Hell must have frozen over because I am going to write something positive about President George W. Bush.
He handled the shoe-throwing thing very well.
First, he was agile and ducked the shoes well. Then he remained calm and just stood at the podium until the security forces wrestled the guy to the ground. Then, he just shrugged it off and tried to not give the guy too much publicity.
Agile, quick reaction, calm, and poise. Where has this guy been the last eight years?
I would have froze and been hit in the head. Then I would have jumped over the podium and made the guy eat the shoes. Then, I would have make jokes about his "sole" and to "shoo off".
And that is yet another reason why I am not the President.
Damn that was funny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uIj0YvDBKE
(http://blog.cleveland.com/world_impact/2008/12/large_Shoe-at-Bush-Dec14-08-APTOPIX_Bush_Meye.jpg)
(http://www.timesofmalta.com/media/serve/20081215--090054-wor_05.jpg)
(http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2008/12/14/PH2008121401303.jpg)
I agree it was handled well. As I understand it Bush then called off his secret service and let the Iraqis take him into custody. Today there are protests to have the man released... curious to see what happens to him.
You kinda have to wonder where the Secret Service was. That Iraqi journalist just walked right up there and started chucking point blank at ole 43.
I mean, what if he'd come in wearing stiletto heels? Coulda put an eye out!
i say we bring him over here as a backup for Bradford. They guy has a great throwing arm.
I think it took a lot of guts for the guy to do what he did. I wonder if this will catch on.
quote:
Originally posted by tim huntzinger
I think it took a lot of guts for the guy to do what he did. I wonder if this will catch on.
Guts? Or stupidity.
Why would it catch on? Bush will be gone in a month anyway.
quote:
Originally posted by tim huntzinger
I think it took a lot of guts for the guy to do what he did. I wonder if this will catch on.
Throwing your shoes at someone in middle east culture is a sign of contempt and one of the highest insults you could do to someone. I think it has aleady 'caught on', as it has been done for centuries there.
I think it's amusing that this reporter is now an instant hero, and there are protests in Iraq demanding his release from prison.
quote:
Originally posted by rwarn17588
Guts? Or stupidity.
Why would it catch on? Bush will be gone in a month anyway.
It's a thin line between the two (guts/stupid) for sure.
I do not know if Bush Derangement Syndrome is a permanent condition or if sufferers experience remission with the end of the administration!
Try to imagine what the guy would've been in for if he had thrown his shoes at Saddam.
Probably a piece in each mass grave.
Soooo, is Homeland Security planning to have all journalists remove their shoes before press conferences from now on?
quote:
Originally posted by Wrinkle
Try to imagine what the guy would've been in for if he had thrown his shoes at Saddam.
Probably a piece in each mass grave.
The TV station he is running for said that his detention is harking back to the days of Saddam, genocide, and torture and they need to immediately release him to demonstrate the era of freedom that the US has instilled. Now, the guy shouldn't face too harsh a penalty for an act that could be deemed protest... but the rule of law should still prevail and punishment for assault is still apt. Certainly detaining him for a couple days isn't too much.
They lost my support with the Saddam comparison hyperbole.
I think we've just seen a turning point in Iraq. Their government requires that US troops be removed from all their cities by next summer, and that all US troops leave the country by 2011. Security for the Green Zone will be turned over to the Iraqis next year (I think) and military operations including arrests cannot be made without Iraqi consent. They want us out, so is it any surprise that their anger would boil over in a press conference?
They want us out in 2011. And yes, it is surprising. It's called professional decor. Journalists are not supposed to throw shoes at presidents. I think that's a rule.
It should not be shrugged off or boasted that the man missed George Bush, or that George Bush dodged the shoe-casting: it should be pointed out, the man did not throw his shoes until after George Bush said the surge was a success (which is no small boast). Also, while George Bush gat him out of the way of the shoe casting, the shoes hit the American flag right behind him.
Did it seem odd to anyone that the speaker next to him didn't flinch? Didn't even move to one side. Its as though he knew the shoes weren't for him. Just curious to me.
The guy next to him was Iraqi PM Nuri al-Maliki. He kind of half- heartedly tried to block the second shoe, but yeah, I think he knew they weren't for him.
quote:
Originally posted by Wrinkle
Try to imagine what the guy would've been in for if he had thrown his shoes at Saddam.
Probably a piece in each mass grave.
