Moore's "SiCKO"

A democracy need a lot more film makers like him. It's a shame most movies are just pure escapism that keeps you from thinking about anything.

I love escapism, sure, but we need this stuff, too, to challenge the "official" story.

I've seen the film and I think it's definitely worth watching, regardless of whether you like Moore or not. I definitely don't agree with everything he says and does (the man is to some degree a professional pest, so he doesn't want people to always agree with him), but I think a lot of the liberal/conservative, left/right argument that goes on misses his point. And that is that the real divide is between rich corporate America and everybody else.

So many of the stories in the film were heartbreaking. Back in 2004 Pres. Bush said "You can fairly judge the character of society by how it treats the weak, the vulnerable, the most easily forgotten." I don't think the character of contemporary American society really wants to be judged by those standards, and some of the reasons why are shown in this movie.

One criticism of the film will be that Michael Moore shows the worst of the American health care system, and compares it to the best in countries like Canada, France and the UK. People will point out that the systems in those countries isn't perfect, either. But I think the health statistics that show that people in those countries are generally healthier and can expect to live longer than Americans ought to be a good reason to consider that they might just be doing something right.

I enjoyed watching this film. I laughed and yes, I cried. But most of all, I did what Michael Moore wants us to do -- to think about the sad state of the American health care system, and what we can do to make it better.

I have experienced "socialized medicine" twice in my life, for a year in each instance. The first time was in 1962 in Italy, where my husband and I brought our seven-week-old baby to stay for a year. Her care was superb in a brand new pediatric clinic; it cost not one dime. The second time was for a year in England in 1973-4, where again the care was excellent and free. Americans can't imagine the peace of mind that sort of system provides.

We had a chance to have a decent system when Harry Truman was president and proposed universal, but the medical and pharmaceutical industries screamed "socialized medicine!!!!!" and that was that. I wonder how many thousands, maybe millions, have had their lives sacrificed since then to the profit motive in medicine. Ain't free enterprise wonderful--for those who rake in the dough. Americans are saps.

I have heard over and over again that we can't have universal coverage here, that it will have to be a combination of insurance companies, blah, blah, blah...I have written many letters over the years to NPR, PBS and all the other broadcast media begging for SOMEONE to tell me WHY we can't have universal coverage. Surely we aren't that dumb in this country that we can't look at all the myriad other countries and their systems, glom onto the best that they have, avoid the mistakes and make something that will be good for all of us. (Or maybe we really are too dumb to do anything that sensible--look who we chose to be our glorious leader!) What did I get in response? SILENCE, NOTHING, no explanations, no explorations, no big week-long in-depth investigations. You don't like Michael Moore's movie? Too bad. He's the only one who had guts enough to blow the lid off this sorry mess we have here.

By the way, I'm a retired teacher and had to get my master's degree, too, to earn a modest salary, so don't talk to me about compensation for doctors and CEOs of insurance companies. I live in a town where Delphi workers will have to have their pay cut in half, so don't talk to me about the poor doctors who would have to earn less and have to pay off huge education bills. I'll bet they would once again scream SOCIALISM!!! (as they did 60 years ago) if free universal education were proposed, such as citizens of other countries enjoy.

I have waited 45 years for Michael Moore to come along and do what needed to be done. Bravo, Michael!

Why didn't On Point introduce Roger Feldman by his full academic title: Blue Cross Professor of Health Insurance, University of Minnesota? And a former member of Ronald Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers? (Not that we couldn't guess) http://www.hpm.umn.edu/People/regular/feldman/Feldman.htm

I hate Michael Moore. He is one of the few people who should be publically executed. God, how I miss the House Committee of Un-American Activities.

But I must give credit where credit is due. The man can make a good propaganda film. He could have been very useful had he been born in Nazi Germany.

We have socialized medicine, but only for some.

All I am asking for is the same health insurance that Hilary Clinton has. My theory is if the average citizen had the same health insurance that State Senators had a couple things would happen:

1) Senators would have to confront the cost of health insurance for all --- that they get without thinking much about

2) everyone would get better health insurance

or

c) we would just pay our senators more so they could buy and the rest of us would be in our same life boat watching the Titanic sink

Sicko: This was a far less tendentious film than Michael's others.

