← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · il ragno
Thread ID: 20880 | Posts: 37 | Started: 2005-11-03
2005-11-03 12:20 | User Profile
[url]http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/novem...05ownsstock.htm[/url]
[SIZE="3"][B]Michael Moore Owns Halliburton Stock[/B][/SIZE]
"I don't own a single share of stock!" filmmaker Michael Moore proudly proclaimed.
He's right. He doesn't own a single share. He owns tens of thousands of shares – including nearly 2,000 shares of Boeing, nearly 1,000 of Sonoco, more than 4,000 of Best Foods, more than 3,000 of Eli Lilly, more than 8,000 of Bank One and more than 2,000 of Halliburton, the company most vilified by Moore in "Fahrenheit 9/11."
If you want to see Moore's own signed Schedule D declaring his capital gains and losses where his stock ownership is listed, it's emblazoned on the cover of Peter Schweizer's new book, "Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy."
And it's just one of the startling revelations by Schweizer, famous for his previous works, "Reagan's War" and "The Bushes."
Other examples:
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who proclaims her support for unions, yet the luxury resort, the vineyard and the restaurants she partly owns are strictly non-union. While she advocates tough new laws enforcing environmental regulations on the private sector, the exclusive country club she partly owns failed to comply with existing environmental regulations for the past eight years – including a failure to protect endangered species.
Noam Chomsky has made a reputation for calling America a police state and branding the Pentagon "the most hideous institution on earth," yet his entire academic career, writes Schweizer, has been subsidized by the U.S. military.
Barbra Streisand is another proponent of environmentalism, yet she drives an SUV, lives in a mansion and has a $22,000 annual water bill. In the past, she has driven to appointments in Beverly Hills in a motor home because of her aversion to using public bathrooms.
Ralph Nader plays the role of the citizen avenger – the populist uninterested in wealth and materialism, pretending to live in a modest apartment. In fact, he lives in fancy homes registered in the names of his siblings. This is not just a book of "gotcha" journalism, explains Schweizer. He says the dozens and dozens of examples of "liberal hypocrisy" he cites in his book "are of central importance in evaluating the validity and usefulness of liberal ideas."
"Using IRS records, court depositions, news reports, financial disclosures and their own statements, I sought to answer a particular question: Do these liberal leaders and activists practice what they preach?" he writes. "What I found was a stunning record of open and shameless hypocrisy. Those who champion the cause of organized labor had developed various methods to avoid paying union wages or shunned unions altogether.
"Those who believe that the rich need to pay more in taxes proved especially adept at avoiding taxes themselves. Critics of capitalism and corporate enterprise frequently invested in the very companies they denounced. Those who espouse strict environmental regulations worked vigorously to sidestep them when it came to their own businesses and properties. Those who advocate steep inheritance taxes to promote fairer income distribution hid their investments in trusts or exotic overseas locales to reduce their own tax liability. Those who are strong proponents of affirmative action rarely practiced it themselves, and some had abysmal records when it came to hiring minorities. Those who proclaim themselves champions of civil liberties when it comes to criminal or terrorist cases went to extraordinary lengths to curtail the civil liberties of others when they felt threatened or just inconvenienced. Advocates of gun control had no problem making sure that an arsenal of weapons was available to protect them from dangerous criminals."
2005-11-03 12:26 | User Profile
Cheney and Bush wage war gleefully for corporate interests yet sidestep shouldering a musket; Moore and his ilk beat their breasts about it yet make sure to ride the gravy train along with them, clipping coupons along the way.
Get it? They're [I]all [/I]scum.
2005-11-03 13:26 | User Profile
[QUOTE]"Using IRS records, court depositions, news reports, financial disclosures and their own statements, I sought to answer a particular question: Do these liberal leaders and activists practice what they preach?" he writes. "What I found was a stunning record of open and shameless hypocrisy. Those who champion the cause of organized labor had developed various methods to avoid paying union wages or shunned unions altogether.[/QUOTE] IR,
What's funny to me is that I have known this for years about most of these folks, which is just one of many reasons I hold these folks in contempt. The idea that the Democratic party is that of the "working man" has for most of its life been a stable load of horse manure. For a long time these guys had more ties to corporate interests than the Republicans did, though in recent years the GOP has done a fine job in not only catching up with them, but exceeding them. This occurred, interestingly enough, around the time the Neocons started taking over. [QUOTE]"Those who believe that the rich need to pay more in taxes proved especially adept at avoiding taxes themselves.[/QUOTE] They have had this down pat for years. As noted they are hypocrits about gun control as well. Feinstein has a pistol permit, yet she thinks no one else should be able to carry one. I have a book filled with examples of this alone. This is so typical of our so-called "leaders". [QUOTE]Get it? They're all scum.[/QUOTE] Yep, which is why I loath both of these parties and hope feverately that all this crap that both of them have been involved in destroys them. Let them go the way of the Whigs.
