Initially, Moore tried to deny that his massive wealth made him a member of that one percent. Even when forced to admit the obvious, Moore suggested that he was not always among the one percent, based on his income: “Other years, like last year, I don’t have a job (no movie, no book) and so I make a lot less.”

The fact is that Moore is so wealthy that he does not need to worry about his income. According to public tax records, Moore owns a massive vacation home on Torch Lake, Michigan–one of the most elite communities in the United States–in addition to his posh Manhattan residence.

Through an independent source, Big Hollywood has obtained exclusive photographs of the house matching the address of Moore’s waterfront mansion. It is the kind of luxurious summer home that 99 percent of Americans can only dream of owning.

Moore’s vacation property is located on the southeastern shore of Torch Lake itself, which locals tout as the “third most beautiful lake in the world.” Here is an aerial view of the house, situated on the turquoise blue waters for which Torch Lake is famous:

Property values on Torch Lake, according to one real estate website, range “from $400,000 to plus $3 million.”

Moore’s property has been officially assessed at close to $1 million (see below; we have redacted Moore’s addresses and parcel number). That is likely a gross underestimate, but nevertheless places Moore’s vacation home near the top one percent of home values in affluent Forest Home Township, and among the upper crust of residential properties in the state of Michigan. (Update 11/11/11: Several readers have pointed out that in Michigan, the S.E.V. is half the estimated fair market value of the home, so Moore’s Torch Lake vacation home is likely worth close to $2 million.)

In addition, according to statistics from 2009, Forest Home Township has no black residents. The township is roughly 98 percent white. Call that 99 percent, and Moore’s claim to be among “the 99 percent” begins to have some basis in reality.

No one begrudges Moore his wealth, but it is deceitful for him to claim poverty while encouraging class warfare among other Americans. It is also purely narcissistic and selfish for Moore to back radical and destructive socialist policies that would deny other Americans the opportunity to become as rich as he is.

Below are some additional photographs of Moore’s vacation home in Torch Lake. The first shows the front entrance to the property; we have decided not to include a photograph of Moore’s mailbox, which features an address matching the one on the property assessment. The second and third photographs show alternate perspectives of Moore’s home and property when viewed from Torch Lake.

As you listen to and watch this rather miraculous musical achievement by the entire town of Grand Rapids, Michigan, ask yourself, “Is America dead yet?”

Well, this 2012 video assures History that this 1971 requiem for the meaning of Sixties America won’t be lost on future generations.

“Helter-skelter!”

Yup, the dark and the fading light of it.

“Satan laughing with delight the day the music died!”

“The Church bells all were broken!”

And the Holy Trinity?

They’ve left too.

Yet … just maybe … Grand Rapids will live … due to the glory of having made this video!

Please watch it full screen, if you can. The soul of Grand Rapids deserves to take our stages entirely for the length of this song.

Why?

Aside from Grand Rapids’ singular achievement, all of Michigan, Detroit particularly, seems to have been marked for some form of grave.

As Lily Tomlin has said, “I left Detroit when I found out where I was.”

I left it as soon as I possibly could.

I’m in my 71^st year now and death, of course, is a daily subject for some form of meditation or other.

However, as this video production emphatically exclaims, the music, despite the song, hasn’t died.

The Pete Seeger dream of the Sixties hasn’t died either, certainly not with a Marxist President of the United States.

In 1971, the year American Pie was released, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, AIDS had begun to raise its deadly head and Woodstock was becoming more than just a nostalgic thing of the past. That concert seemed to have become The Last Hurrah of something much different from that of a Boston demagogue.

The Communal Dream of the American Sixties resembled the Communal Dream of French Revolutionaries in 18^th Century Europe. It evolved eventually into the romantic entrance of Communism into Czarist Russia.

Once Lenin and Stalin had begun to “clean house,”, as it were, the bloom was off the Red Rose and, if the music didn’t die, it was certainly “transformed,” to use one of this present generation’s magical words, transfigured by the very leaders who had promised to resurrect the Communal feeling of Brotherhood.

