tagged w/ Michael Moore
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FIVE THINGS WE CAN DO TO MAKE CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT LISTEN TO US:
1. Each of us must get into the daily habit of taking 5 minutes to make four brief calls: One to the President (202-456-1414), one to your Congressperson (202-224-3121) and one to each of your two Senators (202-224-3121). To find out who represents you, click here. Take just one minute on each of these calls to let them know how you expect them to vote on a particular issue. Let them know you will have no hesitation voting for a primary opponent -- or even a candidate from another party -- if they don't do our bidding. Trust me, they will listen. If you have another five minutes, click here to send them each an email. And if you really want to drop an anvil on them, send them a snail mail letter!
2. Take over your local Democratic Party. Remember how much fun you had with all those friends and neighbors working together to get Barack Obama elected? YOU DID THE IMPOSSIBLE. It's time to re-up! Get everyone back together and go to the monthly meeting of your town or county Democratic Party -- and become the majority that runs it! There will not be many in attendance and they will either be happy or in shock that you and the Obama Revolution have entered the room looking like you mean business. President Obama's agenda will never happen without mass grass roots action -- and he won't feel encouraged to do the right thing if no one has his back, whether it's to stand with him, or push him in the right direction. When you all become the local Democratic Party, send me a photo of the group and I'll post it on my website.
3. Recruit someone to run for office who can win in your local elections next year -- or, better yet, consider running for office yourself! You don't have to settle for the incumbent who always expects to win. You can be our next representative! Don't believe it can happen? Check out these examples of regular citizens who got elected: State Senator Deb Simpson, California State Assemblyman Isadore Hall, Tempe, Arizona City Councilman Corey Woods, Wisconsin State Assemblyman Chris Danou, and Washington State Representative Larry Seaquist. The list goes on and on -- and you should be on it!
4. Show up. Picket the local branch of a big bank that took the bailout money. Hold vigils and marches. Consider civil disobedience. Those town hall meetings are open to you, too (and there's more of us than there are of them!). Make some noise, have some fun, get on the local news. Place "Capitalism Did This" signs on empty foreclosed homes, closed down businesses, crumbling schools and infrastructure. (You can download them from my website.)
5. Start your own media. You. Just you (or you and a couple friends). The mainstream media is owned by corporate America and, with few exceptions, it will never tell the whole truth -- so you have to do it! Start a blog! Start a website of real local news (here's an example: The Michigan Messenger). Tweet your friends and use Facebook to let them know what they need to do politically. The daily papers are dying. If you don't fill that void, who will?
FIVE THINGS WE SHOULD DO TO PROTECT OURSELVES AND OUR LOVED ONES UNTIL WE GET THROUGH THIS MESS:
1. Take your money out of your bank if it took bailout money and place it in a locally-owned bank or, preferably, a credit union.
2. Get rid of all your credit cards but one -- the kind where you have to pay up at the end of the month or you lose your card.
(Plus 8 Moore Things)FIVE THINGS WE CAN DO TO MAKE CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT LISTEN TO US:
1. Each of... more
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Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags Again is more than an exercise in nostalgia -- though there’s plenty of that. It is a cautionary tale, a sort of parakeet in the mine shaft, about what the future holds for America. And like many warnings of late (about terrorist threats, about Hurricanes in New Orleans) it’s been and continues to be ignored.
Let me go a step further. This is the film Michael Moore should have made, a documentary that will enrage you and make you open your window and yell, I’m not going to take it anymore.”
Your comments are welcome @ filmsoundoff.comSchmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags Again is more than an exercise in nostalgia -- though... more
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An 18-year Counterintelligence and Counterterrorism Manager for the FBI has called for a Special Counsel to be appointed to investigate the allegations of FBI translator-turned-whistleblower Sibel Edmonds. John M. Cole, who now works as an intelligence contractor for the Air Force, made his comments during an audio interview released late last week with radio journalist Peter B. Collins.
He also offered a detailed insider's look at the concerns among high-level officials inside the Bureau as Edmonds' disturbing allegations began coming to light back in 2002, before they would be quashed for seven long years by the Bush Administration's unprecedented use of the so-called "State Secrets Privilege" to gag her.
Earlier last week, following the publication of a remarkable American Conservative magazine cover story interview with Edmonds --- detailing a broad bribery, blackmail, and espionage conspiracy said to have been carried out between current and former members of the U.S. Congress, high-ranking State and Defense Department officials and covert operatives from Turkey and Israel, resulting in the theft and sale of nuclear weapons technology on the foreign black market --- Cole had been quoted by the magazine confirming one of Edmonds' key allegations.
