Thursday, December 18, 2008

By The Time He Signed It, I Bet He Meant It

Iraqi TV reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi

Iraqi PM's office says shoe-thrower apologizes

Story at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081218/ts_nm/us_iraq_bush_shoes
Th on-line article say that TV reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi who became famous for throwing his shoes at President George W. Bush apologized to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki for embarrassing him before the watching world. The apology was in a written letter of contrition.

Zaidi's family said he suffered injuries in the take-down after throwing his shoes at President Bush. His whereabouts were not known for four days and he is believed to be held in the Green Zone in Baghdad.

Soap Box Ravings would like to see pictures of Zaidi, before the incident, immediately after the incident and after signing the letter of contrition.

Soap Box Ravings can't help but feel the penalties for embarrassing the Iraqi President exceed those of embarrassing the President of the United States. In fact, he doubts there is a crime of "Embarrassing the President" in our country. If there was, many politicians and movie stars would be sitting in a stockade somewhere.

Soap Box Ravings feels that President Bush should meet with Zaidi and issue him a pardon and perhaps bring Zaidi into the fold, so to speak. If nothing else, it might demonstrate beating prisoners for "Embarrassing the President" is not accepted.