The Bush Legacy: at least he wasn't Saddam Hussein.
quote:
Originally posted by Neptune
quote:
Originally posted by Wrinkle
Try to imagine what the guy would've been in for if he had thrown his shoes at Saddam.
Probably a piece in each mass grave.
The Bush Legacy: at least he wasn't Saddam Hussein.
Ouch. That'll leave a mark.
Meanwhile, 70 percent of the U.S. wants us to withdraw in 16 months, as wanted by Obama.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/15/AR2008121502103.html?hpid=topnews
There is not one thing funny about this.
A threat to a U.S. President is a threat to the United States. The man should do time behind bars.
quote:
Originally posted by Hometown
There is not one thing funny about this.
Not even a teensy little bit funny? Even just a little?
Admit it. You chuckled.
Our president is the living embodiment of the U.S. If they feel permission to attack him, they feel permission to attack our troops and other aspects of our nation. Bush has disgraced the office but he is still our president until January 20, 2009 and an attack against him should be met with severe punishment.
quote:
Originally posted by Hometown
Our president is the living embodiment of the U.S. If they feel permission to attack him, they feel permission to attack our troops and other aspects of our nation. Bush has disgraced the office but he is still our president until January 20, 2009 and an attack against him should be met with severe punishment.
Okay, so maybe you didn't chuckle. I take that back.
quote:
Originally posted by we vs us
quote:
Originally posted by Hometown
There is not one thing funny about this.
Not even a teensy little bit funny? Even just a little?
Admit it. You chuckled.
I'd have laughed a bit if it had been Bill C.
I would like to see Bush stand before a judge to answer for violating our Constitution, for violating our international treaties, for waging a war of aggression.
But he will most likely drift into history protected by the respect we hold for the Presidency and the strength of the United States.
quote:
Originally posted by Hometown
I would like to see Bush stand before a judge to answer for violating our Constitution, for violating our international treaties, for waging a war of aggression.
I wish Bush had gone into a back room with the attention-seeker and brow-beat him into coming back out into the conference to apologize. Sort of like the Pope and his would-be assassin. Bush is no JPII.
You been watching 'House of Saddam' on HBO? A sympathetic portrait, humanizing. I wish we had just given Saddam his own talk show, he would have settled for it.
Damn, it feels good to be a gangsta. (//%22http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE4BG6UH20081217?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews%22)
quote:
CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian man said on Wednesday he was offering his 20-year-old daughter in marriage to Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi, who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush in Baghdad on Sunday.
The daughter, Amal Saad Gumaa, said she agreed with the idea. "This is something that would honor me. I would like to live in Iraq, especially if I were attached to this hero," she told Reuters by telephone.
Her father, Saad Gumaa, said he had called Dergham, Zaidi's brother, to tell him of the offer. "I find nothing more valuable than my daughter to offer to him, and I am prepared to provide her with everything needed for marriage," he added.
Zaidi's gesture has struck a chord across the Arab world, where President Bush is widely despised for invading Iraq in 2003 and for his support for Israel.
Amal is a student in the media faculty at Minya University in central Egypt.
Zaidi's response to the proposal was not immediately clear.
quote:
Originally posted by we vs us
Damn, it feels good to be a gangsta. (//%22http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE4BG6UH20081217?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews%22)
quote:
CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian man said on Wednesday he was offering his 20-year-old daughter in marriage to Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi, who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush in Baghdad on Sunday.
The daughter, Amal Saad Gumaa, said she agreed with the idea. "This is something that would honor me. I would like to live in Iraq, especially if I were attached to this hero," she told Reuters by telephone.
Her father, Saad Gumaa, said he had called Dergham, Zaidi's brother, to tell him of the offer. "I find nothing more valuable than my daughter to offer to him, and I am prepared to provide her with everything needed for marriage," he added.
Zaidi's gesture has struck a chord across the Arab world, where President Bush is widely despised for invading Iraq in 2003 and for his support for Israel.
Amal is a student in the media faculty at Minya University in central Egypt.
Zaidi's response to the proposal was not immediately clear.
"PC Load Letter? What the eff does that mean??"
quote:
Originally posted by we vs us
CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian man said on Wednesday he was offering his 20-year-old daughter in marriage to Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi, who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush in Baghdad on Sunday.
10 to 1 she is fu-u-u-u-u-ugly