The response to Moore’s latest book and movie offerings

In answer to your first unspoken question - no, I have not yet seen Moore’s newest free movie, “Slacker Uprising”, nor have I read his book “Mike’s Election Guide”. In answer to your second unspoken question - yes, I do plan on watching the movie but not reading the book. So, since I have no first hand knowledge about the quality of either of Moore’s newest products, I have to turn to the Internet to see how the rest of the world seems to feel about them. The reponse? It’s mixed, but in general things the reviews tend to sound like this:

From The National Review about “Mike’s Election Guide”:

Well, at least he’s spared the local cineplex.

Michael Moore didn’t really bother trying to influence this election with another documentary — his new film, Slacker Uprising, is online-only and merely a travelogue of his 2004 anti-Bush tour — so instead he’s tossed off a book, Mike’s Election Guide. With Fahrenheit 9/11 in 2004, Moore at least tried to make a case for voting against Bush, even if it was all conspiratorial nonsense. This time around, Moore’s just been lazy. He’s actually published a book straight-up telling people how to vote.

Given that Moore is a leftist radical given to astounding acts of greed-driven hypocrisy, it’s pretty presumptuous (even for him) to publish an election guide. Let’s face it: Asking Michael Moore to tell you how to vote is like asking Stevie Wonder to drive you to the airport — no good can come of it and ultimately you’re to blame. Now let’s get something out of the way — Mike’s Election Guide is a lame bit of cultural detritus that every living thing can and should safely ignore.

Ouch. I will admit that was one of the harsher reviews I read, but the tenor is about the same all around. But maybe “Slacker Uprising” is faring better after it’s dismal premiere at TIFF last spring? Let’s see:

From MLive.com:

Thankfully, the title has been changed for the better. But the 102-minute film isn’t up to snuff as far as Moore’s films go. It’s a straightforward and repetitive travelogue, consisting primarily of footage of Moore stirring up large audiences with anti-George W. Bush polemics, and introducing celebrity guests, from the sublime (Eddie Vedder) to the shrill (Roseanne Barr). In between, he splices bits of newscasts covering his speeches, which were often subject to Republican vitriol, and fly-on-the-wall scenes of Moore chastising the media at press conferences.

Regardless of what side of the partisan divide you fall, it’s easy to see with Moore’s previous work — “Roger and Me,” “Bowling for Columbine” — that he’s a talented filmmaker and satirist. Those expecting his wit and behind-the-camera skill will be disappointed with “Slacker Uprising” — it’s visually inert, and lacks the by-turns snarky and poignant first-person narration Moore usually provides.

From Emory Wheel:

Where “Slacker Uprising” truly fails is in its lack of organization. The film almost completely abandons the structure of his earlier work, replacing it with the loose, unpredictable structure of a 1970s variety show. It has numerous musical numbers and mediocre guest stars like comedienne Roseanne Barr, who fails to amuse a hefty portion of the on-film audience.

A select few of these musical numbers make for some of the strongest moments in the movie. Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam’s infamous frontman, delivers an inspired acoustic cover of Cat Stevens’ “Don’t Be Shy,” while Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave fame delivers an uncharacteristic acoustic performance.

These pleasant musical interludes do little more than break up the monotony of speeches — and sometimes they don’t even do that.

When R.E.M. and Anti-Flag take the stage, it is only to deliver more speeches, not to play any of their hits. While the appearance of these very political bands is fitting, especially in a youth-heavy setting, the lack of musical performance is quite disappointing.

Moore’s first-person narration is also absent, making the film feel much less personal than his previous works. Combined with the amount of footage that shows Moore being mobbed by his adoring public, this causes the film to feel a bit like a self-congratulatory pat on the back.

Ouch again. It doesn’t seem that Moore is faring too well with either his book or his movie. If anyone in our audience has seen or read either product, please comment and let me know what you thought. I mean… it *can’t* be that bad...... can it?

What in the world is Michael Moore thinking?

Normally I try to be as unbiased and non-judgmental as possible when I’m reporting on the letters or speeches Michael Moore delivers. However, this particular speech, delivered at the premiere of Slacker Uprising in Ann Arbor, goes so far over the top that I find myself questioning if Moore is either playing an enormous practical joke or he’s really lost his way somehow. Before the screening of his new “free” movie (that he is of course selling copies of for those who don’t download… so much for free for all!), Moore offered seven “modest suggestions” for Barrack Obama should he in fact win the presidential election. The “suggestions” range from the potentially practical to mildly amusing to the rather offensive to the downright ridiculous. I seriously can’t do this justice. Here… read the synopsis for yourself:

Proposal One: Institute a military draft, but only for the children of the top five percent of wage earners in the country. “I am convinced that if they have to send their own kids off to war, there won’t be any wars,” Moore said.

Proposal Two: Sign into law congressman John Conyer’s universal health-care legislation (HR676). “The Obama health plan is no good. The McCain health plan is really, really no good,” Moore said, explaining that on this issue, his support for Obama comes down to the “lesser of two evils.”

Proposal Three: Ban high fructose corn syrup. “And I will be the poster boy of that campaign.” Earlier in his lecture, Moore suggested that corn syrup’s historical dominance as a sweetener was a result of government collusion with large agribusinesses.

