Michael Moore: 'Show that the people of Britain don't support Bush'

[T_i_B]

http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/story.jsp?story=464491

The baseball-capped popular icon of Western opposition to the Iraq war is touring British cities, hoping to be the "advance guard" for mass protests against Mr Bush, who arrives in Britain tomorrow. "It's up to the British people to do their job in letting the American people know the British people don't support this war," Moore says.

The author of the best-selling critique of corporate America, Stupid White Men, says one of the "many lies" told by the US Government about the Iraq war (alongside claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and helped plan 9/11) was the suggestion that "the British are with us on this, the British are our allies and our friends".

He has been astonished by the response of the British public to what is essentially a book promotional tour. "We have been jokingly referring to this as the first stadium tour for a book," he says, after 3,000 people turned up at the Manchester Apollo the night before.

And he describes Tony Blair as the "rug" that needs to be pulled away from under the feet of the American President. His audiences, he thinks, are "afraid of saying the words 'Tony Blair must go' because they are afraid of what that means in terms of what he might be replaced with". The media mogul, Rupert Murdoch, may believe the new Conservative leader Michael Howard is a potential prime minister but Moore does not. "People seem to be very afraid the Tories could come back into power. I have tried my best to ridicule that notion. They need to trust that the people in this country don't want to go back to those old days."

[dennis4868]

1. Go Michael Go....

I only wish we had people in the congress who spoke out like Michael Morre does on a consistent basis. Our party would be in a stronger and better position!

[bryant69]

2. Well

Michael Moore is no politician nor a statesman. He's a humorist and a good speaker at times (I find him good on class issues or on labor, but not good on many other issues), but he doesn't posses the discipline required to be a statesman, and how could he work with his fellow Congresspeople.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[dennis4868]

3. The hell with discipline....

we need a dem in congress to just let it all out and go after Bush and hold him accountable for everything instead of saying things like, "well the President is a good man...bla bla bla bla." The problem is people in our party in congress practice to much discipline and are giving Bush and his thugs a free ride. The repubs did not practice discipline in the 1990s and they won congress, the WH (well, not really), and many of the governorships! It's time to take the gloves off and fight damn it!

[zonmoy]

7. basicly

what we need for democrats in congress is somebody who is as aggressive for progressive issues as the neocons are for their issues. Not the wimps and cowards we have now.

[Ernesto]

5. Discipline?

Ain't no mention of discipline in my stinking dictionary.. Statesman = 1. One who is a leader in national or international affairs. 2. A political leader regarded as a disinterested promoter of the public good. Hmmmmmmm sounds a bit like Micheal Moore to me. But what do I know, I ain't got no stinking discipline, my own self.

[T_i_B]

6. Well he isn't a congressman

Moore is a writer & satirist. If anything a lack of discipline is one of the best possible features of a good satirist. It allows them to put full whack into satirizing whatever needs it. Good satirists and indeed many of the best political writers do not hold back in the slightest.

[dfitzsim]

4. Rep. Henry Waxman - D. California

I wish we had 20 more like him.

[The Animator]

8. Moore for President!

I'd reccommend he run for President if it wasn't such a step
down from his current job. Making people laugh is a far nobler
pursuit.

So what if he's not a politician? 

I haven't been too impressed with our "proffesional"
politicans, especially of late. Far too many of our current
leaders have spent their entire lives in politics, like their
fathers before them. How can one bring bold new perspectives
and fresh ideas into politics, when politics is the only thing
you know?

When this country was still young, it was not necessary for
it's leaders to have prior political experience... hell you
didn't even have to be a good liar! Farmers, doctors, lawyers,
cobblers, millers, anyone, from any walk of life could
represent there community. Who better to protect the interests
of a farming community than another farmer? Who better to
represent an industrial community than one of it's own labors?

It couldn't hurt to get some writers, salesmen, scientists,
theme park employees, proffesional wrestlers, musicians and
yes even actors into office. Get some people in there to shake
things up. We might hear a few things we've never heard
before. At the very least CSPAN would be much more fund to
watch.

[Oberst Klink]

11. The japanese, in revolt, elected standup comics to national offices

Some of these standups are still in office, and (according to Japanese standards) are still funny.

[newyawker99]

19. Hi The Animator!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Lisa]

9. a woman I know who was at Moore's Manchester event last week ...

... says that he had bought rail tickets to London, and was giving them away to audience members who couldn't afford to go to the protests otherwise. I don't know how much he spent in total, but the crowd sure appreciated it.

