Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[James Edward Smith]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/28223089#28223089

(THAD EDIT: Geothermal's awful fucking context-free straight-URL link to a video with a fucking LEAD-IN AD is about an Iraqi journalist throwing his shoes at Bush during a press conference.  And the next time I see Geo, I am going to throw my shoes at HIM.)

(THAD EDIT 2: This was not its own thread when I wrote Edit 1.)

Do we have some sort of emoticon for Cartman rubbing himself when one of his schemes comes to fruition?

[Brentai]

He has much better reflexes than I expected.

[Mongrel]

Hell, if you think we're enjoying this, somewhere Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf is giggling uncontrollably.

[Romosome]

He should've thrown both shoes at once, would've been much harder to dodge.

[Ted Belmont]

He should've taken into account the -4 penalty for improvised weapons.

[MadMAxJr]

I saw the video to this earlier, and I haven't noticed a thread cover it yet, but surface to Bush shoe launch?  Really?  One very pissed Iraqi gave him both size tens to the head.

The third picture is worth the expression of the security person on the left.

[Arc]

A suicide car bomb attack killed at least three people and wounded 31 others west of Baghdad on Monday, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said.

:|

[Brentai]

Can't fault the journalistic integrity there.  Americans filter out news reports of attacks like that in Iraq, and you can't entirely blame them; the best the intrepid reporter can do is sneak the information into a funny story about George Bush being attacked by shoes.

More importantly... isn't 34 casualties really an awful lot for a single car bomb?  I mean they're pretty powerful but that is really a lot of people crammed into the effect radius.

[Thad]

I haven't noticed a thread cover it yet

Splitmerged into the thread where we were already talking about it.

Not your fault; as previously established, I do not think Geo could have possibly found a worse way to link the story.

[MadMAxJr]

Thad, please don't hang me for treason, because Kotau's horrible naming convention for URLs clearly defines what this is:

http://kotaku.com/5110547/shoe-attack-on-president-already-turned-into-a-crappy-flash-game

[Brentai]

While he probably wouldn't have, it'd have taken less effort to just type out what it says in that URL than to explain why you were too lazy to.

(This coming from a man who takes the effort to type out something else so you have to hover over it to see, nyah.)

[Disposable Ninja]

The journalist in question is looking at 7-8 years in prison.

That doesn't make me feel good.

[Thad]

The journalist in question is looking at 7-8 years in prison.

Source?  CNN says he's in jail but they haven't decided whether to charge him.

[Disposable Ninja]

NBC Nightly News.

[SCD]

i can't see him getting more than a slap on a wrist for that one.  Ideally i wouldn't mind seeing  a fine from the gov and a reprimand from work, but considering that this shoe-flinging sensation is something of a martyr, we'll see what happens. 

The competent press pretty much has a similar response to this, but this one is byfar the most comprehensive reason on why cheering about this sort of thing hurts free journalism everywhere.

Also, the secret service did a good job on  this one imo.

[Disposable Ninja]

Well, while my first reaction to the whole thing was that it was funny and awesome, it's also just so really sad. All of this man's useless rage, one man in an entire country, and all he could accomplish was to hurl his shoes at Bush. And Bush, that shit, he probably doesn't even feel sad or anything about that insult, or care about what it represented. To him it's probably just another joke to tell guests at his ranch.

[François]

According to Aswat al-Iraq, the man was once kidnapped by unidentified gunmen, then released a week later. (The article's wording is unclear to me; I can't tell if this happened in 2001 or 2006.) There's no telling what this event has done to the man, psychologically.

Apparently he was also an outspoken critic of the US occupation, no surprise there.

[Arc]

The competent press pretty much has a similar response to this, but this one is byfar the most comprehensive reason on why cheering about this sort of thing hurts free journalism everywhere.

Comprehensive meaning it boils down to a singular point of interest; Access. The carrot on the string that of which has turned the fourth estate into an abused wife over the past decade.

The press at-large has such a whacked-out pulse on the nation, that the ideology that they're all corporate stooges is the only reassuring notion for such blatant idiocy. I'd be all for more pontificating from the press if it ever concerned issues that resounded (see: Deaths in Iraq) instead of the typical charges of guilt by imagination (see: Hot Rod & Obama).

[Doom]

What if al-Zeidi had kept his shoes on, and instead lobbed verbally pointed questions about how Bush reconciles the agony of millions of Iraqis with the upbeat assessment of the war he had just given to American troops?

He would've been escorted out for screwing up the planted audience or the questions would be ignored?

An earnest response would have made news, and a nonanswer would have been illuminating.

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.

[Thad]

What if al-Zeidi had kept his shoes on, and instead lobbed verbally pointed questions about how Bush reconciles the agony of millions of Iraqis with the upbeat assessment of the war he had just given to American troops?

He would've been escorted out for screwing up the planted audience or the questions would be ignored?

Yeah, he wouldn't have been called on, and if he'd just started shouting over the President he'd have been ignored or shuffled out.

I'm thinking what would happen if an American had done this.  My guess is he'd be sentenced to community service and then get a book deal.