Holidaying in Iraq? be sure to visit the giant shoe.

Residents in Saddam Hussein’s home town of Tikrit attended the unveiling of a shoe sculpture, remembering the Bush shoe throwing incident Thursday. The single copper-coated shoe on a stand carved to resemble flowing cloth by Baghdad-based artist, Laith al-Amari, is said to honor the shoe throwing and “is a source of pride for all Iraqis.”

The irony of course is that the show thrower, 29 year old Muntadhir Al-Zaidi is currently seeking asylum in Switzerland because he fears for his safety.

The sculpture includes an ode to al-Zeidi and mentions the virtues of being “able to tell the truth out loud.”

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The Iraqi journalist who some-what famously tossed his shoes at US President George W Bush is seeking political asylum in Switzerland.

29 year old Muntadhir Al-Zaidi, a correspondent for the al-Baghdadiya TV channel, shouted insults and threw his shoes, considered an insult in Iraq, at Bush during a news conference in Baghdad in December. Bush ducked and managed to miss both pairs.

Al-Zaidi’s attorney said that the journalist’s family sent a letter to the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, asking Switzerland to grant the reporter political asylum, as Al-Zaidi “can no longer work as a journalist without suffering horrible pressure…his life could become hell in his own country.”

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Sock and Awe: The Bush Shoe-Throwing Game

The game — called “Sock and Awe!” — was developed by soon-to-launch comedy site PopJam. It lets you test your shoe-throwing skills as a Flash-based Bush jumps around the screen.

Thus far, the U.S. is leading the game’s scoreboard, followed by France and Australia.

UPDATE: The site has been sold, just four days after its launch! And not for too small of a pricetag, either. Details here.

Bush Shoe Video Goes Viral

So just how much of a phenomenon is the Bush shoe throwing video? A pretty massive one, according to some newly released stats. Online video analysis firm Visible Measures found the clip had attracted more than 5.5 million views and 48,000 comments as of Monday — just over 24 hours after its Internet debut.

The kicker to it all: The last time a video grew that quickly, the company says, was when President-Elect Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech. The Obama video pulled in 5 million views and 200 placements in its first 24 hours. The Bush shoe dodge video was up to 4.4 million views and 650 placements in that same timespan.

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It wouldn’t surprise anyone who has ever watched his show that Keith Olbermann took great delight this week at the Bush Iraq Shoe incident, but thankfully for us, he served another purpose as well: a great wrap of all the Bush Shoe animations, gifs and games that have sprung up online since the incident took place.

Here’s Keith Olbermann talking Bush shoes, including footage of the best online piss-takes.

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