2005-11-03 13:35 | User Profile
Pardon the French but the one common thread linking liberal Democrat and conservative Republican is a shared insider-ethos that [I]paying taxes is for assholes.[/I]
Of course, the rest of us have [I]always [/I]thought that....but when we say it, it's [I]sedition[/I].
2005-11-03 14:26 | User Profile
IIRC John Kerry raised slightly [I]more[/I] money than Bush! Of course, much of the GOP warchest is unreported, but the point is that the Democrats have lots of wealthy backers. Both are more or less equally, parties of the super-rich.
Could this change? In the future, wealthy whites and Jews may increasingly move from D to R. The Democrats may become more and more the party of aggressive Mugabe-like "multiculturalism" that makes many investors (and Jews) nervous. If so, it'll become a minor party and the Republicans may well rule for many decades, much like the Democrats for 60 years after FDR was elected.
Of course, the Republican party could also face schism over the immigration issue, triggered by populist agitation. I hope this happens. We desperately need a third (or transformed) party which stands for border security, small businesses and farmers, and ordinary white people.
2005-11-03 14:28 | User Profile
[URL="http://www.nationalreview.com/interrogatory/schweizer200510250827.asp"]http://www.nationalreview.com/interrogatory/schweizer200510250827.asp[/URL]
Lopez: Tell me the great hypocrisy of that greatest of all public intellectuals according to one recent depressing survey: Noam Chomsky.
Schweizer: Noam Chomsky thinks he's the Moses of this age and even those on the Left who don't agree with him on everything accept his moral authority. But Chomsky is a socialist who practices capitalism, and an anti-militarist who has made millions off of Pentagon contracts. Wonder what his followers would think of that? Then there is his constant lecturing about "tax gimmicks" and "tax shelters" that "the rich" use to avoid paying their "fair share." He must have forgotten about that when he set up his tax shelter.
Lopez: And he wasn't a lot of fun when you got in touch with him, was he?
Schweizer: I give credit to Chomsky for responding to my questions. His excuses were something to behold. No wonder he teaches linguistics. It's amazing how he twists his words. By the way, he said it was okay to criticize other rich people for setting up trusts and setting one up himself. After all, he explained, he's been fighting for poor people his whole life.
2005-11-03 14:47 | User Profile
[B][FONT=Arial][SIZE=5]P[/SIZE][/FONT]eter Schweizer[/B] is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. A former consultant to NBC News, he also served as a member of the Ultraterrorism Study Group at the U.S. government's Sandia National Laboratory. His books have been translated into eleven languages. His most recent work is [I]Do as I Say (Not as I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy[/I] (Doubleday, October 2005). Other books include [I]The Bushes: Portrait of a Dynasty[/I] (Doubleday, 2004/Anchor, 2005), which the [I]New York Times[/I] called "the best" of the books on the Bush family, and [I]Reagan's War: The Epic Story of His Forty-Year Struggle and Final Triumph over Communism[/I] (Doubleday, 2002/Anchor 2003). "A rousing and compelling case that Reagan's personal and political odyssey...was central to bringing down the 'evil empire,'" said the [I]Los Angeles Times[/I] in its review.
Biography: [URL="http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/bios/schweizer.html"]http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/bios/schweizer.html[/URL]
2005-11-03 21:54 | User Profile
[quote=il ragno]Cheney and Bush wage war gleefully for corporate interests yet sidestep shouldering a musket; Moore and his ilk beat their breasts about it yet make sure to ride the gravy train along with them, clipping coupons along the way.
Get it? They're [I]all [/I]scum.
this is too right.
