Damn, so close, so close. This would never have happened if the TSA were screening these guys.
Found by Mister Justin
2
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I hate you stupid fucking liberals. I can’t wait until someone makes a public racist comment about Obama.
OMFG you dweebs, simple manners and politeness can sometimes fall by the wayside if your family and friends have died in a war you think should never have been started.
If 50 or 100 people you knew were killed, would you pass up the opportunity to throw a couple of shoes at the man you thought was most responsible for the circumstances that caused their deaths? Keep in mind that not everyone killed in Iraq was a soldier. Most were simply civilians who didn’t leave when their country was invaded.
Throwing a shoe is the height of symbolic speech. I hope the fellow spends the night in jail and then is sent home.
Thomas–why the respect? Respond to #30.
I think the kind of respect you desire is the kind of situation any tyrant would like==quiet acceptance.
#31–stupidkev==Ok==please equate Deciding to invade a country without a followup plan with being born black.
Your move.
A news (ABC?)report said that the journalist had been captured by terrorists and tortured after we invaded. He had a good reason I think. Too bad he missed.
Bush threw bombs at Iraqis and Iraqis threw footwear. Stop crying.
I have to kind of agree with Thomas on this one. It isn’t the man that you need to show respect for, it is the office. Once he leaves office I don’t care how many shoes he gets tossed at him. While he is still president he should be given the respect that the office deserves. He doesn’t deserve it. The office does.
As far as the secret service is concerned. They had it under control. The presidents life was not in danger. They have a very keen ability to assess the situation and know the appropriate actions to take. There is a very good reason for why they did not rush him out of the room. Both political and safety wise for the president.
The Secret Service was looking a bit slow responding to this assault. I suppose they should of hired Black Water for their close detail and had the government mules guard the KBR lunch truck.
Dude should be sent back to target practice…darnit!
Hard to avoid seeing the sheepish grin on Dubya’s face after dodging the first shoe…I think he was hoping the news conference was going to break-out into some torrid, lingerie pillow fight!!
what a terrible shame…that the guy missed! Hopefully this will inspire many more shoe-throwing copycats to show up every time Bush makes any more appearances.
By the way, for any ignoramus who doesn’t understand the meaning of the shoe in this event, hitting someone with the sole of the shoe is considered to be a grave insult in Arab culture. That’s why you saw Iraqi’s hitting statues of Saddam with the soles of their shoes after he was overthrown. Now, I guess they are wanting to do the same to the guy who has left their country in shambles and left thousands of Iraqis dead or injured in his idiotic effort to find non-existent WMD’s: good ol’ Bush!
The guy has a better arm than the QB Lossman for the Buffalo Bills.
Great, now TSA is going to make us all fly shoeless. That’s fine … I will just have to go buy some Ninja slippers.
Well that reporter will never be seen from again.
#30,#33
Is that how it works now? If you don’t like someone’s politics, it gives you a free pass to act like a juvenile? If you are POTUS, it does give you a pass for respect. Similarly, ANY world leader deserves more respect than this guy gave Bush. If you don’t like his politics then do something about it the appropriate arena. Does any office deserve respect? If I don’t like a cop, should I be free to throw a shoe at him?
# 33 bobbo said, “Throwing a shoe is the height of symbolic speech. I hope the fellow spends the night in jail and then is sent home.”
Actually, in the US it is battery & you’d get jail time. Battery isn’t protected “speech”.
Quick reflexes though.
#43 – Thomas
>>If I don’t like a cop, should I be free to
>>throw a shoe at him?
Under ordinary circumstances, no.
But if the cop caused the senseless death of your children, sucked your life savings dry, was responsible for the crumbling of your nation…well maybe a tossed shoe or two isn’t that far beyond the pale.
Of course it’s disrespectful to assault the President, and it’s scandalous that the Secret Service allowed it to happen (especially after the first shoe was thrown). But there is an irony here that no one has commented on. Bush is the one who started the mess and sent our troops over there. He now goes over there and says: “Good bye — I’ll be leaving now, but the rest of you won’t!” I think I’d be pretty pissed off myself.
It is not about Bush!! It is about the office. Bush is a dick and deserves NO respect but the office does. The respect is shown for the office of the president. As long as he holds that office respect should be shown to him. It doesn’t mean we can’t criticize him or complain about him but throwing a shoe is not acceptable. It is that simple.
