Posted on 06/28/2004 3:46:26 PM PDT by swilhelm73
There's an oft-repeated aphorism, generally attributed to Daniel Patrick Moynihan, which maintains that "you're entitled to your own opinion; you are not entitled to your own facts."
Michael Moore clearly disagrees.
By the time the opening titles roll on his award-winning, smash hit pseudo-documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11, we've already learned that the 2000 election was a fraud in which blacks were disenfranchised. That a fair count would have made Gore president has been independently confirmed, says Moore. Just the opposite is true.
Bush spent much of the first few months of his presidency on vacation. (Blink, and you might not notice that Bush is meeting with Tony Blair when Moore indicts him for "relaxing at Camp David.") Bush was more interested in Iraq than Afghanistan after 9/11, and only invaded Afghanistan because he had to, because that was where the attack came from. Moore approvingly excerpts an interview to this effect with former terror czar and hero to Bush-haters Richard Clarke, and accuses Bush of committing too few troops in Afghanistan.
Then, confusingly, he argues that the Afghan war was in fact unjust; it was just fought so that the Texas petroleum firm Unocal could build a pipeline. Moore insinuates that Hamid Karzai was installed as Afghanistan's interim president because he was once a consultant to Unocal, and Moore strongly implies -- with footage of a pipeline being built -- that Unocal is now building its pipeline. Actually, Unocal pulled out of the pipeline deal in 1999; the Karzai government wants to revisit the project but it has so far gone nowhere.
Bush's family has a history of business ties with the Saudis, including with the bin Ladens, but the notion that Osama is estranged from the rest of his family is "exaggerated," says Craig Unger. (Unger's book, House of Bush, House of Saud, isn't available in the UK because publishers fear Britain's strict libel laws; Moore, meanwhile, has ironically threatened to sue his critics for libel.) Because of these business ties, according to Moore, Bush let the bin Laden family flee without being questioned just after 9/11, while most planes were grounded. In fact, none other than Richard Clarke has said this was his decision alone.
Moore has covered all these wild conspiracy theories before he even gets to his main event, Iraq, where children play happily in the streets of Baghdad under Saddam Hussein, and all is well. (There is some suggestion that Saddam might have been a bad guy early in the film, when it shows footage of Saddam shaking hands with Donald Rumsfeld in the '80s; this line of thought is quickly abandoned.) Iraq was a "sovereign nation," and it hadn't attacked us or even threatened to attack us, says Moore.
I could go on with the debunking, but others, notably Christopher Hitchens, have done and will do a fine job of that. Nor will I dwell too long on Moore's repellent exploitation of frustrated soldiers, amputees, and grieving parents, all of whom he films -- no doubt with prompting -- channeling their emotions into anger at the Bush administrations.
I'm more interested what this film-- with its record-breaking box office, its awards, and its overwhelmingly positive critical reception -- will do to the political discourse.
Perhaps this movie appeals only to the committed left. The narrow band of swing voters in the middle will be repulsed, and Democrats who embrace this hard left lunacy will regret it. Half the Washington Democratic establishment showed up for a premier last week, including DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe, Senators Tom Daschle, Tom Harkin, Max Baucus, Ernest Hollings, Debbie Stabenow, and Bill Nelson, among many others. When John Kerry is asked if he agrees with Moore's conclusions, he'll be forced to alienate either his base or the center. Republicans will gain an edge.
That's the optimistic view. Here's the pessimistic one:
Many uncommitted voters will see this movie, just to find out what all the fuss is about. They'll take Moore's arguments, such as they are, basically at face value, and conclude that Bush is an unfit president. Most of the mainstream media won't take much time to seriously fact-check the movie, and Moore's assertions really will change minds. In short, Moynihan will be proven wrong: you really are entitled to your own facts.
Which view is correct? I wish I knew.
A friend from Florida called me and told me that she knows two Democrats who have seen the movie and it has prompted them to get finally so fed up with the Democrats they plan to vote for Bush this November.
Moore may well get hoisted on his own petard.
These people will go to their graves claiming "Gore Won!" In fact, that will probably be engraved on most of their headstones. I take some degree of pleasure in watching their descent into madness.
read later
Something tells he he hasn't seen his own petard in years. Maybe he could try Atkins?
I share a shop with a SF lefty, and he confided in me last week that although he and his lefty friends don't like Bush, they don't like Kerry that much better.
"I share a shop with a SF lefty, and he confided in me last week that although he and his lefty friends don't like Bush, they don't like Kerry that much better."
Sounds like my liberal relatives. One is a likely Nader voter, the other is worried about his taxes going up.
God, I hope the optimistic view turns out to be true. I think it will. We have to get the word out about Michael Moore's extremism, and turn him into a rock tied to the Dems ankles. A little jujitsu is in order: take this attack and turn it back on them doing double damage.
ROTFLOL
Below I have listed the facts of Fahrenheit 9/11.
1.
2.
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4.
...................................................129.
Anyone who has seen the movie have any comments to add?
But I bet he(and others) have smelled it.
Moore's movie is to liberals what the "The Eternal Jew" was to Nazis and garden-variety anti-semites in the thirties. Both groups want to believe the worst of their ideological opponents and are quite willing to suspend disbelief in that regard. The people who love F-9/11 want to believe the absolute worst of Bush, and this rotten piece of leftist propaganda does the trick quite nicely. Even a number of prominent Bush-haters have admitted as much. They know Moore is a lying sack of excrement, but he's saying things about Bush that they desperately want to believe...lies or not.
Anyone know the true stats on this?
bookmark bump
Which view is correct? I wish I knew.
The answer is both and neither and don't know which dominates. And the net effect is to increase the polarization on both sides.
The moderates who see this in rural texas are going to bump into enough people and facts to refute this propaganda, recognize it as such and be repulsed by it. The moderates who see this on the upper west side of manhattan are never going to here it disputed and accept it face value and turn against Bush. The moderates who see this in Western PA and OH? Could go either way, and likely it will go both ways on a case by case basis.
End results: R areas become more R, D areas become more D, partisanship increases, the swing areas diminish slightly.
And the all important how does this affect moderates in swing states is unknown.
My liberal inlaws have zero enthusiasm for Kerry too. They were excited about Dean, but Kerry leaves them cold. But I expect they will vote for him simply as a vote against Bush.
Sure.
Al Gore did not win.
No, not true.
The Democrats and the media couldn't find a single voter unjustly denied the right to vote. There was one guy who was stopped at first but a quick call to election headquarters fixed that and he got to vote.
OTOH, over 4000 ex-felons with no right to vote, in fact voted according to the Palm Beach Post. And there have been no real accurate measurement of the number of dead, illegal alien, and snowbird voters.
So basically, Gov Jeb Bush needed a much more strict purge of the invalid listings on the voter rolls. But the Democrats don't want that because it would cut down on their voter fraud.
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