Stampede for 'Bush Shoe' Creates 100 New Jobs
By Susie Madrak Tuesday Dec 23, 2008 9:00amWhat a delicious piece of irony. Bush killed jobs here, but at least he created a few in Iraq!
Their deployment as a makeshift missile robbed President George Bush of his dignity and landed their owner in jail. But the world's most notorious pair of shoes have yielded an unexpected bonanza for a Turkish shoemaker.
Ramazan Baydan, owner of the Istanbul-based Baydan Shoe Company, has been swamped with orders from across the world, after insisting that his company produced the black leather shoes which the Iraqi journalist Muntazar al-Zaidi threw at Bush during a press conference in Baghdad last Sunday.
Baydan has recruited an extra 100 staff to meet orders for 300,000 pairs of Model 271 - more than four times the shoe's normal annual sale - following an outpouring of support for Zaidi's act, which was intended as a protest, but led to his arrest by Iraqi security forces.
Orders have come mainly from the US and Britain, and from neighbouring Muslim countries, he said.
Around 120,000 pairs have been ordered from Iraq, while a US company has placed a request for 18,000. A British firm is understood to have offered to serve as European distributor for the shoes, which have been on the market since 1999 and sell at around £28 in Turkey. A sharp rise in orders has been recorded in Syria, Egypt and Iran, where the main shoemaker's federation has offered to provide Zaidi and his family with a lifetime's supply of shoes.
To meet the mood of the marketplace, Baydan is planning to rename the model "the Bush Shoe" or "Bye-Bye Bush".
"We've been selling these shoes for years but, thanks to Bush, orders are flying in like crazy. We've even hired an agency to look at television advertising," he said.
Zaidi has been in custody since the shoe-throwing incident, amid claims that he has been badly beaten. He faces a possible jail sentence for insulting a foreign leader, but has reportedly apologised and requested a pardon from Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki.
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for the links. Now I've gotta start reading. :)
Glad to help!
Where can I get some?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6yxj4Ap4P0
I should have paid the guy to throw my DVD at him.
At least he didn't throw Sarah Palin's glasses at him. I can't stomach that 'craze' again.
That will be a great item for the xmas gifts. Fill the shoes with candy coins, old times had it right.
....of this simple, mass murdering fucker.
There has be a lot of them.
I just hope that Zaidi gets some kickback from the shoemaker. It's only fair, right?
Is there anything we can do to help this reporter? I know he's not in our justice system, but it really bothers me that this guy got tortured for doing what we all would love to do.
But I don't really know what else I can do for that man...I am open to ideas.
Organize a party on the National Mall in Washington DC for Bush's send off on the day he leaves office where everyone throws their shoes in the air. Imagine that being televised across the globe and the message that would send to the international community that we too are ready for this SOB to leave office. Imagine 100,000 people or more on the National Mall throwing their shoes in the air in unison.
I can't afford to travel right now though.
But I'd damn sure love to be a part of that!
Mr Durgham said yesterday that his brother had been taken to the US-run Ibn Sina hospital in the Green Zone after being beaten by security guards and suffering a broken arm and ribs, as well as injuries to an eye and a leg.
Zaidi faces seven years in prison.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,2198...
http://www.hindu.com/2008/12/23/stories/20081...
He's a friggin hero for chrissakes!
Another myth busted!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/realclearpolitics/200...
or is it an insult to our intelligence?
i can't figure out which you mean it as. you don't actually believe this, do you?
Isn't Ed Gillespie, the "author" of the piece a former head of the Republican National Committee?
realclearpolotics , mygod i actually tried to read some of that filthy slop
Or...you are a goddamn moron.
That article is blatant revisionism.
The facts just don't support any of that bullshit.
Just how stupid do you think we are??? Did you think we wouldn't see the little line at the bottom of that pile of crap?
"Ed Gillespie is the Counselor to President George W. Bush."
I started glancing through this Realclearpolitics article and saying, Jesus, OMG, who actually believes this stuff. The author implies that the recession now is like the recession Bush supposed inherited in 2001. The author suggests that Bush's tax breaks got us out of the recession (I've seen articles by highly respected people who say otherwise....that the recovery started before Bush's tax breaks). The author suggests that the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan are two sides of the same war...but who started an ill-conceived war in Iraq?
I couldn't take much more of just glancing through the article, so I scrolled down to the end and saw who wrote it.... Ed Gillespie. That explained it all. Idiot.
I can't believe that you people who still support this serial killer on roids know how to fucking type.
That piece of trash "news" report is hilarious historical revisionism. Clearly, you must be joking.
Either that or you're on the wrong site, buddy.
Written by a sociopath, to poison the minds of innocents ... the Bushies have no conscience whatsoever.
Edward W. Gillespie is an American Republican lobbyist, and current White House counsel to George W. Bush. Gillespie with Jack Quinn, former Chief of Staff to Vice President Al Gore, founded Quinn Gillespie & Associates, a bipartisan lobbying firm that provides strategic advice, public relations services, and government representation to corporations, trade associations, and issue-based coalitions.
As Chairman of the RNC, it was Ed Gillespie who authorized paying legal fees which eventually mounted into millions of dollars [3], to defend political consultant James Tobin against charges that he had been guilty of "telephone harassment" in the 2002 New Hampshire Senate election phone jamming scandal. Gillespie told reporters that the RNC had no contractual obligation but "it's the custom, not written anywhere, that you covered your people." He said that he had informed the White House of his intentions but sought no formal approval.
i concur..
life in a sleazey Syrian black hole prison cell would be tooooo good for bush
I want a pair or two of those shoes! How do I get them?????
