I agree with you Joseph, this is a political caltrop.    From Wordnik.com.  [Think Progress » Frist Ducks Responsibility For Unfinished Spending Bills, Blames ‘Systemic Flaws In America’s Processes’] Reference

Yarrl swings the stock into the forge for another caltrop.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Magic Engineer]

The pictures of the items seem consistent with the “caltrop” label.    From Wordnik.com.  [Discourse.net: More On Twin Cities - Developing] Reference

One of the pack-horses fell and thrashed, a caltrop sunk deep into its hoof.    From Wordnik.com.  [Odyssey]

Aquatic plants associated with the fascioliasis infection are watercress and water caltrop.    From Wordnik.com.  [Chapter 2] Reference

The newcomers made a token effort to dress ranks, then charged across the caltrop-littered ground.    From Wordnik.com.  [And Other Tales Of Valdemar]

I lit down to see, for he went very badly, and he had picked up a caltrop, and was cut to the bone. '.    From Wordnik.com.  [One Corpse Too Many]

Inside a white circle on the red background was a spiky, black emblem that reminded him of a caltrop.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Guns Of The South]

"She lives in the Tzu Ling Chou, (purple caltrop Isle), so let us call her 'Ling Chou,'" Pao-ch'ai suggested.    From Wordnik.com.  [Hung Lou Meng, Book II Or, the Dream of the Red Chamber, a Chinese Novel in Two Books] Reference

'Yet a caltrop it was, for I have it, and several more like it that I went and combed out of the grass there next day.    From Wordnik.com.  [One Corpse Too Many]

The ambassador would be ill at the mawkish sentiment if he were not sure that Turg had dropped the caltrop into a pouch.    From Wordnik.com.  [Odyssey]

No matter how the caltrop is thrown, one pointed end will always face up, ready to impale anything that steps or falls upon it.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Magic Engineer]

The village sits in Taiwan's breadbasket, a land of flat, expansive rice and sugar-cane fields, lingjiao water caltrop paddies, and banana trees.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2009-05-01] Reference

He demonstrated by turning the caltrop, and Louisa saw how one of the spikes, which had first formed part of the three-pointed star, now jutted upwards.    From Wordnik.com.  [Sharpe's Rifles]

Something was driven half into the earth floor under the thinning layers of hay, like another caltrop planted here for inquisitive monks to encounter to their grief and injury.    From Wordnik.com.  [One Corpse Too Many]

It is commonly called puncture vine or caltrop fruit.    From Wordnik.com.  [Letha's Asian Health Secrets] Reference

This spore has a sinister appearance, with four spikes emanating from its center, like the caltrop used in medieval warfare.    From Wordnik.com.  [Boulder Daily Camera Most Viewed] Reference

When a caltrop landed on the ground, three spikes would dig into the ground and act as legs, holding the fourth spike upright, ready to pierce a hoof.    From Wordnik.com.  [Boulder Daily Camera Most Viewed] Reference

These animals may also be captured without aid of gin or caltrop, by sheer coursing in hot summer time; they get so tired, they will stand still to be shot down.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Sportsman] Reference

Arbour of lotus fragrance, "" the Islet of purple caltrop, "" the Bank of golden lotus, "and the like.    From Wordnik.com.  [Hung Lou Meng, Book I Or, the Dream of the Red Chamber, a Chinese Novel in Two Books] Reference

"three-pronged," and denotes the land caltrop, a low throny shrub resembling in its spikes the military "crow-foot.".    From Wordnik.com.  [Easton's Bible Dictionary] Reference

“the Arbour of lotus fragrance,” “the Islet of purple caltrop,” “the Bank of golden lotus,” and the like.    From Wordnik.com.  [Hung Lou Meng] Reference

“She lives in the Tzu Ling Chou, (purple caltrop Isle), so let us call her ‘Ling Chou,’” Pao-ch’ai suggested.    From Wordnik.com.  [Hung Lou Meng] Reference

“A caltrop,” he said.    From Wordnik.com.  [Sharpe's Rifles]

'Torold said a caltrop did this,' mused Cadfael.    From Wordnik.com.  [One Corpse Too Many]

A caltrop sunk deep into its hoof.    From Wordnik.com.  [Odyssey]

Among the various nondescript organisms of the shale, I laid open a smooth angular bone, hollowed something like a grocer's scoop; a three-pronged caltrop-looking bone, that seems to have formed part of a pelvic arch; another angular bone, much massier than the first, regarding the probable position of which I could not form a conjecture, but which some of my geological friends deem cerebral; an extremely dense bone, imperfect at each end, which presents the appearance of a cylinder slightly flattened; and various curious fragments, which, with what our Scotch museums have not yet acquired, -- entire reptilian fossils for the purposes of comparison, -- might, I doubt not, be easily assigned to their proper places.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Cruise of the Betsey or, A Summer Ramble Among the Fossiliferous Deposits of the Hebrides. With Rambles of a Geologist or, Ten Thousand Miles Over the Fossiliferous Deposits of Scotland] Reference