What would happen if an American journalist did it to the Prime Minister of Iraq

I was also shocked at the Secret Services response to this. YOu would think being Iraq they would have been paying really close attention to what was going on. They were lucky it was only a shoe.

Zephyr, you made a great point there about what the biggest insult would be to Americans. That was the whole point of that Iraqi loser throwing a shoe, to them that's a huge insult and show of the utmost in disrespect, probably the equivalent of our flipping the bird or thumbing our noses. Annie

Fortunately this jerk is facing jail time. Some thing he may get off though just because he has this new cult status. That's just a translation of the "celebrities are above the law" garbage that we deal with here.

Well that's why we have laws and that's why we have laws that prescribe punishments according to crimes. The law also makes it clear that the victim is not to be put on trial, but people have already tried and convicted Bush in their minds so to some, anything done to him is justifiable. One jerk even claimed Bush would throw the guy in Guantanamo as a terrorist which is exactly the opposite of what Bush has done.

So they are willing to let a criminal go free because they agree with his criminal convictions. It's sad really. I would expect it from some of these middle eastern countries where the law is not sacrosanct as it is here. well as it is supposed to be.

Give me a break. You can see right now that the U.S. is not recommending any punishment at all for the guy and leaving it up to the Iraqi government completely yet you sit there and spew this garbage. I know you're just a child Alex, but if you're going to post crap like that, you might want to read up on current events first.

It happened in Iraq or they are letting the Iraqi government deal with it. The US government is saying it is up to Iraq to decide his punishment sense the crime happened in their country. I really do not see this guy in Gitmo. But it is probly a holiday inn compared to the Iraq jail he is probly heading to.

In retrospect I think Obama probably did the best thing by ignoring the incident as Bush himself played it down and failing to be insulted trivialized the moron's attempt to insult Bush. The reason I spoke about liberals is that many of them think it's great he did this. Whether you like Bush or not an insult to him is an insult to our country. There are morons that now have shoe throwing contests where they throw shoes at posters of George Bush. I don't see most conservatives bragging about Ann Coulter, but I do see liberals bragging about this. Besides, Ann Coulter never physically attacked anyone. She's an entertainer who just goes for shock value.

"Many liberals" is a generalization that has almost no meaning. I personally have not witnessed any of the behaviors you note. Who are these liberals you cite? Are they liberals, or are they simply "morons" using politics as an excuse for bad behavior? The closest thing I've seen to what you note are found in the parodies of political cartoonists and comedians--and they go after politicians of all stripes, liberal and conserrvative. Ann Coulter, on the other hand, is a specific conservative who has engaged in a long line of bad behaviors. She does not present herself as a shock-value entertainer. She presents herself as a bonafide voice of the conservative movement. Do I regard her as "typical" of all conservatives? Of course not. But she certainly has her supporters (Rush Limbaugh, for example). On the other hand, you seem ready to generalize toward all liberals, pointing your accusations broadly and without evidence to support your generalizations. Essentially, you are accusing liberals of not playing fair, not being respectful of the presidency. In my opinion, the form you take with your generalizations amounts to the same thing--not playing fair and not being respectful of individuals who happen to be liberals, regardless of their personal behavior. Bad behavior is not a characteristic quality of either liberals or conservatives. It's just bad bahavior. You might consider that the next time you are tempted to use a generalization like the one on which this discussion is based.

P.S.: On further consideration, I wonder why you have made this a "liberal" issue--and an "Obama" issue. I don't really see as how this incident has anything to do with liberalism or Obama's policies. If you turn the process (if not the incident) around, it's a bit like asking the whole conservative movement to take responsibility for Ann Coulter's disrespectful attitude toward the president elect and her insistence on referring to him as "B. Hussein Obama." It's also a bit like asking George Bush to be in some way personally responsible for and supportive of the actions of Mugabe in Zimbabwe. It's all an exercise in deflecting blame where it does not belong. My 2 cents.