(Argument starts at around 1:15 in second video below)

Michael Moore was on The View yesterday. I’ve seen his movies and makes some powerful arguments. I like how he’s so willing to put himself out there with viewpoints that some consider radical. He’s not apologetic, and he tries to back up his points with facts and details. I don’t always agree with him, but I appreciate that he’s making movies and I admire how he makes his case. He stays somewhat calm, and he keeps at his argument. Moore is promoting his new memoir, Here Comes Trouble.

At some points during his stint on The View, their resident conservative Elisabeth Hasselbeck agreed with Moore, particularly when he said that Republicans should pick a more moderate candidate like Utah governor Jon Huntsman. He half joked that “Republicans are so committed to the Tea Party that they’re on the Teatanic.”

Then when Moore tried to argue that we should have put Osama Bin Laden on trial, like we tried the Nazi war criminals, Elisabeth wasn’t having it and she got loud. She tried to make the point that Bin Laden wasn’t a citizen and didn’t deserve the same rights as citizens, which is total bunk in my opinion. You can make the case that the guy is an evil mastermind who killed thousands, has followers that would martyr him or that a trial would cost millions of dollars and be a media circus, that’s persuasive and true. To argue that non-citizens don’t deserve trials, aren’t granted the same rights as Americans and should get some kind of swift vigilante justice is just ridiculous. That’s Elisabeth for you. Moore is just as out there by some estimates, he’s just on the complete other side with more reasoned arguments.

Moore: The way we show the world that we’re different is that we give even the most heinous person their day in court. If we lose sight of that basic American principal. We put the Nazis on trial, we put Manson on trial.

Elisabeth: You’re telling me Osama Bin Laden, responsible for slaughters of how many thousands of individuals, deserves a trial but where in NY city, the site of the slaughter of our own 3,000 on 9/11. Absolutely not. How dare. And why, cause Casey Anthony’s trial went so well?

Moore: What are we afraid of? We’re Americans, man.

Barbara Walters and Joy Behar tell him that “we did not want himn to appear as a martyr.”

Moore: I don’t think the Nazis appeared as martyrs, we hung them high for what they did. You’re missing the point. If we start to say that we’re afraid to hold trials because terrorists will hurt us, we look like a bunch of wusses.

We’re Americans and if you come here and kill us we will hunt you down and we will take you into court and put you on trial, and if need be you will receive the maximum punishment for what you did. What is wrong with that? That’s what we are as Americans.

Hasselbeck: That is the right granted to our citizens. Even those citizens here who do not abide by law are granted those rights. Osama Bin Laden never deserved those rights. Never did ever.

Joy Behar: Besides the rights, Michael, we don’t want his followers to think of him as a martyr or have input in the trial.

Moore: His followers are few, and they are crackpots and the world will always have crackpots.

I get what Moore is saying, but I don’t see where it could have worked. It’s too delicate an issue at this point, and we’re talking about the world’s most notorious terrorist. Moore tried to later explain that he’s a Catholic and they believe “it is wrong to take the life of another person unless it’s in absolute self defense in that moment.” Then Elisabeth asked him if he was pro life and he was like “yes I’m pro life in the sense that I don’t believe you should kill people. Not on abortion.” I guess both sides have their own definition of what being pro life means.

Filmmaker Michael Moore is doing something pretty novel: he is releasing his entire next film “Slacker Uprising” on the internet. There will be no theatrical release, and the film isn’t being streamed; it will be available on BlipTV. Everyone can download the entire thing online, and Moore’s not asking for any compensation in return – except for a record voter turnout.

Firebrand filmmaker Michael Moore will release his latest documentary exclusively on the Internet for free on September 23, eschewing a traditional theatrical rollout, he said on Thursday.

“Slacker Uprising” documents Moore’s 62-city tour of key swing states during the 2004 U.S. presidential election, when he tried to convince young non-voters to give voting a shot.

“This is being done entirely as a gift to my fans,” Moore said in a statement. “The only return any of us are hoping for is the largest turnout of young voters ever at the polls in November.”

“Slacker Uprising,” budgeted modestly at over $2 million, was funded by Moore along with movie executives Bob and Harvey Weinstein, who hold international rights, said a spokesman for Moore.

It marks his follow-up to the healthcare expose “Sicko,” which earned just $24.5 million at the North American box office last year, far short of the $119 million haul for his 2004 political blockbuster “Fahrenheit 9/11.”

[From Reuters Canada]

It’s a pretty interesting concept. I’m assuming they’ll be some sort of advertising and someone will make some money somehow, but who knows? Reuters does make an interesting point in that Moore’s last film didn’t make much money at the box office. Maybe he thought he’d have a better chance of getting his message out this way, and that was more important to him. It’s all speculation, but interesting to wonder about. Perhaps this is where more mainstream films are headed as well.

Here’s the trailer for “Slacker Uprising.”