>> yeah. >> like, why is it -- i don't -- i, um, i sometimes don't see the value in why do we have military men doing things which, like in kenya trying to find information from the civilians that live there. is it really someone in a uniform who's wearing a gun with him that is actually going to get that good information and build those relationships? so i guess my question is that since you've been in both of those roles, um, like, do you still believe in the equal value of both of them, or would you like to see more of a switch from the weight of our, let's say budget that goes in the heavy direction of one as as opposed to the other? >> sure, yeah, great question. ..

one of the things we have to do is take a much wider view. i mentioned a couple of folks who are here and think about how we can make investment and long-term relationships that build that kind of trust overtime. and i think there is definitely a lot of work for us to do. there is certainly a role for humanitarian work and foreign policy that a lot of times, we often don't think about it because it is not pressing. it is not in front of the. to make that kind of investment

you need to be thinking 20 years down the road. i think we do have to do that absolutely. >> i will segway the last few things together. cooperation and friendship. thank you for the reference to james and several of our teammates. you treated them extremely well, honoring those men was powerful. military and humanitarian coordination, department of state and department of defense are schismed. have you looked at being approached to do that kind of integration? when we have those two entities working well overseas and harnessing the capacity of the humanitarian organization, they

avoid us because they don't want to be stigmatized. i really think a person in your position across the spectrum can bring a lot of credibility to a lot of our commanders and policymakers. >> thank you very much. i appreciate that. i have not been approached yet about that. i certainly would be willing to offer my services and there are a lot of people in this generation of veterans who have come back and taken a different look at what is happening like iraq and afghanistan and southeast asia and the board of africa who are open to thinking about the wider approach, how you would create peace overseas. i certainly think -- they cue for the comments about change. i keep my friend john boyd, i

keep calling in my pocket -- keep a coin in my pocket and never forget memory of our fallen brothers. what we try to do, the greatest thing we can do for someone like james is to live their values and if we are living the values of james we are living travis manyon and doing them a great honor and making ourselves better as well. thank you very much. [applause] >> for more about eric gereitens and his work visit ericgreite

ericgreitens.com. >> booktv will travel to various universities to talk to professors who have published nonfiction books. this month we speak with offers from george mason university in virginia. next month we head to the university of texas at austin. war on our booktv college series visit booktv.org. >> for the next three hours booktv talks with author and filmmaker michael moore. former editor of jones magazine. your questions spoke about your apathy, the war against al qaeda and other topics. the michigan native's books includes "downsize this!: random threats from an unarmed american," "dude, where's my country?" and his new memoir "here comes trouble: stories from my life". >> how did you meet robert kennedy? kennedy? >> guest: i was a couple blocks from here in the capitol

building. my mother brought us on vacation. i was 11 years old after fifth grade and my mother had to go north to the lake and go to scout camps and things like that. our mom wanted us to go to washington d.c. every summer because she's so believed in this country and everything about it and loved history. we spend our summer is going to the national archives reading documents of the founding fathers and traveling through the smithsonian institute and going to the different museums and every time we came here we had to meet two senators and a congressman. i was in the apple building and started looking at all these statues in the hall and reading the inscription's.

i got separated from my mom and my sisters and my cousin. it felt like ours and was probably just 20 minutes. i was wondering all over the capitol building looking for my family and can't find them. i start to cry. these elevated doors open. i walk into the elevator. i don't see the sign on the elevator. they close. there's one man in the back of the elevator and he is reading a newspaper. he hears this little boy sniffling and crying. he puts the paper down. it is bobby kennedy. of course even at 11 years old are nobody kennedy because being raised in an irish catholic household you are schools and everything irish and catholic and kennedy. he says what is wrong? young man? i said i lost my mommy. he says i help you find her.

he took me by the hand and the doors open up and we find a capitol police officer who says we will take care of it from here. he says i think i will stay with him for a little bit until he finds his mom. so he stayed and talked to me and had this great conversation that i recount in the book. then they found my mother and it is time for me to go. his final words to me were something to the effect of never lose sight of your mom. at 11 years old it was something that really stayed with me for some time. >> host: did your irish catholic mother vote for jfk? >> guest: she did not. this was almost blasphemous to my father who was fdr democrat and are rich catholic also.

at that time we never had a catholic president. we had been a country for almost 200 years and yet even though there were probably catholics -- catholics have the largest percentage population in this country. that was a really big deal to vote for kennedy. the nuns were for it. the priests were for it. my mom whose father was one of the leaders of the republican party in our town could not bring herself to vote for him because he was a democrat and she was a hard school republican. the old-style republican that believed in the abraham lincoln/teddy roosevelt version of the republican party where to be conservative meant you conserve your money and don't spend money you didn't have and conserve the environment.

these are gifts from god, the planet earth. the first argument i can remember my parents having. they didn't argue much. they were in the garage cleaning and got into a big -- my dad saying how can you not vote for kennedy? he is a democrat. ask kids were on my dad's side, just because. it was the catholic thing to do. >> you had a nixon signed on your door. >> guest: yes. when i was 14 years old and a freshman in high school i was very much against the war from the beginning. i am talking about a war started, vietnam war for americans started when i was in fifth grade. when i was a kid i thought this was a really bad idea.

when bobby kennedy was running in 1968 and i was in eighth grade it was a really hopeful moment. johnson said he wasn't going to run again. that was great news. hubert humphrey decided to get into the race. you supported this war. you are part of johnson. of 14-year-old was thinking this. and nixon said that he had a secret plan to end the war and was going to end it in six months or whatever. that sounded good to me. he was also for 18-year-olds having the right to vote. he wanted to start the environmental protection agency. he believe girls in school should have the same rights as boys so he was going to institute title ix. this is one republican used to look like.

and he was the worst. shows you how far we have come. because he said he would end the war i decided to campaign for him as a freshman in high school. that is what i did. please don't strike me. >> host: we are telling stories from your most recent book, autobiographical called "here comes trouble: stories from my life". mr. moore, when is the first time you remember causing trouble? >> guest: do i actually remember causing trouble? i think the first trouble i got into was when i stole something from the 5 and dime. lots of things cost a nickel and

a dime back then. i think i had stolen either a pack of gum or a tootsie roll from mcintyre's 5 and dime on main street in michigan. i don't know how my parents found out. i never even told them. i am 4 years old, not in kindergarten yet. oh my god. it hit the fan. they were very upset. i had to take them back and apologize and do extra chores. i had to say a rosary or two. it was pretty bad. that is the first thing i remember happening.

>> host: where is davison, michigan and what was your child like? >> guest: davis and, michigan is five or six miles east -- about 60 miles north of detroit. davis and was a village back in the old days before it later became a suburb. my mom's family settled their back in the 1830s. my family was one of the first founding families of the area and there is a little village called out look where they first settled. about six other catholic families helped get the first catholic thing going here. it was on the border.

my family has been there for 175 years. maybe the year before michigan was a state. been there a very long time. my mother was always very proud of the fact that her family helped to found the area. the native americans were there. they were the first white settlers. i rico a story in the book where i talk about my great great grandfather who became friends with the indians to the dismay of the other white settlers. >> guest: >> host: was your childhood like? >> guest: it was great. it was great to grow up in our neighborhood. we lived on a dirt street. it was a 2 dead end street. each end of the street had dead

end. and showing home movies, my sister and i, cowboy mike, be getting some early exercise. something that stopped doing. there is me with my gun. that is one of my first -- i was expert marksman and the tricky and are a award. it was a great time. the kids in the neighborhood were great. i write about this and we used to play war all the time. hy could play either the german or the american. if i was the german high would make sure i died a horrific death because i wanted the german to go out that way. if i played the american i tried to do the hero thing. we played baseball in the summer from sunup until sundown. go out and blow the fields to

create a baseball diamond. the kids next door had guns. we were shooting rifles. no parental supervision whatsoever. just guns. it was really a great time. there was a lot of hope in all of that. my dad worked in the factory, ac spark plug. he made spark plugs with a division of general motors. >> host: in the union? >> guest: yes. my uncle's sister's husband learned whitney was in the sit down strike in 1936-37 which will have its 70 fifth anniversary this year that founded the uaw. existed before but this was the first contract they were able to get with a major industrial

operation. the workers took over the factories for 44 days in the middle of winter. gm turned the heat and the water and everything off. they just froze. a lot of battles with the police. friend roosevelt told the governor of michigan sand in the national guard and protect these workers. that was the turning point that helped the union get the first contract. so my dad and his brothers and the whole family and everybody worked in the factories. very grateful for the fact that we had this union because this union did a lot of things in terms of raising everyone's standard of living. we lived a middle-class existence. we had full medical coverage, full dental, four weeks paid vacation every summer.

it was really -- he was home at 3:00. he worked at eight hour day. he worked at 6 in the morning and was home by 3:00. it was the same way to live. everybody knew even though they were strong union men and women, they accepted the compact with the corporation which was if you worked hard and the company prospers you prosper. real easy deal. not that way anymore. >> host: how did you get into catholic seminary? >> guest: how did i get in? how did they let me in? >> host: tells a story about

catholic seminary. >> guest: starting sixth or seventh grade i was really in hammered with these priests who were involved in the anti-war movement and marched with martin luther king and the farm workers with hispanic issues and things. are just thought they were heroes to meet. they did things. the deaths -- to stop the war. the priests would get arrested. they were like action heroes. so you could do good with this and honor god and preach the gospel and be an action hero. it looked like a good deal to me. in eighth grade and asked if i

could go to a seminary so i studied to be a catholic priest. they were not in favor of this. they were strong catholics but they wanted me at home. they did not want their son to be gone at 14 years old leaving home. but i told them i had a calling and that is all you have to say because you don't get in the way of a calling. so they let the dough. i had to go for an interview with the priest and told them what i was thinking that probably downplayed the radical priest part a little so i wouldn't be too frightening of what i was going to be up to. that not only let me in but it was one of the best years i had in terms of an education. they were great. there were a few jesuits'. there was some powerful learning. they believed we should all be

bilingual or trilingual. we tore apart romeo and juliet line by line so we would truly understand how shakespeare worked and the language and syntax and everything. it is one of those things i had for the rest of my life. it was very enjoyable. i really appreciated the education that i got but i was only there for one year. >> host: why is that? >> guest: i was 14 years old. maybe puberty set in late but it kicked in. in that freshman year in high school, the normal hormonal changes or whatever. i read the rulebook and i thought girls were a good idea.

so i went in the last day of my freshman year to tell the my wasn't going to come back. the priest before i get word out of my mouth is to me we have decided you should not return next year. wait a minute! i came in here to resign. you can't kick me out. we are in agreement. why do you not want the back? we think you asked too many questions. they are not big on people asking questions in the institution of the catholic church. that was the end of my seminary days but not the end of my faith or my beliefs and values and ethical being in terms of the way i was raised by the good nuns and priests who educated me. >> host: what was your involvement with the elks club?