Right now the Muslim Brotherhood is trying to sell the same illusion about its intentions in the Middle East.

Does Grand Rapids know all the implications of a ground-breaking video that must, by now, be smashing viewing records?

Remember the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago?

It was, perhaps, the most decisive entrance of Law and Order into the Woodstock Generation that the hippies and poets and literary lights, such as Norman Mailer and France’s Jean Genet, would ever see.

Woodstock was over.

Or was it?

Isn’t American Pie, this video particularly, The Woodstock Reincarnation?

Drugs are poring over into America from the Mexican border and the Obama Nation, dedicated to protect something or other, isn’t doing much about it.

Why?

Woodstock!

Drugs can’t possibly be of any major concern for the American people of a Woodstock Generation and their Progressive New World Order, can they? Our First Lady and her husband must feel that bad eating habits are a profoundly more important concern than what might be invading us from Mexico.

Hmmm … so the drugs and illegal aliens poring over the border aren’t as pressing an issue as American obesity?

Why?

Could it be that those illegal aliens will help to re-elect Barack Obama?

The hopes of the Woodstock Generation and what a Woodstock Reincarnation may exist in Grand Rapids’ heretofore silent majority? Didn’t this video involve at least half of Grand Rapids’ entire population whether they appear before the camera or not?

With repeated viewings it becomes more and more moving!

Why?

The American Dream!!

Neither that nor American music will ever die.

We all know that … but we also know how close to suicide the meaning of America has come. The delirium of acid rock being stared at by hundreds of stoned young in the meadow of Woodstock Nation? This became the Left’s First War Cry for the “Fundamental Transformations of the United States of America.”

Yet when the growing numbers in this Grand Rapids video wave at us out of their American pride?

Or when they proudly join the parade?

Everything American?!

Football, cheerleaders, marching bands … all announcing that “this’ll be the day that I die”?!

Why?

It’s the day the music died?!

All of Grand Rapids literally throbs with American Pie, the APPLE Pie of an American song that everyone knows and everyone sings and everyone celebrates.

Why?

Because the message is not true.

And it never will be true.

The day the music dies in America is when the last flicker of light goes out in the Universe.

I’m particularly amused by the T-Shirt, Get Out of Town!

It’s the title of a song, the lyrics of which are begging and threatening a loved one to “get out of town” before the artist makes a damn fool of himself … he is so much in love with America … and, obviously, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

I’ve been watching this love affair between Grand Rapids and the meaning of America for the entire month of June, 2011, and … well … the entire meaning of this love song … tells me that if my hometown of Detroit had created something like this, I might have never left Michigan.

I’m now happier than I’ve ever been and living in a small Canadian village that is most likely half the size of Grand Rapids.

Would-be big city Detroit and the mammoth five boroughs of New York never held the naked simple honesty of heartland America.

The song says: “Lenin read a book on Marx” … on the “day the music died”?!

For me the music began to die the day Marx first shook hands with Friedrich Engels.

The music they created was Bertolt Brecht’s Three Penny Opera. Check out the music of Lotte Lenya/Kurt Weil and Brecht’s lyrics for Mack The Knife and see if they even approach the depths of irony one can both hear and see in Grand Rapids’ video of American Pie.

Brecht oozes complete Communist, violently smug certainty over the eventual destruction of American Capitalism and the ultimate triumph of Marx over James Madison.

Don Maclean’s American Pie challenges us to believe what his lyrics are asking:

Is America dying?

Is she already dead?

From what his song inspired in Grand Rapids, Michigan?

Heartland America,

as of the 2010, midterm elections,

has never been more alive!!

Nor more beautiful!!!

Michael Moore quoting Thomas Jefferson to justify his Marxism is a true highlight. Let’s just hope he’s right about unions being on the ropes. No doubt the low-to-no turnout at his astro-turfed Michigan rally earlier this month has the mega-millionaire feeling a little gloomy.

