Who do you trust?

I just finished watching Farenhype 9-11, the Republican response to Michael Moore's latest film. I found some interesting facts that I had learned before about both sides of the argument and have decided to post as many as I could here. This is not an attempt to display an arrogance on either side, but to present somethings I thought were interesting and worth knowing.

The quotes at the bottom of this post are from the Farenhype film and can be read at face value. These were "talking points" from the film that are fully within context here. There was little other context extra in the film and the theme of these statements remains true when separated. Yet, you can see the irony in their statements a little easier without the music and images they bombard you with.

Maybe film media isn't the best place for political debate since it is prone to deception and lies. Statements can be made in rapid succession with no rebuttal and build a case that may be baseless at the core. On both sides of the fence, we have been lied to.

Bad on Moore:

• Altering size of font of newspaper story and misleading that it was a story, rather than the editorial that it was.
• Misrepresenting Bush's dinner party quote about the "Have and the have mores" when he was going through a set of jokes that were aimed at poking fun at himself. Gore was at this dinner as well and did the same style of set.
• The Carlyle Group has a good number of Clinton's cronies (Democrats) on its board.
• Saudi investment levels misrepresented in the film. It is not 8% of the US economy.
• Bush is not responsible for the cutbacks in the Oregon State Police since they are not federally budgeted.
• France wanted to lift the sanctions on Iraq not to help the people of the country, but to have access to their promised oil fields that Saddam had offered in exchange for their veto.
• Not showing the Kurdish reaction to Saddam's ousting which from the 3 seconds the film shows has some people in the streets dancing.

Bad on his critics:

• Shameless use of 9/11 and the firemen/policemen who sacrificed their lives to stir up anger against Moore. Claim that refusing to show the 9-11 attacks visually was meant to diminish their affect rather than doing so out of respect for the dead.
• State that Moore lied about length of time Bush read with children (5min not 7) when Moore stated that Bush was IN THE ROOM for 7. They state that Bush waited only 5 minutes. Neither side is saying an incorrect time, but the GOP lied to distort this to their advantage.
• Dismissed claims of 2000 election fraud because 3 major papers said it was okay, the Supreme Court said it was okay and the narrator, who worked on the Gore campaign, said it was okay. Yet, documentation has been provided that has not been discussed in the major American papers (the Brits covered it extensively as did most of Europe) that should raise alarm bells for anyone interested in true democracy.
• Disregard the stamping out of the rights of all Americans by the PATRIOT ACT by showing a few examples of its success.
• Zell Miller likens the war on terror to him finding some snakes under his porch. His "unilateral action" to kill the snakes without going to City Hall for a resolution or consulting with his wife was justified because the snakes were dangerous to his family. This oversimplified analogy is supposed to justify the innocent civilians who will pay for OUR security with THEIR lives? There are more factors involved than just ourselves.
• Mislead the public that the WMD that Saddam had in '91 were still usable. The nerve agent he possessed had a shelf life of 2-3 years and had since expired. The UN inspections team had confirmed this fact that the agents were useless and the fact that they could not be accounted for is nullified. The real question would be if he could create more of it. This was raised at the UN speech by Colin Powell but failed to show any concrete evidence that such facilities existed. All he had were drawings of what he COULD have used to do so; none of said facilities have been found.
• Ed Koch states that he would have voted to go to war if he was a congressman even if no weapons were found. This of course was recorded well after it was clear that nothing was found were the intelligence said it would and was doubtful anything would turn up. While it is his opinion, this statement in a "documentary" is misleading and deceptive. This is exactly what the film was trying say about Moore.

"What is similar between what some of us call World War III, the Cold War, and World War IV, the one we are in now, is that both were animated by a hostile ideology with global ambitions."
Frank Gaffney - Former Assistant Secretary of Defense under Reagan

"One person's opinion, or agenda, does not make the truth. Just because they are famous [or] have a lot of money [means] we have to believe them or think they are credible?"
Aunt of fallen soldier who was the focus of the final part of Moore's film

"Here is a man [Moore] who says that the United States has spread misery throughout the world? Come on."
Sen. Zell Miller (D)