>> guest: every year -- i think this is true in most states -- you mentioned you are from indiana. in most states they have a girls' state and boy state and pick two students from every high school to go to the state capital to play government. so i was picked from my high school to go there. you have all these boys and the were elected governor or lieutenant governor or state legislature or supreme court and there was a run for office and campaigns. i wasn't that kind of kid. i have not run for student council. it was really those kind of kids. i don't know why i got selected. as soon as i got there all these little politicians, i didn't want anything to do with it.

hy went to my dorm room. it was held on the campus of michigan state university. i was at ohio state for the first time since the civil war. i locked myself in my dorm and didn't come out for the whole week. maybe two days left in the week and i decided to go to the stamp machine to get some ruffles, new potato chip back then that had these ridges. i thought i was getting more chip. i loved these. i went down and got these chips and there was a poster that said speech contest on the life of abraham lincoln sponsored by the health club. i am looking at that going the elk club sponsoring a contest on

abraham lincoln who freed the slaves? i knew about that because the previous one, my dad had gone to join the elks club. at the top of their application the words were caucasians only. my dad wouldn't join. i thought there is some irony for you. this racist organization sponsoring a contest on a blink and. i thought i am going to write me a speech. i went to my room and wrote the speech ended the contest and showed up and gave the speech. only 12 boys in the room. i thought there would be something else there. it is just a speech teacher from a public high school who is the judge. after these boys give these beaches about a blanket and the civil war i talk about how dare the elks club be surge abraham lincoln by coming here and holding a speech contest?

they should be removed from boise state and go on and on like this. the kids in the rumor like oh! its of the one black kid who is covering his mouth because he is laughing. he can't believe he is hearing this. the speech teacher stands up and says the winner of the contest is michael moore. wow! then he says tomorrow at final assembly with 2,000 boys to be gathered you will give the speech. no, no, i can't do that! that is the rule. you have to give the speech. oh my god. don't worry. i won't tell them the content until you give it. thanks. let's just hit them fresh. next day i show up, they take me on stage and i walk past the lieutenant governor and the governor and the dignitaries and the last guy at the last chair walking by him is wearing a hat with antlers.

it is the chief elk. oh no! i give the speech. how dare the elks club do this! hy turnaround at the end and i see the chief elk and his face is red and he is gritting his teeth and holding the trophy he is going to hand me. are made up the last line. and i don't want your stinking trophy! the whole place erupted in cheers. i got to get out of here. i run off the stage and get back to my room. before i got out of the building an ap reporter stopped me. who are you? why are you here? i got to go. two hours later there is a knock on the door. there's a phone call for you. i take a call. pick up the phone. a pay phone.

how does anyone know i am here? the voice says i am a producer with the cbs evening news with walter cronkite in new york and we just read a story on the wire and like to send a crew over an interview you for newscast. i am going know! no! i am not a political activist. i am just a kid in search of a bag of ruffles potato chips. there's not enough clear still in the world to get me on tv. i just hung up the phone and ran back to my room but it didn't stop for two days. the phone rang, newspapers, naacp, congressmen wanted me to testify for their bills. this is the early 70s. it was still legal to discriminate on the basis of race in private organizations.

public, no. private you could still discriminate. people were trying to get laws passed and the floodgates opened up on this issue. more people covering it and other people doing other things and a year later the elks club lost their tax-exempt status and their liquor license. finally they change their policy and rescinded their caucasian's only policy. the lesson to that too long story is for me at 16 or 17 years old, probably a dangerous lesson for me for the rest of my life. you actually, the average citizen, us 17-year-old in the middle of nowhere can bring about change i doing not a whole lot. i didn't organize mass demonstrations or go on the cbs evening news or whatever. by doing just a little bit, by

making a little speech, things can happen. you never know what will happen or how it can happen and what if everybody knew that secret? you are sitting at home thinking i would like to change this or that, how could i do that? i need a bigger organization. i need money. sometimes if everybody did just a little bit instead of waiting for one or two people, just a little bit, good things can happen. >> host: welcome to booktv. this is our monthly in depth program with one author and his or her body of work. this month it is author as filmmaker michael moore. we will put the numbers on screen if you like to dial in and talk to mr. moore. 737-0001 in the east and central time zones.

0002 for those of you in the mountain and pacific time zone. you can send mr. moore a tweet at twitter.com/booktv or an e-mail at booktv@c-span.org. we begin taking those in just a minute. first, there was another time you received an award and we will show a little video and if you will talk about the circumstances surrounding this video. >> i would like to thank the academy. i invited my fellow documentary nominees on the stage with us. we would like -- they are in solidarity with me because we like non-fiction and we live in fictitious times. we live in a time with fictitious election results that elects a fictitious president. we live in a time where we have

a man sending us to work for fictitious reasons. whether it is backed tastes -- duct tape -- we are against this war. shame on you, mr. bush! when you have 66 against the your time is up! >> guest: it didn't go over as well as the elks club speech. at least at the time. that night. it was the fourth or fifth day of the war. >> host: march 23rd, 2003. >> guest: we were all dressed

up, going to the academy awards and there was a huge disconnect it felt like to me. when we won i didn't have a speech prepared. i have asked my fellow documentary filmmakers during the commercial break before the award, if i win i would welcome you on stage. have to say something about what was going on if you want to join with me and they all came up with me. it descended into chaos as soon as our started to say what i thought was a fairly poetic, eloquent thing to say. i wasn't really going to mention mr. bush's name. just wanted to say we liked a nonfiction which is why we make nonfiction yet we live in fictitious times and we have

been led to war for fictitious reasons but nobody wanted to hear that on the fifth day. 70% of the country supported the war and i was a small minority that was speaking out against it at that time. i took quite a beating for it. but the good news is within three or four years the majority of americans came around to actually cheer that position that i took. >> host: what happened as you walk off the stage? >> guest: i heard the first two words that all oscar winners here. they don't talk about this. you never see this because it is behind the curtain. but many who win the oscar any time, you are lucky if you get it once and i was so lucky.

i walked off the stage and there's a well-dressed young man and a well-dressed young lady in evening wear and the young lady says to you, champagne? the boy goes breath mint? it is like okay. in my mind there's a riot going on. i got to hear a third word. stagehand, in number of them were quite angry for what i said. he got right up in the side of my head and scream -- and won't say it on us c-span but a-hole in my year. we got to get him out of here because there's going to be a riot backstage. >> host: what happened to you after that oscar speech? >> guest: i was crucified in the press. the entertainment and and it's at the oscar shows why would he

do that? why would he say such a thing? this is the oscars. we need a fiddle escape. and people thought the war would be over in a few weeks. we will roll into baghdad and that would be the end of that. i think people were afraid -- the booing was not happening on the main floor from actors and directors and nominators. i don't know where it was coming from. they told me it was from the balcony or where the people -- where the agents and advertising people who run the ads on the show with free tickets and that is where it was coming from. we got home to michigan and it was pretty rough. not only a lot of threats but actual attempted assaults on me

constantly. physical assaults. i had to hire a security firm from los angeles made a lot of ex navy seals and army rangers and green berets special forces types who wanted to protect me and i'm grateful to them because they prevented a lot of things from happening. there wasn't the day i couldn't walk down the street without someone wanting to punch me. one guy in fort lauderdale sunni and goes berserk. the limbaugh chip went off or something. he froze hot scalding coffee at my face. one of the security guys saw this happen and didn't have time to stop it. that put his head in front of my

face and took the hit so the hot coffee and got second-degree burns. it is that kind of thing. that went on for a year or two or three and was quite debilitating. and it was agon as i point out and the book. i quote bill o'reilly, people who said some horrific things that i could not believe could be set across the airwaves. glen beck saying i am thinking of killing michael more. i could kill him myself. i think i could choke the life right out of him. and don't care about what would jesus do. just ripping on this fantasy of this. you put that out on hate radio, the unhinged here that too.

it struck me as crazy stuff. could i go on the radio or tv and say i am thinking of killing, fill in the blank. the head of goldman sachs or whatever. if i said that i think i would get a knock on the door from the police. i am thinking of hiring somebody to kill somebody? not to glen beck or anybody on these hate talk shows. they just fuel it and i became the poster boy for that. i am thinking what was my crime? what did i do? i said we were led into war for false reasons and there are no weapons of mass destruction. that was my crime? i love this country bleaker still i am an eagle scout, i go to church.

i couldn't believe how i became the target -- i was trying to tell people -- my first home film, general motors, i think they're doing something wrong and i think they will go down the toilet and take us with them. that was one film. another film, we don't get access to assault weapons and take them to school. we should oppose that. that was my radical 5 in "bowling for columbine". in "sicko," having fifty million americans not able to see a doctor doesn't make as a strong country. let's call out the forces and attacked this man. it has never made sense to me. >> host: 202-6241115 for those of you in the mountain and

pacific time zone. michael moore, well-known film maker and author of eight books. here it is eight books. "downsize this!: random threats from an unarmed american". "adventures in a tv nation" in 1998. "stupid white men...and other sorry excuses for the state of the nation" in 2002. "dude, where's my country?" in 2003. "will they ever trust us again?" in 2004. "the official fahrenheit 9/11 reader". "mike's election guide" in 2008 and his most recent, "here comes trouble: stories from my life" which we are discussing on in depth. "here comes trouble: stories from my life". first call from nebraska. go-ahead. >> caller: do you believe that the media over sensational stories they find or create is causing our political system to deteriorate? >> host: give an example what

you mean. >> caller: like the casey anthony trial. they were on it constantly. money for advertising. >> guest: yes. yes. it is not just the money. it is because it is easy. it is because in a lot of ways they are no different from a lot of people in a lot of jobs where they try to get by doing as little as they can. so it is easy to cover those stories. the michael jackson dr. trial story or whenever or yesterday time magazine said there might be 1,000 people arrested in wall street protests yesterday. to really do the stories that i think need to be done to go

after goldman sachs and investigate what happened in the crash of 2008 and do those kinds of things, that took a lot of work and brains and takes some money. our media, we don't have a state-owned media. we have a corporate and media. it would probably be naive to think these entities don't feel some compunction to be beholden to the corporations that they invest in or invested in them. one of the examples recently was the c n n tea party express debate. will flicker stood there and said he was partnering with the tea party express to put on this republican party debate. i thought was all, on one hand it is not a bad idea to partner

up but i will never see the day where there will be the cnn/teachers' union debate or the cnn/nurse's union debate for the cnn/michael moore debate with the republican party. that won't happen. when groups on the other side of the political fence, it is not because they agree with them but a lot of the media are gun shy about being called liberal or being accused of being liberal so they overcompensate to show that they are not so they go to bed with the tea party and hold the debate. >> host: victor in palm dale. why is that people like you don't run for higher office? there are so many excellent

people like you on the left yet they never run for office and we also suffer the consequences of such narrow limited options. >> guest: an excellent question. not so much for me. already ran for office when i was 18 and i won. i served my four years. >> host: did you cause trouble? >> guest: a little bit. too many stories in the book. i was elected when 18-year-olds had the right to vote. the president of the board of education in michigan. he is right. we need leaders to step up. there are so many good people who should run that people would get behind. and we don't because we don't

suffer fools. when someone like al franken runs that is a good thing. people will come out and vote for you. the republicans have shown that when they run beloved figures for people that will stand up and communicate with the public like ronald reagan or arnold schwarzenegger or fred thompson, for as much as they say they hate hollywood they run hollywood old-timers. the reason is americans love hollywood. they love the movies. actors are great communicators. so that is why they do well. on our side we don't do that. somehow we think harry reid is the way to go. i don't mean that with any major disrespect. i just think the democratic

party needs a bit of a backbone. the money put the republicans are in. i don't know if that answered the question. >> host: margie in west virginia, you are on with michael moore. >> caller: it is a pleasure to speak to you. you have a good heart. i am wondering if you would consider examining the results of the investigation that occurred on the coal mine disaster that occurred a year ago where 29 miners died. the investigation that you can find all the information on the university web site. it is criminal what happened to these men. these are good working people who want to take care of their

families but they are trapped in an industry that is trying to take away union rights. these people need to be treated with respect. >> host: we got the point. >> guest: that was a real tragedy, one that could have been prevented. there are so many ideas i have and other have on films that should be made. i am only one person. i wish i had five clones. i wish somebody would make that film. >> host: rich brown e-mails what is your next documentary you are working on? >> guest: it is my policy not to discuss the film's i am making while i am making them for all the obvious reasons. >> host: are you working on one?

