Size 10 1/2

[427 S/O]

Stood his ground and kept his eyes on the idiot. Unlike most chicken $hit politicians (and some malcontents here) who would run and hide.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duLds-TZMGw



http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008...arewell-visit/

[Bill Bess]

It just a good example of the "Mad Dogs" we're dealing with in this world. Bush was quick, agile and calm, along with demonstrating a comical retort that defused a potentially bad situation.

Good Job...George Bush

I think that guy that threw the shoes needs them inserted up his A**!
Bend over Ahmed!

Bill

[Roscoe]

What is this shoe fetish with Muslims? I remember when the statue of Saddam was toppled they were beating it with their shoes. What's up wit dat?

Roscoe

[VRM]

Right - how dare they think that they can govern their country better than we can.

They have already been bent over - guess they need to stay that way.

Steve

[VRM]

Originally Posted by Roscoe

What is this shoe fetish with Muslims? I remember when the statue of Saddam was toppled they were beating it with their shoes. What's up wit dat?

Roscoe

They consider the bottoms of the shoes unclean. It is about the worst insult you can give. And it is an Arab fetish - not just Muslim. The Japanese have a similar one.

[Don]

Source: NYTimes.com 12-15:

" Other Iraqi journalists in the front row apologized to Mr. Bush, who was uninjured and tried to brush off the incident by making a joke. “All I can report is it is a size 10,” he said, continuing to take questions and noting the apologies. He also called the incident a sign of democracy, saying, “That’s what people do in a free society, draw attention to themselves,” as the man’s screaming could be heard outside "

" The shoe-throwing incident in Baghdad punctuated Mr. Bush’s visit here — his fourth — in a deeply symbolic way, reflecting the conflicted views in Iraq of a man who toppled Saddam Hussein, ordered the occupation of the country and brought it freedoms unthinkable under Mr. Hussein’s rule but at enormous costs. "

" Hitting someone with a shoe is considered the supreme insult in Iraq. It means that the target is even lower than the shoe, which is always on the ground and dirty. Crowds hurled their shoes at the giant statue of Mr. Hussein that stood in Baghdad’s Firdos Square before helping American marines pull it down on April 9, 2003, the day the capital fell. More recently in the same square, a far bigger crowd composed of Iraqis who had opposed the security agreement flung their shoes at an effigy of Mr. Bush before burning it."

[turnpike boy]

Originally Posted by VRM

Right - how dare they think that they can govern their country better than we can.

They have already been bent over - guess they need to stay that way.

Steve

Mmm, indeed. Wonderful job they've done. Model society for the world. Of course, having had the opportunity to become world-class GIVEN them by the Great Satan, it is instead a loss of self-respect caused by the Great Satan.

Pathetic. As to being bent over, well.....if you insist on showing the world your a$$, you better have some expectation of someone else kicking it. Arrogance and disrespect have no logical right to think otherwise - regardless of WHO's a$$ it is.

[VRM]

Originally Posted by turnpike boy

Mmm, indeed. Wonderful job they've done. Model society for the world. Of course, having had the opportunity to become world-class GIVEN them by the Great Satan, it is instead a loss of self-respect caused by the Great Satan.

Pathetic. As to being bent over, well.....if you insist on showing the world your a$$, you better have some expectation of someone else kicking it. Arrogance and disrespect have no logical right to think otherwise - regardless of WHO's a$$ it is.

If they want freedom they have to earn it themselves. We cannot give it to them and expect them to know what to do with it.

[392cobra]

Maybe if Arabs/Persians/Muslims would cease acting like spoiled retarded children the world in general would have more respect for them.

[turnpike boy]

Originally Posted by VRM

If they want freedom they have to earn it themselves. We cannot give it to them and expect them to know what to do with it.

We didn't give them freedom - we gave them an opportunity. If they don't want freedom, well then, they certainly will be in "control" of that. Of course, it's always prudent to disregard situations one doesn't understand....rather than make allowances and directed efforts to comprehend.

With regard to earning it - no problem. We've not annexed them - who the h*ll wants them, anyway? Likely we're all looking forward to the day when they don't require constant observation due to their instability. Absent that, it's moronic - on anybody's part - to expect we would turn our back to them.

[427 S/O]

Well said......