And his points went beyond health care--to living wages, to quality day-care, to vacations--even to (if I haven't munged disparate films together) unions, citizen protests 'n' all that good stuff.

Which, you'd think, would be things we'd see in this country, a so-called "democracy"--without direct election of the president by the "demos"--the people--strangely enough.

And if "you'd rather read the book," take a gander at Howard Zinn's latest, "A Power governments cannot suppress. (If you're in for a bout of lachrymosis, that is.)

And, NFSCD (now for something completely different, sorta), a note to those folks urging Cheney's impeachment for his latest stunt, stone-walling the Senate Judiciary Committee's subpoenas for records, and a July 4 note:

STONEWALLING: First of all, I think all of us must be much more sympathetic to Darth Cheney's plight. If he gives up his secret documents, stored in those walk-in Mosler Safes™ he's got in his office it is very very likely that they will lead to a trial in the Hague for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

After all, how many of us would want to spend the rest of our lives, however short that period might be, in a foreign prison? Even IF we were found guilty, right?

At least you can tell him that your sympathy for his plight "is a no-brainer" before you impeach, remove him from office and "extraordinarily rend" him to the Hague.

JULY 4TH NOTE: I know you all know this, but just a reminder that on July 4th, and every day (in very rough averages), about 3 US soldiers will die, 15 will be maimed or wounded, 100 Iraqis will die, and 250 - 300 or so Iraqis will be maimed or wounded. Per d a y (!)

That's one helluva price to pay for oil. Maybe we should have NHSTA develop a "miles-per-body" rating on gasoline consumption. And every day it's taking more bodies-per-mile for us all to drive.

And I hope y'all have read the proposed Iraqi "Hydrocarbon" law, drawn up by Bush's and Cheney's pals' best legal beagles. It stinks--for the Iraqis, anyway.

(Speaking of reading, maybe except for Tom Ashbrook, I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that members of our nation's press have not recently read:

The Declaration of Independence

The US Constitution (Fred W. Friendly carried a copy in his bathrobe pocket, according to Andy Rooney (Emily's dad, I believe).

The UN Charter

The Geneva Conventions on Treatment of Prisoners of War

Bush's signing veto (or statement) on the anti-torture bill he signed into law

The Military Commissions Act

The Federalist Papers

Reports about The Carlyle Group, and big client, The House of Saud (remember those photos of Shrub holding hands with one of the Saudi Royals? Ever seen Shrub holding hands with Cheney?) About Arbusto ("Shrub" in Spanish) Petroleum? HW's deep-water oil drilling company serving the UAE?

George Orwell's "Politics and the English Language"--and "1984" and it's NewSpeak appendix for good measure.

Any Congressional Bill about which they report (of course, Senators and Representatives don't read them before they vote on them, either. The Congressmen I've asked defend this practice by saying their staffs read them, so reporters who don't read the legislation are at least in bad company.)

Any of the no-bid contracts between the military-industrial-legislative complex (or war profiteers) and the War Department (as it used to be called, before NewSpeak--or as 1984 put it, "War is Peace.")

Henry Waxman's complete letter to Darth Cheney re: reports on how his office (with an undisclosed number of employees--among them wife Lynne, I'll bet--she was in the WH bunker with hubby on 9/11/01) "handles" top secret documents. (May the higher powers protect Rep. Waxman.)

Other docs that Frank Rich hyperlinked in last Sunday's column (July 1), like the Classified Security memo that Rich notes gives Cheney a nice, new unparalleled power to classify and declassify documents "...in the performance of executive duties, the Vice President...."
(http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/03/20030325-11.html)

(As an aside, isn't it amazing that a Boston Globe reporter--all credit to him--can get a Pulitzer Prize for just reading what's on the White House and Thomas web-sites. He could have done it from a tea-table on his balcony. Imagine what the White House Correspondents could discover if they stopped wasting time with Tony Snow or even the rare Shrub "press avails," as he called them, and spent that time instead prowling websites with dot-gov and dot-mil suffixes. As Stephen Colbert noted last year, the WH press corps has generally served as all-but-supine secretaries for "The Decider's" propaganda.)