>> guest: may be. i don't talk about it. they appear when they appear. it is not in the best interests of the film to get a heads up. with "sicko" i made the mistake of saying i was making a film about the health-care industry. the health-care industry went on high alert. the pharmaceutical companies went on really high alert. even though the film was not really about them but the health insurance industry, the pharmaceutical companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars preparing for me. i would get these internal memos sent from people who worked at different pharmaceutical companies saying we had and in service today with a michael more accurate to do role-playing with us. if he should show up this is how you are supposed to handle him. pfizer had a michael more hot

line. they sent a memo to regional offices to call this number in new york. wendell potter was an executive who wrote this great book last year. when he was a vice president he talked about millions of dollars they spend to discredit me, to attack me and if necessary figuratively push me off a cliff. i learned my lesson that it is not a good idea to give them advance notice when i am working on a film. >> host: booktv interview wendell parter. you can see that on booktv.org. use the search function in the upper left-hand corner. an e-mail, as an iranian american i am concerned about rumors he may be planning a trip to iran. the pro-government press has written that you were invited to

come to iran and you accepted. they would consider that a coup if it happened. >> guest: i have been invited for many years. one of my films, might have been "bowling for columbine" won the top prize at the pteron film festival in number of years ago and the prize was a beautiful persian rug they sent me. but i am not going to iran to the film festival. the thing is i have been active in the last year or two. a couple filmmakers have been under house arrest and i have been active with other film makers in convincing the iranian government to release them and let them make their films. the iranian films have some of the greatest filmmakers in iran. if you have a chance to see an

iranian film they are really good. it is a country that loves the movies. we saw through the green movement year or two ago that there is huge sentiment in the country to be free of the dictates of those who would want to run the countrt to run the country. iran is a democracy on a certain level. they have free elections. anyone can run. there have been a couple documentary's about this. really incredible things. i try to avoid any axis of evil discussion because i know there are people in our government now the we had our way with iraq who want to move on to the next bogyman and iran seems to be it. there are certain forces that

want us to go to war or bomb iran or things like that so i try to of wood -- i don't want to be associated with my government attacking aavoone ele again on this planet. i think we leave it to the iranian people. i think the iranian people will stand up and get the country that they want. i am hopeful for that. >> host: this is michael moore's most recent book "here comes trouble: stories from my life". >> i have seen a few of your propaganda films and notice you try to edit things so people think something happened when it didn't. i spesocfically want to ask abot "fahrenheit 9/11". you have a section where you are asocfing congressman to send thr kids to iraq and one congressman, republican congressman said he had two

nephews in afghanistan and you added it so it looks l lie he hs no response and walks off. i want to know why you didn't include his actual response if you are supposed to be a documentarian. >> guest: thank you for that question. in that particular scene i asocd a spesocfic question and i aske of every congressman, would you send your son or daughter to iraq? he wouldn't answer the q spstio and a number of others did this too. i have a nephew or an uncle or cousin or someone down the block in iraq right now. i don't think you understand my question. would you send your son or your dsonghter. not your sister's on or daughter. your son or your dsonghter. he wouldn't anldner the q spsti. they don't want to answer that

q spstion because when i made this film there was only one member of congress who had a son or dsonghter in iraq. that is interesting. 535 members of congress. majority of them voted for this war but they don't want to sacrifice someone from their own mily. send kids from the other family, those who live on the other side of the tracks, let them go do it. that was the point of that and that was the point of that. he was giving me a politician dodge answer saying he had some relative that wasn't my question. i think it is a relevant w spstion. if you are going to vote for war would you be willing to send your son or dan o foer? i had not seen the world war ii

memorial. apps over there. the very first town as you walk into the memorial at says world war ii memorial and big letters under a, george w. bush. i don't see on the washington monument who was president when thatwood - what is his name doi on the world war ii -- here is a guy who supported the vietnam war but wouldn't go. at least with clinton he dodged it too but he was opposed to the war. that is a consistent position. he didn't like the war so didn't want to go. i get that. bush was for the war. he thought other people should go. r he gets full strings to pull and is in the national guard and his

r as you enter the world war ii he wemorial. a war that my uncle died in. 405,000 americans died in and your name is on this? they are good at supporting war and getting us into wars but if they had to die for their kid had to die they don't know about that. let somebody else's kid die. is abhorrent to me. >> host: there's a story about your father and his world war ii experience and a story about you taking a trial run to canada. >> guest: mike it was in the first -- my dad was in the first he warine division. and many of those battles were horrific.

i tell a story about christmas day 1943 when he was in new rldinea. it was a friendly fire incident where he and his unit took a hell and the american planes coming in thought they reject pennies on the hill and they str lie the hill. every guy in my dad's unit was shot. one was killed. everyone is shot but my dad. the only one who didn't get shot was low-flying american planes thinking they were japanese. he told me every chriss was dwa he is grateful for being alive. some how he survived that incident. the longer story is in the book. my incident. i was opposed to the vie is am

war. as i became near draft age i was thinking what am i g i am not going to kill vietnamese. we decided we were 1eresordo?6 years old, we were not going to go to jail. .. mcc. m the government. we decided we were going to move to canada if we had to and so we knew nothing about canada and one day took a car and boat over to port huron, michigan to do a dry run and see how we'd escape to canada and we got over there and forgot the motor to the boat. so we couldn't take it and wee we decided to try and cake the car acro -- take the car across the bridge and, the other guys were smoking a joints so they could relax and i didn't do drugs and i was the designated driver and tell the story about getting

across the blue water bridge and into canada and our great escape and of course the next year there was a draft lottery and i number came up like 273 and i wasn't drafted. >> richard, richmond, virginia. thanks for holding, our on with author michael moore. >> caller: mr. moore, an absolute pleasure to speak with you today. how are you doing, sir. >> thank you, sir. i'm doing well. >> caller: i have a question to ask. i contacted my local american cancer society concerning an event they'll be holding and i suffer from a brain injury and other illness and i'm -- your piece on "sicko" was absolutely beautiful. i loved it. beautiful. my question, sir, is how do i approach or how would i go about

approaching the american cancer society concerning a study they did in 1974 with thc shrinking tumors in mice and them not wanting to go that direction? >> i do have memory of something about that. i can't speak to it. i will say this. thc which is an active ingredient in marijuana, you know, our drug laws in this country, i mean, this is another whole show. are just out of whack and things like that, where medical marijuana and things -- people have been trying to use to help people and years from now, >> guest: historians are going to look back and wonder why we

did so many of the things we do. do. i would say, for you and i get questions like this all the time actually from people, you know, have seen my movie and need help. because of the medical problem. or their hmo will not pay for them to see a specialist and remember, these insurance companies want to provide as little care as possible because that is how they make a profit. and so i would say to you, sir, definitely, get behind -- there's organizations that are trying to free up the studies, use these drugs, there are people who have been fighting, the fda for a long time because they take so long when treatments that are being used in europe and other places are not being used here. but, remember, the fda, of course is controlled by the lobbyists of the pharmaceutical

companies and others who have a vested interest in making a profit and in "sicko" i told the story of jonas salk and, i told the story in my last film, "capitalism, a love story" and he invented the polio vaccine and people were shocked that he didn't want to trademark it or copyright it. that he decided to just give it away for free to the american people, to the world and he said he thought it would be immoral if he were to own that or make a profit off it. he said, you know what? i'm a doctor, i'm a researcher, i get a great salary, i live in a big house. what more do i need? i did this for the people. where is that? where is that sense of -- talk about patriotism, right? not just for america but for the world. we don't have that much these

days. and i sure would like to see more of it. >> this tweet for you, mr. moore from keith... 238. i have otherwise intelligence friends who will not watch your films because they, quoted, heard what they were about, end quote. what do you say to them? >> i know. this is a problem. i run into people on the street and i know you and, you know, your films and i say to them, have you seen one of my films? and, they're like, no. and, i'm like, just watch one of 0 them, just watch it. i swear to god that you will think differently, and, you have been told by am radio, by, you know, fox news, by republican politicians, the reason they told -- i actually recount a story in the book of someone who

had been hired by the bush administration, to do some polling around "fahrenheit 911" because they were afraid of the film affecting the 2004 election and wanted to know how people would respond to it and in their polling, they found that a third of republicans who saw the movie said that they would recommend it to other people. after they saw the movie. and, i think it was something like 10% of republican women said after seeing fahrenheit they may not vote for george w. bush. and may not vote for kerry, either and may not vote at all, and this is going to be a close election and they got very, very worried about this. and, so, whoever the operatives were in the campaign, decided and put out the talking points to all of their people, our goal is to make sure that nobody sees this movie. make sure they do not see this film. because if they see this film,

the majority of them will not like it and they'll still vote for us but a small percentage will go, whoa, wait, i had no idea. and so they went about, basically really started with fahrenheit and really started the attack on me and attacking me personally. so that people would never even go near the film because if they go near the film they'll go, wow. you know, mike, i don't necessarily agree with everything he's saying here but clearly loves his country and he has a heart and, the movie is kind of funny. actually entertaining. that's the last thing they want so i know, this is a... to the person who sent the tweet in, this is the big problem i have, and, i've tried to do everything i can to encourage republicans and conservatives to please give it a shot. you don't have to come way and still vote republican after you watch it but just i'm giving you information that i think you...

