Newt Gingrich and Michael Moore

Oh, and Lawrence O’Donnell too.

I’m watching The Last Word with Lawrence tonight as I’m working a little on Tarheel.  The topic of the night, at least the lead topic, is the Republican debate.  And his second guest segment is with Michael Moore.  You know, the guy that hates capitalism.  Yeah, him.  Anyway, this is classic.

I’ll put the video up as soon as they have it on the you tubes.

Okay, so it starts like this:

Newt: [hypothetical question to an OWS protester] Who’s gonna pay for the park you’re occupying if there are no businesses making a profit?

Lawrence: Introduces Moore.

Banter between Moore and Lawrence
Moore: I think he’s got it mixed up though when he says “if it wasn’t for the corporation, there wouldn’t be a park there.”  I seem to remember, ah, in America, parks are developed by the local governments —

Lawrence: Mmmm hmmm

Moore: — for the people by the people let the people picnic and do things.  I don’t ever remember a corporate park.

Lawrence: You don’t have to buy a ticket.

More head exploding nonsense follows.

For clarification:

Zuccotti Park:

Zuccotti Park, formerly called Liberty Plaza Park, is a 33,000-square-foot (3,100 m2) publicly accessible park in Lower Manhattan, New York City, privately owned by Brookfield Properties. The park was created in 1968 by United States Steel, after the property owners negotiated its creation with city officials, and named Liberty Plaza Park and situated beside One Liberty Plaza. It is located between Broadway, Trinity Place, Liberty Street and Cedar Street. The park’s northwest corner is across the street from Four World Trade Center. It has been popular with local tourists and financial workers.

The park, once known as Liberty Plaza Park, is owned by A CORPORATION!  I think I should say that again.  The park, the place where OWS is gathering, is not a public park.  It is a private park owned by a CORPORATION!

Newt knows this.  I know this.  Every fuckin’ body knows this.

Except Lawrence O’Donnell and Michael Moore.

It is SO owned by a corporation that THIS happened:

The park was heavily damaged in the September 11 attacks and subsequent recovery efforts of 2001. The plaza was later used as the site of several events commemorating the anniversary of the attacks. After renovations in 2006, the park was renamed by its current owners, Brookfield Office Properties, after company chairman John Zuccotti.

After being damaged in the terrorist attacks, the park once known as LIBERTY PARK for chrise’sakes, was renamed Zuccotti park after the COMPANY CHAIRMAN!

They changed the name of the park from Liberty Park to the name of their CHAIRMAN!

This park can’t GET any more corporate.

Michael Moore is an ass.  And a dumb one too.

9 responses to “Newt Gingrich and Michael Moore

  1. I thought maybe the subject of this discussion would be “who is the most physically appalling person on the left and on the right.” Gingrich and Moore may agree on little, but they’ve cornered the market on ugly.

  2. Speaking of OWS and ugly folk, I just put a photo of Montgomery Burns on my door holding a sign: “I am the 1%. Smithers, release the hounds.” Though I guess if the park is owned by a corporation that symbolically supports the idea they are “occupying Wall Street.”

  3. You really think everybody knows that Zuccotti Park is privately owned? I certainly didn’t, and many other occupy protests are in public parks. For example, Occupy DC is in McPherson Square, a public square. Occupy Atlanta is in Woodruff Park, which is public. Do you really know the parks of New York so well that you assume everyone knows which ones are public and which are “privately owned but publicly accessible”? I think you overestimate the interest of most people in park ownership in Manhattan.

    • You really think everybody knows that Zuccotti Park is privately owned?

      No, not at all. But I’m not calling “everybody” an ass. I’m calling Michael Moore an ass. And, Lawrence too. He’s a political commentator and he SHOULD have known.

      As far as the protestors knowing? I don’t know. But remember, it was the corporation who decided to call the cops because they needed to clean the park. And then, when the OWS folks cleaned it up, they called off the cops.

      It would seem that the leaders of the movement would know.

  4. ” It is a private park owned by a CORPORATION! Newt knows this. I know this. Every fuckin’ body knows this.”

    You explicitly said everyone knew it. I mean, six inches higher on the screen. And you have the audacity to yell at other people?

    You said everyone knew it. Now you admit that not everyone knew it. I refer you back to “every fuckin’ body knows this”. I expect a full-on retraction, and possibly some degree of rationality in the future,

    • You explicitly said everyone knew it

      Reading literally, that statement would seem to represent that everybody alive would know that the park is private. Are you seriously making the claim that’s what I was representing? That if you stopped me right there and asked me if I was truly asserting that a peasant farmer in the remote regions of India knew this I would have said, “Why yes, of COURSE that’s what I mean.”

      Or, possibly, is there room for context?

      Clearly those who haven’t a care in the world for all things, or even some things, political, aren’t even going to know what Zuccotti park is, or where. In fact, there could be people who ARE interested in politics but aren’t tweeked by OWS who wouldn’t know. However, when the universe of “Every fuckin’ body” is restricted to commentators, people like me and and other bloggers who comment on OWS, radio and TV hosts, newspaper writers and other involved people, even commentators that happen to make a living at this stuff and even show up AT the park to protest, then that statement makes more sense.

      In that context, people know the park is private. And if they don’t know that they appear foolish. And when they mock a Presidential candidate on national TV, not that MSNBC is really a national TV audience but hey, then yeah, they put themselves out there for ridicule.

      I guess I’m saying that tone and context of that comment, in a political blog, would suggest that my 5 year old son wouldn’t know Zuccotti Park is private.

  5. And what YOU don’t seem to know is that the park IS PUBLIC because it was mandated by law to be PUBLIC. When US Steel built the obscenely tall building, cutting off all the light and air, they were required by law to provide PUBLIC space. Thus, Liberty Park Plaza was born. It may be privately owned but it is PUBLIC space. It is to be used by the public. It is not corporate space. It is not to be cordoned off by the corporation. It should not now or at any time have police lines set up and no one should have to be searched to enter the park. No matter what the provincial Boston billionaire… who wants the borough of Manhattan to be reserved for his billionaire pals, and does not believe in free speech for anyone but billionaires, and who thinks anything can be bought including the Mayoralty of New York City… says.

    • And what YOU don’t seem to know is that the park IS PUBLIC because it was mandated by law to be PUBLIC.

      No.

      The Park is private. It’s privately owned and privately cared for. If there are trespassers, the owners can call the cops. If they want the kids there, they can call the cops off.

      It may be privately owned

      Q.E.D.

      It should not now or at any time have police lines set up and no one should have to be searched to enter the park.

      Except when the rights of others are being infringed upon.

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