Michael Moore

By Michael Moore, filmmaker

Monday, November 19th, 2012

Dear President Obama:

Good luck on your journeys overseas this week, and congratulations on decisively winning your second term as our president! The first time you won four years ago, most of us couldn’t contain our joy and found ourselves literally in tears over your victory.

This time, it was more like breathing a huge sigh of relief. But, like the smooth guy you are, you scored the highest percentage of the vote of any Democrat since Lyndon Johnson, and you racked up the most votes for a Democratic president in the history of the United States (the only one to receive more votes than you was … you, in ’08!). You are the first Democrat to get more than 50% of the vote twice in a row since Franklin D. Roosevelt.

This was truly another historic election and I would like to take a few minutes of your time to respectfully ask that your second term not resemble your first term.

It’s not that you didn’t get anything done. You got A LOT done. But there are some very huge issues that have been left unresolved and, dammit, we need you to get some fight in you. Wall Street and the uber-rich have been conducting a bloody class war for over 30 years and it’s about time they were stopped.

I know it is not in your nature to be aggressive or confrontational. But, please, Barack – DO NOT listen to the pundits who are telling you to make the “grand compromise” or move to the “center” (FYI – you’re already there). Your fellow citizens have spoken and we have rejected the crazed ideology of this Republican Party and we insist that you forcefully proceed in bringing about profound change that will improve the lives of the 99%. We’re done hoping. We want real change. And, if we can’t get it in the second term of a great and good man like you, then really – what’s the use? Why are we even bothering? Yes, we’re that discouraged and disenchanted.

At your first post-election press conference last Wednesday you were on fire. The way you went all “Taxi Driver” on McCain and company (“You talkin’ to me?”) was so brilliant and breathtaking I had to play it back a dozen times just to maintain the contact high. Jesus, that look – for a second I thought laser beams would be shooting out of your eyes! MORE OF THAT!! PLEASE!!

In the weeks after your first election you celebrated by hiring the Goldman Sachs boys and Wall Street darlings to run our economy. Talk about a buzzkill that I never fully recovered from. Please – not this time. This time take a stand for all the rest of us – and if you do, tens of millions of us will not only have your back, we will swoop down on Congress in a force so large they won’t know what hit them (that’s right, McConnell – you’re on the retirement list we’ve put together for 2014).

BUT – first you have to do the job we elected you to do. You have to take your massive 126-electoral vote margin and just go for it.

Here are my suggestions:

1. DRIVE THE RICH RIGHT OFF THEIR FISCAL CLIFF. The “fiscal cliff” is a ruse, an invention by the Right and the rich, to try and keep their huge tax breaks. On December 31, let ALL the tax cuts expire. Then, on January 1, put forth a bill that restores the tax cuts for 98% of the public. I dare the Republicans to vote against that! They can’t and they won’t. As for the spending cuts, the 2011 agreement states that, for every domestic program dollar the Republicans want to cut, a Pentagon dollar must also be cut. See, you are a genius! No way will the Right vote against the masters of war. And if by some chance they do, you can immediately put forth legislation to restore all the programs we, the majority, approve of. And for God’s sake, man – declare Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid untouchable. They’re not bankrupt or anywhere near it. If the rich paid the same percentage of Social Security tax on their entire income – the same exact rate everyone else pays – then there will suddenly be enough money in Social Security to last til at least the year 2080!

2. END ALL THE WARS NOW. Do not continue the war in Afghanistan (a thoroughly losing proposition if ever there was one) for two full more years! Why should one single more person have to die FOR NO REASON? Stop it. You know it’s wrong. Bin Laden’s dead, al Qaeda is decimated and the Afghans have to work out their own problems. Also, end the drone strikes and other covert military activities you are conducting in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Colombia and God knows where else. You think history is going to remember the United States as a great democracy? No, they’re going to think of us as a nation that became addicted to war. They’ll call us warlords. They’ll say that in the 21st century America was so in need of oil that we’d kill anyone to get it. You know that’s where this is going. This has to stop. Now.

3. END THE DRUG WAR. It is not only an abysmal failure, it has returned us to the days of slavery. We have locked up millions of African-Americans and Latinos and now fund a private prison-industrial complex that makes billions for a few lucky rich people. There are other ways to deal with the drugs that do cause harm – ways built around a sense of decency and compassion. We look like a bunch of sadistic racists. Stop it.

4. DECLARE A MORATORIUM ON HOME FORECLOSURES AND EVICTIONS. Millions of people are facing homelessness because of a crooked system enacted by the major banks and Wall Street firms. Put a pause on this and take 12 months to work out a different way (like, restructuring families’ mortgages to reflect the true worth of their homes).

5. GET MONEY OUT OF POLITICS. You already know this one. The public is sick of it. Now’s the time to act.

6. EXPAND OBAMACARE. Your health care law doesn’t cover everyone. It is a cash cow for the insurance industry. Push for a single-payer system – Medicare for All – and include dentistry and mental health. This is the single biggest thing you could do to reduce the country’s deficit.

7. RESTORE GLASS-STEAGALL. You must put back all the rigid controls on Wall Street that Reagan, Clinton and the Bushes removed – or else we face the possibility of another, much worse, crash. If they break the law, prosecute them the way you currently go after whistleblowers and medical marijuana dispensaries.

8. REDUCE STUDENT LOAN DEBT. No 22-year-old should have to enter the real world already in a virtual debtors’ prison. This is cruel and no other democracy does this like we do. You were right to eliminate the banks as the profit-gouging lenders, but now you have to bring us back to the days when you and I were of college age and a good education cost us little or next to nothing. A few less wars would go a long to way to being able to afford this.

9. FREE BRADLEY MANNING. End the persecution and prosecution of an American hero. Bush and Cheney lied to a nation to convince us to go to war. Manning allegedly hacked the war criminals’ files and then shared them with the American public (and the world) so that we could learn the truth about Iraq and Afghanistan. Our history is full of such people who “break the law” for the greater good of humanity. Army Specialist Bradley Manning deserves a medal, not prison.