you want to know all kiesides y don't you? we should all have open minds and listen to everything being discussed, that is what i say to them. : >> host: sarah in hayward, california, good afternoon to you. you're on booktv with michael moore. >> caller: hi. i wanted to ask if michael moore would read the book by alan schultz, "retirement heist," and hopefully do a film on it so that, um, we can stop them from ripping off the seniors of

america, their pensions. because what they're doing is they're ripping off the pensions and giving it to the executives in huge bonuses and huge salaries.>> >> guest: uh-huh, that's right. that's right. um, i mean, the pension funds that were decimated back: th especially in 2000 in that crash, um, they have played with people's money here in theirle's casino in a very risky way. in way. i think illegal. i don't know why this isn't being investigated. i don't understand why no one has been arrested from the crash of '08. and -- but i know there's a lot of anger percolating out there. i know a lot of senior citizens

now don't have the security that they thought they would once have. i know a lot of workers don't have that. people certainly don't have job security. they don't know whether they're going to have a job next year or the year after that. so part of this is -- it keeps the population tightly wound, living on the edge, being in fear. and when people are afraid, they oftentimes don't make the right decisions or the best decisions for themselves. so i think there's a larger purpose to all of this which is sad, but i think there's -- there's a protest that's again about ready to boil over and it's going to come from all quarters, it's going to come from auto workers. it's going to -- the subway conductors and bus drivers in new york city just voted to join the protests on wall street, richard trump came, the head of the afl-cio gave his backing to

those protests here on c-span. so i think you're going to see -- it's going to grow into a much larger thing because there's so many millions of people out here who have lost their pensions, their health care and who have lost their homes because of no health care because the insurance company wouldn't pay the medical bills and it's one of the top reasons people go bankrupt because of medical bills. we've had so much suffering with so many millions of people. honestly, i don't know why the rich have overplayed their hand like this. why they've made life so difficult for so many of millions of middle class people who used to support them. they used to vote for the candidates and didn't have a problem with them being rich. figuring, like, yes, you invented that and you started and built that factory. i don't have a problem with that. i get to have my car, my vacation, my kids have health care. they're going to college. i've got a good life. you got your yacht going down the potomac, okay, fine, that's

the way it used to be. when you and i were growing up the wealthy were paying 50, 60, 70, 90% in income tax and i seem to remember the ones -- you know, in my state if you lived in blueville hills or grosse pointe, it was a pretty good life even though you're paying all those taxes and you made sure that the working people had a good life, too. it was your best protection so that you could still have your yacht and your mansion and your jet and nobody bothered you with that because everybody else got to live. have a good life and had health care and had these things. i have for the life of me no idea why they would upset that apple cart, the rich, why they would allow the middle class to be exterminated and to be shoved

down back into the place not from month-to-month whether they're going to be able to pay the mortgage or be able to get by. it's going to end up being their ruin, their ruin for the wealthy class for wall street, for these banks. they're going to go why did we have to get so greedy. why weren't we happy making 5 billion a year for our company. why did we have to make 8 billion and now they're all out on the street and they're electing democrats or worse. if anybody has the answer i would ask them phone it. >> host: retirement highs booktv had it last week and you can watch it on booktv.org in case you're interested. in 1996, michael moore wrote downsize this random threats from an unarmed american and part of what he wrote to protect ourselves -- this is in 1996, we should prohibit corporations

from closing a profitable factory and business and moving it overseas, prohibit companies from pitting one city or state against another. institute a 100% tax on any profits gained by shareholders when the company stock goes up due to an announcement of firings, prohibit executive salaries from being more than 30 times greater than the average employee's pay and required boards of directors of publicly owned corporations to have representation from both workers and consumers. next call for michael moore comes from toni, orange county california, go ahead, tony? >> caller: mr. moore it's an honor to speak to you. you're a genuine person. you don't sugarcoat anything. basically i like to get your opinion or a brief commentary and as for as american foreign policy in reference to iran and

how that's shaping up the arab spring and, you know, libya and syria you got embassies that the u.s. is trying to open and the iranians are trying to open up as well, you know, to have in the near future influence. and by the way, you're right. iran is a democracy. it is parallel with islam. the email that the gentleman read that it would be a coup if you went there, that's not true. the iranians are very hospitable people and they will welcome you with very open arms. thank you, mr. moore. you have a good one. >> guest: yes. what's happened in the middle east this past year has been incredible, absolutely incredible and, of course, you know -- i don't know why it is we're always, you know, seemingly on the wrong side or

actually on the wrong side. but it took us a while to get behind -- what was going on in egypt and then we got behind it. they were doing it peacefully. when they were doing it with arms and weapons and bombs in libya we were right there right away but we do it in companies in bahrain where our fifth fleet is based people out in the streets practically every day, people being shot, you know, one phone call from the president, this little country could be funded where we base our fleet could take care of this problem. i don't know why we don't do it. i think all people really want to live in peace. i think dictators are a bad idea. i think countries where they are based on a religion and it's a

theocracy i think that those -- i just think that doesn't allow for the people who aren't part of those faiths. and so -- in the case of iran, yes, you have democratic elections and all that. and that's why when -- in that last election with mahmoud ahmadinejad, when there was questioning about how the votes were counted, no one questioned the fact that he had been elected in previous elections. there's been no dispute about that but there was a dispute about this election and people took to the streets about it. and again, you know, the kind of -- there's a lot of moral help. i was actually in a cab the other day in new york city. i had an egyptian cab driver and he says to me i want to thank america and canada. i said, okay, you're welcome. [laughter] >> guest: why would you like to thank us. he goes because of this and he holds up the iphone.

because of this -- because you invent twitter because we had a revolution because of this technology you gave us, thank you for that. yeah, well, you know, see we do actually -- there's a lot of good things about us and we can be a force for good and the ideas we have are great sometimes and we can do good things with them and i would like to see more good things done in our name. >> host: speaking of twitter, mr. moore, this tweet from venezuela. what are your thoughts on the administration of hugo chavez in venezuela? is usa invading venezuela or the oil? >> guest: well, usa is very concerned about any place that's got oil 'cause we use 25% of the world's oil even though we're like 5% of the population. so, yeah, if you've got oil, we're coming, in one form or

another. in all seriousness, i hope that's not the case with venezuela. but i think that there is a lot of attention on venezuela as opposed to other countries in south america because of that. >> host: next call for michael moore comes from andrew in albany, new york. good morning, andrew. >> caller: i'm originally from detroit. my grandparents were immigrant auto workers. i used to ride the bus in inner city detroit with my grandma in the summertime when she was laid off and go to the unemployment office with her and stand in line and the buses were still segregated in detroit at that time. and for those people that, you know, don't resonate well with michael moore i think if they go to michigan and visit michigan and see the perspective that people like michael moore calf

from, they can appreciate better the work that he does. i had some friends who were on vacation in michigan last year and when they came home, they said the entire state of michigan was for sale. all of the people had their stuff out on their front lawns for sale. and they said if they had some money they could have bought some really good stuff from these down and out people in michigan. so the people that don't understand where michael moore comes from, i would encourage them to take a visit to michigan and -- i live on the east coast now. i first read mike's books, stupid white men and in that book he gave instructions to go to democratic committee meeting in your town because nobody else was. >> guest: yes. i did. i think that people need to get

involved on even the smallest level of running for precinct delegate and if you go to your county democratic party meeting there might only be 10 people there. you could bring 10 friends and you could become your county's democratic party. he's right about michigan. most people don't go to michigan. you never pass through it because we're on a peninsula. so you don't drive across lake huron or lake michigan on your way east or west. so the only time you might be in michigan is if you're from there or you have relatives there or you're changing planes in detroit. that's most people's encounter with michigan. we are in a depression. we have been in a depression for years. not a recession. we've essentially had a one-state depression. it is brutal. up in northern michigan, where i live, rural areas in this last year or so, the official unemployment rate in some counties has been 16, 18, 20%.

officially. so you know it's higher. you know it's much higher than that. and there's an elementary school near where i live where 79% of the school children are eligible for the federal school lunch program, meaning their family lives in poverty. 79%. this is not in downtown detroit or flint. this is up in the woods of northern michigan. it is rough. it is difficult. there are many reasons for it. i wouldn't live any place else. i love where i grew up. i love the people there. there's a real grit and determination. it is sad if we were to go down there today and just drive the street. it is yard sale after yard sale after yard sale after yard sale.

people trying to scrape together whatever few dollars they can to get by. and it is heartbreaking for me. i do what i can there. i do a lot of community work. i do a lot of things, support a lot of projects, but there's not the sense of giving up. and what we do know, though, is that the cavalry is not riding to the rescue and so we have to -- we have to find our way out of this. and we will find our way out of this because i'll tell you who we are. we are the state that put the world on wheels. we figured out how to do that. it was our people that did that. the wheel was invented 200,000 years ago. we figured out how to put everybody on those wheels. we also had the guy who invented the light bulb, mr. edison and many other inventions. we're the people that gave you

breakfast from battle creek. we're motown. we are -- there are so many -- we're the republican party. the first statewide republican party was found in jackson, michigan, underneath a big oak tree in 1854, i think -- 1854, 1856, somewhere around in there because we were such an antislavery state. we're the first english-speaking government in the world that abolished capital punishment back in the 1840s. that's who we are. we have been forward thinkers. we value education. that's why we have the great university of michigan, michigan state, many of other colleges. we are inventors, we are artists. we are filmmakers. we are francis ford coppola from detroit, was born in detroit. and as i said, all -- not just motown but so much of music. i don't know how much you follow

the different forms of music. you know, madonna, i goy pop, the white stripes, bob seger -- you know, i could go on and on. aretha franklin. all the great music from southeastern michigan that we gave the world. we're all still there. all those kind of people are still there and we'll find our way out of this and we created the union movement. we created the middle class. there was no middle class before there were unions. and so don't count us out yet. >> host: and michael moore talks about motown music and he tells a story about motown music and a neighbor in his newest book here comes trouble, this email from william hanks -- or tweet for you, mr. moore, from william hanks. could you make the source materials as in citibank memo in

capitalism on your website. >> guest: it is. for my last four films now, what i've done i list all the sources -- you go to my website and you can click on there. and every fact that's in se sicko or fahrenheit 9/11 or whatever, i have all the sources for that so that you can take and that use it when you're having that argument with your brother-in-law over thanksgiving dinner. >> host: and your website is? >> guest: michaelmoore.com. >> host: and you have a twitter account as well, but it's not michael moore. >> guest: no it's mmflint that's my handle. mmflint and i'm pushing -- i'm getting near a million twitter followers now. so i'm on twitter now a lot. if you want to follow me, it's a lot of fun. i hope it's fun. and facebook, too. i've got half a million very close and personal friends on facebook and there's pictures

and we talk to each other every night so -- >> host: your father still lives in flint; correct? >> guest: yes, until this past month. and this is kind of -- it's kind of bittersweet because he now has moved out to where my sister is in san diego. and he is the last member of our family that was connected to my mom's family that's been there for 175 years. and with him gone this past month out in california, there's no one from my mother's side that's now there in the davidson area. >> host: veronica or ann. >> guest: he's with my sister very ronnie. my sister ann lives up in northern california. >> host: and next call from michael moore comes from robert from minnesota.

