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Shine or Shiner?

Keith Knight

The funny thing, this is becoming an example for the rest of the world. The Turkish manufacturer who made the original shoes thrown at Bush has received 300,000 orders for that model, which is more than four times the number normally sold each year. An Egyptian man and a Palestinian mayor have both offered their daughters for marriage to al-Zaidi (the shoe-thrower), including healthy dowries. In London, a protest group sent a box of shoes and a letter to the US Embassy. And over 46 million shoes have been thrown at Bush in the online game “Sock and Awe“.

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Thank you for counting my vote!

Talking Points Memo reports this bit of irony. One of the votes in the Minnesota Senate race was challenged by the Coleman campaign because the voter had written the following on the ballot (along with his vote for Franken):

Thank you for counting my vote!

The vote goes to Franken, who now leads by a very slim margin for the first time.

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Late Night Political Humor

Obama

“Barack Obama picked another Cabinet member, former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, to be his agricultural secretary. Vilsack! Doesn’t that sound like a condition you should see your urologist about? ‘Excuse me doc, has the nurse left the room? It’s my vilsack. Seems inflamed.'” -Jay Leno

“Everybody looks forward to ‘Time’ magazine naming their ‘person of the year.’ And today, they named Barack Obama person of the year. That’s right. Finally, things are starting to go his way.” -David Letterman

More Sarah Palin

“Sarah Palin also honored today. She was named ‘person of the year’ by LensCrafters. And in about an hour, they’ll name somebody else.” -David Letterman

“We’re talking about Sarah Palin, who has a brand new Christmas album. It’s entitled ‘I Can See Bethlehem From My House.'” -David Letterman

Outgoing

“The other night, President Bush hosted his final White House Hanukkah party. Now, even though it’s a week early, he wanted to light the Menorah. Now, if you aren’t Jewish and not familiar, Hanukkah celebrates the miracle of when only a tiny amount of oil burned for eight days. It sounds like Exxon-Mobil’s worst nightmare, doesn’t it? A fuel efficient device that uses just a drop of oil.” -Jay Leno

“Anthropologists have found — and this is crazy — a well-preserved brain. They believe it’s from the Middle Ages. Here’s the surprise. They found it in the head of Dick Cheney.” -David Letterman

“But Dick Cheney said that we made the right decision to go to war in Iraq. And I said to myself, ‘Well, that’s good enough for me, by God.'” -David Letterman

“This week, Dick Cheney was interviewed by ABC News, and he said that he will miss being vice president. Then he said, ‘And I’ll really miss being president.’ That was the best part.” -Conan O’Brien

“In a recent interview, President Bush said that he has a collection of over 250 autographed baseballs. Yeah. Unfortunately, the question the interviewer asked was, Do you have an exit strategy for Iraq? He just wanted to talk about the baseballs.” -Conan O’Brien

“President Bush announced before he leaves office, he wants to visit the poorest regions of the world. You know, any place where people can’t afford to buy shoes.” -Jay Leno

More Shoes

“George Bush is over there in Baghdad saying goodbye to the troops, and this Iraqi journalist heaves a couple shoes at the President. And we thought, hopefully that’s just a one-of-a-kind episode. Unfortunately, however, the news coming out of the Middle East is that Iran is developing a long-range loafer.” -David Letterman

“People are still discussing the shoe-throwing incident at our president. … It was reported today that the Iraqi journalist who threw the shoes at President Bush had his arm broken when security subdued him. And even worse, it was his shoe-throwing arm. That guy is out for the season.” -Conan O’Brien

“That Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush the other day said he planned his attack for months. Planned it for months? That’s what he said! I mean, take off one shoe. You throw it. You throw the other shoe. He planned it for months. And he still missed both times!” -Jay Leno

“The guy is being called a hero in the Arab world. So, he has this plan and it’s a failure. And he’s a hero. You know, if that’s the standard, Bush would be the biggest hero in the Arab world.” -Jay Leno

“President Bush made a surprise visit to Detroit today. Honestly, people in Detroit are upset with him, but I understand auto workers threw brake shoes at him.” -Jay Leno

