wAsHINtUhn/www.michaelmoore.com--This has the Bush administration's fingerprints all over it. When Nixon was in-trouble, he sicked the IRS on people. When George W. Bush's White House is sinking, it's the Treasury Department. So, they send two-letters to Michael Moore and his production company telling him he's under investigation for doing-business in Cuba, particularly for getting medical care for a number of 9/11 rescue workers.
You see, Americans don't have the freedom of movement that say someone in Canada does to go to Cuba. We get fined a minimum of $600-per-day that we're there. The interpretations of aiding the Cuban government and economy are fast and furious, and highly-selective. You cannot make a documentary about Cuba that is even-handed if you're an American, you'll get this type of harassment.
The reasons for attacking Moore should be obvious: they don't want us to know what things are really like in Cuba, and that people have free-access to some of the finest medical care on this earth. Unlike the United States, Cuba recognizes the human right to shelter, food, and medical care. Certainly, conditions aren't great in Cuba, but we can ascribe a lot of that to the illegal State Department embargo that nation has been under for decades.
The majority of the world firmly opposes the Cuban embargo in the UN. But consider the fact that economic-ties with Spain, Venezuela, and most of the world besides the US, are beginning to raise-up economic conditions in Cuba. And Jesus Christ are they stupid at Big Pharma and the Bush administration, they fell right into this trap. It wouldn't be that hard-to-believe that it was wilfully set by Moore, the Weinsteins, and their PR campaign. More power to them. The forces of reaction never learn, because they aren't supposed to. AP points-out the obvious:
The timing of the investigation is reminiscent of the firestorm that preceded the Cannes debut of "Fahrenheit 9/11," which won the festival's top prize in 2004. The Walt Disney Co. refused to let subsidiary Miramax release the film because of its political content, prompting Miramax bosses Harvey and Bob Weinstein to release "Fahrenheit 9/11" on their own. The Weinsteins later left Miramax to form the Weinstein Co., which is releasing "Sicko." They declined to comment on the Treasury investigation, said company spokeswoman Sarah Levinson Rothman. (AP, 05.10.2007)
Some master-prints of Moore's documentary film "Sicko" have been secreted to a safe house, probably in Canada. Maybe Bush's buddy conservative Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper can send the Mounties in to retrieve them. I would wager that Lion's Gate Films has them, since they're a Canadian company. One also has to realize that the Weinsteins and Moore are waging a publicity campaign simultaneous to all of this. Confused? That's OK.
Hiding the film was good thinking on Michael Moore's part, he knew they were likely going to seize the film. If you can say one thing about the Bush administration, they're preemptive. The problem is, it doesn't take a genius to be eight-steps ahead of them. Even Gerald Ford was smarter than this, and he was pretty stupid. Reagan too. But this is the capper White House, isn't it? They never learn.
In December of 2006, Oliver Stone was fined for taking a documentary film crew into Cuba. Considering no specific-charges were attached to the letters to Moore, we can consider it a smear, or a "bad-jacketing" to injure his credibility. In the current political climate, it's bound to fail. It should be remembered that Oliver Stone was also hit with a fine for his first documentary on Castro ("Comandante," which is still being suppressed by HBO within the United States), and was also forced by HBO to go back to Cuba and make another work that was "harder" on Castro called "Looking for Fidel." The DVD for Comandante is only available as a PAL-import (we use NTSC in North America). You can obtain the PAL version here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00022VML2/imdb-adbox/
Moore has posted both letters from the Treasury Department's OFAC (Office of Foreign Asset Control) on his site, as well as a statement from his producer making it clear that the film is coming-out regardless. Oliver Stone was also hit with the $6,322.20 fine from this same office in December, though it was spread amongst four individuals whose names have gone undisclosed, so it's unlikely that he paid the total sum. With the heft of the Weinsteins and Lion's Gate, it's likely that this whole investigation will only insure the release of the film and yet another box-office record. If there is one issue that cuts-to-the-heart of these times in the United States, it's the impending collapse of access to health care for most Americans.
Ask most health care workers (like my neighbor's wife, for example), and they will tell you we're in a serious crisis. Added to this anthropological-mess is the fact that the Baby Boomers are retiring. We could have a demographic meltdown on our hands. There will certainly be political-costs attached for not meeting the demands for reform that are surely coming. Right now, today, what we seem to be seeing is a three-pronged assault by the allies in government of the pharmaceutical, insurance, and corporate-modeled health care industries (the Bush administration, and shills like Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.), the media (frequently owned by the same folks), and the aforementioned industries themselves.
Today, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America senior vice president Ken Johnson preemptively attacked Moore's film again, though it has only been screened in excerpts at the Toronto Film Festival. Does he have his own copy? It gets a full-screening at Cannes on May 19. Based on these facts alone, you have an obvious coordination going on, possibly from the Oval Office. Why? The Bush family has controlling-interests in Eli Lily for one, and there's a mountain of money at stake.
AdAge.com claims that the pharmaceutical industry is attempting to discredit Moore's film by trying to spin the filmmaker as biased and one-sided. Ken Johnson, senior vice president for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), says America needs a "thoughtful and well-researched" investigation into America's healthcare problems, and insists Moore's film won't provide that. But consumer health advocate Mike Adams disagrees. "Big Pharma is the king of spin and propaganda," he says. "And drug companies will paint anything as 'biased' if it doesn't bow down to the lies, distortions and fraud being promoted by the industry. Big Pharma is not merely afraid of Michael Moore, they're afraid of anything resembling honest scrutiny or investigative journalism," he added. (http://www.newstarget.com/z020085.html)
This is from August 22nd, 2006. Is it possible that a propaganda campaign is being conducted utilizing interlocking-networks between government and the business community? This would also mean that public monies are being used to fund them, which is in-itself a federal offense. At most, Moore is probably only going to have to pay a fine of around $7,000, since the New York Yankees recently got busted in Havana for doing business there, along with Stone and some folks who mistakenly-bought Cuban cigars online.
Cuba is known for its great baseball players--even Castro could beat George W. Bush at a game in his current state of deteriorated health. This is all being done to smear Michael Moore and his documentary before its release, but what these forces are also doing is hurting those 9/11 heroes, those firemen and rescue workers whom Moore took to Cuba for medical care. They still suffer from the effects of that day, and the government isn't helping them, just like our veterans. Just like all of us. What the media, the Bush administration, the GOP, and the health care giants don't realize is that they're messing-with their own iconography. They're shitting where they eat (nothing new there).
Considering that the Senate overwhelmingly-passed S.1082 (the bill), S.Amdt. 990 (Senate Amendment 990), allowing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to approve the importation of cheaper pharmaceuticals from other countries, it's clear which way the wind is blowing. The cloture has begun, and the bill is veto-proof. There won't be anything in Moore's film that isn't congruent with the congressional conclusions of S.1082, amendment 990. I'll be sure to see "Sicko" twice.
AP Today: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/10/entertainment/main2784703.shtml
The Treasury Department Letters to Michael Moore: www.michaelmoore.com
Some opinions on Cuba: http://www.cubatravelusa.com/the_experts_opinions.htm
OFAC's decision on Oliver Stone's "Comandante" (PDF): http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/civpen/penalties/12012006.pdf
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