10. ASK US TO DO SOMETHING. One thing is clear: none of the above is going to happen if you don’t immediately mobilize the 63,500,000 who voted for you (and the other 40 million who are for you but didn’t vote). You can’t go this alone. You need an army of everyday Americans who will fight alongside you to make this a more just and peaceful nation. In your 2008 campaign, you were a pioneer in using social media to win the election. Over 15 million of us gave you our cell numbers or email addresses so you could send us texts and emails telling us what needed to be done to win the election. Then, as soon as you won, it was as if you hit the delete button. We never heard from you again. (Until this past year when you kept texting us to send you $25. Inspiring.) Whoever your internet and social media people were should have been given their own office in the West Wing – and we should have heard from you. Constantly. Need a bill passed? Text us and we will mobilize! The Republicans are filibustering? We can stop them! They won’t approve your choice for Secretary of State? We’ll see about that! You say you were a community organizer. Please – start acting like one.

The next four years can be one of those presidential terms that changed the course of America. I’m sure you will want to be judged on how you stood up for us, restored the middle class, ended the s***ting on the poor and made us a friend to the rest of the world instead of a threat. You can do this. We can do it with you. All that stands in the way is your understandable desire to sing “Kumbaya” with the Republicans. Don’t waste your breath. Their professed love of America is negated by their profound hatred of you. Don’t waste a minute on them. Fix the sad mess we’re in. Go back and read this month’s election results. We’re with you.

By Michael Moore, filmmaker

In two months we Americans will go to the polls once again to decide who the president will be for the next four years. We will not be allowed to vote on those who wield the true power in this country. On November 6th we will not vote for the chairman of ExxonMobil or JPMorgan Chase or Citibank or the Premier of China. That day will come, but not this year.

Now, I know there are a goodly number of you out there who believe there’s not a snowball’s chance in Kenya that Barack Obama will not be re-elected to the White House. And why would you believe otherwise? After the incredible Democratic convention this week, with the best rock-em-sock-em speeches I’ve heard from a Democrat’s mouth since … since, I don’t know when. You can’t help but not have a contact high after this past week if you are of the sort who believes in economic justice, peace, and a five-dollar latte. Right now, with the buzz on, you are sitting there thinking that your fellow Americans will turn out in massive numbers, either because they want to continue the Obama era or because they’re scared shitless of the barbarians at the gate – or both.

You’re convinced that the Republicans have blown it with all their talk of the lady parts they want to control even though we now know that they have no idea where those parts are, what they are, or how they work.

Yes, it certainly looks like the voters will reject this obscenely wealthy man called Romney — Romney of Michigan/Massachusetts/New Hampshire/Utah/Zurich/Grand Cayman — this man who will not explain exactly how all his wealth was obtained, where he keeps it, or how much taxes he pays on it. He wants to turn the clock back to the ’50s – the 1850s – and he refuses to offer any specific plan about what he’ll do about anything. He wants to run the country like a corporation but he can’t even control one 82-year-old actor on his own convention stage, a Hollywood legend who, in the matter of ten and a half minutes went from Good (walking onto the stage) to Bad (talking to a chair) and then to Ugly (the chair started … swearing?). It was better than the best cat-flushing-the-toilet video on YouTube and it was a gift to all of us who know that Romney is doomed come November.

Or is he?

Last week, I said on the HuffPost Live webcast that we had all better start practicing how to say “President Romney” because, living in Michigan, I can tell you that there’s trouble here on the two peninsulas and it’s not just because Romney is a native son or that we like to watch kids from Cranbrook chase down gay kids and chop their hair off. One recent poll here showed Romney leading Obama by four points! How can that be? Didn’t Obama save Detroit?

No, he didn’t. He saved General Motors and Chrysler. “Detroit” (and Flint and Pontiac and Saginaw) are not defined by the global corporations who suck our towns dry and then split town to make more money elsewhere (except, of course, they continued to design and built crap cars, so eventually they didn’t make the money at all). These cities in Michigan are about the people who live here, and in the process of “saving Detroit,” Mr. Obama had to fire thousands of these people, and reduce the benefits and pensions of those who were left. There’s a lot of pissed off people in Michigan (and Wisconsin and Ohio), people who weren’t saved even though the corporation was. I’m just stating a fact, and those of you who don’t live here should know this.

The other problem facing us this election (spoiler alert – angry white guys may want to stop reading right now) … is race. We all fear there’s probably a good 40% of the country who simply do not want a black man in the Oval Office. In fact, in 2008, Obama lost the white vote. He lost every white age group except young people (18-29). And yet he still won by 10 million votes! The optimistic secret the Obama people know is that only about 70% of the voters in November will be white. So if he can win just 35-40% of them, and then get a massive majority of people of color, he can win re-election.

There is no question in my mind that Obama is more popular than Romney and if everyone could vote from their couch like they do for American Idol, Obama would win hands down. As I have said before, we live in a liberal country. The majority of Americans (who do not call themselves “liberal”) now support most of the liberal agenda – they’re for gay marriage, they’re pro-choice, they’re anti-war, they believe there’s global warming, and they hate Wall Street for what it has done to them and their neighbors.

The Republicans know this: that we, the majority, will have sex when we want and with whom we want, will read and watch whatever we want when we want, will use marijuana if we want and if we don’t want to then we certainly don’t want our friends who do to be throw into prison. We are sick and tired of being poisoned, by chemicals or propaganda, we think the Palestinians have been given a raw deal and we want our friggin’ jobs back!

The Christian Right (and their Wall Street funders) know this all too well – America has turned, and there’s no going back to not loving someone because of the color of their skin or expecting women to cede control of their bodies to a bunch of Neanderthals. So, what’s a Rightie to do now that we’ve turned the joint into Sodom and G? They have to suppress the vote! They have to stop as many liberals from voting as possible. So they’ve passed many voter suppression laws to make it hard for the poor, the minorities, the disabled and students to vote.

They honestly believe they call pull this off – and they just may. The only “positive” thing about this is that their need to have such laws in order to win the election is an admission on the part of the Republicans that they know the U.S. Is a liberal country and that the only way they can now win now is to cheat. Trust me, if they believed that America was a right-wing country they’d be passing laws making it so easy to vote you could do it in the checkout line at Walmart.