please go ahead and thank you for holding. >> caller: hello, mr. moore. i was interested in talking to you and i appreciate you over the years. i'm reading -- [inaudible] >> caller: because the people promote hate speech and anger and violence against other americans voice their opinions. it goes against the sound nation of a republic one that was founded on the other person's opinion even to your own death because that was what is important is the free dissemination of information and that's the one comment i have and the only question i have for you, i voted for ross perot in '92 because i believed his opinion that the unfair trade policy was as a result in many, many industries closing in the

united states and once those jobs were out they would be virtually impossible to get back in the united states. >> guest: well, he was right about that and a number other things. i didn't vote for him 'cause of the other things that i didn't agree with. but you make a good point. as far as the sort of hate speech that exists in politics these days, i agree with you on that. i don't subscribe to it. my friends don't subscribe to it. as much as i despise the policies of george w. bush and oppose the wars, i've never uttered the words "i hate george w. bush." i would never say that, first of all, i don't believe it. i don't hate him. second of all, i wouldn't lower myself to that level that the other side is at. i don't want to be in that gutter. i would rather have a debate on the issues. i would rather debate the george

w. bushes and the mccains and the others on the issues. let's have that great debate and let's have it out. you present your side, i'll present my side and then let's let the people decide. i think that was the original concept of our democracy. i wish we could get there. when i have an angry conservative come up to me, i always say to him, usually a him -- i always say, you know, we're all americans. and we're all in the same boat and we're going to -- and we're going to sink or swim together. and we better figure that out. we can have our opposing viewpoints or whatever, but it might be good to spend a little bit of time poach especially if i get stuck next to one of these guys on an airplane, i'll say if we took out a piece of paper right now and drew a line down the middle and said, okay, let's

put on this side -- hear all the things you and i agree on and on this things we disagree on, the side that has the things we agree on will be a much longer list. i'm absolutely convinced of that. conservatives watching this show right now -- you and i believe in many of the same things. we believe that women should be paid the same as men if they're doing the same job. we believe that we should be drinking clean water and breathing clean air. we believe that we should not be the policemen of the world. we believe that kids shouldn't have access to assault weapons and take them to school. i mean, there's a whole long list of things that we agree on. and the things that we don't agree on, maybe we just need to agree to disagree or let's have the great debate and we'll let the people decide. so if i don't want to own a gun and you do, buy your gun. i will get one. if you don't want to have an abortion, don't have one. you probably won't feel good about it. if you don't want to have sex

with another man, don't do it. i think you'll hate it. but if those two guys want to and they're in love, what's it to us? what's it really to us? i think we've got to try to get to that place. >> host: in dude, where's my country michael moore wrote a few things that liberals have been wrong about. one, drugs are bad. men and women are different. it's really a bad idea to have sex before you're 18. mtv sucks. granola is bad for you, the sun is good for you. people who commit violent crimes should be locked up. your children do not have a right to privacy and you better pay attention to what they're up to, not all unions are good and, in fact, many of them are just plain lousy. i want to come back to that. and there's a few things michael moore liberals have been wrong

about. bill o'reilly makes a good points. he's against a death penalty and he's a advocate for kids and he opposed nafta. too many of us hold a hoyty toilety view of religion and thing the religious are superstitious fifteenth century i go ramuses. animals don't have right and yes they should be treated humanely but freeling from the factory arms and nixon was more liberal than the last six presidents we had. we could go back to the not all unions are good. >> guest: wow, i'd forgot about that list and i'm glad you read that. there are many things that i agree with conservatives on. and you just listed a number of them. drugs are bad for you. i think it's -- especially for young people not to use them. i think if someone is a violent criminal, i would prefer that they are removed from society and kept away from the rest of us. i think that's -- i think that's

a good idea. the thing about unions, i wrote that in 1996 and at that time a lot of unions, unfortunately, were not as strong as they should have been, not coming out as strongly in favor of the things they should have been doing. i think that part has changed in the last 15 years. i'm really happy with who's running the afl-cio now. i think a lot of -- boy, there's some great unions. the ue is a wonderful union. the teamsters, james hoffa, is a great union leader. i'm quite impressed actually now 15 years later with the direction that unions have gone. and they understand that they have got to organize, organize, organize or they're going to have to die and they have got to quit as they now said just depending on the democrats, you know, do the job because the job

hasn't been done. the other thing i disagree with that i've changed my mind on i do think the chickens should be freed from the factory farm. i've read enough and seen enough. i gave up red meat this year and i have not had any red meat for the better part of this year. i pretty much teacher chicken and turkey as a conned mint as opposed to a big main course. so i've had some different thinking about that since i wrote that. >> host: this email for you, mr. moore, from dennis millner from lakeland florida. thank you for speaking truth to power would you please speak to us about your spiritual journey and where you currently stand with respect to your personal religious spiritual positions and understanding. >> guest: as i said before, i was raised an irish catholic.

i always put the word "irish" before it because irish catholic -- you know, we have a healthy disrespect for authority, if i could put it that way and we also have a very dark sense of humor. and so that helps us get through a lot of things that the spiritual stuff maybe can't help us with. but i grew up with some very basic lessons from my parents and from the nuns and priests that i've had that i carry with me today we will be judged how we treat the least among us. that you are to love your neighbor as yourself. that you're to love your enemy and you're to do good to those who persecute you, thus, my complimenting bill o'reilly in the book and listing the things that i think that he's done that are good. i don't do that to get a reciprocation on his show.

i don't expect it. but i believe it's my responsibility to be that way. you know, when i left the seminary and, you know, the institution of the catholic church is another -- another whole topic because i disagree with so much of what the authorities have had to say about their interpretation of what jesus had to say. you know, you read the new testament, jesus -- not once does he mention homosexually. not once does he mention abortion. and he doesn't say the priests have to be celibate and single. these are all things that came later. in fact, priests married for the first thousand years in the catholic church and i don't know some pope had a bad dating experience or something, i don't know what happened. [laughter] >> guest: it just in the eleventh century he said that's the end of that and priests

couldn't matter. i think it's been a really bad idea. priests should be live a normal life. they're human beings. and women have a second class role in the church. and they're not second class people. they too are god's creatures and they're equal. maybe more equal because we would have a rough go it without them. women could do without us now. now that we've -- we've invented ways to in vitro controvertization. they only need a few of us around. they only need things of getting things off the top shelf but the portable aluminum stepladder was invented and the new rubber grip thing where you can get the lid off the pickle jar and that's been invented and so our use has been reduced, the need for us so actually you need women to keep the species going.

all right. that's a long way to get to saying i actually have very strong spiritual and religious beliefs. i still go to mass. i try to find church and priests that are more in sync with the way i see the gospel and the teachings of jesus. and i don't think jesus or the catholic church is the only way to do it. i mean, we sit here today talking on gandhi's birthday. he was another great teacher. and had some incredible things to offer the world, as do muslims, jews and buddhists and atheists, because you want the other side having their say. you want to be challenged. you want them to question these things because by questioning, you maybe find new answers. you find out that adam eve didn't ride on dinosaurs 6,000 years ago. and then you wonder when you

watch the republican debate and the moderator asks how many of you believe in science and only one guy raises his hand, it's like, wow! that seems pretty basic. i was waiting for the next question, how many believe in mathematics? maybe. [laughter] >> guest: how about home ec. wood shop, cut all the subjects in school make no sense. >> host: hour and a half to go in this "in depth" our guest and author michael moore. here is the cover of his most recent book. it just came out this year. here comes trouble: stories from my life. here's a few of michael moore's favorite things and we'll be right back. ♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

>> host: michael moore, we just showed some of your favorite authors, what you're reading now and some of your greatest personal influences. i want to let you talk about any

on this list that you want but i want to start with kevin rafferty who is somebody you talk about in here comes trouble. >> guest: yes. he really -- kevin was my film school. i did not go to film school. i barely -- i went to a year and a half of college at the university of michigan in flint, the flint branch. and avenuhe was a documentary filmmaker and he made a brilliant, i think, groundbreaking film along with his brother pierce by the name of jane loader called the atomic cafe, in 1982. it was a hilarious look at the nuclear scare of the 1950s, the duck and cover era. they got this great footage and put it together. the first time i'd seen a documentary that combined humor with a very serious subject and i thought that was -- it was pretty cool and it got me

thinking that eventually led to me making my first film but when i wanted to make that film, i didn't know how to make a movie and i didn't know anything about it and kevin had come to flint the year before with his friends who were making another documentary in michigan. and i had a newspaper there, an alternative newspaper. and they knew about it. >> host: flint voice. >> guest: flint voice. they asked if i would come and help them with their film 'cause i knew the local people, and i said sure. and i went with them and i went on the shoot and i was like, wow, this is really -- this is cool and i paid a lot of attention how they were making this movie. a year later, i came up with the idea of making roger & me, my first film, general motors in flint. but i didn't know what i was going to do 'cause i didn't know anything about it and i just called him up and went to see in him new york and if he could help me like load the camera. he said i'll do more. i'll come to flint and i'll

teach you to do everything and he did and he shot probably the first shir of the film. and he taught me how to edit. he showed me his edit room and he edited the first 15 minutes of the film for me. he was just an incredible, incredible mentor and without him -- i don't know if i would have been a filmmaker if it wasn't to be kevin rafferty and i don't want to give away the punch line here on the show. >> host: i do. >> guest: let me just say this that it was revealed to me after a while who kevin really was. and in your wildest imagination -- who he really was who he presented himself to me but he had a certain family connection that was mine blowing. and so i'll just -- i'll let people read it but it was -- it was just one of those things in my life where i'm like -- am i

just like living a forrest gump life? do i end up in these places whether i'm 11 years old and i'm in the elevator with bobby kennedy and i have this experience with him and all through i'm having this encounter with ronald reagan and another one with nixon and i'm nobody really. i'm just this guy from michigan. i find myself caught in a terrorist incident in vienna in the 1980s with abu nidal, the osama bin laden of his time. and, you know, one day i get a call from john lennon. these are all stories that are in this book and again this was all before i'm a filmmaker. i'm just a kid. and there's this forrest gump-like thing where no one person from the midwest who doesn't have any connection to anything should really be in this many encounters with these

many people. right up until the very guy who teaches me how to be a filmmaker, then brings me into another whole, you know, mish-gosh since we're in the big way. >> host: roger & me came out and here's a little part of it. >> guest: we filmed a family being evicted from their home the day before christmas eve. would you be willing come up with us and see what the situation is like in flint. >> i've been to flint and i'm sorry about it. >> guest: families being convicted from the film. >> i'm sure general motors -- >> they used to work for general motors and now they don't work there anymore. >> could you come up to flint -- >> i cannot come up to flint, i'm sorry. ♪ >> host: mr. moore, was that

your only time you got chance to talk with roger smith? >> guest: no, actually there was another time. i went to the board of directors meeting the annual meeting of stockholders and i got up to the microphone to ask him a question. the microphone was cut off. there it is right there. i didn't get to ask him that. i went to a car show in the waldorf where they were announcing the car of the year or something and i got him there. but i never got my sitdown interview with him that i was trying to get through the whole film. i never had a chance to really have that moment with him. what i really wanted -- it wasn't so much the interview. the mission of the film was to get roger smith the head of gm to come to flint, michigan, and let me drive him around and show him what the human results were of the decisions that he was making on the 14th floor of the gm building. and, no, unfortunately, that didn't happen. >> host: is it ever uncomfortable to you to confront

