Michael Moore Enjoying Corporate High Life:
Moore was flown around California aboard a private jet, reports the San Francisco Chronicle, courtesy of media mega-corporation Time Warner.I guess Mikey's only receiving what he believes is due to a "man of the people". I hope they had hydraulic lifts for the plane and SUV though.
And while he wasn't enjoying the corporate high life at 30,000 feet, he was tooling around the Golden State in the kind of vehicle anti-corporate environmentalists routinely decry as public enemy No. 1 - an SUV paid for by his publisher's corporation, Warner Books.
Moore's man-of-the-people image was further dented when it was revealed that he gladly accepted the protection of several bodyguards, who helped the left-wing crusader keep the unwashed masses at bay.
Asked if his new chairman-of-the-board lifestyle meant he was being hypocritical, Moore told the Los Angeles Times that the only reason he's feeding at the corporate trough is because it's there.
"I would never pay for this," he insisted.
Meanwhile, being a professional environmental "activist" is a good gig too - Fat of the land:
As a grass-roots conservationist from Oregon, Jack Shipley looked forward to his visit to Washington, D.C., to promote a community-based forest management plan. But when he stepped into the national headquarters of The Wilderness Society, his excitement turned to unease.More than you want to know by following the link. Scare tactics, telemarketing, excessive spending on fund raising, fancy parties for big donors, and fat executive salaries. The best part is that these groups are also subsidized by tax dollars. Here's the punchline:
"It was like a giant corporation," Shipley said. "Floor after floor after floor, just like Exxon or AT&T."
In San Francisco, Sierra Club board member Chad Hanson experienced a similar letdown when he showed up for a soiree at one of the city's finest hotels in 1997.
"Here I had just been elected to the largest grass-roots environmental group in the world and I am having martinis in the penthouse of the Westin St. Francis," said Hanson, an environmental activist from Pasadena. "What's wrong with this picture? It was surreal."
Soon, Hanson was calling the Sierra Club by a new name: Club Sierra.
"This is a growth industry -- a huge growth industry," said Daniel Beard, chief operating officer at the National Audubon Society. "There is a lot of wealth that has accumulated in this country over the last 20 years. And people are wanting to do good things with it."And be sure to include extra for handling. Because they love to handle it.