But the voting on November 6th will not take place at Walmart or on any potato’s couch. It can only happen by going to a polling place – and, not to state the obvious, the side that gets the most people physically out to the polls that day, wins. We know the Republicans are spending tens of millions of dollars to make sure this very thing happens.

They have built a colossal get-out-the-vote machine for election day, and the sheer force of their tsunami of hate stands ready to overwhelm us like nothing we’ve ever seen before. Those of us in the Midwest got a taste of it in 2008. Traditionally Democratic states – all of which voted for Obama – saw our state legislatures and governor seats hijacked by this well-oiled machine. We didn’t know what hit us, but these new Republicans wasted no time in dismantling some of the very basic thing we hold dear. Wisconsin fought back – but even that huge grassroots uprising was not enough to stop the governor bought and paid for by the Koch brothers. It was a wake up call, for sure – but have we really woken up?

It’s been a great week in Charlotte, and I’m getting ready now to watch Barack Obama give his speech. It’s OK for us to take a couple days to high-five each other, but I cannot stress enough to you that unless you and I are doing something every day for the next 60 days to get people out to vote, then there is a chance we will all be saying “President Romney” come January. Don’t think it can’t happen. Hate, sad to say, at least in America these days, is a far greater motivator than love and feelin’ groovy.

For those of us who believe that the history of the Democrats and the Republicans is to do the bidding of the 1% (Obama’s #1 private contributor in ’08 were the people at Goldman Sachs), and that while the Dems are a kinder/gentler bunch, they are also just as quick to want to take us to war and sell us out to the corporate interests (and, yes, Obamacare is a $$ gift to the insurance companies; only a single-payer system will stop that), this election is a bit of a bitter pill. We were hugely disappointed when President Obama didn’t charge out of the gate after his inauguration and undo the damage that had been done (as FDR did in his first hundred days) – and only when Wall Street stopped writing him the big campaign checks this past year did he get his mojo back and start fighting the fight that needs to be fought.

He’s a good and decent person (when he’s not sending in drones to kill Pakistani civilians or prosecuting government whistleblowers), and his election four years ago was a high point of such emotional intensity I just couldn’t get over how hopeful I was that this country had changed and we had found our moral footing. Reality set in a few weeks later when he put Tim Geithner and Larry Summers in charge of economic policy and then he changed his mind about closing Gitmo.

OK, so people like me, just once in our lifetime, would like to get our way all the time! Is that too much to ask? Of course, there is a different question that is in the air now — shall we give the country back to the crowd who gave the country to the 1%? I think not. So let’s join in with our liberal majority and be fierce and relentless in these next two months. Let’s spend this time educating people what we mean when we say things like “single-payer” and “Blackwater.” Politics and the fate of the nation (and the world – sorry, world) are on the front burner and those of us who want to wrestle control of our society out of the hands of the few can take healthy advantage of these coming weeks.

Don’t sit it out. Don’t try to convince anyone Obama has magically transformed us – just tell them four years is simply not enough time to undo all the hurt caused by biggest economic crash since the Great Depression and the biggest military blunder/lie in our history.

I’m going to go with my optimistic side here (sorry, cynics, you know I love you) and imagine a Second Term Obama (and a Democratically-controlled Congress) who will go after all the good that our people deserve and put the power of our democracy back in our hands. There’s good reason why the Right is terrified of a Second Term Obama because that is exactly what they think he’ll do: the real Obama will appear and take us down the road to social justice and tolerance and a leveling of the economic playing field. For once, I’d like to say I agree with the Right – and I sincerely hope their worst nightmare does come true.

By filmmaker Michael Moore

Friends,

Here’s something I haven’t spoken much about outside of Michigan, mainly because I live here and I like what modicum of privacy I have in this place I call home and where I try to live a “normal” life. For instance, not a day goes by here where a Republican doesn’t stop and shake my hand. Seriously.

But I think it’s time you guys come here and hang out with me! So consider this your invite to make your way to Traverse City, Michigan, where each summer I hold a film festival that is a favorite for filmmakers all over the world. More on this in a bit.

For the past seven years, in addition to my day job of making movies and writing books, I have spent a significant amount of my time volunteering in the town where I live in northern Michigan. Our state, as you know, has been in a long-term depression (say the word “recession” around here and someone is likely to punch you).

So I decided to devote my time (and resources) to help the area I now call home by getting its long-closed downtown movie palace restored and reopened. Downtown Traverse City was doing better than most Michigan cities – which means that there were “only” five or six stores on our block that were boarded up (or “bombed out”), and the nearby elementary school had “only” 70% of its students qualifying for the federal free lunch program (i.e. they lived near or in poverty).

The local Rotary foundation owned the large, ornate empty theater, which had not shown movies in 20 or so years (a theater has stood on this site for nearly a hundred years). I would often pass by it and think, “What a shame this isn’t open” – but it was no different than any of the hundreds of other downtowns I’ve seen all over America. The locally-owned independent movie theaters were abandoned years ago (how I wish some of you younger than me could have seen a movie in one of these grand rooms!) in favor of corporate chains and indifferent, cookie-cutter multiplexes where one low-paid projectionist runs the projectors for all 14 screens. You can bet that really improves the sound and picture quality of the films being slammed onto those screens – and the pleasurable experience of “goin’ to the movies” has now become just another way to kill some time in between texting and talking to your girlfriend during the show.

The $10 popcorn helped make things better, too.

So I had this epiphany. What would a movie theater look like if it were designed, built and run by the people who actually make the movies? Why are we, the filmmakers, never consulted about what the movie-going experience should be like? After all, that’s our art, our creative work, up there on those screens. In no other art form does the artist NOT have a say in how their art is presented to the public.

I asked the Rotary group to give me the theater for a dollar, and we eventually settled on a dollar. I set up a community-based non-profit organization that would own the theater. Four others and I donated all the money needed to bring the theater back to life. I promised that we’d complete the entire rebuild in 6 weeks. And we did. Hundreds of people pitched in to hammer nails and make curtains – and the new “Historic State Theatre of Traverse City” was opened in 2007 with its 584 brand new made-in-Michigan seats, the biggest screen within 150 miles, a state-of-the-art sound system, a big new balcony built from scratch, a complete restoration of the 1940s art-deco décor, and a concession stand where you could get drinks and popcorn for just $2.00. I, as the theater’s chair and volunteer programmer, promised to bring “just great movies,” especially those movies that never make it to areas like northern Michigan.

