Do you think the guy who threw shoes at Bush should be punished?
Asked by
mrdh (
501
)
January 12th, 2009
Should he be sentenced to prison?
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
67 Answers
I think he should be punished with a thousand blowjobs and a million dollars. And probably a new pair of shoes.
If anything,he ought to be reprimanded for not utilizing a deadlier weapon when encountering the beast. Namely: a pretzel.
I’m sure that he’s already received some kind of punishment back in Iraq but I don’t know how severe. If he gets sent to prison, I don’t think it should be for that long or maybe not at all.
George Bush has performed dismally as our president over the last 8 years and it was only a matter of time before someone went the extra mile (so to speak) to show their displeasure of him and to disrespect him in public (which is exactly what the shoe throwing incident was).
Actually I think he should be rewarded with another chance to hurl his shoes at bush before he leaves the white house. And this time, I think he should train hard so that he makes sure he hits him.
Wow, that’s rather brutal for his punishment.
They fucked him up. Like missing teeth fucked up.
What?? I thought he recieved rewards? I know he deserves a slap on the wrist like some light flogging from a really hot dominatrix or something.
@Allie
Yeah, that’s really true, they did break his arms and legs.
I think it should be an attempted battery charge, which usually lends moderate jail time. The fact that it’s a president would the crime slightly more severe.
I’ll be the first one to dissagree with Bush, but on the other hand you can’t just go around assaulting presidents.
Granted, it has had a profound statement. I guess that’s the price you pay for a person in his shoes ; )
When I moved to Australia, I was amazed by the anti-American sentiments of a lot of people here. That situation has not improved during the Bush administration. He really made me feel embarrassed to be a Yank on many occasions. But that said, he is the head of one of the most powerful countries in the world and as such he should be treated with respect especially by reporters. They don’t have to like him but his position demands he be treated respectfully. Also in his country throwing a shoe is a serious insult, so yes he should be punished to the maximum extent of the law.
@rooeytoo & Spargett: Thank you for being reasonable. It would in no way be representative of Americans for us to go to any country and hurl shoes at their leader. Anger is one thing, idiocy is an altogether different ball game.
The Iraqi reporter didn’t come here to throw shoes at Bush, though. Bush came to him on his home turf. I can imagine some hated leaders through recent history that Americans probably hate enough to throw shoes at if they came here to speak, or whatever the equivalent American-style protest is.
As I said before… after the shoes whizzed by, Bush said, “This is what happens in a free society.” I wondered what happens in a free society to someone who protests – and apparently, now we know.
@laureth
Plus, what kind of a free society is this where explosions, wars, crimes and poverty are still at very high levels..?
@archaeopteryx: No free society guarantees sunshine & smiles everyday. We’re free and there are terrible things happening all over the United States.
I, for one, was surprised at Bush’s agility, and the way he handled the incident.
My first thought was that democracy is alive in the Iraqi press corp.
I think it’s great that the Secret Service did not gun the guy down.
@archaepteryx: Not to mention financial bailouts and ponzi schemes.
In that country though, throwing shoes is basically the same as flicking someone off.
[well showing the bottom of your shoes is equivalent. throwing shoes is even more offensive] It’s hardly different than someone showing up at a bush press conference and yelling stuff at him. I think he should be reprimanded by whatever Iraqi laws say, but we need to make sure we don’t try to punish him via our laws.
Along the same lines as Laureth, a good measure of a free society is how it handles dissent.
Muntazer al-Zaidi was immediately taken out back by Iraqi guards, who promptly beat him up, and only then was he was hauled off to jail. Broken ribs and arm, per his brother. Lots of bruises. Yet, the worst may be done with, fortunately. After all, in the US, such a crime would be a misdemeanor assault, right?
Per the Times of London:
Mr al-Zaidi’s action is a personal embarrassment to the Iraqi Prime Minister, who was next to Mr Bush at the press conference. But, given that 2009 is an election in Iraq, Mr al-Zaidi’s popularity is likely to save him from a long prison sentence.
I think my personal opinion about Bush should not affect how the shoe thrower is treated, and i think that he should be punished for throwing anything at any foreign dignitary (or for anybody at all, for that matter).
I also was surprised at how Bush was so quick at ducking the shoe.
