{"id":8544,"date":"2023-02-23T16:42:03","date_gmt":"2023-02-23T23:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bilgebucket.com\/?p=8544"},"modified":"2023-02-23T16:42:03","modified_gmt":"2023-02-23T23:42:03","slug":"rewind-dubyas-flying-shoe-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bilgebucket.com\/?p=8544","title":{"rendered":"Rewind: Dubya&#8217;s Flying Shoe Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>2023 marks the 20th anniversary of the BilgeBucket Gazette. Our first issue was on May 19, 2003 and we\u2019ve been shoveling it to the public, just like the corporate media, ever since. We changed our format to a WordPress blog in 2011 so all of our earlier material was archived. We\u2019ve been reposting many of those archived articles, headlines, photo-toons, BilgeBucket Lists and other content over the past twelve years. In honor of our 20th, and because we\u2019re sick of the current state of affairs in the world, we\u2019ll be reposting more items from 2003 through 2009 throughout this year.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Back in December of 2008, the Republicans just got their ass handed to them in the general election as the Democrats not only won the presidency but also the House and the Senate and most of the blame laid at the feet of <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"George W. Bush whose poll numbers were in the 20's (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/bushs-final-approval-rating-22-percent\/\" target=\"_blank\">George W. Bush whose poll numbers were in the 20&#8217;s<\/a> thanks to the Bush Administrations mishandling of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq but also the economy as the Great Recession roared to life thanks mostly to his policies. Not only was Dubya disliked at home but also abroad. There was  <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"the famous shoe throwing incident where ol' DubDub had to dodge a pair of thrown shoes (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/George_W._Bush_shoeing_incident\" target=\"_blank\">the famous shoe throwing incident where ol&#8217; DubDub had to dodge a pair of thrown shoes<\/a>, which is a sign of deep disrespect in many cultures around the world. But in true Republican fashion, Dubya just passed it off as a non-event: another day, another shoe zipped at your head. Que sera, sera. It&#8217;s the 2020s and the beat goes on for the GOP. People attacking the Capitol to overturn a legitimate election? Nothing to see here, folks &#8211; it was just a tourist visit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s our DubToon from our <strong>December 29, 2008<\/strong> issue featuring a defiant Dubya downplaying the incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<table class=\"wp-block-table\"><tbody><tr><td> <strong>&#8220;So what if a guy threw a shoe at me?&#8221; <\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><em><strong>George W. Bush<\/strong><\/em><br><em><strong>Reacting to an Iraqi journalist hurling two shoes at him<\/strong><\/em> <br><em><strong>12-14-2008<\/strong><\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bilgebucket.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/bushshoehead.jpg\" alt=\"George W. Bush calmly responds to a protestor planting a shoe in his forehead.\" class=\"wp-image-8550\" width=\"150\" height=\"125\"\/><figcaption>&#8220;Yeah&#8230;I&#8217;ve got a wing-tip in my head. So what?&#8221;<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2023 marks the 20th anniversary of the BilgeBucket Gazette. Our first issue was on May 19, 2003 and we\u2019ve been shoveling it to the public, just like the corporate media, ever since. We changed our format to a WordPress blog in 2011 so all of our earlier material was archived. We\u2019ve been reposting many of &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bilgebucket.com\/?p=8544\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Rewind: Dubya&#8217;s Flying Shoe Problem&#8221;<\/span><\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,2417],"tags":[145,1745,50,2418,52,115,458,98,2425,2426],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bilgebucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8544"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bilgebucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bilgebucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bilgebucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bilgebucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8544"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.bilgebucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8553,"href":"http:\/\/www.bilgebucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8544\/revisions\/8553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bilgebucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bilgebucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bilgebucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}