MOORE BLASTS the ADMIN!!!"Open Letter from Michael Moore to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson"

[in_cog_ni_to]

:woohoo:


Friday, May 11th, 2007
Open Letter from Michael Moore to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson

Secretary Henry Paulson
Department of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington, DC 20220

May 11, 2007

Secretary Paulson,

I am contacting you in light of the document sent to me dated May 2, 2007, which was received May 7, 2007 indicating that an investigation has been opened up with regards to a trip I took to Cuba with a group of 9/11 heroes in February 2007 related to the movie SiCKO.

SiCKO, which is premiering in Cannes on May 19th and opening in the U.S. on the July 4th weekend, will expose the health care industry’s greed and control over America’s political processes and how it has produced a health care system that is broken and in some cases killing people. The efforts of the Bush Administration to investigate me will not stop us from making sure the American people see SiCKO.

I believe that the decision to conduct this investigation represents the latest example of the Bush Administration abusing the federal government for raw, crass, political purposes. Over the last seven years of the Bush Presidency, we have seen the abuse of government to promote a political agenda designed to benefit the conservative base of the Republican Party, special interests and major financial contributors. From holding secret meetings for the energy industry to re-writing science findings to cooking the books on intelligence to the firing of U.S. Attorneys, this Administration has shown time and time again that it will abuse its power and authority.

There are a number of specific facts that have led me to conclude that politics could very well be driving this Bush Administration investigation of me and my film.

First, the Bush Administration has been aware of this matter for months (since October 2006) and never took any action until less than two weeks before SiCKO is set to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and a little more than a month before it is scheduled to open in the United States.

Second, the health care and insurance industry, which is exposed in the movie and has expressed concerns about the impact of the movie on their industries, is a major corporate underwriter of President George W. Bush and the Republican Party, having contributed over $13 million to the Bush presidential campaign in 2004 and more than $180 million to Republican candidates over the last two campaign cycles. It is well documented that the industry is very concerned about the impact of SiCKO. They have threatened their employees if they talk to me. They have set up special internal crises lines should I show up at their headquarters. Employees have been warned about the consequences of participating in SiCKO. Despite this, some employees, at great risk to themselves, have gone on camera to tell the American people the truth about the health care industry. I can understand why that industry's main recipient of its contributions -- President Bush -- would want to harass, intimidate and potentially prevent this film from having its widest possible audience.

And, third, this investigation is being opened in the wake of misleading attacks on the purpose of the Cuba trip from a possible leading Republican candidate for president, Fred Thompson, a major conservative newspaper, The New York Post, and various right wing blogs.

On September 11, 2001 America was attacked by Al Qaeda. America responded with the kind of heroism and courage that makes this country as great as it is. Amongst the first people to Ground Zero were the 9/11 first responders and clean-up workers who heroically risked their lives to try to help survivors. Many of these 9/11 first responders and clean-up workers face serious health issues as the result of their heroic work -- and far too many of these heroes have not received health care treatment. The Bush Administration should be spending its time trying to help these heroes get health care treatment and not looking to abuse the legal process to advance a political agenda against me.

I demand that the Bush Administration immediately end this investigation and spend its time and resources trying to support some of the real heroes of 9/11.

Sincerely,

Michael Moore

emphasis added is mine.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=206

[wicket]

1. Moore couldn't have asked for better timing by Treasury Department's

It's bringing tons of publicity to his film :D

[NewJeffCT]

5. You're right on that -

I had almost forgotten about the movie.

[Cobalt-60]

21. you can't buy PR like that

[pokercat999]

23. It's great to have enemies stupid enough to promote

the very thing they are trying to stop. The people in this admin and the rethuglicans in general are just too stupid to live. If we had enough time evolution would take care of the problem.

[wicket]

40. Eggggxactly

The Bushies did the same thing with Fahrenheit 9/11. They attacked it, and brought a ton of attention to the movie. Moore is laughing all the way to the bank :)

[wakeme2008]

2. Looking forward to the movie + nom

:popcorn:

[Cleita]

3. Bravo Michael.

Sticking it to the Bush ghouls again. I really don't think that they can make those accusations and that investigation hold water unless there are complicit RW officials and judges involved.