Throwing a shoe is a protest, which there are agreements not to do, so an appropriate response would be to remove the offender and not allow him back, and punish according to the agreements he broke – perhaps a fine. Is the agreement that guards break your arms and legs? Maybe so in Iraq? If so, it adds much more to the statement that he was willing to do it anyway!
The biggest fault of the USA is that people demand respect or feel that because someone has a high up position they deserve respect.
Respect is earned, not just given. This is a free society not a communistic socialist environent.
G.W. Bush gets no respect from me and he deserved to be hit with those shoes.
As president you must be willing to sleep in the bed you make for yourself.
Stop defending Bush, he is a moron and as an American in this country we are allowed to say and question what we want from our govt.
Yes judochop; we are allowed to say and question and think for ourselves…so you should stop telling people to stop defending Bush! :)
Got it. I feel they are only defending him because he is a president. Not because he is a swell guy.
I can’t speak for anyone other than me…
and I’m a Republican…
and I don’t blindly approve of everything our President has done…
BUT…
as I said in another thread, I do respect our outgoing President, and I will respect our next President as well.
I think the shoe incident was disrespectful on multiple levels as a press conference is not a rally and should be held to a certain standard of behavior.
Judochop: just because i don’t like someone does not give me the right to harm them physically. whether or not i like someone does not justify me throwing things at them. do i get to throw things at my boss because i don’t like her? do i get to throw things at the store clerk because she was a little rude to me? if that were the case we would live in chaos.
on another note, people deserve respect as human beings, despite what we think of their politics.
@bythebay : I agree with you. A press conference is no place for monkey business. There is a certain level of professionalism that should be held at all times and that did not happen during the “shoe” incident.
Thank God it was only a shoe.
@jca : You can do whatever you like. There are repercussions for every action taken and that is kind of what we are talking about.
I would for certain throw a shoe (not going to hurt much and is a symbol of lowly life) or maybe even a hammer (going to hurt a lot and is a symbol for the working man) if my boss was to destroy my country, kill families, lie to my people, destroy the economy, invade my country and destroy the inner workings and all of it’s records so that it can’t be built back…Yes, he is lucky it was a shoe.
If man does not stand up to his government then the government will invade his home bit by bit.
The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
-Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820–1903)
bythebay—I am happy you respect the man that destroyed America. I am a good Stepford Wife too.
Sheesh. Obama won, people. How ‘bout showing just a teensy bit of hubris?
A press conference is no place for monkey business? Whatever. This man got his opinion out there and everyone knows about it now. Rallys are fine, but they don’t get attention like stunts at press conferences. What better place to get attention than to do it in front of 20 cameras?
@Mizuki: Even though you are hardly worth the effort it takes to press these keys, I have PM’d you to avoid disrupting the thread.
@Perchik : Could you not smell the sarcasm through your screen?
@judochop You know, I think I read your two posts as two different people. Ha.
bythebay—I enjoyed your PM, we should do this more often. throwing shoes, that is
Throwing a shoe is, by the way, a lot worse than “flicking someone off.” It’s one of the worst possible insults over there.
I agree that there’s a difference between protest and assault, but I don’t think I misquoted Bush.
Bush handled this the same as most things , he didnt have a clue what was happening.
ok, I don’t like Bush any more than any of you guys, but the question here was whether he was throwing the shoe to some arsehole that’s been making a mess of the planet (and the US economy with it) or the person who happens to be the US president. So even though I’m regretting he did not throw a grenade instead of a shoe and would kiss the guy if I saw him, at the same time the action (however politically symbolic) should be punished, or else people would be throwing shoes to whoever they don’t like “to make a point”.
Last year a DA friend of mine had to go up against a guy who’d beaten up the local mayor. Taking into account what a jerk that mayor was (and unfortunately still is until the 2010 elections), she let him off with only 2 months’ jailtime payable as a fine, which was the least she could do. And of course the guy is a hero too :)
Does anyone think that the severe punishment of this individual might have been the Iraqi government making an example of this one journalist and trying to appease the U.S. government for this incident ever taking place? Just wondering…..
actually I don’t know what the punishment was, I just saw the question here. But yes, it might be what you just said. Or it might just be that he was tried based on local law and local law is tougher (try smuggling a gram of hash into Singapore for example).
I’d say a jail sentence would be too harsh, but at the same time you can’t leave someone like that off with just a warning. And besides, I bet he knew what he was doing and has no regrets.
