So I went to this whole shebang tonight. I drove over there at about 7:30 and arrived in Crawford close to 8:00. I parked downtown and first went over to the pro-Bush rally. It was kind of random. There were a lot of people standing outside and holding signs and wearing shirts such as those pictured here:
People were all out at the edge of the street holding there signs up for the people who were going to see the movie. There was one person in a chicken mask that had a sign saying something about Moore being chicken and another guy holding a sign that said "Mikhail Moore." There were lots of sheriffs, deputies, Crawford cops and cops from other towns hanging around as well. Some deputies were joking that some people asked where the movie was showing and they sent them the wrong way.
So after I passed all that I walked into the building where it was based. It was kinda random. There were lots of "independent journalist" types walking around with cameras and mics...types of people that appeared to be making independent documentaries and whatnot. THere was some little girl singing at the front and a lot of people sitting in chairs watching and clapping along. At some point everyone stood and sang the national anthem then a guy prayed and then some more people sang. At that point I decided to go check out the action down at the movie showing (it was still a good 30 minutes before it started at this point).
I walked down there about a mile to the high school and there were a LOT of people here. There were a lot of people at the Bush rally too but not this many. At the entrance to the parking lot there were some protesters. Below is a picture of a couple of guys that showed up from
www.protestwarrior.com:
They were very friendly well-spoken guys and I chatted with them a bit. They had some not so nice things said to them but kept their cool. Not long after that a bunch of people showed up with signs from the pro-Bush rally. They were kind of milling around the entrance to the parking lot because the police weren't allowing anyone to bring signs past a certain point. At one point this big circle was formed after someone started interviewing this girl and some of the protesters started arguing with her. Here's a pic:
After that she said something about Moore interviewing soldiers in the movie and at that point a soldier who was standing not far away initiated Operation Talk to Girl about Soldiers. Here's a pic:
That reporter in the background is not too bad looking, eh?
Overall, just judging from looking I'd say there were probably 1000 or more people there to watch the movie, most of them overwhelmingly in support of it. Here's a pic of part of the movie-watching crowd:
There was also tons of media there. Lots of satellite trucks were parked to the side but I forgot to take a pic of that. I was told there were several national news reps there. After chatting with the protest warriors for a bit and then watching the argument I strolled over to the edge of the police tape that marked the edge of "the theater." Everyone on the other side of the tape had 'donated' 8 bucks to the "Friends of Peace." Part of my goal in going to this was to see the movie without putting any cash in Moore's pocket. I did that by just standing there on the other side of the police tape and watching the movie.
Ahh yes...the movie. The movie was simply sickening. It was made even moreso by the constant applause of the people watching it. Ugh... I was just wishing I could have a mic and point out all the twisting and sensationalism and flat out lies that were in this movie. It was really sickening. Moore is an evil, evil person. I'm glad I did not pay for this though. OH I forgot to mention that before the movie they had some fruitcake pray some new agey sounding prayer to some being somewhere. Then they had a lady who grew up in Crawford come up and read a cheesy poem about the night's events and then they had some guy come up and sing some terribly amateurish song about Bush and Cheney. Then they finally showed the flick. The snobbish elitism was so thick in the air you could have balled it up with an ice cream scoop and served it on cones. I heard so many ignorant comments throughout the night that I was about ready to just start serving up truth loudly left and right. Whatevah...I knew I wasn't going to change anyone's mind about anything on this night.
EDIT: Oh yeah, I forgot to add that at one point during the movie a pickup went driving by real slow playing the sound of a pig squealing very loudly over his stereo.
brad cook
You ain't never been to Crawford 
