A Bridge to Death

I would LOVE for some enterprising reporter to ask Michael Moore his thoughts on this story.

Pirates of the Caribbean,” move aside—drivers who pay bridge tolls in the Bay Area will be spending as much as $3.5 million for a videographer to film construction of the new Bay Bridge eastern span and signature tower.

The filming is supposed to capture for all time the creation of a construction wonder “destined to become a major landmark on par with the Golden Gate Bridge, the west span of the Bay Bridge, the Transamerica Pyramid and all the other landmarks that draw tourists here,” said project manager Brenda Kahn of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the agency that will hire the videographer.

Of course, whoever wins the job has already missed all the political back-and-forth, years of delays and billions in cost overruns that long ago turned the eastern span into one of the biggest public-works boondoggles in California history. But that’s showbiz.

This film will be about all the sweat, concrete and steel that goes into building the 525-foot-tall tower and self-anchored suspension span, which is supposed to open in 2012. After all, commission spokesman Randy Rentschler said, the Bay Area hasn’t seen this much bridge building since the rivet-driven 1930s, and the chance shouldn’t be lost to document it. “This is really an unusual time, and I don’t think most people realize (that),” he said.

Rentschler acknowledged that the film budget “seems pretty rich”—the commission is advertising it as a seven-year-project at $500,000 per year—but says the agency hopes the vid bids will come in low when they’re opened Monday.

Although, we might note, the videographer will have to go on location in China, Japan, Oregon and Texas to capture the steel being forged and the tower fabricated.

I wonder how much free healthcare $35 million would buy for the copious amount of bums, homeless scum, and other human detritus that pollute the San Francisco area.  Michael Moore has stated that he would like to see private healthcare abolished in the United States.  (Not to worry, he can always hop a private jet to Switzerland or France to receive top-notch care.) $35 million would pay for a hell of a lot of care, but San Francisco is more interested in tourist income documenting a boondoggle.

Strange that the same people who can’t build a bridge are also supposed to provide us with superior healthcare.  Funny how that works.

La Regla Cubano De los Hospitales

The season finale of House was on tonight.  Here’s a recap from TV.com.

A Cuban couple attempt to get to America by raft… to see House about the wife’s heart condition. But when she gets worse House wonders if someone on his staff messed up. Meanwhile Foreman prepares to leave and his departure threatens to shake up the entire team.

A Cuban couple specifically sneaks into America for medical care?  But, they live in the socialist paradise of Cuba, where Michael Moore assures us that El Presidenté has everyone’s medical needs covered.  Why anyone would leave the tropical communist Utopia for a trip to the mean, ugly, capitalist, for-profit US is just beyond me.

Casey’s mom gives up

In what I hope will be the last time we ever discuss her on this website, this story came out yesterday...I just didn’t want to post about it on Memorial Day.

“I’ve been wondering why I’m killing myself and wondering why the Democrats caved in to
George Bush,” Sheehan told The Associated Press while driving from her property in Crawford to the airport, where she planned to return to her native California.

“I’m going home for awhile to try and be normal,” she said.

Well, her Crawford House charity is under investigation, the Gold Star thing may in fact have been fraudulently collecting money as a registered charity when they were not, the Democrats have been ignoring her so much she quit the party, she’s not being flown all over the country in style anymore, the crowds at her appearances are dwindling faster than Lindsay Lohan’s 21st birthday party sponsors, the media has tuned in to what a...unique...individual she is...yeah, it’s time to quit.

Her “diary” entry on DKos is here.  Normally I wouldn’t link that site, but I want people to read these words, then maybe go back and read some of her first diary entries.  Weird, right?  The writing style is so remarkably different.  As I went back, I noted this one in particular.  I wonder if she still feels that way now that her friend Hugo Chavez has gone apoplectic and...dare I say...dictatorial?

One last thing to point out; we’re told over and over again that dissent is the truest form of patriotism.  The anti-war movement only has America’s best interests at heart, they love this country, etc.

This is not my “Checkers” moment, because I will never give up trying to help people in the world who are harmed by the empire of the good old US of A, but I am finished working in, or outside of this system. This system forcefully resists being helped and eats up the people who try to help it. I am getting out before it totally consumes me or anymore people that I love and the rest of my resources.

Good-bye America ...you are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can’t make you be that country unless you want it.

That is not love of country.  Do we need to improve?  Always.  When your world view is based on the fact that America is imperialist, you call this country the greatest sponsor of terrorism and you feel the need to try to make it into something you want rather than improve what is...I’m sorry, that’s not patriotism.  It just isn’t.  It’s some internal dialogue being forced out and projected onto the nation.

Casey’s mom, I hope you move on and find some peace.  Be with your kids.  Learn to see the forest for the trees.  Smell a rose or two.  Even a yellow one from Texas, if you can find one.  These United States are not all bad.  Just look around.

