Moore is Right.  And Wrong

You just knew the media was going to have to probe the wisdom of the creator of Roger and Me on the auto industry bailout.  But, surprisingly, Moore actually says something right!  Yeah, I know you don’t believe it.  Here it is:

I’ll tell you, it was hilarious just watching these CEOs there (Tuesday) and (Wednesday) testifying in Congress, saying that, you know, that the problem wasn’t theirs, you know, the cars they were building. It was the financial situation that we’re in now.

The problem is the cars they’ve been building. They’ve never listened to the consumers. They’ve just gone about it their own wrong way. I’ll tell you, you know, I’m of mixed mind about this bailout, Larry, because I don’t think these companies, with these management people, should be given a dime, because that’s just going to be money going up in smoke or off to other countries.

GM is currently building a $300 million factory in Russia right now to build SUVs, right outside of St. Petersburg. That’s where your money’s going to go, no matter what they say.

Now, granted, he thinks their big problem is building cars overseas rather than here.  He makes no mention of American companies paying 50% more per hour than other companies thanks to union benefits and featherbedding.  And his cure is, if anything, worse than the disease:

President-Elect Obama has to say to them, yes, we’re going to use this money to save these jobs, but we’re not going to build these gas-guzzling, unsafe vehicles any longer.

We’re going to put the companies into some sort of receivership and we, the government, are going to hold the reigns on these companies. They’re to build mass transit. They’re to build hybrid cars. They’re to build cars that use little or no gasoline.

We’re facing a national crisis, not just an economic crisis, but a crisis of the polar ice caps are melting. There’s only so much oil left under the Earth. We’re going to run out of that, if not in our children’s time, our grandchildren’s time.

There’s got to be a plan set out to find other ways to transport ourselves in other ways than using fossil fuels.

Yes, Barack Obama, who drives an SUV, certainly has the expertise to turn around a flailing industry.  With his degrees in Business Management, Engineering and Chemistry, he’s the perfect man to run this industry. One day, we can look forward to the auto industry being run with the same skill and efficiency with which the government runs Amtrak.

But let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth.  Mikey said something right.  He was due to say something right at some point this year as one correct statement per year is his established performance level.  And we, at Moorewatch, are nothing if not fair.

Moore Cries A River

If Michael Moore is indeed changing his movie to a paen to Barack Obama, I can save you the effort of seeing it.  Just read his hysterical open letter.

Who among us is not at a loss for words? Tears pour out. Tears of joy. Tears of relief. A stunning, whopping landslide of hope in a time of deep despair.

In a nation that was founded on genocide and then built on the backs of slaves, it was an unexpected moment, shocking in its simplicity: Barack Obama, a good man, a black man, said he would bring change to Washington, and the majority of the country liked that idea. The racists were present throughout the campaign and in the voting booth. But they are no longer the majority, and we will see their flame of hate fizzle out in our lifetime.

Oh, it gets better.

Moore’s new movie… version 2.0

I know I said in the comments to the previous post I would have this up a couple of days ago - I apologize for the delay. WotLK has me a bit under it’s spell… ;)

Remember the announcements a few months ago about Moore’s new film, the sequel to Fahrenheit 9/11? You know, the one he’s been shooting for a good couple of months? Well… he’s still shooting it… it just isn’t a sequel to Fahrenheit 9/11 anymore. Anyone else confused? Cinematical seems to be as well:

By now we all know that Michael Moore doesn’t make documentaries like our grandfathers did. He’s a master of polemics, using his films to rail against corporations, guns, governments, insurance companies, and whatever else riles up his David vs. Goliath sensibility. When his most recent project was announced in May, it was described as a sequel to Fahrenheit 9/11 that would “tackle what’s going on in the world and America’s place in it,” as pointed out by The Hollywood Reporter. Now, however, THR says the film will focus on “the global financial crisis and the U.S. economy.”

Moore is still “feverishly shooting” and it’s hoped the film will be ready for release next spring. At first blush, though, it sounds like he decided to make the mid-project adjustment in reaction to (or in anticipation of) the Democrats’ victory. Without Bush to bash, and without the Republican Party in control of Congress, how much mileage could he get out of criticizing U.S. foreign policy with a new President steering a (presumably) different course?

So.... let me see if I have this right. Moore has COMPLETELY changed the topic of his film. It was going to be a polemic that railed against US foreign policy, and now it’s going to be an study of our economic crisis. These are two completely and totally different topics… and yet Moore isn’t stopping his filming or scraping his footage. Somehow he’s going to make all the footage he’s shot about foreign policy now work for and focus on the economy.

.... ummmm...... anyone else confused about how he could possibly pull that one off without coming to both projects with very similar theses, preconceptions and foregone conclusions? Me either. I think Cinematical states the problem quite well:

Unlike many documentary filmmakers, Moore appears to start with a conclusion on his projects and then search for footage to back it up. Documentarians often say they don’t really ‘find’ their film, or discover the story, until they’re knee-deep in editing, but it doesn’t sound like Moore works that way. Which doesn’t mean his films lack meaning or substance or entertainment value, just that they’re more like personal essays than traditional docs.

According to THR, Moore is now saying that the project is less a sequel to Fahrenheit 9/11 and more of a bookend to Roger & Me. What more could he say, though, about corporations and big business than he already has? When he endorsed Barack Obama in April, he wrote: “Corporate America is not going to give up their hold on our government just because we say so.” Maybe he wants to hold their feet to the fire until they burst into flame.

If all Moore does is bitch about the economy and complain about corporations, I don’t think it’ll be a very welcome message.

Well said.

I open to the floor to you fine ladies and gentlemen. Thoughts? Comments? Opinions? What do you think about this sudden and drastic turn in Moore’s agenda?

Why I have gone silent

A commenter recently bemoaned the lack of this site’s activity.  Well...I take much of the blame for that.  I have had the politics beaten out of me on *every* front long before the election.  This is NOT about Obama’s victory.  I gave up on my personal politics/oriented blog for the most part about 6 months ago.  This place sucked the joy out of me a year ago.  I cannot seem to find it again.  The fire that drives me to want to rail against the shit I see is still burning...but it’s a small coal, buried under a pile of ash.  I cannot imagine it will stay dormant forever, especially in an administration that will likely try to implement some of the things Mikey loves (to happen to other people), like stealing via outrageous taxes from anyone who works for more than a living wage and populist crap like bread and circuses.  Free money for all!  Tax the rich until there are no rich anymore, it’s only fair!  Mike will hide his wealth in all sorts of tax shelters, I’m sure, paying the bare minimum the government requires while advocating that all of you who make more than you need to pay your bills and buy his DVDs give up all disposable income to help those who make less.  He’s nothing if not consistently inconsistent.

See?  I still have a little fire in there.  Enough to make me mad on occasion.  :) Anyway, I apologize for the lack of activity.  If you feel like you have something you’d like to see on the front page, email me and we can talk about making you an author on the site.  if you are already an author...please feel free to post about anything Mikey brings up on his site.  I understand he’s been one unbearable prick lately.  :)