More Blagojevich

“The Illinois Supreme Court refused to hear a motion to throw Governor Blagojevich out of office. Afterwards, Blagojevich thanked the Supreme Court and said, ‘Your check is in the mail!'” -Conan O’Brien

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Spring Training

David Horsey
© David Horsey

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Late Night Political Humor

Shoes

“How about that guy that heaved his shoes at the president? Of course, everybody is saying well, what happened to the Secret Service? Good question. Where is the Secret Service? From now on, alright, take off your shoes. It’s going to be that way. You want to see the president? Alright, slip out of those shoes.” -David Letterman

“Have you watched this tape? Some people are criticizing the Secret Service, because the shoe thrower caught them off guard. The man was able to throw a second shoe. A spokesman for the Secret Service said, ‘Sorry, but we were laughing our asses off.'” -Conan O’Brien

“The Bush administration has a new slogan: ‘Duck!'” -Jay Leno

“As you know, President Bush took a surprise trip to Baghdad over the weekend and had a press conference with the Iraqi premier. A reporter threw his shoes at him, almost hit him. And the guy who threw the shoes, this guy was so angry, he was so anti-Bush, at first people just assumed he was an American journalist, but no.” -Jay Leno

“So the guy who threw the shoes is now a hero in Iraq. They say he’s shown the world that Iraqis have no masters, but I think what he really showed the world is that Iraqis have no aim, because he was like four feet away and couldn’t hit him.” -Jimmy Kimmel

“It turns out this guy was described as a hot head. He’s a guy who is an Iraqi journalist. They say he’s a hot head with poor journalistic skills. Well, no surprise, today he was offered his own show on Fox News.” -David Letterman

“In fact, to give you an idea how bad the economy is in Iraq, the shoes that were thrown at Bush came from Payless.” -Jay Leno

“I was impressed by how nimbly President Bush was able to dodge those shoes. I know he’s got a lot of dodging experience from his years during the Vietnam War, but this was pretty slick.” -Jimmy Kimmel

“But I’ve got to give President Bush credit for this, because he’s taking it all pretty well. He says that he’s actually happy about the shoe-throwing episode, because he says it proves finally that Iraq does, in fact, possess foot wear of mass destruction.” -David Letterman

“By the way, this is the country we thought had nuclear weapons. It turns out they have a pair of size 9 Hush Puppies instead.” -Jimmy Kimmel

“Today, President Bush told reporters that the shoe-throwing incident was one of the weirdest moments of his presidency. Yeah, Bush said the only thing weirder was the time he got re-elected.” -Conan O’Brien

“And it’s not just President Bush, today somebody threw a pair of shoes at Sarah Palin. And she was very upset. She said, ‘Do you have these in black?’ and threw them back.” -Jay Leno

The Economy

“And this is the big news in New York. Well, all over the world, really. It’s just an amazing story. A Wall Street tycoon named Bernard Madoff has been arrested for running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. $50 billion. You know what a Ponzi scheme is? That’s where they use the money of new investors to pay off the older investors. Or as we call it, Social Security.” -Jay Leno

“But you know something? Shouldn’t the first clue have been the guy’s name? Madoff, you know, as in ‘made off with the money,’ you know? I mean, who were his partners, Pilfered and Swindled?” -Jay Leno

“And you can tell, President Bush, you know, he’s not a financial guy. God bless him, but he doesn’t understand anything. Like, when they tried to explain the Ponzi scheme, he said, ‘Wait a minute, Ponzi, you’re confusing two people. It’s either Potsy or Fonzie.'” -Jay Leno

“The economy is in bad shape. I went shopping over the weekend. I got an Illinois Senate seat for $149. Amazing, marked down from half a million.” -Jay Leno

“And it’s not just here in America. Queen Elizabeth has announced that the economy is so bad in England, she is asking all members of the royal family to reduce their spending, otherwise, they would face the ultimate disaster, you know, having to get a real job. God forbid, they don’t want to do that.” -Jay Leno