Proposal Four: Build wells in the developing nations to provide clean drinking water for all. Moore says it will cost $10 billion to dig wells in villages. “We’re going to spend $12 billion on Iraq in this month alone. $12 billion. One month of Iraq and the entire world can have clean drinking water. What is our problem?”

Proposal Five: Remove the $102,000 income cap on the social security tax. “If you make over 102,000 a year, do you realize the people in that category do not pay one dime on wages they earn over $102,000 ... Why shouldn’t they have to pay the same six-and-half to seven percent rate that you have to pay on 100 percent or your income?” Moore cited former presidential candidate Chris Dodd, who said that if the cap was lifted, the resulting income would be able to fund social security for 75 years. He also told the audience to remind their neighbors that President Bush wanted to “put social security in the hands of Wall Street five years ago ... We’d all be Lehman Brothers.”

Proposal Six: Change the way we do elections. Moore offered several suggestions, including holding elections on the weekend so that more people can get to the polls, allowing multiple parties access to the debates and discarding voting machines in favor of paper ballots.

Proposal Seven: Change the Pledge of Allegiance to reflect “the America we all believe in.” Moore closed his lecture by reading his proposed pledge: “I pledge allegiance to the people of the United States of America / and to the republic for which we stand / one nation, part of one world / with liberty and justice for all.”

I’m.... speechless. Truly speechless. Band high fructose corn syrup? Draft only the children of the rich? CHANGE THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE???  I’m telling you… if Obama has friends like this he certainly needs no enemies. If Moore et al keep these types of stunts up I predict McCain will have no problems at all winning in November.

*shakes head*

Canadian Hands

At one point, during the promotional period for Sicko, Michael Moore said something to the effect of, “Do you think you could find anyone in Canada who would trade their healthcare system for ours?” (If you can remember the exact quote please post a link or, if you’re a fellow poster, put it as an update.) At any rate, recently there was a debate held over universal healthcare, and one of the panelists arguing in favor of it was Paul Krugman, liberal economist and New York Times columnist.  Here’s a portion of an exchange from the debate.

PAUL KRUGMAN
And private insurance? That’s the thing, I— Actually, can I just —I wanted to ask a question. And—

JOHN DONVAN [MODERATOR]
Please—please do—

PAUL KRUGMAN
—and I wanted to ask, actually two questions, to the audience. First, how many Canadians, would Canadians in the room please raise your hands. [ONE PERSON APPLAUDS, LAUGHTER]

JOHN DONVAN
We have about seven hands going up—

PAUL KRUGMAN
Okay, not as many as I thought. Okay, of those of you who are not on the panel who are Canadians,, how many of you think you have a terrible health care system. [PAUSE] One, two—

JOHN DONVAN
We see—almost all of the same hands going up. [LAUGHTER]

PAUL KRUGMAN
Bad move on my part. [APPLAUSE]

Remember, folks, Canada is a utopia where everyone gets all the super awesome magical unicorn healthcare they need, and only evil rich corporations pay for it.

Ping!  Fundraiser reminder

First of all, thank you SO much to every person that has already donated to the server fund.  Some of you did it anonymously, and some of you let me know.  Either way is cool, but those of you who let me know who you are...I’m trying to figure out something cool with which I can thank you.  At the very least I will address each of you individually, as I have developed at least that much class over the years. Well...almost.

As I said the last time, if you think we’re worth a few bucks...please hit the tip jar.  It’s not an emergency, it’s just a bit of a rough patch and this server never gets cheaper.  It never gets more expensive, thankfully, but it never gets cheaper.

All we’re asking for is a small contribution.  Think of it like buying us a pizza...or a couple of microbrews.  Just a few bucks to get the monkey called Softlayer (our hosting provider) off our backs.

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It’s fundraising time…

People, you have no idea how little I want to write this post.  I have been putting it off forever, but numbers are numbers, and numbers don’t lie.  My numbers are telling me that I need to once again ask for the support and generosity of the readers of the blogs on our server.

If you read anything by me, Lee, any of the guys at MOA, Moorewatch or Right-Thinking or anyone else we host, and you think we’re worth a few bucks...please hit the tip jar.  It’s not an emergency, no one is dying, no one is losing their house, although our house is part of it - our tax bill went up because our house is worth more, so our mortgage escrow is short and you homeowners know what that means!  Monkeys on backs.

All we’re asking for is a small contribution.  Think of it like buying us a pizza...or a couple of microbrews.  Just a few bucks to get the monkey called Softlayer (our hosting provider) off our backs.

You people are awesome, and have always treated us well.  I hope that every reader of this site knows I appreciate the years of posting, comments and general yacking we’ve all done.

Mkey’s Got A Brand New Film

Um, OK:

Inspired by Neil Young and Radiohead, Michael Moore will release his new film online and for free.

The film, “Slacker Uprising,” follows Moore’s 62-city tour during the 2004 election to rally young voters. It will be available for three weeks as a free download to North American residents, beginning Sept. 23. An official announcement of the film is planned for Friday.

Moore said he considered releasing “Slacker Uprising” theatrically as “Michael Moore’s big election year movie” as he did with 2004’s “Fahrenheit 9/11,” which was highly critical of President Bush.

