All The News That’s Fit To Ignore
By Mitch Berg
Colonel Joe Repya tells of a message he received from Ali – a former Iraqi Army officer whom Colonel Repya first captured (during Desert Storm in 1991) and then sponsored to come to America as a refugee in the nineties. Ali lives today as part of Dearborn, Michigan’s large Iraqi population.
And he’s not happy:
Ali told us of massive demonstrations in the streets of Dearborn following the shoe throwing incident in Baghdad. Unfortunately, we never saw reports in the main stream media about these demonstrations. Why? Because these demonstrators were showing support for President Bush. They were angry that after giving freedom to 25 million Iraqi’s that a member of the press in Iraq would insult the Iraqi people with his shoe throwing escapades. They were also angry that the American media gave the incident so much air time.
Maybe they just needed to get ahold of Jon Stewart and Tina Fey, America’s News Gatekeepers.
December 29th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Joe Repya claims a person identified as ‘Ali’ says that ‘massive demonstrations’ occurred in Dearborn, MI, after Muntadar al-Zeidi threw his shoes at President Bush–and Mitch Berg accepts this claim, sight unseen. Don’t you think Ali ought to be able to produce some photographs, to illustrate? Is even mild skepticism now forbidden, Mitch?
December 29th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Is even mild skepticism now forbidden, Mitch?
Not sure that I, myself, have the power to “forbid” skepticism.
But this is not the first report of pro-Administration demonstrations among Iraqi-Americans that’ve gone begging for attention in the past seven years.
I’ll ping Repya, though.
December 29th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Good call, Gav, this one sounds very unlikely. Of course the MSM reporters would have been ordered to suppress all evidence of the “massive demonstrations” that no doubt rocked Dearborn. But it’s surprising that no freedom-loving wingnut blogger seems to have any first-hand account.
December 29th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
The only reason Bush didn’t pluck the shoe from the air & whip it back at the guy is that he thought it might be one of them explodin’ shoes they check you for at the airport.
If Chuck Norris was there he would he would have grabbed the shoe and gone all Old Testament on the Iraqi’s in the room, like Samson with the jawbone of an ass.
December 29th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Is Mitch Berg oppressing you, Gavin? Oh, come see the tyranny inherent in the system. 😉
December 29th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
I wonder if the alleged anti-show thrower demo will be as massive these?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5627457
“Daily protests occur in Dearborn. At one recent demonstration, organized by the Congress of Arab-Americans, about 1,000 people attended. College-age men asked, in call and response fashion, “Who is your army?” Protestors responded: “Hezbollah.” “Who is your leader?” they were asked. “Nasrallah,” the chanters responded. Many carried placards of the Hezbollah leader. A few days earlier at an even larger demonstration, more than 15,000 turned out, about half of Dearborn’s Arab community.”
But they must really hate the shoe thrower.
December 29th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Stop forbidding me Mitch — then I’ll talk.
December 29th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Shhhh, Rick! This is the part where the wingnuts create their alternate reality. And we’re here to watch!
December 29th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Why do lefties love Bathists/Sadrists so much?
December 29th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
It is a mystery, Master of None. The closest analog in US history to the Baathists and Sadrists is the KKK during reconstruction. Liberals have no doubt that the Federal government was right to crush the KKK, when they could, despite the fact that they represented local cultural and political beliefs better than the government in DC.
Nobody said you had to be smart or consistent to be a liberal.
December 30th, 2008 at 10:10 am
Mitch
“I’ll ping Repya, though. ”
Any word on the “massive demonstration”? Or did you fools get sold yet another load of junk from an Iraqi exile?
December 30th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Hmm. . .
Maybe Repya was busy videoing the Canvasing Board . . .
December 30th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
I have a feeling that RickDFL won’t believe this story until he sees a skit about it on SNL.
December 30th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
That would be more evidence than provided so far.
December 30th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
I did a little looking around for news stories, blog entries, Rick DFL. This “massive demonstration” almost certainly never happened. That doesn’t mean the wingnuts won’t continue to believe it, of course.
December 30th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Those wingnuts are so crazy that they will believe anything!
Except that a Chicago machine politician can be untainted by corruption. That would be as stupid as believing you can pick up a turd from the clean end.
December 31st, 2008 at 11:27 am
angryclown:
“That doesn’t mean the wingnuts won’t continue to believe it, of course. ”
Believing without evidence is a feature not a bug.
January 1st, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Repya and Ali must be real busy with the holidays.
January 2nd, 2009 at 10:34 am
“I’ll ping Repya, though.”
So can we assume there was no response? Or was your attempt to confirm the story as fictional as the massive demonstration itself?