Join the discussion below…

Leffler grew up in the same part of Michigan as Moore, attending the same Catholic Church and even working together on a local youth hotline. So when Leffler calls out Moore, it means something.

“Shooting Michael Moore” lets Leffler deconstruct the Moore myth. It’s a project with a tiny budget and little Hollywood razzmatazz – Leffler is a CPA and college professor, not a slick documentarian.

But he digs deep enough into Moore’s activities to reveal a more complicated, and damning portrait of the Oscar winner.

Leffler starts at the beginning, describing his own humble roots and inserting himself into the narrative. His voice sounds like Moore’s, a reedy, sing-song cadence that’s oddly appropriate for the task at hand. The CPA even wears a ball cap a la Mike.

Moore promised at the start of his career to help Flint, Mich. rebound from the job losses tallied in his 1989 debut “Roger & Me.”

But Moore treated those who worked on that film poorly, and eventually set up a movie office in the Big Apple instead. This “Everyman” rails against white people in his books and owns a $1.8 million home in Michigan (in a town bereft of African-Americans) as well as a posh Manhattan dwelling complete with security personnel. And he doesn’t want to be interviewed by the likes of Leffler, even though the CPA hounds him down, “Roger & Me” style, for much of the movie.

Moore routinely uses tax loopholes to pay less to the federal government, something Leffler alleges using slow pans of the director’s tax documents as proof. He also invests heavily, via a foundation, in many of the evil corporations he assaults in his films.

Big Oil. Big Pharma.

Moore’s documentaries are built on equally dodgy foundations. Leffler interviews some of the people featured in Moore’s movies, and their families members too.

Turns out Moore’s camera crews often deceive their subjects to trick them into appearing in his propaganda films. It’s the same mischief pulled by the makers of “Borat,” but when you’re dealing with Marines putting their lives on the line in Iraq, the stakes are much higher.

Parts of “Moore” are drier than a prairie, befitting perhaps Leffler’s CPA credentials. And when the film attempts humor it doesn’t always succeed. Having someone dress up as a mini Michael Moore to show how he cheated as a Boy Scout years ago seem more petty than riotous.

But when Leffler gets serious, the documentary finds its focus.

That’s certainly the case when Leffler debunks the mythos behind “Sicko,” Moore’s attack on the U.S. health care system and glorification of those run in Great Britain – and Cuba.

“Moore” uses a series of news snippets to show England’s health care system is far from perfect. In fact, it sounds downright broken. It isn’t Moore’s biggest sin of omission in the film.

“The whitewash Mike does of the British health care system is nothing compared to the downright fabrication of glory he heaps on the Cuban system,” Leffler says in the film.

Leffler interviews Cuban doctors with firsthand experience working in the Communist country’s medical units. They describe a two-tiered system in which government officials and cash-waving tourists get quality care and regular Cubans get … something far, far less.

He uses a hidden camera to capture some horrifying images from a Cuban hospital, a dilapidated building with blood stained beds and other images usually reserved for a horror movie.

“Sicko,” Leffler says, was propaganda created along with former President Fidel Castro’s help, he alleges. Yet the film wasn’t shown in Cuba.

Leffler’s sources say the Cuban people would see right through the charade.

Powerful stuff, and something audiences wouldn’t expect from a CPA turned filmmaker.

“Shooting Michael Moore” isn’t the first documentary assailing Moore’s carefully calculated persona. But the personal connection between Leffler and his subject, combined with the harrowing footage snuck out of Cuba, makes this the one Moore bashing doc to see.

One of Moore’s supporters argued recently that the film’s title is a call to arms, an attempt by Leffler to incite people to violence against the filmmaker. The argument rings hollow in an age when artists routinely create works far more likely to create violence, like a feature length film depicting the death of a sitting president.