somebody like that? >> guest: always, frankly. yes. i don't know fished reveal that. i actually hate it. i'm in 1,000 knots while i'm doing it. i dread it before we go in to do something like that. i'm dreading it and i wish i didn't have to do it. it's like my agony in the garden. i'm going please take this away from me. let someone else come in and do this. and it's like, okay -- i didn't make my first film until i was 35 years old. so i waited a long time hoping somebody would make one of these films and do something like this. it's really one of the reasons i probably decided to make that first film because i just thought, no one is going to do it, i'm going to have to do this. i don't know what i'm doing but i'm just going to go ahead and do it. and that's how it goes. >> host: this is booktv's in-depth our monthly program with one author and his or her

body of work. michael moore is our guest this month. we're going to put the phone numbers on the screen if you'd like to participate. jeff from readington. you're live with michael moore. >> caller: roger moore. >> guest: i'm michael, roger was the bad guy. common mistake. >> caller: fahrenheit 9/11 was controversial and all that stuff and that's why americans were so against it and shameful. the downsize me was great. that's a step in the right direction. the main reason why i'm calling is, i watched a documentary called money masters and it was very informative. i think i learned a lot. i just want to know how much truth there is to that. and thomas jefferson was a great man and his principles were put forward to create a great country and we've totally lost that so i just want your take on

that whole thing. >> guest: i've not seen that documentary but i can't create on that. thomas jefferson was a great man. and there's still much we can learn from him. >> host: i want to go back because i promised the chance if you wanted to talk about any of your favorite authors, bury my heart, a wounded knee, kurt vonigan, fit for life, victoria moran, spencer novels, anything you want to talk about, time bends. >> guest: wounded knee is an incredible book of the native americans and i read it as a young american it deeply affected me and changed my mind with a lot of things and i encourage people to read this book. time bends by author arthur miller he was not only a great playwright he was a great citizen and he spoke out for freedom of speech during the

mccarthy era. and i had the good fortune of meeting him a couple times. i actually hope to do something with that some day, in a future project. kurt vonnegut -- i talk a lot about him in this book. he was not only an incredible author, slaughterhouse fight, cat's cradle he started writing nonfiction in his final years, man without a country, essays that were just incredible. and he was a source of not only inspiration to me but also personally -- after fahrenheit and after that oscar speech, he befriended me, he and his wife. and had a number of dinners with them and it was just very -- it was very helpful for me during a difficult time when i was going

through an enormous amount of attack, and he knew that and helped me full through that at times. some of the other books, spike lee. >> host: spike lee, ann lamont, julian -- >> guest: yes, spike lee -- spike lee wrote a book about how he made his first book spike lee's got to have it i read and studied that book line by line. and followed a lot of what spike did to get his first film made, to help me get my first film made. the bird by bird and the right to write, these are two really, really good books. if you're interested in writing, you are just waiting to unleash that creative thing in your mind to go for that. these books will really help you with that. i just -- i hand them out to

people constantly because they're just -- it's just -- when people say they want to read, read this. this will help you get started. it's hard to start. writing is full of self-loathing and your critical voice in your head is constantly telling you it sucks and you have to really push through it. victoria moran is a wonderful author and writes some very good books about how to take care of yourself and i've been thinking a lot about this lately and just wanting to take better care of myself as i'm getting older. i've waited too long to, you know, sort of be fit and be healthy and respect this gift that god and nature and my parents gave me. and so as i mentioned earlier, so i'm -- you know, i'm like an 80%, you know, eating vegetarian now and, you know, going to the gym or going out for a walk or doing things like that so i can live longer and make more of

these movies and upset all the people. so victoria's books are great. there's a book i just read in galleys that's coming out -- it was the kitchen -- kitchen counter cooking school. and it was actually -- it was actually written by someone who went to my high school. and she's written this wonderful book about -- just taking people who never cook, which is a lot of us these days, and getting back to that concept of how, you know, you really need to touch and feel and be part of the food, this thing you're putting into to keep your life going. and so i think that's a book that's coming out here in the next -- next couple of weeks. so i've been reading some of those. and then -- for funny read the spencer novels by robert b. parker and the mystery novels as kid the adventure of sherlock holmes. i read those books over and over

again. and, you know, so i read a healthy dose of, you know, fiction and there's the invisible man of ralph ellison. i've been saying recently the iranians have been treating like he's the invisible president. freedom, this book that came out last year this is a novel by jonathan franzen, unbelievable book. i mean, i did not want this book to end. it was such a rich powerful novel. and if you haven't read it, sometimes i worry don't read things or go to movies because they become so popular that maybe the cool thing is not maybe go see the movie or read the book but i would encouraged people to read freedom. i think they'll have a great experience doing that. >> host: next call for michael moore comes from cape coral, florida, richard, you're on the line. >> caller: good afternoon. i have booktv is one of my

favorite programs. and i would like to ask mr. moore about what he's hoping about what i see the coming control of 95% of the united states economy by the top 5%, i'm really concerned, learious, a bit about soil of green as my main course and what does mr. moore think about the criminal 50-year-old located against a little island from cuba from then a man change -- change while so many things need to be changed desperately .. blockade is wrong, i'm opposed to it. the cuban people are wonderful people. all governments have problems

that need to be fixed. people need to resist anything going on in any government that is bad for the people. as an american i'm not into finger-pointing like i was saying about iran. we've done some things in the last decade that are so outrageous, invading sovereign countries especially one that had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11 or attacking us or whatever. it was run by a bad guy but there's lots of countries run by i'd done to think that is our job. i am not into the finger pointing. within we need as the bible says before you cast a speck in somebody else's i take one out of your own i. so yes. i think it is more likely the upper 1% are controlling pretty much -- the top 400 wealthiest

americans have more combined wealth than 1 fifty million americans combined. 400 versus 1 fifty million. you can look that up. people verified these numbers. absolutely incredible. that we have allowed this. just the upper few to called a shot by the politicians. they buy everything. got to get money out of politics. -support what is going on to get a constitutional amendment to get money out of politics. we will be better for it. >> host: you dedicate "roger and me" your mother and list your parents as your greatest influence and your cousin pad and sisters and and veronica. if i read this correctly you never use your mom's name. >> guest: you might be correct.

>> host: was that on purpose? >> guest: no. you just don't call your mother by her first name. her name was erotica. product was her middle name. her name was helen veronica but she went by veronica as a child and that stuck with her. that was her name. >> host: you dedicate her because she taught you to read at 4 years old? >> guest: and many other reasons. my mother passed away in 2002. i am grateful for having had her as my mother and she did make the huge mistake of teaching me to read and write in kindergarten which that was after the bubble gum theft from the 5 and dime store. you can't send a kid to school already reading books and not have that cause trouble. the kit will be bored.

the nuns to their credit, my first grade nuns told me one day i am moving you to second grade and all of a sudden i was in second grade and was so excited and told my parents i am in second grade now and they said no you are not. we want you with kids your own age. they called mother superior and i was put back in first grade. i was wound up from that point on. >> host: didn't see kathleen on your greatest personal influence. >> guest: things i don't usually mention of the privacy issues my wife and my daughter, try to keep them out as much as possible. in large part because they have had to suffer through all the things i don't want to go into on the air but i talk about in the book. in terms of the attacks,

physical attacks and things like that. if i have any regret over the work i have done in the last decade or so it is the fact that it has put family members in danger. i have a difficult time dealing with that. i will say this for my wife who are have known since she was 17 years old and i was 21, she has produced practically all of my movies and tv shows. she has been the boss of a lot of that work, hiring of the crews, helping with everything but beyond that, for whatever books she put on the screen that i was reading she reads ten

times the books i read. she is one of these people who read the book or two week and i don't know how she does it. she has a great mind and a great source of support. our daughter is a wonderful kid. i try not to talk about that especially over the airwaves for obvious reasons. >> host: in "dude, where's my country?" you have this list. how to bring rhinos, republicans in name only over to the left. first and foremost a sure your conservative friends and relatives that you do not want their money. every political argument you make must be about them and for them. journey into the mind of the conservative. respect them the way you would like to be respected.

tell them what you like about conservatives and admit that the left has made mistakes. that is your list from "dude, where's my country?". and coulter who was our guest in august had a list of how to talk to liberal and here was her list. number one, don't surrender. don't be defensive. outraged the enemy. never apologize. never complement the democrats. never showed graciousness to a democrat. never flatter a democrat. do not succumb to liberal bribery. prepare for your deepest darkest secrets to become liberal talking points. >> guest: that is an interesting juxtaposition. the other side does seem to be a little more aggressive and a little less wanting to come

together. i don't agree with that living and i don't agree with that is the way to win your argument. i think in my list, admitting fact that sometimes we on my side of the political fence make mistakes is the decent thing to do. it gives you integrity. to acknowledged that some of their ideas actually might be pretty decent ideas or at least worth exploring. the one knock i may get them is you do have to talk about them because there's a lot -- if you are talking to your conservative brother-in-law during dinner, if he doesn't hear the first person singular a lot things are always out about hy and me because they like to make money and keep as much of their money as possible.

i know lot of conservatives are quite liberal on social issues and when they call themselves conservative because you don't like to be taxed, ok, if that means you don't like to work and play well with others and that was what you were graded on in first grade we don't function as a society unless we work and play well together and you have to put the money in the pot so we can afford all of this. if you are a christian. if you call yourself a christian or jewish or muslim or any of the great faith and agnostics and atheists believe that we all are part of each other. we only survive if we have that attitude. people on the other side takes

that position of never give in, never give an inch. never say anything nice to the other side. that just doesn't seem american to me. i don't think most people want to live that way. that is why in the last two elections in 2000 and 2008 the majority of americans voted for the liberal. the majority of americans, popular vote went to al gore and did 2008 barack obama. two of the last three elections americans wanted the liberal. americans are liberal. we live in a liberal country. conservatives are upset a lot. i understand why they're upset. you are in the minority would be upset too. that is why they're passing a lot of voters suppression laws this year to make it harder for people to register to vote. you wouldn't do that in -- would be tried to make it more difficult if you had the

majority of americans on your side. they know they are not. most americans never use the word liberal or call themselves liberal. most americans are liberal on all the issues. equal pay for women, women's rights. every poll shows americans want strong environmental laws and the majority of americans are against these wars. every poll shows americans believe in universal health care. other than the death penalty and some gun laws, americans skewed to the and conservative side. even gave marriage, 54% of the american public support gay marriage should be legal across the land. so americans are quite liberal on the issues. two of the last three popular votes they voted for the liberal. that is the country conservatives live in.

difficult for them. that is why we should be nice to them and listen to them and let them know that the door is open. we are all americans. they are angry lot of the time. we might be angry too if we were in the minority position. we are not. we should have faith in ourselves and have the spine to go out and realize we are in the company of a majority of americans when it comes to liberal issues. our only problem is we have a hard time electing democratic leaders because democratic leaders are afraid of being liberal. >> host: this is in depth on booktv on c-span2. michael moore is our guest. joseph in vancouver, you are on the air with mr. moore. >> caller: pleasure to speak with you. i don't know how i got the information about this.