Patriot’s Journey 2007

It’s that time of year again, time for the Patriot’s Journey.  Spearheaded by Drumwaster, a number of bloggers are making an effort to make a daily post, between now and Labor Day Independence Day, about something good in - or about - these United States.  Participating this year are:

Drumwaster’s Rants
Speed Of Thought
The Bastidge
Cosmicbabe

If only there were more.  If you’d like to join in, there’s no real obligations or member dues or anything.  You don’t even have to make a post every day.  Just make an effort to highlight things that make this country great without focusing on the negative, or tearing anyone else down.  Join in if you have a blog.

My first post for 2007 is in honor of the men and women that are remembered on Memorial Day.

Thank you.

Everyone; feel free to share your positive thoughts on what makes America great below.  I should warn you; zero tolerance for trolling, fighting or shenanigans in the comments.  These posts are designed solely for discussing something you love about the United States of America.  You may grind your axes elsewhere. ;)

What do you think?

Forget anything Moore or anyone else has ever said about health care and the industry.

Why do you think health care is so expensive?  I think a lot of the problem could be fixed with two words: tort reform.  Cap the lawyer’s fees and stop these billion-dollar judgments and see where we are then.  Certainly a cheaper way than trying to start a whole new agency to supervise the health care of every man, woman and child in the country.

Not hate mail, volume 1

We’ve published so many hate mails on this site I lost track a long time ago.  I received this mail today from someone called themselves a fan of Moore’s work, and I wanted to share it, as well as respond to something contained within.

I have been looking over your site recently, as well as other “anti-Moore” sites, mostly out of curiosity. Many of these sites seem to be nothing more than unreasoned hate-mongering. Note that I did not say “all”. I have found some points that you make to have merit. While I consider myself a fan of Moore’s “work”, and I do not wholeheartedly agree with all that you say, I concluded long ago that Michael Moore produces propaganda.

I do, however, believe that his propaganda has bits of truth in them. I do not assume that because he said it, it must be true. More than that, though, I find his books and movies entertaining. I certainly don’t expect everyone else to feel the same way, though.

Now that that is out of the way....

I don’t want to blow by that at all.  I find it refreshing that someone can have issues with what we publish here at Moorewatch and still be as nice, polite and clear about their beliefs as you have been.  We can disagree on things without debasing ourselves or resorting to dirty pool to “win” some online argument.

I have lost sight of that myself on many an occasion.

Please do not assume that the hate mail you get is representative of Michael Moore’s entire fan base. In any segment of the population, there are nutjobs. You have made occasional statements alluding to these awful emails as being representative of the group as a whole. For example:

“Can you imagine the mentality of someone who would not only stretch the boundaries of imagination to come up with that analogy, but would then take the time to send it to me?  My God, no wonder they keep buying his books and movies.”

Statements like that make it hard for myself, and others like me, to (a) take you seriously, and (b) continue reading the posts on your site in an objective and fair manner. I ask that you refrain from making sweeping statements about Moore’s “fan base”. If you really, seriously, think that making those kinds of generalizations are fair, then you don’t know them.

Fair enough.  I was writing that while under a literal non-stop barrage of emails, news stories and blog posts attacking me, but you are correct.  I generalized, I have done that far too often in the past and I will make an effort to not do that in the future.  We’re all dealing with a commenter right now who refuses to stop generalizing about “the right wing,” so this especially struck me as something I need to stop doing.

That having been said, when someone pops in and acts like the stereotypical “Moore-on,” we’re all gonna have a go.  Some folks need to be slapped before you can talk them off the ledge, you know what I’m saying?  :)

One last matter:

It was stupid of Moore to send you $12,000 anonymously and then go public about it. I think it was unfair to you, and says much more about him than it does about you. I also think that anyone who claims that you should return the money on some kind of ethical or moral grounds is seriously misguided, and clearly has never been in a situation similar to yours. He freely offered you the money for a specific purpose, and you used it for that purpose. How is that hypocritical?

Regards,

-a “Michael Moore fan”.

Thanks.  I thought it was pretty obvious myself.  Those first few days were, as I said, literally a non-stop assault on me.  Thankfully, since those early days, many very nice people who disagree with me about Moore wrote to say supportive, kind things.  I should have known that was coming, it usually takes those kinds of folks some time to reply.  In the end the replies have been around a 60/40 split, with the negative and nasty leading the pack - but not by so much that it’s disheartening.  :)

Anyway, thanks for the email, and if you’d like to join up and contribute to the conversations here at Moorewatch, we’d be glad to have you.  I think we could use someone with some skill at the keyboard to keep us honest just like we’re trying to keep Mike honest.

The Preemie Problem

Michael Moore drags out the left’s favorite sawhorse—that the United States ranks 37th in quality of healthcare as tabulated by the UN.  One of the reasons for this, which will undoubtedly be pointed out by Mikey, is our awful infant mortality rate, which is tied with Malta and Slovenia.  This, clearly, is an indictment of our evil for-profit capitalist healthcare system right?  That’s the point Mike will make.  So, let’s get to the truth, so that you can explain Mike’s bullshit to all your left-wing friends after they see the movie.  Let’s look at this article in that notorious right-wing Bush-worshipping magazine Slate.  (All emphasis added.)