Instead, Moore opted for a symbol of gratitude to his fans as he approaches the 20th anniversary of his first film, 1989’s “Roger & Me.”

“I thought it’d be a nice way to celebrate my 20th year of doing this,” Moore said. “And also help get out the vote for November. I’ve been thinking about what I want to do to help with the election this year.”

Wait.  Wasn’t this “Captain Mike”?  I’m confused.  I guess you might as well release it for free since it’s likely that no one will pay to see it.

But this is what makes life beautiful:

The 97-minute long “Slacker Uprising” will be the first major film to be released in such a way. Last December, “Jackass 2.5” was streamed online and for free, but that was only a collection of left over material from “Jackass 2.” Companies like ClickStar, which Morgan Freeman co-founded, have made films still in theaters — such as 2006’s “10 Items or Less” — digitally available for purchase or rental.

Jackass 2.5.  Slacker Uprising.  If the symmetry were any more perfect, I suspect one of us would burst into tears.

The good thing about the film being free is that we can now watch it without having to give Michael a penny.  Maybe we should have a Moorewatch festival complete with drinking game.  To steal a line from P.J. O’Rourke, you just turn the movie on and boy, do you need a drink.

Fred Thompson give Moore something to think about

This was just so funny that I had to share it with you all. PJTV caught up with Fred Thompson last night at the RNC and asked him about Moore’s statements in the last week. Thompson’s reaction was simply priceless. Here, just watch:

Classic. I wonder what Moore’s response will be to this one? ;)

Moore apparently doesn’t know when to quit

Yep… you guessed it. Another letter. This one’s for Joe Lieberman, who, as an “Independent Democrat” from Connecticut dared to speak at the RNC last night urging Democrats, Independants and Republicans alike to vote for the McCain/Palin ticket. During the speech Lieberman made a passing reference to Moore, saying “...if John McCain is just another partisan Republican, then I’m Michael Moore’s favorite Democrat.  And I’m not. And I think you know that I’m not.”

Well… I guess that was enough for Moore to cry foul. You see, it’s okay if he relentlessly attacks people over and over and over again. But if you even mention his name in a speech, then you’re a horrible person for attacking him and why would you be wasting time doing it anyway? He’s just a harmless little filmmaker, don’t ya know!

Enough commentary from me. Here’s the letter, as before, in it’s entirety. You be the judge.

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008

Dear Joe:

John McCain IS just another partisan Republican—so that must mean you ARE my favorite Democrat!

But how can you be my favorite Democrat when you are no longer a Democrat? This is very confusing. I was in the middle of taking out the garbage and, all of a sudden, there you were, trash-talking me in front of thousands of cheering (mostly) white people on TV.

What is it with you and your Republican friends always bringing me up? Can’t you stop thinking about me? It’s starting to sound like a fetish! Stop it! Four years ago at the last Republican Convention, John McCain, in his convention speech, also trashed me, calling me a “disingenuous filmmaker” because I called all of you out in “Fahrenheit 9/11.” The crowd at Madison Square Garden went berserk. McCain didn’t know I was sitting above him in the press box, and the crowd wouldn’t stop screaming at me, so I flashed them the “Big L” loser sign and, well, nine of New York’s finest had to help me get out of there alive.

With all the problems facing the world, why is valuable time being wasted reviewing a movie and attacking a filmmaker? And now you, Joe, tonight. Do you think you’re energizing the “base” by attacking me? Better take a look at the scoreboard. While your side has spent years trying to make me the boogeyman, let’s see how it’s worked:

** 2006 Congressional elections: Republicans lose 30 seats in the House and 6 seats in the Senate;

** States That Have Lost a Republican Governor (and elected a Democrat) since 2002: Kansas, Montana, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Arkansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Tennessee—EACH ONE OF THEM A RED STATE!;

** Latest Gallup Poll: Obama hit 50% yesterday for the first time for either candidate, 8 points ahead of McCain!

Do you see the trend?

Putting me in your convention speeches, attacking me nonstop on talk radio and Fox News—and thinking that this helps you—shows just how out of touch you all are.

Two-thirds of the country agree with my position on the war, two-thirds of the country agree with my position on a single-payer universal health care system, two-thirds believe in some form of gun control—name the documentary, pick the issue, and the American public agrees with Michael Moore. So get over me, will ya? You’re only hurting yourself. And I’ve got to finish taking out the garbage.

“… if John McCain is just another partisan Republican, then I’m Michael Moore’s favorite Democrat. And I’m not. And I think you know that I’m not.” Now click your heels together and say, “There’s no place like home on the Republican minority side of the aisle.”

Yours,
Michael Moore
[email protected]
MichaelMoore.com

Another letter from Moore

Wow… he just doesn’t know when to keep his trap shut, does he? First McCain was doing the decent thing by trying to postpone the RNC due to Hurricane Gustav… now he was just using it for “political advantage”. Moore says he thinks the children of the candidates should be off limits… and then backhandedly insults Bristol Palin and Sarah Palin by extension. He makes completely false statements about her stances on issues and even implies she won’t be on the ticket in two weeks. And of course the McCain insults never stop.

Classy. Once again, the above is all of the commentary I will make. I present to you the letter in full below - you make the call.

