere. It’s a great sign that Saddam is indeed dead.
Were it otherwise, benny shakar would be one of the first with his/her head on the block.
Entelechy on December 14, 2008 at 2:16 PM
NYT says that since it happened at a press conference the guy is a serious contender for a Pulitzer.
snaggletoothie on December 14, 2008 at 2:19 PM
Plankton bank members are not thinking creatures – they just float. Some are consumed by bigger fish.
Entelechy on December 14, 2008 at 2:19 PM
“Courage” Dan Rather would say.
Hollywood would make a movie about him, just like about Che’s ‘courage’.
It’s a great sign at how free they still are. Times are still good.
Entelechy on December 14, 2008 at 2:21 PM
How do you figure? benny shakar lives in America, Saddam wouldn’t get within thousands of miles of him.
aengus on December 14, 2008 at 2:21 PM
They’re mothers and fathers!
- Rosie O’Donnell
MB4 on December 14, 2008 at 2:21 PM
+10. I’m actually pleased the guy felt free to do that without fear of immediate woodchipper vengeance. Sorry about Dana Perino’s eye and the microphone though.
inviolet on December 14, 2008 at 2:26 PM
MB4:
What has Rosie got to do with it? As a matter of fact when I think of some of the people in this country it seems to me that if bad behavior is a sign that country is not ready for democracy…then maybe we are not ready either.
Terrye on December 14, 2008 at 2:28 PM
what an ungrateful little walid
blatantblue on December 14, 2008 at 2:30 PM
Raddatz probably gave him the shoe.
Spirit of 1776 on December 14, 2008 at 2:33 PM
You will fit in well in the new order.
DasObamaReich on December 14, 2008 at 2:34 PM
You can take the Iraqi out of the trailer park, but you can’t take the trailer park out of the Iraqi.
nottakingsides on December 14, 2008 at 2:34 PM
Shouldn’t that read: Iraqi “journalist”?
Sgt. Hartman on December 14, 2008 at 2:37 PM
You sound a lot like Condi Rice.
Considering her remarks about America’s “birth defect” — an egregious term for any secretary of state to use about a nation that has brought more liberty to more races, colors and creeds than any in history — I am struck anew how deeply Rice’s vision of race in America, or, perhaps, in segregated Birmingham, affects her vision of America in the wider world. It is as if Rice sees American influence as a means by which to address what she perceives as disparities of race or Third World heritage on the international level.
This would help explain her ahistorical habit of linking the civil rights movement to the Bush administration’s effort to bring democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan. Indeed, in a 2003 speech to the National Association of Black Journalists, she argued that blacks, more than others, should “reject” the “condescending” argument that some are not “ready” for freedom. “That view was wrong in 1963 in Birmingham and it’s wrong in 2003 in Baghdad,” she said. In 2006, she made a similar point. “When I look around the world and I hear people say, `Well, you know, they’re just not ready for democracy,’ it really does resonate,” Rice told CBS’s Katie Couric. “It makes me so angry because I think there are those echoes of what people once thought about black Americans.”
There’s something shockingly provincial at work here. In seeing so much of the world through an American prism of race, Rice has effectively blinded herself to historical and cultural and religious differences between Islam and the West. To put it simply, neither Baghdad nor Gaza is Birmingham. And nothing in all of history quite compares to Philadelphia.
- Diana West
MB4 on December 14, 2008 at 2:38 PM
Maybe it was “Baghdad Bob”… “President Bush is nowhere near here”
Fires1 on December 14, 2008 at 2:40 PM
The rude guy probably works for Reuters.
viking01 on December 14, 2008 at 2:40 PM
How do you say “don’t taze me bro” in Farsi?
Anyone?
jeff_from_mpls on December 14, 2008 at 2:43 PM
I guess its too much to ask that the “reporters” covering this story compare the probable fate of MSNBC’s Bagdad correspondent if he had tossed a shoe at Saddam, or Mubarak, or Abdullah, or Assad, or Imajihadwhackjob.
Something tells me he wouldnt be a hero on the front pages of newspapers all over the world. Instead, he’d be toosed opff a building, then buried alive with his tongue and arms cut off and his entire family executed in front of him.
Mike D. on December 14, 2008 at 2:44 PM
So Bush a great guy because he doesn’t throw people off buildings? Thats not exactly a ringing rhetorical defense.
aengus on December 14, 2008 at 2:46 PM
The well-intentioned enlightenment [sic] philosopher Hegel suggested that you can’t go through history one-handed.
Once freedom is grasped clearly, its counterpart emerges as a conceptual and historical necessity.
Not saying I agree with that, but there’s a kernel of truth to it. A free market is scary to a certain mindset, and as it becomes clear to that mindset that things are tipping toward freedom, a certain mentality craves to be a busy body and throw shoes at all that freedom, usually in the name of the children.
