Reporter from Baghdadiya Television Throws High Inside.
The shoes heard round the world during President Bush's final news conference in
Baghdad will now join presidential lore and artifacts, and we can expect the Smithsonian and the Bush Library both to bid aggressively on the evidence for future tourist enjoyment. A century from now, it will be the shoes that tell a story not only to the enthusiastic and curious American schoolchildren but to the happy Iraqi children as well. The reporter's unusual decision was unusually well timed during a televised news conference in which many cameras were trained on the same events. So far we have several versions of the circumstances. Mr. Bush ducks nimbly twice (above and below, one shoe at a time). Mr. Maliki hardly relents and remains cool. Mr. Bush recovered and remains behind the podium, smiling and relaxed as the room tackles the shoeless offender. Surprisingly the Secret Service did not hurry Mr. Bush from the room. Now to await the additional reports from the investigation. Was the reporter alone? Did
anyone script the occasion? Probably meant as an insult, or perhaps just the only object the guy could throw beside his notebook, how many ways can shoes be interpreted? Will our shoe thrower ever wear shoes again? Does he get new shoes for Christmas? And yes, what is the shoesless one's philosophy of life? I mention in closing that it was two TV reporters who were sent by Osama Bin Laden to assassinate the famous Northern Alliance warlord Ahmed Shah Masoud of Afghanistan with a bomb in their camera. Killing Masoud has long been seen as the start of the attack on New York and Washington on 9-11-01. Perhaps it is time again to review the vetting process of all TV reporters?
Say what you want- the man can react!
The disrespect shown this President at home and abroad continues to be appalling. In contrast, former President Clinton and his sidekick, Al Gore, routinely receive the highest of honors in hushed silences. It is becoming more and more evident that liberal group think has swept the western world off its hinges. I see nothing but ill-concealed amusement on the faces of the talking heads this evening. Will they still smile after it has been decreed that their bloated salaries be reduced to the global mean?
What would you do
If someone threw
A shoe at you
Not one, but, two
So, what is new?
Who had a clue
That George dubayoo
Could smile so true
Look at the shoe
Turn red or blue
And think of who
Might throw a shoe?
The same people who gathered in the streets to support the detained shoe hurler were also in the streets cheering after the attacks on NY and Washington, DC. Never forget 9/11.
"Who throws a shoe, honestly?" -Austin Powers
Am I the only person here who makes a logical connection between the assasination of Massoud at the hands of "journalists" in Afghanistan, the botched shoe bombing attempts of Richard Reid in 2001, and this "high inside" shoe toss? I could see this technique being used again-- and more with more lethal intent-- later.
I am no fan of Bush and I believe he's betrayed most of what was attractive (to me at least) of the Republican ticket (for the record, I am a Classical Liberal in the Von Mises/Austrian tradition) (and a big fan of Mr. Batchelor BTW), but still-- the news of the reporter's shoe-lobbing made me terribly sad.
It made pulp sad--it pissed me off! I wrote the guy's employer, al bagdadi--obviously a useless but nevertheless cathartic protest of my own.
Our Iraq effort was a bad mistake but these clowns are complete ingrates. It validates for me that people deserve the leaders they have. what would happen if he threw a shoe at Saddam? He's a brave guy now that we've put him into a somewhat civilized society. confirms my opinion of most journalist--something about whale shit.
I saw a shoe coming from the direction of the Sandy Knoll.
Jim J - Ditto! Except our Iraq effort wasn't a "bad mistake". Look at a map: Iraq on one side; Afghanistan on the other. What's in the middle?
Iraq was a bad mistake only because the shoe-throwing Baathists, both here and abroad, have said all along it's a "bad mistake". In my book that puts them all in with the bad guys.
Excellent comment Rocco.
George Bush doesn't deserve to be treated with such disrespect, not after all his policies have done for the surviving inhabitants of Iraq. I mean, come on--those shoes didn't even have Odor Eaters in them!
I don't know how he didn't make the baseball team at Yale.
One thing's for sure, the French are now off the hook as being the most ungrateful nation on Earth. They're still the second most ungrateful, though.
Spot on. While I don't recall much of anybody over in Iraq asking for us to liberate them, all we ask in return is that tens of thousands of freedom-loving American soldiers in wraparound sunglasses and body armor be based there for decades to come. Where's the gratitude?
Well, what do you expect from a people that allowed a female fellow journalist be tortured, maimed, disemboweled, eyes plucked out, and then murdered while she was on the street reporting the news to her newly liberated people? Yep, no one did anything while just a few animals had their way with her. They are cowards and, except for a few, have been and still are, overwhelmed with fear.
As for Kenneth writing what he wrote- he just ignores the facts in a sardonic manner. There was not much outcry for a liberation coming from inside Iraq because sadists controlled the land for decades using fear and death repression...
Thank goodness we had a real man with a true heart in the White House who took the burden of all these years to keep the coalition's fight for freedom alive.
Pray it was not wasted on ingrates... here at our blessed home and over there in theater.
Shame be on the manipulators of truth who held our President hostage legislatively while they sneered at him and disrespected the Office and our warriors who still remain committed to the good fight.
Ask our fighting men and women, Kenneth. Ask them about their sunglasses and body armor. Ask them, I dare you. They have been there. They know the real story.
"Ask our fighting men and women, Kenneth. Ask them about their sunglasses and body armor. Ask them, I dare you."
I have, Spencer, I have. One of them is a highly decorated Marine sniper, a preacher's son who spent a year over there during the worst of things. Were I to quote directly his dark thoughts on Bush and Cheney it would get him and me visited by the Secret Service. Another is my nephew, a medic first in Iraq and later in Afghanistan. He was a good kid who was close to his family, a member of 4-H--real Norman Rockwell material. Now he's a crazy alcoholic who screams in his sleep.
I don't care about democracy in Iraq, or in any other country that isn't my own.
So, America has no place in the world beyond its borders?
Ever heard of the Holocaust and the Nazis? The plight of the famished in Africa? Islamists cutting the heads off of anyone that doesn't or won't believe or once believed then changes beliefs?
Shall I go on and on and on?
Most Vets don't agree with you or your friends there, buddy.
I am a hedge fund manager. What is a shoe?