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008

Well, I guess God got my email and answered my prayer. Man, the power of the Internet! He even emailed me back! I’ll share that with you in the next few days. Proof there is a God in heaven? Never explain comedy or satire or the ironic comment. Those who get it, get it. Those who don’t, never will…

John McCain said “it’s time to take our Republican hats off and put our American hats on.” Really? It would have been nice if Sen. McCain had put on his American hat in the three years since Katrina. Just so no one is fooled by all his fake concern for the people on the Gulf Coast, let’s look at his record post-Katrina, compliments of Chris Hayes of The Nation:

If (McCain) cared about New Orleans and the Gulf Coast he could have done something these past three years. He could have made Gulf Reconstruction his issue, he could have excoriated his party for pushing federal dollars into the hands of cronies, for providing inadequate resources, for allowing the further destruction of the wetlands that serve as the only natural barrier to storm surges. He could have taken on the insurance companies that have been serially screwing the residents of the gulf. But he was too busy pushing for more troops, and more war and running for president.

Instead this is his record [via Mother Jones]:

Though McCain issued a statement the next week (after Katrina) calling on Congress to make sacrifices in order to fund recovery efforts, he was quoted in The New Leader on September 1 [2005] cautioning against over-spending in support of Katrina’s victims. “We also have to be concerned about future generations of Americans,” he said. “We’re going to end up with the highest deficit, probably, in the history of this country.”

That attitude was borne out in McCain’s actions and votes. Forty Senators and 100 members of Congress visited New Orleans before he did; he finally got there in March 2006. He voted against establishing a Congressional commission to examine the Federal, State, and local responses to Katrina in med-September 2005. He repeated that vote in 2006. He voted against allowing up to 52 weeks of unemployment benefits to people affected by the hurricane, and in 2006 voted against appropriating $109 billion in supplemental emergency funding, including $28 billion for hurricane relief.

So honestly, it’s an insult to watch him make a show of concern now. ...

The possibility of a storm (a storm that never hit New Orleans, and was no longer a hurricane by last night) was enough for McCain to essentially cancel most of the first day of the convention. Cut and run? The AP reported yesterday that conventions have always been held when the nation was facing perilous moments. Right smack in the middle of World War II, the Republicans and the Democrats both held full conventions. Thousands of Americans were being killed every week. The Republicans held their convention in Chicago less than two weeks after D-Day. No one faulted them for that. In fact, it made Americans feel good that, no matter what happens, NOTHING stops Democracy. No retreat, no surrender…

So McCain and company used the hurricane for political advantage, to have an excuse to not have Bush and Cheney live and in person in St. Paul (Bush will appear Tuesday night via satellite). And he used the hurricane as a chance to release a potentially controversial story in the hopes that the hurricane would dominate the news and not many would notice. One hour after Gustav hit land, the McCain campaign announced that Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s teenage daughter is pregnant. I don’t want to say much more beyond this, as I agree with Barack Obama that “people’s families are off limits, and people’s children are especially off limits.”

I do feel very sorry that this minor, this child, now has to have her privacy sacrificed because her mother accepted an offer to run for VP. Obama’s right—the children are off limits. I remember when John McCain cruelly trashed Chelsea Clinton when she was a child in the White House. He told reporters that she was “ugly” “because Janet Reno is her father.” Of course, McCain would like us now to accord Palin’s daughter the respect he wouldn’t give Chelsea.

This does not mean that a discussion about the stupidity of “abstinence-only” sex ed classes is off the table; nor should we not talk about the right of a teenager to terminate a pregnancy (a right that has been essentially eliminated as the Supreme Court believes forcing a child to have a child against its will is not a form a child abuse), or Gov. Palin’s desire to make abortion illegal for anyone who is raped, a victim of incest or who may die if they bring the fetus to term. She’s “proud” of her daughter’s “decision to have her baby.” Uh-huh. Ok…

Word comes tonight that McCain’s people lied about Palin being vetted—the FBI has admitted they did NOT vet her. So McCain has dispatched ten operatives and investigators to Alaska to find out if there’s anything else that’s about to hit the fan regarding his veep pick, a woman he had run into only once in his life and then called her on her cell phone two weeks ago at the Alaska State Fair. That was it before she made the short list and was selected. McCain’s radar—honed perhaps during his own self-admitted indiscretionary phase of his life—is telling him there’s more to the Palin story. You mean things like her support of the Alaska Secessionist Party or being one of the directors of recently-arrested Sen. Ted Stevens’ political action groups? Heck, I dunno. We shall see…

But before everyone gets all smug and self-righteous about the Palin selection, remember where you live. You live in a nation of gun owners and hunters. You live in a country where one out of three girls get pregnant before they are 20. You live in a nation of C students. Knocking Bush for being a C student only endeared him to the nation of C students. Knock Palin for having kids, for having a kid who’s having a baby, for anything that is part of her normalness—a normalness that looks very familiar to so many millions of Americans—well, you do this at your own peril. Assuming she’s still on the ticket two weeks from now, she will be a much tougher opponent than anyone expects. You live in a country that voted for Dan Quayle.

I’ll close with this report on ABC tonight by investigative reporter Brian Ross. It shows Republicans in St. Paul taking off their Republican hats and putting on their American hats. In the meantime they should keep those hats ready as a new hurricane was announced today. No, not Hannah. She’s already on her way to Florida for Friday. The new one is called Ike, scheduled to hit the Gulf early next week. Ike. He’s the one who warned us about the “military-industrial complex.”