Old story, sad ending every time.
jeff_from_mpls on December 14, 2008 at 2:48 PM
Das Obama Reich:
What???? I would not vote for Barack Obama if you put a gun to my head. My point was that if the bad behavior of some people means that an entire culture is not ready for democracy, then what culture would pass that test?
I can remember seeing some Code Pink moron with red paint on her hands get in a hearing where Condi Rice was present. She was ringing her blood reds at Rice. I was just glad the crazy woman was not armed.
Terrye on December 14, 2008 at 2:49 PM
MB4:
What is your point? I can remember reading that Winston Churchill {a man I much admire} did not believe that the people of India were capable of self government. He was wrong. The idea that an entire culture is to be judged by the actions of a few is ridiculous. If it were the Germans and Japanese would not have their own governments today. In fact it was Churchill {once again} who said a Hun alive is a war in the making.
Terrye on December 14, 2008 at 2:52 PM
aengus:
No, Bush is not a great guy because he does not throw people off of buildings, but Saddam was a bad man because he did. He also did not allow for things like freedom of the press nor did he hold press conferences for domestic journalists where people could you know…actually asks questions.
Terrye on December 14, 2008 at 2:54 PM
Craig Fenson, Homeland Security Spokesman, reports the name of the show tosser as I-Sheet M’Drurz
Wade on December 14, 2008 at 2:55 PM
How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property – either as a child, a wife, or a concubine – must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.
- Winston Churchill
Here was the new Koran of faith and war: turgid, verbose, shapeless, but pregnant with its message.
- Winston Churchill (Equating “Mein Kampf” to the Koran in his book the “The Gathering Storm”)
MB4 on December 14, 2008 at 2:58 PM
Let me introduce you to the nation of Mali
90% Muslim and currently a peaceful democracy. The constitution establishes a secular state and provides for freedom of religion, and the government largely respects this right.
jimmy the notable on December 14, 2008 at 2:58 PM
That’s a calculated insult. Many Iraqis beat Saddam’s statues with their shoes when his regime fell. The bottom of the foot is considered unclean in the Muslim world.
JeffWeimer on December 14, 2008 at 1:20 PM
Absolutely right. It is an insult of the highest order. From all talk coming from the bowels of radical Islam thus far, President-elect Obama isn’t going to get much more respect.
bryanmyrick on December 14, 2008 at 2:58 PM
Absolutely right. It is an insult of the highest order. From all talk coming from the bowels of radical Islam thus far, President-elect Obama isn’t going to get much more respect.
bryanmyrick on December 14, 2008 at 2:59 PM
The act of throwing a shoe is democracy in action. You think anyone would oppose Saddam let alone throw a shoe at him? In a democracy, the punishment fits the crime.
Blake on December 14, 2008 at 2:59 PM
The exception that proves the rule.
aengus on December 14, 2008 at 3:01 PM
Mein Kampf and Koran – same show just under a different tent.
Condi Rice and Terrye – same show just under a different tent.
MB4 on December 14, 2008 at 3:02 PM
MB4:
Like I said what is your point? You hate all Muslims and consider them all to be the enemy blah blah blah. Not complicated at all.
Terrye on December 14, 2008 at 3:02 PM
MB4:
Mein Kampf? Funny, I was just thinking how easy it would be for you to come up with your own final solution to the problem.
Terrye on December 14, 2008 at 3:04 PM
What is the latest count of Christian churches in that country?
Synagogues?
Approximately will do.
MB4 on December 14, 2008 at 3:13 PM
Winston Churchill equated Mein Kampf and the Koran. I guess you admired him before you didn’t.
MB4 on December 14, 2008 at 3:15 PM
If that hate, blah, blah, blah is the best you can do, you should give up.
MB4 on December 14, 2008 at 3:19 PM
The population is 1% Christian, no mention of Jewish people. There probably aren’t any.
Does that mean that its not a democracy?
jimmy the notable on December 14, 2008 at 3:20 PM
Based on this site they were all driven out, converted, or killed before the country became a democracy in 1991.
jimmy the notable on December 14, 2008 at 3:28 PM
There are many definitions for democracy. I am partial to the following one myself, although others may prefer the definition of mob rule.
In political theory, democracy describes a small number of related forms of government and also a political philosophy. Even though there is no universally accepted definition of ‘democracy’, there are two principles that any definition of democracy includes. The first principle is that all members of the society have equal access to power and the second that all members enjoy universally recognized freedoms and liberties.
Do you really think this is at all compatible with Islam and the Koran?
MB4 on December 14, 2008 at 3:31 PM
Very convenient.
MB4 on December 14, 2008 at 3:33 PM
It was meant symbolically, not in the abstract, i.e. “benny and his”. Besides, I don’t know where any of you really live, nor should I.
