Source: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21941282-2703,00.html

I'm a patriot, protests Moore

David Nason, New York correspondent

21jun07

HE is America's best-known left-wing agitator and for years his love of country has been under question, with the Bush administration and its supporters leading the charge.

But now documentary filmmaker Michael Moore says he has joined the mainstream and will no longer tolerate people branding him anti-American.

"Don't ever question my patriotism," a clean-shaven, besuited Moore bellowed at a questioner at New York's plush Regency Hotel on Park Avenue yesterday where he was promoting Sicko, a new documentary that tears the scab off the profit-driven US health system.

"I am a patriotic American. The most patriotic thing you can do is question your government, especially when they're screwing up like they are by not providing healthcare to our 9/11 rescue workers."

There was even a new, star-spangled element to Moore's trademark condemnation of President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq.

"It really is a good idea to let anyone know that if you're going to come and kill our people, we will put a boot in your ass," Moore said.

"Problem is we didn't put our boot in the ass of the people ... who killed our people. We went and put our boot into people (in Iraq) who had nothing to do with 9/11 and all we've done is show the world we're incapable of putting the boot anywhere.

"What kind of message does that send to people trying to kill us? It says these people are pushovers. That's how unsafe we are now as a result of this Bush administration."

In Sicko, a hit at the recent Cannes Film Festival, Moore argues the case for a universal US healthcare system along the lines of those operating in Canada, Britain and Europe and is scathing about how the Bush administration has allowed the health insurance and pharmaceutical companies to dominate health policy.

But he saves his most damning criticism for Mr Bush's failure to provide proper healthcare for those who volunteered for duty at Ground Zero after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

"When you see these people suffering and dying, those who ran down there and risked their lives (at Ground Zero), I'm ashamed of that as an American," Moore said.

"I believe the American people have had it with this broken healthcare industry and system and are just waiting for the moment to rise up and demand change. I hope this film helps provide the spark."

Moore conceded the political impact and commercial success of the film may have been compromised by a high-quality pirated version making its way on to the internet ahead of the US release date later this month.

Without mentioning them by name, he suggested police target their investigations at the healthcare "Axis of Evil" presented in his film - the Bush administration, Big Pharma and the health insurance industry.

"This was an inside job," he said. "Who has a vested interest in destroying the opening of this film? Who has a vested interest in ruining the opening weekend's box office of this movie?

"If I were the police or FBI investigating this felony, that's where I would look."

The film received a huge publicity boost when the US Treasury Department said it was investigating possible civil and criminal breaches of US law related to Moore's provocative trip to Cuba with three sick 9/11 rescue workers.

Moore said he was confident of his legal protections because Americans were allowed to travel to Cuba if they were journalists or undertaking journalistic endeavours.

"A documentary film is a work of journalism," Moore said. "No laws were broken.

"This is just an attempt by the Bush administration to use our federal agencies - as they have done in the past - to politically harass opponents, in this case me."