Iraqi journalist laces into Bush

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

In a sole-searing exhibit of disdain, an Iraqi heel slung two shoes at President Bush during a news conference. To his credit, Bush displayed considerable polish in dodging the flying size 10s, utilizing the reflexes he’s developed in sidestepping criticism and blame for the previous eight years.

The shoe-thrower, an Iraqi journalist, is believed to be an Oxford graduate. Secret Service agents were momentarily caught loafing as he pumped both shoes at the outgoing president, but managed to cobble together their wits and sock him to the ground.

PAD

UPDATED 12/15: Here’s something to ponder. If other United States politicos hold press conferences in Iraq, are all Iraqi journalists going to be required by the Secret Service to remove their shoes and check them in a box outside the room. I mean, one nimrod years ago failed in an attempt to sneak explosives onto an airplane via his shoes and since then we all have to go in stocking feet through the metal detectors. So if shoes ARE being used as a means of expressing disdain, is that going to be accounted for in future Iraqi press gatherings?

208 comments on “Iraqi journalist laces into Bush”

  1. “In a sole-searing exhibit of disdain, an Iraqi heel slung two shoes at President Bush during a news conference. To his credit, Bush displayed considerable polish in dodging the flying size 10s, utilizing the reflexes he’s developed in sidestepping criticism and blame for the previous eight years.

    The shoe-thrower, an Iraqi journalist, is believed to be an Oxford graduate. Secret Service agents were momentarily caught loafing as he pumped both shoes at the outgoing president, but managed to cobble together their wits and sock him to the ground.”

    **Groan**

    You had to “kick” those puns out there, didn’t ya?

  2. Any truth to the rumor that the shoe-thrower was later treed and charged with horning in on a press conference?

    I just hope the agents used a little finesse — you know, a stiletto rather than a machete.

  7. Why you feel the need to lace into the guy right before he gets booted out of office is beyond me. It’s your platform, you can clog it with petty criticisms as you like but to mock a sin like this just so you have an excuse to cobble together some cheap puns…it’s beneath you, sir.

  9. Was it just me or did Bush seem a little tongue tied for a moment there? And is there any truth to the rumor that the guy said he did it because he didn’t like what he saw when he looked into Bush’s soul?

  11. I don’t have puns to offer, good or otherwise, so I’ll just say: good for him.

    My first reaction on seeing the news:

    “Who throws a shoe? Honestly!”

    Natural to wonder, and I found the answer when reading about on the NY Times site:

    “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.”

    Again, this guy is my hero.

    Also, it was reported afterwards that Maliki’s security people not only took this guy into custody, but they brutally beat him. Forget about the fact that he’s probably being brutalized for this offense less than he would’ve been before the invasion. Forget about that for a minute–didn’t Bush say that among the reasons Saddam needed to be removed from power was because of how cruel he was to his people, to his prisoners?

    “(Bush) 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.”

    So after all the dead and wounded and crippled, I guess that human rights abuses in Iraq haven’t stopped after all. They’ve been lessened, maybe, and it’s a new guy committing them, but they’re still there. Yeah, it was totally worth it, wasn’t it?

  13. I wish to refer Mr. David to the previously mentioned 3 rules of comedy, as stated by one Mr. John Cleese: 1) No puns. 2) No puns. 3) No puns.

    Puns are not funny. Q.E.D.

  14. So what next?

    Cheney clobbered, by an avalanche of plummeting hiking boots on his next hunting trip?

    McCain mangled, when the septic gloves come off, while addressing unemployment at a plumbers’ union?

    Palin pelted, in a glittering flurry of base imitation anklets and toe-rings while taking in a Bollywood fashion show?

  15. Rob Brown: “So after all the dead and wounded and crippled, I guess that human rights abuses in Iraq haven’t stopped after all. They’ve been lessened, maybe, and it’s a new guy committing them, but they’re still there. Yeah, it was totally worth it, wasn’t it?“

    The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.

  16. Why throw your shoes? Maybe the man wasn’t good at projectile vomiting!!! As nasty as it is to have footwear thrown at you, I do believe history is going to be very very hard on Mr Bush (and on anyone we voted for his re-election), after he leaves office (history is very brave when you’ve left the building).

    Well George has shown that he can duck like the best of them (perhaps training from the old duck and cover ads).

    I feel sorry for that journalist, I’m sure he’s seeing the underside of alot of boots at the moment as their aimed at his face, embarrasing the secret service is not a victimless offense, if they catch you.

    I think that repeats of this incident could have people being barefoot in press conferences, or treading softly on slippers.

    I do admire George’s audacity to visit this conquered nation though, ballsy!!

    (Also Bill Mulligan, to say that the author should not “mock a sin like this” is silly, more people should have spoken up during this presidency, when more truths are revealed in the years ahead, you may not see this act as a “sin”, but more a desperate display of frustration at the devastated state of iraq these days).

    Goodbye Mr Bush, you’ve had mud and shoes thrown at you, beware of socks, kneepads and jock straps.

  17. (Also Bill Mulligan, to say that the author should not “mock a sin like this” is silly, more people should have spoken up during this presidency, when more truths are revealed in the years ahead, you may not see this act as a “sin”, but more a desperate display of frustration at the devastated state of iraq these days).

    Sigh. And that was the best one I could come up with. That’s it, I’m leaving punning to the professionals.

  20. Whatever next? Assassins using arsenic and old laces?

    Le sigh. At least this guy gets to go down as a footnote in history.

    Cheers!

  23. Wow, I never knew Oxford and Yale had such a bitter rivalry.

    So why was he treading all over Bush’s conference? Good thing Bush has a crocodile skin-like sense of stoicism.

  24. I just saw the video, and I thought it odd that Bush wasn’t rushed out of the room at all, even after the S.S. and others swarmed over the guy.

    The journalist (at least, I assume it was him) made some weird howling sounds as he was overpowered. I wonder if it was Iraqi for “Don’t taze me, bro!”

    Seriously, I understand that the sole of the shoe is considered an insult in Arab culture, but how did this yahoo know that the sole is that part that would’ve hit Bush had he not ducked?

  25. Peter’s career is based on leaving out strips of leather as he retires for the evening, and discovering typewritten scripts the next morning. He can’t wait to sell that sequel to Viva Zapata! so he can finally call the exterminator.

  26. Posted by Rob Brown:
    Also, it was reported afterwards that Maliki’s security people not only took this guy into custody, but they brutally beat him. Forget about the fact that he’s probably being brutalized for this offense less than he would’ve been before the invasion. Forget about that for a minute–didn’t Bush say that among the reasons Saddam needed to be removed from power was because of how cruel he was to his people, to his prisoners?

    Now where would someoen find this report? Sure he might not have been brutally beat.(As opposed to a gentle beating) He would have been drawn and quartered. In front of his family no less.

    I heard it was reported the the guy said Allah told him to “Just do it”

  27. What’s amazing is that this little conversation here is almost exactly what was going on during the plane trip back on Air force 1:

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article5345331.ece

    THE PRESIDENT: Okay, my opening statement: I didn’t know what the guy said, but I saw his sole….I’m pretty good at ducking, as most of you will know —

    QUESTION: You were quick.

    THE PRESIDENT: I’m talking about ducking your questions…I — look, I mean it was just a bizarre moment, but I’ve had other bizarre moments in the presidency. I remember when Hu Jintao was here. Remember we had the big event? He’s speaking, and all of a sudden I hear this noise — had no earthly idea what was taking place, but it was the Falun Gong woman screaming at the top of her lungs. It was kind of an odd moment.

    QUESTION: Well, not to belabor the point too much, on this man, but I have a serious question about it. Obviously he’s expressing a vein of anger that exists in Iraq, and —

    THE PRESIDENT: How do you know? I mean, how do we know what he’s expressing? Who —

    QUESTION: We had a translator who said he shouted about the widows and orphans.

    THE PRESIDENT: I don’t know. I’ve heard all kinds of stories. I heard he was representing a Baathist TV station. I don’t know the facts, but let’s find out the facts. All I’m telling you, it was a bizarre moment.

    QUESTION: I wanted to ask something broader.

    THE PRESIDENT: I don’t think you can take one guy throwing shoes and say this represents a broad movement in Iraq. You can try to do that if you want to. I don’t think it would be accurate.

    QUESTION: Well, then, separately from him —

    THE PRESIDENT: That’s exactly what he wanted you to do. Like I answered on your question, what he wanted you to do was to pay attention to him. And sure enough, you did…

    [There was a noise on board the plane.]

    THE PRESIDENT: The other shoe just dropped. Look, I’m going to be thinking of shoe jokes for a long time. I haven’t heard any good ones yet.

  28. How Pravda led the news: “We starved under Nick Khrushchev. We knew Nick Khrushchev. Nick Khrushchev hammered podiums with our shoes. Governor, you’re no Nick Khrushchev.”

  32. Well, the other shoe has dropped.

    Iraq rally for Bush shoe attacker
    news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7783608.stm

    But Iraq loves W. I know it’s true because Hannity and Fox News told me so.

  35. I go back and forth on this.

    One hand: It’s hilarious.

    Other hand: Dana Perino got a black eye in the ensuing crush to get the reporter. Whatever anyone’s feelings about her and Bush, that’s unfortunate.

    One hand: Seriously, it’s hilarious. I love the fact that Bush ducked so quickly and looked so good at ducking. I loooove the fact that he came up with a bit of a smile, as if he got a bit of an adrenaline rush from the excitement. It brings to mind images of a bad commedian blithely dodging tomatos.

    Other hand: The reporter who threw the shoe really has been on the ášš end of what’s going on in Iraq. He’s been reporting in Sadar City, so he’s been around for the bad fighting lately. He’s lost family members and himself has been kidnapped and tortured. As funny as it is for me to look at this and think “Well, I guess this is how they great liberators,” this guy really has been through a hëll that I’ll never experience.

    To make it all worse, his feelings and those of other Iraqis aren’t just towards Bush. This reporter has referred to Bush and Americans in general as “dogs.” There is a vast anti-American sentiment in Iraq and there have been other demonstrations since the shoe throwing incident. This could actually spark off some riots.

    The shoe throwing incident will always be a great symbol of just how wrong Bush was about how things would go in Iraq. I just hope people don’t get seriously hurt along the way.

  36. True story: Went to my Mom’s for Thanksgiving. On the flight back, I had to go through the “thorough” search because my license expired, and I forgot to grab my extension. So they emptied my bags and started wiping everything down, running the wipes through their detector. And then they got to my shoes, which caused the machine to say, “PING!”

    “Uhh, can I get a lead over here?!”

    I peeked around the suddenly nervous TSA person to see what the machine said:

    EXPLOSIVES DETECTED.

    I know I hadn’t washed them in a while, but come on.

    Oddly enough, my shoes are designed like the American flag. There’s some sort of irony in there somewhere…

    lwk

  37. Now where would someoen find this report?

    In the same Times story I referred to twice.

    Other hand: Dana Perino got a black eye in the ensuing crush to get the reporter. Whatever anyone’s feelings about her and Bush, that’s unfortunate.

    I have to disagree. She’ll be fine, and as far as I’m concerned she’s as much a war criminal as the rest of them. If she can’t end up in prison, I’ll accept a minor inconvenience like a black eye as a substitute. Too bad Bush wasn’t the recipient. FTR, I also didn’t think it was unfortunate when her predecessor, Tony Snow, died. “Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy,” I said to myself.

    Well, the other shoe has dropped.

    Iraq rally for Bush shoe attacker
    news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7783608.stm

    Good for all of them, including this guy:

    “‘He [George Bush] deserves to be hit with 100, not just one or two shoes. Who wants him to come here?’ said a man in Baghdad.”

    My sentiments exactly. As for another Baghdad resident who said this…

    “I think this incident is unnecessary, to be honest. That was a press conference, not a war. If someone wants to express his opinion he should do so in the proper manner, not this way.”

    No, it’s necessary. Bush and company have shown they don’t care when they get heckled, they don’t care when people criticize them either in public or in the media, they just shrug it off. Maybe now that he’s seen that people hate him enough to get physical with him, he’ll be more scared. And, as V said in “V For Vendetta”:

    “People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.”

    Far as I’m concerned, Bush being scared is a good thing. If he’d been more scared, maybe he wouldn’t have started a war. Maybe he wouldn’t have imprisoned and tortured innocent people. Maybe he wouldn’t have done a lot of the things most of us here hate him for today. He thought he had NOTHING to fear–from the people, from Congress, from the rest of the world. He thought he could do anything he wanted without repercussions. That was the problem.

    I wasn’t this angry last week. This møŧhërfûçkër was in the process of fading into obscurity, and since he wasn’t making news and wasn’t doing anything of consequence I wasn’t thinking about him much. But him deciding to take a “victory lap” through Iraq before he leaves office, coupled with the fact that al-Zaidi did something that tons of people have wanted to see done for the longest time, reminded me of everything the guy had done to make me despise him in the first place.

    Oh, one more thing for Pat Nolan. The BBC piece, at the very end, mentions that the status quo in present day Iraq concerning how prisoners are treated is disturbingly similar to how things were under Saddam Hussein.