Since our grand reopening, the State Theatre has been one of the largest-grossing independent art houses in North America. We have landed in the top ten highest-grossing theaters for a total now of 138 weeks. And, get this – for 62 of those weeks, we were the #1 theater in the country for the film we were showing during each of those weeks. This success has happened while movie attendance nationwide has dropped in the last decade – and with us, it has happened in a depressed state and in a rural, somewhat politically conservative area where the nearest four-year college is 100 miles away.

I am going to make an audacious (but true) claim: You will not walk into a nicer, friendlier, better movie theater anywhere in the U.S. than the State Theatre of Traverse City. I’m not kidding. When you leave you’ll want to know why every movie-going experience can’t be like this one.

How have we done it?

1. We have no desire to make a profit (e.g., you will never see a commercial before a movie). All decisions are based on what’s best for the patrons and the community and the art of cinema. We do not share the cynical attitude of the cineplex owners when they say, “We make our real money on the popcorn!” We, instead, make the money we need to run the State by simply showing only good movies. We’ve spent every day in the black for our entire 5 years.

2. We are a mostly volunteer-run operation. Hundreds of people work a shift or two a month to ensure the nonprofit theater’s existence. This theater is essentially owned and run by its stakeholders – the citizens of the area. Everyone has a vested interest in its success.

3. If we catch you texting, checking your email, or talking on your cell phone during the movie, you will be banned from the theater for life.

Now, back to the reason I want you to come to Traverse City in a few weeks. Two years before my neighbors and I got the State re-opened, I started a film festival in Traverse City called, naturally, the “Traverse City Film Festival.” It is now in its eighth year – and I would like to invite you to come here this summer and experience It. It will be unlike anything else you’ve done. During the six days of the festival I’ll be showing a great mix of fiction, nonfiction and foreign films I’ve discovered in the past year – 91 of them in all. In 2011, the combined attendance at all of our festival movies was 128,000! The whole event takes place in this small town that sits on a beautiful bay that’s part of Lake Michigan. Tickets are cheap, and many events – like the nightly outdoor films we show on a 100-foot screen by the water – are free. You can park your car and walk (or take the free shuttle bus) to any of the 5 indoor venues. This includes the State Theatre and the four other historic buildings that we turn into first-class movie houses. Over half of the films will have their director or stars appearing in person. This year, we are proud to have with us Oscar-winner Susan Sarandon and the legendary German director Wim Wenders, among many others.

This summer’s festival runs from Tuesday, July 31st through Sunday, August 5th. Tickets to the public go on sale next Saturday (but if you join the “Friends of the Festival” you can buy your tickets starting today [Sunday]).

So, come see me in Traverse City! I promise, you won’t regret it, you’ll have a great time, you’ll see some fantastic movies, and you’ll meet a lot of good people.

And you’ll see what an old-school movie theater and a popular film festival have done to pump millions of dollars into the local economy. There are no more boarded-up stores on our block, and we now are helping and advising other Michigan cities about re-opening their historic movie palaces.

It’s a little story I’ve wanted to share with you for some time, and now I have.

See you in TC!

By Steven R. Maher

Auburn Selectmen Chairman Doreen M. Goodrich’s February 2012 private reprimand of fellow Selectmen Steven R. Simonian was, depending on your point of view, either a commendable class act by someone attempting to be ladylike, or a sneak attack by a calculating political operative. Simonian is the Republican challenger to 2nd Worcester District State Senator Michael O. Moore; Goodrich is Moore’s Director of Constituent Services.

Goodrich is also Chairman of the Auburn Democratic Town. According to the Worcester Telegram report of February 14, 2012, in a letter provided privately to Simonian, Goodrich said Simonian approached her after a January 9, 2012 executive session “..in an intimidating manner”, pointing his finger at her, and speaking “..in an agitated and aggressive manner…” Labor Counsel Dee Moschos, Town Accountant Edward K. Kazanovicz, and Town Manager Julie A. Jacobson reportedly witnessed the incident.

“I will not tolerate your aggressive and antagonistic behavior toward me or any other board member,” continued Goodrich, as reported by the Worcester Telegram. “This letter serves as a warning to you that I will not allow belligerent and aggressive behavior or inappropriate conduct between select board members.”
In a telephone interview, Goodrich said Simonian had literally gotten in her face, and was right up close to her.” Goodrich claimed that Moschos urged her to write a letter to all Selectmen saying that such behavior was unacceptable. It was sound advice, but Goodrich rejected it. Instead, she privately reprimanded Simonian in a private letter she left in his envelope slot at the Town Hall.

“I was trying not to embarrass him, I didn’t want it to become a public thing,” explained Goodrich. “

Moore supporters

Goodrich was elected Chairman of the Board of Selectmen on May 23, 2011 with the help of two other Moore supporters: the longest serving member of the board, Robert S. Grossman, and the newest member, Denise H. Brotherton.

According to OCPF records, Grossman or a member of his household made donations to Moore’s campaign committee on the following dates: October 19, 2012 ($100.00); October 20, 2008 ($100.00); February 28, 2009 ($100.00); April 28, 2009 ($100.00); April 28, 2009 ($100.00); January 31, 2010 ($100.00); January 31, 2010 ($130.00); August 22, 2011 ($100.00); and November 7, 2011 ($100.00).

Brotherton, whose husband was one of the six firefighters who died in the December 1999 Worcester Cold Storage Warehouse fire, was elected a Selectman in May 2011. She gave Moore a $100.00 donation on October 15, 2011. Brotherton received donations for her 2011 Selectman campaign of $500.00 from the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts, $100.00 from Local 1009 (Worcester fire fighters union), and an “in kind” donation of $118.00 from former Auburn Fire Department Chief Roger Belhumuer for printing campaign flyers.