2005-11-04 02:03 | User Profile
[img]http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0385513496.01.AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ.jpg[/img]
Al Franken Furious; 'Do As I Say' Soars on Amazon
Breaking from NewsMax.com
We have no doubt that Al Franken is furious with news today that Peter Schweizer's blockbuster new book "Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy" has soared to the top of Amazon's Best seller lists.
As of Thursday morning, "Do As I Say" hit Amazon's #6 rank for all books sold - climbing more than 20,000 rankings in a week and more than 200 from two days ago when NewsMax.com first featured the book as its lead story. [If you don't believe us, check out Amazon yourself - Go Here Now. ]
The news will have Franken reaching for some Advil, as he is one of the main targets of "Do As I Say."
In "Do As I Say," Hoover Fellow Peter Schweizer reveals the glaring contradictions between the public stances and real-life behavior of prominent liberals. In addition to Franken, many others come under scrutiny including Michael Moore, Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Ralph Nader.
After two years of research into liberal hypocrisy, Schweizer described his revelations as "stunning."
That may be understatement.
For example, Air America radio host Al Franken says conservatives are racist because they lack diversity and oppose affirmative action. But fewer than 1 percent of the people he has hired over the past 15 years have been African-American.
It gets worse.
Ted Kennedy has fought for the estate tax and spoken out against tax shelters. But he has repeatedly benefited from an intricate web of trusts and private foundations that have shielded most of his family's fortune from the IRS.
One Kennedy family trust wasn't even set up in the U.S., but in Fiji. Similarly, Bill and Hillary Clinton have spoken in favor of the estate tax, and in 2000 Bill vetoed a bill seeking to end it. But the Clintons have set up a contract trust that allows them to substantially reduce the amount of inheritance tax their estate will pay when they die.
Hillary, for her part, has written and spoken extensively about the right of children to make major decisions regarding their own lives, such as having an abortion without parental consent.
But she barred 13-year-old daughter Chelsea from getting her ears pierced and forbade her to watch MTV or HBO.
And then there's Hollywood hypocrisy.
Barbra Streisand has talked about the necessity of unions to protect a "living wage." But she prefers to do her filming and postproduction work in Canada, where she can pay less than American union wages. As for other liberals who like to offshore things, there's billionaire Bush-basher George Soros.
Soros says the wealthy should pay higher, more progressive tax rates. But he holds the bulk of his money in tax-free overseas accounts in Curacao, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.
Schweizer sums up his book this way: "The reality is that liberals like to preach in moral platitudes. They like to condemn ordinary Americans and Republicans for a whole host of things - racism, lack of concern for the poor, polluting the environment, and greed. But when it comes to applying those same standards to themselves, liberals are found to be shockingly guilty of hypocrisy.
"The media and the American people need to hold them accountable."
NewsMax.com
2005-11-04 02:35 | User Profile
[QUOTE]For example, Air America radio host Al Franken says conservatives are racist because they lack diversity and oppose affirmative action. But fewer than 1 percent of the people he has hired over the past 15 years have been African-American.[/QUOTE] On the other hand, I bet Al has a whole slew of Jews working for him.
2005-11-04 06:44 | User Profile
The creepy thing is that Michael Moore bears an amazing physical resemblance (both face and body in general) to one of my uncles...
Petr
2005-11-04 07:52 | User Profile
This book could just have easily been written about conservative hypocrites.
Nothing really new here; we all know about liberal hypocrisy, although I suppose there are still some neophytes out there who need learnin'.
2005-11-04 08:05 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Sertorius]On the other hand, I bet Al has a whole slew of Jews working for him.[/QUOTE]And of course Franken's jewish himself
[QUOTE]I'm the New York Jew who was actually raised in Minnesota," Rabbi Franken avers
I]
2005-11-04 10:06 | User Profile
Ben Shapiro
Can anyone say "coward" and "chickenhawk"?
2005-11-04 12:23 | User Profile
A juicy expose of pinko/kike hypocrisy indeed.
2005-11-04 12:36 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Hamilton] We desperately need a third (or transformed) party which stands for border security, small businesses and farmers, and ordinary white people.[/QUOTE]
I hope the Republicans nominate Condi and the Democrats Hillary. Under those circumstances, a third party could win.
2005-11-04 13:47 | User Profile
YT,
Here's another way. Josh Chafetz.
