OK, I bit the bullet and finally finished reading all 45 pages of this thing. I haven't seen Moore's movie yet (have you?), so I can't compare it with Kopel's arguments. You're probably right. This doesn't appear to be a right-wing conspiracy piece. It seems to be an attempt to show that Moore often shades the truth to fit his agenda.
I agree that Moore lays it on pretty thick at times, and often is quite shrill. I read his book Stupid White Men and saw his other movie Bowling for Columbine. I thought that movie was quite good. And I think that the lists he puts together are fine for following up with your own research. Does he stretch the truth? Does he truncate interviews? Does he orchestrate the pieces so they bolster his own notions? Yes, he does. (Does this presidential administration do that? Yes, it does.) He also often presents things in a novel way that gets people thinking on their own. (Does this presidential administration do that? No, it doesn't.) I don't need Moore to tell me what to think, but I appreciate his research and his ordinary-citizen-confronting-the-bastions-of-power approach. In Bowling for Columbine, his attempts to interview Charlton Heston showed that Charly wasn't interested in the truth; he was only interested in ensuring his own guns-are-everything agenda.
Now, Michael Moore is a free American citizen, with full constitutional rights to speak his mind, whether right or wrong. Shoot him? Enemy of the US? It's not citizens speaking up that we have to fear. Jefferson, in fact, said our nation would fall if people did not speak up. It is the officials who serve and represent us, that must be honest with us. If they aren't, citizens have the right and the duty to evict them from office. You can't revoke an American's citizenship or life for speaking.
Moore's "deceits" can be taken or left, as you choose. No one is forcing you to see the movie. Why would you want to prevent anyone from seeing his movie? Why would you want to shoot him? We do have the right to speak in this country.
On the other hand, when our leaders lie to push their own agenda, the people should throw them out. This, the Bush administration has done again and again. WMD in Iraq? Yeah, right. Al Qaeda and Saddam planning 9/11 together? Bush has planted that notion in so many Americans' heads as though it were the truth, it's disgusting. And then his story to the American people is, so what? the real reason was to get Saddam out of power and put democracy in his place. If that was the reason, why did he lie? why couldn't he just tell the American people so they could make an informed decision? Fighting terrorism? in Iraq? Why, when Osama is in Afghanistan or Pakistan? He's the one who led the 9/11 attacks, not Saddam. Al Qaeda wasn't in any power in Iraq until we invaded and opened it up to them. Now they're killing us in Iraq. What the fuck are we doing wasting our time and losing our lives in Iraq? All this time Al Qaeda has had opportunity to revamp in countries all around the world and continue its plans to destroy America. But Bush is in Iraq! And our first line of defense in our homeland - the National Guard - is in Iraq! What a stupid way to run a war and ensure the security of our land! And based on lies.
This administration has no qualms about deceiving the American people over and over again, when it comes to justifying what they are doing. Shoot Moore? Did he kill anybody? For Christ's sake, root out Bush for the 900 troops dead in this deceitful war, for the thousands more maimed for life, for the thousands of Iraqi civilians dead, for the countless future casualties resulting from the big lie, all so Bush could stand on a flight deck and proclaim "Mission accomplished"! Well, mission is not accomplished, mission is a big expensive mess, we aren't safer from terrorist attacks, and America has thrown away its standing as the good guy in the world. America is gasping for its American life, and I damn Bush to hell for that. And I didn't need Michael Moore to come to that conclusion.
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