The family of the Iraqi shoe thrower shouldn’t be the only group of people protesting the Iraqi journalist’s sentence–especially since many on this side of the world thought, “Brilliant!” when they saw the image of those shoes flying toward Dubya on the news. I mean, even now, the shoe antagonist has inspired others to think of ways to use the shoes on their feet.
For example, what about a group heading up to Phoenix to throw some shoes at our Gov. and state legislators? What an image. Shoes cascading down on… well, what about our lovely Frank Antenori? Look in our morning daily coverage on the house’s OK for abortion curbs. From good ‘ol Frank, R-Nut Heads: We have “a duty to protect either our wives or our daughters from making decisions that may come back to haunt them further down the road in their lives.”
Luckily, Frank has never met my mother (she can scare the plants off any Republican), or dozens of other women who do not need anyone’s help in making decisions. I thought you Nut Heads were all about less government in our lives? If this is the case, then certainly we don’t need state government intervening on our behalf … and obviously, we need to throw some shoes.
This article appears in Mar 12-18, 2009.
OK, so I don’t know about GOP plants, my mom could probably scare those, too. But pants, jack asses, and such, she’s really, really good at.
Your joking right? I am not a fan of George Bush, to liberal for me, but he was the leader of the free world at the time and considering this man basically attacked him, he probably should be issued some middle eastern style punishment. He got off easy!
OK, now flame away….LOL
I am pretty damn liberal, but … I agree, Crude. I think throwing shoes in public is a bonerhead maneuver, even if the person you’re throwing them at is pretty much a war criminal.
Perhaps in USA mooning the “pretty much” war criminal Bush would not be considered “bonerhead.”
— am pretty damn liberal, but … I agree, Crude. I think throwing shoes in public is a bonerhead maneuver, even if the person you’re throwing them at is pretty much a war criminal.
hmmm… well how about a pie in the face of neo-nazi ann coulter?
(hope this link doesn’t get stripped out:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv9xa-VxchM
you know if anyone ever did to america what we did to iraq, it would be an act of patriotism to throw a pie.
hell americans have been throwing shit at our leaders for years…
If that shoe thrower tossed a shoe at any dignitary here in Phoenix, he’d be eating green bologna in Arpaio’s tent-jail for the next decade. Shoe-dude got off easy. Coulter ain’t president of jack crap, so don’t compare her to the president of United States of America. Even if you don’t respect the man, respect the office.
…Depends what kind of plants the Republicans have (and/or are smoking)…
/lame pun
Oddly, even in the no-government-inference Libertarian Party, there is debate on the issue of abortion. Here’s one side: http://pro-choicelibertarians.net/ . I’ve read that the issue was one of many that created factions within the party when Ron Paul ran under the LP banner in ’88.
— Even if you don’t respect the man, respect the office.
sorry, i didn’t mean to imply that.
please don’t turn me in.
i’ll be good.
i love america and i respect my president.
god bless joe too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4rBDUJTnNU
if you’re going to throw a shoe at someone, make sure you can hit them, othewise what’s the point?
Mari, I too was po’d about the protection remark. Ugh.
I guess he just doesn’t want women hurting their pretty little heads making a decision.
I think I’d throw my tallest, spikiest high heels.
Geesh. I post a blog in the morning, and go out to interview a bunch of people all day long… and most of you guys are sticking up for the president, oh yeah, even thought he’s pretty much a war criminal. Oy Vey. I guess there is being a liberal or pretty much a liberal, or a shoe wearer and not a shoe thrower… maybe that’s the ticket, yeah…
Frank is a Snake Eater, Army Special Ops. Of course he has a “protect the woman” attitude.
— For example, what about a group heading up to Phoenix to throw some shoes at our Gov. and state legislators? What an image.
i’m thinking coathangers. a rain of coathangers.
here’s the logic: we want you to have kids, even unwanted ones, but we’re not going to fund education for them, or provide services for the parents, unless those services are in jesus’s name, hall-e-lujah, and as a result all those kiddies are going to have few options, have a bunch of kids, then if they turn to drugs for escape or maybe petty crime, we’ll bust their asses as fast as we can and put them in a system where they will finally get an education about how to be a career criminal, most likely get a fatal disease along the way and pass that around, and all this will cost roughly 100 k or so per person per year, not including the medical costs and the court costs and the victims of their crime costs, and the cost of the kids being raised without a healthy family dynamic, but thats okay because prisons are jobs for communities that do not have many options, and oh yes the companies that run them, but the more prisons the better because we need to create jobs for all those people without options popping out babies for jesus left and right because, well you know sperm and egg is sacred, touch yourself child and god kills a kittens, its in the bible somewhere, i saw it on youtube, and when that sperm and egg collide (never sperm and sperm/ egg and egg!) life begins and we have to protect that life until its time to ship those little undereducated wonders off to war, where they can get blown to shit, in jseus’s name, or have their minds turned inside out from horror and govt. santioned speed, all in jesus’s name again, and when they come home in a little flag draped box we’ll hid it from sight because no one wants to see that sort of thing, or when they come home maimed or dead inside and find there are no services or jobs, because well the money is in the fight nver the return home, and the flashbacks begin, we’ll lock them up too eventually, because that means more jobs, not to mention they already served their purpose which was getting that thar black gold we need to fuel our cars and run our air conditioners all summer long, or maybe it was just so a bunch of old men could settle some scores, and… and… and…
ah shit, hold on, i keep forgetting.
obama’s president now.
everything is going to be okay.
