Michael Moore, the "documentary" director from Michigan, is all in the news these days because of the his new movie "Farenhate 9/11."

(Note to copy editor - That's not a typo.)

Moore is an award-winning filmmaker. His "documentaries" (I thought documentaries were supposed to be non-fiction) have won Oscars, Emmys, Writers' Guild Awards and jury prizes at Cannes.

He's sold more books than Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Coulter and Hannity combined, too, by the way. (Sometimes I think these people give conservatives a bad name. Like when Coulter called Ted Kennedy an "adulterous drunk.")

But even some of my liberal friends say they have had enough of Michael Moore.

Certainly there is nothing wrong with having opinions. Lots of people make a decent living doing just that.

And there is nothing wrong with a liberal point of view. Certainly, liberals can make principled arguments against policies of the Bush administration.

(No WMD. Poor intelligence. Little international support for war. Poor advance planning.)

Heck, I can make principled arguments against policies of the Bush administration, like, what happened to all the conservatives?

But there is little or no principle involved when it comes to the work of Michael Moore.

But don't take my word for it. Take his. Following are some quotes from the famous filmmaker. I will let his words speak for themselves.

"He is probably choking on a pretzel or something. I hope nobody tells him that I have won this award while he is eating a pretzel. ... He has the funniest lines in the film. I am eternally grateful to him." - On President Bush, after winning the top prize at the Cannes film festival.

"Maybe it's a sick fantasy of mine, but I am really looking forward to a debate between a general and a deserter. Plus, I really want to hear President Bush have to say, 'Yes, general, no, general.'" - on Wesley Clark

"I would like to apologize for referring to George W. Bush as a 'deserter.' What I meant to say is that George W. Bush is a deserter, an election thief, a drunk driver, a WMD liar and a functional illiterate. And he poops his pants."

***

"The majority of Americans - the ones who never elected you -are not fooled by your weapons of mass distraction."

***

"If someone did this [9/11] to get back at Bush, then they did so by killing thousands of people who did not vote for him! Boston, New York, D.C. and the planes' destination of California - these were places that voted against Bush!"

***

"White people scare the crap out of me. ... I have never been attacked by a black person, never been evicted by a black person, never had my security deposit ripped off by a black landlord, never had a black landlord ... never been pulled over by a black cop, never been sold a lemon by a black car salesman, never seen a black car salesman, never had a black person deny me a bank loan, never had a black person bury my movie, and I've never heard a black person say, 'We're going to eliminate ten thousand jobs here - have a nice day!'" - from "Stupid White Men"

"These bastards who run our country are a bunch of conniving, thieving, smug pricks who need to be brought down and removed and replaced with a whole new system that we control." - from "Dude, Where's My Country?"

"Should such an ignorant people lead the world? How did it come to this in the first place? 82 percent of us don't even have a passport! Just a handful can speak a language other than English (and we don't even speak that very well). - On Americans in an open letter www.zeit.de/2003/46/AbdruckMoor to the German publication Die Zeit (June 11, 2003).

"I'm going to do damage with it. I'll make sure that my work gets out. That no publisher will ever be able to tell me to take things out. Because I'll put it out myself. The more money I earn, the less they can stop me. Where I come from it's called f*** you money because I don't have to take an ounce of s***from anybody."

The following three gems www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/content_objectid=13583626_method=full_siteid=50143_headline=-THE-AWKWARD-CONSCIENCE-OF-A-NATION-name_page.html come from a London Daily Mirror interview.

"They (Americans) are possibly the dumbest people on the planet ... in thrall to conniving, thieving, smug pricks. We Americans suffer from an enforced ignorance. We don't know about anything that's happening outside our country. Our stupidity is embarrassing."

***

"I want him (Bush) paraded in handcuffs outside a police house as a common criminal because I don't know if there's a greater crime than taking people to war based on a lie. I've never seen anything like Bush and his people. They truly hate our constitution, our rights and liberties. They have no shame in fighting for their corporate sponsors. I honestly believe they are putting their toe in the water to see if people will go for martial law. After 9/11 we had hundreds of Arab-Americans rounded up and put in prison with no charges. You know, there's an undercurrent of feeling that we may not even have an election next year. If there is another 9/11, a justification may be used to call it off and install martial law."

***

"What is your excuse for going to war? You have none. Your Prime Minister gave Bush the cover he needed. Well, thank you, Mr Blair. You are the one who gave us the Iraq war. I hold you more responsible for this mess than little Georgie. You see, Georgie is an idiot, but you, sir, are not."

From MichaelMoore.com:

"The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not 'insurgents' or 'terrorists' or 'The Enemy.' They are the revolution, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow - and they will win."

When asked by a reporter from the Arcata Eye in 2002 why he wasn't speaking at independent bookstores instead of corporate chains, he offered this insight:

"You know in my town the small businesses that everyone wanted to protect? They were the people that supported all the right-wing groups. They were the Republicans in town, they were in Kiwanis, the Chamber of Commerce - people that kept the town all white. The small hardware salesman, the small clothing store salespersons, Jesse the Barber who signed his name three different times on three different petitions to recall me from the school board. F*** all these small businesses-f*** 'em all. Bring in the chains."

And how about a little race bating?

"The kind of people who fly in airplanes want someone else to clean up their mess; that's why they let hijackers take the plane. If the passengers had included black men, those killers, with their puny bodies and unimpressive small knives, would have been crushed by the dudes, who as we all know take no disrespect from anybody. ... The passengers on the planes on 11 September were scaredy-cats, because they were mostly white."

On top of all this, legions of writers have produced reams of evidence of the exaggerated, obfuscated and generally false nature of his books and films.

Here's the famous quote from his Oscar acceptance speech:

"We live in a time when fictitious election results elect a fictitious president. We live in a time when we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons."

Moore should know. He is quite enamored of all things fictitious.

Frankly, I think the guy has emotional problems, but what do I know?

I guess I won't be watching any of his stuff anytime soon. [[In-content Ad]]