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Don’t Panic: Five People Who Also Should Have Had Shoes Thrown At Them In 2008

Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008

Because you can’t be a journalist in late December without writing lists . . .

Five People Who Also Should Have Had Shoes Thrown At Them In 2008

5. Nouri al-Maliki – After Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zeidi threw his shoes at President Bush at a press conference in Iraq this month, Bush tried to spin the incident as a size 10 vindication of the Iraq war. “That’s what happens in free societies,” he said. Credible reports have since surfaced saying Prime Minister of Iraq Nouri al-Maliki’s goons have tortured al-Zeidi and forced him to write an apology.  Free society, indeed. Shoe Maliki now.

4. Colin Powell – A leaked report on the failed Iraq occupation quotes former Secretary of State Colin Powell saying the Pentagon systematically lied about progress in Iraq way back in 2003. Powell knew it then, but he’s only telling us now. Thanks for nothing, Colin. You deserve a pair of combat boots to the head for every U.S. troop who has died in Iraq.

3. Mikheil Saakashvili – In August, the President of Georgia provoked a stupid war with Russia that left tens of thousands of Georgians dead and homeless. He then took $30 million in U.S. reconstruction aid and built a five-star boutique hotel and condo complex. Saakashvili needs a Saak-of-sneakers tossed at him, immediately.

2. Robert Mugabe – Zimbabwe’s dictator would rather see everyone in his country dead than relinquish power. His most recent crime: allowing a cholera outbreak to spread through the country’s water supply. He blames it on a foreign conspiracy, not his failure to maintain Zimbabwe’s water treatment plants. Health experts believes tens of thousands will die as a result of Mugabe’s most recent stupidity. There aren’t enough shoes at the Zappos.com warehouse to throw at his head.

1. Burma’s military junta – When Category 4 Cyclone Nargis devastated Burma in May, the goons who run Burma like their plantation were not only unprepared, but refused to admit foreign relief workers. Approximately 150,000 innocent Burmese lost their lives. The junta needs to buried alive under a Foot Locker store.

Don’t miss the Top Five Best-Named World Leaders of 2008. Everyone who reads it will receive $100 from the Bill Gates E-Mail Tracker Fund.

Morning headlines

Monday, June 30th, 2008

HERSH REALITY: Seymour Hersh writes in the New Yorker that the United States is covertly preparing the battlefield in Iran.

MUGABE: Sworn in as “president” of Zimbabwe following his “win” in the “election.”

UGA IV: Will be buried in Sanford Stadium in Athens today.

CUMBERLAND ISLAND: Wildfire has consumed more than 1,600 acres.

MARTA: Time flies when you’re having gun.

OBAMA: To visit Atlanta July 7, part of his campaign’s strategy to reclaim the South for Democrats.

WRECKLESS ABANDON: A leaking shrimping boat off the Savannah coast becomes the first ship destroyed under legislation passed last year allowing authorities to seize abandoned vessels.

Don’t Panic, Bob Marley and Zimbabwe

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

Someone asked me today if I was serious in my Don’t Panic column this week about Zimbabwe inaugurating its nationhood with a Bob Marley concert.

I was completely serious. As luck would have it, footage from the concert is on YouTube.

Here’s Bob Marley & The Wailers performing the song “Zimbabwe,” in Zimbabwe, minutes after it became Zimbabwe:

At the 33 second mark, you can see Prince Charles (in a military uniform) and Robert Mugabe at a podium together. Note as well the banner that refers to Zimbabwe’s capital city, Harare, by it’s British colonial name, Salisbury.

It’s an amazing song — anthemic and hopeful, but also politically astute. The song’s final verse actually predicts Zimbabwe’s sad fate:

So soon we’ll find out who is the real revolutionaries
And I don’t want my people to be tricked by mercenaries.

Zimbabwe was indeed tricked by mercenaries and phony revolutionaries.

Rebel leader Robert Mugabe and his cronies promised Zimbabwe’s people independence.

It gave them misery.