Infant deaths in poor nations are roughly six times more common than in developed areas and result mainly from easily treated infections like diarrhea in the first few months. By contrast, the majority of deaths in developed countries result from extreme prematurity or birth defects that kill a newborn in the first few days or weeks of life. According to a 2002 analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least a third of all infant mortality in the United States arises from complications of prematurity; other studies assert the figure is closer to half. Thus—at the risk of oversimplifying—infant mortality in the United States principally is a problem of premature birth, which today complicates just over one in 10 pregnancies.

Hear that?  The problem isn’t that the babies which are being born are dying at a higher rate, it’s that we give birth to more premature babies, and therein lies the problem.

To reduce infant mortality, then, we need to prevent premature births, and if that fails, improve care of premature babies once born. (Prematurity is also linked to other problems; for example, it’s the leading cause of mental retardation and cerebral palsy in children.) But modern medicine isn’t good at preventing prematurity—just the opposite. Better and more affordable medical care actually has worsened the rate of prematurity, and likely the rate of infant mortality, by making fertility treatment widespread. According to a 2006 Institute of Medicine report, the numbers of women using assistive reproductive technology doubled from 1996 to 2002. At least half of their pregnancies culminated in multiple births (twins or more), which are at high risk of premature delivery.

Get that, Mikey?  It is because of our wealth and affluence that women are able to wait until their careers are established to start a family.  This increases the chances that the baby will be born prematurely.  Modern medical science, as the article says, just “isn’t good at preventing prematurity.”

I could quote the entire article, but you should read it yourself.  The problem isn’t that we don’t spend enough money on premature babies, it’s that we spend too much. 

A documentary we should all get a chance to see

I thought I’d take this chance to help drum up some support for Evan Coyne Maloney’s new documentary Indoctrinate U.

Speech codes. Censorship. Enforced political conformity. Hostility to diversity of opinion. Sensitivity training. We usually associate such things with the worst excesses of fascism and communism, not with the American universities that nurtured the free speech movement. But American higher education bears a disturbing resemblance to the totalitarian societies that are anathema to our nation’s ideal of liberty. Evan Coyne Maloney’s documentary film, Indoctrinate U, reveals the breathtaking institutional intolerance you won’t read about in the glossy marketing brochures of Harvard, Berkeley, Michigan, Yale, and hundreds of other American colleges and universities.

“When we think of going to college, we think of intellectual freedom. We imagine four years of exploring ideas through energetic, ongoing, critical thinking and debate,” Maloney said. “But the reality is very far from the ideal. What most of us don’t know is that American college students check their First Amendment rights and individual freedom at the door.”

I’ve always lived in big college towns.  Syracuse and Albany, NY and now just outside New Haven, CT.  I’ve never - in my life - felt like any university employees I have ever met were anything approaching open-minded.  Most of them are repressed and repressive, narrow-minded and dogmatic...and of course the majority are left-to-far-left-wing.

“Students are being robbed of their educations--to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars a year,” Maloney said. “As it currently stands, higher education in America is a lie perpetrated on young adults at parents’ and taxpayers’ expense.”

This film deserves to be seen.  I wonder if any champions of free speech that any of us might know would step up and put Evan in touch with a distributor?  Seems like the right thing to do, no?

Sicko - the trailer

Youtube version:

Two things that I reacted to almost immediately: First off, it leads with Bush, which subtly implants the suggestion that even though every President has had a chance to do something and none of them have, it’s Bush’s fault that we don’t have perfect, free, efficient Taxpayer-provided Free Health Care™.  Secondly, the sub-lead, if you will, is Michael Moore.  Not the subject.  Not the American people.  Michael.  Front and center.  It seems like he’s making up for not appearing in the first half of the movie.

Michael, a word of advice: this all goes over so much better without your personality being shoved down everyone’s throats.  You are going to make opposition out of people that might actually support your message.  You’re too divisive and inflammatory and no one trusts you.  If you want to reach more people, cut yourself as much as possible and above all, stick with the truth.

As for the subject matter, the fact is HMOs run health care in this country.  I have some problems with my knee.  My doctor and I both know I need an MRI, but it’s not severe enough to warrant the test.  I had an X-ray, and that gave him some idea, but according ot the “guidelines” (read: rules you damn well better follow) I have to have an X-ray before an MRI, and that X-ray better show something worth firing up the nuclear magnetic tube of claustrophobia or they ain’t paying.

