Yesterday President George W. Bush was nearly beaned by two shoes thrown at him by Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi (his first name is also sometimes spelled Montaser, Muntada, Muntather, or Muthathi). Before throwing his second shoe at the president who oversaw the invasion of his country and subsequent deaths of over million Iraqis, he said “This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.” In case you missed it, here’s the video:
On a very cold morning in February of 2007 I coordinated the amplified soundsystem at Code Pink‘s “Walk In Their Shoes” press conference on the National Mall. The centerpiece of the press conference was the unveiling of The Empty Shoes of War by Alison Flensburg (right). It’s a large plexiglass box filled with donated shoes from Americans from all over the country. On each shoe contains the name of an Iraqi civilian who has been killed by George W. Bush’s illegal war & occupation of Iraq.
Not soon after the Walk In Their Shoes press conference, the memorial was placed on display outside of Busboys & Poets, an independent bookstore & restaurant located on the corner of V & 14th street in Northwest, Washington, DC (about 5 blocks from my house). The placement of the memorial is significant because the owner of Busboys & Poets, Andy Shallal, is an Iraqi-American from Baghdad and has been against the war before it started.
Last night I was reminded of the shoes in the memorial and conceived the idea of putting up a small guerrilla thank you note as a way to publicly thank al-Zaidi for doing something millions of people around the world would love to do if they were given the opportunity.
#UPDATE# – 15/15/08 – 4pm
After the photos below I’ve added the text of a press release related to a demonstration taking place at the White House on Wednesday.
Below are some of the photos I took before putting up the note:
+ MORE
False Positive Drug Tests Exposed [PART ONE, PART TWO, & PART THREE]
|| 3/8/2009 || 6:12 pm || + Render A Comment || ||
PART ONE – May, 2007 – This YouTube video shows the incredible true story of the Germ and Soap Company that teamed up to fight drug charges. David Bronner President of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps shows how natural soaps test positive for the date rape drug GHB using police field kits while detergent based fake soaps always test negative.
PART TWO – March 3rd, 2009 – The Marijuana Policy Project and the Mintwood Media Collective present the findings of a new study, False Positives Equal False Justice [pdf]. Video exposes how field drug tests used by police and other government agencies give false positives on dozens of common products.
That’s a pretty expensive little science experiment:
PART THREE – NOW – Its quite amazing how many false positives these products give. You have to wonder why are they still being being used? Come on, Hershey‘s gives a false positive! That’s pretty sad.
Send letters & calls to the maker of these products:
Forensics Source
13386 International Pkwy
Jacksonville, FL, 32218
Tel: (800) 852-0300 or (904) 485-1836
Fax: (800) 588-0399 or (904) 741-5407
E-mail: Info@ForensicsSource.com
You never know, maybe the company didn’t know it was selling faulty products? I bet they would like to hear from you!