October Surprise
Here We Come!
"... they systematically set about to fleece the American people out of their hard-earned money."
– Michael Moore
May 21st, 2009 5:40 pm
Filmmaker Michael Moore targeting economic crisis
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Firebrand filmmaker Michael Moore, who targeted the Bush administration in "Fahrenheit 9/11" and the healthcare industry in "Sicko," is now focusing on the global economic meltdown.
The Oscar-winning director will release his as-yet-untitled documentary across North America on October 2, co-financiers Overture Films and Paramount Vantage said on Thursday.
"The wealthy, at some point, decided they didn't have enough wealth," the statement quoted Moore as saying.
"They wanted more -- a lot more. So they systematically set about to fleece the American people out of their hard-earned money. Now, why would they do this? That is what I seek to discover in this movie."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikeinthenews/index.php?id=13929
The Biggest Swindle in American History
May 21st, 2009 6:40 pm
Michael Moore's new documentary to open Oct. 2
NEW YORK (AP) — Michael Moore's documentary about the economic crisis will hit theaters on Oct. 2.
The announcement was made Thursday by Overture Films and Paramount Vantage.
The film is not yet titled. Moore earlier planned to make it more broadly about America as an empire. Instead, the documentary explores the causes of the global economic meltdown. Moore has called it "the biggest swindle in American history."
The division between rich and poor is old territory for Moore, who broke through 20 years ago with "Roger & Me" — about General Motors closing a plant in his hometown of Flint.
Moore won the Academy Award for best documentary in 2003 for "Bowling for Columbine."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikeinthenews/index.php?id=13930
Root Cause Unearthed
May 21st, 2009 6:41 pm
Michael Moore's latest doc out Oct. 2
Overture, Paramount International distributing
By Steven Zeitchik / Hollywood Reporter
CANNES -- Michael Moore's movie about the economic fall will unspool during the fall boxoffice.
Overture and Paramount Vantage said Thursday the still-untitled documentary about the collapse of the world economy will bow domestically on Oct. 2. That's almost a year to the day that Congress passed the first U.S. economic stimulus package, officials noted.
The companies also provided more details about the film, announced at last year's Festival de Cannes. The pic will examine the "root causes of the economic meltdown," they said, as well as the "corporate and political shenanigans" that resulted in the financial crisis.
"The wealthy, at some point, decided they didn't have enough wealth," Moore said in a statement. "So they systematically set out to fleece the American people."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikeinthenews/index.php?id=13931
It's a Date
May 21st, 2009 5:02 pm
Michael Moore doc gets release date
Filmmaker's take on economy set for Oct. 2
By Dana Harris / Variety
Michael Moore's new documentary, which tackles the root causes of the global economic crisis, now has a release date: Oct. 2.
Overture Films and Paramount Vantage, which made the announcement, are the film's co-financers and distributors. The film is not yet titled.
Overture and Paramount announced the project during last year's Cannes Film Festival. At the time it was described as a sequel to "Fahrenheit 9/11," but during production Moore decided to focus on the growing financial meltdown.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikeinthenews/index.php?id=13928
Popcorn & Pitchforks
May 21st, 2009 8:44 pm
Michael Moore preparing to turn sights on Wall St
LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Oscar-winning director Michael Moore vowed Thursday to turn his sights on the Wall Street chieftains blamed for the global economic meltdown in a new documentary to be released later this year.
Moore, whose past targets have included President George W. Bush, the US healthcare system and the gun lobby, said his as yet untitled film would be released on October 2.
"The wealthy, at some point, decided they didn't have enough wealth. They wanted more -- a lot more -- so they systematically set about to fleece the American people out of their hard-earned money," Moore said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikeinthenews/index.php?id=13932
This Friday at 9 PM on PBS:
*** American SiCKO Donna Smith on Bill Moyers ***
TV SCHEDULE
Bill Moyers' Journal
Friday, May 22, 9:00pm
9.1[D] (WVPBS)
Why single-payer health care isn't among the health-care reform plans under consideration. Guests include Donna Smith (California Nurses Association), Dr. Sidney Wolfe (Public Citizen) and Dr. David Himmelstein (Physicians for a National Health Program).
CC Stereo Educational Taping Rights: 6 months from original broadcast
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/about/airdates.html?program_id=640056&display_format=ep_description&display_feed=13640&display_date=2009-05-22&display_time=21:00:00&feeds=&station=WSWP&zipcode=&transport=&provider=&channelsuppress=f
Today in History - May 22
By The Associated Press – 1 day ago
Today is Friday, May 22, the 142nd day of 2009. There are 223 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On May 22, 1969, the lunar module of Apollo 10, with Thomas P. Stafford and Eugene Cernan aboard, flew to within nine miles of the moon's surface in a dress rehearsal for the first lunar landing.
On this date:…
In 1813, composer Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig, Germany.
In 1992, after a reign lasting nearly 30 years, Johnny Carson hosted NBC's "Tonight Show" for the last time….
...Ten years ago: Columbine High School seniors wearing blue-and-silver gowns marched single file in a graduation ceremony that mixed celebration of the day with sorrow for victims of the recent massacre.