2005-11-04 16:03 | User Profile
[QUOTE=il ragno] Get it? They're [I]all [/I]scum.[/QUOTE]
Already knew [I]that[/I], but it's always a pleasure to watch the scum squirm. :biggrin:
2005-11-04 16:28 | User Profile
[quote=YertleTurtle]I hope [B]the Republicans nominate Condi[/B] and the Democrats Hillary. Under those circumstances, a third party could win.
True. But is even the "Stupid Party" [I]that[/I] stupid?
2005-11-04 16:38 | User Profile
i dont think either party will tread in these waters.
2005-11-04 16:56 | User Profile
[quote=BaconEggCheese]i dont think either party will tread in these waters.
Agreed, but at least Mrs. Clinton carries her husband's name and a weighty career in politics. There is still a fairly strong base of Clinton loyalists in the Democratic rank and file. Condi, OTOH, is not only female, but black on top of it, and (compared to either Clinton) unimpressive.
She also would prove a slap in the face to the Republican base -- overwhelmingly white people. Why choose an underqualified affirmative action black woman when there are so many intelligent, experienced, overqualified white men (and even women, compared to Condi) out there? Many whites vote Republican for racial reasons, even if these are often subconscious. The GOP can underestimate this dynamic only at its peril.
2005-11-04 17:00 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Hamilton]True. But is even the "Stupid Party" [I]that[/I] stupid?[/QUOTE]Up until about 5 years ago, I would have said no. Now, however, all bets are off.
2005-11-04 18:16 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Hamilton]Agreed, but at least Mrs. Clinton carries her husband's name and a weighty career in politics. There is still a fairly strong base of Clinton loyalists in the Democratic rank and file. Condi, OTOH, is not only female, but black on top of it, and (compared to either Clinton) unimpressive.
She also would prove a slap in the face to the Republican base -- overwhelmingly white people. Why choose an underqualified affirmative action black woman when there are so many intelligent, experienced, overqualified white men (and even women, compared to Condi) out there? Many whites vote Republican for racial reasons, even if these are often subconscious. The GOP can underestimate this dynamic only at its peril.[/QUOTE]
Further, I don't think it's typically been the case that black republican candidates garner a significantly larger share of black votes.
2005-11-04 19:55 | User Profile
[quote=EDUMAKATEDMOFO]Further, I don't think it's typically been the case that black republican candidates garner a significantly larger share of black votes. You are correct. Steve Sailer has done an excellent job over at vdare.com showing that Republican pandering to blacks and Hispanics is worse than pointless, it is counterproductive. If they simply accepted their status as the [I]de facto[/I] white people's party, they would do much better.
2005-11-04 21:09 | User Profile
[quote=Hamilton]Agreed, but at least Mrs. Clinton carries her husband's name and a weighty career in politics. There is still a fairly strong base of Clinton loyalists in the Democratic rank and file. Condi, OTOH, is not only female, but black on top of it, and (compared to either Clinton) unimpressive.
i'm not accusing you of this, but does anyone else think it RIDICULOUS how many people remember the Clinton years fondly?
he was a liar, questionable president, and involved in generally shady dealings, yet everyone acts as though the Clinton years were oh-so amazing. It's preposterous.
2005-11-04 21:20 | User Profile
[QUOTE=BaconEggCheese]i'm not accusing you of this, but does anyone else think it RIDICULOUS how many people remember the Clinton years fondly?
he was a liar, questionable president, and involved in generally shady dealings, yet everyone acts as though the Clinton years were oh-so amazing. It's preposterous.[/QUOTE]
There's very, very little love for Clinton on OD, but in light of the utterly disatrous and dangerous and radical presidency of George W Bush, some of us, like me, wax nostalgic for the pre-George W Bush days of the republic, regardless of who was president. Shoot, I've developed a new fondness and appreciation for Jimmy Carter's presidency after living the last 5 years under the Dumbya regime.
2005-11-04 21:24 | User Profile
[quote=BaconEggCheese]i'm not accusing you of this, but does anyone else think it RIDICULOUS how many people remember the Clinton years fondly?
he was a liar, questionable president, and involved in generally shady dealings, yet everyone acts as though the Clinton years were oh-so amazing. It's preposterous.
Well, that's a separate issue. I will tell you that I'm no Clintonista.