It’s understandable that Moore’s proponents would prefer to focus on drummed up controversies than addressing the meat of Leffler’s film.

My company then proceeded to disavow any knowledge of my column and said that what I write is of my own doing and not the policy of the company.  This is true.  It is my own doing.  No one tells me what to write or censors my editorial content. 

I still believe IATSE is harming the burgeoning film industry in Michigan.  I believe that if IATSE was doing the right thing in Michigan, the state of Michigan would be putting all of the other tax-incentive states out of business.  Producers would be running there in droves. 

Unions are supposed to be the mechanism to level the playing field for the working man.  Their job is to protect the working man from “the man,” and to keep their members employed fairly.  Isn’t employment what unions are really all about:  Especially now when unemployment is so rampant all over the United States, particularly in Michigan and California.  You would think the unions would be bending over backwards to work with “the man” in a mutually beneficial situation.  Let us all do whatever is necessary to keep employment in the United States; not Eastern Europe or Asia. 

Unfortunately, this is not the case with IATSE in Michigan and with the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) anywhere.  SAG does their best to stop movies from being made instead of helping the independent producer hire their mass of unemployed. 

I will now give some examples of how SAG harms the independent producer. My first look deal is with Nu Image, Inc., one of, if not largest independent production companies in the business.  In the last 10 years, this company has produced more than 150 films ranging in size from one million dollars to sixty million dollars.  It has employed more than 1,000 actors; the majority of which are members of SAG. 

Does SAG do anything to make life easier for this company?  No.  SAG does everything in their power to stop this company from making movies.  In fact, over the past ten years, there have been many incidents where this company has had to threaten to shut a movie down and sue SAG in order to get any cooperation whatsoever. 

This is a company that employs, pay actors millions of dollars and pays residuals to actors on a regular basis.  Can you tell me one true independent that has been doing this since 1992?  Probably not. 

Just last week, Nu Image was about to shoot a thirty million-dollar film and was held hostage the day before principal photography was to start over a dispute regarding the SAG Bond which is a “guarantee” that actors will be paid.  SAG insisted on a bond in the approximate amount of $400,000 which was based upon erroneous SAG employment figures provided by the production staff on location.  SAG did not care.  They were going to call actors’ agents and shut the movie down the day before it was scheduled to start.  The matter was resolved at the twenty-fourth hour, but not before threats were made from both sides that almost put the picture in jeopardy.  At one point, a SAG employee told us, well if a production employee provided erroneous figures, you should fire him/her.  Is this the way a union represents workers? 

Another nightmare for the independent producer is the SAG security interest which is a lien on the film’s copyright for the life of the copyright.  The theory behind this is to protect the actors against unscrupulous producers failing to pay residuals.  Fine.  It makes sense for one-off producers or producers with a bad reputation.  But, is it necessary for a major independent production company with a history of paying residuals?  Why must SAG demand cash – which is desperately needed to fund the production – be removed from the budget to pay SAG deposits?  Why must the threats go back and forth every time any request is made? 

Then after all of the stress with SAG during production, the independent must beg for the return of the SAG Bond after it has paid the actors in full.  As you already know, this amount of cash can be substantial and for smaller companies is actually needed to complete the movie. Thank God, Nu Image has the capability to complete movies without this money. I have heard horror stories from other companies where the SAG bond has caused foreclosure on loans and investor liens because sometimes they will just not return it. Sometimes they unilaterally convert it to a residuals bond to guarantee the payment of residuals.  

Sometimes the reason given for its non-return is absolutely asinine.  For example, SAG has a document that must be completed on every film to show minority hiring.  You must show the number of females and people of color hired by the production.  This form is a survey and nothing more.  There are no quotas in the SAG system and a producer may hire whoever they choose.  However, if this form is not filed by the producer, the bond is not returned.  The same is true of every piece of paper that SAG employees have on their checklist. No one will think out of the box. No one will pull the trigger and give the money back until this checklist is complete. 