Dee Moschos, the lawyer who recommended to Goodrich that she write the entire board that behavior like Simonian’s was unacceptable, donated to Moore as well: October 16, 2008 ($100.00); April 30, 2009 ($100.00); November 7, 2009 ($100.00); March 23, 2010 ($125.00); March 22, 2011 ($100.00); and August 22, 2011 ($100.00).

We wanted to see what, if anything, Moschos was paid for his advice to Goodrich. A public records request was sent to Auburn Town Manager Julie A. Jacobson for a copy of Moscho’s bills for January and February 2012. What we received looked sanitized. The bills showed Moschos billed Auburn taxpayers $9,996.64 in January and $9,720.95 in February, but the invoices were coded with account numbers such as “General Counsel” rather than a detailed breakdown of the hourly billings.

Usually the town of Auburn stamps on invoices the date received, to prove at a later date the bills weren’t paid late; neither Moschos bill was dated stamped.
Denies knowing

It took no small amount of courage for Simonian to buck a board chaired by Moore’s Director of Constituent Services, a majority of whose members were Moore supporters, backed up by a high powered, blue chip law firm attorney who had donated generously to Moore for four years. Simonian asked that Goodrich’s letter be put on the agenda at the February 13, 2012 meeting. “I find the timing of her letter suspect, since she wrote it right after her boss found out I had formed an exploratory committee to see what kind of support I had to run for a 2nd Worcester senate seat,” Simonian was quoted by the WorcesterTelegram as saying. “I find the timing and content suspect.”

“I didn’t know that,” Goodrich said of Simonian’s candidacy. As Simonian continued talking, responding to a member of the audience, Goodrich slammed the gavel down and went on to the next item on the agenda.

Moore admitted he heard rumors that Simonian was running but both he and Goodrich assert they did not discuss the Simonian reprimand before Goodrich sent it. “We never talked about it,” an adamant Moore said.

We could find no evidence to support Simonian’s claim that his senate candidacy was known prior to the February 13, 2012 Selectmen’s meeting. A search of the Massachusetts Office of Campaign & Political Finance (OCPF) website for paperwork submitted by anyone with the last named of “Simonian” turned up nothing. “Exploratory committees” are usually formed for Presidential candidates, not Massachusetts state senators. Nether the Worcester Telegram nor the Auburn News, a weekly newspaper, reported prior to February 13, 2012 that Simonian was a Senate candidate. Nor did two websites which report frequently on Auburn events, www.thedailyauburn.com and the www.golocalworcester.com

The next clash between the two candidates took place in April 2012, when Simonian showed up at a fundraiser for the Leicester Food Pantry and Leicester Library sponsored by Moore and his 1998 opponent, Leicester Selectman Douglas Belanger. Simonian claimed that he went to make a donation and after fifteen minutes was asked to leave “in a condescending manner” by a Moore office worker, according to a report in the www.thedailyauburn.com.

“He was not kicked out by any of my representatives,” responded Moore, who called Simonian’s claim “ridiculous”. Moore said in a phone interview that he conducted no investigation to determine if someone in his campaign had ordered Simonian out.

We wanted to ask Simonian if going to an event sponsored by his opponent wasn’t a little provocative. He did try to return a phone call requesting comment for this story, but the author was away working at another job.

Two patterns seem to be emerging in this campaign. First, Moore is washing his hands of responsibility for actions against Simonian by his supporters. He didn’t investigate the Leicester incident and claims he didn’t discuss the “reprimand letter” with Goodrich. Second, Simonian seems to be putting himself into positions where he provokes Moore’s supporters, and then runs to the media to present himself as the injured party.

Simonian’s platform

Simonian boils his campaign platform down to four key issues:

• Putting his district first. Simonian alleges that Moore in 2011“had the opportunity to advocate for our communities to receive a portion of unused budget money; however, he failed to do so.” Moore disputes this, saying he voted against an amendment for the funds in the budget process but that the final budget contained the funds Simonian was referring to.
• “The legislative and judicial branches of state government must adopt regulatory and taxation policies that promote a competitive business environment,” says Simonian. “It is imperative that that our legislature spare no effort in reversing the current business climate in Massachusetts, and restore it to one of the top states in the country in which to do business.”
• Simonian supports the Department of Homeland Security’s “Secure Communities” in which state and local communities share immigrant finger print data. “[It] is not about immigration,” maintains Simonian. “All too often tragedies have occurred at the hands of immigration law violators. In some cases, people had previously violated state law and no action was taken based upon their illegal entry into our country and state.” Moore said he always supported the “Secure Communities Act” and his office emailed us a version of the law Moore himself co-sponsored.
• One party control of state government. “For more than half a century, one party has controlled the Massachusetts legislature,” contends Simonian. “I believe that government service as an elected official should be an honor and not a means to supplement or create a pension.”

This last item touches on what may be the deciding factor in this election: the question of “double dipping”, of accepting two incomes from the state government.

Whatever the issues, this campaign is getting incredibly nasty. In April 2012, one blogger said on the Worcester Telegram website for Auburn http://cf.telegram.com/town_portal_includes/display_full_flash_messages.cfm?TOWN=Auburn, that a candidate for Selectman had hired a private investigator to do background checks on their opponents. There have been allegations of infidelity by some candidates, and on April 23, 2012 allegations of misconduct by nuclear members of the Simonian and Goodrich families were posted but quickly taken down by the Telegram.

Goodrich denied she ever hired a private investigator to look into her opponents’ background. “Never,” she said. “I’ve never even posted anything on the TelegramTowns website.

Double dipping

In the ethics statement that he filed upon taking office, Moore forthrightly disclosed that he was receiving a $2,320 state tax-free pension from the state in addition to his $75,485 after tax income as a State Senator. The process is known as “double dipping”, which means Moore has two sources of income from state government. In a Worcester Telegram article by Shaun Sutner, Moore defended his pension, saying that if he had waited until he was 55 he could have collected $75,000 a year, so in the long it actually saves taxpayers money, and that the pension was capped at the current amount. “My pension is capped and I will not receive a second pension after I leave the state senate,” who stressed his taking the pension at the time was the best deal for taxpayers.