More to come…
Michael Moore
[email protected]
MichaelMoore.com

An Open Letter to God from Michael Moore

I just got this in my mailbox. It’s a “letter to God” from Michael Moore. If you thought what Moore said on the Olbermann show the other night was offensive… wait until you read this.

Now… I am fully aware that Michael Moore is attempting to get his name into the press again to garner more attention for himself and his new book. I’m sure he’s reveling in all the negative press he has received over the Olbermann incident and he’s trying to stoke the flames with this letter. He’s trying to be as offensive as he can be without crossing *too* many lines. So I shall offer you this letter without comment or commentary. I will not dignify Moore’s words with a response because they simply do not deserve one. But I will present them to you, the reader, so that you may form your own conclusions and opinions on your own.

An Open Letter to God, from Michael Moore

Sunday, August 31st, 2008

Dear God,

The other night, the Rev. James Dobson’s ministry asked all believers to pray for a storm on Thursday night so that the Obama acceptance speech outdoors in Denver would have to be cancelled.

I see that You have answered Rev. Dobson’s prayers—except the storm You have sent to earth is not over Denver, but on its way to New Orleans! In fact, You have scheduled it to hit Louisiana at exactly the moment that George W. Bush is to deliver his speech at the Republican National Convention.

Now, heavenly Father, we all know You have a great sense of humor and impeccable timing. To send a hurricane on the third anniversary of the Katrina disaster AND right at the beginning of the Republican Convention was, at first blush, a stroke of divine irony. I don’t blame You, I know You’re angry that the Republicans tried to blame YOU for Katrina by calling it an “Act of God”—when the truth was that the hurricane itself caused few casualties in New Orleans. Over a thousand people died because of the mistakes and neglect caused by humans, not You.

Some of us tried to help after Katrina hit, while Bush ate cake with McCain and twiddled his thumbs. I closed my office in New York and sent my entire staff down to New Orleans to help. I asked people on my website to contribute to the relief effort I organized—and I ended up sending over two million dollars in donations, food, water, and supplies (collected from thousands of fans) to New Orleans while Bush’s FEMA ice trucks were still driving around Maine three weeks later.

But this past Thursday night, the Washington Post reported that the Republicans had begun making plans to possibly postpone the convention. The AP had reported that there were no shelters set up in New Orleans for this storm, and that the levee repairs have not been adequate. In other words, as the great Ronald Reagan would say, “There you go again!”

So the last thing John McCain and the Republicans needed was to have a split-screen on TVs across America: one side with Bush and McCain partying in St. Paul, and on the other side of the screen, live footage of their Republican administration screwing up once again while New Orleans drowns.

So, yes, You have scared the Jesus, Mary and Joseph out of them, and more than a few million of your followers tip their hats to You.

But now it appears that You haven’t been having just a little fun with Bush & Co. It appears that Hurricane Gustav is truly heading to New Orleans and the Gulf coast. We hear You, O Lord, loud and clear, just as we did when Rev. Falwell said You made 9/11 happen because of all those gays and abortions. We beseech You, O Merciful One, not to punish us again as Pat Robertson said You did by giving us Katrina because of America’s “wholesale slaughter of unborn children.” His sentiments were echoed by other Republicans in 2005.

So this is my plea to you: Don’t do this to Louisiana again. The Republicans got your message. They are scrambling and doing the best they can to get planes, trains and buses to New Orleans so that everyone can get out. They haven’t sent the entire Louisiana National Guard to Iraq this time—they are already patrolling the city streets. And, in a nod to I don’t know what, Bush’s head of FEMA has named a man to help manage the federal government’s response. His name is W. Michael Moore. I kid you not, heavenly Father. They have sent a man with both my name AND W’s to help save the Gulf Coast.

So please God, let the storm die out at sea. It’s done enough damage already. If you do this one favor for me, I promise not to invoke your name again. I’ll leave that to the followers of Rev. Dobson and to those gathering this week in St. Paul.

Your faithful servant and former seminarian,

Michael Moore
[email protected]
MichaelMoore.com

P.S. To all of God’s fellow children who are reading this, the city New Orleans has not yet recovered from Katrina. Please click here for a list of things you can do to help our brothers and sisters on the Gulf Coast. And, if you do live along the Gulf Coast, please take all necessary safety precautions immediately.

Mikey Luvs Hurricans

Egad:

Throughout the Bush Presidency, Mikey has wished for things to do got badly for America so that the Republicans will get blamed and unelected.  I have no doubt that Mike has blasted Religious Right zealots for claiming that Katrina was God’s vengeance for abortion, gay marriage and men’s speedos.  Let’s see if someone— anyone—on the Left blasts him for claiming that Gustav is God’s vengeance for Republicans.

