TheMillerCircle.org

Apparently many viewers noticed that when journalist Muntazar al-Zaidi threw his two shoes at GW Bush during Bush’s stopover in Iraq (to celebrate his imminent victory there), the flight of the shoes caught the attention of so many viewers, that the manufacturer of Al-Zaidi’s shoes has been swamped with orders. In retrospect and after careful review of the video, it is apparent that the recorded shoe flights from al-Zaidi’s successive throws, reflected an uncommon degree of aerial precision and beauty in their glide path. For those of you who saw the event, you might have noticed that the shoe pojectiles displayed a beautiful end-over-end, parabolic trajectory that seemed to mathematically confirm the laws of gravity as first outlined by Isaac Newton. With such precision and balance in flight, it was hard to believe that the target was missed. Or was it? Judging from the crowd euphoria in support of al-Zaid after his arrest, it seemed that me made a direct hit, at least with the public throughout the known world.

It was only the simian-like reflexes of GW Bush that prevented a direct hit on his mobile gondola. While the shoe throw was apparently spontaneous, many of those that admired the precision of the shoes in flight, have attempted to acquire their own pair,  assuming that the aerial performance of the shoe could be translated to an improved long-term expectation of comfort for their own over-worked feet. The shoes were traced to a manufacturer in Turkey, the Baydan Shoe Company ; ever since the shoe throwing episode, the Baydan shop has been so swamped with orders for the shoes,  that Mr. Baydan,  the owner, has had to hire an additional 100 workers to keep pace with the sales explosion.
I have not been able to find out whether Mr. Baydan’s shoe store has an export license for sales in the U.S. But surely the current vigorous sales he has witnessed on the basis of a single shoe thrower  in Iraq, could be translated into a bonanza of sales here, even in the face of a mounting recession. Perhaps I should write to Mr. Baydan, and offer my services for assistance in marketing the shoes and tailoring them for the U.S. consumer. With proper lobbying fees, we could have the shoes endorsed by the National Aerial  Shoe League, as the standard shoe for throwing at select targets. You may not have heard of this organization yet, as it is just now getting off the ground. But it would not be hard to imagine a catchy advertising slogan for the shoe. For example, based on the flight path data already in hand, we could mount an advertising slogan that goes something like “a shoe for your feet that targets assholes in a crowd.” You have to admit that a slogan like that could sell shoes to lots of Republicans, the kingmakers of slogans.

We could have Mr. Baydan also work on developing a boomerang version of the shoe, so that if the owner of such a pair is ever confronted with a our current president and vice-president simultaneously, on the same stage, then, with a single shoe, the thrower would have a decent chance at a twofer.
On a more serious note, Juan Cole reports that Muntazar al-Zaidi goes on trial this week for his shoe throwing episode. Let’s hope he doesn’t get a punitive sentence; if  a small fine is levied, it would make sense that Mr. Baydan, the shoemaker, pay for it.  Al-Zaidi after all, is a hero to most of the Arab world and his shoes are fast becoming the stuff of legends.  But, if he does get a stiff sentence, one wonders if Bush can pardon him? In order to make that determination, we have to look very closely at the new SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) agreement, the very issue that caused Bush to stir from his bunker and travel to Iraq in the first place. Is there a shoe throwing ordinance anywhere in America? If not, the state of Texas may soon have to pass one, with the first critical need being that of serving the community around Crawford Texas. Might have to hurry on that ordinance.

RFM

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After years of giving Bush a free pass for almost every one of his actions, and within a few weeks of Bush’s last day in office, the New York Times has given front page news coverage to a story detailing his involvement and role in our spreading fiscal crisis and mounting recession. Both the Times and the Washington Post have rarely questioned Bush’s actions during the long agonizing reign of his eight year presidency. Instead of criticizing or questioning Bush’s policies, these papers generally tried to support his decisions or deflect the blame; about all they did was to regularly log Bush’s failing popularity through national polls, offered as the self-explanatory critique of a presidency in decline. But, while the polling data was published, it was rarely accompanied with serious dialog. Perhaps it was his imminent departure that encouraged the Sunday Times article which seemed to be suddenly desperate to set the record straight on Bush’s involvement in our fiscal meltdown and how his home ownership push backfired into the subprime financial collapse we are facing today. Bush was not a sidelines observer on the subrpime mortgage fiasco–he created it!

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Paul Krugman has written about how Wall Street behavior over the past few decades has differed little from the scam of Bernard Madoff, the well known financier whose classical Ponzi scheme fell apart with something like $50 billion owed to his unsuspecting, naive investors.  Madoff’s scheme worked as long as he had more people investing than those to whom he was paying out. It had to be a growing inverted triangle to work and eventually, it collapsed and disappeared, just like everything else on Wall Street, including Wall Street, which should now be renamed. But the financiers of Wall Street are not much different when compared to the Madoff scheme. Madoff attempted to produce something out of nothing through deceit. Wall Street attempted to create high value by hiding the inherent risks of securitized subprime home mortgages–an act of pure deceit. A few got wealthy from the scheme, but their temporary high has left a market without its most essential asset–trust. Who can trust Wall Street anymore, now that they are on record for creating mistrust, leading to obscene wealth? Wall Street made huge amounts of money for a small number of people and in the process destroyed the trust that people have in the market system: to the investor whose retirement system has flopped, the market looks similar to the Ponzi scheme of Bernard Madoff, especially when you factor in the unkown distribution of $ billions in the bailout.  Madoff will go to prison, but what about the Wall Street tycoons that destroyed the concept of public trust in the stock market? Are they criminals too? I recently ran into a friend at a scientific meeting, a professor from Iceland. He described to me how the same hype that worked on Wall Street had spread to Iceland, with a financial collapse that impacted everyone. In Iceland, the plans for retribution included prosecution and jail for those involved in promoting the Icelandic version of this financial disaster.

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