Saturday May 19, 2007, 11:51 am
God Bless Mr. Moore for being a champion of truth.

Saturday May 19, 2007, 1:22 pm
Well Done. Noted
Love & Light

Saturday May 19, 2007, 2:14 pm
Noted. At first I got the wrong impression. Ooopps! Glad to discover he's on our side. Job well done, Helen!
Love & Light

Saturday May 19, 2007, 2:20 pm
"...Moore says he knows "Sicko" will have enemies, especially within the Bush administration and the health insurers he accuses of abandoning sick Americans..." Stick it to 'em Michael!

Saturday May 19, 2007, 3:11 pm
Go MM, continue to show it like it is and you will always have the support of those who want to see the truth on the big screen...

Saturday May 19, 2007, 5:35 pm
Moore's attack on U.S. health care well received at Cannes
• Film maker took 9/11 workers to Cuba for "Sicko"
• Moore describes film as a "call to action"
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CANNES, France (AP) -- "Sicko," Michael Moore's ferocious and funny attack on the U.S. health care system, got a warm welcome at the Cannes Film festival Saturday. At home, it has started a firestorm.

The movie doesn't open until late June, but it has already been criticized by conservative politicians and sparked a U.S. government investigation that could land Moore a fine or jail time.

"I know the storm awaits me back in the United States," said Moore as he absorbed the enthusiastic response of critics and journalists after the film's first Cannes screening. Moore held a private showing Tuesday in New York for a group of ailing Sept. 11 rescue workers featured in the film.

Moore's previous films were praised and reviled in equal measure. Americans will likely be just as divided by "Sicko" -- especially scenes in which Moore takes the sick 9/11 rescuers to Cuba for treatment.

The trip led the U.S. Treasury Department to investigate Moore for possibly breaking the U.S. trade and travel embargo on Cuba.

Some have said the investigation is giving the film valuable free publicity. Not Moore.

"I'm the one who's personally being investigated, and I'm the one who's personally liable for potential fines or jail, so I don't take it as lightly," he said.

On the advice of lawyers, the filmmakers spirited a master copy of "Sicko" outside the United States in case the government tries to seize it. As for whether the inquiry could prevent the film opening in the U.S. as planned on June 29, Moore said: "We haven't even discussed that possibility."

Moore is a Cannes favorite. His last film, the war-on-terror documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" won the festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or, in 2004. "Sicko" is screening out of competition -- Moore joked that he didn't want to appear like a "typical American" by greedily seeking another trophy.

Moore says he knows "Sicko" will have enemies, especially within the Bush administration and the health insurers he accuses of abandoning sick Americans.

Ironically, given its stormy reception, Moore says he wanted "Sicko" to be a quieter and more reflective movie than the rabble-rousing "Bowling For Columbine" or "Fahrenheit 9/11."

There are no scenes of confrontation to match Moore's pigeonholing of politicians in "Fahrenheit 9/11" to ask whether they would send their children to Iraq.

Instead, there are ordinary Americans telling heart-wrenching stories of being refused vital treatment. Moore also travels to Canada, Britain and France to take a look -- possibly rose-tinted -- at their systems of socialized medicine.

"I decided to make a different film this time," Moore said. "I wanted a different tone and I wanted to say things in a different way.

"I got tired of all the yelling and screaming and not getting anywhere."

The film's emotional climax is a brilliant -- and, some will say, brilliantly manipulative -- sequence in which Moore and the New York rescue workers visit a Cuban hospital.

"The Cuba stuff is incendiary," said Boston Globe critic Peter Brunette, who predicted a savage response from some quarters in the United States.

Moore says the criticism of the Cuba trip is misplaced. He said he intended to take the workers to Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. naval base on the island where terror suspects are held -- and, the film claims, receive top-notch medical care.

"The point was not to go to Cuba but to go to America, to go to American soil ... being in Cuba was just an accident in a sense," he said.

Moore said he hoped audiences would focus on the film's message, not the controversy. He said it is both "a call to action" and a plea for a better, friendlier society.

"The bigger issue in the film is, who are we as a people?" Moore said.

"Why would we allow nearly 50 million Americans to go without any kind of health coverage ... That's not America. That's not the America I want to see exist."

