Shoes fly as Bush tells audience, ‘I did not sell my soul’

By John Byrne
Friday, October 23rd, 2009 -- 9:51 am
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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 decisionmaking 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.
2133714 Shoes fly as Bush tells audience, I did not sell my soul
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.

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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.

Speaking to the Vancouver Sun, an immigration lawyer who was among the protesters said Bush was responsible for numerous deaths in the Middle East.

Bush is culpable for "cynically causing a war that is responsible for so many deaths and so much destruction," lawyer William Sloan was quoted as saying.

"He set back international law into the 1700s," Sloan added, "violating every convention possible and seeming to revel in it."

Five protesters were reported to have been arrested.

In Edmonton, where Bush spoke earlier this week, a protester toted a representation of the Grim Reaper, which boasted a sign saying, "GWB I am your biggest fan" and "Thanks for 8 great years."

The Queen Elizabeth Hotel, where Bush spoke in Montreal, is also known for a popular peace anthem: John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance."

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Story comments are below...

  • texasaggie
    Thank God he isn't really a Texan. We have enough asshats without him, too.

    The reason that he didn't sell his soul is that he doesn't have one and very likely never did. This man is the epitome of blind evil. I would say second only to Cheney, but Cheney is pure evil and knows exactly what he is doing.
  • nader paul kucinich gravel
    Thank you Brothers and Sisters of the Great White North.
  • socialismorbust
    BUT...they need to take it a step further and ARREST THE FUCKING WAR CRIMINAL AND SOCIOPATH!!!
  • robertfromphila
    He still hasn't changed; still an ass hole!
  • jimbo92107
    Chimpy was nothing more than the front man for a group of corporations that decided to take over the US government and wring as much money out of the public Treasury as possible.

    It worked, and it's still going on. All the apparent complications are nothing more than bullshit.
  • lousgirl84
    You are right on the money with your assessment. Sad but true.
  • gordonwagner
    Both Bush43 and his puppetmaster Cheney deserve to be tried on war crimes charges.

    Illegal invasion and occupation, secret network of prisons for torture designed to circumvent international law, sh*tting on the Constitution... on and on. The worst President in US history and one of the worst modern leaders.
  • AnthonyLook
    Many American have one regret about the Bush era, that it has ended. It won't end until Bush and his Administration is brought to justice and jailed.
  • hillcrestdenizen
    Who are the idiots that paid $400 to see this war criminal.
  • deerstalkerhatonbackwards
    They should have taken up a collection for The Grim Reaper to attend, sign and all.
  • justadood
    Of course he hasn't sold his soul!!

    He doesn't have a soul to sell!!! Ain't that the case with all undead?
  • yvonneo
    Exactly.
  • PeterMcCrindle
    I actually LIVE in Montreal and I am thoroughly disgusted that this illiterate warmonger has been invited to speak in my city.. heck, I'm pissed off the asshole is still BREATHING!

    Friends & colleagues -who know me well- asked me today "why" I didn't go & try to disrupt Dumbya Bushwacky's speech or, at the very least, protest in person.. my answer to them was something along the lines of being reasonably certain that -had I gone- I would be currently sitting in a jail cell waiting to be interrogated for assault (YOU guess the degree of severity since the drydrunk shrub still has his SS brownshirt entourage, I'm told.. and Canada's turncoat PM, the far right suckass Harpo would only too happy to apply a Repugnican³ (squared) anti-dissident rule-of-law to protect his guru Dumbya.
  • Bush's use of dishonest excuses is unreal:
    "I spend a lot of time thinking about Katrina, and whether I could have sent in the federal troups right away, even though it was against the law," Bush replied.

    Kidnapping, "special rendition" to secret prisons, torture, and warrantless wiretapping are also illegal, but that never stopped Bush and Cheney.
  • rxgary
    he could have sent the military in a humanitarian mission with no weapons just food and survival items.the navy was there for that bush failed to utilize this. no law against humanitarian use of military they just cant carry weaponry.
  • Independentgal
    "I spend a lot of time thinking about Katrina, and whether I could have sent in the federal troups right away, even though it was against the law," Bush replied.

    He was too busy eating cake at McCain's birthday party to care what was going on in LA at the time. Worse yet, he had no clue that Katrina was even happening, and when one of his staff pointed out the NEWS going on in the USA, he failed this country terribly.

    So it's not about sending in federal troops -- which was AGAINST THE LAW? How lame, considering Bush broke the law on a daily basis in the White House.
  • 7324834
    SO he regrets not sending troops in to New Orleans. Wasn't legal he says. Was it illegal to send in aid to help those fellow Americans hurting after the hurricane? Why did it take five days for you to do ANYTHING at all. Even the Canadians got there before you with aid. Come on, if it had been Texas republican country you'd have been there in a flash.

    Disgusting.
  • yvonneo
    Bush deserves every bit of contempt and disdain that the people of the world can throw at him--there simply are not enough shoes that could adequately express the level of disrespect this contemptible and pathetic excuse for a human being deserves to have thrown at him. He is a war criminal responsible for the deaths of an untold number of innocent men, women and children--and for what? To satisfy the bush crime family's (and their supporters') insatiable greed.

    Everywhere bush goes, at a minimum, he should be met with thousands of voices all chanting "war criminal, war criminal, war criminal," followed by a storm of shoes (category 5) all thrown in his direction.

    It makes me sick to think that there are those that actually pay to hear what this piece of human filth has to say--maybe they should have a few shoes thrown in their direction as well.
  • rexozone
    Let's protect our former president behind razor wire inside a maximum security prison so he does not have to suffer these indignities.
  • Independentgal
    Yes, and let's entertain him with non-stop music by the Dixie Chicks, too.
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