"I am fully aware of the FBI's decade-long investigation of" Marc Grossman, he said in response to the AmCon article/interview. Grossman had served as the third-highest ranking official in the Bush State Department and was alleged by Edmonds in the interview, and in a sworn, video-taped deposition a month earlier, to have been the U.S. ringleader for a massive Turkish espionage scandal reaching through the halls of power and into top-secret nuclear facilities around the country to the benefit of allies and enemies alike. Cole said that the FBI's counterintelligence probe "ultimately was buried and covered up," and that he believes it is "long past time" for an investigation of the case to "bring about accountability."
In his subsequent interview with Collins last week (audio and text excerpts posted below) Cole elaborated on those comments in much greater detail, noting that Edmonds has been "one hundred percent right on the money, on the mark" and confirming the existence of an "ongoing and detailed effort by Turkey to develop influence in the United States" through various illegal activities.
"Yes, I can confirm that," Cole told Collins, "That's true."
The FBI veteran executive also offered an insider's account of the panic that ensued inside the highest echelons of the bureau following Edmonds' first disclosure of information in 2002, recounting how an executive assistant director admitted to him at the time, just after the story first broke, "Well, all I know is that everything that Sibel is stating is true. I read her file. Everything she stated is, in fact, accurate."
Cole further describes how the concerns about Edmonds ultimately led to the Bush Administration's two-time use of the Draconian "State Secrets Privilege" in hopes of keeping her extraordinary information from becoming public. "Everybody at headquarters level at the bureau knew that what she was saying was extremely accurate."
"I know they didn't want her to go out and speak about it at all," Cole revealed, "and I know they were trying to figure out ways of keeping this whole thing quiet, because they didn't want Sibel to come out."
He also offered information which directly counters one of the criticisms of Edmonds' allegations as frequently offered by skeptics. Namely, that as a short time FBI contract translator --- even though she was tasked to review some seven years of counterintelligence wiretaps made from 1996 to 2002 --- she couldn't have had enough understanding of the full scope of the investigations to understand what was really going on.
More...An 18-year Counterintelligence and Counterterrorism Manager for the FBI has called for... more
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Michael Moore speaks at George Washington University about his new film “Capitalism: A Love Story”. Chad Swarthout, senior at GWU, asks a question about free market economics and the government’s role in it, and Moore admits easily that the system we have now is not true capitalism
Apparently, Moore’s motivation is “what little optimism he has left” in the very system that he admits is flawed and probably a direct cause of today’s economic and political crises.
Moore fails to ever address the original question, so here it is again, Michael, in paraphrase:
Is a free market and a system of private property, which is essentially capitalism, really the problem? Or is it really the fact that we give too much power to the government in which big businesses have a heavy hand in?
***This article has been chosen as a discussion topic on PFP Movement Radio, http://www.blogtalkradio.com/pfpmovementradio Friday night at 6pm-8pm. Please Call In To The Show, 347-633-9636. COMMENTS will be included in the show so feel free to discuss or ask questions here on current.com as they will be addressed during the show. This article will also air on Freedom Hour Saturday at 9pm-10pm on Movement TV http://www.peacefreedomprosperity.com/?page_id=36***Michael Moore speaks at George Washington University about his new film... more
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Michael Moore lays out the positive thinking and promises by Obama for a brighter future with hopes of less war, no torture, nuclear disarmament, and a global peace (in stark contrast to the Bush regime and it's doctrines of preemptive war, and pre conditional negotiation - sounds like a bad insurance policy). He underscores the reality that these are promises and hopes yet to be kept or realized. He emphasizes the futility of the Afghanistan war and how people have never won freedom through the occupation of another country. Bravo Mike!Michael Moore lays out the positive thinking and promises by Obama for a brighter... more
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There are things that you hardly see on television. Not only the hyper-censored Italian television, which responds only to the logic of political affiliation, with very few exceptions, but in televisions around the world, because there are truths that displease too many people. So it happens that some beautiful and very interesting documentaries have a notoriety far lower than they'd deserve.There are things that you hardly see on television. Not only the hyper-censored... more
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What is Capitalism? have we ever actually seen it in our lifetimes? Read link for more info.What is Capitalism? have we ever actually seen it in our lifetimes? Read link for... more
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A spirited discussion/argument between the hosts about Zombieland and Capitalism - films worth seeing or dull and bland movies to avoid?A spirited discussion/argument between the hosts about Zombieland and Capitalism -... more
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Michael Moore's Capitalism, A Love Story has revealed a deep dark secret to the intrepid reporters of ABC News - so-called Dead Peasant Insurance, the practice of companies taking out secret life insurance policies on their low-level employees, with the benefits paid out to the company upon the employee's death, even if they no longer work at the company.
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How would you like it if, when you die, your family gets nothing but your employer gets millions?Michael Moore's Capitalism, A Love Story has revealed a deep dark secret to the... more
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Even though this story broke years ago, ABC surprised to learn about "Dead Peasant" insurance from Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story"Even though this story broke years ago, ABC surprised to learn about "Dead... more
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Want a movie that tells the true story of the financial crisis? Forget that documentary by Michael Moore. Try "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs."
