Sicko Weinstein

Mickey Moore and his idiot pal Harvey Weinstein are playing conspiracy games. Of course, this is great theatrics for the Canne film festival.

Cannes is smacking its lips in anticipation of filmmaker and provocateur Michael Moore's latest jeremiad against the US administration, which receives its premiere at the film festival today. Sicko, a documentary tackling the state of American healthcare, focuses on the pharmaceutical giants, and particularly on health insurers.

The film has already caused Moore - who won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2004 with Fahrenheit 911 - to clash with the American authorities. Now, according to movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, whose Weinstein Company is behind the film, the US government is attempting to impound the negative.

According to Weinstein, the US Treasury's moves meant "we had to fly the movie to another country"- he would not say to where. "Let the secret service find that out - though this is the same country that thought there were weapons of mass destruction, so they'll never find it." He added that he feared that if the film were impounded, there might be attempts to cut some footage, in particular the last 20 minutes, which related to a trip to Cuba. This, said Weinstein, "would not be good."

Hmmm. Sounds like they are assuming that CIA mistakes prove that all people in government are morons. That is an assumption I wouldn't make, especially since you've just admitted to obstruction of justice by intentionally removing the film negative from the US when knowing it was being sought related to a criminal investigation.

Now team Moore is hitting back. Weinstein has hired an attorney, David Boies, who has lodged a request under the US freedom of information act to find out what motivated the treasury to begin its investigation. "They have to tell us why they did it and what they did," said Weinstein. "And they are not too happy about it."

Weinstein believes the investigation has a political agenda. "We want to find out who motivated this. We suspect there may be interference from another office," he said. "Otherwise, I don't understand why this would have come about."

Hitting back? How laughable considering that the FOIA specifically exempts information related to ongoing criminal investigations. Weinstein may want to get his own iQ investigated.

7. Exemption 7: Law Enforcement

The seventh exemption allows agencies to withhold law enforcement records in order to protect the law enforcement process from interference. The exemption was amended slightly in 1986, but it still retains six specific subexemptions.

Exemption (7)(A) allows the withholding of a law enforcement record that could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings. This exemption protects an active law enforcement investigation from interference through premature disclosure.

Weinstein goes on with his paranoid screeching:

Weinstein named no suspects in this putative political interference, but referred to outspoken critics of Moore on the Republican right - who tend to accuse him of peddling propaganda rather than of undertaking serious journalism - including presidential hopeful Bob Thompson.

"Senator Thompson has come out with a tirade against Michael. Michael said he'd debate him, but Thompson turned him down," said Weinstein.

He also said that insurers and pharmaceutical companies had "already sent out letters advising employees how to react when the film comes out".

Senator Thompson isn't in government any more. Maybe Weinstein should read the news periodically. As for Moore's challenge for a debate, that is funny if it weren't so very pathetic. Why would Thompson bother? He has little to gain and Moore would get lots of publicity. I think Thompson's original response on YouTube was appropriate, though I'm not really sure why he bothered other than as many pundits are pointing out this gave him lots of free press during the first Repub debate.

No doubt Moore's "documentary" will forge ahead for the Academy Award this year. It certainly doesn't have to meet any factual requirements for that award and will continue his fascinating career of fact distortion.