Here’s another anecdote...and I’m sure you all have a million of these as well; I know someone who can’t take the generic of a particular medication.  This has never and will never change.  Something in the generic is wrong...she reacts almost like she’s allergic.  Many people, including doctors, suspect that there are less stringent rules and hence less stringent QC on generic meds.  The HMO makes her re-apply for “authorization” to take the generic every 6 months or they charge her full price, which is very, very high.  Applying for authorization means getting the right forms, which are always changing, bringing them to the doctor, the doctor has to find time to fill them out, fax them to the company and answer any questions they might bring up, and then if you’re lucky, the non-medical paper-pusher on the other end might decide to grant you the payment you need to get name-brand medication.

It’s not the cost to which I object.  It’s the fact that they make it so hard to do what a doctor considers medically necessary.  I know it costs a hell of a lot of money to bring a drug to market, but I also know that there is no shortage of profit for the pharmaceutical industry.  I don’t know what the answer is.  I don’t believe in over-regulating business, but I also don’t believe that a company that provides a thing that keeps a person alive should be allowed to screw around with that person’s health over a few bucks.

I noticed something else in that trailer: Cuba is below the U.S. in the list he uses.  I wonder how that is presented in the movie?  Why go there when your own list says that their health care is worse?  I get the Gitmo joke, and it’s kind of amusing when he pulls up to Gitmo in a boat and says “the same kind of care the evildoers are getting.” Again, though, there’s that subtle suggestion; Bush uses the phrase “evildoers” to describe terrorists.  For now, in the trailer, Moore wants you to associate everything that is wrong with health care with Bush. 

Anyway Mikey, once you’re turned away from Guantanamo bay, what is the point of taking the people with you to Cuba proper?  What the hell is the point?  Wouldn’t it make a million times more sense to take them to a country higher on the list that offers perfect, free, efficient Taxpayer-provided Free Health Care™?  Wouldn’t that make your point?  And how did you get into Cuba without special permission from Castro?  You’re American...did you use an American-registered boat?  Did you sneak in?  People need answers to these questions, Michael, or they simply won’t trust what you tell them about health care.  We know you omitted these details from the movie, because we heard the reporters at Cannes questioning you about it.  You failed to answer the reporters.  Are you ever going to answer these questions?

I do think Moore is on target about the lobbying of Congress.  Four lobbyists for every Congressperson?  Even if he’s wrong by half, that’s too damn many.  One can only hope that he’s fair about the particular Congresspeople he skewers.  Moore tends to talk a big game but in the end, he doesn’t actually do anything.  For example:

12. We will not tolerate politicians who are corrupt and who are bought and paid for by the rich. We will go after any elected leader who puts him or herself ahead of the people. And we promise you we will go after the corrupt politicians on our side FIRST. If we fail to do this, we need you to call us on it. Simply because we are in power does not give us the right to turn our heads the other way when our party goes astray. Please perform this important duty as the loyal opposition.

Michael said that.  He made a promise.  Has he led a single campaign against a single corrupt Democrat?  We have Jack Murtha just last week breaking ethics rules and threatening another Congressman’s projects, and the Dems voted to completely ignore it.  Jack “ABSCAM” Murtha.  One of the old-school when it comes to back room deals and soft money.  William Jefferson, who in the middle of the worst natural disaster in this country, commandeered military vehicles to spirit God knows what out of his New Orleans home, and was caught taking a bribe on video tape, later to be caught with the bribe money hidden in his freezer - he gets re-elected and nary a peep from Michael Moore.

Michael Moore made a promise, in writing, to America and to us, the loyal opposition. “And we promise you we will go after the corrupt politicians on our side FIRST.” He told each of us - you and me, the Moorewatchers and Republicans and Independents, big and small “L” libertarians, conservatives - everyone who isn’t on his side, whatever that may be, that he would lead a charge to go after corrupt politicians on his side first.  He has broken his promise.  Why should we trust him now?  How can we trust him?  Why should we trust him about something as important as health care?

I don’t have all the answers to the health care issue.  I know I don’t trust the Feds to manage a car wash much less my health.  Moore is asking us to place our very lives in the hands of the same people that are managing a war he considers a failure, the people that created the pyramid scheme that is Social Security, the same folks that brought you the Susan B. Anthony and the Sacagawea dollar.

Hell no, dude.  That doesn’t make any sense!

For Michael

Since I know you’re reading this stuff lately, Michael, I figured I’d just post it here and address it to you.  I noticed in your press conference (the one where you said it was supposed to be all Canadian reporters) that you were confused about my phone and how my voicemail works.

First of all, you blocked your caller ID.  The ID that is sent from your end was blocked, either by you or by the person who owned the phone you used.  Perfectly normal for celebrity numbers of course, and even some international calls.  When it happens, it triggers something my phone company calls “Privacy Manager.” It’s an automated system...a computer answers and asks you to say your name.  It then rings through to me.  If I answer, it tells me I have a call from (recording of you saying your name here).  If I don’t answer, it kicks you to voicemail.  All automatically.

I did not answer your call and manually punt you to voice mail.  I just wanted you to know I wasn’t ducking you, at 9:16 AM I was still asleep!

