Monty Python parallels in the Bush shoe attack in Iraq

Presumably the shoes were all checked for bombs before the reporters were let into the room? Bush kept his cool. What is the fate of  shoe thrower Muntathar al Zaidi? Presidents in the future may need to have proper shoe nets in place before speaking.

... Striking someone with a shoe is a grave insult in Islam.

"This is a goodbye kiss, you dog," the journalist, Muntathar al Zaidi, 29, shouted.

Bush ducked the first shoe. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, standing to Bush's left, tried to swat down the second. Neither hit the president. Another Iraqi journalist yanked Zaidi to the ground before bodyguards collapsed on Zaidi and held him there while he yelled "Killer of Iraqis, killer of children." From the bottom of the pile, he moaned loudly and said "my hand, my hand."

Zaidi was hauled to a separate room, where his cries remained audible for a few moments.

It wasn't clear whether Zaidi was hurt. His employer, Cairo-based Baghdadiyah Television, released a statement late Sunday demanding Zaidi's release from Iraqi custody.

"Any action taken against Muntathar will remind us of the actions and behaviors taken by the reign of the dictator and the violence, the random arrests, the mass graves and confiscations of freedom from the people," the board of Baghdadiyah said. Friends said Zaidi covered the U.S. bombing of Baghdad's Sadr City area earlier this year and had been "emotionally influenced" by the destruction he'd seen. They also said he'd been kidnapped in 2007 and held for three days by Shiite Muslim gunmen.

Bush said the shoe-throwing incident didn't faze him. He tried to laugh about it, saying, "It didn't bother me, and if you want the facts it was a size 10 shoe he threw at me."

He continued with the press conference, taking a question from an Iraqi reporter and another from an American.

"That's what happens in free societies when people try to draw attention to themselves," he said.

Two other Iraqi journalists were briefly detained after the press conference. An Iraqi security guard hauled them away because one of them called Zaidi's actions "courageous." They were released. One of them said American officials helped free them. ... - mccl

Of the throwers fate, one writer said,

"We were also filled with grief ... because we knew that Muntather Al-Zaidi signed his own death warrant. This guy is finished. Mom added that he will be tortured first, most probably with shoes before his execution."

I hope they are wrong about that. His release would be a sign of real progress in Iraq and Bush once said, "We do not torture".

Anyway, that should be "ROMANES EUNT DOMUS", not  "Go Out U.S.A." Correct it and print it 1000 times.

The photo looks like someone is saying, "Follow the shoe!". Monty Python introduced us to the word Anthrax in their Holy Grail movie in 1975, more than 20 years before anthrax made it big. This is still unexplained: the White House started taking Cipro, the antidote for anthrax, well before attacks.

"An unnamed “high government official” also advises some reporters to take Cipro shortly after 9/11" - hc

Who would that be?