http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/05/16/bin.laden.message/index.html
CNN)—Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden—in a blunt new message that coincides with Israel’s 60th anniversary—urged his followers to liberate Palestine, a terrorism analyst told CNN on Friday.
In a message titled “The Causes of Conflict on the 60th Anniversary of the State of Israeli Occupation,” bin Laden reiterated jihadist opposition to the existence of the Jewish state and its policies.
Bin Laden’s audio message, released Thursday, told listeners that “liberating" Palestine should be the aim of every Muslim, according to terrorism analyst Laura Mansfield.
Not only that…
Bin Laden decries characterization of Palestinian militant groups as terror organizations. He also says Israel has engaged in terror.
“As your low values show double standards in one issue, you call the Palestinian organizations terror organizations. They were punished and ignored.
You call it terrorism, good people call it active resistance and liberation for peace and love.
“On the other hand, the Israelis were killing civilians from women and children, either through car bombs as in Haifa and elsewhere. Or what is worse than that, when the Zionist organizations massacred Palestinian villagers by scaring him, deporting them, and robbing their lands, what was your stance?”
As if women and children meant jakc shit to said liberators. Countering Israeli car bomb with car bombs is so original.
“What was the Westerner’s stance on this? Instead of being punished for those crimes, he was appointed prime minister. That wasn’t enough for them; they presented him with the Nobel Peace Prize,” he said.
“Westerners” means just that. Either you come to suck his Muslim weenus or you get liberated from life to explain yourself to Allah.
Today, bin Laden says, “we are living the massacre of Gaza,” the Palestinian-controlled territory.
“It is happening in front of the eyes of the world. One and a half million individuals under the deadly bombing are dying slowly because of poor nutrition and scarcity of medicine,” bin Laden said. ”
He’s a little behind, but next time he’ll probably blame poor nutrition on global warming.
In an audiotape released the previous day, bin Laden condemned European countries for siding with the United States in Afghanistan and for allowing the publication of cartoons considered insulting to Islam’s prophet Mohammed.
The Bin Ladens alone can decide whats insulting to Allah, so Euros mass-fellate their peace pipe, thinking that hating Americans is gonna save them from jihad. Morons.
Mikey feels their pain as if it were his own.
]]>Ok, but you can’t deny that the issues he raises are important, regardless of how he raises them. Does it matter that these issues are already public knowledge? Ok, maybe he likes to beat dead horses. He is still a good film maker, and that is what this topic is about. What do you think is his best movie? My nomination goes to, *drumroll*...............
Canadian Bacon!
Funny as hell and a damn good movie. And this one is actually meant to be fictional.
]]>Michael Moore is making a sequel to “Fahrenheit 9/11” for Paramount Vantage and Overture Films, who will shop the project to international buyers when the Cannes Film Festival and market get under way today.
The two companies are co-financing and co-producing the untitled documentary, which will be released in 2009. Overture will distribute the film domestically, while Vantage will handle international.Moore may be leaving the Weinstein Co.—where he made his last two films, including “Fahrenheit”—but Overture and Vantage are no strangers to the filmmaker. Overture CEO Chris McGurk and COO Danny Rosett were both at MGM and United Artists, home of Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine.”
Moore also knows Vantage topper Nick Meyer, former president of Lionsgate’s international arm. Lionsgate teamed with Bob and Harvey Weinstein and distributed Fahrenheit after Disney refused to let Miramax to do so. Lionsgate again teamed with the Weinstein’s to distribute Moore’s last docu, “Sicko.”
Also, Moore is no stranger to the Croisette. “Fahrenheit,” a scathing indictment of George W. Bush’s war on terrorism and a hit at the worldwide box office, won the coveted Palm d’Or in 2004. “Bowling for Columbine” also played at Cannes, while “Sicko” premed here last year.
It’s possible that his new docu could play at Cannes next year, if it isn’t released earlier in the Spring. He’s already at work on the docu.
“Clearly, we have a movie of global appeal here. Michael Moore is a very talented filmmaker, and this is a branded property,” Meyer said.
Sequel will pick up where “Fahrenheit” left off. In the time since, President Bush’s popularity has plummeted, while the Iraq war continues and the economy falters.
“It’s a vote of confidence on Michael’s part, and a great partnership for all of us,” Rosett said. “There is a voracious appetite for this kind of commentary.”
