Protest President Bush by mailing your shoes to the White House

I just came back from the post office and mailed an old pair of shoes to President Bush at the White House in protest of his policies.

Arab journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi, the Kanye West of the Arab World, has started a trend that I think is great. Let's face it, he didn't go there and blow himself up. That's progress in a region where violencebecomes the protest form of choice.

But al-Zaidi, who was brutalized by guards (one reportedly yelling not to kick him in the face"), is a hero. Instead of violence, he used a cultural form of protest that is popular in the Arab World, and that one many American came to know when American soldiers during the invasion of Iraq, pulled down the statue of Saddam Hussein in front of one of the dictator's palaces in Baghdad, (trying to make it look like the "people" did it) and then those civilians who were brought there by the military started to express their disdain for Saddam Hussein in the way they knew best, by throwing their shoes at the statue.

How ironic that more than five years later, Iraqis are now throwing their shoes at President Bush?

And I want to help, as a fellow Arab American journalist who believes that violence is NEVER the right choice, NEVER a good choice, and NEVER a strategy for success, the symbolic throwing of my shoes at Bush (courtesy of the US Postal Service) is the most powerful expression of free speech today against the Iraq war possible.

I hope you will join me and others.

Here is the information on the White House, where to mail your packages:

The White House
President Bush
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington DC., 20500

-- Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com

War-related corruption case building

The Rockford Trial of the Iraq war corruption case is continuing.

Here's a link to my story on First Kuwaiti and contractor Jeff Mazon:

http://swnewsherald.com/online_content/2008/04/041808rh_contract.php

Here's a link to the Washington Post which has not covered the Mazon trial but reported on the completion of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/17/AR2008041703603.html?hpid=topnews

Pre-taped interviews with Coalition spokesman in Baghdad, Iraq Tuesday

Radio Chicagoland's Tuesday show features pre-tapaed interviews with Rear Admiral Gregory Smith, spokesman for the Coalition Forces based in Baghdad, Iraq on the status of our troops. Also, the show Tuesday on WCEV 1450 AM Radio (4 to 6 PM) also features an interview with Bob Gusanders, co-publisher of the Southwest News-Herald Newspaper on the challenges facing community newspapers, the important role of community newspapers, and the Southwest News-Heralds expansion over the past several years into the Internet and recently into radio with this show, Radio Chicagoland. Also, I will be replaying an interview with political activist Bob Creamer, who wrote a new book "Listen to Your Mother, Standup Straight: How Progressive Can Win."

Thursday, we have an interview booked with David Astor, an editor at Editor & Publisher Magazine on the status of syndicated columnists and journalism around the country.

Ray Hanania