In donations to three campaigns Goodrich listed under occupation/employer “CLERK UMASS MEMORIAL: in a March 11, 2012 $25.00 donation to Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray; in a September 26, 2006 $300.00 donation to the Democratic State Committee’s federal fund; and in a March, 2006 $75.00 donation to the Democratic State Committee’s state fund.

On Saturday April 21, 2012 the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center switchboard was called. A request was made to be connected with an employee named Doreen Goodrich, with Goodrich’s name being spelled out. We were put through to the OBGYN unit. On April 30, 2012 we contacted OBGYN during working hours. The person in the OBGYN billing department said Goodrich had left a year earlier. Moore said, as far as he knew, the only job Goodrich had was with him.

Goodrich says she used to work at UMMC as a clerk but left the job in 2011 when she went to work for Moore. .

. On April 23, 2012 requests were faxed to the state Human Resources Division and UMass Memorial for copies of Goodrich’s W-2s for the last three years, for both jobs. Since the officials at these institutions have ten days to respond under the state public records statute, no response was received before this newspaper went to press.
Bankruptcy episode

Goodrich and her husband Howard began having financial problems in the mid-1980s:
• On March 18, 1985 the Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR) recorded a $4,835.19 lien on Goodrich’s home at 29 Pinehurst Avenue, against Howard Goodrich for unpaid meals taxes.
• On February 26, 1986 DOR placed a second lien on the home for $12,433.36.
• On February 17, 1995 Britton Funeral homes recorded a $3,000.00 attachment on Goodrich’s home.
• On December 3, 1997 a deed was filed in the Registry of Deeds stating: “We, Howard W. Goodrich and Doreen M. Goodrich of 29 Pinehurst Avenue, in consideration of less than One Hundred and No/100 ($100.00) grant to Howard W. Goodrich, individually” the property at 29 Pinehurst Avenue. In other words, Goodrich sold her share of the house to her husband for less than $100.00.
• On April 14, 1998 Doreen Goodrich filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Worcester federal court. Her husband, now the sole owner of the family home, did not. Under oath, Goodrich swore she had no assets to satisfy her unsecured creditors.
• On July 29, 1998 Judge James F. Queenan Jr. issued an order discharging $12,324.80 in unpaid “credit card services.”

“That was the worst year of my life,” said Goodrich. “My husband, who was self employed, had a heart attack and I was at home with two small children. We had no money coming in. We went through hell that year.”

Goodrich also denied that she transferred her interest in the home to hide it from her creditors. “We were trying to refinance the home, but my credit rating made it impossible,” explained Goodrich. By getting her name off the property, Goodrich made it possible for her husband to refinance the property and pay back some their debts.

Uphill battle

Simonian, a first term Selectman, faces an uphill battle to unseat Moore, a centrist Democrat and entrenched political figure. There will be a big turnout in the fall with the Presidential race, so anything is possible. There is only one certainty about this race: it’s going to be nasty.

************

Disclosure: On April 15, 1998, the day after Doreen Goodrich filed for bankruptcy, Worcester Magazine printed a story about the author, Attorney Steven R. Maher. The Worcester Magazine reporter told Maher that Doreen Goodrich had approached the newspaper and asked them to write the story. Maher filed an unsuccessful $12 million, 37-count libel suit against Worcester Magazine. In what was interpreted in some quarters as an apology to Maher, Worcester Magazine in its 30th anniversary issue critiqued the Worcester Magazine’s reporter handling of the 1998 Maher story. In that same issue, Worcester Magazine also designated a 1980 Worcester Magazine cover story authored by Maher entitled “Union Station Con Job” as the best-written and researched investigative story in its thirty-year history.

Friends,

Here’s a free song for you.

It’s my contribution to “Occupy This Album”, a compilation CD (99 songs!) featuring David Crosby & Graham Nash, Steve Earle, Tom Morello, Willie Nelson, Ani DiFranco, Third Eye Blind, Immortal Technique and Jackson Browne to be released Tuesday, May 15th. All proceeds from this album will go to fund the Occupy Wall Street movement (all the musicians and songwriters have donated their time and music).

They asked me if I’d like to record a poem or maybe make a music video of some of the songs. I said, “I could just sing a song.”

When the laughter died down, I recorded this.

I hope you enjoy my first try at this new profession (though I have no intention of giving up my day job).

And thank you, Bob Dylan, for your contribution, and for approving this, my debut.

Enjoy!

Michael Moore

A  letter from filmmaker Michael Moore …

Saturday, February 11th, 2012

Friends,

On this day 25 years ago, in 1987, I became a filmmaker. It was around ten in the morning and the first-ever roll of Kodak 16mm film for my first-ever movie was loaded into my friend’s camera to shoot the very first scene of ‘Roger & Me.’ I had no idea on that morning in Flint, Michigan what my life would be like after that, or what would happen to Flint, or to General Motors. It all felt fairly ominous, though — after all, GM, which was posting record profits at the time, was closing its first Flint factory (the first of what would become many) and unemployment in Flint had officially been listed as high as 29%. Surely things couldn’t get much worse.

That morning, 25 years ago today, a group of autoworkers had come together on the lawn of the soon-to-be-closed Buick-Oldsmobile-Cadillac assembly plant to raise their voices against the closing — and to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Great Flint Sit-Down Strike, which had begun at that very factory. That strike, in 1936-37, was actually an occupation. Hundreds of workers took over the factories in Flint and refused to leave for 44 days until GM capitulated and recognized their union. The strike inspired thousands of other workers across the country to stage their own occupations and, before you knew it, in the years to follow, factory workers were paid a living wage, with benefits, vacations, and a safe working place.

The middle class and the American Dream were born 75 years ago today, on February 11, 1937, the day the Flint workers won their struggle. And for the next 44 years, working people everywhere got to own their own homes, send their kids to college and never worry about going broke if they got sick. That belief, that life would be good if you were a good citizen and a hard worker, now seems out of reach for nearly half the country which is either living in or near poverty. Perhaps people wouldn’t mind it as much if the burden were being evenly shared. But everyone knows that’s not the case.