Those on the far right deserve Obama as much as those on the far left. Can’t you at least recognize that this Jordanian reporter would never have dared such a move under Saddam?
Yes, I’m with you on the lack of religious and all sorts of other freedoms over there.
Entelechy on December 14, 2008 at 3:35 PM
You still talking about Saddam or did you shift gears to Osama Obama?
MrScribbler on December 14, 2008 at 3:37 PM
If a nation were to follow the Quran to the T, probably not. But there are moderate Muslims, Muslims who haven’t been radicalized by fanatic Imams. I won’t even say they’re in the majority in the world. I do believe that Islam is a political ideology. But there are many different shades of everything.
According to freedomhouse.org, mali is “Free.” Not “partly free” Not “not free.”
Free. According to an organization that lists Iraq as “not free,” another Muslim country is listed as “free.”
Maybe its only a matter of time before it descends because, as you claim, Muslims simply cannot exist in a democracy, but maybe it won’t. Freedom is not something that the average person will readily give up.
jimmy the notable on December 14, 2008 at 3:41 PM
Here’s a link to freedomhouse, I meant to give it in the last post:
http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=363&year=2008
jimmy the notable on December 14, 2008 at 3:42 PM
I just think its important to note. When conservatives watch the Yuri Bezmenov video the bit they always remember is where he describes the fates of the useful idiots who will be executed due to the ideological threat they represent to the new regime by their idealism.
The bit conservatives always forget is that Bezmenov actually says that conservatives will be executed first, even before the useful idiots. I think the reason this is forgotten is because the “leftists will be executed first” meme becomes a kind of seductive revenge fantasy for many conservatives.
I don’t know what you mean by this statement. Who are the far right in this context and why do they deserve Obama?
Oh, I know that! I just don’t think its a very salient point.
The argument seems to go something like this: The reporter would not have been able to express himself under Saddam. Bush freed him from Saddam. Therefore he should not express himself around Bush out of gratitude.
In the 1980s the CIA used to argue that it wasn’t fair, that the KGB had an advantage over them because the latter operated a police state whereas they were always being investigated by Congress.
aengus on December 14, 2008 at 3:54 PM
The average free person, no. However the average Muslims will not readily give up Islam and freedom usually cannot compete with that.
aengus on December 14, 2008 at 4:00 PM
I suspect a lot of people in the middle east would say WE aren’t fit for democracy either, because we’ve let it destroy our humanity; we’re materialists who as a nation have grown morbidly obese and spoiled rotten and are now watching our treasure go down the tubes because of our lax attitudes.
I don’t think there’s much basis for the arrogance being shown by some commenters against middle east culture. It might have been valid a hundred years ago, but America is in its waning years. We’re in no position to preach.
jeff_from_mpls on December 14, 2008 at 4:09 PM
Its not arrogance. Its just that the propositional content of the Koran is incompatible with democracy. I doubt Muslims in the Middle East or elsewhere would regard that as an insult because they don’t make a fetish of democracy the way we do.
Two Wolves and a Sheep: Democratic Tyranny
aengus on December 14, 2008 at 4:14 PM
Those 20% Republicans who voted for him, the 5% who stayed home, and the others who voted for Paul, Barr, or their goat. They deserve to be ‘raped’ by Obama, first and foremost in their wallets, but also in many other ways. Not to excuse the fact that we had two horrible candidates, from both sides.
Oh no, as I expressed in the main thread on topic, below, I’m very happy now that he did it. No gratitude needed, none demanded. This is better than all that.
On this topic we could talk for 4 weeks and not be done. Come over and we will. You’ll be surprised.
Entelechy on December 14, 2008 at 4:20 PM
Oh. You mean like Israel?
Guardian on December 14, 2008 at 4:42 PM
I hope someone will keep us posted as to what happens to this idiot shoe thrower.
SC.Charlie on December 14, 2008 at 5:40 PM
Let’s see some so called Arabic justice, cut the bastard’s foot off.
FireBlogger on December 14, 2008 at 5:59 PM
in rebutal, I could make a weak case for Turkey, and another poster mentioned Mali. How this winds up is unknown, and if (big if) Iraq emerges as a stable democracy it will be have ahuge impact on the rest of the world. I’m sure that a reader of History could find that same opinion about democracy applied to English speaking Christians in the past (1776 ish) as well, yet it did happen.
Red State State of Mind on December 14, 2008 at 6:06 PM
Iraq, becoming more like America every day.
OldEnglish on December 14, 2008 at 7:53 PM
Mr. Shoetoss is pretty lucky no Blackwater chaps busted a cap in his BDS head. I would have yelled “grenade” and stitched him m’self, badda bing!
GlocknRoll on December 14, 2008 at 8:10 PM