And, no one will give the money back with any interest that matters.  Back in the day when CD’s were paying 4-5%, SAG was paying 1.5% or less on the bond.  I’m sure now they are holding money in some cases for more than a year and paying 0% interest.  I wonder what they do with the money they earn? 

Lastly, the SAG arbitration system must be discussed.  Talk about an uneven playing field!  Prior to producing films, I was an entertainment attorney.  In all, I have been in the business for 25 years, give or take.  During that time, I have not seen one SAG arbitration ruled in favor of the producer.  In fact, some arbitrators on the SAG list have never ruled in favor of management.  I can think of a few names that are on my strike list just because of personal experiences. 

In one circumstance, a former SAG Board member, Seymour Cassel, was hired by a company that I was involved with.  Mr. Cassel, being on the SAG Board, forced the union to pursue a grievance on his behalf.  That matter was fairly simple.  He believed he had a two week guarantee of employment and the employer felt there was no guarantee and paid him for the one week he actually worked. 

The matter went to arbitration and Mr. Cassel won.  He was given the second week. It seems like it should have been a swearing contest and the arbitrator just chose to believe the representatives of Mr. Cassel.  Sorry, nope. 

It was much more complicated than that.  Mr. Cassel had actually signed both a SAG deal memo and a long form agreement, neither of which mentioned anything about a two-week guarantee.  In fact, they specifically stated there was no guarantee.  But, there was an interoffice memo from Mr. Cassel’s agent that said the deal was for a two week guarantee.  This document was not signed by anybody.  In legal parlance, it not only was pure hearsay, but it violated the merger rule.  It should not even have been entered into evidence. 

This did not matter to the arbitrator. He ruled for Mr. Cassel based upon the interoffice memo. 

By the way, Mr. Cassel was just thrown off the SAG Board last week for “conduct unbecoming a member,” and his membership was suspended. Variety stated that Mr. Cassel was considering filing for “financial core” status which would permit him to work on union and non-union films during the course of his suspension. 

“Financial Core” is a really interesting animal.  It is based upon a Supreme Court decision (Communications Workers of America v. Beck, 487 U.S. 735 (1988)) in which a union member sued the union because he did not want to be associated with the Union’s political lobbying activities.  The Supreme Court found for the union member and stated that no one could be obligated to pay for the political positions of the union.  They only had to be obligated to pay union dues for the “financial core” of the union. 

Based on this Supreme Court ruling, any member of any union in the country can go “Financial Core.” All it requires is that they write a one sentence letter to their union stating that they have elected Financial Core membership.  A “Financial Core” member of any union is still covered by all union benefits such as pension, health and welfare.  They can then work on all union and non-union movies without being subject to any penalty from the union at all.  The only things a “Financial Core” member of a union cannot do is vote in union elections or hold elected positions within the union. 

Personally I am amazed that droves of actors, directors, writers and crew members have not chosen Financial Core membership.  Maybe it’s because the unions all try to keep it a total secret and will do almost anything to avoid their members becoming aware of its benefits.  Imagine – union members being able to decide for themselves who they will work for and under what conditions.  It would mean they have to be treated as adults – not obedient children by their unions. It would certainly make life easier for independent producers and allow them to spend their hard won cash on making movies not paying for union bureaucracies.

 Maybe Seymour Cassel will start a trend – who knows. It may even help the employment situation for actors and all member of the entertainment industry.  After all, isn’t that what we need to end this recession; more employment.

Events lead Kowalski to resist a local takeover by a Hmong youth gang. The Hmong are an ethnic Southeast Asian people, primarily from Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. In real life Michigan, they are among the fastest growing immigrants. Many Hmong people emigrated from South Vietnam after Democrats shamelessly withdrew monetary support from South Vietnam in 1974. The Paris Peace Agreements thus became toothless and North Vietnam conquered South Vietnam. “Boat people” fled Vietnam and the insane, murderous Pol Pot created the Cambodian Killing Fields.

