Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

Ok, I think this is funny as hell for a ton of reasons :D

Not the act itself, I mean, throwing your shoes at a president? Stupid move. But there are just too many small moments in the 10-second video you can't help laugh at.

Here's the CNN link.

And I must say, Bush has unbelievable reflexes. And I've never seen somebody who could take their shoes off as fast as the crazy guy.

And I found the attached animation hilarious :D

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

I guess throwing shoes at somebody is one of the worst insults there is in Muslim cultures.

I have to agree, though. The reflexes were CRAZY.

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

What immediately struck me was the fact that the reporter owes his shoe throwing freedom to the man that he threw his shoes at.

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

< AFK > Maliki :lol:

wrong.

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Yeah, my comment was made in ignorance and was based on a misleading news article. Ah well.

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

Imagine if he nailed Bush right in the face. There'd be hell to pay.

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

"Who throws a shoe?"

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

this guy is low on hit rating i guess... and attacking a boss, without any tanks or healers? you're doomed to get knocked-down by trash mobs :p

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I like how he smiled after the first shoe was thrown. That's classic.

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

Oh god when I first saw this I about lost it. Halarious. That guy has got some balls man...wow.

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

Now just imagine this with a little of Benny Hill's Yakety Sax in the background.

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Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

I knew there to be another Digg reader here. I just had to plant the bait and wait. :D

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Yeah that's what I thought. :D

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He's not exactly free right now, still in custody, now with the Iraqi military. Now, if you meant his shoe-throwing-without-getting-beheaded freedom to the man that he threw shoes at, then ok.

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

America, delivering the world the freedom to throw shoes.

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

To be honest, if it wasn't for himself, Bush would never have been able to go to Iraq, so the guy would never have needed to throw his shoes at him. Bush brought this upon himself.

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

Thats basically what I meant, being that the man has the freedom to communicate dissent. Under Saddam, the man would have been sent back to his family in a series of plastic bags.... and that's not hyperbole, thats historical fact. If he were a woman, he would have been raped first and then sent back in small plastic bags.

Regardless of whether or not you agree with the Iraq war, there is no arguing that the Iraqi people are far better off now than they were then. I'm sorry, there is that argument, but it simply lacks any credibility under any fair analysis whether you want to crunch casualty numbers or preferrably just use common sense.

That said, throwing shoes is still assault, so I wouldn't expect him to get off scott free. You can't just go around throwing your shoes at people, President or no.

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

the game everyone has been waiting for :p

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

Hehe, great. :D

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

Funny shit....Bush's grin is priceless.

I keep saying it...Bush is a hella cool guy. I mean I think he would be a fun guy to smoke a bowl with and go to the strip club. I could see him having a few drinks, putting some singles in some g-strings....

I mean he seems like a really cool guy.

Cool president? Eh....entertaining, sure. Intelligent, probably. Good president? Not likely.

He'd make a cool uncle though.

Add to the list of Muslim stereotypes:
1) keep their women in check
2) go alalalalala and darka darka
3) fly planes into things
4) throw shoes

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

I really hate comments like this. What you really mean to say is that the consequences have changed.

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

They rape him like a woman now?

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

Ah, more senseless equivocation! When the consequences move from torture and dismemberment to being charged with simple assult, which he is guilty of BTW, and I think thats a significant change in consequences and worthy of comment.

remove the shoe throwing, and he likely would have been questioned and released.

Now if it ends up this idiot is sent to GITMO, maybe you'd have an argument, but even then he wouldn't be summarily executed.

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

Sorry, but the fact that the guy left behind a note saying it's great to die a matyr tells me he could care less about his punishment, only getting out his message.
By the way, this guy could get 15 years in prison, not exactly simple assault. Interesting that you state he was an idiot for using his shoes. Is nonviolent protest the only acceptable form of protest now? Would King George III have received a respectable reception here in the 1770's?

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

Well when you put it that way, we should have just shoot the shoe-throwing mother fucker. And then when the rest of the world complained about our cruelty we could wave our big American dicks at them and remind them that we have the largest stockpile of nukes, the largest spread of foreign occupancy, and huge economic power.


seriously you guys are making way to much of something that is supposed to be funny.

