Day: July 29, 2007
Floridians for Franken? It Could Happen
When I found the fundraising letter from Al Franken in my Florida mailbox, I almost dumped it in the “throw away unopened” stack. Instead something made me put it in the “look at it later and then throw it away” pile.
I looked at it today and now I — a Floridian with absolutely no way to vote for Franken in his run for senator in Minnesota — am writing his campaign a check.
That the man has a way with words (although having read his books, I’d say he got help with this letter) is obvious. Still, somewhere in the midst of a professional assessment that he was using too many metaphors and spending too much time on the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, he won me over.
I knew nothing about his opponent, incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman. But when Franken compared him to, “your obnoxious uncle who loves to listen to Rush Limbaugh and ruins Thanksgiving every year,” I understood immediately.
It’s important to get idiots like Coleman out of the Senate and get smart people like Franken in, whether they are running in Minnesota or Florida or California. If you got the letter, don’t toss it. If you weren’t on the mailing list, go to Franken’s web site and look around. You can donate on the spot, and right after you do, Franken will thank you via video. Nice touch.
Boffo Box Office for ‘Sicko’ Coming Soon Thanks to George Bush
The Bush administration is set to give Michael Moore’s new film “Sicko” millions of dollars in free publicity, potentially boosting it into the stratospheric range of Moore’s previous hit, “Fahrenheit 9/11,” which grossed $222 million worldwide in 2004.
On Thursday, Moore announced that he had received a subpoena from the Justice Dept. He says the Bush administration is accusing him of failing to file some documents that are required to film in Cuba and that he thereby violated the Cuban embargo. Moore says journalists are not required to submit the documents in question.
This smacks of a classic Bushie vendetta, a petty swipe at a critic based on the silly hope that a subpoena and perhaps an indictment will silence him. As if. It is also the latest example of the White House political shop using the Justice Dept. to attack an opponent. Note the timing — the subpoena to Moore came within hours after Karl Rove received a subpoena from Democrats in Congress.
Subpoenaing Moore, like so many Bushevik tactics, is also a strategy designed to fail. If silencing Moore was the objective, his legal battles with the government will only give him a bigger soapbox. If tying him up in an expensive legal battle was the goal, the additional publicity will make him much richer than he would have been if the government had stayed out of it and more than offset the legal fees.
Not that “Sicko” isn’t doing quite well without Bush’s help. Despite rightwingers’ dire predictions that ticket sales would be anemic, in the three and a half weeks since “Sicko” went into wide release it has already grossed $20.3 million, and will soon surpass the $21.5 million in total domestic receipts made by “Bowling for Columbine,” for which Moore won the Best Documentary Oscar for 2002. “Sicko” hasn’t yet opened overseas.
With the free high-profile publicity from the government, especially if Moore is indicted, ticket sales for “Sicko” could surge into $200 million range of “Fahrenheit 9/11.”
And at this early stage, “Sicko” appears to be the strongest contender for the Best Documentary Oscar this year. If Hollywood types come to believe Michael Moore is being persecuted by George Bush, “Sicko” will be a shoe-in.