My point is that either Clinton is far sharper, more experienced, and more politically able than Condi. It's not even a contest. The Clintons are political heavyweights, part of a Democratic dynasty with still-powerful support. Condi is an affirmative action fixture and an all-around lightweight.
You can take it to the bank. The Daughter of Ham will not be nominated for POTUS.
2005-11-04 21:30 | User Profile
I'm not so sure about the conventional wisdom that Hillary has a lock on the nomination. While this needs to be taken carefully, from listening to "Liberals" on "Liberal" radio there are quite a few that are put out with her. I think her attempt to straddle the fence has made them unconfortable. Her backsliding on her previous statements on illegal immigration (whether you believe them or not) have turned off others who might have gave her serious thought.
2005-11-04 21:38 | User Profile
Hillary is unlikely to get nominated.
I'm just saying she would be a more successful candidate for the Dems than Condi would for the GOP.
2005-11-04 21:44 | User Profile
I would agree with that. It is only stupid Republicans that I hear on talk radio who seem to think that Rice would be a great candidate. I don't know where Dick Morris comes up with this nonsense.
2005-11-05 03:24 | User Profile
[quote=Sertorius]I would agree with that. It is only stupid Republicans that I hear on talk radio who seem to think that Rice would be a great candidate. I don't know where Dick Morris comes up with this nonsense.
Why not Jesse Ventura? As the barrel is being scraped well beyond the bottom and down into the cellar floor, at least "The Body" has some experience (governor is allegedly a good training job for president, or so I hear . . .) and is semi-populist . . . if not quite a rocket scientist.
AE
2005-11-05 06:12 | User Profile
[QUOTE=grep14w]This book could just have easily been written about conservative hypocrites.
[/QUOTE] Please elucidate.
2005-11-05 11:38 | User Profile
[QUOTE=xmetalhead]There's very, very little love for Clinton on OD, but in light of the utterly disatrous and dangerous and radical presidency of George W Bush, some of us, like me, wax nostalgic for the pre-George W Bush days of the republic, regardless of who was president. Shoot, I've developed a new fondness and appreciation for Jimmy Carter's presidency after living the last 5 years under the Dumbya regime.[/QUOTE]
LOL! Why am I not surprised that you have 'developed' a 'fondness' for Carter and Clinton, crazyhead? Hmmm... :wink:
2005-11-05 13:44 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Gabrielle]LOL! Why am I not surprised that you have 'developed' a 'fondness' for Carter and Clinton, crazyhead? Hmmm... :wink:[/QUOTE]
You shouldn't be surprised. In comparison to the dull-witted bumbling moron-idiot-chimp from Texas, your hero, Clinton and Carter are wise sages.
And furthermore, Al Franken's Air America is kicking the crap outta Rush Limbaugh in the Los Angeles market. I wouldn't be surprised if Air America is blowing Rush outta the water in NYC either.
Not that I'm an Al Franken fan. Like someone else said on this thread: it's not news that outspoken Liberals are hypocrites. Their entire political platform is hypocritical, although even a broken clock is still right twice a day. As for sycophantic GOP'ers like you Gabby, it's sad to see people so blinded by lies and propaganda. You're no better than a rank and file Liberal.
Have a nice day.
2005-11-09 00:04 | User Profile
Al Franken, Hillary, Kennedy, Michael Moore Caught!
A new book by a top investigative journalist exposes the blatant hypocrisy of liberals who loudly espouse principles they disregard in their own personal lives.
In "Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy," Hoover Fellow Peter Schweizer reveals the glaring contradictions between the public stances and real-life behavior of prominent liberals including Michael Moore, Ted Kennedy, Al Franken, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Ralph Nader – among others.
NewsMax has a free offer for this new book – Go Here Now.
"Hypocrisy has proved to be a wonderful weapon for liberals in their war against conservatives," Schweizer writes in the November issue of NewsMax Magazine.
"Yet for all the talk about conservative hypocrisy, there has been very little investigation into the prevalence of hypocrisy on the left."
After two years of research into liberal hypocrisy, Schweizer said, "what I discovered was just stunning."
Schweizer's well-annotated book, published by Doubleday, has just been released and its sure to turn several well-known liberals red with anger.
Among the eye-opening revelations of "Do As I Say":
Filmmaker Michael Moore insists that corporations are evil and claims he doesn't invest in the stock market due to moral principle. But Moore's IRS forms, viewed by Schweizer, show that over the past five years he has owned shares in such corporate giants as Halliburton, Merck, Pfizer, Sunoco, Tenet Healthcare, Ford, General Electric and McDonald's.
