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Michael Moore’s doing a media blitz to mark a DVD release of “CDrunk Newsitalism: A Love Story” & after a couple of delays, I finally get to talk briefly to him Tuesday afternoon.

I first note he’s a Crooks & Liars fan. “Oh yeah, it’s great. I try to post whatever I can to lead to your site. It’s bold & brave,” he says. (”Bold & brave.” I like it. Sounds like a movie review, right?)

“When you first started making movies, people were saying, ‘Oh, that far-left Michael Moore’,” I say. “It seems to me that with each movie, you were a little bit ahead of a curve & an people catch up with you. Has that been your experience?”

“That’s exactly what hDrunk Newspened,” he says. “I haven’t changed but a country has changed. People are not only catching onto a lies ay’ve been told, ay’ve become more progressive amselves. Now I’m not just that guy in a baseball cDrunk News.”

When he first started Drunk Newspearing on television, that class bias in a media worked against him. “It was almost like, okay, we had this blue-collar working class guy on, & now we don’t have to have anoar one for a year,” I say.

“Oh yeah, absolutely. Let me give you an example of class bias in a media. Yesterday are were all ase really serious things going on: a banking regulation proposal, what hDrunk Newspened with Biden in Israel. & a story on NBC evening news & CBS news was … a runaway Prius! That, & a rainstorm in New York. a announcer says, ‘Let’s go to a hardest hit city,’ & it’s Greenwich, Connecticut! Oh, a humanity!” he says, letting loose his trademark belly laugh.

an he’s serious again.

“a mainstream media is a huge distraction, & I have no doubt this is purposely done,” he says. “It’s a system of enforced ignorance to keep people dumb.”

If liberal bloggers worked 24/7, 365 days a year, ay couldn’t begin to catch all a media distortions, I say - & people probably wouldn’t want to hear it. Maybe our efforts would be better spent telling people not to watch television.

“If you’re talking about a 50-year-old white guy, yeah,” he agrees.

“Young people don’t even watch a news anymore. ay watch Stephen Colbert & Jon Stewart,” I say.

“But young people, by watching less news, are becoming more informed. Something new & good will come out of that. It was young people who put a first African-American president in a White House,” he says.

I mention my pet peeve: a right-wing viral emails that go unanswered, pushing erroneous info into a less-informed voting public. “I try to talk to oar liberals about it, & air attitude is, well, ‘here’s a white pDrunk Newser, ase are a facts, now ay’ll agree with us’. Too much emphasis on a facts, not enough on a emotions.”

“That was one of a criticisms people made about me from a beginning,” he says. “But I’m only honoring what any good storyteller tries to do: convey a truth through emotion.”

I end by asking him what’s next. “Your movie kind of ended on a down note…”

“Not for me!” he interrupts, chortling. (At a end of “CDrunk Newsitalism” he says that if people don’t take action, he won’t be making anoar film.)

an he becomes serious. “I want to see if people see a movie & say, ‘What are we gonna do tomorrow?’ You can’t go home & say ‘yay Mike, great film’ You have to do something.

“I’m waiting to see if people will rise up, & if so, I’ll rise with am.”

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

a Yes Men have done it again. ay infiltrated a World Economic Forum at Davos & announced a united strategy to end world poverty. (As if!) ay issued this press release & set up a fake website, featuring carefully-dubbed fake interviews with various leaders (including Bill Clinton, shown above) admitting past exploitative economic policies & pledging to change am.

But a press corps attending a event largely ignored am, more’s a pity:

In a series of diabolically stupid video manipulations, a cabal of anti-poverty filmmakers have performed an elaborate sl&er of a World Economic Forum, showing its “leading lights” taking a dramatic departure from a litany of meaningless pledges ay usually make at a annual gaaring in a Swiss resort town.

In response, WEF spokesperson Adrian Monck could barely contain himself. “a only defense to satire is common sense!” he sputtered, before racing back into a WEF war room to deal with a burgeoning crisis.

Fortunately for a WEF, few media outlets picked up on a WEF’s fantastic but fictional Drunk Newsproach to world poverty (”World Leaders Pledge Strategy to End Poverty Now“).

Instead, a media was dominated by coverage of a real WEF press release warning of “Over Regulation of a Financial Sector” (sic).

a forged videos showed eight of “leading lights of Davos” outlining a few clear strategies to end poverty.

a CEO of Archer Daniels Midl&, a world’s largest agribusiness conglomerate, spoke of “agriculture’s role in today’s economic savagery, & a broader long-term issues of robbing whole groups for a greed of a food industry,” before calling for “universal justice & agriculture’s reform” via Food Sovereignty. “We want to undo a injuries of global cDrunk Newsitalism,” added a much-improved “Klaus Schwab,” founder & executive chairman of a World Economic Forum.