It’s the movie everyone’s talking about: the story of a nation sucked in by a deal too good to be true. Huge short-term gains followed by a stunning fall. And a solution that requires the architects of the disaster to step back in and pick up the pieces.
No, not Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story, which skewers Wall Street and the free market economy for creating an epic real estate boom and bust.
It's the animated surprise hit Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs (in 3-D!) whose cartoon characters – coming to the big screen one year after the fall of Lehman — end up telling us more about the perils of unchecked economic growth than do all the real people in Moore’s documentary.Want a movie that tells the true story of the financial crisis? Forget that... more
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Jorge Carreon blogs in this edition of Personalities Match-Up, a change in weather at the box office finds the zombies devouring the “Meatballs.” Sony Pictures delivers the season’s first one-two punch as “Zombieland” takes over the top spot to lead the Friday Night Five.Jorge Carreon blogs in this edition of Personalities Match-Up, a change in weather at... more
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This is great: Michael Moore asks Sen. Bernie Sanders "What's wrong with American Capitalism?"
Sen. Sanders wastes no time giving an in-depth answer.
You can see more episodes or sign up for the weekly show for free at http://sandersunfiltered.comThis is great: Michael Moore asks Sen. Bernie Sanders "What's wrong with... more
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How can someone who made $50,000,000 under a free market system claim that capitalism did nothing for him? Maybe if he gave away all the money he made from his films he would have some more credibility. What's he going to say next, that cheeseburgers never did anything for him...
Millionaire Filmmaker Michael Moore: ‘Capitalism Did Nothing For Me’
Thursday, October 01, 2009
By Nicholas Ballasy, Video Reporter
(CNSNews.com) -- Documentary film director Michael Moore, who has become a millionaire thanks to the profits from his movies, told CNSNews.com that “capitalism did nothing” for him.
CNSNews.com spoke with Moore on the red carpet at the Uptown Theatre in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday night before the premiere of his upcoming documentary, “Capitalism: A Love Story."
CNSNews.com asked: “Critics may say, when they see this movie, Michael Moore has amassed a fortune of over $50 million, some have said and –”
Moore said: “Really? Are you kidding me? Seriously? Wow. Where did it go?”
CNSNews.com then asked Moore: “Critics would say he’s [Moore] been very successful under a capitalist system. How would you justify making a movie where you paint capitalism as evil?”
Moore said: “Well, capitalism did nothing for me, starting with my first film.”
“You know, I had to pretty much beg, borrow and steal,” he said. “The system is not set up to help somebody from the working class make a movie like this and get the truth out there.”
“In fact, in Fahrenheit 9/11 if you remember, capitalism, the Disney Corporation, tried to kill that film--tried to make it so that people couldn’t see it,” said Moore. “My book Stupid White Men--Harper Collins tried to kill that book so that people couldn’t see it. It's only because I put the light of day on it and told people what was going on did people get the chance to see these things.”
According to Fortune Magazine, Moore’s films have grossed over $300 million worldwide. His highest grossing film was “Fahrenheit 9/11,” which critiques the Bush administration’s handling of the war in Iraq and earned over $200 million worldwide.
Moore reportedly was paid $21 million by Disney for producing, directing and creating the film.
Moore also earned 50 percent of the profits of his 2007 film “Sicko,” totaling $25 million plus DVD sales, according to Vanity Fair.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Moore would receive all of the profits made from DVD sales of “Sicko,” sales of which have been estimated at over $17 million.
“Look, you know, I mean, I make documentary films,” said Moore. “So, clearly, I’m not loaded in the way you described. But I do well, obviously because my films do well.”
“So, that means I have an extra responsibility to make sure I spend my time trying to make things better for the people that don’t have what I have, right? I mean, everybody should do that,” he said.How can someone who made $50,000,000 under a free market system claim that capitalism... more
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Politifact rates this statement as mostly true, depending on which formula is used.
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In his new movie Capitalism: A Love Story, liberal provocateur Michael Moore tries to build a case that the rich keep getting richer while everyone else is left behind. One statistic he cites in the film, which he repeated at a Sept. 29, 2009, news conference in Washington, is that "the richest 1 percent have more financial wealth than the bottom 95 percent combined."
On his Web site, Moore provides a list of sources to back up his claims. For this one, the filmmaker cites a memo written by Citigroup's research staff -- a memo that plays a key role in the film as a symbol of Wall Street excess.