[youngdem]

4. What idiots...They just assured his movie wide coverage

While many moderates and the right dislike Moore, NO ONE likes hospitals, doctors and insurance companies. This movie I am sure will be a wonderful window into the disgusting abuses we are all suffering to have one of the worst health care systems in the First World for TWICE THE PRICE they pay in Europe on average per person.

Moore has been injured a little by the constant sniping by the right...This movie will again show that he is a true patriot, and that the public has no reason not to trust him. Plus, EVERYONE has had an experience with an insurance company that outraged you. Anyone trying to shoot down this movie will be seen as a defender of the insurance companies and greedy hospital systems, and rightly so.

Bring it on, Chimp. Let's show America one more time just what a bunch of greedy, heartless assholes Republicans really are.

[in_cog_ni_to]

6. AND, once the movie IS released, the repukes are just going to look like the bunch of greedy

assholes they are! They will see this investigation as an attempted COVER-UP! Dumbest move these psychos could have made.:) GOOD FOR MICHAEL, baaaad for the idiot thugs in this administration.

[MADem]

7. Actuallly, he should have written them a THANK YOU note!!!

I've done a first draft for him, here:

Secretary Henry Paulson
Department of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington, DC 20220

May 11, 2007

Dear Secretary Paulson (hand written) My DEAREST pal, Henry!!!

I am contacting you to thank you profusely for opening an investigation with regards to a trip I took to Cuba with a group of 9/11 heroes in February 2007 related to the movie SiCKO.

SiCKO, which is premiering in Cannes on May 19th and opening in the U.S. on the July 4th weekend--that's JULY FOURTH, now, folks-- will expose the health care industry’s greed and control over America’s political processes and how it has produced a health care system that is broken and in some cases killing people.

Your investigation dovetails so NICELY with the pre-release publicity I am working up, and I want to thank you again for putting this matter front and center, and actually USING the right-wing shills in the Corporate Media to do it, too! It's a stroke of pure genius, but then, you are the sharpest knife in the BushCo utensil drawer, aren't you, then?

The efforts of the Bush Administration to investigate me will only encourage people who think they're idiotic blowhards (and that's what--seventy two percent of the country?) to go and see SiCKO. See if you can't get all of the talking heads to rattle on about this for a few weeks, too--it will really do wonders for the bottom line!

Remember all the crap the BushCo clowns gave me about F-911? That turned into quite the payday for me, and actually helped to fund this effort, really--so you know how thrilled I am that you're helping me out like this. And I PROMISE...I won't tell ANYONE how much you helped, really!!!

I realize that the BushCo crew are way too stupid to see the effect this investigation is really having, and weren't you the clever one to initiate it? You're still in their good graces for appearing to hold up the Rightwing Side, all while covertly delivering them a hearty "FUCK YOU!"

Again, thanks SO MUCH for this--I couldn't PAY, not any amount, for this kind of fantastic publicity!!!!

Love, hugs, and a couple of those "Hollywood Liberal" Air Kisses, too!!!

Michael Moore

PS: Where do you want me to send the CHECK? Wink, wink!!!!

[caligirl]

9. what a scream of a letter, I say print thousands and send them in!

[MADem]

10. Why thank you! I have to admit, I laughed out loud when writing the "PS" NT

[earth mom]

41. ROFL-You should email that to Mike!

Bet he'd get a kick out of it! :)

[AndyA]

8. Michael Moore shows us all what patriotism is all about.

What it is not about is blindly believing everything we are told by the current powers that be.

George Bush is a coward and a traitor. He has no concept of what patriotism is at all.

[EFerrari]

11. Kick their @sses, Mike. K&R

[malaise]

12. Great letter MM

great publicity for the documentary. I'll be buying my copy.