Unusual Politics

“I don’t know. Listen to this, ladies and gentlemen. Here’s something that happened. The Electoral College has officially elected Barack Obama as president of the United States. I don’t know anything about politics or elections, but boy, it’s really starting to look bad for John McCain.” -David Letterman

“And a big surprise on the Sunday morning news shows. Senator John McCain said he may not support Sarah Palin if she’s around in 2012. Of course, the bigger question, will McCain be around in 2012? That’s probably the bigger question, but hey.” -Jay Leno

“The current administration, of course, is winding down, not just President Bush, but everybody is sort of talking about the eight years. Yesterday, Dick Cheney was interviewed by ABC News, and he reflected on his eight years in office. Yeah. And he turned into a bat and disappeared in a puff of smoke.” -Conan O’Brien

“And in New Jersey, the state Senate is working on a bill to legalize medical marijuana. They say it’s the one thing that could actually ease the pain of having to live in New Jersey, so that’s good.” -Jay Leno

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Shoe-gate

Lee Camp

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Top 10 Bush Moments

From David Letterman. Pay special attention to #2. Man, the comedians are going to miss this guy.

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Goldman Sachs Sucks

How does Goldman Sachs repay us for bailing them out to the tune of $10 billion? Of course, by moving all their money overseas so they wouldn’t have to pay taxes on it. They managed to get their effective tax rate for 2008 down to below 1% (it was over 34% in 2007). As Congressman Lloyd Doggett put it:

With the right hand out begging for bailout money, the left is hiding it offshore.

They tried to bury this small change in their earnings report, calling it “changes in geographic earnings mix”, but Bloomberg News noticed it.

Here’s Rachel Maddow with the details:

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If the shoe fits, parody it!

Who didn’t think the intertubes would be full of parodies of the now famous shoe throwing incident. Enjoy!

Austin Powers:

Three Stooges:

Nike:

Everything, including the kitchen sink:

From CQ Politics, where they have even more videos that I didn’t include.

UPDATE:

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Sole Man

Robert Ariail
© Robert Ariail

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Late Night Political Humor

Thrown Shoes

“Yesterday, at a press conference in Baghdad, an angry Iraqi threw his shoes at President Bush’s head. Yeah, when he saw the shoes, President Bush said, ‘See, I knew you guys had weapons of mass destruction.” -Conan O’Brien

“Of course, the big story over the weekend is that President Bush had that press conference in Iraq, which turned into ‘Shoe-pocalypse Now.'” -Craig Ferguson

“Well, folks, looks like we finally found something President Bush is good at. Dodgeball!” -Jay Leno

“Bush is in Baghdad, he’s having a press conference, and a guy, a reporter from Iraq jumps up and starts heaving shoes at the guy. And in Iraqi, or Arabic, he starts screaming, ‘Here’s your farewell kiss, you dog!’ That’s what the guy says. I mean, it was the same goodbye I got from NBC.” -David Letterman

“As you know, yesterday in Iraq, President Bush was attacked by a ‘shoe-icide’ bomber. President Bush was speaking at a news conference in Iraq when a journalist threw two shoes at him. You see what President Bush did? You see what he did to keep from being hit? Something he’s never done before. Lean to the left. He’s never done that.” -Jay Leno

“I don’t think Bush really has dodged anything like that, well, since the Vietnam War.” -David Letterman

“Bush was amazing. You see how quickly Bush got out of the way? Bush has been accused of dodging issues in the past, but who knew he could actually dodge shoes?” -Craig Ferguson

“You’ve got to give Bush credit. I mean, the guy moved pretty quickly. … Too bad he didn’t react that way with bin Laden or Katrina, bin Laden or the mortgage crisis, bin Laden or Afghanistan, bin Laden or the Lehman Brothers.” -David Letterman

“You got to admit, whatever you think of the guy, he’s got good reflexes. Even Bill Clinton was impressed. You know, Clinton’s an expert at ducking shoes, ashtrays, lamps. Everything.” -Jay Leno