The film includes what Moore hopes is an example of generosity of spirit. When the director found out that the Moore-bashing Web site moorewatch.com would have to close because webmaster Jim Kenefick needed money to pay his sick wife's medical bills, he sent an anonymous check for US$12,000.

Moore said he planned to call Kenefick on Saturday before the film's evening premiere to identify himself as the benefactor. But Kenefick, tipped off by media reports, appeared unimpressed.

"He paid US$12,000 so that you, the press, would focus on what a 'nice guy' he is and in the same breath, make me look like a jerk," Kenefick wrote on the site -- which is still running.

Saturday May 19, 2007, 5:37 pm
http://www.michaelmoore.com/

Saturday May 19, 2007, 5:41 pm
May 19th, 2007 9:04 am
'Sicko' stars thank Moore for Cuba trip


By Jocelyn Noveck / Associated Press

NEW YORK - It could have been a college reunion: hugs, tears, laughter, photos, and a big friendly guy in shorts and sneakers organizing it all. But the guy in shorts was Michael Moore, whose new documentary, "Sicko," takes aim at the U.S. health care industry with the same fury — laced with humor, of course, and plenty of statistics — that he directed at the Bush administration in his hit "Fahrenheit 9/11."

And the people who'd flown in for this intimate first screening, a day after the film had been shipped to the Cannes Film Festival, included grateful Sept. 11 "first responders," suffering lung problems or other ailments from their days at ground zero. In the film, Moore takes them to Cuba and tries to get them treated at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay — where, he contends, terror suspects were getting better medical care than the heroes of 9/11.

The Cuba trip actually accounts for just a small part of "Sicko," which aims its wrath at private insurance and pharmaceutical companies and HMOs, while praising socialized medicine in countries like France and Britain. Moore fills it with stories like that of a woman whose ambulance ride after a car crash wasn't covered — because it wasn't "pre-approved."

But Cuba has loomed large in the flurry of prerelease publicity. That's because the director, an unabashed critic of President Bush, is being investigated by the Treasury Department for possibly violating the U.S. trade embargo by traveling to the island nation. Moore has fired back with an open letter accusing the administration of "abusing the federal government for raw, crass political purposes."

At his screening Tuesday evening at a Manhattan hotel, however, Moore was focused on the reaction of his invited guests.

"Three years ago tonight, we had the first screening of 'Fahrenheit 9/11,' with victims' families," he told them. "It was a very powerful experience, and now we're honored to have all of you here. We're very proud of this film. We're confident it will have a significant impact."

When the lights came up, Reggie Cervantes, a former 9/11 "first responder" who now lives in Oklahoma, spoke first.

"It was funny. It was real," said Cervantes, 46, who says she suffers from pulmonary ailments, esophageal reflex, post-traumatic stress disorder, ear and eye infections and other problems stemming from time at ground zero. Of the trip, she said: "It feels surreal. Were we really there?"

"This trip opened my eyes," offered Bill Maher, 54, another former ground zero volunteer from Maywood, N.J., who had extensive dental work in Cuba. "I was uneducated. I remembered the Cuban missile crisis. Now, you know what? I'm going back!"

"I'm going with you," replied Cervantes.

Donna Smith, in from Denver with her husband, Larry, was in tears when she spoke. The film opens with their painful story: Plagued with health problems, they were forced to sell their home and move into the storage room of their daughter's house because they couldn't cope with health costs, even though they were insured.

"Health care is an embarrassment to our nation," Donna told Moore. "You give dignity to every American in this film."

Lost in all the publicity over Moore's trip is the reason he went to Cuba in the first place.

He says he hadn't intended to go, but then discovered the U.S. government was boasting of the excellent medical care it provides terror suspects detained at Guantanamo. So Moore decided that the 9/11 workers and a few other patients, all of whom had serious trouble paying for care at home, should have the same chance.

"Here the detainees were getting colonoscopies and nutrition counseling," Moore told The Associated Press in an interview, "and these people at home were suffering. I said, 'We gotta go and see if we can get these people the same treatment the government gives al-Qaida.' It seemed the only fair thing to do."

So the group, which included eight patients — three ground zero workers and five others — headed off by boat towards Guantanamo. From a distance, with cameras rolling, Moore called out through a bullhorn that he wanted to bring his friends for treatment at the naval base. He got no response.

