Kavita Chhibber - December 16, 2008
And the look on the face of George Bush as America hit (!)a new low in more ways than one-was priceless
What’s been even more interesting is the comments of most people of a diverse mix, who’ve seen the video and have spoken to me.. Its mostly “ Too bad the reporter guy missed!’
While my bleary eyes(working on interviews related to the Mumbai attacks) took in the video and my lips had their moment of mirth, many more comments and phrases and posts flew across the internet and hit their mark.
I hope I don’t tread on too many toes-after all it’s the President of the United States. But here goes
“It gives fresh meaning to the phrase shooed away.
"Bush's Ducker T-shirt" puts his head on a tee ducking a barrage of shoes
It would have been even more funny, had President GWB asked that man for his socks!!!
The jokes and the shoes were flying on the late night talk shows Monday night. The comedians couldn't get enough of that shoe-throwing incident in Iraq.
President Bush was shown over-and-over ducking the shoes thrown by an Iraqi reporter during a Baghdad news conference.
Jay Leno wants to know where was the Secret Service. He asks shouldn't they have "at least jumped in front of the second shoe?"
David Letterman was impressed by the president's quick reactions. Letterman says Bush "hasn't dodged anything like that since, well, the Vietnam War."
Conan O'Brien says the shoe-thrower is being hailed as a hero by some in Iraq. O'Brien adds when the man dies, "he'll be greeted in heaven by 72 podiatrists."
Newspapers across the U.S. had headlines saying shoe-icide attack, shoe-nabomber and even
Meanwhile Americans are having their say on what should be done with the shoes.
Some tell CNN they should be put in the Smithsonian, be impeached along with Bush, or should be auctioned off with the proceeds going to the auto industry.
Seriously. Say what you will about Dubya, he’s in his 60s and has the reflexes of a cat.
Who woulda thunk that ducking a shoe would actually help the public’s perception of W?!
Bush Iraqi shoe attack: Why didn't the Secret Service take a loafer for the president?
george bush does a shoe dance.
And this from Chris Bucholz-
So Someone threw their shoes at the President this weekend. Shoes. The President. I know. We wouldn’t really be a comedy site if we didn’t discuss this at least a little bit, would we?
Anyways, here’s the facts: During a press conference, an Iraqi reporter carefully removed both his shoes, stood up and proceeded to throw them, one after the other, at President Bush. The President responded, sensibly, by ducking twice. His attacker, now out of ammunition, then responded by being tackled to the floor by a team of Secret Service Agents. And aside from some glib shoe puns, that was the end of it.
Right off the bat, my first reaction was to be marginally impressed at the President’s reflexes. Bush has taken a lot of stick for being a terrible president, which is probably fair, given his generally high levels of terribleness. But did you see the speed of that duck? That was Mortal Kombat fast. I half expected to see a harpoon come flying out of his coat sleeve after the first shoe sailed past
.
Second reaction: Where was the Secret Service? I gather they’ve taken some flak already about this, although mainly from pencil-necked pundits and bloggers like myself, nattering away safe in our beds. Just milling around the Internet, I’ve seen lots of sweaty outrage about “the second shoe” today. It does seem a little surprising that a guy could fire two whole shoes at the President of the United States before someone stopped him. What if they were one of those knife boots the kids are into these days? That could have done some damage.
But upon further reflection, the Secret Service agents probably handled this as effectively as possible. The guy was throwing shoes - although they probably could have shot him before he got that second shoe off, what do you have then? A dead guy with no shoes on, that’s what, and then you’re asked to leave the country and never come back. Considering how widely loved Bush is in Iraq (check back this time next year for the Iraqi’s first National “Fuck Bush Day”) it’s probably a minor miracle that he’s able to go there at all and come home alive, much less with a tread mark on his skull.