[VRM]

Originally Posted by turnpike boy

We didn't give them freedom - we gave them an opportunity. If they don't want freedom, well then, they certainly will be in "control" of that. Of course, it's always prudent to disregard situations one doesn't understand....rather than make allowances and directed efforts to comprehend.

With regard to earning it - no problem. We've not annexed them - who the h*ll wants them, anyway? Likely we're all looking forward to the day when they don't require constant observation due to their instability. Absent that, it's moronic - on anybody's part - to expect we would turn our back to them.

Gave who an opportunity? Revolutions happen because one group is strong enough to take power from another. There was no dominant force inside Iraq that could take power from Husseins government, and none are strong enough to hold it on their own. And the chance is high that whatever government does finally manage to take over will have stronger ties to Iran than us. Sometimes the enemy you know is better than the one you don't...

[CobraEd]

So, the bottoms of shoes are unclean, duh. But they live every day in total squallor and eat with their hands. Go figure.


.

[turnpike boy]

Revolutions happen when the oppressed party has, quite frankly, had enough. Enough being their perspective and determination. And power to commit that revolution is always available, to anyone. Price tag attached. How the downstream is managed is a whole 'nother matter.

IF they want freedom, they'll have it. IF they want democracy, they'll have it. IF they want autocracy, they'll have it. IF they want instability, and outside intervention, and malcontent, and constant strife, they'll have it, and largely because they do not make the commitment obligatory to ensuring those conditions are controlled. Real change just don't come cheap or easy.

IF they're truly stupid enough to feel Iran is their future, well, then..... it is likely we'll be watching the region for a long time to come. And Iran is hardly an unknown. But so far they've made it pretty clear they want none of Iran.

[LudicrousSpeed]

Any advancements the Islamic community had to offer in the way of art, science or culture has been obliterated by the religious extremists.

I look forward to the day when the world can go back to totally disregarding those turds.

If it wasnt for all that oil under their litter-box of a country, they'd just be another Rwanda.

Question: Where was the secret service in all this? That dude shoulda been choking on his own teeth/blood before the first shoe hit the ground.

[Roscoe]

Cobra Ed: And they only eat with the right hand....or is it the left? I guess it's the one that doesn't smell bad.

Roscoe

[turnpike boy]

What's on the menu there smells worse than their hands.

So - no problem.

[Don]

Would appear there was a breakdown in security, the video of the incident does not show ( ? ) any security personnel at the front and facing the audience. The Secret Service agent was in the front row facing the President, the individual that jumped up after the shoe was thrown.

Source: NYTimes.com 12-16

In Iraqi’s Shoe-Hurling Protest, Arabs Find a Hero

By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS and ABEER MOHAMMED
BAGHDAD — " Calling someone the “son of a shoe” is one of the worst insults in Iraq. But the lowly shoe and the Iraqi who threw both of his at President Bush, with widely admired aim, were embraced around the Arab world on Monday as symbols of rage at a still unpopular war.

In Saudi Arabia, a newspaper reported that a man had offered $10 million to buy just one of what has almost certainly become the world’s most famous pair of black dress shoes.

A daughter of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the Libyan leader, reportedly awarded the shoe thrower, Muntader al-Zaidi, a 29-year-old journalist, a medal of courage.

In the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, people calling for an immediate American withdrawal removed their footwear and placed the shoes and sandals at the end of long poles, waving them high in the air. And in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf, people threw their shoes at a passing American convoy.

In street-corner conversations, on television and in Internet chat rooms, the subject of shoes was inescapable throughout much of the Middle East on Monday, as was the defiant act that inspired the interest: a huge and spontaneous eruption of anger at President Bush on Sunday in his final visit here. Some deplored Mr. Zaidi’s act as a breach of respect or of traditional Arab hospitality toward guests, even if they shared the sentiment. (Mr. Bush, having demonstrated his quick reflexes, then brushed it off as an expression of democracy.)

“Although that action was not expressed in a civilized manner, it showed the Iraqi feelings, which is to object to the American occupation,” said Qutaiba Rajaa, a 58-year-old physician in Samarra, a Sunni stronghold north of Baghdad.