Five years ago: In Tunisia, Arab leaders convened their annual summit, but the opening session was overshadowed by the walkout of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, who criticized peace efforts. Filmmaker Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," a scathing indictment of Bush White House actions after the Sept. 11 attacks, won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Samuel C. Johnson Jr., who'd built the family's S.C. Johnson Wax company into a consumer products giant, died at age 76.
One year ago: A Texas appeals court said the state had no right to take more than 400 children from a polygamist sect's ranch. (After the Texas Supreme Court upheld the ruling, the children were returned to their parents.) Britain's Conservative Party won a special election that was viewed as a barometer of the popularity of Prime Minister and Labour Party leader Gordon Brown. Indiana Jones returned to the big screen in "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."...
...Thought for Today: "It is often said that men are ruled by their imaginations; but it would be truer to say they are governed by the weakness of their imaginations." — Walter Bagehot, English editor and economist (1826-1877).
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jhZfSZI4djl_MxnRykC5lZzlBMYQD98B27181
Friday, May 1st, 2009
"Bernie Madoff, Scapegoat" by Michael Moore (for Time magazine)
The following piece written by Michael Moore appears in this week's Time magazine (and in full at Time.com) as part of their annual "Time 100" issue highlighting their choices for "The World's Most Influential People."
Elie Wiesel called him a "God." His investors called him a "genius." But, proving correct that old adage from the country and western song, you never really know what goes on behind closed doors.
Bernie Madoff, for at least 20 years, ran a Ponzi scheme on thousands of clients, among them the people you and I would consider the best and brightest. Business leaders, celebrities, charities, even some of his own relatives and his defense attorney were taken for a ride (this has to be the first time a lawyer was hosed by the client).
We're clearly in one of those historic, game changing years: up is down, red is blue and black is President. Aside from Obama himself, no person will provide a more iconic face of this end-of-capitalism-as-we-know-it year than Bernard Lawrence Madoff.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=247
Saturday, May 23rd, 2009
The Disease of Permanent War ...by Chris Hedges
TruthDig
The embrace by any society of permanent war is a parasite that devours the heart and soul of a nation. Permanent war extinguishes liberal, democratic movements. It turns culture into nationalist cant. It degrades and corrupts education and the media, and wrecks the economy. The liberal, democratic forces, tasked with maintaining an open society, become impotent. The collapse of liberalism, whether in imperial Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire or Weimar Germany, ushers in an age of moral nihilism. This moral nihilism comes is many colors and hues. It rants and thunders in a variety of slogans, languages and ideologies. It can manifest itself in fascist salutes, communist show trials or Christian crusades. It is, at its core, all the same. It is the crude, terrifying tirade of mediocrities who find their identities and power in the perpetuation of permanent war….
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=1194
May 23rd, 2009 9:19 am
Iraq slaying verdict highlights combat stress
By Kristen M. Hall / Associated Press
PADUCAH, Ky. – There's no question ex-soldier Steven Dale Green raped and killed a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and murdered her parents and sister.
Still, jurors in Kentucky couldn't agree this week whether to sentence the 24-year-old to death for heinous crimes he committed while serving in Iraq, indecision that may signal growing public awareness of combat stress and its consequences, experts say.
Jurors declined to talk to reporters, but forms they completed during deliberations indicate some factored in the stress of Green's bloody combat tour, poor mental health treatment in Iraq and weak leadership in his unit….
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=13933
Penguin Claims Credit for Decline in Gotham Crime; Also, Dick Cheney claims credit for takedown of A.Q. Khan nuclear network
May 23rd, 2009 10:07 am
The lie Cheney told about A.Q. Khan
by Larisa Alexandrovna / Raw Story
Somewhere among the strategically placed references to September 11, 2001 and his unapologetic defense of torture, Dick Cheney managed to lie about a series of topics and events that are well documented. It is, after all, the electronic age and facts are not difficult to come by.
One must consider too what motivated the networks to carry a speech by a former Vice President in defense of torture. The ethics vacuum is mind-boggling….
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=13936
May 23rd, 2009
Looking Back at Hell; "But, at the end, the American people are responsible for everything that happened." – "Abu Ahmed," former prisoner at Abu Ghraib
May 23rd, 2009 9:32 am
Ex-inmate recalls days of abuse at Abu Ghraib
By Cal Perry
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Abu Ahmed says he was there: An Iraqi held prisoner at Abu Ghraib by the American military when inmates were abused.
He says he was kept naked and saw other naked inmates stacked onto a pile while photos were taken, photos that would become public and bring shame to the United States.
The pain of the past few years is clearly etched on the man's face and equally obvious as he talks. It began October 1, 2003, he says, when U.S. troops came to his home and detained him during a sweep of his neighborhood….
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=13934
Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now
Roseanne Barr knows that ACORN is on the side of working people. Here's what she has to say about the non-stop attacks from the right wing:
If these guys hate ACORN so much, then ACORN must be doing something right.
While everyone else is talking about issues and ideas and politics, ACORN is out there working. They’re working side-by-side with the people most affected by years of failed economic and health care policies, by the crappy economy.
They don’t just work with poor people – they are poor people. Poor people doing all they can to stay in their homes, raise their kids, improve their environment and their schools. Get the picture? Yeah.
http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/2749/t/4538/signUp.jsp?key=2287&track=roseanne
continued...
