Chris Matthews was notified that the policy would apply to him. He'd have to keep his shoes off, except in Pennsylvania.
Chris Bowers of Openleft analyzed five shoe polls and reported that blue state voters oppose the shoeless policy two to one and observed that Red state republican evangelical women didn't seem to understand the problem. "Isn't it God's way to go barefoot and pregnant?" they asked.
Treasury Secretary started to ask if there any financiers or bankers among those affected, then changed his mind. "Who needs shoes, anyway. We walk on the backs of the morons who bought the buyout," he joked, when he was near a microphone he thought was turned off.
John Aravosis of americablog accused the Secret Service of discrimination, saying, "Some of us care more about shoes than others. I bet Duncan Black(atrios,) Matt Stoller(openleft) and David Sirota(creators syndicate) don't even know what brand of shoes they're wearing."
Techpresident's Micah Sifry, organizer of the new media conference Personal Democracy Forum, observed in about 140 characters, including using a tinyurl.com link, that shoes were so old-school analog, and that twitterers had been throwing digital shoes at Bush for what seemed like an eternity. Anna Marie Cox, Tim O'Reilly tweeted that they agreed, and Guy Kawasaki reported that alltop now has a shoe throwing page.
Katrina Vanden Heuvel, of THE NATION, brought out an issue of the Nation from 1929 showing how a majority of Americans were shoeless back then and she this edict as a way for liberals to show solidarity with the victims of house foreclosures.
Several liberal bloggers questioned why the shoe ruling would apply to Caroline Kennedy, who didn't have enough experience to be considered for the no-shoes rule.
Greg Palast, in a BBC special report, revealed that Ohio had required that inner city voters had been required to remove their shoes before voting in the 2004 election. And Robert Kennedy Jr. co-authored a cartoon with Palast, published in Rolling Stone, telling how voters with black or brown wing tipped shoes were exempted from the shoe-vote disenfranchisement.
Michael Moore is reported to be writing a script for a new movie, a remake of Footloose, titled Sole-less in America.
Code Pink called for people to send in their old shoes to be used in a demonstration at the gates of the White House. So far they have received 200 truckloads worth and they have asked people to stop sending shoes and to show up at the whitehouse to help unload the trucks. Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin is now wearing Pink sneakers, but was told to remove them before entering a congressional hearing.
Buzzflash's Mark Karlin announced that the Buzzflash wings of justice award was being given to Muntadar al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist-shoe-thrower whose actions set off the new secret service policy.
Alan Colmes, soon to be former co-host with Sean Hannity, denied that he had agreed to put his name on a shoe, which also included Hannity's-- on the bottom of the heel. But he commented, "The shoe does have a nice heft to it."
Politico, NY Times, Washington Post, CBS, ABC and Fox reporters complained, asking, "Why should we have to put up with the stinky liberal feet." A source reported that Harry Reid had commiserated with the mainstream media celebrities.
Dennis Kucinich issued a press release calling for a Department of Shoe Eloquence, and hailed Muntadar al-Zaidi as a hero of democracy.
It is reported that a foundation headed by Imelda Marcos has contacted the homeland security department to explore becoming the recipient of lost and forgotten shoes. Her foundation already has such an arrangement with the TSA, for airport screening areas.
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