How 'bout the Project For A New American Century's 90-page white paper, "Rebuilding America's Defenses on The American Empire? http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf. The one with this nifty p. 51 comment about the recommended huge military buildup for US dominance on land, sea, air and space: "Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor." And most of the members of "The Project for the New American Century" gang are "Chickenhawks" (men who have never been in combat who have no compunction about sending others into combat--and would never even think of settling international disputes by personally dueling, man to man, with other national leaders. Cowards, to pick a Frank Luntzian "Word That Works."

And while I'm at this screed, how many reporters use the administration's propaganda words, phrases and slogans without quotation marks? A few examples, some more contentious than others:

Frank Luntz' Death Tax that takes effect upon everyone's death (real phrase = Estate Tax, affecting 2% of estates, according to the IRS' website).

Global War on Terror = illegal war of aggression for oil.

Detainees = prisoners of war.

Robust interrogation = torture.

Up-armored Humvees = Up Yours--cheap death traps for the troops 'cuz we don't want to "support the troops" with the much safer but much more expensive V-hulled mine- and IED-deflecting APCs developed first in South Africa. But damned if some folks got wise and made us make some of 'em. However, we can limit the cost by making them slowly--certainly not by mobilizing Detroit's idled assembly lines and unemployed skilled workers.

Support the Troops = a sucker-phrase we use to scare the Democrats from stopping the war and impeaching us.

Terrorists = folks we could catch if we used normal police law-enforcement techniques but we need to keep the citizenry frightened--keeps 'em quiet, don'tcha know.

Illegal enemy combatants = people captured as POWS, usually by accident.

Extraordinary rendition = kidnapping (and transporting over "state lines" for the purpose of torture).

Protecting Americans Against Terrorists = NewSpeak's "Patriot Act," criminal eavesdropping (FISA law) and illegal searches and seizures (4th Amendment reservation of rights).

Surge (also 'Leezie's Augmentation) = escalation of combat.

In harm's way = combat, or lethal combat, if you will.

IEDs = roadside bombs made with explosives, fuses and fuzes and artillery shells we let Iraqis loot from ammo dumps after "the end of major combat operations." (We found them while searching for WMDs, but didn't have enough troops to either guard or destroy them. The president thought he had put them under the furniture in the Oval Office, but his search didn't turn them up, as he infamously demonstrated for the White House correspondents.)

Collateral damage = dead and maimed innocent Iraqi children, women and non-combatant men (though the administration may be covertly applying the doctrine of original sin, whereby all humans are guilty sinners at birth, rather than innocent--and of course Christ cannot forgive the original sin of the heathen Muslim masses unless they "accept Christ as their lord and master" rather than the prophet Muhammad and the Qur'an). So, by that calculus, because there's no way even infants can be innocent, every human being that moves in Iraq is fair game. Cheney could go over to Iraq and "pop some caps" at them, as he seems to like bagging fellow humans. Much more exciting than bagging domesticated quail stuffed upside down in scrub by handlers.

Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL)--oops, changed to Operation Iraqi Freedom = the US illegal (according to the UN Charter) war of aggression.

The Iraq Hydrocarbon Law that will distribute oil revenues fairly between the Kurds, Shia and Sunni and end the insurgent violence = the predatory statute written by a US oil lawyer to Americanize the Iraqi oil fields that leaves Iraq with a measly 12.5% royalty. And freezes out non-American oil companies. That we'll force down the throats of our puppet government.

The Clean Air Act = the industrial pollution permission law.

The Healthy Forests Act = the wholesale deforestation permission law.

Iraqi insurgents = freedom fighters.

American Embassy in Iraq = the Unphotographed and largest-in-the-world Embassy to serve as a US palace and fort for the permanent US Occupation and Oil Field Protection forces.