Third reaction: Oh, good work Bundy. The Iraq war has kind of fallen out of the American public’s consciousness the last year or so, mainly because it just leaves everyone feeling kind of bummed I guess. So this little stunt has, on the surface, brought it back to the forefront. But in a completely trivial way. Like every other type of protest, the only thing people talk about is the protest itself, not the message being raised. There are a lot of things about the Iraq war that deserve to be treated with a certain level of seriousness (all the dead people for one.) But instead of talking about that we’ve now got newsrooms across the country racking their brains looking for shoe puns.”
And shoe..eh so it goes
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Posted by Kavita Chhibber at December 16, 2008 04:10 PM
Some thing positive you can do this Christmas:
PZ Myers of Pharyngula writes:
Shoes for Christmas
Lots of people complained that throwing shoes at the president was an act of violence, and therefore beyond the pale of what should be allowed. I think they're wrong, that it's a harmless expression of naked contempt, and that there ought to be more contempt expressed towards this president, but let's compromise. No throwing shoes. How about politely handing them to him?
The Rude Pundit had a brilliant and obvious idea.
"This morning, the Rude Pundit decided to honor the efforts of Muntader al-Zaidi, the Iraqi shoe-tosser, by taking out a raggedy old pair of sneakers, putting them in a Priority Mail shipping box, helpfully provided by the United States Post Office, and shipping them to President George W. Bush at the White House. He included a note that read, "This is a farewell kiss from the American people, you dog."
Since throwing objects at the president is generally considered a crime, the Rude Pundit figures sending shoes to Bush is a small, good thing, a gesture of contempt that has context. Sweet Christ, at this point, there should be giant sacks of shoes heading to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC, 20500, like letters to Santa."
http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2008/12/because-we-wont-have-him-to-kick-around_15.html
None of you can have any objections in principle to that, I should hope. Let us all make our own small protest and send George W Bush a little Christmas present, a polite version of an upraised middle finger, and box up some old shoes and send him a deluge of metaphorical and symbolic disgust.
It would also be nice if the shoes were at least serviceable, so maybe the White House could follow up with one last decent act by donating them to the needy.
___________________________________________________
Alternative suggestion! I really like the idea mentioned in the comments. Since the shoes won't actually be seen Bush and will probably be thrown out, cut out the middleman and do this:
*Donate a pair of shoes to the local charity of your choice.
*Send Bush a postcard, stating, "A pair of shoes has been donated to the needy in your name. This is a farewell kiss from the American people, you dog."
Simple, cheap, and it gets the message across just as well, while also doing something good.
Posted by PZ Myers at 9:37 AM • 251 Comments
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/12/shoes_for_christmas.php#comments
With this shoe-throwing incident the whole Arab World experienced catharsis of sorts. It may now become a bit easy for Obama to reach out to them for reconciliation.
Bush got a lot of his karmic slate cleansed.
Indeed Harb, Bush may well create something that never existed until now: a unified Iraq. But not quite in the way he envisioned...
"Bush may well create something that never existed until now: a unified Iraq. But not quite in the way he envisioned..."
Meanwhile, Bush appears to be supremely uncaring as to why al-Zeidi threw the shoe in the first place. I'm so embarrassed to have that man as president.
Bleeeep.
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"Bush may well create something that nev
Indeed Harb, Bush may well create someth
With this shoe-throwing incident the whole Arab
Some thing positive you can do this Chri
I would be the first to say that President Bush
I would be the first to say that President Bush's own consciousness manifested that shoe throwing. Hearing him speak afterward he was not angry at all. At some deeper level I think he understood what it was all about, I think it was a bit of therapy for many to see him humbled.
I would like to point out the folly of blaming one man for all the worlds problems, that is exactly what the real culprits want, for all to blame the front man, the scapegoat.
The collective culpability dwarfs his individual culpability.
Congress is much more culpable then the president, their collective power far surpasses Bush. The citizens of the nation are much more culpable then congress their collective power far exceeds that of congress.
There are very few if any on the planet fit to judge President Bush, and those that are fit would not.
If we were to pin the fault on a specific group, it would be the citizens that allow themselves to be divided by the trivial and the use of labels such that they do not give their attention to the crucial.