Staunch union supporter Rep. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) has received the Cesar Chavez Award from the United Farmworkers Union. But the $25 million Northern California vineyard she and her husband own is a non-union shop. The hypocrisy doesn't end there. Pelosi has received more money from the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union than any other member of Congress in recent election cycles.
But the Pelosis own a large stake in an exclusive hotel in Rutherford, Calif. It has more than 250 employees. But none of them are in a union, according to Schweizer, author of "The Bushes: Portrait of a Dynasty" and a regular contributor to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and other periodicals.
The Pelosis are also partners in a restaurant chain called Piatti, which has 900 employees. The chain is – that's right, a non-union shop.
Ralph Nader is another liberal who claims that unions are essential to protect worker rights. But when an editor of one of his publications tried to form a union to ameliorate miserable working conditions, the editor was fired and the locks changed on the office door.
Self-described socialist Noam Chomsky has described the Pentagon as "the most vile institution on the face of the earth" and lashed out against tax havens and trusts that benefit only the rich. But Chomsky has been paid millions of dollars by the Pentagon over the last 40 years, and he used a venerable law firm to set up his irrevocable trust to shield his assets from the IRS.
Air America radio host Al Franken says conservatives are racist because they lack diversity and oppose affirmative action. But fewer than 1 percent of the people he has hired over the past 15 years have been African-American.
Ted Kennedy has fought for the estate tax and spoken out against tax shelters. But he has repeatedly benefited from an intricate web of trusts and private foundations that have shielded most of his family's fortune from the IRS.
One Kennedy family trust wasn't even set up in the U.S., but in Fiji. Another family member, environmentalist Robert Kennedy Jr., has said that it is not moral to profit from natural resources. But he receives an annual check from the family's large holdings in the oil industry.
Barbra Streisand has talked about the necessity of unions to protect a "living wage." But she prefers to do her filming and postproduction work in Canada, where she can pay less than American union wages.
Bill and Hillary Clinton have spoken in favor of the estate tax, and in 2000 Bill vetoed a bill seeking to end it. But the Clintons have set up a contract trust that allows them to substantially reduce the amount of inheritance tax their estate will pay when they die. Hillary, for her part, has written and spoken extensively about the right of children to make major decisions regarding their own lives, including having abortions without parental notification.
But she barred 13-year-old daughter Chelsea from getting her ears pierced and forbid the teen from watching MTV or HBO.
Billionaire Bush-basher George Soros says the wealthy should pay higher, more progressive tax rates. But he holds the bulk of his money in tax-free overseas accounts in Curacao, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. Schweizer writes: "Liberals claim to support affirmative action but don't practice it. They support higher taxes but set up complicated tax shelters to avoid paying them. They claim to be ardent environmentalists but abandon their cause when it impinges on their own property rights.
"The reality is that liberals like to preach in moral platitudes. They like to condemn ordinary Americans and Republicans for a whole host of things - racism, lack of concern for the poor, polluting the environment, and greed.
"But when it comes to applying those same standards to themselves, liberals are found to be shockingly guilty of hypocrisy.
"The media and the American people need to hold them accountable."
[img]http://www.newsmax.com/images/headlines/Moorestock2.jpg[/img]
Michael Moore caught as a big, fat capitalist. His foundation has held stocks in major defense companies. (Pictured: tax return for Moore's foundation)
[url]www.newsmax.com[/url]
2005-11-09 00:24 | User Profile
Filmmaker Michael Moore has made a career out of trashing corporations and said he doesn't own any stocks due to moral principle.
How then did author Peter Schweizer uncover IRS documents showing that Moore's very own foundation has bought stocks in some of America's largest corporations - including Halliburton, other defense contractors and some of the same companies he has attacked?
In his blockbuster new book "Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy," Hoover Fellow Schweizer reveals the glaring contradictions between the public stances and real-life behavior of prominent liberals including Al Franken, Ralph Nader, Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi. [Editor's Note: Get your copy of "Do As I Say" - Go Here Now.]
But he reserves some of his sharpest barbs for Moore.
In his first documentary "Roger & Me," Moore skewered General Motors, Schweizer points out.