Temporary military bases to support current operations = permanent military bases along what will be the Afghan oil pipeline route; permanent military bases in Iraq to protect American Big Oil when it arrives after US military has put down the freedom fighters.

Hard (as in "war is hard") = lethal, fatal.

The President feels the suffering of families who have lost loved ones who made the ultimate sacrifice defending our country = the President doesn't give a damn about the human cost of this war and won't attend any funerals lest Americans figure out that about five soldiers are dying every day in this war of aggression.

The memorial service for the victims of the terrible massacre of 32 VA-tech students = a presidential photo-op.

Privacy
1. (as in Pictures of the coffins arriving at Dover AFB would invade their privacy and that of the survivors = we've got to keep the war dead under the radar, lest Americans wake up to the cost of this war.

2. (as in Pictures of the maimed and wounded soldiers arriving at Andrews AFB (under cover of darkness) would invade the privacy of the soldiers = we've got to keep the war maimed and injured under the radar, lest Americans wake up to the cost of this war.

3. (doesn't apply to citizens of the US or any other country)

Osama bin Laden-the immoral coward who hates us for our way of life, our freedom, our democracy = the scion of the Arabian family we gave so much money to for the building of Arabia's infrastructure, including our airbases, who we supported, supported and trained to fight off the Russian invasion of Afghanistan who's really pissed that the US has made permanent it's "temporary" bases in Saudi Arabia and who we've used as a pretext to invade Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act = the rape of the US treasury and taxpayers to benefit Big Pharma.

The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 = the rape of the US treasury to benefit millionaires and GOP contributors.

Universal health care = we can't afford it and since we can't weaponize it, it's worthless anyway.

New Orleans = they're all Democrats, anyway

Temporary housing we provide to save the displaced that =

Habeas corpus = a quaint, vestigial nuisance.

Geneva Conventions on treatment of POW = Ditto

Article VI of the Constitution = Ditto (§ VI, ¶ 2. This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.)

Federal laws = like Nixon said--"Well, when the president does it that means that it is not illegal."

I swear to defend the US Constitution = Hey, no sweat. I've already taken care of that by executive order--after I declare martial law, I'm the sole Decider of what's Constitutional or not.

No Child Left Behind = no student gets ahead.

National Deficit = not my problem--I've got mine, we've got ours; we'll let the next administration deal with it.

Federal agencies = vehicles for enriching our contributors and employment agencies for loyal Bushies

Department of Justice = Our powerful agency for suppression of voters and Democrats.


Social Security/Privatization/improvement = We've taken care of Big Pharma, Big Oil (almost), now it's Wall Street's turn.

The Ownership Society = You own it, we take it, just a little bit at a time. Pensions, health insurance, wages, stock "investments." You remember-- that old bit about heating up the water slowly so the frog doesn't jump until it's too late and he's cooked. It works with people too. Check out The Patriot Act. But then, you're too stupid to notice how warm the water's getting. Like a frog.

Defending the American Way of Life = Defending us rich folks and corporate titans so we get to keep on raiding the treasury, underpaying dumb wage slaves, and keep the police, national guard, FBI, the courts and military to protect our property and wealth at home and abroad.

Howard Zinn's collection of updated essays and Mike Moore's latest Movie really got me going.


Add your own examples of AdministrationSpeak = honest English.

The movie was great and if anyone would care to check the facts, they are all linked to their sources on his website just like we all link to our sources on Gather. I find it hilarious that people would refuse to see this movie as if they would be better off not seeing it. Some people would just rather be told what to believe by their masters instead of being in a position to speak informedly. Maybe you'll wish you would have been more informed when your insurance company denies coverage to you. Or maybe you just don't want to find out how 9/11 volunteer rescue workers were denied health benefits after being exposed to the toxic air that Rudy Guiliani approved as OK to breathe. Alas this film is not about slamming Republicans though, it is about healthcare in our country. One of the hugest jabs goes to Hilary Clinton as the second highest reciever of Health Insurance and Pharma Industry campaign contributions.