"So there I was with a group of sick people," he says. "What was I going to do?"

The answer: head to Havana. There, the film shows the group getting thorough care from kind doctors. They don't have to fill out any long forms; health care is free in the Communist nation, after all.

But did the American film crew get special treatment because they were, well, an American film crew? Moore and his producer, Meghan O'Hara, insist not. "We demanded that we be treated on the same floor as all Cubans, not the special floor for foreigners," Moore told The AP. Still, the doctors obviously knew they were being filmed, so it's hard to know — although Cervantes said she went back alone with no cameras and was treated similarly.

Treasury officials will not comment specifically about Moore's case. He has a few more days to provide additional information. Moore originally applied in October 2006 for permission to go to Cuba under a provision for full-time journalists, but never heard back.

The patients he brought had all struggled at home with health care costs. Some, like Cervantes, had lost their health insurance because they could no longer work, and were navigating the workmen's compensation system.

John Graham, a disabled carpenter and EMT from Paramus, N.J., came to the screening with his daughters. On 9/11 he was at his job at the carpenter's union offices, near the World Trade Center. He rushed over before the second plane hit, spending 31 hours at first, then helping out for months after that. He says he was later diagnosed with lung problems, burns on his esophagus, chronic sinusitis and post-traumatic stress disorder, among other things: "I need a notebook to remember everything."

Graham, who stopped working in 2004, now lives on $400 per week in workmen's comp payments. He split from his wife and says he is unable to keep up with childcare payments.

In Cuba, Graham had five full days of medical tests and received medication for his reflux problems. Cervantes was treated for eye and nose infections, among other things, and in a drugstore found pills for only pennies that cost her more than $100 at home. Maher had the longest treatment, to correct dental problems — he said ground zero-related stress and dreams about "people falling from the sky" made him grind his teeth at night.

Moore hopes his latest film will make people stop and think about what he sees as the tragic ills of the health care industry.

"We are the richest country in the world," the director said. "We spend more on health care than any other country. Yet we have the worst health care in the Western world. Come on. We can do better than this."

Saturday May 19, 2007, 11:33 pm
Good job as always Mike. You're my hero! I worked over 3 years in the same company and I still can't afford healthcare.

Sunday May 20, 2007, 4:44 am
Mike Moor ist he voice of truth, the voice of justice.

Sunday May 20, 2007, 4:45 am
Mike Moor is the voice of truth, the voice of justice.

Sunday May 20, 2007, 6:01 pm
Yeppers Mimi . . . he sure is!!! A TRUE American hero! =)

Sunday May 20, 2007, 10:15 pm
PLEASE GO SEE THIS AMAZING FILM. A "MUST SEE"!!!

Sunday May 20, 2007, 10:29 pm
Thanks Ron!!! I certainly plan to!!! If we didn't have Michael Moore (MikchaelMoore.com) . . . where would we be??? He's exposed the truths of so many things that the Bush administration has done . . . and I am not so sure that we would have found out in time if he hadn't done what he did!!! lol We sure as heck would not have learned the truth about 9/11 . . . or the elections or many other things if it had not been for him!

If you've not read ALL his books, especially "Will They Ever Trust Us Again" . . . then do!!! That one tore my heart out and it's written ENTIRELY from the troops who have served in both Afgahnistan and Iraq; some that are not ever going to be the same (well, none of them will with the hells they are witnessing . . . however, referencing those blown up etc.) who talk about how they were pumped up by Georgie . . . just to find things were different when they got on the ground!!!

So . . . will defintely go see it! Thanks Ron! =D

Monday May 21, 2007, 5:36 am

I adore, love, worship Michael Moore. He has done more for the cause(s) of justice in the US than anyone I can think of, and has had us all laughing, in the process ! He is a genius !
He has taken on top issues and is still leading a one-man crusade against injustice : globalization, child labor, the crushing of working people & unions, the history of fear and violence from colonial times (that 'brief history of the US and the mechanics of fear in our society' cartoon in Bowling for Colombine is nothing short of brilliant !), 9/11 and the oil lobby...and now health care or the absence thereof.

