Response ad to Fox: "Caviezel's intro seemed either garbled or in Aramaic."

[DeepModem Mom]

Link to ad running in Missouri in response to Michael J. Fox's ad in support of Democratic Senatorial candidate Claire McCaskill and stem cell research:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nguJQ_dRPXw

The TV Watch
Making Stem Cell Issue Personal, and Political
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Published: October 25, 2006


Link to Michael J. Fox ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9WB_PXjTBo&eurl=

The plea is as disturbing — and arresting — as a hostage video from Iraq. In a navy blazer and preppy Oxford shirt, the actor Michael J. Fox calmly asks viewers to support stem cell research by voting for several Democratic candidates in Maryland, Missouri and Wisconsin, while his body sways back and forth uncontrollably like a sailor being tossed around in a full-force gale.

In short, Mr. Fox’s display of the toll Parkinson’s disease has taken on him turned into one of the most powerful and talked about political advertisements in years.

Republican strategists who saw how quickly the commercial was downloaded, e-mailed and reshown on news broadcasts certainly thought so. Rush Limbaugh rushed in to discredit Mr. Fox, though he mostly hurt himself. Mr. Limbaugh, the conservative radio talk show host, told his listeners that the actor either “didn’t take his medication or was acting.” Mr. Limbaugh later apologized for accusing Mr. Fox of exaggerating his symptoms, but said that “Michael J. Fox is allowing his illness to be exploited and in the process is shilling for a Democrat politician.”

Republicans cobbled together a response ad that did not mention Mr. Fox but attacked the ethics of embryonic stem cell research. It included testimonials by the actress Patricia Heaton (“Everybody Loves Raymond”) and James Caviezel, who played Jesus in Mel Gibson’s “Passion of the Christ.” At least in the advance version shown on YouTube last night, Mr. Caviezel’s introduction seemed either garbled or to be in Aramaic.

The issue of embryonic stem cell research is divisive, but Mr. Fox is not. And that is one reason his advertisement had such resonance. He is a popular actor who played a young conservative Republican on the sitcom “Family Ties.” His illness was diagnosed in 1991, but he kept it secret until 1998. In 2000, he told his fans that because of his illness, he had to quit the hit sitcom “Spin City.” He founded the Michael J. Fox Foundation to advance stem cell research, lobbied Congress and made commercials to rally support for his cause....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/25/arts/television/25watch.html

[KingFlorez]

1. That fool probably thinks he's actually Jesus because he played him

Aramaic? Barely anybody in this country knows that language.

[bumblebee1]

2. Not a lot of people can speak Aramaic?

Not too many Americans ever heard of Aramaic. Most of them probably thought Jesus spoke English.

[Orrin_73]

6. Jesus spoke english? LOL I thought he spoke chinese

:evilgrin:

[hlthe2b]

9. "Jesus will speak Chinese" in all new published bibles....

given the economic & financial control we've given over to them-- won't just be the Jesus "action dolls" that say "made in China."

:eyes:

[wizstars]

8. You mean he didn't??

From what the fundies say, he speaks to them personally. In real-time. maybe he uses bushspeak.

[DeepModem Mom]

11. Hi, wizstars -- welcome to DU!

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

16. Aramaic is spoken in Iraq

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/15697489.htm excerpts
~Iraq's Christian communities are among the world's most ancient, practicing their faith in Mesopotamia almost since the time of Christ. The Assyrian Apostolic Church, for instance, traces its foundation back to 34 A.D. and St. Peter. Likewise, the Assyrian Church of the East dates to 33 A.D. and St. Thomas. The Aramaic that many of Iraq's Christians still speak is the language of those apostles -- and of Christ.

~In 1987, the Iraqi census listed 1.4 million Christians. Today, only about 600,000 to 800,000 remain in the country, most on the Nineveh plain. As many as 60,000, and perhaps even more, have fled since the beginning of the insurgency that followed the United States-led invasion in 2003. Their exodus accelerated in August 2004, after the start of the terrorist bombing campaign against Christian churches by Islamists who accuse them of collaboration with the allies by virtue of their faith.

~This type of violence is particularly acute in the area around Mosul. High-ranking clergy there claim that priests in Iraq can no longer wear clerical robes in public for fear of being attacked by Islamists. Last January, coordinated car-bomb attacks were carried out on six churches in Baghdad and Kirkuk; on another occasion, six churches were simultaneously bombed in Baghdad and Mosul. During the past two years, 27 Assyrian churches have reportedly been attacked for the sole reason that they were Christian places of worship.

~The persecution of these ancient and unique Christian communities, in Iraq and in the Middle East as a whole, is deeply disturbing. Last April, the European Parliament voted virtually unanimously for the Assyrians to be allowed to establish (on the basis of section 5 of the Iraqi Constitution) a federal region where they can be free from outside interference to practice their own way of life. It is high time now that the West paid more attention and took forceful action to secure the future of Iraq's embattled Christians.

[DeepModem Mom]

19. Thanks very much for your post. nt

[soleft]

3. The base would certainly recognize it if it's a key line from the movie

Otherwise, I've always heard that Caziel is an okay person. Even Janeane Garafalo has sung his praises.

[Orrin_73]

7. Me thinksCaviezel probably suffers from

multiple personality disorder. :silly:

[Benhurst]

4. One shouldn't expect too much from a star from a really, really

bad TV show and the star of a snuff film.

[Ellis Wyatt]

5. I couldn't understand it either

I saw the clip and it sounded the intro was being played backwards or something. Maybe aramaic. I don't know. Pretty stupid if it was.

[hlthe2b]

10. I disliked Patricia Heaton long before her Schivo debacle...

I could never watch "Raymond" for that reason, alone..

[Supersedeas]

12. what do Heaton and Catherine Harris have in common--what is the root of their

abrasiveness??

[hlthe2b]

15. well, that is a question, isn't it?

Without commenting on their "outer" looks, they both prove that "ugly" can be conveyed from within...

:shrug:

[talk hard]

13. Jesus Caviezel can STFU

[Vinca]

14. One of them said "women have died????"

From what? The 150 cell clump is in a petri dish. Does he mean women die from in vitro procedures? I thought they loved that. Whacko logic.

[wiley]

18. Yeah. Some of the pro-cells in a test tube people must have killed

them or something. I doubt the guy was a medical professional. Once again, however, who are these people to decide anything? If they want to delude themselves they know anything about being Christian, fine. I know lots of truly wonderful, Christian people who don't have the need to push their religion in other people's faces. But we're talking about very damaged mind and soul people masquerading as Christians, so they do their little acting bits to mimic speaking in tongues. (Hint: It's all about money).

[gratuitous]

17. This is so confusing!

Actors on both sides! I don't know if this is the week that entertainers are supposed to shut up, or if they are ordained dispensers of the wisdom of the ages! Help us, Rush!

A measure of the impact of the Fox ad is how quickly the rebuttal ad got put together, and how batshit crazy the usual blowhards went over it. This ad pinpointed their black little hearts and vaporized them. Devastatingly effective.

[DeepModem Mom]

20. And a big difference is that Michael Fox clearly knows...

what he's talking about.