Gran Torino can be viewed as metaphorical microcosm of the Vietnamese conflict with an alternate ending. Eastwood, the quintessential symbol of American independence and strength, helps defend a group of Asian Americans against a gangster group of other Asian Americans. Kowalski’s courage and independence led to his death and the defeat of the gang members. The image of protagonist Thao Vang Lor (Bee Vang) driving in Kowalski’s Gran Torino, left to Thao in his will, cements the “good Hmongs” victory, and ultimate commitment to America. The juxtaposition of this scene, versus Kowalski’s children trying to unload him in an old age home is striking.

Another morality play is occurring today in the real Michigan. Michigan has a 15% unemployment rate. Detroit’s auto industry, which made the 1972 Ford Gran Torino, has been decimated in large part by federal regulations. In classic “anti-comparative advantage” style, a sclerotic EPA required individual auto companies to meet mandated “CAFE” standards. Even if one wanted the nation’s entire car fleet to meet CAFE requirements on average, the EPA implemented it in the most inefficient way possible.

US automakers’ comparative advantage was in SUVs and small trucks. To keep their fleet within mandated averages, they were forced to build unprofitable, uncompetitive small cars. If the Feds just let comparative advantage work, the US auto fleet would have likely met federal CAFE standards without each company being compelled to build every type of car. But Government does not know economics. They simply know better.

Obama’s “new environmental energy plan,” the Waxman-Markey “Cap and Trade” bill, is a ruse. It is not an energy bill, but a regressive consumption tax in disguise. It is favored by Wall Street, George Soros, Al Gore, GE and other corporatists looking for subsidies paid for by the tax payer. Cap and Trade is the ultimate economic destruction machine. The bill passed the House of Representatives this summer by six votes, 219-213. Forty-four Democrats voted against it. The Senate has not yet voted.

Michigan Congressman Thaddeus McCotter, a real life political “Kowalski” and GOP Policy Committee Chair, opposed this monstrosity. He is among a group of opponents being targeted for attack in the next few weeks. Others include House Minority Whip Eric Cantor and Missouri’s Roy Blount. The campaigns are funded by Soros’ groups MoveOn.Org and Americans United for Change. The attack is preposterous, as this video shows (Groups target GOP on cap-and-trade). What is the goal of the bill?

The goal of the bill is to replace cheap energy with expensive energy. This is called “saving the environment.” This is accomplished by requiring consumers to purchase more expensive electricity, biomass power for example, while also paying taxes to subsidize these enterprises. As we consume more expensive energy, the same amount of labor and capital creates less output. Even if one believed the ridiculous 1.7 million “green job” increase advertised, it doesn’t factor the lost jobs from lower productivity and higher energy costs. The manufacturing heavy states and big users of energy, like Michigan, are clearly poised to be the big losers in such legislation. They are already seeking “exemptions” from regulations because of the bill’s potential economic devastation (Michigan Economic Impact on the State from the Waxman-Markey Bill).

Meanwhile, Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs, and self important financial traders like George Soros, strongly support this legislation because they get to buy and sell “CO2 credits.” The rationale is this legislation will combat “global warming.” Climatologist Chip Knappenberger estimates the best case impact of the bill would be to lower global temperature by “0.1″ degree centigrade in the year 2100. This bill does not address global warming. The bill’s costs exceed its “benefits” by a factor of at least ten, using the UN’s officially approved climate models. This means lost jobs and/or lost real income. This is also why Greenpeace joined with pro-growth conservatives and opposed it. The whole thing is a sham.

So why do Democrats want this bill? They want to raise your taxes under the cover of “climate change” reform. It also gives Government the power to decide which industries get benefited more heavily than others. It is part of the transformation from a free society to a government controlled society. This is yet another highway toward the ultimate c goal of centralized government planning.

