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Thomas Friedman Gets Pied!

Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films at 7:49 AM on April 24, 2008.


Here's pie in your eye...

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Thomas Friedman, the author and NY Times columnist, was all set to deliver an Earth Day speech at Brown University entitled "Green is the new Red, White, and Blue." Friedman's been calling for government-led environmentalism to bring about energy salvation and climate change.

Not everyone agrees with Friedman's ideas, including the Greenwash Guerrillas, who stormed the stage and let their green pies fly. As the Greenwash Guerillas fled, they threw leaflets into the crowd that stated:

Thomas Friedman deserves a pie in the face...
* Because of his sickeningly cheery applaud for free market capitalism's conquest of the planet.
* For telling the world that the free market and techno fixes can save us from climate change. From carbon trading to biofuels, these distractions are dangerous in and of themselves, while encouraging inaction with respect to the true problems at hand.
* For helping turn environmentalism into a fake plastic consumer product for the privileged
* For his long-standing support for the US Occupation of Iraq and the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Such committed support to the US War Machine and its proxy states overseas cannot be masked behind any twisted mask of "green" - the US Military is the largest single emitter of greenhouse gases in the world.
* For his pure arrogance.
On behalf of the earth and all true environmentalists -- we, the Greenwash Guerrillas, declare Thomas Friedman's "Green" as fake and toxic to human and planetary health as the cool-whip covering his face.

Digg!

Tagged as: environment, thomas friedman

ZP Heller is the editorial director of Brave New Films. He has written for The American Prospect, AlterNet, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Huffington Post, covering everything from politics to pop culture.


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View:
Thomas Friedman Critiques
Posted by: fanny666 on Apr 24, 2008 8:32 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It's as odd to me that establishment liberals consider this man a genius as it is that establishment conservatives consider George Will or Henry Kissinger a genius. Here are some critiques:

Thomas Friedman on Israel-Palestine

ThomasFriedman on Israel-Palestine, written by a retired CIA analyst who specializes in that war

Thomas Friedman on war and militarism

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» What's an "authentic" liberal? Posted by: fanny666
Greg Palast
Posted by: aonghus36 on Apr 24, 2008 8:52 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Ol' Greg has to see this video. He hates Friedman.

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What Did The Pie Taste Like?
Posted by: cocozane on Apr 24, 2008 9:34 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I hope as good as the leaflets!

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Friedman got outrun by a girl!
Posted by: hurricane hugo on Apr 24, 2008 1:02 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Remember when Ann Coulter sprinted offst...OK, bad example.

jdfu!

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Gawd, I LOVE Seeing Jerks Get Pied!
Posted by: grumble-bum on Apr 24, 2008 3:33 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I think I may be developing a fetish.

More pies! Now!

I take it this true believer in the magic of the "free" Market will now lower his speaking fees, out of respect for the following Market Forces;

a.) Apparently the demand is lower than the supply available.

b.) Failure to deliver the promised product at the agreed upon time (see below).

See, a solid public speaker would have, as soon as his momentary & legitimate "oh-my-god, they're-finally-gonna-kill-me!" panic had subsided, proceeded to wipe himself off with his expensive jacket (surely he can afford the dry-cleaning), recovered the crowd's attention with a joke, & proceeded with his speech. Not Friedman, oh no. He stood there helplessly flapping his hands for several minutes, waiting for some functionary to produce a towel to cleanse his delicate person. I have no idea if he came back & made a humorous reference to the whole thing in his eventual speech, but the applause you hear in this clip is sympathy applause! That's really pathetic.

Here is a sample joke for next time, Thomas...

"Yikes, I came here to talk about Free Markets & I got free pies!"

That took me about a third of the time that Friedman wasted, fidgeting on stage like a cat that stepped in a pool of yogurt, to come up with. How hard was that? Hardly brilliant, I know, but at least then the crowd wouldn't have been clapping because they felt sorry for him, but because he'd tried to make the best of the situation.

Y'know, like the bootstraps-up model that he preaches.

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Good for him...
Posted by: Amos on Apr 25, 2008 8:27 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I love to see this jerk get smeared by a harmless pie. The throwers blew it though. They had their second pie thrower positioned offstage left and the initial pie thrower came on to the stage from house right or stage left. Friedman retreated to stage right and therefore escaped the true wrath of the pie. If the second thrower had been positioned stage right he would have ran right into the pie and made our day that much better. Screw Tom Friedman. It was better than being hit with a taser, which is closer to what he deserves. I’m against the use of tasers but if you have to start somewhere Friedman is a good enough choice. It’s better to stick with harmless pies. Moe, Larry, Curly and Tom. Whew, whew, whew…

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This video has been removed due to terms of use violation.
Posted by: Lauren on Apr 27, 2008 5:59 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I missed it, thanks for the descriptions.

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UPDATE: She was suspended
Posted by: Anthhh on May 19, 2008 4:36 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
...which means thrown completely out (due to the time of year) and she will need to fully reapply to the same administration who has done this.
Here is a petition and more details..

http://www.petitiononline.com/422buml/petition.html

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