All in all, Moore has made three of the top five grossing documentaries of all time. “Fahrenheit” is the highest grossing docu ever domestically, earning $119.1 million. It grossed another $100 million at the international box office.
Moore’s decision not to make his next film with the Weinstein Co. comes after “Sicko” failed to ignite the box office. Film, which took on the U.S. health care system, grossed $24.5 million domestically and $11.2 million internationally. Topically, the film didn’t resonate with overseas auds.
Landing the “Fahrenheit” sequel is a high-profile score for Overture and Vantage, and a likely blow for the Weinstein Co.
Deal strengthens the already established relationship between Vantage and Overture. Last year, the two entered into an exclusive international distribution deal that gives Overture access to Lionsgate’s international sales division, as well as the distrib arm of Paramount Pictures Intl.
Vantage will likely keep distribution rights to certain overseas territories, after selling off the rest.
Could someone win the lottery twice? Since he can’t come up with *NEW* legitimate topics, might as well stick with what works. Talk about pandering!!!
]]>I usually freely grant use of my work to truthful, peaceful, non-commercial, non-political outlets. For instance, a church group wanted to use one of my photos for their congregation. I was honored and gave it to them freely. On another occasion, a peaceful, non-profit Islamic organization wanted to use the same photo that Michael Moore has infringed upon (Major Mark Bieger cradling a little girl named Farah), and I was honored to contribute to their peaceful cause. I’ve seen grandmothers use my work in technically illegal ways, but since they’re not a big company, they probably have no idea about copyright, and usually use the work in tasteful, appropriate ways, I just smile and say “Go ahead, Ma’am.”
But frequently, big companies and individuals who are knowledgeable of copyright laws filch my work and use it in ways that many readers consider partisan, highly political or incendiary. When this happens, I usually go after the infringer, and so do my readers.
Now here’s Michael Moore, the latest infringer, using my work for his own crude political purposes. I recall some years ago watching one of his movies in Paris, and thinking how sad it was that an American would make propaganda so flagrant that it seemed pornographic. It was sad but at the same time uplifting, because Mr. Moore was able to exercise his right to free speech, rights that should never be infringed upon.
Mr. Moore is influential, rich, and could likely intimidate most photographers. But I ask my readers to please leave him be. Attacking him likely will be counterproductive. I know how to fight, and though I would fight for Mr. Moore’s right to free expression, I will fight against him if he steals my work and uses it in an inflammatory fashion.
Most here know Mr. Yon iconic photo of the Iraq war, even if they don’t know it’s story. Mike has placed a copy of the copyrighted work in the banner of his site, without either getting or paying for Mr. Yon’s permission. Search for the effect on “Shock” Magazine when they tried doing exactly the same thing.
I’m sure Mike will comply immediately with the lawyer’s request to remove it.
]]>Last week on “Larry King Live” Michael Moore took the high road. He simply could not bring himself to pronounce judgment on the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s tirades. “I’m a white guy,” explained the rotund film-maker. “And I mean, you have to ask yourself, Larry, what’s it like to be black in America? . . . And I do not believe, as a white guy, that I am in any position to judge a black man who has had to live through that.”
“Florida’s Cubans” writes Moore in his book, “Downsize This,” are responsible for “sleaze and influence-peddling in American politics. In every incident of national torment that has deflated our country for the past three decades — Cuban exiles are always present and involved.”
Moore himself denounces Republicans as “people who hate . . . people who get up at 6 in the morning trying to figure out which minority group they’re going to screw today.”
In blanket-trashing all Cubans who for some crazy reason rejected free healthcare for U.S. freedom, Moore also trashes the longest suffering political prisoners of the century. Cuban-Americans like Roberto Martin-Perez, Mario Chanes De Armas, Eusebio Penalver, Angel de Fana, who all spent spent almost 30 years in Fidel Castro and Che Guevara’s gulag. That’s more than three times as long a Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Natan Sharansky spent in Josef Stalin’s gulag.
Think about it: the very things people like Moore, Sean Penn, Danny Glover, the Dixie Chicks, etc. say and write for free publicity, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara’s prisoners refused to sign to save their lives, or to end two decades of daily torture. Yet the Democrats’ pet walrus sneers at them from his Upper West Side pad as “wimps, cowards and crybabies.”
