Iraqi journalist's sentence reduced

After Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi threw his shoes onto a stage where Bush was speaking - an act that was intended as a grave insult, not to cause physical injury - he became a worldwide folk hero.

Last month - to the outrage of Iraqis - al-Zeidi was sentenced to 3 years in prison for this deed. This despite the fact that an ABC poll showed that 62% of Iraqis considered al-Zeidi a national hero.

Three years in prison just for insulting one of the most hated political leaders in the world?

Now a court has reduced this sentence to one year. This occurred after defense attorneys pointed out that the law imposes a maximum of only 2 years for publicly insulting a visiting foreign leader.

What's that again?

Why is insulting a political figure even a crime in a supposedly "free" and "democratic" Iraq?

If insulting political leaders is such a crime, the Cincinnati Tea Party crybabies would be in jail now for their sign that portrayed President Obama as the Joker.

Is this anything like how a supposedly "free" and "democratic" leader like Italy's Silvio Berlusconi wants to clamp down on journalists who report his blunders?

Al-Zeidi is actually lucky in a way, because everyone knows that if the world wasn't watching, he would have been killed by Bushist thugs.

So much for joining the "league of democracies", huh?