[[Crickets Chirping]]

(H/T: West Virginia Rebel)

An American Carol

Mark your calendars people!  October 3, 2008 is the release date for a new film by the Zucker Brothers titled “An American Carol”.  It tells the comedic and completely hypothetical story of a character obviously modeled after Michael Moore (and played perfectly by Kevin Farley) who experiences an epiphany ala’ “A Christmas Carol” when he refuses to celebrate the Fourth of July and is visited by the ghosts of General George S. Patton, JFK, George Washington and finally Trace Adkins as the angel of death.  Of course Mikey makes no mention of the film on his site since he refuses to ever mention any film that he doesn’t actually profit from.  But I encourage everyone to go see it when it comes out.  From what I’ve seen on the video, it looks like Kevin Farley does a great job as Moore and I especially love the scene where he’s gets slapped by JFK, George Patton and Bill O’Reilly.

You can view the trailer here:
An American Carol Trailer

Once Again, Capitalism Saves the World

When Michael Moore wants to drop a few pounds he usually just pays someone to use Photoshop to stick his head on the body of a smaller fat guy.  Other than that he pays hundreds of thousands of dollars to go to the world’s most exclusive fat farm resorts.  However, if you’re a nurse in the socialist medical utopia of the UK, you just let the taxpayers pick up the bill.

Overweight nurses are to get personal trainers and high street vouchers to encourage them to lose weight.

More than 200 NHS staff are being equipped with pedometers and offered motivational fitness coaches to help them slim down.

They have been promised £20 of high street store vouchers if they manage to keep the weight off during the year-long pilot.

But here comes the best part.  Are you ready?  Make sure you’re sitting down, because this is awesome.

The £250,000 scheme at Birmingham East and North Primary Care Trust is being run by American healthcare company Humana, which wants to roll the programme out across Britain.

That’s right, folks!  The compassionate, free governmental fantasyland of the UK is turning to an evil, greedy, for-profit, heartless capitalist American company to get their lard-ass nurses to drop weight. 

My God, it’s almost as if socialism doesn’t work, and the free market provides solutions that government either cannot or will not!  Who could have ever imagined such a thing?

Dead Baby Jokes

You know that wonderful medical utopia in the UK, where everyone gets all the super duper magical free healthcare they could ever need, and it’s paid for by fairies and unicorns?  Well, it’s killing babies.

A devastating report on the state of Britain’s maternity services has concluded that they put the lives of women and their babies at risk.

The first national inquiry into maternity care by the Healthcare Commission, the NHS watchdog, has revealed a critical shortage of midwives, obstetricians absent from wards, a lack of beds and poor continuity of care. These have contributed to high death rates in some units and threaten the long-term health of mothers and their babies in others.

The inquiry, which is the largest ever carried out, involved all 150 NHS maternity units in England. It was triggered by separate full-scale investigations conducted at three trusts where mothers and babies died, which revealed failings indicative of a national pattern.

The three trusts were Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow, where 10 mothers died between 2002 and 2005, New Cross in Wolverhampton, where three babies died in two months in 2003, and Ashford & St Peters in Surrey, where there was a series of serious incidents in 2000 and 2001.

The Healthcare Commission said the root cause of poor performance was weak leadership by managers and medical staff. Many trusts were critically short of midwives, with numbers ranging from 40 per 1,000 births in the best-staffed trusts to 25 per 1,000 in the worst.

Only two-thirds of trusts had a consultant present on their wards for 40 hours a week – the basic safety standard laid down by the Royal College of Obstetricians. The study also revealed a five-fold variation in the number of consultants among trusts, from 3.3 to 0.6 per 1,000 births. In some trusts this meant consultants were present on the wards for just 10 hours a week.

More than £660m was paid out by NHS trusts in the three years to 2007 in negligence cases for obstetric claims – enough to hire 1,000 extra consultant obstetricians. Maternity services account for one in 10 requests to the Healthcare Commission to investigate particular trusts. Today’s report, which included surveys of 5,000 staff and 26,000 mothers, says nine out of 10 mothers rated their care as good. But it said there were “significant weaknesses”, with wide variations in standards between trusts. Many of the problems identified in earlier investigations were widespread, suggesting that NHS trusts are not giving maternity services priority. Sir Ian Kennedy, chairman of the commission, said: “I don’t ever again want to be reading another report into high death rates at a maternity unit.”

It’s worth noting that this report comes from The Independent, one of Britain’s leftie papers.  Ah, socialism.  Guaranteeing the same equal level of misery and shitty treatment for everyone.  (Except of course the rich, who can avoid the whole socialist disaster altogether by paying for private care themselves.)

Castonguay Turns

You know that wonderful Hoser healthcare system?  Well, it’s very architect wants to change it:

Back in the 1960s, Castonguay chaired a Canadian government committee studying health reform and recommended that his home province of Quebec — then the largest and most affluent in the country — adopt government-administered health care, covering all citizens through tax levies.

The government followed his advice, leading to his modern-day moniker: “the father of Quebec medicare.” Even this title seems modest; Castonguay’s work triggered a domino effect across the country, until eventually his ideas were implemented from coast to coast.

Four decades later, as the chairman of a government committee reviewing Quebec health care this year, Castonguay concluded that the system is in “crisis.”

“We thought we could resolve the system’s problems by rationing services or injecting massive amounts of new money into it,” says Castonguay. But now he prescribes a radical overhaul: “We are proposing to give a greater role to the private sector so that people can exercise freedom of choice.”