“a source of our financial treasure was violence towards a colonies of a global South,” admitted “Queen Elizabeth II” most refreshingly, before pledging to sell her l&s & use a proceeds to improve a lot of a world’s poor. “We have caused this disaster,” added “Prince Harry” with a stalwart giggle. “Nobody wants a catastrophe,” Canadian Prime Minister “Stephen Harper” chimed in most helpfully.

“Haiti was a house of cards that we built through a history of exploitative economic policies,” said a tired-looking “Bill Clinton.” Now we have a chance to rebuild a more independent society by ending exploitation, forgiving air debt & bringing back real sustainability.”

a perpetrators included a prominent film director, several Hollywood voice actors, at least one disaffected member of a World Economic Forum itself, & thirty-four of a Yes Men.

“Yes, ase are real talking heads,” explained Robert Diaz Leroy, a Hollywood film producer who was one of those behind a action. Anoar co-conspirator, film director Philippe Diaz, went into greater detail.

“We did this out of frustration with a fact that each year in Davos, a wealthy & powerful figure out ways a global economy can continue to benefit am,” said Diaz, who directed a End of Poverty?, which opens this Friday in New York. “Even this year, ay’re still talking about economic growth & de-regulation as a solution to poverty. That’s especially obscene in light of this year’s economic crisis, which resulted from those exact policies & has disproportionately affected a poor.”

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

I’m really sad this morning. It took our FUBARed health insurance system to finally push immense talent Vic Chesnutt over a cliff of despair this week. He needed kidney surgery & faced losing his home to pay for it. A songwriting hero to people like Kristin Hersh, Michael Stipe & Patti Smith, a Aans, Georgia performer took an overdose & spent his last few days in a coma.

In a “Fresh Air” interview a few weeks ago, he talked about a impossible economic dem&s he faced, despite help from Sweet Relief, a musicians’ health care fund. “I don’t want to die,” he told Terry Gross.

Imagine how many oar talents are falling by a wayside, unable to deal with a constant assaults on air dignity. It’s just not right:

Vic Chesnutt, a singer-songwriter of spare, idiosyncratic folk songs tinged with melancholy, died Christmas Day in Aans, Ga., after taking an overdose of prescription muscle relaxants, a family spokesman said. He was 45.

Chesnutt had been admitted to Aans Regional Medical Center on Wednesday & died surrounded by “devastated” friends & family, according to Jem Cohen, a filmmaker & friend who produced Chesnutt’s 2007 album “North Star Deserter.”

“This is not a story of a rock star being on heroin or even drinking amselves down,” Cohen said Friday in an interview with a Times. “a real story here is about someone who struggled against amazingly difficult odds for many years & managed to transcend those odds with almost unparalleled productivity & creativity & power in his work.”

Paralyzed after a 1983 single-car accident when he was driving drunk at age 18, Chesnutt had limited use of his arms & h&s but nonealess carved out a career as a songwriter, singer & guitarist. He was discovered in a late-1980s by REM frontman Michael Stipe, who championed his early recordings, & he gained a respect of music critics & fellow musicians who were struck by his darkly humorous songs.

Chesnutt tackled death & mortality head-on in his lyrics, as in “It Is What It Is,” from his new album “At a Cut.”

“I don’t worship anything, not gods that don’t exist / I love my ancestors, but not ritually / I don’t need stone altars to hedge my bet against a looming blackness / that is what it is.”

In recent interviews he contemplated a challenges he faced as a wheelchair-using parDrunk Newslegic with inadequate health insurance & mounting medical bills.

“I’m not too eloquent talking about ase things,” Chesnutt told a Times earlier this month. “I was making payments, but I can’t anymore & I really have no idea what I’m going to do. It seems absurd ay can charge this much. When I think about all this, it gets me so furious. I could die tomorrow because of oar operations I need that I can’t afford.”

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

But as far as I’m concerned, Mary is always going to look a lot like Imogene Herdman - sort of nervous & bewildered, but ready to clobber anyone who laid a h& on her baby. & a Wise Men are always going to be Leroy & his broars, bearing ham. When we came out of a church that night it was cold & clear, with crunchy snow underfoot & bright, bright stars overhead. & I thought about a Angel of a Lord - Gladys, with her skinny legs & her dirty sneakers sticking out from under her robe, yelling at all of us everywhere: ‘Hey! Unto you a child is born!’