“Now, here’s my question, and no offense here, but where was the Secret Service? I mean, shouldn’t they at least have jumped in front of the second shoe? I mean, you know what I’m saying? Come on. Seriously. Aren’t these guys supposed to take a bullet for the president?” -Jay Leno

“See, that’s when Bush realized he was on his way out, when the Secret Service are going, ‘Yeah, we’re guarding the new guy now.'” -Jay Leno

“Right now, they’re trying to find out, they arrested the guy, trying to find out if he’s a Shoe-ni or a Shoe-ite. But it’s the same old story. You hear this over and over again, a guy, this crazy guy, goes into a Payless store, he purchases a pair of Rockport shoes, and they didn’t even do a background check on him.” -David Letterman

“Well, here’s my favorite part. Cable news just over-thinks this. On CNN, they brought in an expert on Iraqi culture. And he said, ‘Let me clarify what happened here.’ He said, ‘In the Arab world, throwing your shoes at someone’s head is considered an insult.’ Oh, really? As opposed to here in America, where it’s a huge compliment.” -Jay Leno

“You know, the shoe-throwing incident has made Sarah Palin want to be president even more. ‘Free shoes? You betcha!'” -Craig Ferguson

“Well, the interesting thing was the journalist who threw the shoe was immediately arrested, and then offered his own show on MSNBC.” -Jay Leno

“The man who threw his shoes at President Bush is being hailed as a hero in Iraq. In fact, when he dies, he’ll be greeted in heaven by 72 podiatrists.” -Conan O’Brien

“The shoe-throwing journalist has got his supporters because today in Iraq, thousands of people took to the streets. They were all chanting in unison all day long. And do you know what they were chanting? Now I’m not making this up. They were chanting, ‘Bush, Bush listen well, two shoes on your head!’ Well, I think the President must be devastated by that. If John Kerry had used that chant four years ago, he would have won!” -Craig Ferguson

“The bright side to all of this is the Iraqi economy must be going well if a guy can afford to throw a perfectly good pair of shoes. Journalists over here can’t even afford a pair of flip-flops.” -Craig Ferguson

“The shoe-throwing journalist is in jail. He didn’t think this through, though. I mean, if you’re a journalist and you’re unhappy with a politician, why don’t you just write something down? You’re a journalist! You can even get it printed in a newspaper! Doesn’t he know that the pen is mightier than the shoe?” -Craig Ferguson

“When a journalist throws his shoes at the President, if you’re a late night talk show host, you go, ‘Aaahhh!’ Good times. It’s like when Cheney shot his lawyer. You go: ‘Aaaahhhh! Well, that’s tonight’s show taken care of.'” -Craig Ferguson

Blagojevich

“Well, the latest talk is that Caroline Kennedy wants to be appointed to Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat. She wants Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat. In fact, today, Caroline Kennedy got a call from Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich saying, ‘How much you willing to pay for it?'” -Jay Leno

“In an unprecedented move, the Illinois Attorney General has asked the High Court to strip Governor Bla-son-of-a-bitch — is that his name? I can never get it right — of his powers and declare him unfit. See, that would never happen here in California. See, they would declare our governor too fit.” -Jay Leno

“You know who it is a great day for? Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who still has his job. He didn’t resign. Everyone thought he would. Looks like his plan is to keep hanging on, even though the game is over. Political experts call this strategy ‘the Hillary Clinton.'” –Craig Ferguson

“And at a press conference this week, Jesse Jackson Jr., who is Candidate Number 5 for the Senate seat, strongly denied that he did anything wrong or improper. But now people are saying his brother might be involved. They say Jesse Jackson Jr. could be punished politically for what his brother did, to which Jeb Bush said, ‘Tell me about it!'” -Jay Leno

Echos of the Election

“And speaking on ABC’s Sunday morning show, ‘This Week,’ John McCain said that Sarah Palin could not necessarily count on his support if she runs for president in 2012. McCain said ‘we have some other great, young governors out there.’ Yeah, too bad he didn’t pick one of them to run with.” -Jay Leno

“Now here’s something that gives you a pause for thought. Over the weekend, a church that Sarah Palin attended was burned. Somebody set fire to the church. Very serious, disturbing. As a matter of fact, they are looking for a guy. And they think it’s Joe the Arsonist. That’s who they are looking for.” -David Letterman

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The Two Shoes

J. D. Crowe
© J. D. Crowe

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Cheney admits to being an unrepentant war criminal

As usual Rachel Maddow says it best.

