Bush Administration Goes After SiCKO: "There are a number of specific facts that have led me to conclude that politics could very well be driving this Bush Administration investigation of me and my film.
First, the Bush Administration has been aware of this matter for months (since October 2006) and never took any action until less than two weeks before SiCKO is set to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and a little more than a month before it is scheduled to open in the United States.
Second, the health care and insurance industry, which is exposed in the movie and has expressed concerns about the impact of the movie on their industries, is a major corporate underwriter of President George W. Bush and the Republican Party, having contributed over $13 million to the Bush presidential campaign in 2004 and more than $180 million to Republican candidates over the last two campaign cycles. It is well documented that the industry is very concerned about the impact of SiCKO. They have threatened their employees if they talk to me. They have set up special internal crises lines should I show up at their headquarters. Employees have been warned about the consequences of participating in SiCKO. Despite this, some employees, at great risk to themselves, have gone on camera to tell the American people the truth about the health care industry. I can understand why that industry's main recipient of its contributions -- President Bush -- would want to harass, intimidate and potentially prevent this film from having its widest possible audience."
Since I was there, I was moved to say this:
Michael Moore's high-wire political stunts are now legend. Of course it makes his job a lot easier when the Administration reacts with such laughable predictability. Taking several 9/11 heroes to Cuba for health care is both effective and brilliant. It is also an act of at least technical civil disobedience, and given who Moore is, absolutely guaranteed to cause a Republican administration to tweak uncontrollably, faced with the illustration of a government that cannot afford paint for government buildings manging to provide quite decent, universal health care.
Worse yet,(from the Bush Administration's perspective) due to the embargo and the crash in sugar prices, Cuba has been forced to turn to alternative and complementary medicines and has made some significant progress in that direction.
Just the last thing Big Pharma wants seen in a theater near you. And so dey tried to throw Mike into dat dere Briar Patch...
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