How much do reporters hate George Bush? Newsweek correspondent Michael Hirsh appeared on the left-wing Young Turks radio show and cheered on the Iraqi journalist who chucked his shoes at Bush. "They have reason to be upset with the author of this, and a shoe aimed at Bush’s head is not such a terrible expression of some of that frustration." He suggested the Bush era was a time of "mass hallucination" and Obama’s rise put an end to the madness. Hirsh wished Bush good riddance: "This guy’s about gone, and we can stop pretending that there was any kind of, you know, rational strategic motivation behind this act of war that he committed." Hirsh said Bush and his team have "blood on their hands," but will never admit they were wrong. "Bush is not going to end up in The Hague obviously, there’s not going to be any charges against him, and so, you know, a shoe shied at him by an Iraqi journalist might be the one small measure of justice that was achieved."

Hirsh’s interview with Young Turks host Cenk Uygur was posted on YouTube on Monday:

CENK UYGUR: It’s obviously not a constructive way to go.

HIRSH: I think it was somehow appropriate.

UYGUR: You do?

HIRSH: I think the guy, the journalist who did it is now a hero in a good part of the Arab world.

UYGUR: There’s no question about that. He’s already gotten a courage award in Libya, and there’s thousands of people protesting for his release already. But do you think this is an appropriate wakeup call for Bush and if so, did he receive it?

HIRSH: Oh, I think Bush is going to need a lot more than that for a wakeup call. But I think – there are a lot of Iraqis, obviously, Arabs, but particularly Iraqis, who are quite angry with the devastation of their country. I mean, look at this report from Stuart Bowen’s office, the Iraq special inspector late last week, which concluded that despite all the money we put in there, all we acheived in doing was basically bringing the co untry to back to appromixately where it was when Saddam was in rule, and at the cost, obviously, of thousands and thousands of Iraqi lives and limbs. You know [adopting a laughing tone], they have reason to be upset with the author of this, and a shoe aimed at Bush’s head is not such a terrible expression of some of that frustration.

UYGUR: That’s really interesting. So. I thought what was much more problematic in that visit was Bush’s interview with ABC, where he says, you know, it turns out al-Qaeda wanted this to be the central front in the war on terror, and Martha Raddatz says wait wait wait, not before you invaded, after you invaded.

HIRSH: Yeah.

UYGUR: And he says, "So what?"

HIRSH: Look, you know. Very soon now, and I think about, in a little more than 30 days, we’re going to stop this, you know, nation mass hallucination [sic] we’ve all allowed ourselves to be subjected to, whereby, you know, we thought the Iraq war was viewed as a rational act. It was not a rational act. Obama rose to attention in part because in 2002 he said, ‘look, this is a dumb war.’ And we can now get on with our lives. You know, this guy’s about gone, and we can stop pretending that there was any kind of, you know, rational strategic motivation behind this act of war that he committed. Uh, and that’s that. Let’s just move beyond it already, and try to fix the damage as best we can.

Uygur then complained that Bush is "callously indifferent" to his disastrous actions, and Hirsh suggested that for all the blood on his hands, Bush isn’t going to be charged with war crimes, so the shoe-throwing is a small fraction of justice:

I think once, like Bush and all his senior officials, have made a decision like the invasion of Iraq, the alternative to defending it is too terrible. To contemplate the idea that you went to war completely unnecessarily, and that all that blood is on your hands, is just too much to contemplate. So I think you’re going to see Bush and Condi Rice and Rumsfeld and the rest of them, they’re going to spend the rest of their lives justifying that, trying to defend it. You will not hear anyone say "We screwed up the whole thing. It wasn’t the right thing to do." You simply won’t hear it, and that’s just the way it is. And Bush is not going to end up in The Hague obviously, there’s not going to be any charges against him, and so, you know, [laughing tone again], a shoe shied at him by an Iraqi journalist might be the one small measure of justice that was achieved.

Cenk Uygur (pronounced Jenk Ooey-gur) has let his radical atheist flag fly on the Huffington Post in a piece titled "If You're a Christian, Muslim, or Jew, You're Wrong":

We live in a twisted world, where right is wrong and wrong reigns supreme. It is a chilling fact that most of the world's leaders believe in nonsensical fairytales about the nature of reality. They believe in Gods that do not exist, and religions that could not possibly be true. We are driven to war after war, violence on top of violence to appease madmen who believe in gory mythologies. These men are called Christians, Muslims and Jews...

George W. Bush is the most powerful man alive. He is a class A imbecile. He is far less intelligent than the average Christian. But like most of the others, he believes Jesus died for his sins. That idea is so perverse and devoid of logic it should shock the conscience. Instead, it gets him elected, and earns him the reverence of a great percentage of America. America! The most advanced country in the world -- run by a bunch of villagers who still believe Santa Claus is going to save them.

There is no damn Easter Bunny. There is no Jesus waiting to return. Moses never even existed. These were all convenient lies from the men of those times to gain power. Their actions were rational -- they wanted to deceive their brethren so that they could amass power. I get their motivations. But I cannot, for the life of me, understand our motivations, thousands of years later, still following the conmen of yesteryear into our gory, bloody, violent end.

Jesus is said to have said on the cross, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" Because Jesus was insane and the God he thought would rescue him did not exist. And he died on that cross like a fool. He fancied himself the son of God and he could barely convince twelve men to follow him at a time when the world was full of superstition.

Remember this when spin control artists like Time's Amy Sullivan tell you the Obama supporters and the religious people can easily make a coalition.

—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center.