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Late Night Political Humor

“Here’s an interesting story. According to the Washington Post, President Bush spent 2,496 hours on various exercise machines during his time in the White House. That’s a lot. I guess during retirement he’s just going to read a lot of classified memos.” -Jay Leno

“President Bush’s term is winding down, and all these articles are coming out, very strange articles about him. According to an article that just came out in a fitness magazine … the president often rides a stationary bike on-board Air Force One. That’s true. Advisors say he pedals really hard because he thinks he’s powering the plane.” -Conan O’Brien

“Five years ago tomorrow, I believe, you know what it was? We have an anniversary. They captured Saddam Hussein. Captured Saddam Hussein. Yeah. You know who gets a really big kick out of that? … Bin Laden. He just thinks that’s the funniest thing” -David Letterman

“Hey, kind of an emergency today. There was smoke coming from the Capitol Visitors Center in Washington, DC, a small fire. So far, arson investigators have narrowed it down to three suspects: head of General Motors, head of Chrysler, head of Ford. Could be any one of them!” -Jay Leno

“When Vice President-elect Biden takes office next month, he’s going to have a new family member on hand: a German Shepherd puppy. Biden has had three German Shepherds in the past, and he likes them because they’re smart and they’re quick learners. Which will come in handy, because as you know, the vice president’s dog is always standing by in case President Obama’s dog becomes incapacitated.” -Jimmy Kimmel

“And this particular dog, he’s only a month old. Already, Biden taught him a trick. He already learned how to put his foot in his mouth. Isn’t that cute?” -Jimmy Kimmel

“The Obama girls are getting a puppy, Biden is getting a German Shepherd puppy, and Hillary Clinton will do all the spaying and neutering.” -Jimmy Kimmel

“Barack Obama this week named Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steve Chu as his energy secretary, unless he was just sneezing.” -Amy Poehler

Blagojevich

“Time magazine reports that Governor Blagojevich has an approval rating 4%. That’s with a margin of error of 5%. That means he could actually disapprove of himself.” -Jay Leno

“The Blagojevich scandal continues. Earlier this week, of course, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was accused of auctioning off a Senate seat to the highest bidder. Now his approval rating is at 8%. Yeah, when he heard this, Blagojevich said, ‘Eight? Do I hear a nine? 10?” -Conan O’Brien

“This is what politicians do whenever they get in trouble. Early this morning, embattled Illinois Governor Rod Bla-son-of-a-bitch — is that his name? — I keep saying it wrong. … Well, they always do this. He invited several ministers into his home this morning. Well, first, he prayed with them. And then, you know, out of force of habit, he tried to take up a collection.” -Jay Leno

“Prosecutors said Tuesday there is no evidence that Barack Obama was involved in the Blagojevich scandal. Or, as Fox News reported it, ‘Is Barack Obama involved in the Blagojevich scandal?'” -Amy Poehler

“Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says the budget crisis in California is only getting worse. He said it is so bad, we may have to start selling Senate seats here.” -Jay Leno

“Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested Tuesday for trying to sell Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat. When agents arrived at his house, Blagojevich asked for five minutes to pack up his things, and eight hours to brush his hair.” -Amy Poehler

“Sources say that Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. is Senate Candidate Number Five, whose emissary allegedly told Governor Blagojevich that, in return for Jesse being appointed as Barack Obama’s replacement to the U.S. Senate, the governor would receive as much as $1 million. Now, if this turns out to be true, this could be the worst setback for the Jackson family since the invention of DNA paternity tests.” -Jay Leno

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Political eBay

Daryl Cagle
© Daryl Cagle

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