The Shoes Heard 'Round the World

Driving back home on Sunday I was blissfully isolated with big city radio programming, which is much more interesting and diverse than what I'm used to. Going out of range of the compelling sounds, the real world came back into focus as I had no other good radio choices other than NPR news. That's when I got first word that an Iraqi journalist threw not one, but two shoes at President George W. Bush. Undoubtedly, this incredible moment will forever represent the full and final repudiation of Bush's foreign policy legacy. Unfortunately, it may fully represent the world's attitude toward America's world-wide military bullying.

Now the bookends of Bush's presidency will be, first, the egging of his limo in Washington, D.C., during the 2001 inauguration after having stolen his first election. (If you did not see this episode, that's because the corporate establishment press did not cover it.) The second bookend will be the recent incident in the highly secured Green Zone in Iraq.

I thought Dick Cheney promised we would be greeted as liberators? Is this anyway to treat liberators???

Well, what most Americans lack is the perspective of the citizens of Iraq. Because, again, the corporate establishment doesn't allow it. So we generally don't know that Iraqis -- and a vast swath of world citizens for that matter -- despise America's policy of gun-tote diplomacy. Democracy is not a pleasant principle when it is delivered at the point of a gun.

Of course, it does not score America popularity points as we carry through on our principle mission of stealing the Iraqi oil supply. If you still believe otherwise -- including the false premises of WMDs or Iraq complicity in 9/11 -- you probably watch way too much FOX news and probably deserve to get a couple of shoes thrown at you.

This shoe-throwing incident should not be a surprise. The surprise is that it didn't happen earlier. Shoes could rightfully have been tossed by Bush's Katrina victims, torture victims, renditioned victims, domestic spy victims, economic crash victims...you name the rest.

The shoe toss incident reminded me of the poignant speech given by Iraqi journalist, entrepreneur, and activist Salim Talib to the General Assembly of the United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) on Saturday night, December 13, 2008. Talib's speech is provided below. I hope Americans now make an effort to seek out the views and voices of Iraqis like Talib. In this way, we can begin a reconciliation process, including new demands to bring our troops home. Now.

-- Rico Thomas Rico

Iraq Journalist Salam Talib
addressing UFPJ General Assembly
13 December 2008

George W. Bush Presidential Library

Below is my rendition of the George W. Bush Presidential Library -- coming to a town near you sometime after January 19, 2009.

-- Rico Thomas Rico

George W. Bush Presidential Library

George Waldo Bush

Where in the world is Waldo?

I finally figured out what the W. stands for in George W. Bush.

The poster child of the Republican Party has come up missing again, this time just days before the election. N.Y. Times reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes about it today in her White House column titled (print edition), "A President Vanishes, And No One Asks Why." Bush, apparently, is deliberately lying low for the sake of the McCain-Palin ticket. He doesn't want to remind voters of the disaster that has been the ultra-conservative policies of the Republican Party and his presidency, all of which McCain and Palin have supported.

This disappearing act is his presidential M.O. As president he came up missing during the Katrina disaster. He was nonexistent in the Palestine-Israel issue for seven years. You couldn't find him at this summer's Republican Party convention. He has been an empty suit as the Wall Street meltdown has been unfolding. Now days leading to the election of his successor, George Waldo Bush is basically a shadow of his empty self.

None of this surprises me. I understand the Air National Guard is still looking for the AWOL Waldo.

-- Rico Thomas Rico

Have You Seen George Waldo Bush?

The Last Bush President: Oliver Stone's W.

Movie director Oliver Stone should be kicking himself right about now. His lack of patience – and possible underestimation of his topic’s utter incompetence – obviously caused him to rush the biopic of George W. Bush to the screen. At “The End” of this movie, the Katrina debacle had not happened, nor had the pending U.S.-led worldwide economic meltdown. As a result, this seemingly first-draft screenplay fails to fairly and completely capture the historical disaster that is the real W. As a result, Stone’s product is disappointing, leaving the door open for someone like Michael Moore or Spike Lee to do the 3-hour bio-tragedy of – we hope – America’s last Bush president. Still, Stone’s treatment of America’s worst presidency – including the cast of enablers who surrounded him – should not be missed, especially by all the people (now in hiding) who voted for W twice.

Stone’s task in depicting George W. Bush was not an easy task. Where do you start with so much incompetence to choose from? Yet Stone misses a couple key points in W’s life story. First, he focused too much on W’s baseball team ownership and completely bypassed the subject’s failure as a businessman. W’s penchant to drag down his corporate ventures through financial shenanigans, as exhibited by the handling of Arbusto Energy, Spectrum 7 Energy Systems, and Harken Energy, portended his neglectful, shallow leadership that would eventually lead to the bankruptcy of America. Stone just couldn’t wait for it all to play out.

Incredibly, Stone misses a second key point to W’s story. His sympathetic portrait of “Poppy” – George H.W. Bush – sheds little light on the workings and influence – and continued failed judgment – of America’s oligarchy as represented by the Bush family. The senior Bush is depicted as a respectable elder statesman while ignoring his central role in selling us out to China, in building the American security state, in the Iran-Contra Affair, in the original Savings & Loan theft, and, finally, in bestowing the oligarchic legacy of American leadership to his bumbling son. Stone, most likely, made a movie about the wrong Bush or let’s hope there is prequel in the works called “H.W.”

The theater was filled Friday night for the opening and I hope more people go see this movie. I should warn the reader: the movie is NOT a comedy, as the official trailer running on television is trying to sell it. Yes, there were some chuckle points at different parts to the movie. It is starkly evident to the audience that the story of W is neither fun nor funny, no matter how marketers, Washington, and Hollywood sell it. We’re not buying anymore – we can’t afford it.

-- Rico Thomas Rico

W. Trailer Featuring Talking Heads Soundtrack