These “exiles” cut and ran, then turned around and screamed for Castro’s plentiful Cuban land and hard-earned luxuries from the comfort of their Florida vacation homes, bought with drug money sold to rich, enlightened Thinker college students. No. Reagan-era yuppies!
True heroes are, say, illegal immigrants from Mexico who brave the US’ bullets to earn meager dollars tax-free (as healthcare should be). Most neither have the time nor can afford to learn English, even after 2-3 generations in-country.
Almost!
He just can’t wait for soldier death number 4,000.
]]>Standards of healthcare and medical treatment are very high in Norway.
Anyone who is living and working in Norway is required to contribute through the income tax system to the Norwegian Social Insurance Scheme, which covers health insurance. They will be issued with a health card and are entitled to register with a GP on the ‘Regular GP Scheme’, or to choose another doctor.Public health services are decentralised, and managed by regional health authorities. Most doctors in Norway can speak English. You are allowed to change GPs up to twice in a year, but must register the change with the social security office. There are also some private clinics and hospitals in Norway.
Most medical treatment is free of charge apart from a small non-refundable fee per consultation. The amount varies depending on whether the consultation was with a GP or a specialist, and whether or not the doctor is covered by an agreement such as the Regular GP Scheme, but is normally in the region of 100kr.
Charges are often payable for specialist treatment, although in-patient care and treatment in a public hospital is usually free of charge.
And since it’s free, it’s darn near perfect, especially when compared to the system in Amerikka, which isn’t free and kills untold hundreds of people per day, Mikkey says so. So let’s see just how free The Norway Model is:
Financing
10. The public sector finances around 85% of health care (Table 1) mainly through general taxation,
compared with an OECD average of 74%. Health spending by local governments is mostly financed via
central government block grants. Moreover, the final responsibility regarding health policy, public health
and the provision of health care services rests with the Ministry of Health (see Ministry of Health and
Social affaires, n.d. undated, for the fields of responsibility of the Ministry).
I read somewhere that in the U.S. about 46% of healthcare is funded via the guvment, i.e. “taxes”. So if we’re taxed at a rate 40% higher than we are now, we can attain The Norway Model in the U.S. Sweeeeeet....
How does Norway’s guvment oversee the operational costs?
19. The hospital reform has established five geographically-based Regional Health Enterprises
(RHE) each reporting to the Ministry of Health and responsible for delivering health services in their
regions. The RHEs own the 33 local health trusts and are responsible for monitoring their costs and
quality of services.14,15 The central government still defines their main health policy objectives as well as
their financial means. The eastern health enterprise along with its trusts is the largest one covering 40% of
the Norwegian population.
Sounds like a lot of red tape to me, but they love the red tape in D.C., and mikkey says that guvment can be trusted with our healthcare:
25. Since their establishment in 2002, all RHEs except the eastern one have constantly run deficits,
reaching around NOK 2 billion in 2003 and 2004 (around EUR 250 million), reflecting higher production
than originally expected (Table 3). Hospital sector deficits are not included in the Norwegian measure of
public sector deficits. If health enterprises treat more patients than budgeted for initially, then in principle
the state should reimburse only 60% of the average costs through the activity-based component while the
block-grant component should be left unchanged. As 60% of average costs is probably lower than total
marginal costs, treating more patients than budgeted for should not be remunerative for health enterprises.
Now we’re talking about deficits, treating more patients than “budgeted for” (no, that’s not scary) and remunerative costs. Seems kind of IRS-ish to me, but what do I know? But it’s all free:
29. This investment surge was unexpected especially because higher efficiency had generated overcapacity
in many health trusts. RHEs had accordingly started to close down some small local hospitals or
departments while others have been merged. However, restructuring has met with local opposition and, in
some cases, the Ministry of Health has intervened. Restructuring has been less than optimal and
overcapacity remains an issue exacerbated by the hospital investment boom. Some public hospitals have
started to look for clients through advertising.
Closing down hospitals, overcapacity, blah blah… Wot, me worry? It’s free…
]]>I rented this today. HOLY SHIT!!! 1:19 into it scared the hell out of me. His sister wanted to keep their IDs? Hello!!! 1984 is calling you! Umm… I’m scared folks. No, really I’m scared. People are forcing their ideology on us shrouded (sp?) in “you’re either with us or against us”.
Damn, it’s bigger (if possible) than MM. The machine is not KKKarl Rove actually, it’s Hitlerwood.
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