McCotter understands, like Walter Kowalski, what it means to be an American. A great American can be a first generation “Hmong” from Vietnam, like Gran Torino’s Thao Vang Lor. Conversely, a treasonous American can be born in Chicago to great advantage, like Weatherman terrorist and Obama supporter Bill Ayers. This speech by Congressman McCotter provides a very clear vision of what America is and should be about. Let’s not permit anti-American fakes, like George Soros, sacrifice McCotter’s (or Cantor’s or Blount’s) “political life” by trying to pull the wool over our eyes. “Green jobs” are a wolf’s tax in sheep’s clothing.

You would think that after the UAW destroyed the auto industry and the tax base in Michigan, the people of the state and the unions based there would have learned. However, this is not the case. In the latest union disaster for the state of Michigan, the IATSE has decided that the blooming film industry in the state must be stopped before it even gets started.

As most of you in the film business know, the state of Michigan has one of the most lucrative tax credit/rebate programs in the industry. The state gives you 40% of every qualified dollar that you spend in the state. In addition, if you shoot your film in a few core areas such as Detroit, you will get an additional 2%. That’s a whopping 42% of what the producers’ qualified in Michigan spend. On a 20 million dollar budget, this can amount to a gift from the state of Michigan of approximately 6.5 million dollars after you subtract the non-qualified costs.

Other states have tax incentives, but none even come close to these numbers. Louisiana, which has the oldest and most tested tax incentive, just increased their program from 25% to 30% and loosened its requirements in order to compete with Michigan. South Carolina is also considering an increase in its program in order to compete.

Smelling blood in the state, IATSE has decided that any economic growth in Michigan caused by this program must be stopped. In the latest deal struck with the AMPTP, the IATSE has changed Michigan’s ten most production friendly counties into the Maryland Rates. The change effects Ann Arbor and Detroit’s scenic and wealthier suburbs.

You may ask, how is this killing production and the economy in Michigan?  Well, prior to this union agreement which takes effect on August 1, 2009, most of Michigan, except for Detroit’s Wayne County, came within the Area Standards rates which cover most of the country, including South Carolina and Louisiana.  According to a production executive at my company, the additional cost of the Maryland Rates will be almost $500,000 over the course of an average production. Hence the benefits of the 40% in tax credits is gone.

Producers will do what they always do and go running for the best deal.  With this additional cost in Michigan now, it will probably be back to Louisiana, South Carolina or one of the other states that come within the Area Standards IATSE deal.  So, another union is doing its best to destroy Michigan.  And yet, the liberal government in Michigan allows this to happen?  Why do the people of Michigan sit back and watch their beautiful state head into oblivion?

Progressive liberal Democrat Alec Baldwin sent many heads spinning all over the blogosphere when he recently said this:

I’m telling you right now,” the actor warned, “if these tax breaks are not reinstated into the budget, film production in this town is going to collapse, and television production is going to collapse, and it’s all going to go to California.

Now the rich absurdity of a statement like that coming out of the mouth of Alec Baldwin has been chronicled many places all over the web (most notably in the Wall St. Journal), and the fascinating “why?” of it all is still being sorted out.  Has he had an economic spiritual awakening?  Has he gone insane?   Or is he simply a narcissistic hypocrite who only wants tax breaks for the industry that pays him exorbitant amounts of money for saying words other people write during the two or three grueling, catered days a week that he actually has to go to work? 

Whatever the answer is, there is one thing in Mr. Baldwin’s otherwise shockingly accurate statement that is utterly wrong.  I can ease his mind totally about one thing: when his beloved 30 Rock flees New York because of the removal of the tax incentives that brought it there, the one place it will not be heading for is California. 