The Citigroup document, which was provided to PolitiFact by Moore's staff, cites a table using statistics assembled by New York University and Bard College economist Edward N. Wolff. Wolff uses Federal Reserve Board findings on family wealth drawn from the Survey of Consumer Finances, a once-every-three-years study. The Citigroup document uses numbers from the 2001 survey.
more at link...Politifact rates this statement as mostly true, depending on which formula is used.... more
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Sans video camera, filmmaker Michael Moore on Tuesday turned his megaphone on the current health care system and those Blue Dog Democrats he claims are "dogging" the health care debate.
Moore, an advocate of a single-payer, government-run health care system, called the current setup "cruel," and said that two-thirds of Americans support a single-payer system and would punish those Democrats who steer the conversation away from that option.
"To the Democrats in Congress," Moore said, "find your spine. Read the polls. And see us coming."
The contentious documentarian spoke at the Washington offices of Public Citizen, a non-profit consumer advocacy group. Moore has a new film called "Capitalism: A Love Story" slated for release Friday, and says he's using the media attention to push for single-payer health care.
When asked why the single-payer option hasn't won much support in the health care debate in Washington, Moore said Democrats "haven't felt the heat."
Moore also criticized liberal voters, who he said lacked the motivation of Republicans and "wouldn't get up at 6 a.m." like their conservative counterparts.
"There's a lot of anger out there that's simmering beneath the surface," said Moore, adding that the Democrats haven't tapped that fury.Sans video camera, filmmaker Michael Moore on Tuesday turned his megaphone on the... more
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Mike Moore is interviewed on Democracy Now with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez asking about his new film Capitalism a Love Story. One great point is that we don't have a democratic workplace and we should.Mike Moore is interviewed on Democracy Now with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez asking... more
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Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert took exception on Wednesday to the claim in Michael Moore's latest film that "capitalism is an evil and you cannot regulate evil."
"No, you can't regulate evil," Colbert acknowledged. "But I think I've got a way to chop it up, rebundle it, and sell it to Goldman Sachs."
Colbert then welcomed the "enemy of capitalism" himself to the show to talk about Capitalism: A Love Story.
Moore began by explaining the title of the film, saying, "The 'love story' applies to the wealthy, who love their money -- and of course they love our money too. ... They love all money, and they've tried to take as much of our money as they can."
"There can never be too much love," Colbert objected.
"It's not a democratic system," Moore retorted. "Capitalism is the enemy of democracy, because the people don't have a say in how this economy is run."
Colbert then raised the subject of the bailout, suggesting that "Wall Street was pissed off that they might get that three trillion dollars -- because it might come with strings attached. But they forgave Obama when he didn't add any." He noted that Moore is also a critic of Obama because "you think he's in the pocket of guys like Goldman Sachs."
"I point out in the film that Goldman Sachs is his number one private contributor," Moore agreed. "But I voted for the guy, I'm still hopeful that he's going to do the right things and side with us and not Wall Street. But the jury's out on that."
"You argue that things like Goldman Sachs have too much influence," Colbert went on. "Who then, Mr. Moore, do you think should have that kind of influence?"
"The people," Moore replied to loud applause. "The people of this country."Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert took exception on Wednesday to the claim in... more
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In the 20 years since filmmaker Michael Moore entered the stage with Roger & Me, which centered on his Quixotic quest to nail an interview with then General Motors chairman Roger Smith, he has improved slightly as a filmmaker. At 91 minutes, Roger & Me seemed to go on forever. At 120 minutes, Capitalism, A Love Story, is at least not boring. Although billed as a documentary it is instead a propaganda film – as much as is Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will.In the 20 years since filmmaker Michael Moore entered the stage with Roger & Me,... more
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The film also turns the spotlight on some underreported gems: an internal Citibank report happily declaring America a "plutonomy," with the top 1 percent of the population controlling more financial wealth than the bottom 95 percent; an expose of "dead peasant" insurance policies that have companies cashing in on the untimely deaths of their employees; and amazing footage of FDR, found buried in a film archive and not seen in decades, calling for a Second Bill of Rights that would guarantee all Americans a useful job, a decent home, adequate health care, and a good education.
And Moore underlines the irony of Larry Summers being put in charge of fixing the crisis he helped create. A little like asking Kanye West to plan a Taylor Swift tribute.
While taking no prisoners, and directing equal doses of ire at Republicans and Democrats alike, the film also features a number of heroes, including bailout watchdog Elizabeth Warren; Wayne County, Michigan Sheriff Warren Evans, who announced in February: "I cannot in clear conscience allow one more family to be put out of their home until I am satisfied they have been afforded every option they are entitled to under the law to avoid foreclosure"; and Ohio Rep. Marcy Kaptur, who took to the House floor and offered a radical solution to the foreclosure crisis: "So I say to the American people, you be squatters in your own homes. Don't you leave."
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/barack-obama-must-see-mic_b_293407.htmlThe film also turns the spotlight on some underreported gems: an internal Citibank... more
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