But many more expressed undiluted pleasure. “I swear by God that all Iraqis with their different nationalities are glad about this act,” said Yaareb Yousif Matti, a 45-year-old teacher from Mosul, in northern Iraq.

Mr. Zaidi, who remained in custody Monday, provided a rare moment of unity in a region often at odds with itself. Glee, even if thinly veiled, could be discerned in much of the reporting, especially in places where anti-American sentiment runs deepest.

In Syria, Mr. Zaidi’s picture was shown all day on state television, with Syrians calling in to share their admiration for his gesture and his bravery. In central Damascus, a huge banner hung over a street, reading, “Oh, heroic journalist, thank you so much for what you have done.”

In Lebanon, reactions varied by political affiliation, but curiosity about the episode was universal. An American visitor to a school in Beirut’s southern suburb, where the Shiite militant group Hezbollah is popular, was besieged with questions from teachers and students alike, who wanted to know what Americans thought about the insult.

“It’s the talk of the city,” said Ibrahim Mousawi, a Beirut journalist and political analyst affiliated with Hezbollah. “Everyone is proud of this man, and they’re saying he did it in our name.”

The instantly mythic moment took place Sunday night at a news conference by President Bush and Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki in Baghdad’s Green Zone, a session meant partly to trumpet recent security gains in Iraq.

As Mr. Bush was speaking, Mr. Zaidi rose abruptly from about 12 feet away, reared his right arm and fired a shoe at the president’s head while shouting in Arabic: “This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you dog!”

Mr. Bush deftly ducked and the shoe narrowly missed him. A few seconds later, the journalist tossed his other shoe, again with great force, this time shouting, “This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq!” Again, the shoe sailed over the president’s head.

Mr. Zaidi was subdued by a fellow journalist and then beaten by members of the prime minister’s security detail, who hauled him out of the room in his white socks. Mr. Zaidi’s cries could be heard from a nearby room as the news conference continued.

A number of Iraqis said they were dismayed by what Mr. Zaidi had done. Ahmad Abu Risha, the head of the Awakening Council in Anbar Province, a group of tribal leaders that started a wave of popular opposition to fighters linked to Al Qaeda, condemned the move.

“The American president is the guest of all Iraqis,” he said. “The Iraqi government has to choose good journalists to attend such conferences.”

Mr. Zaidi, who has not been formally charged, faces up to seven years in prison for committing an act of aggression against a visiting head of state. It was unclear whether his popularity would prompt Mr. Maliki’s government to lighten his punishment.

A statement from Mr. Maliki’s government described the shoe-throwing as a “shameful, savage act that is not related to journalism in any way.” It called on Al Baghdadia, the Cairo-based satellite television network for which Mr. Zaidi works, to publicly apologize.

But as of Monday night, no apology from the network had been forthcoming. Instead, it posted an image of Mr. Zaidi in a corner of the screen for much of the day. When viewers were invited to phone in, the vast majority approved of his actions.

During an interview in Sadr City, a brother of Muntader al-Zaidi’s, Maythem al-Zaidi, 28, said Muntader had been offered representation, free, by more than 100 lawyers from around the world, including one who had represented Saddam Hussein.

He mentioned that his brother had been detained early this year for several hours by the United States military, but he described him as apolitical and said the act had been spontaneous.

“I am proud of my brother,” he said, “as all Iraqis would be.”

But Saif al-Deen, 25, a copy editor at the television network, said Mr. Zaidi had been planning some sort of protest against Mr. Bush for nearly a year.

“I remember at the end of 2007,” Mr. Deen said, “he told me, ‘You will see how I will take revenge on the criminal Bush in my personal way about the crimes that he has committed against innocent Iraqi people.’ ”

Mr. Deen said that he had tried to talk his friend out of doing anything, but that Mr. Zaidi had “insisted he would do it.”

Mr. Zaidi’s hero status continued to grow on Monday.

In Damascus, a 34-year-old shop owner, who gave his name only as Muhammad, said he was on his way to celebrate the shoe-throwing incident with friends.

“This is like a holiday,” he said. “This is just what we needed for revenge.” "

[turnpike boy]

All this for a pair of shoes.

Somebody reported the Yankees hired this guy as a reliever.

Journalism at its' most obvious.

[427 S/O]

NYT...Far left print and about bankrupt.