i have you -- e-mail or supported news. >> host: a un vancouver, canada? >> caller: british columbia, canada. your no. how i and i should speak about one topic only. i have 20 topics at least. >> host: one canadian topic. >> caller: you have the two party system. we have the three party or multiple party system in canada. our prime minister got a majority. all of a sudden we are getting legislation about 201 marijuana

plants and a mandatory sentence greater -- getting things where they are looking to do the same thing. >> host: what would you like mr. moore to respond to? >> caller: your incarceration rate in the united states which is eight times more than any other democratic country in the world. >> guest: i think his concern is canadians are afraid the conservative government is going to become more like us because conservatives want to start taking away the social safety net and that is frightening to canadians because as much as they like us and they like us as people there are a lot of things about the way we do things that they don't want to do that way.

that is a problem in canada. there are many things they do right which we should take a look at in terms of how they do things. most important of which is health care. all these ads that ran during the health-care debate about how canadians have it so bad and are standing in lines. canadians have an incredible health care system that covers everyone. they live three years longer than we live. why do they live three years longer? i don't think that is right. but they do. because in part they have a better health care system. they have to wait in line sometimes. not for life threatening things that for blind and -- hip replacements. they wait longer. the reason they have to wait is they let everybody in line. we take fifty million people out of the line.

anytime you take fifty million people out of the line the line get shorter and you have less weight time. that doesn't seem to be the right thing to do. if you believe in your country and your fellow americans why would you let fifty million suffer? with no health insurance? i hope canada doesn't go the wrong way on issues like this. >> host: good afternoon from sacramento. go ahead with your question or comment. >> caller: it is an honor to speak with you. you are one of my personal heroes. i was one of the people sitting at home during the oscar speech and started applauding. >> guest: why weren't you in the kodak theater when i needed you? >> caller: i wish i was. all your movies are brilliant. i own them all. "sicko" is what i want to ask you about. it was absolutely brilliant. four or five years ago and nothing has changed. the health-insurance industry

seems to be getting worse. can you give me and other consumers any specific advice about how to hold insurers accountable to they're extremely poor practices and their processes put into place to frustrate and beat her us from going further with the appeals process? >> guest: a can't give you any good news about that. these insurance companies are calling the shots. they run the show. they will not allow the real health care bill in a single payer system, health care system that would not raise profit based on what is best for taking care of people. that would cost less money and help us. we don't have that.

mr. obama's built has a lot of good things in it that don't take place in 2014 and democrats lose next year, they won't take place in 2014. i feel bad -- we have to keep pushing for that. we can't give up. we can't give up. when they passed their bans on gay marriage in 2004 i thought that was the end of that issue. seven years later state after state including iowa are passing day marriage laws making it legal. the majority of the country supports it. i think something good will come eventually with health care. we will get that eventually but right now insurance companies are in charge. >> host: michael moore is the author of eight books.

beginning in 1996, this!: random threats from an unarmed american," "adventures in a tv nation," "stupid white men...and other sorry excuses for the state of the nation," "dude, where's my country?" in 2003, "will they ever trust us again?" in 2004, "the official fahrenheit 9/11 reader" in 2004, "mike's election guide" in 2008 and "here comes trouble: stories from my life," his autobiography or stories from his life just came out a couple weeks ago. talk about "will they ever trust us again?". >> guest: that is a book i put out in 2004 a year of the war that i got a large amount of letters from soldiers in iraq wanted to tell me what was really going on in iraq. what they were seeing. what they were experiencing.

heartbreaking letters of young people who at that time signed up to be part of our all volunteer army. they signed up in part because they needed a job. they wanted training but they also were willing to give their lives for you and i wouldn't have to if that day ever had to happen. they were willing to fight and die so that we would be free. is there a greater gift a human can give another cumin than to say i will die for you? you don't have to die. that is what i look at our all volunteer army in 2003, in 2004 they signed up after 9/11 or before 9/11 they signed up for that reason. power here we are in march of 2003 breaking that bond, that trust because the quid pro quo, all the soldiers asked in return is we never send them into

harm's way unless absolutely necessary. has to do with the defense of this country. invading iraq had nothing to do with the defense of this country and we risked their lives for what? i got bags of letters and tons of e-mails from these folders and i thought i have to find a way to get these out there. i thought i don't i put them in a book? this won't be a book i write. this will be a book they write. i will give them a voice through my publisher. so that is what i did. it was on the new york times best-seller list. i was happy that millions of americans were going to hear from the soldiers themselves. the war was only a year old at this point. you weren't hearing this. they haven't stood up to ask donald rumsfeld why can't we get

armour to put underneath these vehicles? these humvees being blown up? why can't we get some of that? the answer was yugo with the are you want, not the one you got or something like that. so they turned to me. i have been an advocate for these folders and our veterans coming back from this war. i have a film festival i started in michigan and restored an old movie palace and people in town. we have an affirmative action policy in our theater that we give preference to any returning iraq or afghanistan veterans. we have a policy that if you are in the service you never pay. you come to the movie for free. bring your family. you do not pay. those are my own personal

values. we hold out our hands to returning veterans that coming back. >> host: alan e-mail you why a mosque should be built on ground zero? do you want to honor the 9/11 terrorist's for blowing up the twin towers? >> guest: that question is where do you go with that? they are not building a mosque on ground zero. they're building a mosque at a community center a few blocks away. we are americans. we have freedom of religion. i can't think of any better way to stand up for the terrorists than to say this is how we are in this country. you can put a church or a mosque or a synagogue or stand on the street corner and say god doesn't exist. we don't care. we will defend your right to build it, that is who we are.

to conflate guitarists with people of the muslim faith would be like saying we have to be afraid of all white guys because timothy mcveigh blew up the building in oklahoma city. or he was a catholic. we put that on catholics. does that say something about all catholics? really. how do you answer a question like that? i am sorry you are wired to think that way. but i support that. i support them doing that in lower manhattan and the rabbi of that center on the board of directors of the ground zero mosque. that is a good thing for the country. >> host: we have 40 minutes left

in this month's in depth. kelly in wisconsin. you are on the air. >> caller: it is a pleasure to speak to you. i will preface my remarks by saying i own all your films except americans lacquers and five of your books and try to disseminate that information to as many friends and family as i can. we had a little protest in wisconsin in february because governor walker and the republican legislature tried to steal collective bargaining rights and over 100,000 people out there and some great leaders like bernie sanders and dennis kucinich to support us but where was barack obama? have been a supporter of the democratic party but when i look up the wall street bailout could have happened without democrats. most of the people are on a single payer but we didn't get that and this bill could have

passed. pat tillman's disgrace could have been pulled off without the help of democrats. so blind faith to the democratic party is a mistake. >> i agree with that. a majority of the democrats that president bush -- and the lot of liberals supported that war too. including the man who became editor of the new york times, and others. we need new leadership and the democratic party needs to change. needs to get in sync where the majority of americans are. of the issues i went through a few minutes ago with the majority of americans, they want stronger laws, they want an end to these wars.

majority of americans--a surprising poll when they found the majority of americans not wholly support public employee unions but their right to strike. 72% in the last poll want to raise taxes on the rich. 72%. where are the so-called leaders of the people who support these positions? may be time for a new party or a new democratic party. one of the four five parties in canada, you need a lot of parties to represent a cross-section of political thought in a nation of thirty three million people. that is what they have in canada. we have two parties. they both feet from the same trough of money. one is a little nicer and kinder and gentler and appoints better supreme court justices and that

is about it. that has to change. they're not going to do the change. we have to do the change. you have to get involved in your local democratic party and take over with your friends and turn it into a new democratic party. we need a party for the 99%. the 99% who don't control what is going on. the upper 1% have a voice too. let them have the republican party. that can be the 1% party and 99% of us need our party. or we need more than one party. most of the democrats have been a huge disappointment. it is good to see barack obama get a spine recently and say that he will tax the rich and not touch social security and stop the at&t/t mobile merger. the justice department said they

would stop the corporate merger. i see it coming alive and it is like a football team that runs a long way the first week three quarters. obama kept running for the republicans trying to pass the bill they wanted or put language in the bill they wanted or holding up the olive branch and they get out of his hand and he doesn't get anything done. in the last quarter of the game he decided to run the right way. i hope. a lot of people saw it as a historic day when he got elected. >> host: our want to combine an e-mail and a tweet. >> guest: is that legal? >> host: we are on cable-tv. christopher, why is america worth saving given its sketchy inception and history and this

week, what is your take on american exceptional is an? >> guest: i see why you put those together. america is worth saving. it is us. it is the three hundred ten million people. that is who is. the government is evil, the government is that, actually the government is us. it is the first words of our document, we the people. our very first american word is we. not me. we. we have forgotten that. that is worth saving. sketchy beginnings, i'm sure he is referring that only white male property owners could vote etc.. we fixed the inga.

we fix the lot of the bad things we started with. there are more to fix. it seems we have a pretty good track record of fixing them. we are slow on the uptake but eventually we get there. i am an optimist. part of american exceptional is in, i hate that term. the exceptional way to behave as an american is to start thinking that we are part of the same world as everybody else. not that we are better than anybody else. we have to quit saying that because we are not number one. we are number one in a lot of bad things like most people in prison, worst health care. there is nothing exceptional about that. we are part -- the sooner we get with that the better. back to the spiritual part, that is the christian thing to do to realize we're all one human family. when i was a teenager, we had to

say the pledge of allegiance every day in class and i was a proud american and still am. i was an eagle scout who believed in all of this but i remember i would change some of the words under my breath saw it would get in trouble. i changed it so that when i said it the way i said it was i pledge allegiance to the people of the united states of america and to the republic for which we stand. one nation indivisible, part of one world, with liberty and justice for all. that is really what i believe, that pledge right there. that is the real america that i

care about. the six billion i share the planet with. >> host: you had a television show called "tv nation". want to show a video from it. ♪ >> i am michael moore and this is "tv nation". swab night on our show tonight. a lot of hate groups are in this country. the plan, nazis but a lot of people filled with hate. too much hate. so tonight we decided to love those who hate. you with me on this? >> i think it is wonderful. >> we went to georgia to a ku klux klan rally and brought our own "tv nation" marriott jean-bertrand -- marriott jean van de velde. --mariachi band.