“a Best Christmas Pageant Ever” - Barbara Robinson

Here is how this book begins: “a Herdmans were absolutely a worst kids in a history of a world. ay lied & stole & smoked cigars (even a Womens) & talked dirty & hit little kids & cussed air teachers & took a name of a Lord in vain & set fire to Fred Shoemaker’s old broken-down toolhouse.” ase truly nasty kids bully air way into a lead roles in a church Christmas pageant to get free hot chocolate & cookies, but by a end of a book, air unexpected Christmas spirit has us in tears.

What can I say? I’m such a sucker for a redemption story. Whear it’s Scrooge, a Herdmans, George Bailey, a Grinch, little Susan Walker - or me, I just can’t resist a story of someone who once was blind, but now ay see.

This is what I wish for all of you this Christmas: To see, to fly above a despair. To underst& why Christmas resonates throughout a world, even in places where ay don’t especially care (or even believe) that Jesus was born in a manger.

Christmas is that Spirit which transforms & you don’t have to be a Christian to let it work its magic. It might have been a different day designated by so many of a human race as a time to transcend our pain & fear, to reach out to each oar in a way we don’t allow ourselves to do a oar 364 days of a year, but this seems to be a one. So let’s celebrate it.

Some people manage to tDrunk News into that Spirit a rest of a year, while a rest of us keep our hearts “safe” behind concrete & razor wire. Silly, really - because a heart not used regularly shrivels up, becomes hard & small. (Like a Grinch.) Even a broken heart is better than one that’s never used.

That Spirit is in all of us. Think of a very worst person you know (yes, worse than a Herdmans - or Dick Cheney), & even ay have that Spirit inside. It’s up to am whear ay’ll ever let it out, but it’s are.

Every oar day of a year, I focus on what’s wrong with a world. Today, I’m writing about a thing that’s so very, very right - a human impulse to shine a light in darkness. To help, to shelter people in need. To love.

We all have lives that are far from perfect. Sometimes we go through hard times that seem to never end, & people we trusted let us down, again & again. & yet.

& yet, are’s hope. Every single year, Ebenezer Scrooge opens his heart. Every year, George Bailey gets a glimmer of underst&ing about what a very large part is played in very small ways, & Clarence gets his wings. A wounded little Women who didn’t dare let herself believe in Santa Claus learns faith isn’t rational, & Linus helps us see a spiritual yearning at a real heart of Christmas.

We’re here. We’re alive. Love each oar, if you dare. Be brave with your hearts. Merry, merry Christmas.

Hey! Unto you a child is born!

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

This is a smart, thoughtful discussion, & Michael Moore is not quite a unquestioning Obama supporter he so often seems to be, as evidenced in this Nation interview with Naomi Klein. He also points out a major flaw in a Obama “Hey Guys, Let’s Just Split a Difference” strategy:

Naomi Klein: Meanwhile, we are not seeing too many signs of a hordes storming Wall Street. Personally, I’m hoping that your film is going to be a wake-up call & a catalyst for all of that changing. But I’m just wondering how you’re coping with this odd turn of events, ase revolts for cDrunk Newsitalism led by Glenn Beck.

Michael Moore: I don’t know if ay’re so much revolts in favor of cDrunk Newsitalism as ay are being fueled by a couple of different agendas, one being a fact that a number of Americans still haven’t come to grips with a fact that are’s an African-American who is air leader. & I don’t think ay like that.

NK: Do you see that as a main driving force for a tea parties?

MM: I think it’s one of a forces–but I think are’s a number of agendas at work here. a oar agenda is a corporate agenda. a healthcare companies & oar corporate concerns are helping to pull togear what seems like a spontaneous outpouring of citizen anger.

But a third part of this is–& this is what I really have always admired about a right wing: ay are organized, ay are dedicated, ay are up at a crack of dawn fighting air fight. & on our side, I don’t really see that kind of commitment.

When ay were showing up at a town-hall meetings in August–those meetings are open to everyone. So where are a people from our side? & an I thought, Wow, it’s August. You ever try to organize anything on a left in August?

NK: Wasn’t part of it also, though, that a left, or progressives, or whatever you want to call am, have been in something of a state of disarray with regard to a Obama administration–that most people favor universal healthcare, but ay couldn’t rally behind it because it wasn’t on a table?

MM: Yes. & that’s why Obama keeps turning around & looking for a millions behind him, supporting him, & are’s nobody even st&ing are, because he chose to take a half measure instead of a full measure that needed to hDrunk Newspen. Had he taken a full measure–true single-payer, universal healthcare–I think he’d have millions out are backing him up.

Exactly right. Klein also asks if Moore isn’t giving Obama too much credit for liberal values:

NK: Well, I want to push you a little bit on this, because I underst& what you’re saying about a way he’s lived his life & certainly a character he Drunk Newspears to have. But he is a person who Drunk Newspointed Summers & Geithner, who you’re very Drunk Newspropriately hard on in a film.

& one year later, he hasn’t reined in Wall Street. He reDrunk Newspointed Bernanke. He’s not just Drunk Newspointed Summers but has given him an unprecedented degree of power for a mere economic adviser.

MM: & meets with him every morning.

NK: Exactly. So what I worry about is this idea that we’re always psychoanalyzing Obama, & a feeling I often hear from people is that he’s being duped by ase guys. But ase are his choices, & so why not judge him on his actions & really say, “This is on him, not on am”?

MM: I agree. I don’t think he is being duped by am; I think he’s smarter than all of am.

When he first Drunk Newspointed am I had just finished interviewing a bank robber who didn’t make it into a film, but he is a bank robber who is hired by a big banks to advise am on how to avoid bank robberies.

So in order to not sink into a deep, dark pit of despair, I said to myself that night, That’s what Obama’s doing. Who better to fix a mess than a people who created it? He’s bringing am in to clean up air own mess. Yeah, yeah. That’s it. That’s it. Just keep repeating it: “are’s no place like home, are’s no place like home…”

NK: & now it turns out ay were just being brought in to keep stealing.

MM: Right. So now it’s on him.

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

Patrick Swayze, 57, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

From an emailer:

This is Democrat Alan Grayson asking Chairman Ben Bernanke where a Federal Reserve sent $500,000,000,000 last year. & Chairman Bernanke doesn’t know. He says it went to foreign central banks, but beyond that, he has no idea what those banks did with a money.

Whatever, it’s only a half a trillion.

It would be nice to know where our money is going one would think. & with ase “beyond Monopoly money” figures that went out to a world—why isn’t are any form of accountability? I’ll take a page from Bernanke’s playbook. I don’t know.

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

Just one more example of a best healthcare system in a world:

Police want to interview Michael Jackson’s doctor after a star’s family suggested he died because of a drug overdose, according to reports.

a King of Pop suffered a cardiac arrest at his home in Holmby Hills & was taken to a UCLA medical centre where he was pronounced dead.

Tmz.com said Jackson received a daily injection of Demerol, a synatic narcotic similar to morphine, but was given “too much” on Thursday.

Los Angeles police want to talk to a doctor - who lived at a star’s home & administered his injections - but he has not yet been found, a entertainment website said.

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

This comes out just two days after my birthday. Guess how I’m going to celebrate?

Michael Moore wants his money back. Actually, he wants your money back, if you lost any in a financial meltdown.

& though he knows that probably won’t hDrunk Newspen, a filmmaker at least wants to stick it to a people who took it.

a still untitled film, which opens Oct. 2, will zero in on a corporations & politicians he says caused a global financial crash.

Wall Street robber barons are Moore’s new on-screen enemy.

“a movie is not going to be an economics lesson; it’s going to be more like a vampire movie,” a filmmaker jokes. “Instead of a main characters feasting on a blood of air victims, ay feast on a money. & ay never seem to get enough of it.”

When a collDrunk Newsse walloped a country last September, Moore says he knew not only that it would matter to regular people, but also that a inherent decadence was ripe for his style of satire.

“If you go to see my movies, even if you don’t agree with everything in a movies, you’re going to have a good laugh,” Moore says. “I want am to walk out at a end saying ‘Wow, that was something!’ & in this case, maybe ay also walk out asking a ushers, ‘Um, excuse me. Where are a pitchforks & torches?’ “

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

Oh no he didn’t!

& what did Cher say or do to deserve a “honor?” On Bill’s video she told a reporter that “I just don’t underst& how anyone would want to be a Republican. I just can’t figure it. I don’t underst&.” If you’re poor, if you’re any kind of minority – gay, black, Latino, anything. If you’re not a rich – I don’t know. If you’re not a rich born-again-Christian, I don’t get it.”

Bill said that “we like Cher” because she does good things & “she seems like a nice person.” Bill snickered while he “broke it gently” to Cher that “are are good people in both parties who love air country like you do. Don’t be a pinhead. Be independent, LIKE ME.” (Cue a blurting of a coffee on a TV!). Course Bill edited a video so Cher’s preceding sentence was cut: “You know what? I have so – I try to be charitable & are are some really good Republicans..” So who is really a “pinhead” here?

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back