[Peace Patriot]

13. It's interesting how leftist Latin America is coming through for people, in so many ways.

Cuba has one of the finest health care systems in the western hemisphere--all free, with free medical educations for doctors. Cuban doctors are staffing medical clinics for the poor, in Venezuela, Bolivia and other countries, where the greedy and brutal rich elites have utterly neglected their own people. We may not be crazy about Cuba's political system, but why not recognize that they're doing the right thing--the humanistic and even the Christian ("corporal work of mercy") thing--on medical care, which should not be a matter of profit and greed, but a matter of LOVE?

In the leftist (majorityist) democracies in Latin America--those with truly democratic systems and populist leaders--Venezuela, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua, and in the big leftist movements in Peru, Paraguay and Mexico (likely to win future elections)--this is the attitude about Cuba: learn from it; assess what's good, and use it; and attempt to achieve economic justice (what Cuba seeks) through political democracy, that is, in a way less likely to bring rightwing death squads and fascist dictators and CIA plots down on your heads. How can Bushites and Global Corporate Predators (and collusive corporate Democrats) brutally attack Latin American peoples again--in order to rob and exploit them--if Latin American democracy is strongly based, genuine and widespread? They can try, but without the excuse of armed leftist revolutionaries (as in Cuba, initially; in Guatemala, Nicaragua and other countries in the '80s, and in Colombia, currently), it's much, much harder. The socialist revolution that is sweeping South America is based on this remarkable combination of pragmatism, patience and vision.

Moore's castigation of the US health care system, and his use of Cuban medicine as an example of HOW THINGS SHOULD BE, is provocative only to Global Corporate Predators and their political henchmen, and possibly to some US folks who have been propagandized by their puppet news media--both on the felicity of medical profiteering (gee, how are we going to develop new drugs, without putting medical care out of reach of half the population?), and the "evils" of communist Cuba. To most of Latin America, Moore's view of Cuban medicine will be no surprise. They look at Cuba in a different way. If Cuba is doing something right, why not praise them and learn from them? THAT doesn't make you a "communist." It's just SENSIBLE!

-----------------------------

Lessons of the South American leftist (majorityist) revolution:

1. Transparent elections (!)
2. Grass roots organization.
3. Think big.

[loudsue]

15. On your list: Don't forget getting rid of the IMF!!

They're throwing IMF's worthless asses outta there!

:kick:

[eridani]

29. Another way the new Latin American left is different

For most of the 19th and 20th centuries, leftists thought of Marxism as a "scientific" guide to policy, promoting an attitude of having all the answers laid out in advance. These days, leftists are far more modest and into the empirical attitude of trying out policies to see how they work, and then making changes where indicated.

[Peace Patriot]

31. Yeah, that's what I meant. Non-ideological. Pragmatic. It's much more important

--and effective!--to throw out the World Bank/IMF, and create your own bank (the Bank of the South, started by Venezuela, and joined by Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador and Paraguay), than to stick to some purist Marxism that opposes ALL banks. It's far more important, pragmatic and effective to negotate with oil companies for better revenues for social programs, than to inspire death squads and violent fascist overthrow, by kicking the fuckers out of your country altogether.

Democracy and pragmatism seem to be the guiding principles. Sounds like the US Republic, in its early decades--but with more emphasis on social justice. A mixed socialist/capitalist economy. (Also, re: the early US, the Latin Americans don't have the horror of slavery to deal with. There is bigotry and oppression against the indigenous, but that, too, is changing. Bolivia just elected its first indigenous president, Evo Morales. And the indigenous are leaders of the grass roots democracy movement, especially on environmental issues.)

[kestrel91316]

14. K&R

[Rainscents]

16. Moore... truth teller!

K & R!

[Maraya1969]

17. You know that new deal where you have to go to a "blood place" to get blood drawn

And another place to get X-rays and MRIs. Well I asked my doctor today what was up with that and he told me that if they drew blood in his office they would have to hire an extra person just for that and they would not be compensated for it.