For everyone else: If you haven’t listened to the audio file of Mike’s press conference, please do.  It’s fascinating.  I’ve converted it to a smaller-yet-still-quality file for easier downloading.  You get some of the feeling of the foreign press reaction, you get to hear Michael under strain, being heavily and sometimes almost angrily questioned about French health care, Canadian issues - and especially Cuba - and then getting...softballed, I suppose is the word.  Plus, at the end he talks in some detail about the order of events as posted on this site, so, Mikey’s watching the watchers watching the watcher. 

We’re like a living Möbius strip.  He’s the watcher of government (ostensibly), we’re watching him, he’s watching us watching him watching them, we’re now watching him watching us watching him watching them...it’s like the plot to an episode of Three’s Company only without the sex.

I call dibs on being Larry.

OK, total honesty time.  I wrote this whole post just to use that Three’s Company/Möbius strip joke.  It’s just that good of a joke.  Right?  RIGHT?  ;)

Sicko movie posters

Here’s the one-sheets for Sicko...nice to see that Michael wasn’t photoshopped into being skinnier than Angelina Jolie after three weeks of drinking Thai well water.  He looks like himself, and that’s a nice change for his posters/DVDs/book covers. 

Click’em, they get bigger.

Source: Cinematical, who also offers an audio file of Moore’s press conference at Cannes.  I haven’t listened to it - I’m trying to chill out on a lot of this stuff and get back to normal. :)

Bitchin’ Camaro, Douchebag Columnist

Chuck Yarborough is a columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer.  He’s also—and there’s no polite way to put this—a total fucking douchebag, a real dumbass moron.  Here are his words on the $12,000 incident.

A guy named Jim Kenefick runs a Web site called Moorewatch.com that is devoted to ripping documentary maker Michael Moore, creator of “Fahrenheit 9/11” and a new anti-health care industry flick, “Sicko.” According to the story he told the New York Daily News, Kenefick ran into hefty financial problems after his wife became seriously ill. And, this being the age of blogging, he wrote about it. So an anonymous donor sent him a $12,000 check. Suspicious - I guess he gets those Internet offers from Paraguayan soybean exporters, too - he deposited the check in a separate account and waited for it to clear. When it did, he used it to pay bills. I know you’ve already figured out that the money came from Moore. What’s worse, Kenefick figured that out, too, and still spent it. For the record, the Daily News columnists who broke the story, Rush & Molloy, said their source was not Moore. Not that it would matter to Kenefick. “I’m not an idiot,” he said. “I know when to say yes to something, even if the string attached is obvious. What kind of moron turns down a free 12 grand?” Well, at least now we know the going rate for ethics, don’t we, Mr. Kenefick? [Emphasis added]

I see.  Let’s see how this works.  Jim is going through a period of tough financial times.  He posts for recommendations on insurance programs, and settles on one which costs about $1,000 a month.  Some anonymous benefactor sends him money.  Jim is suspicious as hell of were it came from, but he’s also not retarded, and when someone gives you an anonymous gift, you don’t refuse to accept it because its provenance is not written in stone.  We get large donations from various people every time we do our yearly server fees donation drive.  One year we got $2,000 (maybe more) from a well-known television producer.  We’ve gotten gifts of $500 and $1,000 a number of times.  So it was perfectly within the realm of reality for some super-rich benefactor who wanted to remain anonymous to just send in a check.  Ultimately all that Jim was really able to deduce is that there are a lot of these financial institutions in the ultra-rich area in which Mikey lives and works.  This wasn’t evidence of anything, of course, just one bit of evidence that led to it coming from Moore.  Nothing personal from Mikey stating that, despite our differences, he’d been fortunate in his life and would like to help someone out just because it was the right thing to do.  Just the money.

As Jim said, when you’re in tough financial times, you’d have to be insane to turn down money on a hunch that it came from a disreputable source.  So were his actions that unreasonable?  Let me put it this way, I make more money than Jim and I *still* would have taken the check and bought a jetski with it or something.

Let’s look at it from the other perspective.  Mikey sends in the check, and goes through a multi-step process to transfer funds from either his own personal account or his Dog Eat Dog films account.  He needed something more indirect, and chose the check that Jim eventually received.  No note from Mikey, asking to just keep this between us, nothing.  So Jim, who really needed money at the time, took it, just as anyone of us in his situation would. 

So, how does Old Cockbag at the plain dealer view Jm’s actions?

Well, at least now we know the going rate for ethics, don’t we, Mr. Kenefick?

Ethics?  Listen, you donkey punch.  You can scream ethics all you like, but where were the ethics attached to Mike’s gift if he expressly intended to exploit them later?  Where were his ethics in using the emotionalism and stress of a man with a sick wife and a bad financial situation to really be in a position to refuse a $12,000 gift?  Where were the ethics when he decided to make his “anonymous” gift public as part of a publicity campaign for his new movie?  Those ethics violations don’t bother you, I guess, because you’re a boot-licking Michael Moore sycophant.

