Check out this video spot capturing the D.C. premiere of Michael Moore's Sicko--or, to be more precise, capturing the protests outside the Uptown Theater arranged by FreeMarketCure.com, Bureaucrash, and the Americans for Prosperity Foundation. Featuring a team of nurses wheeling a crippled Castro around in a chair, the protesters made the point that Cuba's health care system is feeble--and that any argument for socialized health care that uses Cuba's system as an example of successful government-run care hasn't got a leg to stand on. Handing out flyers with images from Cuban hospitals--including cockroach-infested treatment rooms, filthy toilets, and evidence of unsanitary procedures--the protesters countered Moore's romanticized portrait of Cuban health care with a healthy dose of reality.
CNBC, Alternet, and the Washington Examiner, among others, took photos of the protesters and asked for flyers. More than 500 flyers were handed out that evening, and the event was a tremendous success. "My favorite moment of the whole night," one of Fidel's nurses reported, "was when I was interviewed by a guy from Alternet.com and then approached by him later so he could ask me if I was 'absolutely sure' I wasn’t being paid by Michael Moore’s PR camp."