Then I was thinking how much money is made by these blood drawing operations and I realized how it is just another profiteering move and I wonder who is behind it all.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

18. Glenn Beck was talking about this...

Why is it when those talk fuckers talk about Michael Moore, all they can do is call him fat? Oh, and he hates America. LOL Dumb fuckers.
Duckie

[and-justice-for-all]

19. Cheers to Mikey!!!! I will go see this TruthFilm!!...nt

[area51]

20. kick. (n/t)

[tridim]

22. He kicked off this whole shindig with his Oscar speech..

and now he's bringing it on home with Sicko.

Bookends to a sick presidency.

I hope the pharmaceutical industry tries to block the film.

[formercia]

24. Truth to Power n/t

[LibDemAlways]

25. Michael Moore is a national treasure.

So glad he's out there sticking it to the Bush Crime Family and their corporate thug allies.

[lovuian]

26. I love him

they should be investigating the Billions of dollars of oil stolen from Iraq

[Major Hogwash]

27. It's not illegal to go to Cuba - Governor Otter just got back from there.

I don't know why Otter went down there, maybe for some type of trip to promote Idaho products maybe.

They should relax the trade restrictions with Cuba because poverty is so rampant there.
Cuba hasn't been a threat to the United States since the Soviet Union broke up in the early 90's.

I can't wait for this movie to come out.
I wonder how the mainstream media will go after him in an attempt to defend Bush's policies.

[tammywammy]

30. You have to get permission to visit Cuba

I'm sure the Governo had such permission. Michael Moore did not.

[July]

33. I don't think you need permission to go to Cuba.

My understanding is that we are not prohibited from traveling there (or anywhere), but that there is a law prohibiting spending money there. I believe U.S. travelers to Cuba can get a license to make financial transactions (e.g., when an educational group organizes a trip).

You say categorically that Moore did not have "permission" to go to Cuba. What do you know about that?

[tammywammy]

34. Here's some links for you:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18590557/

"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."

snip

"The letter noted that Moore applied Oct. 12, 2006, for permission to go to Cuba “but no determination had been made by OFAC.” Moore sought permission to travel there under a provision for full-time journalists, the letter said."

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1097.html
The Cuban Assets Control Regulations are enforced by the U.S. Treasury Department and affect all U.S. citizens and permanent residents wherever they are located, all people and organizations physically in the United States, and all branches and subsidiaries of U.S. organizations throughout the world. The Regulations require that persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction be licensed to engage in any travel-related transactions related to travel to, from, and within Cuba. Transactions related to tourist travel are not licensable. This restriction includes tourist travel to Cuba from or through a third country such as Mexico or Canada. U.S. law enforcement authorities have increased enforcement of these regulations at U.S. airports and pre-clearance facilities in third countries. Travelers who fail to comply with Department of Treasury regulations will face civil penalties and criminal prosecution upon return to the United States.

Cuba Sanctions:
http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/programs/cuba/cuba.shtml

"To whom do these sanctions regulations apply?
All U.S. citizens and permanent residents wherever they are located, all people and organizations physically in the United States, and all branches and subsidiaries of U.S. organizations throughout the world."

[ThoughtCriminal]

36. Key word: Tourist

Also there are exemptions for journalists.

[tammywammy]

38. Right, he applied as a journalist

You still have to get licensed to go, even if you're a journalist.

"The letter noted that Moore applied Oct. 12, 2006, for permission to go to Cuba “but no determination had been made by OFAC.” Moore sought permission to travel there under a provision for full-time journalists, the letter said."

[July]

37. Licensed to engage in transactions, i.e., spend money, not licensed to travel to Cuba.

One is not prohibited directly from going there.

So what is it that Moore did not do, and what do you know about it?

Edited to correct grammar.

[tammywammy]

39. You're right, you cannot spend any money going to, from or in Cuba

If he wanted to do any of that, he'd have to get the license.

"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."

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

28. I'm glad Michael Moore has

deposited a copy of the film overseas where, insha'llah, Bush and his minions cannot get it.

Can Bush ban the film from being shown in the US?

[Brigid]

32. Bush ban this film?

I'd love to see him try.

[tammywammy]

35. Has a president ever banned a movie before?