>> they want to see our white raise white off of the face of the earth. ♪ >> we just want to love you more! >> host: what was that experience like? >> guest: scary. "tv nation" was a comedy show i invented to do comedy and politics. i came up with this in 1992 quite some time ago. nbc remarkably enough about me on the air in 1994. it won the any for top reality show. we did a lot of things like that

taking a serious political issues that used humor. we went after these hate groups which at that time there was a real rise in the neo-nazi movement but that was starting the a.m. hate radio. the clan and the nazis went away but a and radio started to thrive in nearly 90s. >> host: 20 minutes left. tim in boston, you are on the air. >> caller: i would like to thank you personally and c-span in general. this is the second time you have allowed me to have the honor to talk to two of the greatest living americans in my estimation, ralph nader and michael moore. thank you again. mike, are you there? >> guest: i am right here. >> caller: we were either

separated at birth or are sinus cavities are constantly symmetrically aligned because our telepathic wavelength, you are scaring me. when you were talking about when you were a kid with a pledge. when i am at the union meeting and we pledge i don't pledge to the flag, i pledge to the constitution. i get this because i remember with the first king george, flag-burning thing. with that i am thinking these people will kick the crap out of somebody burning a flag which i would never do but still that is a big deal. but a woman in massachusetts gets raped on a pool table. you know what i'm talking about? >> host: go ahead with your question. >> caller: if you ever find

yourself in boston i want to take you out. you have no idea how much we have in common. i grew up in delray between the fleetwood plant and vacation paradise. >> guest: thank you for being my doppelganger. i appreciate it. when it comes -- i have one fought whether it was what you rethinking but in terms of who the justices that go after it amazes me that three years later we still have not arrested a single banker from wall street for creating the mortgage fraud

scam to begin with and creating these crazy casino devices and credit default swaps and derivatives and play with people's money and lost people's money, no regulation. glass-steagall worked so many years from roosevelt on. we need to get the reins back on wall street. we need to arrest those who stole money. we need to consider the big picture which is the economic system they call capitalism in the 20 first century is an unjust, unfair system. you and i have no control over the economy. it is not -- we can't call this a democracy because we get to vote for politicians. it has to be a real democracy across the board and that means with the economy. there's a pie on the table.

and american pie and you have got that up 1% taking nine pieces of the pie and leaving the last piece for everybody to fight over. that has to change. we can't continue this system any longer. >> host: mary tweets michael moore they base is your forum. follow-up and tell us why you think it is and we would be glad to look at it. jeff in tucson. >> guest: the way i am dressed. >> host: jeff in tucson. >> caller: how have never been a fan but after listening to you this last hour or so i have more of an appreciation for you and i believe we have a lot more in common than separates us. i called for one question. i have a parent who died of

alzheimer's. when i saw your movie "bowling for columbine" i felt if you -- here is my question. if you new she had dementia at that time would you have spoken to him? >> guest: no. he did have at the time. i filmed that scene before he had it. if i found out later and would not have put that in the movie. i wasn't raised to be that kind of person. of thought he handled himself well. he was moving a little slow. he just had hip replacement surgery a couple weeks before the interview. the slow this is because he was still recovering from that surgery. he was very gracious. he let me in his home. we had a very reasoned debate.

there was no yelling or name-calling. he held his position very well. i gave my position. and then he slipped and said something a little racial when i asked why do we have these numbers and the canadians don't even though they have more guns per-capita in their home that we do they don't use them on each other like we use them on each other. why is that? and he made his famous line that we have this ethnic problem in this country that canadians don't have. he said something about the white guys who founded this country. he heard what he was saying and he regretted it and ended the interview abruptly. he was head of the national rifle association. he was the head and i had not seen anything on many newscasts with people interviewing him away i was interviewing him.

i don't know why because they are considered one of the strongest lobbies in washington d.c.. he was fair game and subtly up for it and wanted to do it. i was very sad and year and half later when he came down with alzheimer's and i have a great deal of respect for him and his movie work. some incredible films. he is from michigan. >> host: in your book "here comes trouble: stories from my life" you recount what happened on your street when the beef with lions started in 1967. >> guest: there were some people in my neighborhood who were packing car to leave.

the neighborhood kids said they are coming up here. who is them? them down there. i won't use the language he used but they're coming up here. the riots are coming to flint. families were packing up and heading north. it was such a shock. as a little kid, it didn't seem -- they were so afraid. the racial climate of the times, the only black teacher in the schools that we had was a wonderful teacher and she disappeared one day. i made a motion to rename a school that needed a name martin

luther king elementary school and they started a recall election to get rid of me. all the kids in the school, 99% of the kids were white. i thought it would be a good thing. why are just black schools? he was for all people. we live with this for a long time in this country. it is one of our two great mortal sin door or originals in on our sold. the genocide of the native people and that happened as we were building this country and the economy because we didn't have to pay for labor. we build a big part of this country on the backs of slaves and i don't think we ever made the necessary amends for those

two or original sins committed in our name to make this a great country. >> host: union town, pennsylvania with michael moore on booktv. >> caller: thank you and thank c-span for all you do and keep up. nice to meet you. you are an important force today on the american scene. i am glad to see mention chris hedges in your influential books. he is an influence on me too. c-span should include him on in depth in the future. >> guest: i would watch that. >> caller: i would too. the 2006 midterm elections were seen as a referendum on the iraq war i thought. and a lot of people were led to

think that democrats promised to draw down the war. when they swarmed in to congress they increased funding to the war. in light of that what you did against ralph nader with all due respect in 2000 for coming out and campaigning against him, asking him not to run and giving reasons for him not to be voting, do you have any regrets about that? >> guest: no, none. hy supported ralph nader in 2000. and his original plan when he told both of us who were his supporters that he was not going to campaign in swing states and he was going to campaign in states like texas and new york where everybody knew what the vote was going to be so it would not affect al gore's chances of winning.

we could make a strong statement from the left by showing how many millions supported ralph nader. i was part of that. when the democrats prohibited for of nadir -- ralph nader from being in the debate which was wrong, he decided to start campaigning in the swing states. he was very upset. a number of bus and urged him not to do that and he did it anyway. i spent some days the final week before the election in florida on my own holding rallies saying i am a ralph nader supporter and i ask you to vote for al gore. i did not want what i thought was going to happen. the damage that would happen. i went to florida on my own dime

and tried to and do that but it was too late. i wanted nothing to do with ralph nader or his campaign. i always admired john kerry. to the early anti-war days. he too voted to back bush in going to war. with a whole year knows sort of thing. we had to stop what bush was doing. no way around it even if we had to accept somebody who wasn't everything we wanted them to be. that is why i did that. >> host: another tweet, address the rumor about you having stock in halliburton. >> guest: it is a big talking point on other channels. i have never owned a share of stock in anything in my entire life. i do not own a single share nor have i ever owned a single share

of stock for a number of reasons. number one i don't believe in it. i don't believe in the stock market. i don't believe in vegas. people live there but i don't believe in gambling. i never put my money in a casino. i figured out where this rumor came from. it was because i started a foundation many years ago and i am one of the board members of that foundation. there was a time in the late 90s one aboard decided to -- we were giving away too much principle because interest rates were down and they said you have the fiduciary responsibility on the 501 c 3 organization. people decided to go around and i personally don't believe in it.

if you own stock i don't think less of you. that is great. just a personal thing. i am part of a larger group, this foundation effort. they turned it over to the money manager and a money manager was given instructions on what he could invest in and he went against those instructions and put into halliburton and ge and pharmaceutical companies. when i found this out i was stunned that he wanted done this. i eventually fired him. he turned out to be -- he is now in prison. i will skip to the longer story. the man is in prison now. now when i lend my name to something or start something and i remained a lot more involved in it. for myself i never owned any

stock in any thing and i never will. i don't believe in it. that is a personal thing. i don't make a judgment on anybody else. i don't support the system we have. it is not good for the people so i don't participate. >> host: don't you usually travel on your own dime to political events? >> guest: yes. of course i do. i wasn't, ralph nader dime or the al gore dime. i did that as a citizen going to florida. when i am on this tour 50% of my royalties are delegate from the books that are sold, i give to the local libraries and 50% of my share to local libraries across the country. i do that all the time.

>> host: we have 10 minutes left. tony in sacramento, you are on the air. >> caller: thank you. pleasure watching you on tv. i just want to say you are a great american and a great patriot. my question is i am out here in california and there's something on regarding protests in new york city at wall street. since we don't get much coverage by the national media, could you tell me what is going on regarding the protests in wall street and new york? >> guest: there is no organization behind it. it is a conglomeration of

americans of all backgrounds. i have been down there for three days this past week. i went down there and participated in it. there are hippies and ron paul supporters and housewives and grandmothers. all kinds of people. this movement is going to spread. thousands showed up yesterday. nearly a thousand were arrested by the new york city police. peaceful legal non-violent demonstrators. they are now in 70 cities across the country. the main group is occupy wall street. in sacramento there was a protest yesterday. if you look up occupied sacramento or occupy sack i think it is called, you will find people of like mind. these are people, all kinds of people who have been foreclosed

on or lost their health care, afraid of losing their jobs or their homes, upset with the lack of response from the democratic party. all kinds of people this has been percolating for some time and is boiling over into a movement that will spread across the country. please be part of it. don't sit back on the couch. this won't get fixed with you doing nothing and the politicians -- yourself or your friends or neighbors or family, we will be the ones that have to fix it. i think a website called occupytogether.org, you can see the other things. i have a whole list on my web site that can show you what is going on. >> host: here is the back of "here comes trouble: stories from my life". where was this photograph? >> guest: that is be at age 35 and i am standing on west 50

fifth street in manhattan and completed my first film and taken the film laboratory to turned it into a film print and we walked out. my wife looked at this picture and said we'd better get a shot of this. just taken my first film into the lap. they take place, me as a baby and the picture on the back, me as a person just about to have his first movie released. >> host: have you thought about a follow-up to this book? >> guest: yes. the book ends on the first spring of "roger and me". my sisters are worrying the crowd will not like it and

everything will go south for me. that is the sense but there's another volume of my years as a filmmaker making our tv shows and the books i have written and a peek behind the curtain i have been given in hollywood and different things i have done, so i will write another volume of these short stories. i have written them as short stories. not your typical autobiography. i hope i am not old enough to need to write an autobiography but i love short-story is. i love to read short stories. i have never seen a book of nonfiction short stories. why don't i write these stories from my life. i have wanted to tell them for a long time. you can read one and another. best to read it in order but you don't have to. >> host: where do you do your

riding and how much editing has been done? >> guest: i wrote this book in my apartment in new york city. i live in michigan i am very involved and very public in that way so i go to new york for peace and quiet. i wrote this in my office in new york. what was the other part of the question? >> host: how much editing was done? >> guest: every story went through a dozen drafts. i love the process -- i love to write. i love rerouting. i love rewriting and we writing because it gets better. you think of as if things. you remember this book is supposed to have humor and it. find yourself laughing in one place and crying in another. i felt all of that while

writing. i poured more of myself into this book than anything i have written. i am the promised of this book. i don't want to change it by saying personally is the best thing i have ever written but others might be immortalized but i have been appreciative of the reviews it received so there you go. >> host: don in wyoming. a few minutes left with michael more. >> caller: i appreciate you having me on. i have a question on your opinion on barack obama. he was pressed to investigate the bush it ministration for war crimes and chose to look forward rather than back and failed to launch an investigation. also he chose not to prosecute

those in gauge in torture even though the nuremberg trials proved the defense they're just following orders was rejected. what is your opinion on that? >> host: i wish the bush administration would be investigated by special prosecutor. i think war crimes were committed and we were lied to. that is the worst why you can tell in public office. to tell a lie that leads the country to work. i don't think it was a mistake. i think they wanted to do this. everything we read and heard from people like richard clark and the administration talking about iraq the day after 9/11. that is why they couldn't find or get osama bin laden. if -- give obama credit for that. i have been disappointed that president obama has not done that but he is a different k