Posted on 05/19/2004 7:45:48 AM PDT by Sir Gawain
CANNES, France -- Two questions involving the duration of events: (1) So how long, exactly, was the standing ovation for Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11"? And (2) Did President Bush actually remain in a Florida classroom, reading from My Pet Goat, for seven minutes after he was informed of the second attack on the World Trade Center?
Moore's anti-Bush documentary was received rapturously at its black-tie screening here Monday, and a friend told me the ovation lasted 25 minutes. In my report I suggested that Cannes ovations, like the estimates of parade crowds in Chicago, have a tendency to be exaggerated. Since I attended an 8 a.m. press screening, I was not inside the Palais des Festivals to clock it myself.
Now I have another source. The ovation lasted 20 minutes, according to Variety, which may be correct, because its reporters all carry stopwatches to check the running times of movies.
In any event it was "the longest ovation in the history of the festival," according to Thierry Fremaux, the festival's director. At a party Monday evening, I asked Moore. "It depends on when you start counting," he said. "Do you start with the beginning of the closing credits or when the lights go up? When they just wouldn't stop clapping, I walked out and they kept applauding in the lobby."
And as for Bush's delay in reacting to the attack on the World Trade Center? Conventional wisdom has it that the president was reading to schoolchildren when he got the news and quickly left the room.
The Moore version: He was informed of the first attack, went into the room anyway, was informed of the second attack, and remained with the students until a staff member suggested that he leave.
"The teacher in that Sarasota classroom happened to tape the whole event," Moore told me. "We'd seen other footage from the networks, but it was all edited. She just left the camera running. She said nobody had ever asked her for the film. Bush didn't instinctively jump up and go into action, but just stayed on autopilot until someone told him what to do."
(Excerpt) Read more at suntimes.com ...
To quote one of the characters on South Park "Damn, that's a big fat ass"
Hmm, given that, I think I'll go back to my old tagline.
The first attack was called an "accident". At that point it did not fall under the scope of the president (air traffic control mishap in NYC).
I have asked for and still haven't seen anyone post the location of Bill Clinton and his reaction times for the following events:
1993 WTC bombing, OKC bombing, bombing of the USS Cole, the bombing of the US embassies, etc.
The only event that I know the Clinton response to was the suicide of Vince Foster. Hillary Clinton went to clear some documents out his office as soon as she could get there.
Toronto Star: Moore rant wows Cannes Anti-Bush polemic funny, emotional yet very powerful
At one point in the film Bush is seen in the primary school classroom where he first learned of the planes being flown into the World Trade Center towers, and Moore slows the footage down so that Bush is seen to be blinking uncomprehendingly and endlessly, a child's storybook open ridiculously before him, as a counter in the corner of the screen counts out the nine minutes before the President seemed to react.
The man is a manipulator and a propagandist. Picking apart his tricks is not necessary. He's a quack and a fool. Discredit the whole antiwar protest movement by showing their financial ties to international Communism; the links exist. Take out the major players to begin with. Even the leftists in this country are embarassed by Michael Moore.
I've been asking where was Bill when the WTC was bombed in 1993, OKC was bombed in 1994, the USS Cole was bombed, the embassies were bombed...
There were a lot of attacks. I don't recall President Clinton going on tv right away after any of them.
Do you think that the terrorists actually had a line on where the President was and that they determined the White House would be a better target than the sitting President?
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