* admin goes after Moore's latest film, "Sicko"

[babylonsister]

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/10/1102/

Michael Moore Faces US Treasury Probe
by David Germain

LOS ANGELES - Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore is under investigation by the U.S. Treasury Department for taking ailing Sept. 11 rescue workers to Cuba for a segment in his upcoming health-care documentary “Sicko,” The Associated Press has learned.

The investigation provides another contentious lead-in for a provocative film by Moore, a fierce critic of President Bush. In the past, Moore’s adversaries have fanned publicity that helped the filmmaker create a new brand of opinionated blockbuster documentary. 0510 05

“Sicko” promises to take the health-care industry to task the way Moore confronted America’s passion for guns in “Bowling for Columbine” and skewered Bush over his handling of Sept. 11 in “Fahrenheit 9/11.”

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control notified Moore in a letter dated May 2 that it was conducting a civil investigation for possible violations of the U.S. trade embargo restricting travel to Cuba. A copy of the letter was obtained Tuesday by the AP.

“This office has no record that a specific license was issued authorizing you to engage in travel-related transactions involving Cuba,” Dale Thompson, OFAC chief of general investigations and field operations, wrote in the letter to Moore.

more...

[Ganja Ninja]

1. Glad to see the administration helping to drum up interest in ...

Moore's new film.

[trotsky]

4. Exactly right.

Free publicity. Moore is absolutely lapping it up, I bet.

[B3Nut]

16. Moore isn't stupid

You can't buy this kind of advertisement and publicity with the cash the fine (if levied) will cost.

Brilliant. Bloody brilliant.

Guess I'll have to buy the DVD. :D

Todd in Cheesecurdsitan

[uppityperson]

13. Publicity is good, let people know this movie will be released soon.

[EFerrari]

2. Amy said this morning that Moore has stashed a copy of the film

outside of the country in case the government tried to interfere with it. :evilgrin:

[Cha]

15. Good! Michael knows what's

goin' on!

[KansDem]

3. Talk about paranoid! Don't they know it's about the US health-care industry...

...and not about Bush?

[babylonsister]

5. They are tied together in big financial ways, aren't they? Can't have

big pharma put under the microscope (no puns intended).

[cmd]

6. Is that the best they can do? Question travel to Cuba?

Jeez, they ought to come up with something a little relevant to health care.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. Fantastic.

Just more hype for the movie.

[JenniferJuniper]

8. Phil Ochs wrote

a song back in the early 60's called "William Worthy"

"William Worthy isn't worthy to enter our doors,
Went down to Cuba, he's not American anymore.
But somehow it is strange to hear the State Department say,
You are living in the free world, in the free world you must stay."

How stagnant we are.

[JitterbugPerfume]

9. I love muckrakers!

and Michael Moore is the best among them

[Catherine Vincent]

10. Why is the Bush administration worried about Michael Moore's documentary?

If you've got nothing to hide they shouldn't worry. Unless....

[Johonny]

11. Why again aren't we traveling to Cuba?

The whole revolution thing was entire two generation ago. Can be get over it already and have actual relationships with one our nearest neighboring countries?

[LSK]

12. bullshit as usual I see

:grr:

[Cha]

14. More publicity for Sicko..those

fedassholes never learn.