DOWN AND OUT (AND FREEPED) IN BEVERLY HILLS [LA Chapter FReeps Dan Rather!]

What have you got when a bunch of right wing extremists are standing on a corner in North Beverly Hills, in front of the Beverly Hills Hotel, wearing crazy costumes and holding signs while a nearly endless stream of RICH, OLD, WHITE GUYS IN SUV's and luxury sedans pull up the driveway? Why it must be a GOP FUNDRAISER, RIGHT?!?!!?? After all, if it was a gathering of progressive, environmentally concerned, liberal people of conscience celebrating the achievements of DAN RATHER, they'd all be driving hybrid vehicles or riding their ten speed bikes up the driveway, RIGHT?

Welcome to the land of celebrity activists, and DNC activists-- otherwise known as journalists. Tonight was the big night for Dan Rather, who is being honored for his "steadfast commitment to fair and accurate news reporting" by the Museum of Television and Radio. How apropos that Dan's big night is taking place on SUNSET BOULEVARD.

Freepers RonDog, DoughtyOne, diotima, DavidDennis, absalom1, DoctorZin and Outraged were there with some fabulous signs: "CBiaS", "Losing Share? Try the Truth," and RonDog was dressed as Sadam being pitched "softballs." I was dressed as Blind Justice holding a scale with one side reading "left" and the other reading "far left." Hopefully, DavidDennis will be putting up the pictures soon, and he also took video.

We were standing right at the foot of the driveway, on the intersection of Beverly, Crescent and Sunset so we got a lot of traffic, and the attendees not only drove by us, but sometimes the cars on the driveway got backed up and they were forced to be at a standstill next to our signs. One lady started waving her hand at us as if to say, "oh stop it, just go away." As I think Diotima pointed out (along with the SUV issue), they would just love to get rid of the 1st Amendment when it comes to us.

Doctor Raoul,It was nice to meet you,I promised Mary you would be dressed as a devil,that's the only reason she came:).I did not know who the man was that you shook hands with,"Dom G",if I had know I would have listened.That was an upclose and personal protest.Mary and I got there before you and men started offering us cigars coming out of the drugstore.I was there 2 minutes and interviewed by Fox for a another reason.I found out later you had your hands full. I had a troll asking me questions that had too much knowledge to be an average Joe so I guess he was taping the answers for her to use later as rebuttals,I had 2 men in back of me who said they came to see Brittany-they heard she was in town-meaning my daughter.A few others that I told to run for office but I remember a guy giving you a hard time.The Hillarylied crowd like us and hated the pro-lifers-booed them,Generation life.I was with them a few weeks ago.
Doctor Raoul,All,Thank you for all you do out in the front lines.

Theodore Roosevelt
26th President of the United States

CITIZENSHIP IN A REPUBLIC
"The Man In The Arena"
Speech at the Sorbonne
Paris, France
April 23, 1910
-- snip --
"It is not the critic who counts;

not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;

who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds;

who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement,

and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly,

so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat..."
CLICK HERE for the rest of that speech
In OTHER words, TR is saying:
"REAL men don't eat Doritos."
:o)

See also the NEW thread:

Dan Rather Has Learned to Resist
[TV Week's Alex Ben Block discusses Free Republic, Dennis Prager]
www.tvweek.com ^ | November 17, 2003 | Alex Ben Block
Posted on 11/16/2003 11:57 PM PST by RonDog

Dan Rather Has Learned to Resist
In the past 21/2 years my path has twice crossed that of Dan Rather, the CBS anchor who has long represented the best of professional journalism for me. Both times he was in Southern California to accept well-deserved awards. Both times a handful of pickets were nearby claiming Mr. Rather's reporting was biased.

The first time, June 9, 2001, Mr. Rather received a lifetime achievement award from the Los Angeles Press Club, of which I was then executive director as well as producer of the dinner, and where the honor was graciously presented by CBS's Leslie Moonves.

I never met the picketers that night. They were cordoned half a mile away by security. I did get to share a laugh with Mr. Rather, who said being picketed was a first for him.

It happened the second time last week at the Museum of Television & Radio's annual gala in Beverly Hills, Calif. A handful of people, some in costumes, waved placards at the hotel entrance.

I asked Mr. Rather about it. "Part of being a journalist," he said, "and trying to be a journalist who pulls no punches and plays no favorites, who tries to be accurate and fair and who knows you are going to make your mistakes, is sometimes you have to face the furnace and take the heat."

Mr. Rather, who turned 72 on Halloween, has taken the heat throughout his world-class career. "CBS Evening News" may be in third place but his standards remain first rank. That he is among the best but not the most-watched reminded me of his remarks before the Press Club: "We take some slight encouragement from the evidence, faint as it may be, that there may be some good fight to be fought against the growing proliferation of soft news, news you can use, celebrity news … and all the other market-tested filler that is increasingly crowding out a shrinking news hole."

Inspired to do my job as a reporter, I walked down the winding driveway at the Pink Palace (a k a The Beverly Hills Hotel). The protesters couldn't have been friendlier. They were hungry for publicity. A tall lady swathed in white and holding a makeshift scale of justice, with a tiny girl cowering behind her skirt, told me her name was Cinnamon Girl.

I learned there were 10 of them and they were connected by a conservative Internet news site called Free Republic...
CLICK HERE for the rest of that thread

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