Posted on 06/22/2007 1:30:28 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
It was about 6:30 p.m. when Helen Thomas, the first recognizable face of the evening, showed up to the red carpet for the premiere of Michael Moore’s new documentary, “SiCKO.” She looked stylish in a black pantsuit and a large double strand of pearls.
Was she excited to attend? “I hope so,” she replied. “How do I get in?”
She was understandably confused. The long line of photographers, reporters, TV crews and clumps of screaming, chanting protesters made it difficult for moviegoers like Thomas to figure out how to maneuver themselves into the Uptown Theater on Wednesday night in Cleveland Park.
Former Defense Secretary William Cohen showed up on the red carpet shortly thereafter and captured the attention of many cameras en route to the theater.
It must be said that the red carpet in Washington is not remotely like the red carpets of Hollywood. While some tried to glam out with large Olsen twin-style sunglasses and short silk dresses, most attendees wore wrinkled or otherwise inappropriate attire for a red carpet. One man wore cut-off jean shorts with a purple top. Many moviegoers wore cotton tank tops.
And then there were the shouting matches.
As protesters and supporters in dueling nursing uniforms (one group in short, tight getups opposed Moore; another, dressed in maroon frocks, supported him) chanted their way through the crowd, TV crews grew impatient. “We’re trying to interview people,” one photographer yelled out. “Move it on down the road!”
They wouldn’t cease. “Stand up, look around,” they chanted in bubbly unison. “There’s a healthcare crisis in this town.”
There were other oddities in the midst. A Belgian cameraman standing in the wrong spot was seriously pissing off the event’s organizers. “May I help you?” one organizer asked him three times — loudly — before he replied. Later on, he wandered back to the wrong location.
Lawmakers in attendance were scarce. They included Democratic Reps. Lynn Woolsey (Calif.), Bob Filner (Calif.) and presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich (Ohio). “Dennis Kucinich passes for a celebrity in Washington,” a reporter on the red carpet remarked.
Other lawmakers who showed up included California Democratic Reps. Barbara Lee, Maxine Waters, Pete Stark and Lois Capps, as well as Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) and Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.).
Also on the red carpet were those who appeared in the film. John Graham, a rescue worker from the Sept. 11 attacks, showed up with a cast on his right hand. He offered interviews, saying he had a hernia, esophageal burns, an enlarged heart and post-traumatic stress disorder — all a result of working at ground zero.
“Now there’s rarely a week goes by that I don’t go to one doctor or another,” Graham said, adding that his working days are over for now. “I can’t do much of anything.”
Moore’s arrival in a black van was the highlight of the red-carpet affair. Waves of media crews and protesters began running toward the van, trying to get a glimpse of the filmmaker. It wasn’t hard — he is large and distinct. To the sounds of loud booing, he walked the red carpet in a gargantuan black T-shirt, blue blazer, jeans and sneakers.
“He’s doing just what Cindy Sheehan did,” remarked Tyler Sandberg, 23, among the loudest booing protesters. “It’s just sad he’s using extreme tactics to make his point.”
As for himself, Moore was pleasant and in good spirits.
“They’re calling you a socialist,” one reporter told him.
“Oh, really?” Moore replied. “I’m a Christian — they’re confused.”
So does he ever feel afraid in situations like this, with a large crowd teeming with protesters?
“No,” he said, laughing. “Do you know something I don’t know?”
...The differences between Berman and Moore are illustrative of just how far the left has fallen since the glory days of the 1960s. Berman came of age as a Columbia radical at a time when radicals were supposed to read lots of books and think lots of thoughts. That time is past, however, and the left now looks up to such dubious icons as Moore, the director of the Oscar- winning “Bowling for Columbine” and the author of the purportedly nonfiction best-seller “Stupid White Men.”
The two had a confrontation in 1986 that is instructive. At the time, Berman was a respected writer of impeccable leftist credentials. The leftist Mother Jones magazine commissioned him to go to Nicaragua and write about the Sandinistas. Once in Nicaragua, Berman used his gifts of political analysis to deduce that the Sandinistas were in fact violating a good number of the principles of liberal democracy and were tending toward Leninism. He wrote an article for Mother Jones stating the problem and what he perceived to be the solution.
Unfortunately, by the time Berman submitted the article, the new editor was a guy from Michigan named Michael Moore, an auto worker’s son who had edited a liberal publication based in Flint. Moore declared that he would not run Berman’s article because “Reagan could easily hold it up, saying, ‘See, even Mother Jones agrees with me.’”
“He tried to censor me,” said Berman when I got him on the phone the other day. “Truths seem as simple as black and white to him, and he has no ability to see complexity. He’s a very ideological guy and not a very well-educated guy.”
Also not a very nice guy. The publisher fired Moore shortly after that largely on the grounds that he couldn’t get along with the staff. Moore blamed it all on the Berman article, however, and spent the next few years vilifying a man he had never met.
“He used to go around the country denouncing me,” said Berman. “He went around saying I don’t speak Spanish.”
Berman does, as he then explained in Spanish.
-—————— A stupid white man and a smart one [Paul Mulshine]
Newark Star Ledger ^ | 3/30/03 | Paul Mulshine
I didn’t realize that Moore had been the editor of Mother Jones magazine. Now everything becomes clearer to me...
Let me guess--the democrats at this premiere blamed his illnesses on the terrorists who made cleaning up Ground Zero necessary, right? ;)
Moore even claimed that he loved his country, was supporting the troops by wanting them home , all the typical buzz word’s mouthed by self hating, angry, crazy, moonbats
“John Graham, a rescue worker from the Sept. 11 attacks”
Does anybody know anything about this guy? Is he a lifelong smoker? Obese? Does he have a history of mental problems? Is he a longtime democrat or union activist? Does he have a history of filing medical workplace compensation claims? What was his role in cleaning up the 9-11 site? Was he actually there at all? If this guy is a NY City Firefighter or cop why did their union enter into a collective bargaining agreement that provided inadequate medical benefits to its members?
I’m sure that Dr. Kevorkian would play a prominent role in Moore’s Health Care Utopia.
None of that matters to Moore and his followers; he has a history of distortion like you wouldn’t believe. In this case, all that matters is that he was a rescue worker for the 9-11 attacks—period. The same people who claim we never question someone’s patriotism will be using that very technique they supposedly loathe—”Oh, so you’re questioning this HERO?”—if the charges he makes in the film are discussed.
Where you see lies you see the father of lies.
The author is due for an optometry appointment.
Appareently, not for very long
Moore propaganda from Micahel and his cohorts in PravdABDNC.
Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters
“She looked stylish in a black pantsuit and a large double strand of pearls.”
Was she wearing the pants over her head?
“I didn’t realize that Moore had been the editor of Mother Jones magazine.”
Another example of a dedicated left-winger posing as just plain folks. It seems to be a common schtick for these people. Molly Ivins was another good example.
I’ve hear that Moore has a house in the Traverse City area here in Michigan. If so, I’m surprised that deer hunters haven’t accidentally shot out his windows.........
Mikey’s viewpoint is that it is “Christian” to help the poor.
Yes, Mikey, it is, when you use your own resources voluntarily.
Attention socialists - here’s a point that you need to have (physically) pounded into your thick heads:
FORCING OTHERS TO HELP THE POOR IN NO WAY SATISFIES _YOUR_ OBLIGATION TO HELP THE POOR.
Show us where you, personally, are paying for others’ healthcare, voluntarily, not through a government program,
or shut the hell up.
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