Monday, July 12, 2004

Some more ramblings on Fahrenheit 9/11: most of the movie consisted of some rather cheap shots at the Iraq policy of the administration. These ranged from the tiring -- showing, at length, the grieving of a woman whose son died in the war -- to the morally repugnant -- showing pictures of happy Iraqis, boys flying kites, during Saddam Hussein's reign.

The rest of the movie was dedicated to conspiracy-theoretic ramblings: Moore is quite innovative at finding ways to connect Saudi oil interests to Bush family finances. None of it was surprising or shocking for me -- the Bushes made their money in the oil business -- and their connections to Saudi Arabian oilmen are to be expected.

Moore is at his best when he pulls ridiculous stunts: stopping Congressmen on the street in an effort to recruit their sons for the armed forces in Iraq; or renting an ice-cream truck and driving around D.C. reading the provisions of the Patriot act out of a loudspeaker. If he did more of those, he could have been entertaining.

One item where Moore gets it right: what is up with the periodic news conferences held by Tom Ridge/John Ashcroft announcing that there is information about an Al Qaeda plot to attack the US followed by refusal to give out specific information? What conceivable purpose do they serve, apart from scaring the hell out of the public?

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