He has been my hero since the first film of his I saw: The Big One is still an outstanding memory and I would gladly see it again. (I only caught 'Roger and me' later)

I will never, as long as I live, understand how anyone could have voted for George W after that scene in the school, with George on the little kiddie chair, the excrutiatingly long minutes of non reaction, the empty eyes, after the aid has broken to news of the attacks, revealing to the world a total non-leader, a total nird !

Monday May 21, 2007, 5:38 am

I just can't wait for "sicko" to come out in France.
Moore's audacity amazes me : taking sick people to Cuba !
He is just too much !

Monday May 21, 2007, 8:27 am
Yeppers Jll . . . and we LOVE him for it!!! Just think where things would be presently if he hadn't done Farenheit??? We wouldn't know HALF of what we've found out since then! May he be blessed and may he NOT be fined and/or put in jail. Amasing he is . . . and so are the topics he challenges. That's how democracy stays alive.

I do have to admit that having to "sprit a Master Copy" out of the country on advice of counsel is something that is very disturbing to me; have we TOTALLY LOST freedom of speech? Egads!!! =)

Monday May 21, 2007, 8:50 am
Hi Jill . . . for some reason I missed the first post! =P At any rate, you are absolutely correct!!! Those seven minutes showed that he was "caught off guard" just like the deer in the headlights!!! And I think he may have known "something" about what was going to happen . . . when one considers that there was NO plane at the Pentagon and how everything in the media that day focused predominantly on the towers!!! Not that they weren't important . . . of course they were. Don't know if you've caught this one, but go to www.pentagonstrike.com and watch THAT video!!!

It's quite telling; my husband was in aviation in the miltiary and has a degree in it; he said that the "nose" of a 757 would not have fit through the hole in the Pentagon; and when you examine the site above (let me know what you think if you can! =D) you will see why. The wierd thing is the slow rise to anger on the part of Americans once all this came out. I suspect that there is still a great deal of "denial" happening here as regards the "invovlement" of the government in 9/11. Who wants to think their government would kill off over 3,000 innocents in order to start a war. Well, history is full of it!!!

And after all . . . we need only look to Iraq at this point to "get it." Still . . . it seems as if there are many who do not wish to!!! *sigh*

Tuesday May 22, 2007, 1:13 am
I gotta see this film. I saw 911 Farinheit, and Bowling for Columbine. I love the way Micheal Moore gets to the facts.

Tuesday May 22, 2007, 10:12 am
Noted and Signed

Wednesday May 23, 2007, 4:46 pm
Noted and signed, thankyou!

Saturday May 26, 2007, 12:45 pm
Did some of you already see the movie? or is just my impression? June 29 is not soon enough.

Saturday May 26, 2007, 7:14 pm
Thanks all for your comments!!! This is awesome. Interestingly, I saw Mike on Bill Maher's season finale this Friday; he was great as usual, funny as always, and on point; he was quite humble as to how the film was doing, and he also discussed how he realised that the way we eat is so important, particularly those from the Mid-West as he is. He mentioned that he had "discovered fruits and vegetables" and I almost wet myself!!!

Extremely humble . . . and then in response to Bill's questions about the candidate field for '08, he mentioned that he was still waiting for the one candidate that we all seem to be waiting for (and humourously, Bill thought he was referring to him!!! LOL) and of course, he's talking about Al Gore which he said would be justice for the INJUSTICE that occurred in 2000!!! I think I will creae a petition directed at VP Gore, just to let him know how many people worldwide want him to run. Will it change his mind? I don't know; however, perhaps if we can get enough signatures on it . . . it will certainly push him into deeper consideration; though honestly, I am ready to make a prediction here:

I think Al Gore will wait until around January of 2008 . . . when the race kicks into high gear, and then he will announce. The great thing about it is that I am confident that this time he WILL WIN AGAIN . . . AND IN A LANDSLIDE that makes Nixon's win look like melting ice cream! =) Again, thanks all . . . great comments and thanks to those who added to the story.

Nicole . . . I would guess that those who have already seen this movie have somehow managed to go to special screenings; and I agree with you that June 29th is not soon enough! No doubt there will be yet another Academy Award in this one for Mike!!! ROCK ON MICHAEL . . . YOUR A TRUE VOICE THAT IS NEEDED MORE THAN EVER!!! WE LOVE YOU! =)