The leg-and-rib-breaking was not done as a legally handed down punishment as a result of a lawful trial. It was the result of beating by guards.
Therefore, we do not know what the punishment will actually be, and cannot say if it was political, severe, cruel, or unusual, since it hasn’t happened yet. You can call a prison beating vicious, but it’s not the actual legal punishment done by the actual government.
Ahhhh fuck bush! My boy should have thrown socks with rocks in em.
@BoyWonder. Don’t hold back, tell us what you really mean! LOL
He should be punished for not practicing first. The man’s aim was shameful.
Huh… I’ll hafta rewatch the video. I seem to recall that both shoes pretty much flew through the space that Bush’s head occupied only an instant before.
After lo, these past 8 years, don’t you think Bush would have to be good at dodging missiles? Be they shoes, spitwads, spaghetti and meatballs, subpoenas, what have you?
I wonder what punishment Iraqi security guards get for breaking the bones of an unarmed reporter after he’s been dragged away.
@ichthesaurusRex: His aim was pretty good… dead on where the head is. But who would have thought bush is so quick!? I think the angle it was shot from makes the room seem smaller, but that shoe had some distance to travel.
@ BlueFreedom: You know i would love to but…well…u know…the mods will be squirtin milk all over their keyboards from the titty attacks they’ll get LOL
Feh. Part of being a good shot is knowing how to lead your target.
Yes he should be executed. Our country has fought to liberate their ungrateful asses and he (Bush) represents the US. I feel it is as if he has thrown his shoe at every solider who has fought and died there. Maybe they would rather return to the rule of a tyrant with rape rooms and he could be first up! What a shit bag!
@gooch – We liberated them from Saddam, but we also liberated them from safe water supplies, employment, steady electricity, sanitation, healthy food, and about a million of their citizens. Perhaps those are good reasons for their ungrateful asses to want to throw a shoe or two now and then.
@Laureth. Thanks for the link to that article in your post above. I knew things were very bad but I had no idea it was that dreadful. I learned a lot from reading that.
Nobody asked us to fight for them, we took it upon ourselves to “save the free world” by bringing down the dictator…o yea they forgot to mention draining the country’s resources and disenfranchising millions of civilians in the process, not to mention putting us in our current economic predicament. Throw a James Bond shoe that self destructs in 5 seconds. Fuck that.
my friend, who completely despises the current not for too much longer!! administration brought up a surprising point the other day. she said she thinks it was a really disrespectful thing to do to someone of his status (mind you, not brain power) especially as a journalist.
i think that is definitely true, and maybe he should get a few days in jail because it would be incredibly biased to say he shouldn’t be punished just because it was someone widely disliked. however, i personally think he deserves any hero credit he gets. because how awesome was that? i mean, this guy has been at the head of a hugely corrupt administration that has caused so much damage, it’s hardly comprehensible. i think the guy is rightfully being regarded as a hero.
It seems we have two camps here: one which thinks that respect is an inherent right owed to the President, and one which believes that respect must be earned, no matter what the position.
I am firmly settled in the latter camp, I must say.
Anyone ever wondered how that reflected on the Secret Service? I mean they stood around like cattle doing nothing for ages.
That shoe could’ve been contaminated, explosive, what have ya.
If only we were that lucky… :(
@BoyWonder
I wouldn’t take that answer so lightheartedly. W was in many ways a great moron. However, when he was sitting there, he was the President of the United States, you have to respect the office even if it is temporarily held by a reformed ex-alcoholic gone religious zealot. Lets not despising the guy in office be confused with respect owed to the office in itself.
After all he was voted.
(Well, stole the vote, but still….)
Throwing a shoe was “bad enough.” If he had assassinated the POTUS, no matter who it is, he would have brought down a worse kind of hell upon the people whose already hellish lives he was protesting. The action in Iraq would have gone from “a long drawn out disaster that people are sick of” to a war of retaliation that even anti-Iraq people would have supported. We don’t need Bush to become any kind of martyr.
@laureth
Lurve to that!
By the way though, it did look really funny how he dodged it though! Was kinda surprised he had that dexterity in him LOL
The look on W’s face…........priceless
Answer this question 
This question is in the General Section. Responses must be helpful and on-topic.
Composing members:
0