In a time of record personal bankruptcies, record home foreclosures, record family and student debt, there are a group of people having the best years of wealth and profit ever recorded in human history. And it is those very people who have made the decisions to export our jobs, to decimate unions, to make college unaffordable, to start wars and to pay themselves with gluttonous joy while paying little or no tax — this is the 1% that has created the burden so many Americans (and people around the world) now share.

And so, 75 years after the victory in Flint, the battle is now being fought all over again. But this time it’s not just about getting paid a dollar an hour, or having Sunday off, or reducing the chance of your hand being crushed in the metal stamping machine. This time, the stakes are even greater: Who is going to own America and control the basic functions of our democracy — the richest 1% who buy the politicians to get what they want, or the 99% who don’t have much these days and live in anxiety or fear of what’s around the bend.

I believe that justice will win out again, in the end, just as it did 75 years ago today in Flint in 1937.

I have no special plans to mark this day of anniversaries other than to post a short story I wrote called ‘Gratitude.’ You may have read it in my book, but if not, here it is to freely download and enjoy:

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/must-read/gratitude

If you’d like to hear me read it in my own voice, click here:

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/must-read/gratitude-audio

It tells, in part, the story of that day I first placed that roll of Kodak film into a movie camera. I am proud of the town I was born in, and I’m proud of my uncle who participated in the Sit-Down Strike. I am grateful to those of you who have gone to my movies over the years, and I thank all of you who have been inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement to speak up on behalf of the 99%.

There’s no turning back now. Onward!

Yours,

Michael Moore

By Michael Moore

The New York Times this week had a story about how nearly half of all members of Congress are millionaires — and many of them got that way after getting elected to Congress. This is a disgrace. Congress’s wealth has gone up 15% in 7 years while the average American’s has gone down. Congress is bought and paid for by the 1%. Instead of the rich having just 1% of the influence in Congress, they have 100% of the say. This has to stop now.

Friends, I have many things I’m planning to do in the New Year — walk three miles a day, use an eco-friendly laundry detergent, write fewer anonymous letters to Wolf Blitzer — but I want to declare, right here, that one of my top priorities in 2012 will be to spearhead a drive to remove ALL money from our electoral process, period. Nothing — and I mean NOTHING — we want to accomplish, from creating jobs to protecting the environment to preventing wars, will happen as long as those who hold the purse strings are the ones who own our Congress.

This destruction of our democracy can only be stopped if the majority of us make it clear that we will ONLY vote for those candidates who sign a pledge to make it their TOP legislative priority to push for a constitutional amendment prohibiting any person or entity from donating ANY money to a candidate’s campaign (and that includes a millionaire candidate buying his own election).

Plus, they must pledge to back a law banning elected officials from working as lobbyists after they leave office.

The majority of Americans already support strong campaign finance reform and lobbying bans. So what are we waiting for? Now is the time to act!

Here is the wording to the constitutional amendment we need:

Section 1. All elections for President and members of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate shall be publicly financed. No political contributions shall be permitted to any federal candidate, from any other source, including the candidate. No political expenditures shall be permitted in support of any federal candidate, or in opposition to any federal candidate, from any other source, including the candidate. Nothing in this Section shall be construed to abridge the freedom of the press.

Section 2. The Congress shall, by statute, provide limitations on the amounts and timing of the expenditures of such public funds and provide criminal penalties for any violation of this section.

Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) has already introduced a “Plan for Washington Reform” that, among other great things, creates a lifetime ban on any member of Congress becoming a lobbyist.

So here is the copy of the pledge we expect those running for office to sign this year:

“I, (name of candidate), promise to make it one of my TOP priorities to introduce and vote for a constitutional amendment that bans all financial contributions to all candidates running for office. I will support legislation that publicly funds all elections and legislation that bans lawmakers from working as lobbyists after they leave office. If I do not do this, I promise not to run for re-election.”

One of the first candidates running for Congress to sign the pledge removing money from politics this year is in my hometown Congressional district of Flint, Michigan! His name is Dan Kildee. He not only wants the money out of the electoral process, he wants corporations declared as NOT people. Dan is already refusing to take any corporate PAC money or any money connected to Wall Street or the banks.

And how have the people in Michigan responded to a candidate like this? The early polls show Dan in the lead — because the voters are sick and tired of the way it’s been for so long.

But, until Dan (and others like him) get elected so they can overturn the rule of the 1%, none of this will change. And under the current system — irony alert — they can’t get elected without money. Wouldn’t it be great if this were the last election I’d have to write a sentence like that?

Will you help me show how powerful the public’s support is for cleaning up Congress by backing the only person running for Congress from Flint who is on our side? This is not just some symbolic cause. I believe Dan will get elected — especially if he has our grassroots support.

Please take a minute to click here and donate $10, $25 or more to Dan’s campaign. He’s pro-peace, pro-choice, and ahead in the polls. He will fight to tax the rich and the corporations like General Electric and Bank of America who pay no taxes at all. I have known this man since he was 18 — when he first won a seat on the Flint School Board. He comes from the working class and he has been a local public servant his entire life.

I’m asking you to do this also as a personal favor to my hometown which is still suffering from crushing unemployment. More people per capita live in poverty in Flint than any other city (100,000+ population) in America. They have no money to donate to a fighter like Dan. That’s why I’m asking you to help in their stead.

Many of you have been writing to ask me what “practical” things you can do to be part of the movement sweeping the country. Well, here’s your chance to do something tangible, even if it’s just kicking in five bucks. Send Dan Kildee to Congress!

And insist that those running for Congress in YOUR district sign the pledge and commit to removing money from politics. We have to start somewhere — and I guess Flint, Michigan, is as good a place as any to begin! Please join me in doing so.

Friends,

Thanks for all the wonderful comments regarding the short story about my mom from HERE COMES TROUBLE that I sent you a few days ago. I figured it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t also send you the short story about my dad from the book. It’s entitled ‘Christmas ’43,’ and you can download it here, free of charge. 

Happy holidays,

Michael Moore

By Michael Moore

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Friends,

It’s Saturday night and I didn’t want the day to end before I sent out this note to you.