Sweet Jesus! You’re quite the def poet there Tommy.
For Crude Oil Trader to come out with the controversial “I’m against the shoe-thrower” comment is one thing. But for the editor of an alternative newsweekly to say the following — “I think throwing shoes in public is a bonerhead maneuver, even if the person you’re throwing them at is pretty much a war criminal” — is something else.
Jimmy Boegle, it is not just that George W. Bush is “pretty much” a war criminal. (By the way: “Pretty much?” What?) It is that George W. Bush is directly responsible for what some estimate to be over a million people dying.
Call it what you like, whether “war criminal” or “incompetent destroyer of life.” There are people dead because of Bush’s failure.
There are also wounded. One photo that sticks in my mind is of a young boy who, due to U.S. bombing, ended up with both arms and both legs blown off.
Then there’s the U.S. wounded, including a fellow who essentially lost his face. Let’s also not forget the cargo planes full of coffins stretched as far as the eye can see, which Bush tried to keep us from even being able to view.
Women and children killed. U.S. soldiers’ lives wasted. Hundreds of billions of dollars lost…
Why on earth would anybody care whether a man threw his shoes at George W. Bush?
And what’s this “leader of the free world” crap?
We’re not talking about Bill Clinton giving the go-ahead to bomb what turned out to be a pharmaceutical company. That’s a one-time case of bad intelligence and a bad call.
We’re talking about a systematic series of lies and failures, greased by arrogance and covered up with the best team of liars and lawyers that pilfered U.S. taxpayer money could buy.
We’re talking about prisoners being stripped naked, rolled in their own feces, forced to fake oral sex, and often beated to death.
So how can you care if a shoe-thrower is inappropriate? If he violated decorum?
Are you always polite around mass murderers?
That’s sick.
That’s real nice. Blame one idiot. In case you forgot, half this country put that one man into the office, twice!. If you want to blame, how ’bout we all pull out a mirror. What were any of us willing to risk to stop the “million people dying”? At least shoe-dude knew he’d be beaten, for starters, an maybe killed for his act of disrespect. We tried to save the lives of a million by pecking at keyboards, chatting or texting our way to peace? Freedom fighters until our wi-fi is down, or until yoga class starts. And now our savior Obama will tidy everything up? Where will you be during the impending Mexican revolution?
The what-what? “I’m too busy in line at Watchmen premier and I’ve reached my Twitter word limit, dude!”
The reason for “blaming one idiot” is because that idiot was the Commander in Chief, aka “the decier.”
Naturally I also blame most of the democratic senators who voted to give Bush war powers out of their craven political self-interest. But they didn’t start the war, and they didn’t know the depths of Bush’s incompetence or lack of principle.
The U.S. voting population is not really to blame. In 2000 they voted in Bush based on lies about compassionate conservatism, a familiarity with his dad, a disliking of Clinton, Al Gore’s inability to connect with people, Ralph Nader’s pointless candidacy, and a Supreme Court coup d’etat that overrode democratic due process.
Meanwhile in 2004, voters were swayed by a war already in progress (a reluctance to switch ships mid-sortie), he’ll-advocate-for-gay-marriage push polls against Kerry, lying-through-their-teeth Swift Boat Veterans, Dan Rather’s stupid faked memo undermining the truthful discussion of Bush’s AWOL status, a widespread propaganda campaign painting anti-war citizens as treasonous, and voter-suppression shenanigans throughout Ohio, among other reasons.
What were we willing to risk to stop the “million people dying,” you ask? (First of all, why put my words in quotes? You don’t think a million have died?) What COULD we risk? People protested, wrote letters to congressmen, to the president, to their representatives, to newspaper editors, disseminated information in blogs. Some camped out in front of Bush’s Texas ranch, some marched on Washington. A lot of people did a buttload of things to fight for the truth to be heard about the war, the WMD, the Abu Ghraib abuses, the mismanagement of funds, the no-bid contracts, the cluster bombs, the white phosphorous, the depleted uranium. Some of us had and still have friends and family in Iraq, in the Navy, in Afghanistan, working as recruiters, and elsewhere doing much closer to the action than civilians can, but with hands tied to do a lot besides follow orders to the best of their abilities. Some of us supported those friends by sending them packages full of food, snacks, books, hand sanitizer or whatever else they asked for. Some of us also sent a paltry portion of our hard-earned paychecks to relief organizations, human-rights organizations and the like. It ain’t much but it’s a lot more than “pecking at keyboards” until yoga class, as you put it.
The “new savior Obama will tidy everything up”? Where are you getting that, and what’s your point? Obama has his work cut out for him, and real change will continue to require a massive, grass-roots-based, concerted effort. Who has illusions about this — or is it you who does? Mexican revolution? Wha?
“The Watchmen” is three hours long, so maybe later. God knows it has to be less boring than “The Sleepy Case of Benjamin Boredom.” As for Twitter, what a load of crap. The Twitter trend will soon join the Hamster Dance in the nostalgia zone. At least the Hamster Dance has a catchy song.