Bush Dodges Iraqi Shoes

Surreal moments seem to arrive more regularly than they used to. Watching the events of 9/11 unfold certainly felt surreal at the time and still does in many ways. But so, for me, was watching the neoconservative movement convince Americans that Saddam Hussein and 9/11 were directly linked and that invading Iraq immediately was essential to ensuring the safety of the American public. Then, after these claims were proven false, it was surreal that the Republican machine still managed to convince Americans that electing G.W. Bush for a second term was the only way to ensure the "safety" of our great nation. Watching Barack Obama get elected President - perhaps largely a backlash of the G.W. effect - also felt surreal - especially, it seems, to blacks and other minority races.

Whatever the final verdict is on G.W. as President, most would agree he's been colorful. He's not out of the White House yet, though, and the surreal moments keep coming. His latest surreal moment: dodging shoes thrown by an Iraqi journalist. Eight years of dodging bullets by the press seems to have paid off - he looked as agile as Vince Vaughn in Dodgeball. The event was so silly and absurd, yet at the same time disturbing, that I felt compelled to include it in The Casual Reporter.