I’d Like to Defend Michael Moore, But—

Christopher Hitchens and other neoconservative critics are all over Moore’s new “Fahrenheit 9/11” like flies on shit. And if half the stuff they say is true, well, that’d be terrible for him, for moviegoers, and for patriots (i.e., Americans who see Bush as the neofascist that he is). Of course, it’s entirely possible that they are lying. You know, as usual.

Anyway, Hitchens especially focuses on the film’s discussion of the Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline project and the war in Afghanistan—pet topics of mine, as readers know. I’d sure love to know who’s on the side of the angels here, but there’s no way. Why? Because Mike didn’t bother to save one of the several thousand seats at Manhattan’s Ziegfield Theater premiere for the only writer in America who has actually written an entire book about the pipeline and the Afghan war. I didn’t see the film, and as a resident of NYC will not go see it until several days after it opens. I’m too busy to wait in line, you know?

So, Moore aficianados, if you wonder why so many lefties seem to leave Mike twisting in the wind while the rightist vultures peck away at him, now you know. You wanna help out, you really do, but the dude just won’t let you.