  38. PAD,

    I am appalled that you would make light of such a serious action. You wouldn’t dare be so calloused if this was Obama dodging questions about what he knew and when he knew his senate seat was for sale…

    Oh, never mind. I laughed too hard to care. Leave it to you to come up with a way to slam Bush and make me laugh at the same time.

    Live Long and Prosper (in comics, but not politics).

    Iowa Jim

  39. FTR, I also didn’t think it was unfortunate when her predecessor, Tony Snow, died. “Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy,” I said to myself.

    Wow. While I often disagree with some here, rarely are views this low or tacky. Hoping you are out there on our own with this one.

    Iowa Jim

  40. Wow. While I often disagree with some here, rarely are views this low or tacky. Hoping you are out there on our own with this one.

    Everybody dies sooner or later. When Jerry Falwell died there were people who were actually happy, and considering how much Falwell did to make the world a more intolerant place I can understand it. I consider it kind of ghoulish to dance on anybody’s grave (REALLY ghoulish if you’re doing it literally), but I can understand why those people would be glad Falwell died.

    In the case of both Snow and Falwell, I just didn’t care that much. As I’m sure Tony Snow himself said at least once, because it was a Bush Administration talking point, the world is better off without certain people in it.

    Snow would have been referring specifically to Saddam Hussein. I say the same thing, and I am referring to Tony Snow, because Tony Snow was not only a propagandist and complicit in war crimes, but he also showed real contempt for the press and, by extension, the American people.

    Was I happy when I heard he had died? Did I cheer and click my heels together and so forth? No. I just shrugged my shoulders and said, again, that it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. Snow was not a nice guy. On THAT, I don’t think too many here would disagree, even if a lot of them disagreed with me about how to feel when anybody–even Tony Snow–dies.

  42. Hoping you are out there on our own with this one.

    I’m fairly certain he is. There are a lot of things I might have wished on Tony Snow at some point in his political career, but death from cancer is not and has never been one of them.

    On the other hand, my hat is off to the shoe-flinger. A perfect way to make a point without being too violent.

  43. Gee… maybe the easiest answer is for Bush to STAY OUT OF IRAQ.

    (I’ve been saying THAT for the past six or seven years, of course… but now that it’s his own personal butt that’s been threatened, maybe he’ll have the tiniest sliver of understanding of what all those young men and women he sent to be killed had to live with every minute of their abbreviated lives.)

  44. Gee… maybe the easiest answer is for Bush to STAY OUT OF IRAQ.

    (I’ve been saying THAT for the past six or seven years, of course… but now that it’s his own personal butt that’s been threatened, maybe he’ll have the tiniest sliver of understanding of what all those young men and women he sent to be killed had to live with every minute of their abbreviated lives.)

  45. Leave it to you to come up with a way to slam Bush and make me laugh at the same time.

    Considering that Bush himself made reference to his practice at dodging questions preparing him for the incident, I’m not the only one who saw the humor.

    PAD

  47. Ah, that old chestnut. I’m impressed.

    If you haven’t been pìššëd øff by this adminstration’s actions during the past eight years, Pat, I’d say it suggests a strong possibility that you’ve been both self-medicating and over-medicating.

    There are a lot of things I might have wished on Tony Snow at some point in his political career, but death from cancer is not and has never been one of them.

    I didn’t wish it on him. I just didn’t care when it happened. I won’t be particularly saddened when Karl Rove and Fred Phelps shuffle off this mortal coil either. Should I be?

    …but now that it’s his own personal butt that’s been threatened, maybe he’ll have the tiniest sliver of understanding of what all those young men and women he sent to be killed had to live with every minute of their abbreviated lives.

    You’d hope so, but I doubt it.

  48. Posted by Rob Brown:
    Ah, that old chestnut. I’m NOT impressed.

    If you haven’t been pìššëd øff by this adminstration’s actions during the past eight years, Pat, I’d say it suggests a strong possibility that you’ve been both self-medicating and over-medicating.

    Hypocrisy…. Why am I not surprised?

  49. If shoes ARE going to be removed beforehand, it’s a good thing I’m neither a reporter or a news cameraman. My shoes, once removed, have on occasion cleared entire rooms of people.

  50. Hypocrisy? I don’t know what your definition of the word is. I’ve always been under the impression that it was saying one thing while doing the opposite.

    You said you hoped I was on good meds, implying (I guess) that I was so angry as to be mentally ill and needed meds. I told you that being angry is normal and something is wrong with you if you haven’t been, throwing in my own med-related flame. I don’t see how that makes me a hypocrite.

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