At least Jim got paid $12,000 dollars?  How much of a check did you receive?  Or did you lose it slowly, like so many in your position, who sell out just slowly enough to keep the pay raises coming?  Tell us, what’s the going rate for ethics in journalism?  I bet it’s a hell of a lot lower than what Jim received.  “Oooh, look, a picture next to my byline!  My Mom will think I’m so cool!”

Some Serious Asshole Scumbag

By Jim, in the previous post:

Lastly, I have in fact thanked Michael time and time again, and would take this opportunity to do so once more:

Michael Moore: Thank you.  Regardless of all the publicity, the emails, the nonsense that others are adding to this situation, you did in fact help me at a time when I needed it, and I am grateful for that.  Emotionally, I feel like you did something nice.  It doesn’t change how I feel about your work intellectually, but you did do something that truly helped me and my family and for that, I thank you.

From an email I just received, from some European wanker called .

Boy are you some serious asshole scumbag.

You are one more reason for hating the goddamn US

http://www.slashfilm.com/2007/05/18/michael-moore-help-his-biggest-nemesis/

Have fun with a new civil war. Can’t be more than a decade before it starts in the US. What a fucked up country.  And no murrcan should visit the netherlands. We are waiting here for americans, to beat them into the hospital. And if they voted Hitler errr Bush, then we might do worse than that.

If you didn’t have a loads of enemies of the US before 9/11 you sure made them afterwards.

But doncha worry, problem is gonna be over real soon. Later this year, a nice nuclear detonation, merely 1-2 kiloton around the washington mall hmmm? It’ll do the job of BREAKING the US. Welcome to a new 10 year depression, with riots, revolts and finally the collapse of the US into several warring bosnia-style third world nations.

Michael Moore fans.  Such charming, classy people aren’t they?  Oh, and the Slashfilm article quoted by Dagon ends thus:

Well guess what, Moore isn’t commenting on the matter. And I hope it stays that way. I tend to believe that Mike is a good guy, who has helped a lot of people with his films. Does he have an agenda? Who doesn’t. Kenefick certainly does:

“If it was you, Mikey…your $12,000 doesn’t buy my silence. It won’t buy my affection, nor will I shy away from talking about whatever may or may not be in your new film. I’ll still be the same guy, expressing my opinion and trying his best to research facts you tend to skip over or ignore. All you bought for your money - if it was yours - was the peace of mind of knowing you actually helped someone who needed it.”

Talk about being ungrateful. Talk about turning a nice gesture into a media opp for yourself and your agenda.

When they find out that this “gesture of kindness” is actually IN THE FILM, I wonder if they’ll post a nice retraction of this claim and apologize to Jim.  I doubt it.  That would take class and integrity, something the entire Michael Moore fan base lacks en masse.

Update by Lee: Since Dagon was so nice to point out America’s flaws, let’s take a look at some of The Netherlands’ contributions to the world.

1) Capitulated to the Nazis.
2) Anne Frank
3) Vincent Van Gogh
4) Legalized prostitution and drugs
5) Hot, sexy Nordic women
6) Mass immigration and ghettoization of angry Muslims
7) Theo Van Gogh, violently executed by a Muslim
8) Inability to protect Ayaan Hirsi Ali from Muslims.
9) Capitulation to Islamification

Sound about right?

One more attempt to set the record straight

In every single news article, blog post and Digg/Fark/Reddit (and others) thread about this, people are telling lies, misunderstanding events and generally getting everything as wrong as possible.  I will make one last attempt to make this as simple to understand as I can.  This is a chronology of events, including links to the source posts and dates wherever possible.  If you are blogging or reporting on this matter, please be accurate. 

Also, my last name has no “L” in it.  It’s K. E. N. E. F. I. C. K. ;)

This will be my last post on the subject unless something new comes up; I promise I won’t bore you by rehashing this again.  Consider this the definitive “wiki” of $12,000Gate.  :) Obviously that didn’t last, as the hits just keep on comin’.  Sorry.

I close the film?

Really?  Me?  In a film about the difference between forcibly taking money from all to pay for some and how that works around the world, *I* am the best thing he could find to close the movie?

Moore’s last revelation in “Sicko” is sure to be endlessly debated in the right-wing blogosphere that is so obsessed with him (and may be of little interest to ordinary viewers). Some time ago, Jim Kenefick, proprietor of the especially bilious anti-Moore site Moorewatch, almost shut down his site to focus on his wife’s worsening illness and escalating healthcare costs. An anonymous donor then sent him $12,000 to cover his wife’s bills and keep the site running. (She has apparently recovered.) Now that donor has been revealed and, as Kenefick now says he suspected all along, it turns out to be Michael Moore.