Just as Alec has said will happen in New York, the film business is fleeing California’s punitive taxation for states that are cutting taxes to attract the huge revenues that full-blown film productions generate. As reported in the LA Daily News, the number of production days for feature films shot in California hit a record low of 7,043 in 2008, according to Film L.A., while the Michigan Film Office approved incentives for 73 film productions in 2008, up from three in 2007.  Michigan’s Gov. Granholm has offered cash refunds from the state of Michigan of up to 40%, the highest incentive in the country, for film and TV productions that spend more than $50,000.  If all the films that applied for incentives in Michigan actually get made there, they are expected to generate $436 million in revenues to the state’s struggling economy.

Arec Bardwin: 'Team America'

New Mexico, Louisiana, New York and Georgia have similar tax incentives and all have seen massive increases in film production in their states.  So Alec seems to be on to something here: when you tax a product or business, you actually DISCOURAGE IT FROM OCCURRING!  Incredible!  And when the business doesn’t happen, nobody gets a job!  Amazing!  The business moves to other states where people are employed, paid money, and then taxed, with more revenue accruing to the state coffers!  Breathtaking! 

So with this unforeseen burst of wisdom emanating from one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, what will the state of California do to keep its most unique and profitable industry working within its borders? 

Nothing. 

From Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.:

The rubric in Sacramento is, “Oh, we can’t do these incentives. It’s just welfare for the big corporations.” But they don’t understand how the industry works.  Why are other states offering these incentives?  It’s because it creates jobs and tax revenues. This is the message they have been trying to get through to the people in Sacramento – “It’s not going to cost you more money. It’s going to bring money to you.”

This is why the State of California cannot and will not ever work as long as one party –one ideology, I should say, since the supposedly “Republican” Governator doesn’t get it either – dominates every branch of state government.  It is an endless and unstoppable cycle:  the State raises taxes because they have a shortfall.  Businesses leave the state to avoid the taxes.  Individuals leave the state because there is no work because the businesses left.  The tax base shrinks. The tax raises do not create the expected revenues because of the flight of individuals and businesses.  Another shortfall is created.  The legislature votes to raise taxes again.  More businesses leave.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

So the big “WHY?” rears its head again.  Why can’t the state legislature of California have the same epiphany that Alec Baldwin has apparently had?  The liberals and progressives that run California seem to understand this when they tax cigarettes to discourage smoking, and tax gasoline to discourage driving.  They are keen on discouraging Big Tobacco, and Big Oil, and Big Pharma.  So why don’t they use the same principle to ENCOURAGE Big Hollywood?  Like Alec Baldwin,  are they stupid (unable to understand it), insane (incapable of grasping reality), or just mendacious (willingly degrading prosperity for the sake of increasing their own power)?

Sad to say, I think it is the latter.  Alec Baldwin, unlike his fellow liberal/progressive comrades in government, needs to get a paycheck from a business enterprise.  Liberal politicians do not.  And the more businesses they run out of their states, the more crises they create, the more misery they spread around, the more they increase and deepen their power base because they make themselves, the almighty State, the source for all sustenance. And the more secure their unlimited term in office becomes.

The bottom line is a bold statement that I have made on numerous occasions among friends, resulting in some scoffs and protestations (and many fist bumps), but absolutely no substantive refutations:

Liberal/Progressive Democrats cannot stand it when anyone makes money (except for them).  It is unfair, they have done it on the backs of the poor, they are benefiting unfairly (except for them).  

And Alec Baldwin has had his moment of clarity because the state of New York might decide not to say “Except for them.”

The only hope that any of us have is that enough people who actually have to work for someone else for a living, like even the great Alec Baldwin, will realize this and vote the liberal/progressive/Democrats out before there are no New Mexicos, Michigans, New Yorks, or Georgias left to flee to in order to do business without punitive tax rates.

The Change Alec Baldwin believed in and voted for is coming, and it is coming for his mailing address.  But it won’t Change to Beverly Hills, Alec.  You won’t be hanging out with your Left Coast buddies.   It will Change to Detroit, New Orleans, Valdosta, or Albuquerque. 

Because California, apparently,  doesn’t want the business back.