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OPERATION RED CUP - THE TRUTH EMERGES

Some intriguing background to Sean Penn’s daring Operation Red Cup:

Star power on the Hurricane Katrina help line ratcheted up a notch over the weekend when Sean Penn arrived in Houston with ambitious plans to charter a jet to fly to New Orleans and aid in the rescue of evacuees.

Friday night, Penn, Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren , writer and professor Doug Brinkley of New Orleans and Daniel Schiller, a Houstonian who had plans to open a restaurant in New Orleans, head-huddled over drinks at the Four Seasons Hotel.

Were the drinks served in ... red plastic cups? I sense a conspiracy.

UPDATE. Pedro the Ignorant celebrates Penn’s little plastic cup of heroism:

In the face of all the misery that is New Orleans at the moment, there comes a clown/jester to lighten the mood.

Thanks for the giggles, actor/girlie man with flak jacket and little red cup.

A pointy hat with bells would have been a nice touch.

Posted by Tim B. on 09/05/2005 at 07:01 AM
  1. Even more amazing, both The Age and the SMH covered the fiasco with similar mocking tones!

    Penn wearing a flak jacket whilst the minions went without is worth the admission price alone.

    Posted by Nic on 2005 09 05 at 08:20 AM • permalink

  2. Friday night, Penn, Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren , writer and professor Doug Brinkley of New Orleans and Daniel Schiller, a Houstonian who had plans to open a restaurant in New Orleans, head-huddled over drinks at the Four Seasons Hotel.

    The Four Seasons?

    Ha!  It sounds like a typical left/liberal action plan—say for example the UN conference in Durbin, South Africa to combat racism and poverty.  Fly in UN delegates at first class, put them up at first class hotels, serve them first class meals, and let them discuss how bad things are for other people because big nations allow them to be so.  And accomplish absolutely nothing in the process.

    To those of my peers on the leftside of the spectrum, this is a good example of how well left liberal action plans come off.  Thank God the right is around to make sure a crisis is actually remedied.  Of course, that doesn’t mean that if people become hurt in the process, the left liberals won’t point their fingers and scream (or chant or whatever their ilk tend to do).

    Posted by wronwright on 2005 09 05 at 08:54 AM • permalink

  3. This looks like a job for…Alec Baldwin.

    Posted by reverse_swing on 2005 09 05 at 09:02 AM • permalink

  4. “The Democrats seem to be basically nicer people, but they have demonstrated time and time again that they have the management skills of celery. They’re the kind of people who’d stop to help you change a flat, but would somehow manage to set your car on fire.”—Dave Barry.

    Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2005 09 05 at 09:03 AM • permalink

  5. That is true.  The Democrats and lefty/liberals are basically nicer than the right side of the political spectrum.  They’re a whole lot nicer than me, for example.

    But their approach to solving a crisis is to battle a flood with a red Dixie cup.  (Dang, that sounds familiar, like something Richard McEnroe would instruct.  You don’t suppose?).

    And they would scream for more money to buy more red Dixie cups.

    They’re nice.  But they’re nincompoops.  And if they don’t have responsible people (read:  the right) to help them up, brush off their coveralls, and apply Bactene to their hurts, then they’re lost.

    Posted by wronwright on 2005 09 05 at 09:24 AM • permalink

  6. Democrats are nice? If some of the crap they’ve thrown towards George Bush and the Republicans is nice no telling what it would be like if they were mean.

    Posted by bc on 2005 09 05 at 09:35 AM • permalink

  7. Democrats may not be nicer people, but it is more important to them to seem nice.

    Posted by rexie on 2005 09 05 at 09:51 AM • permalink

  8. BC: they do seem to have finally abandoned the niceness. But they’ve kept the set-your-car-on-fire-to-fix-it mentality.

    Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2005 09 05 at 10:09 AM • permalink

  9. “Sir, don’t be duped by them any more.  You will find these very feeling people are not very ready to do you good.  They PAY you by
    FEELING.”—Dr. Samuel Johnson

    Posted by Paul Zrimsek on 2005 09 05 at 10:22 AM • permalink

  10. The difference between Dems and Repubs is simple: To the Dems it’s better to feel good about themselves, so facile, meaningless gestures such as throwing other people’s money at problems give them the best feeling and allow them to feel morally superior. To the Repubs, actual results are more important.

    Posted by Tommy Shanks on 2005 09 05 at 10:53 AM • permalink

  11. Need I add that flak vest-wearing Spicoli boldly springing into action while springing a leak, serves as a perfect liberal metaphor.

    Posted by Tommy Shanks on 2005 09 05 at 10:56 AM • permalink

  12. “Operation Red Cup” was chosen because Operation Nut Cup and Operation Nut Case have already been used.  Penn might have trouble flying his private jet into New Orleans right now.  Better to parachute him in.

    Posted by Mystery Meat on 2005 09 05 at 11:14 AM • permalink

  13. What makes you all think that ambulance chasers are ‘nice’ or mean well. It is common knowledge that they seek to profit personally from other peoples misfortunes without providing much service. Penn, with his personal camera man, is in that league with Jesse Jackson and other left wing heart ringers. Even Mother Sheehan is on her way to the big easy, not to pretend to give aid like Penn does, but just because that’s where the cameras are. Van Sustern is in the same league but that is her job, to ply her slime (like Geraldo)for TV ratings. As for so-called Professor Brinkley, having been a reesident of New Orleans for forty years, I can tell you he fits right in. I don’t know Schiller, but I advise him to cut out of that group. New Orleans is a town where word gets out fast and guilt by association is damning.

    Posted by stats on 2005 09 05 at 11:24 AM • permalink

  14. (Dang, that sounds familiar, like something Richard McEnroe would instruct.  You don’t suppose?).

    And that’s why Our Dark Master pays me the big buck.

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 09 05 at 01:37 PM • permalink

  15. How odd that a man who can’t competently handle a rowboat can call a man who flew the F-102 stupid.

    Posted by ErnieG on 2005 09 05 at 02:39 PM • permalink

  16. As much as I want to believe the Penn story, one of the two photos I have seen is a crude Photoshop job.

    Posted by Dave S. on 2005 09 05 at 03:06 PM • permalink

  17. rs: This looks like a job for…Alec Baldwin.

    What?  Is he still here?

    Andrea: They’re the kind of people who’d stop to help you change a flat ...

    Unless, of course, you have a Bush bumper sticker on your car.

    Posted by Achillea on 2005 09 05 at 05:41 PM • permalink

  18. Dave — Are you referring to these photos? I’ve no doubt parody fakes are going to start showing up…

    And I’ve decided I’m not going to get on Penn’s case for his flak vest… because if I’d been sitting on my rooftop for four days waiting for help and the first thing that showed up was a Hollywood star with a boat full of lackeys and photographers and no room for my family, he’d need it…

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 09 05 at 05:43 PM • permalink

  19. I had to change the url to Pmcode, richard. Oddly enough it works this time, while standard html code didn’t. I think it was the space between “sean” and “penn.”

    Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2005 09 05 at 05:51 PM • permalink

  20. Nah, they were on a site called “California Conservative” or something… I said something about it in the comments, and later some fine print showed up saying it came from a “photo(shop)journalist.” I suspect it was a “real fake” that is now supposed to be a “spoof fake.” But it ain’t all that “spoofy”, IMO.

    Looking at the photos you linked, though, I’m a little more confident the story is true.

    (Congratulations, Photoshop Guy, your artwork became rather effective disinformation.)

    Posted by Dave S. on 2005 09 05 at 07:03 PM • permalink

  21. Andrea — Thankee.

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 09 05 at 09:04 PM • permalink

  22. Even a disaster causing the deaths of hundreds perhaps thousands, watching tens of thousands suffer misery we dare not dream of and perhaps millions of people left homeless is not enough to stop, not even for a moment, the political sniping in our country.

    Posted by Ralphie on 2005 09 06 at 02:21 PM • permalink

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