One year ago today (December 17th), Mohamed Bouazizi, a man who had a simple produce stand in Tunisia, set himself on fire to protest his government’s repression. His singular sacrifice ignited a revolution that toppled Tunisia’s dictator and launched revolts in regimes across the Middle East.

Three months ago today, Occupy Wall Street began with a takeover of New York’s Zuccotti Park. This movement against the greed of corporate America and its banks — and the money that now controls most of our democratic institutions — has quickly spread to hundreds of towns and cities across America. The majority of Americans now agree that a nation where 400 billionaires have more wealth than 160 million Americans combined is not the country they want America to be. The 99% are rising up against the 1% — and now there is no turning back.

Twenty-four years ago today, U.S. Army Spc. Bradley Manning was born. He has now spent 570 days in a military prison without a trial — simply because he allegedly blew the whistle on the illegal and immoral war in Iraq. He exposed what the Pentagon and the Bush administration did in creating this evil and he did so by allegedly leaking documents and footage to Wikileaks. Many of these documents dealt not only with Iraq but with how we prop up dictators around the world and how our corporations exploit the poor on this planet. (There were even cables with crazy stuff on them, like one detailing Bush’s State Department trying to stop a government minister in another country from holding a screening of ‘Fahrenheit 9/11.’)

The Wikileaks trove was a fascinating look into how the United States conducts its business — and clearly those who don’t want the world to know how we do things in places like, say, Tunisia, were not happy with Bradley Manning.

Mohamed Bouazizi was being treated poorly by government officials because all he wanted to do was set up a cart and sell fruit and vegetables on the street. But local police kept harassing him and trying to stop him. He, like most Tunisians, knew how corrupt their government was. But when Wikileaks published cables from the U.S. ambassador in Tunis confirming the corruption — cables that were published just a week or so before Mohamed set himself on fire — well, that was it for the Tunisian people, and all hell broke loose.

People across the world devoured the information Bradley Manning revealed, and it was used by movements in Egypt, Spain, and eventually Occupy Wall Street to bolster what we already thought was true. Except here were the goods — the evidence that was needed to prove it all true. And then a democracy movement spread around the globe so fast and so deep — and in just a year’s time! When anyone asks me, “Who started Occupy Wall Street?” sometimes I say “Goldman Sachs” or “Chase” but mostly I just say, “Bradley Manning.” It was his courageous action that was the tipping point — and it was not surprising when the dictator of Tunisia censored all news of the Wikileaks documents Manning had allegedly supplied. But the internet took Manning’s gift and spread it throughout Tunisia, a young man set himself on fire and the Arab Spring that led eventually to Zuccotti Park has a young, gay soldier in the United States Army to thank.

And that is why I want to honor Bradley Manning on this, his 24th birthday, and ask the millions of you reading this to join with me in demanding his immediate release. He does not deserve the un-American treatment, including cruel solitary confinement, he’s received in over eighteen months of imprisonment. If anything, this young man deserves a friggin’ medal. He did what great Americans have always done — he took a bold stand against injustice and he did it without stopping for a minute to consider the consequences for himself.

The Pentagon and the national security apparatus are hell-bent on setting an example with Bradley Manning. But we as Americans have a right to know what is being done in our name and with our tax dollars. If the government tries to cover up its malfeasance, then it is the duty of each and every one of us, should the situation arise, to drag the truth, kicking and screaming if necessary, into the light of day.

The American flag was lowered in Iraq this past Thursday as our war on them officially came to an end. If anyone should be on trial or in the brig right now, it should be those men who lied to the nation in order to start this war — and in doing so sent nearly 4,500 Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis to their deaths.

But it is not Bush or Rumsfeld or Cheney or Wolfowitz who sit in prison tonight. It is the hero who exposed them. It is Bradley Manning who has lost his freedom and that, in turn, becomes just one more crime being committed in our name.

I know, I know, c’mon Mike — it’s the holiday season, there’s presents to buy and parties to go to! And yes, this really is one of my favorite weeks of the year. But in the spirit of the man whose birth will be celebrated next Sunday, please do something, anything, to help this young man who spends his birthday tonight behind bars. I say, enough. Let him go home and spend Christmas with his family. We’ve done enough violence to the world this decade while claiming to be a country that admires the Prince of Peace. The war is over. And a whole new movement has a lot to thank Bradley Manning for.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Friends,

And now it is winter. Wall Street rejoices, hoping that the change of seasons will mean a change in our spirit, our commitment to stop them.

We are not even 12 weeks old, yet Occupy Wall Street has grown so fast, so big, none of us can keep up with the hundreds of towns who have joined the movement, or the thousands of actions — some of them just simple ones in neighborhoods, schools and organizations — that have happened. The national conversation has been irreversibly changed. Now everyone is talking about how the 1% are getting away with all the money while the 99% struggle to make ends meet. People are no longer paralyzed by despair or apathy. Most know that now is the time to reclaim our country from the bankers, the lobbyists — and their gofers: the members of the United States Congress and the 50 state legislatures.

And they’re crazy if they think that a little climate chaos (otherwise known as winter in the 21st century) that they’ve helped to bring about is going to stop us.

I would like to propose to my Occupying sisters and brothers that there are many ways to keep Occupy Wall Street going through the winter months. There is perhaps no better time to move the movement indoors for a few months — and watch it grow even bigger! (For those who have the stamina to maintain the outdoor occupations, by all means, keep it up — and the rest of us will do our best to help you and keep you warm!)

The winter gives us an amazing opportunity to expand our actions against the captains of capitalism who have occupied our homes with their fraudulent mortgage system which has tossed millions of families out onto the curb; a cruel health care system that has told 50 million Americans “if you can’t afford a doctor, go F yourself”; a student loan system that sends 22-year-olds into an immediate “debtors’ prison” of working lousy jobs for which they didn’t go to school but now have to take because they’re in hock for tens of thousands of dollars for the next two decades; and a jobs market that keeps 25 million Americans un- or under-employed — and much of the rest of the workers forced to accept wage cuts, health care reductions and zero job security.

But we in the Occupy Movement reject this version of the “American Dream.” Instead, I suggest we shift our focus for this winter to the following actions: