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Posted on 07/02/2004 10:03:19 AM PDT by churchillbuff
ASHLAND, Ore. – Whooping and hollering greeted Michael Moore's statement that his virulently anti-Bush film "Fahrenheit 9/11" beat out Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ."
"I think Jesus had something to do with that," said Moore during Monday's meeting at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Ore., part of a national event sponsored by MoveOn.org. Comparing the initial attendance stats for the two films – and accentuating the one or two measures by which, says Moore, "Fahrenheit" edged out "Passion" – Moore boasted: "I've been feeling for a month He's been very upset at the [selling of] that movie. So I think it was His own little payback this weekend."
A self-described "practicing Catholic," Moore said his film barely nosed out "The Passion," but what surprised WND columnist and talk show host Bob Just, who attended Monday's meeting and recorded it, was the wild cheering at the news.
"You definitely felt the hostility in the room toward traditional Christians," said Just, a former liberal, now-conservative Democrat – and also a Christian. "At one point, Moore boasted that his film so infuriated one man that he threw his shoe at the image of George W. Bush on the screen."
"Hot Enough For You?" screamed the headline of one campus flyer. "Then Organize." Moveon.org's flyer was even more blunt: "Michael Moore wants to know: Are you ready to turn up the heat on George W. Bush?"
The Oregon campus meeting Just attended was billed as a "House Party." Local attendance was estimated at several hundred people, but according to Moveon.org, nationwide there were enough people connected online that night to fill a football stadium.
"In living rooms and meeting halls across America," proclaimed the flyer, "we'll be joining Michael for a live, interactive, on-line discussion of his film. You'll also be give an opportunity to make a real difference in this election, by joining in an intensive voter registration and education drive."
Most of Moore's conversation was geared toward taking not only the presidency this fall, but perhaps even Congress as well.
A large screen displayed the computer hook-up as the audience looked on. At several points the transmission went down or became garbled.
Students and others who came for the promised "open discussion in film rhetoric" were first heavily pressured to join the Moveon effort. Each audience participating was asked to collect its group leader statistics and upload them in the computer, which flashed the results by locality. Likewise, each group was called on to recruit more people and expand its numbers.
"Take that day off on November second," Moore exhorted. "And take, you know, take five non-voters to the polls. You know who they are. They're your friends, your family members, people you go to school with. Just commit now to convincing them. Tell them, you're at work or whatever, it's at noontime, tell them, 'Hey, let's all, come on with me. I'll buy everybody lunch,' you know, or if it's at night, you know – "free beer for everybody that comes vote with me right now!" You know, just get creative. Do whatever it is you gotta do!"
Republicans, says Just, have been trying recently to write off the "Gore-Moore left" as a "coalition of the wild-eyed." But, "it is more serious than that. All you have to do is see Moore's movie and you'll know you've entered into an alternate reality," adds Just, who has a masters degree in film from NYU Institute of Film and Television.
In fact, even reputable liberal pundits are stepping forward to denounce "Fahrenheit's" inaccuracy, from Christopher Hitchen to Ellen Goodman to The Washington Post's Richard Cohen.
"Moore's depiction of why Bush went to war is so silly and so incomprehensible that it is easily dismissed," Cohen wrote in yesterday's Post. "As far as I can tell, it is a farrago of conspiracy theories. But nothing is said about multiple U.N. resolutions violated by Iraq or the depredations of Saddam Hussein. In fact, prewar Iraq is depicted as some sort of Arab folk festival – lots of happy, smiling indigenous people. Was there no footage of a Kurdish village that had been gassed? This is obscenity by omission."
Hitchens called the film a "sinister exercise in moral frivolity, crudely disguised as an exercise in seriousness," while Newsweek joined in this week with a headline, "More Distortions from Michael Moore."
"But remember this," Moore told the youthful audience, which filled the Brit Ballroom on the Southern Oregon campus. "The other side, they are organized! And they're really, I mean, they are historically, uh, much better at this than we are. They are up at the crack of dawn, uh, trying to figure out what group of Americans they're going to hurt today."
Moore, Jesus loves you...but the rest of us think you're an a******!!!!
Didn't John Lennon already make that claim. Once again, Moore won't have an original idea.
Some might say that His hand is in everything.
From criminal investigations of Enron, Tyco, and now Newsday newspaper, we are seeing the wages of accounting fraud.
Moore had better not be engaging in jiggering numbers to pump the rstings and ticket sales for his movie atrocity.
Same goes for Clinton's book sales. It might be time to call to account film producers and publishers who artificially pump up numbers by fraudulently accounting for sales that do not exist.
This is outright fraud.
--And BTW, anyone ever find out who was buying up all those blocks of tickets...?--
Didnt I read somewhere that dims were buying out the theaters and reselling them, at a higher price, calling it a donation? I have slept since I read it, it was here somewhere..
BTW, in Chattanooga TN, closest to me, only one screen has it running, I called and asked, they are NOT sold out for any showing this weekend
"The only way for Moore to sell more tickets is for the same drooling, Bush hating, kool-aid drinkers who've seen this cartoon already to go back for more."
Some people seem to enjoy hating. To be fair, there are some on this site like that, too.
Exorting an audience to commit a felony. There's a reason bars are closed while the polls are open in many states.
"Whooping and hollering greeted Michael Moore's statement that his virulently anti-Bush film "Fahrenheit 9/11" beat out Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ."
"I think Jesus had something to do with that," said Moore during Monday's meeting at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Ore., part of a national event sponsored by MoveOn.org."
This one I have to agree with old Mikie on, the problem is he doesn't know which "jesus" "has something to do with that".
The want-a-be that comes first, the play actor, the drama king, selling the same thing old Mikie is selling LIES and deception.
What an ass.
He's deluded.
As much of an ass as Moore is, he's right on the money with using this campaign tactic. I try to convince Republicans to do stuff like this every Election Day.
The kind that is asked not to enter churches 'cause the holy water starts boiling, maybe ...
What a jerk! Can't say anything nice about Moore.
Hey, fat boy: Can you say hubris?
I think he must have beat "The Passion" in a little campus theater.
I think we are witnessing a phenomenon no one has seen before. The left are like a run away freight train. The normal societal restraints are not being applied, and they keep saying and doing outrageous things.
The left are now living in an echo chamber, what we (conservatives) think do not matter to them, and they really believe they are speaking for middle America. If so, they will win in November.
I don’t think they speak for middle America, and so the more we let Moore be Moore, the better off we will be.
I am already reading reports where some on the left are beginning to see that they have gone too far, and are trying to slow down the Rhetoric, but the left and their friends in the media are in a feeding frenzy and I don’t think anything outside of a train wreck will stop them.
Get some popcorn boys and girls, this campaign is going to be interesting.
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