Congratulations Michael Moore-Encore!

Congratulations to Michael Moore on the early indications of success of Fahrenheit 911. The film has created gratifying buzz not only among the expected progressive audience, but has even generated a debunking web site according to an Alternet story, Framing Michael Moore.

...To fight back, some unknown person or organization hired the PR firm Russo, Marsh & Rogers of Sacramento, California. The company, which has strong ties to the Republican Party set up a Web site, Move America Forward , to attack Fahrenheit 9/11. The PR flacks who managed the site encouraged:

Americans who found in Moore's movie Fahrenheit 9/11 an attempt to undermine the war on terror, to let movie theater operators know about their objections. Think about it; If you walked into a Wal-Mart store and saw they were selling merchandise that attacked the military, our troops and America's battle against Islamic terrorism, wouldn't you complain to the store manager or write a letter and ask that they not sell that product because it was undermining our national effort?

Others on the right aim to counter Moore with a movie of their own making, Michael Moore Hates America: A Documentary That Tells the Truth about a Great Nation.

That will be a hard sell to anyone who sees Fahrenheit 9/11, which makes clear that Michael Moore loves America. It's the Bush administration he can't stand.

He's got a lot of company.

On the Move America Forward's web site front page, they declare "We are winning the war on terrorism" [emphasis theirs] earning them the nomination for the crackpot comment of the century.

Crackpot kudos also to Ray Bradbury for making a stink about the title and demanding an apology. One hopes this isn't some kind of cover for political objections. I can't wrap my mind around Bradbury as a conservative, but stranger things have happened.

Citizens United, a group run by Bill Clinton critic David Bossie, has filed a complaint before the Federal Election Commission charging that ads for the film constitute political advertising and thus may not be aired in the months before an election or party convention. The FEC has not yet ruled on the matter.

Reviews, though hardly unanimous, are overwhelmingly positive. Box office sales have been brisk, even in this summer blockbuster season. It appears that Fahrenheit 911 has reached critical mass at this point and is not about to be supressed by crackpot censorship at the hands of Republicans who are finally responding to the reality that the Bush re-election campaign is in deep jeopardy over the most disastrous foreign policies ever to damage the stature of our nation. I don't think conservative money is going to pull this one out of the mire.

Congratulations, again, Michael Moore.