Castonguay advocates contracting out services to the private sector, going so far as suggesting that public hospitals rent space during off-hours to entrepreneurial doctors. He supports co-pays for patients who want to see physicians. Castonguay, the man who championed public health insurance in Canada, now urges for the legalization of private health insurance.

In America, these ideas may not sound shocking. But in Canada, where the private sector has been shunned for decades, these are extraordinary views, especially coming from Castonguay. It’s as if John Maynard Keynes, resting on his British death bed in 1946, had declared that his faith in government interventionism was misplaced.

What would drive a man like Castonguay to reconsider his long-held beliefs? Try a health care system so overburdened that hundreds of thousands in need of medical attention wait for care, any care; a system where people in towns like Norwalk, Ontario, participate in lotteries to win appointments with the local family doctor.

Somehow, I rather doubt this will be a part of Sicko II: The Search For More Money.

Olbermoore

From the blog at that notorious right-wing neocon-worshipping rag The New Republic comes this fascinating Isaac Chotiner piece.

Peter Boyer has a fairly long Keith Olbermann profile in this week’s New Yorker which is not necessary reading, although it does feature a notable anecdote. Olbermann is reading over an interview with President Bush in which the following exchange occurs:

Q: Mr. President, you haven’t been golfing in recent years. Is that related to Iraq?
A: Yes, it really is. I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the Commander-in-Chief playing golf. I feel I owe it to the families to be as—to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal.

Boyer then goes into great detail about how Olbermann furiously raced home to his computer and typed a blistering 18-page screed which contains the following nugget of genius, which he refers to as the “final blow to our nation’s solar plexus.”

Mr. Bush, I hate to break it to you six and a half years after you yoked this nation and your place in history to the wrong war, in the wrong place, against the wrong people, but the war in Iraq is not about you. . . . It is not, Mr. Bush, about your golf game!

Choitner then nails it.

Oh, how quickly we forget!  Just four years ago, in fact, Michael Moore’s Farenheit 9/11 arrived in theatres, and one of the big scenes featured--you guessed it--Bush playing golf. The president is asked a question about terrorism, he responds by saying that all countries must unite against evil, and then he pauses before saying, “Now watch this drive.” Moments later he tees off. This was of course supposed to prove that Bush does not take terrorism seriously, or is an idiot, or God knows what. But now Bush has sworn off golf, which apparently also proves that he is cruel and uncaring. And something tells me the same people who nodded vigorously at Moore’s movie are now nodding vigorously at Olbermann’s monologues. Terrific.

Of course they are.  Bush playing golf = evil.  Bush not playing golf = evil.  See how logic works in the fantasy world where Olbermann and Moore live?

Guess What?  Socialism Kills People

It’s often been our contention, as vehement critics of socialized medicine and its supporters like Moore, that all government healthcare provides is the same equally shitty service to everyone.  (Except, of course, the wealthy, who can pay for their own treatments.) As usual the Times of London lays it out.

The National Health Service is providing dying cancer patients with drugs that are five times less effective than those available privately and is refusing to treat them if they try to buy medicines themselves.

That’s right, folks.  If you decide to use your own money to pay for the life-saving drugs that your free healthcare system doesn’t provide, you’re shit out of luck on any future treatment.  Their policy is, “Use our substandard care or you’re on your own.” Ah, compassion.

One drug for kidney cancer, routinely available through public health systems in most European countries but not to British patients, can reduce the size of tumours in 31% of patients, compared with just 6% of those prescribed the standard NHS drug.

The growing row over “co-payments” has prompted the government to reconsider the ban. Alan Johnson, the health secretary, has promised a “fundamental rethink” of the policy.

Just not a fundamental rethink of the socialist disaster which created the problem in the first place.

A woman with bowel cancer is fighting for the right to pay for a drug that could extend her life long enough for her to spend Christmas with her grandchildren.

Sheila Norrington, 59, a former NHS medical secretary from Maidstone, Kent, has been told by doctors that if she buys the drug Erbitux, which the health service will not pay for, she will lose her state-funded cancer care. Erbitux is the only drug capable of treating her advanced bowel cancer.

Norrington’s husband, Goff, 61, a former sales manager, said: “We have been told that if we pay for it ourselves we will be thrown off the NHS completely and we will need to pay for everything privately. We are devastated. This is not going to cure my wife, but if it keeps her alive a little bit longer, then we would pay for it.”

The couple say that although they could pay for a few cycles of the drug, which costs about £3,000 a month, they could not pay for all Norrington’s care, including scans, blood tests and consultations.

Goff Norrington added: “We have two young granddaughters and this could make the difference between sitting round the table with them at Christmas or not. We think it is deplorable that patients can get this drug almost anywhere in Europe but we cannot get it in the UK.”

A spokesman for Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust said: “We are governed by Department of Health policy on this issue.”

And why shouldn’t they be?  The government is the one paying for it.  They aren’t concerned with individuals, they’re concerned with doling out their limited resources in the most compassionate and fair manner, which in this case is simply letting people die.

A poll for The Sunday Times shows strong support for allowing co-payment in the National Health Service, with 89% saying that people who buy additional cancer drugs should continue to get free NHS treatment.

Only 5% think allowing co-payment would create a two-tier NHS. Until now this has been the position taken by Alan Johnson, the health secretary.

