At 19:16 GMT (i.e., 2:16 p.m. EST, less than 3 hours ago), the BBC Web site reported that an Iraqi threw shoes at George W. Bush. Shoes? Yes, shoes….
An Iraqi journalist was wrestled to the floor by security guards after he called Mr Bush “a dog” and threw his footwear, just missing the president.
The soles of shoes are considered the ultimate insult in Arab culture….
In the middle of the news conference with Mr Maliki, a reporter stood up and shouted “this is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog,” before hurtling his shoes at Mr Bush, narrowly missing him….
Correspondents called it a symbolic incident. Iraqis threw shoes and used them to beat Saddam Hussein’s statue in Baghdad after his overthrow….
What a wildly improbable story, and what an interesting example of political theatre. I guess peace rallies on the Mall in Washington are just too Old School, so nowadays the really cool protesters throw shoes.
I shouldn’t be so flippant. That journalist is dead meat, and is probably having the crap beaten out of him even as I write this. Watch the video — security is going easy on him because there are cameras watching, but they are not being nice to him — wait until there aren’t any cameras trained on them.
Hmm. Maybe we could start a US culture of whacking bad politicians on the head with flip flops:
Flappety-flappety-flappety-WHACK! Take that, you carpet-bagging-son-of-stilleto you!
Haha, when I was in high school, this girl used to throw her flip flops down the hall at me and yell LEONA!!!!! I’m still traumatized. If I were making such a plan to throw shoes at someone, I’d make sure they were my heavy boots, not flip flops lol…but I’m pretty vengeful in that way -)