Throw a Shoe Yourself

It was bound to happen in this digital age we're suffering through. You already know that giving Bush the boot has gone viral on YouTube, with all manner of knocks-offs where chickens, snowballs, and even cans of spam are thrown at our lame duck leader.

In Afghanistan, a satirical TV comedy show has "reconstructed" the incident, this time with shoes that actually hit Bush.

Now, Wired is reporting that on-line games are popping up all over the world and in multiple languages:

In the Sock and Awe browser game (screenshot above), players toss shoes at the bobbing-and-weaving president. The Flying Babush and Bush's Boot Camp games offer similar action.

Where Muntazer al-Zaidi went wrong is he didn't get rich by filing for trademark protection on throwing stuff at Bush. It's the American way, right? Those Iraqis who have survived the Bush administration still have a lot to learn.

Then, again, we still haven't figured out how to hold our own war criminals accountable, even when they confess. As Matt Yglesias pointed out yesterday about Bush's "war of choice":

The harsh reality is that this was not a noble undertaking done for good reasons. It was a criminal enterprise launched by madmen cheered on by a chorus of fools and cowards. And it’s seen as such by virtually everyone all around the world — including but by no means limited to the Arab world. But it’s impolitic to point this out in the United States, and it’s clear that even a president-elect who had the wisdom not to be suckered in by the War Fever of 2002 has no intention of really acting to marginalize the bad actors. Which, I think, makes sense for his political objectives. But if Americans want to play a constructive role in world affairs, it’s vitally important for us to get in touch with the reality of what the past eight years of US foreign policy have been and how they’re seen and understood by people who aren’t stirred by the shibboleths of American patriotism.

If he did nothing else, crazed by the deaths of family and friends or not, al-Zaidi is among the first in the world to try to hold Bush accountable. Is our own legal system as interested in equal justice?