The Traverse City Record-Eagle yesterday reported that filmmaker Michael Moore expects to receive between $650,000 and $1 million in state film subsidies for producing part of "Capitalism: A Love Story" in Michigan.

Actually, the Record-Eagle reported that Moore has "a new project - revitalizing derelict, depressed downtown theaters in communities across Michigan." The fact that he would use taxpayers' money to pay for his philanthropy was barely noted. The irony that Moore might receive state funds for a film that denounced government handouts to the wealthy and politically favored went completely unremarked.

The Mackinac Center reported in January that a production person working for Moore had applied for a tax refund of up to 42 percent of the filmmaker's total spending in Michigan on the "Capitalism" documentary. Because of Michigan Film Office secrecy, it was not known if the money would be awarded. The office seemed unconcerned that Moore's membership on the Michigan Film Office Advisory Council might present a conflict of interest.

But there appears to be something conflicted taking place. While promoting his documentary on "legalized greed," Moore conducted a lengthy interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer and argued that the United States does not have a true democracy because wealthy people have access to politicians who provide them with taxpayer handouts:

"I'm saying that we do not have a complete democracy if the economy is not a democracy," Moore told Blitzer in September 2009. "You can't call it a democracy just because I get to vote every two or four years. There has to be democracy in the economy, there should be democracy in the workplace. What's wrong with democracy? Why do these companies hate America? What is it about America and our love of democracy where they just go, 'oh, no, that's not good - we think the one percent, the richest one percent should be calling all the shots, should be buying the politicians, making the decisions.' That's the kind of democracy they like - where the one percent control everything. It's just not right, it's not fair, it's not American..."

Yet today, Moore indicates he's willing to take up to $1 million from the taxpayers of the hardest-hit state economy. Where is the democracy in that? Michigan residents didn't vote to give a wealthy filmmaker a generous subsidy.

Sure, Moore says he plans to use the windfall to revitalize derelict theaters. It's easy to be generous with other people's money. If handled with the right PR effort, a gift might just take the spotlight off the inconsistency of a favored, well-heeled industry getting benefits from politicians at the expense of downtrodden taxpayers.

Tom Stillings said he learned the news late Monday afternoon - the Eastport man who belongs to four Michigan grassroots tea party groups is not the official Tea Party candidate vying to replace retiring Bart Stupak in the U.S. House of Representatives District 1.

That was Lonnie Lee Snyder, a Kawkawlin man who didn't return a message left at his home Tuesday night.

Snyder was part of a list of 23 candidates the newly formed Tea Party political group released  Tuesday. The Tea Party is suspected of being a Democrat front to skim unaware voters who may generally support the genuine grass roots tea party movement but be unaware that isn't supportive of a third party.

Stillings, and now Snyder, are in a targeted race to replace Stupak, the Democrat who announced he was retiring when his term ended after a furor for his "yes" vote for the Affordable Health Care for America Act.

"I am trying to figure out who the heck this person is," said Stillings, who belongs to the Traverse City Tea Party, Petoskey's Tax And Spend Must End, the Ontonagon Tea Party and the Northern Michigan Liberty Alliance.

Stillings didn't even know that Lonnie was a man, not a woman.

"I have no clue. She is nobody recognizable from any tea party group that I know to be in existence. Does that mean she is not (part of a tea party)? It means I don't know her and no one else I know knows of her."

Bill Nowling, communications director for the House Republicans, said he scanned the list of Tea Party candidates and saw they were almost all in targeted GOP races.

"What you see is where they picked and chose districts where they think an independent or a third party candidate can peel off Republican votes," Nowling said.

The Democratic Party has denied being involved, but many are skeptical as more and more information surfaces.

Chetly Zarko, who recently died, uncovered the petition drive and discovered it was being done by Progressive Campaigns Inc. out of California. Their website has a client list that includes a campaign issue supported by George Soros, a well known supporter of Democrat causes. PCI also was involved with the Reform Michigan Government Now petition that was supported by Democrats and attacked by Republicans.

The Detroit Free Press has reported that the Tea Party leader is Mark Steffek, who is a retired autoworker and UAW steward. The grassroots tea party activists have not been supportive of unions.

And now the Tea Party candidates are targeting GOP contested races, Nowling said.

"If it walks like Mark Brewer, and it talks like Mark Brewer, then it's probably Mark Brewer," Nowling wrote in an e-mail, referring to the Michigan Democrat Party chairman. "This is the same stunt he pulled with the group 'Reform Michigan Government Now.'  He created a ruse to make it look like a grassroots effort except that he was so ham-handed in the process that people saw it immediately for what it was. The most simple answer usually turns out to be the correct one, and the simplest answer here is that this is all Mark Brewer and MDP's doing."

"You start adding these things up and it just doesn't pass the smell test," Nowling said.