The XX Factor: What women really think.

Do They Have a "Good Riddance" Model?

Apparently, the model of shoe that journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi hurled at Bush's head during a new conference in Baghdad last December has been rechristened the "Bye Bye Bush." The Istanbul-based manufacturer who claims to have made the shoes reports that he's been inundated with more than a quarter-million orders requesting the oxford formerly known as Model 271. But who manufactured the actual shoes tossed at Bush may remain a mystery. The catapulted pair were exploded by investigators, and Zaidi is MIA. Today, his lawyer disclosed that he's seen Zaidi's post-arrest medical records, which reveal "bruising that covered the reporter’s face and body, but was especially severe on his legs and arms; a missing tooth; a gash on the bridge of his nose; and what appeared to be a burn mark on his ear." Currently in custody, Zaidi hasn't been seen or heard from since Dec. 21. If convicted of criminal aggression against a visiting head of state, the journalist faces up to seven years in prison. His family fears he will be killed there.

Newsflash: Bush Isn't the Culprit (!!!)

It was REAGAN all along, after all these years!

"The financial crisis is not only a cause of our national malaise," says Good's Jeffrey Sachs, "but also a symptom of the deeper wrong turn that America made decades ago, when Ronald Reagan declared that government had to get out of the way to restore the national economy. After a wild decade of high inflation and soaring energy prices in the 1970s, Reagan made government the enemy. From that point on, the name of the game was to cut taxes, shrink government, and allow the magic of the market to deliver the goods."

Cutting taxes? Shrinking government? Relying on the free market? The horror!

But that's not all, Sachs rails. For those playing at home: Reagan and his "fervid movie-land imagination" (fervid?) ruined the economy; destroyed the community; decivilized capitalism; founded partisanship; sneered at disease, hunger, and poverty; told us all to stop caring about the future; laid waste to the environment; and brought on the shadowy darkness of changing climates. When did the man SLEEP?

Luckily, Sachs proclaims, all is not lost. We've entered the age of Obama (who, incidentally, happens/ed to like Reagan and what he did for our country—at least until he realized he wasn't supposed to), and as soon as we learn to stop worrying and love ... taxes—which are, apparently, "the price we pay for civilization" and the only choice we have, with "the budget pushing toward $1 trillion"—then we'll fix the world, walk on water, community will be restored, and our blasted economy will stand up on weak legs and dance.

So long as we screw Reagan, who didn't, like, pick the country up off the brink of a major recession; create 17 million new jobs; cut black unemployment in half; do a little tax reform; restore the idea that the private individuals/businesses, not the government, were the source of prosperity; and work out a few minor misunderstandings with the Soviet Union ... or anything like that.

Right. Seems to me like Obama realizes what Sachs doesn't: that the economy he's been dealt has strong resemblance to the one Reagan revived, and while he had his failings, the "great communicator" got a few things right. For starters, preaching "the right message at the right time."