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

So assualt is acceptable protest? In that case, I'm going to go smash Obama in the head with a brick because of his stimulus plan. After all, its just protest, right?[/sarcasm]

Yes, non-violence is the only form of protest that is acceptable. Anything else is not protest, but revolution. Protest works to CHANGE THE MINDS of those in power by making a statement. Revolution is an attempt by bypass the system all together. You reference of King George only serves to illustrate that fact, as the Colonists petitioned George for YEARS to have a voice and equal rights without success, and the revolution was a war to send them home, not a form of protest.

I'm a little dismayed at you seeming acceptance of violence as a legitimate form of protest. Martin Luther King and Ghandi understood that when you react violently you only serve to alienate those that you disagree with, rather than changing their minds.

In the end Bush came out looking good in all of this, and most people view the shoe thrower as a fool. Bush didn't overreact and even made some memorably funny quotes. So this "protester" did nothing to help his cause, and instead made Bush look better because of his moronic actions.

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

Of course I don't think throwing a shoe (or violence in general) is an acceptable form of protest. But you do have to take his point of view to heart before judging him. He doesn't recognize Bush as somebody that gave him freedoms. He sees Bush as the leader of a military occupation of his country. If the US was crumbling from within and another country came over and enforced unfamiliar rules and laws, of course part of the population would rebel.

Those supporting this war see themselves as benefactors, bringing the light and justice to the underprivileged. But not all of them want our help, and you can hardly expect them to take that sitting down. Of course there are less violent ways to express your frustration than throwing a shoe.

In the end I think 15 years in prison is hardly a just punishment for somebody who threw a shoe for something he truly believes in.

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

I recognize his rights to dislike Bush, and I recognize his argument as being a legitimate one, even if I disagree with it. What Im disagreeing with is the shoe tossing. Its his actions that are punishable, not his ideas or speech, and that was and is my point. The reporter simply could have stood up and screamed the same messages and gotten as much attention for his beliefs.

His show throwing destroyed his own argument and marginalized his opinion because he looks like a fool.

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

I don't know about that.
The shoe throwing is something that anybody all over the world can understand without any translation. And compared to other kinds of projectiles, is relatively harmless. Screaming out in Arabic limits his effective audience (would have been carried out anyway). So does using accented English that most people wouldn't understand.

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

So if he had simply gotten up and started to angrily scream, his message wouldn't have been sent? The media wouldn't have covered it or translated his message? Really?

Throwing shoes is assault and is unacceptable under any circumstances, not to mention silly, regardless of the message intended. Something tells me that if some republican whack job had done the same to Obama, you'd be singing a different tune. And no, its not ok because it's Bush.

That said, I think it would be a big PR win if Bush pushed for this guy's release. It would show compassion and in the end shoe throwing is unacceptable but as mentioned, harmless barring some freak accident. The release would go a long way to show that Americans are understanding and magnanimous, a perception we have not cultivated in that region.

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

you guys are missing the point...

Shoe
< dodge > ---- < AFK > Maliki
Knockdown

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

He should have thrown a pie.

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Normal pies are ok, but sometimes they make a puke/manure pie, that's just sick.

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

Well it would definitely have to be a banana cream pie.

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

Having thrown a pie before, I can assure you that while it would have been far more affective and hard to punish (how do you jail a pie thrower?), it never would have made it. Simple physics of pie aerodynamics, and that banana cream has a large surface area and low density so it can be manipulated by cross-winds quite easily. It would have ended up on the back of the head of some poor Iraqi reporter, and if the poor son of a bitch was Suni we would have had a jihad on our hands.

Thats how a good pie goes bad...

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

He's in office for a few weeks yet.

There's still time!

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Just ask one of our former PMs :D

so sorry Jean

Re: Journalist throws shoes at Bush
 

I find it funny how this man has the so called freedom to express himself(stupidly...assault is a crime) without being cut up and given to his family in bags......and at the same time, Saddam would never have had the power or resources to perform such acts of cruelty and violence if it weren't for the military support given by none other than rumsfeld himself(1983)...those raghead iranians just needed to die. Think it over for a while. Freedom loving country enables mad dictator to persecute for decades, only to turn and fully denounce, pursue, and eventually sentence him to death(yeah whatever it was an 'iraqi court')........wtf prof s I think you're living in an american dreamworld.


just to note, American intelligence knew the atrocities undertaken by saddam, yet they still alligned militarily with iraq. is it a case of greys?

help me out here because I see some irony in this.