Ministers had feared that allowing co-payment would upset less well-off patients, but the YouGov poll of nearly 1,800 people shows strong backing across the social spectrum and supporters of all three main parties.

This, of course, begs the question.  If compassionate free government healthcare can’t provide, y’know, actual healthcare to patients, and they are forced to paying massive amounts of money to buy their own treatments, maybe the solution to the problem is less free government healthcare and more private sector solutions.

Wow, paying for healthare.  What a concept!

Moore set to publish an “Election Guide” in the fall

I must be honest… I’m not quite sure what to make of this yet:

Michael Moore is coming out with a new book. The tome, titled “Mike’s Election Guide,” a manual of mockery for the 2008 presidential election, will be published Aug. 19 by Grand Central Publishing, Jimmy Franco, a spokesman for the publisher, said Friday.

Promotional material for the book reads: “Perfectly timed to coincide with the national political conventions—and to capitalize on massive campaign coverage.”

That is the sum total of all the details I’ve been able to find as of now, so I have no real idea what this book will be about. “Manual of mockery”? What does that even mean?

Moorewatchers… any guesses as to what types of shenanigans Moore is cooking up this time? 

Moore declares new film to be toxic and dangerous… again….

I think we’ve all heard these claims from Moore about his movies before, haven’t we?

Oscar-winning documentary maker Michael Moore, who this week unveiled plans for a follow-up to his anti-Bush polemic “Fahrenheit 9/11,” said on Friday the new film would cover topics so “toxic” he probably should not make it.

But Moore, whose work ranges from an expose of American gun culture in “Bowling for Columbine” to a scathing critique of U.S. health care in “SiCKO,” relishes controversy, so his unnamed new movie will likewise be risky, he told reporters at the Cannes film festival.

“It’s something I shouldn’t make, something that is dangerous,” he said.

Is is just me or is this hype of Moore’s becoming something of a mantra for him? He said it about Bowling, he said it about Fahrenheit, and he said it about Sicko. Not one of those films turned out to be either “toxic” or “dangerous”, largely due to the hefty amount of factual errors, inaccuracies and outright untruths contained within them. But no… *this* one will be different:

At box offices, his new movie will face risks. Recent films dealing with the current wars, such as “Stop-Loss” and “In the Valley of Elah,” were commercial flops.

But Moore said he believed those movies failed because most Americans no longer support the wars, whereas in 2004, when “Fahrenheit 9/11” was released, most Americans still backed U.S. military pursuits in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He believes “Fahrenheit 9/11,” which ranks as the top-grossing political documentary of all time with more than $220 million at global box offices, was a hit because it told audiences things about the Bush administration that they were surprised to hear.

Similarly, he said his new movie will succeed by exposing information about President George W. Bush and his policies that will leave audiences stunned.

“What I’m going to say in this film is what probably 70 percent of them (audiences) don’t want to hear,” Moore said.

Yes, Mr. Moore. You’ve got something right. We probably aren’t going to want to hear what you have to say in this new film venture of yours. You see, we’re all getting a little tired of your fictional diatribes against America getting masqueraded as documentaries. If you’d like to truly shock us… how about making this movie… I don’t know… based on the truth? That would certainly shock me.

Go Home and Die

Here’s some more of that wonderful socialist compassion that is supposed to infuse our cousins across the Atlantic, this proving their inherent moral superiority over us.

An HIV-positive Ugandan woman’s claim to stay in the UK has been rejected by the European Court of Human Rights.

Her lawyers argued that a lack of medical care in Uganda would lead to her early death, and this would amount to cruel and degrading treatment.

The government denies this, saying all NHS HIV drugs are available in Uganda.

The court agreed that if the unnamed woman were sent back to Uganda, there would be no violation of the bar on inhuman or degrading treatment.

When the woman entered the UK in March 1998 under an assumed name, she was seriously ill and was admitted to hospital.

Soon afterwards, solicitors lodged an asylum application on her behalf, claiming she had been raped by government soldiers in Uganda because of her association with the Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel group in the north of the country.

The lawyers argued that her life would be in danger if she were returned to Uganda.

By November 1998, she was diagnosed with two illnesses which are known to be indicators of having AIDS, and as being in an extremely advanced state of HIV infection.

Her asylum claim was rejected in March 2001, a decision she appealed against.

In rejecting her claim, the secretary of state found no evidence that Ugandan authorities were interested in her and that treatment of Aids in Uganda was comparable to any other African country.

The secretary of state also found that all the major anti-viral drugs were available in Uganda at highly subsidised prices.

In January the government sent a terminally ill Ghanaian woman who had been receiving treatment in the UK back to her country because her visa had expired.

Now, which do you think is more likely, that she was deported because of a expired viusa, or because and HIV diagnisis would reqire thirthy fo forty more years of retroviral and “drug cocktail” therapy to keep her alive, when we all know that NHS is failing miserably to provide even basic care to the citizenry.  So rather than deal with the expense of treating this woman they’re sending her back home, to her happy land full of sunshine and rainbows and rivers of chocolate, where the children dance and play with gumdrop smiles.

Full discosure:  The US has some pretty draconian laws regarding HIV people obtaining citizenship in this country.  I’m just as opposed to this as I am to what these European dickwads are doing? 

See?  That’s called “intellectual honesty.” You Moore fans should try it once in a while.