Iraq sculpture honoring Bush shoe-thrower removed
BAGHDAD - The director of an Iraqi orphanage says a sculpture honoring an Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at former President George W. Bush has been removed.
Fatin al-Nassiri says Iraqi police told her the statue had to be removed from the orphanage in Tikrit because government property should not be used for something with a political bias.
She says the sofa-sized statue of a shoe was taken down on Saturday after being unveiled on Thursday.
Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi threw his shoes during a Dec. 14 news conference in Baghdad. Throwing shoes at someone is a sign of extreme contempt in Arab culture.
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Comments
Yup!
I also suggest that the official Presidential Portrait be the iconic photo of Bush ducking at the podium as the size ten went sailing past.
This guy is an absolute hero to me, 'cuz I can't imagine a more perfect coda for this administration's reign than that final presser in Iraq (other than a trial at the Hague, that is!)
by SleepinJeezus (not verified) on Sat, 01/31/2009 - 6:43pm
yeah, I saw that on Keith O It is just great.
Iraq kicked Blackwater out.
You know Oleeb, I do not think the Iraqi's like us.
by dickday (not verified) on Sat, 01/31/2009 - 6:47pm
Can't say as I blame them! But even so, that doesn't mean they don't understand that some of us were vehemently opposed to what our nation did to Iraq and it's people.
by oleeb (not verified) on Sat, 01/31/2009 - 7:20pm
Talk to the shoe!
by 1849 (not verified) on Sat, 01/31/2009 - 7:29pm
RIGHT ON!!!
Where do we put it?-
by Dogtail (not verified) on Sat, 01/31/2009 - 7:36pm
Great idea that... the shoe sculpture. I'm thinking a Middle Eastern artist's version of Jasper John's beer can bronze. Only Florsheims, or whatever style Muntadhar al-Zeidi was wearing/throwing that day. Reproductions, (limited edition of course), available on the Home Shopping Network.
by miguelitoh2o (not verified) on Sat, 01/31/2009 - 8:11pm
Everywhere!
by oleeb (not verified) on Sat, 01/31/2009 - 8:15pm
I agree, an inspired idea.
As to where to put it. Everywhere. In the front yard, in the city park, and anywhere else one can imagine.
Well done.
by Chris Brown (not verified) on Sat, 01/31/2009 - 8:58pm
Perhaps someone with artistic design talents could produce a design which could be passed around the internet. Or perhaps TPM could sponsor a design contest.
by Chris Brown (not verified) on Sat, 01/31/2009 - 9:03pm
I have posted a picture of the sculpture and your suggestion to the sidebar of my blog in an attempt to pass it on.
by Chris Brown (not verified) on Sat, 01/31/2009 - 9:32pm
Everywhere is right. Take it on a tour of America and then find a place in DC to make it into the centerpiece of the George W. Bush memorial.
In the meantime the first step is to set up a charitable committee to send in donations to raise money to buy it from the orphanage, preferably for a huge amount of money so those kids can have a shot at a decent life. I'd go door to door myself with a friggin UNICEF type box collecting dimes if I had to for that cause.
by markg8 (not verified) on Sat, 01/31/2009 - 9:57pm
Awesome. And can we have a ceremony where we get to throw shoes at it?
Man, somebody's gonna make money at the fairgrounds this year, by having a shoe-throwing booth. Seriously. They could just roll down a vinyl picture of whoever - Bush, Cheney, Rummy, a generic banker - charge $1, and WHAP.
Come to think of it, that'd probably be a good fund-raiser for the Dems. (Or the Republicans!)
by quinn esq (not verified) on Sat, 01/31/2009 - 10:09pm
It's great idea but I think most people in this TV saturated culture would think it was in honor of Maxwell Smart.
by mjeffn (not verified) on Sun, 02/01/2009 - 3:45am
I think one should also be placed in the back of the White House press room.
It might remind pool reporters of what it means to have real freedom of the press. At the same time maybe, just maybe, they might also be reminded of their responsibilities as members of the Fourth Estate and discharge them accordingly.
Helen Thomas got evicted from the WH pool. This guy got hauled off in the middle of the presser and beaten.
Check that. We need to put one in the lobby of every freaking' media outlet in the nation. I'm with markg8. Who's got the UNICEF boxes?
by bluemeanie (not verified) on Sun, 02/01/2009 - 2:30pm
You're right. I might suggest it to my local Democratic party for use at our booth at the town fair this summer. Have 'em bring old but usable pairs of shoes, pay a buck, fire a shoe into the foot diameter gaping maw of George Bush and win a Obama button, or a Rush Limbaugh voodoo doll or something. We'll give the shoes to charity.
They'll never go for it, but we might use it at one of our intraparty parties. Last year we played pin the subpoena on the elephant.
by markg8 (not verified) on Sun, 02/01/2009 - 3:38pm
Probably won't have much luck in the pressroom, but I'm pretty sure one could be set up in Lafayette Park right across Pennsylvania Avenue where it couldn't be missed by the White House stenographer corps, uh, I mean the press corps.
The Mall in DC would be another excellent location where members of the House and Senate would have to see it and then one in front of the Supreme Court, the Pentagon and the Department of Justice.
Another idea might be to mail old shoes to the Justice Department, Congress and the President or to have a demonstration where people simply bring old shoes and fling them onto a big pile in font of the Justice Department especially. When I think of the Bush crimes against humanity I often wonder where Martin Luther King would come down on the question of bringing the criminals to justice and I cannot but conclude he would be in favor. After all, he submitted himself to the bar of justice whenever he broke the law, but then again he broke unjust laws.
by oleeb (not verified) on Sun, 02/01/2009 - 4:05pm
I've always wondered what to do with old shoes. Charities won't take 'em. They just pile up in your closet and ultimately end up in the landfill.
Maybe bags and boxes of old shoes would serve as a reminder to journalists of the importance of an independent and inquiring media.
by bluemeanie (not verified) on Sun, 02/01/2009 - 4:15pm
It would be kind of interesting if the newsrooms in New York and Washington were flooded with shoes. It would highlight their silence and even complicity in the commission of the biggest crime which was the lies leading to the illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq. All the other crimes are only a subset of that initial and worst of all crimes against humanity which is committing a war of aggression. And that's precisely what the war in Iraq has been since day one.
by oleeb (not verified) on Sun, 02/01/2009 - 4:22pm
True that, my friend.
by bluemeanie (not verified) on Sun, 02/01/2009 - 4:36pm