You make it sound like the circumstances of your (or this guy’s) displeasure matter in any way whatsoever. They do not. If you dislike the man, then do something about in the appropriate arena. If you did throw a shoe at a cop, even if they were acting in a way you felt was shameful, you can be charged with assault on an officer primarily because it shows a disrespect for their position. There is no excuse. If this guy can’t act like an adult, he shouldn’t be in journalism.
So they cheered when Saddam fell, and hit his statue with shoes, but then threw shoes at the guy who caused Saddam’s fall?
#46 – “J”
>>It doesn’t mean we can’t criticize him or
>>complain about him but throwing a shoe is not
>>acceptable. It is that simple.
So where do you draw the line? If it’s acceptable to criticize him; is it acceptable to portray him as a gibbering chimpanzee in political cartoons? Is it acceptable to characterize him as a disgrace to the nation, an dry-drunk cocaine-addled incompetent bungler, controlled like Charlie McCarthy having his strings pulled by evil Edgar Bergens? A thrown shoe is a milder insult than a pie in the face, and both of those are milder than other forms of criticism that have been applied to him.
I did notice how a lot of “news” shows tried to make light of it for a LONG period of time. They were trying to play it off like it was one disgruntled person when it’s really most of the planet. I hate to see bush’s security bill after he leaves office. Why do we have to protect past presidents anyways? I thought they became regular citizens?
# 49 MikeN said, “So they cheered when Saddam fell, and hit his statue with shoes, but then threw shoes at the guy who caused Saddam’s fall?”
You’re dealing with tribal savages. Not to say that gives us the right to invade their country. Well, not really a country but you know what I mean.
I’m starting to feel sorry for George these days. I still think he’s a douche-nozzle, but he’s taking a beating after all that bluster and false confidence we saw over the years.
And yeah, good reflexes for an old guy. lol
I don’t care what others may say, but from abroad, I have the impression that dubya has been much better than usual this last year.
And notice he didn’t duck or hide, he stood there like an old rebel! Throw grenades, I don’t care! I loved it! 🙂
Man, I hated that guy as a president, but as a regular guy, he must be quite something!
#50
Throwing a shoe at the man is not criticism it is a tantrum. This is supposed to be a professional journalist not a two year old at recess. Not many journalists are afforded the privilege of asking direct questions to a head of state much less the POTUS.
# 55 Thomas said, “This is supposed to be a professional journalist not a two year old at recess.”
Obviously not a professional journalist. Just another savage dressed up in a business suit.
#55 – “J”
Doesn’t seem like we afforded much respect to I’m A Dinner Jacket when he was here to speak. No shoes, granted, but the disrespect was so palpable you could cut it with a knife.
Even Columbia president Lee Bollinger called him a “petty and cruel dictator”. Seems like the Western version of a tossed shoe.
Any professional (journalist or otherwise) who has been subjected to torture caused by George W. Bush and his insane policies can be allowed some way to express his displeasure. Throwing a shoe is preferable to throwing a bomb, and an appropriate non-lethal response to someone who has destroyed so many lives. That it also represents a particularly harsh insult in Arab culture makes it just that much more appropriate.
In assessing Bush’s legacy as POTUS, I’d say he’s pretty much disgraced the office, so I don’t see any reason to show much respect for either. Consider the fact that every critical decision he’s made while President has been THE WRONG DECISION, what the hell makes anyone think he has any business asking the taxpayers to bail out the U.S. Auto Industry, now that we’ve already bailed out the investmant banking industry and the insurance industry to the tune of trillions of dollars? Yeah, he’s really a good source of information on how to handle money, isn’t he?
And the worst is yet to come. Try to catch a screening of the movie IOUSA or watch a DVD of the movie (http://www.iousathemovie.com/) to get an idea of just how bad things are going to get. Listen to Bush’s own former Treasury Secretary and United States Comptroller General explain why they resigned from the Bush Administration and could no longer work for this imbecile.
Hell, I’d probably throw my own shoes at him if I could.
As usual Bush missed a prime opportunity to be the bigger man. He should have told the others to calm down, let the man go, and not prosecute further. Follow it up with a speech about the glories of democracy and free speech, take the good with the bad, yadda yadda. Now THAT would have gained him a modicum of respect.