In "The Big One," he went after Nike and PayDay candy bars.
"Bowling for Columbine" was an attack on the American gun industry.
Oil companies played a major role in "Fahrenheit 911."
His upcoming film "Sicko" pillories drug companies and HMOs.
On his television shows "TV Nation" and "The Awful Truth," he criticized HMOs and defense contractors.
He once said that major defense contractor Halliburton was run by a bunch of "thugs," and suggested that for every American killed in the Iraq war, "I would like Halliburton to slay one mid-level executive."
Publicly, Moore has claimed he wants no part of these companies and won't own stock.
In his book "Stupid White Men," he wrote: "I don't own a single share of stock."
He repeated the claim in a 1997 letter to the online magazine Salon, saying: "I don't own any stock."
Privately, however, he tells the IRS a different story, Schweizer discloses in his book.
The year that Moore claimed in "Stupid White Men" that he didn't own any stock, he told the IRS that a foundation totally controlled by Moore and his wife had more than $280,000 in corporate stock and nearly $100,000 in corporate bonds.
Over the past five years, Moore's holdings have "included such evil pharmaceutical and medical companies as Pfizer, Merck, Genzyme, Elan PLC, Eli Lilly, Becton Dickinson and Boston Scientific," writes Schweizer, whose earlier works include "The Bushes" and "Reagan's War."
"Moore's supposedly nonexistent portfolio also includes big bad energy giants like Sunoco, Noble Energy, Schlumberger, Williams Companies, Transocean Sedco Forex and Anadarko, all firms that 'deplete irreplaceable fossil fuels in the name of profit' as he put it in ?Dude, Where's My Country?'
"And in perhaps the ultimate irony, he also has owned shares in Halliburton. According to IRS filings, Moore sold Halliburton for a 15 percent profit and bought shares in Noble, Ford, General Electric (another defense contractor), AOL Time Warner (evil corporate media) and McDonald's.
"Also on Moore's investment menu: defense contractors Honeywell, Boeing and Loral."
Does Moore share the stock proceeds of his "foundation" with charitable causes, you might ask?
Schweizer found that "for a man who by 2002 had a net worth in eight figures, he gave away a modest $36,000 through the foundation, much of it to his friends in the film business or tony cultural organizations that later provided him with venues to promote his books and film."
Moore's hypocrisy doesn't end with his financial holdings.
He has criticized the journalism industry and Hollywood for their lack of African-Americans in prominent positions, and in 1998 he said he personally wanted to hire minorities "who come from the working class."
In "Stupid White Men," he proclaimed his plans to "hire only black people."
But when Schweizer checked the senior credits for Moore's latest film "Fahrenheit 911," he found that of the movie's 14 producers, three editors, production manager and production coordinator, all 19 were white. So were all three cameramen and the two people who did the original music.
On "Bowling for Columbine," 13 of the 14 producers were white, as were the two executives in charge of production, the cameramen, the film editor and the music composer.
His show "TV Nation" had 13 producers, four film editors and 10 writers - but not a single African-American among them.
And as for Moore's insistence on portraying himself as "working class" and an "average Joe," Schweizer recounts this anecdote:
"When Moore flew to London to visit people at the BBC or promote a film, he took the Concorde and stayed at the Ritz. But he also allegedly booked a room at a cheap hotel down the street where he could meet with journalists and pose as a ?man of humble circumstances.'"
That's hypocrisy with a capital H!
[url]www.newsmax.com[/url]
2005-11-09 00:27 | User Profile
[QUOTE=xmetalhead]You shouldn't be surprised. In comparison to the dull-witted bumbling moron-idiot-chimp from Texas, your hero, Clinton and Carter are wise sages.
And furthermore, Al Franken's Air America is kicking the crap outta Rush Limbaugh in the Los Angeles market. I wouldn't be surprised if Air America is blowing Rush outta the water in NYC either.
Not that I'm an Al Franken fan. Like someone else said on this thread: it's not news that outspoken Liberals are hypocrites. Their entire political platform is hypocritical, although even a broken clock is still right twice a day. As for sycophantic GOP'ers like you Gabby, it's sad to see people so blinded by lies and propaganda. You're no better than a rank and file Liberal.
Have a nice day.[/QUOTE]
Maybe, but you ARE a leftist liberal. Have a wonderful evening. :blow: