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bring out your shoes .....
A day after an effigy of the Grim Reaper stalked his speech in Edmonton, Canada, former President George W. Bush was on the defensive over his personal salvation. Speaking to a $400-a-seat crowd in Montreal, Bush told the roughly 1,000 attendees that his presidential decision-making was principled and moral. "I am confident that I made decisions based on principle, that I made calls as best I could, and I did not sell my soul," Bush said. Outside his speech, the scene was anything but calm. A throng of protesters burned a flaming effigy of the former president, who's taken his stump speech on the road across Canada. He'll speak in three Canadian cities over a period of as many days. Did he have regrets? an audience member asked. "I spend a lot of time thinking about Katrina, and whether I could have sent in the federal troops right away, even though it was against the law," Bush replied. He added he regretted the "Mission Accomplished" banner that accompanied him during a speech on an aircraft carrier after the early stages of his invasion of Iraq. Protesters outside had more concrete opinions. A protest organizer encouraged Bush opponents to bring old shoes, in reference to an Iraqi who threw a shoe at the President during a speech late in his presidency. http://rawstory.com/2009/10/shoes-fly-bush-tells-audience-i-sell-soul/
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don't duck .....
They threw shoes - so many shoes that hotel staff had to roll out a laundry bin onto the street to pick them all up, and even then, the bin could barely contain them all.
They chanted: "Bush: Assassin! Terroriste! Criminal!" and then, at the appropriate command, hurled more shoes toward the heavily guarded entrance of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, where George W. Bush was scheduled to speak.
They waved signs: "Don't Duck!" and "1.3 Million Dead Because of Bush" and "Bread Not Bombs for the Children of Iraq." Some of the signs and chants were directed equally at Bush's father. "You are a murderer too!"
And toward the end, they burned George W. Bush in effigy.
My friend Robin Lloyd and I were watching most of this noontime spectacle on Ocotber 22nd from inside the hotel, where we managed to gain entry flashing our press passes. Lloyd is a member of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and the publisher of Toward Freedom Magazine (now on-line at towardfreedom.com) which has continued a tradition begun by her father of chronicling Third World resistance to colonialism and now, imperialism.
She agreed to accompany me to Montreal to witness what I expected to be a lively example of a growing world wide movement aimed at holding George W. Bush and his top advisors accountable for torture and other high crimes and misdemeanors during his eight- year administration. If we were lucky, we would also witness our former president deliver his speech about "Eight Momentous Years." He was addressing a well-heeled crowd invited by the Montreal Chamber of Commerce.
http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/9683