The world is abuzz at the now-famous shoe-throwing incident, and everyone is looking for the perfect pun.  ("The insurgency is in its last throws")

Conservative pundits are quick to point out that the shoe-throwing would have never happened under Saddam.  So, therefore, $800 billion in U.S. taxpayer money well-spent, I guess.

Of course, shoe-throwing isn't really a very good sign that democracy and lawfulness have come to Iraq.  After all, what would happen if an American, on American soil, threw his shoes at the president, especially in this post-9/11 world?  Probably Gitmo… or worse.  In any event, it's assault, and not exactly something to be tossed out as a sign of "progress".

Meanwhile, reactions from Iraq to the shoe-throwing incident (shoe-throwing is a sign of contempt in the Muslim world) are coming in.

In Najaf, for example:

In the holy Shiite city of Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad, demonstrators chanted: “Bush, Bush, is a cow, your farewell was by a shoe,” and, “The shoe got its goal straightly, but Maliki turned it away.”

I'm assuming those chants sound better in the original tongue….

UPDATE:  Background on the shoe-thrower here.