[Manix]

10. Give the Crawford Coward hell Mike!!!

n/t

[durutti]

12. I Dislike Michael Moore

Sorry. He's a sellout.

He's gone from supporting Ralph Nader to supporting Wesley Clark, a representative of the military-industrial complex in the most literal sense.

I think he's become eager to be accepted by "mainstream" America. This would explain the "things liberals do wrong" section of his latest book, which I take issue with...

First of all, it's impossible for either Moore or myself to know whether or not Mumia Abu-Jamal killed Daniel Faulkner. It is know, though, that he has yet to receive a fair trial. By condemning the Mumia movement, you're decreasing the chances that he'll finally get one.

Second, Bill O'Reilly has never made any "good points". He is not against the death penalty, as you say. He's advocated it on at least one occasion. On others, he's advocated torture in lieu of it.

I most take issue with the idea that right-wingers attract so many followers because "they have something they believe in". That has nothing to do with it. They have millionaires funding their movement. That's why.

[dArKeR]

13. Moore finds welcome in `old Europe'

A packed Berlin concert hall. Cheers and applause in a raucous welcome fit for a beloved popstar. But this idol doesn't exactly sing. He rants and rails against US President George W. Bush.

US filmmaker and author Michael Moore began his German tour in Berlin this week to promote the German-language version of Dude, Where's My Country.

In two sold-out appearances, 3,000 adoring German fans got exactly what they came for: a hissing diatribe against the US government.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2003/11/20/2003076611

[Kellanved]

14. it was great

And no: he did not only talk about the US - he was very critical of the currentEuropean wellfare reforms.
For some reason the established and respected German media hates him, reducing his fans to uninformed quasi-religious anti-americans and calling his facts "Bogus". The FAZ and der Spiegel (especially the Spiegel seems to fight a feud) even managed to prove that his facts are bogus using bogus facts; most others just think that humor and politics don't mix and/or that the jokes aren't funny.

[T_i_B]

15. It is a similar story over here

Blairite chickenhawks such as David Aaronvitch are currently trying to have a pop at Moore. Mostly is seems like these attacks are fuelled by bitterness that people like Moore have won the argument over Iraq and also jealousy over Moore's popularity. Nick Cohen's spew in the UK New statesman was a classic example of this. He moaned that we Brits are buying books by Moore and Franken that he considers too parochial for our taste in a rant that owed more to bitterness that people were buying these books instead of his own.

And let's not hear Cohen bitching about consistency when he has been up and down on the war on terror more often than a whore's drawers. Moore explains himself when he changes direction better than Nick Cohen ever will.

I think that it is quite funny that people such as Aaronvitch call Moore for his writing style when Aaronvitch has never written a good article in his life. And the neo-cons who grumble about supposed factual inaccuracies in Moores work are the exact same people who lied us into an immoral and unjust invasion of Iraq.

[Kellanved]

16. who would have guessed?

It seems indeed to be the same phenomenon in both countries. I'd thought that the British press is more able to take a joke as what it is (I went to the show to have fun, just as all others I've talked to - yet the press makes it a serious event frequented by underinformed youths).

In the Spiegel's case it's pretty easy to see why: during the show he called a Spiegel Journalist "German Fucker" - guess who writes the (bad) Anti-Moore articles...
But most other points criticised are ridiculous: they say that €12 for a ticket is ripping "indoctrinated" youths off - yet tickets for most other events cost ten times as much.

As for criticising the "sloppy" use of facts on the left: they should read Ann Coulter and then say it again... (one might wonder why Moore is on the bestseller lists in Europe, but Coulter isn't? IMHO Moore is less likely to cause Anti-Americanism than Coulter)

[T_i_B]

17. Don't know about the German anti-Moore gumph

But the British anti-Moore bunch tend to be paid up apologists for Phoney B:liar (and in Cohen's case, Chalabli).

It's quite amusing that this lot make all these claims about Moore not challenging the liberal view enough when the likes of Aaronvitch never EVER challenge anything their political paymasters get up to.

And before you Blairites start whinging about Moore, take a look at the distortions, smearing and outright lies of "new" labour. Nothing Moore writes can compare with that. Maybe that is why they try to smear Al Franken too, because they are afraid somebody might try to write something like Lies and the lying liars who tell them: a fair and balanced look at "new" labour. and nail them for what they are.

[Kellanved]

18. knowing the sorry state of the Geman press

I'd say they've just copied the British press' message.

And yes: an Al Franken wouldn't be a bad thing here either.