“I want him to know that it was done with all the best intentions,” said Moore, adding that he planned to phone Kenefick personally after the press conference. (According to Kenefick’s blog, Moore left him a voice-mail message later on Saturday.) “I went back and forth about whether to use that material,” Moore went on. “I asked myself, would you be doing this if it weren’t in the film? I decided that I would, and I should, and that that’s the way I think we should live.”

1. Raise your hand if you think Moore would have actually sent money and NOT included it in the movie.

2. If you raised your hand, I’m sorry, but you’re not very perceptive.

3. This site was not going to be closed.  I did not say that and if Moore puts it in the film like that, it’s the same kind of perversion of the facts that Moore tends to do all the time.

4. See?  $12,000 to use me in the movie and get all this publicity.  It wasn’t altruism, it never was altruism and I’ll hold my breath waiting for you Moore fans to apologize for calling me all those names.*

* I can’t hold my breath for more than like, 30 seconds, so this is very much a metaphor.  I should see a doctor about that.  If only I could still afford it… ;)

Irony?  Update (2 times)

I’m an asshole - and a lot of other words - for saying I don’t trust Moore’s motivations.  But...and this is the funny part - over 600 different Moore fans have emailed me and called me everything from ingrate to “fucking scumbag neocon who should die.”

Is it irony that they are attacking me for not having “class” by using any and every assumption they can think of to justify calling me names?  One guy even wrote that he hopes my wife dies.

This is Moore’s fanbase?  Really?  It used to be a bunch of ill-informed people with the occasional crackpot that would ramble on and make threats.  Now it’s a steady stream of hate and insults and bile...where’s the part where they act like they demand I act?

TO ANYONE CONSIDERING EMAILING ME OR BLOGGING ABOUT THIS: I did not break this because I thought it would help me in any way.  I was told that Mike was about to do it first by someone who is close to him. * At least get that right.  And spell my name correctly.  One N, two Es and a single F.

* Update

I wanted to add - I posted about it first because I didn’t want anyone to twist it into something that looked like I was trying to hide it.  My reputation for honesty is important to me.  I should have told everyone about the whole thing back when it happened.  I apologize for not being more open.  That’s another mistake I won’t make again.

Update 2

I had to share this one.  It’s my favorite so far.

The Rogue Poet
To: jimk.moorewatch
Date: May 19, 2007 5:20 PM
Subject: Ask Bush for $12,000

I really don’t get people like you.

You’re a lot like the Jew in the concentration camp, working as a prison guard.

Can you imagine the mentality of someone who would not only stretch the boundaries of imagination to come up with that analogy, but would then take the time to send it to me?  My God, no wonder they keep buying his books and movies.

Moore called me

While I find the timing...interesting...he did in fact call and was completely normal and gracious about it.  You can hear for yourself.

Thank you, Michael.  I appreciate the help and I always have.  You know that, of course, because I posted right here on the site that I was grateful to the guardian angel long before this became an issue for the press to feed on.  I hope that your Cannes screening goes well, but more importantly I hope you’ve used your power to tell the truth this time.  I’d love to support this movie, as I’m no friend of the HMO.

In case anyone doubts it, that’s definitely him.  Even if I didn’t recognize the voice, he used phrasing that was identical to the original emails I got from the third party.  This also puts to rest the doubts I’ve seen all over the ‘net that it was even Mike in the first place.  Now we all know.

Man...what is in that film?  Am I crazy or did he sound...nervous?  I guess we’ll all find out why he did this when the film shows tonight at Cannes.

Well, if you insist…

Apparently I’m going to be the focus of every press idiot that still fawns over Mikey’s bullshit for the next few days.  Yeah, better to focus on me than him, I suppose, that way you can keep your blinders on about why he does things.

This time it’s Rush & Malloy in the New York Daily News.  I suppose there are worse places in which to be talked about; I could have been in a column by one of the interns that write Perez Hilton’s blog.  Gossip columnists in the Daily News is a bit of a step up from that.  Only just, but still a step up.

We can now confirm to Kenefick that his secret benefactor is none other than the dreaded, detestable, loathsome Michael Moore.

Moore didn’t contact us. We heard it on our own.

Well, you confirm a lot of things, but for now I am assuming this is true.  I got it from a pretty good source myself, hence my post that you quote in your...uhh..."article."

One friend of Moore’s did say, “We sure are happy Jim’s wife received the care she needed.”

First of all, Moore doesn’t have friends.  He has employees and allies.  Secondly, my wife was ALWAYS RECEIVING CARE.  It was never in doubt that she was going to get the medical care she and her doctors felt was necessary, regardless of cost.  I would have made it work, no matter what I had to do.  That having been said, if the well-wishes were in any way sincere...thank you.

Still, he doesn’t sound especially grateful.

Having suspected Moore might be his secret patron, he contends that his bete noir made the gift just to publicize “Sicko,” which takes aim at America’s health-care system and, we’ve heard, touches upon Moore’s covert generosity.

