“Have a cite for that dubious statement?”

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/the_war_in_iraq_/2007/09/1220580.php

How about an apology, you soulless monster?

Myriad physical ailments don’t count. The physical requirement for contractors is a heartbeat.

Uh oh. Now you’ve done it.

If there’s one thing I think we could all do without is another long and whiny run down of Jay Tea’s myriad physical ailments.

Sound fair?

Jay writes “I’d rather live in modern-day Iraq, where the government is trying to protect me from those trying to kill me, than in Saddam’s, where the government could choose to kill me at any moment, for any reason or no reason at all.”

Ah yes, such a bold internet tough-guy. Tell us Jay, if liberating Iraq was so important, why didn’t you enlist?

I got one. STFU, you don’t matter.

Just to add, as if it wasn’t completely obvious, don’t you think that “better than Saddam Hussein” is setting the bar way too low for judging our progress and success in Iraq?

The reporter has been arrested and is currently being interrogated before facing a criminal justice system that has been roundly condemned by an international human rights group because “torture and abuse of prisoners before trial appeared common, and legal representation was often ineffectual.”

In such a situation, saying that, “Well, at least, he wasn’t immediately shot and thrown in a ditch” is really just pathetic.

ps: Funny how the trolls here didn’t acknowledge, or don’t understand the cultural significance of the bottom of a shoe…

pps: Hey J: If you don’t want to be “freezing to death from teh global warmening”, why don’t you enlist & go to wonderful Iraq? Their government won’t try to kill you!
Don’t reply with an excuse, as none are valid.

http://www.aina.org/news/20081203044715.htm

Baghdad — An international journalists’ organisation condemned on Wednesday the imprisonment of a Kurdish doctor who wrote an article about homosexuality, Reporters without Borders said in a report on its website.

Doctor Adel Hussein was sentenced to six months of prison and fined 125 000 dinars ($106, or about R1 000) on November 24 in the northern Kurdish city of Arbil, 350 kilometres north of Baghdad.

Hussein was accused of “offending public decency” according to Article 403 of the criminal code, the statement said.

Do I have that right?

First of all, the reporter was not exercising anything even remotely close to freedom of the press in throwing his shoes at Bush. I’m sure we could all agree that if Wolf Blitzer threw his shoes at Bush during a press conference in DC, Blitzer would find himself in a world of hurt within seconds. Not only would he undoubtedly lose his job, he’d be facing serious, Federal criminal charges and possibly some serious jail time.

No one has the right to express themselves by throwing shoes at the President. Not here. Not in Iraq.

Second, here we are one day after this incident and we’re all pretending that we know what’s happened to this guy and what’s going to happen to him? Really? The guy is now in jail being “interrogated” by the police:

An Iraqi official was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that the journalist was being interrogated to determine whether anybody paid him to throw his shoes at President Bush.

He was also being tested for alcohol and drugs, and his shoes were being held as evidence, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7783608.stm

So Iraqi officials are interrogating the guy. Great. I’m sure we can all rest comfortably knowing that.

As it turns out that this reporter has been arrested before for doing his job:

The programming director for al-Baghdadiya, Muzhir al-Khafaji, described the journalist as a “proud Arab and an open-minded man”.

He said he was afraid for Mr Zaidi’s safety, adding that the reporter had been arrested by US officials twice before.

“We fear that our correspondents in Iraq will be arrested. We have 200 correspondents there,” he added.

Now the article’s main focus is that thousands of Iraqis are protesting the reporters arrest and demanding his release. That’s freedom of expression. What are they saying?

In Baghdad’s Shiite slum of Sadr City, thousands of supporters of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr burned American flags to protest against Bush and call for the release of al-Zeidi.

“Bush, Bush, listen well: Two shoes on your head,” the protesters chanted.

In Najaf, a Shiite holy city, some protesters threw their shoes at an American patrol as it passed by. Witnesses said the American troops did not respond and continued on their patrol.

The same article at the link notes this:

Also on Monday, Human Rights Watch accused Iraq’s main criminal court of failing to meet basic international standards of justice.

The New York-based group said torture and abuse of prisoners before trial appeared common, and legal representation was often ineffectual.

Human Rights Watch said some of the court’s failings showed disturbing similarities to those that existed during the Saddam Hussein era.

The group called on Iraq to take immediate steps to protect detainees from torture, and ensure they had access to proper defence and received a prompt hearing.

Victory!

By the way, this was NOT some harmless prank. Dana Perino ended up with a hell of a shiner out of the scuffle.

J.

Kinda sums up how most of Americans feel about the guy. Although it concerns me that some reporter managed to get two shots off at the president. Did the secret service take the day off?
I could understand if it was a hardcored trained killer… but it was a reporter with pretty terrible aim. Scary lapse in security.

What is the difference between murder and death by natural causes? Why do we have different degrees of “murder,” from first-degree to manslaughter? Was the death of Timothy McVeigh as much a tragedy and atrocity as the death of Martin Luther King? As you noted, to those dead, there is no difference. To everyone else, it’s all the difference in the world.

I’d rather live in modern-day Iraq, where the government is trying to protect me from those trying to kill me, than in Saddam’s, where the government could choose to kill me at any moment, for any reason or no reason at all.

Yes, that’s easy to say here in New Hampshire, where the biggest threat to my life is freezing to death from teh global warmening, but I don’t do too well with a boot on my neck.

A shoe lobbed at my head I can handle. A boot on my neck, though — no thanks.

J.

Seriously, even if the numbers about the death rate are valid (which I do not accept), there is a huge difference between killings as official government policy and killings by terrorists/insurgents. To conflate the two is appalling.

J.

But what FOX and Jay won’t tell you is that apparently this reporter has had a number of family members and friends killed during the US occupation for various reasons, and that he himself was captured and tortured for a week by an Iraqi insurgent group that might have been backed by the US occupation forces.

Sorry wing-nuts, you can’t have one without the other. The “freedom” to throw a shoe goes hand-in-hand with the blood of tens of thousands of Iraqis.