I'm still tryin' to get the inflatable sarah palin.
Huge hole in the head lets all the hot air right out.
If you stretch the hole real tight, does it sound like she's squealing or farting?
And the answer is...yes!
Ornery, arn't ya?
Who's more of an airhead, sarah palin or her inflatable doll?
And if I had a choice, I'd do the doll...no voice.
You can do it that way with the real thing:
http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/bal...
Kinda like Fran Drescher...
Fran's not too bad
Just makes me want chicken soup.
Her voice can shatter glass!
I don't know if it's just her characters voice, but damn...it's horrid.
...was in "Spinal Tap." It was the same.
You're right!
Her husband must a saint to be able to withstand her voice. Either that, or he's deaf.
She was also in Dr. Detroit, as one of Dan Ackroyd's whores, that turned out to be more business savvy than they expected when they started investing their money.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd3kBEVRX5Q
Yes...yes I am!
And YSB...that's like asking which came first, the chicken, or the egg.
I got one, but it had a headache.
Ah man...there are some funny as hell posts here today.
Tue, 12/23/2008 - 10:28 — moniker
I got one, but it had a headache.
________________________________________________________
You bought a used one from Fran Drescher?
I guess when you run out of candy and flowers to through in appreciation the next logical thing would be shoes.
All I want for Christmas is Bush and friends behind bars while guards make them wear women's underwear on their heads and make them build naked human pyramids all the while being barked at by snarling dogs. This, of course, follows water-boarding. That's not too much to ask is it?
I asked for the same thing. Except I want video and photos of the events plastered all over the world for all too see. Then we leave them there to rot.
Instead of the "free" market, this is the "fling" market.
Ah, capitalism!
"Zaidi has been in custody since the shoe-throwing incident, amid claims that he has been badly beaten. He faces a possible jail sentence for insulting a foreign leader, but has reportedly apologised and requested a pardon from Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki."
It would appear another use for waterboards has been found, coerced apologies.
For some reason that story almost made me tear up, but I did get goosebumps.
It's so cool to see people succeed like that.
The man's a hero. The only way he oould have better served the citizens of the world is had he nailed the bastard.
In other news it looks like [This comment is beyond off topic. We've been covering these guys here, here, here and here. Deleted-Sitemonitor]
would bring on E-Bay.
Bidding would prolly start in the high Six Figures.
I'm sure Bush misses the Irony of all of this.
In fact...the irony whooshed past his empty head like a pair of shoes.
all the Germans mailed large boxes of big, fat German pretzels to the White House hoping Dubya might choke on a few?
Those were the days. Pre-Iraqi war, pre-torture, pre-genocide, pre-economic meltdown.
If only he would have eaten one of them and swallowed it down the wrong tube.
Oh, but then we would have been left with Darth.
And if Darth had the chance....the planet would be a burnt, smoking husk.
still get his chance. Don't forget they can suspend the inaugaration in case of civil unrest, unexpected natural disaster or a terrorist/false flag attack operation.
*SHUDDER*
The less likely I feel that could happen.
I hope Nouri totally pardons him on the basis that it wasn't an IED, a bomb-laden shoe, and praises the man for showing a more sophisticated, less destructive, yet more insulting protest that most Iraqis (and maybe Brits/Americans) would like to see. GW Bush would be fortunate indeed if that's the only consequence his illegal warmongering brings his way.
Someone should have thrown a prosthetic leg with a shoe on it at the SOB to symbolize the countless numbers of American service members and Iraqi men, women and children who have lost their limbs thanks to Bush.
The most jobs created as a result of Bush being President all year.
Unfortunately the jobs weren't in this country and still wouldn't off set the millions he's responsible for loosing when all is said and done.
He has created tons of jobs makin bombs and bullets.
It was outsourced.
Of course!
What WAS I thinkin?
We know he's been beaten and has had some bones broken. I wish there were some kind of pressure campaign to keep him alive, free from physical harm, and get him released. If anyone knows of any such campaign, please post this information.
Gunsandbigots has a really great idea.
And there are petitions circulating the net, to have him released.
You say you posted it "here." Where is that?
I'm not so tech savvy.
I should have been more clear. My Bad...
I posted the petition link on this site about a week ago.
I'll see if I can't find it in my inbox.
Aha!!!
Found it!
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/montather/?e
"What's His Beef?"
http://www.counterpunch.com/beattie12192008.html
I like the idea of a national "throw your shoes in disgust" day. It would be better to donate shoes to the Iraqi refugees, but we'd probably be thrown in Guantanamo for that.
..the actual pair of shoes thrown by al-Zaidi were destroyed. I'm sure if they had not been destroyed, those shoes would be enshrined and draw crowds of pilgrims from all over the world. I get a spiritual feeling just thinking of the bravery of that Iraqi journalist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwPkAUBr4Sc
Wouldn't it be great if all these Christian terrorists and traitors were sentenced to prison and the other inmates beat them all to death with their shoes? LOL!
would've thought the first small measure of justice ever shown to gwb in 8 years would come in the form of a shoe from an Iraqi? The reporter and his shoes should go on a world tour like the olympic torch did, only it would mean something significant unlike the olympics.
Has anyone started to mail, UPS, or FedEx their old pairs of shoes to W either at the WH or where he will be staying in Texas?
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