Oh my.  “Doesn’t sound especially grateful?” A few years ago, Moore threatened to sue me.  Add to that the fact that $12,000 is equal to his ding-dong budget for the week.  Or what it costs to make one of those suits for award shows.  Add to this growing list the fact that it was never altruism and every human being alive who knows anything about Moore knows that.  He paid $12,000 so he could manufacture a “gotcha” moment in his film.  Sounds pretty cheap to me.

What am I supposed to be grateful for?  The chance to look like an ass?  The chance to be in his movie?  For him throwing me pocket change in order to try to humiliate me later?  That’s why he did it.  Period.

I was grateful for the easing of my financial burden for 12 months.  I meant it when I said it helped us climb out of a hole.  If Mike called me up and said “It was me, and regardless of our differences I just wanted to help.” then I would have a 180 degree turnaround in attitude...but he’s not doing that is he?  He’s leaking information and trying to make me look like a complete git over it...and you, Rush & Malloy, are helping.

Was I supposed to roll over and stop looking for the flaws in everything Mikey says?  Was I supposed to stop telling the truth?  Was $12,000 supposed to buy me off?

Are any of you that cheap?

If Mikey had called me up and said “Look, man, I know we disagree on everything, but I just wanted to help.  No strings attached, and I hope she gets better.” that would be an amazing gift and a real piece of altruism.

He.  Didn’t.  Do.  That.

He’s leaking and using this in whatever way he can think of to promote his film.  He paid $12,000 so that you, the press, would focus on what a “nice guy” he is and in the same breath, make me look like a jerk.  He’s getting you to denounce and discredit me and keeping his hands clean so it’s not a Goliath-crushes-David scenario.

And you people didn’t even get $12,000!  Now that’s cheap.

Facts

Mike’s new ”message” is 855 words long.

Instances of “My”: 9
Instances of “Me”: 23
Instances of “I”: 23

That’s impressive.  It is also a raw fact that is indisputable.  Now, if I said “This is just another small piece of evidence that Moore is a narcissist and couldn’t care less about those he exploits for his own profit” that would, however unerringly accurate, be opinion.

Michael, you’d have a lot more friends if you knew the difference.

Multiple Moore Mumbo-jumbo

Up first; Mikey in Time:

TIME: Do you think people will accuse the movie of inaccuracy?

Michael Moore: I offered $10,000 to anybody who could find a single fact in Fahrenheit 9/11 that was wrong.

TIME: Have you had to pay anything?

Michael Moore: No, of course not. Every fact in my films is true. And yet how often do I have to read over and over again about supposed falsehoods? The opinions in the film are mine. They may not be true, but I think they are.

Slimy as usual.  Of course, many “facts” have also been disproved, right here on this site.  The pipeline, military education levels, ethnic makeup, etc.  Flat-out incorrect facts, not opinions.  Michael Moore: more slippery than a politician.

Hat tip: MGarcia

And next, John Mack has asked for our help with what he calls his “Moore Don’t Ignore” challenge.  Basically he’s asking Moore to set up a screening for bloggers of Sicko.  While I agree in principle, I don’t like the fact that the post in question implies that Moore will get a favorable review just for doing it.  What if the movie sucks?  What is - God forbid - it’s not really true or accurate?  Will John mack - a self-admitted fan of Moore’s - still say glowing and wonderful things about it?

Still, I love the idea, but I also know Moore would rather die than face a room full of critical bloggers, even those who say their fans.  Mike can’t personally handle being challenged in any way on any topic.  Narcissistic psychopaths (the clinincal definition, mind you) aren’t equipped with the tools needed to openly face a real-time challenge like open questions from an unknown audience.  He sticks to college tours because he knows his fans will flood the place and suck up to him.

Lastly, Mikey’s paranoid grandstand of “hiding” Sicko from the Big Bad Government.  What, Bush is personally directing a SEAL team to hunt down the negative and destroy the film?  Either he believes it, which makes him a crazy paranoid mental case, or he’s full of shit, and he got the Weinsteins to talk about it like it was real hoping to fool the world press.

And it worked.  Look at the press, how many different countries are simply repeating the story as if it were fact.  Mikey strikes again - the lie becomes truth.  He knew that most Americans - even those who truly hate Bush - would never buy this shit, that’s why he had it leaked to AFP, knowing it would go into a hundred European and Middle Eastern papers, and everyone would believe it.  Of course we’d do that to him.  They do it.  Mikey has worked overtime to equate Bush and Americans with fascism, totalitarianism, dictatorships, etc.  He’s one of the largest (not a joke) driving forces behind the breadth of anti-Americanism in the world today.  Note; breadth.  Not depth.  Our policies (both good and bad), Iraq, our refusal to bow to the sword of Islamic jihad...these things contribute to the depth of hatred some feel.  But the basic “Oh those Americans suck?” attitude?  Yeah, I think Michael bears a lot of responsibility for that.  This give him a credibility abroad that he does not have at home.

Or...there’s no grand thought behind the claim at all.  Mike’s just an ass who makes everyone around him into an ass.