Michael Moore Wrote:Friday, September 2nd, 2005
Dear Mr. Bush:
Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.
Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?
Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!
I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don't let people criticize you for this -- after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?
And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important construction job for them -- BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!
On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster. Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.
There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New York to Cleveland.
No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing -- NOTHING -- to do with this!
You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.
Yours,
Michael Moore
[email protected]
http://www.MichaelMoore.com
P.S. That annoying mother, Cindy Sheehan, is no longer at your ranch. She and dozens of other relatives of the Iraqi War dead are now driving across the country, stopping in many cities along the way. Maybe you can catch up with them before they get to DC on September 21st.
i only hope that ppl will trust him after his "meddling" in the election w/ Fahrenheit 9/11; he is unfortunately so partisan and sensational as to be almost as much use to the "right" as the "left"..
i really don't like michael moore.
i really don't like george w. bush.
i like chocolate, though.
chocolate aint bad, indeed.
trope Wrote:i only hope that ppl will trust him after his "meddling" in the election w/ fahrenheit 9/11; he is unfortunately so partisan and sensational as to be almost as much use to the "right" as the "left"..
exactly, it's a shame, because, if he toned down his sensational tone just a little bit, it would definitely help his cause. however, he's just doing exactly what the right wing media do, but, because he's only one man, he attracts so much more stick. a lot of sense talking in that article though
Bush makes my blood boil.
pez Wrote:exactly, it's a shame, because, if he toned down his sensational tone just a little bit, it would definitely help his cause. however, he's just doing exactly what the right wing media do, but, because he's only one man, he attracts so much more stick.
Thing is, Bush is such an easy target, he doesn't need anyone like Moore pointing out that he's a dickhead.
Ooh, you're criticising the president. Aren't you cutting edge?
Nob
Mr Moore is a legend and this letter is spot on.
Blunt Wrote:Ooh, you're criticising the president. Aren't you cutting edge?
Nob
I saw him do a live stand-up in Camden once. The first half was his old 'TV Nation' antics (phoning up the White House and ordering pizza etc) but the second half was more serious and political. He made the point that passengers on the 9/11 flights didn't try and do something themselves sooner because they have been raised in a culture where everything is taken care of for them by others. That the majority of these people never for once thought that someone wouldn't step in and take charge.
The only plane on which action was taken (the Pittsburgh crash) was done so much too late. Moore claimed that if the plane had been full of homeboys from South Central LA, do you think they would have sat back while a handful of terrorists armed with nothing but box-cutters attempted to crash the plane?
I'll say one thing for him, he certainly was an engaging public speaker and got you thinking about the state of things more than anyone else I've seen. And the fact that he riles the Neo-Cons in America so much gives him a big tick next to his name from me.
Blunt Wrote:Thing is, Bush is such an easy target, he doesn't need anyone like Moore pointing out that he's a dickhead.
Ooh, you're criticising the president. Aren't you cutting edge?
Nob
what shite!
ashes Wrote:mr moore is a legend and this letter is spot on.
he plays to the gallery because he has to. earnest condemnations of bush and his cronies has failed to make any encroachment into the middle-ground of u.s. air-time... moore has succeeded so far
because of his antics and general style.
the only reason he irritates is because he is working in almost total isolation and therefore has to carry the whole damn thing for everyone
Naphta Wrote:The only reason he irritates is because he is working in almost total isolation and therefore has to carry the whole damn thing for everyone
which in other words means that he is doing what he is doing first and foremost for his own good. in a way i can respect this because it's honest, even though to me he always comes across as a more or less laughable idiot.
Blunt Wrote:Thing is, Bush is such an easy target, he doesn't need anyone like Moore pointing out that he's a dickhead.
Ooh, you're criticising the president. Aren't you cutting edge?
Nob
spot on dude! bush is such a puppet that i feel more sorry for him than the folk that spend most of their hours in wishing fire and brimstone upon him.
Michael Moore is a fucking nob. I don't like him and I don't like his methods. Bowling for Columbine is so full of holes and contradictions, it's just unbelievable. He is a terrible spokesman for the left, and does more harm than good.
Plus, he has a really shit whiney voice.
UFO_over_easy Wrote:He is a terrible spokesman for the left
on this note i think he's awesome
regardless of whether or not you like michael moore's presentation and the way in which he represents certain issues, the point is he's pushing these criticisms into the public domain. which is important, because the mainstream media certainly isn't, and the coverage is overwhelmingly slanted in favour of the whomever posesses the prevailing economic interests.
otherwise, they wouldn't be open to discourse at all.
michael moore is SPOT FUCKING ON in that letter. what is happening in new orleans is appalling. and furthermore, taking shots at bush isn't just "easy", because the man go re-elected. and he's wielding extreme power, and his administration is having an impact on people's lives and daily business. so, it's all very well and good to say: "making fun of bush is easy, he does it to himself" as if he's ineffectual and his policies are just talk. but the fact is: you need people constantly critiquing him because lives are being affected in a real, material, way.
UFO_over_easy Wrote:Michael Moore is a fucking nob. I don't like him and I don't like his methods. Bowling for Columbine is so full of holes and contradictions, it's just unbelievable. He is a terrible spokesman for the left, and does more harm than good.
Plus, he has a really shit whiney voice.
his method is satire
I presume you don't like Mark Thomas or Rory Bremner either?
also, he's not a spokesman for the left, he's a satirist
and he does a lot more good than harm (see vox's post above)
Statto Wrote:his method is satire
and satire can't be good or bad?
the only impact i can see in supporting moore is making anti-bushism and anti-republicanism a trend. if this is progression to some then fair play.
