A little Moore...because sometimes it's good to hear a little Moore about things that are pissing me off...
Sunday, September 11th, 2005
A Letter to All Who Voted for George W. Bush from Michael Moore
To All My Fellow Americans Who Voted for George W. Bush:
On this, the fourth anniversary of 9/11, I'm just curious, how does it feel?
How does it feel to know that the man you elected to lead us after we were attacked went ahead and put a guy in charge of FEMA whose main qualification was that he ran horse shows?
That's right. Horse shows.
I really want to know -- and I ask you this in all sincerity and with all due respect -- how do you feel about the utter contempt Mr. Bush has shown for your safety? C'mon, give me just a moment of honesty. Don't start ranting on about how this disaster in New Orleans was the fault of one of the poorest cities in America. Put aside your hatred of Democrats and liberals and anyone with the last name of Clinton. Just look me in the eye and tell me our President did the right thing after 9/11 by naming a horse show runner as the top man to protect us in case of an emergency or catastrophe.
I want you to put aside your self-affixed label of Republican/conservative/born-again/capitalist/ditto-head/right-winger and just talk to me as an American, on the common ground we both call America.
Are we safer now than before 9/11? When you learn that behind the horse show runner, the #2 and #3 men in charge of emergency preparedness have zero experience in emergency preparedness, do you think we are safer?
When you look at Michael Chertoff, the head of Homeland Security, a man with little experience in national security, do you feel secure?
When men who never served in the military and have never seen young men die in battle send our young people off to war, do you think they know how to conduct a war? Do they know what it means to have your legs blown off for a threat that was never there?
Do you really believe that turning over important government services to private corporations has resulted in better services for the people?
Why do you hate our federal government so much? You have voted for politicians for the past 25 years whose main goal has been to de-fund the federal government. Do you think that cutting federal programs like FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers has been good or bad for America? GOOD OR BAD?
With the nation's debt at an all-time high, do you think tax cuts for the rich are still a good idea? Will you give yours back so hundreds of thousands of homeless in New Orleans can have a home?
Do you believe in Jesus? Really? Didn't he say that we would be judged by how we treat the least among us? Hurricane Katrina came in and blew off the facade that we were a nation with liberty and justice for all. The wind howled and the water rose and what was revealed was that the poor in America shall be left to suffer and die while the President of the United States fiddles and tells them to eat cake.
That's not a joke. The day the hurricane hit and the levees broke, Mr. Bush, John McCain and their rich pals were stuffing themselves with cake. A full day after the levees broke (the same levees whose repair funding he had cut), Mr. Bush was playing a guitar some country singer gave him. All this while New Orleans sank under water.
It would take ANOTHER day before the President would do a flyover in his jumbo jet, peeking out the window at the misery 2500 feet below him as he flew back to his second home in DC. It would then be TWO MORE DAYS before a trickle of federal aid and troops would arrive. This was no seven minutes in a sitting trance while children read "My Pet Goat" to him. This was FOUR DAYS of doing nothing other than saying "Brownie (FEMA director Michael Brown), you're doing a heck of a job!"
My Republican friends, does it bother you that we are the laughing stock of the world?
And on this sacred day of remembrance, do you think we honor or shame those who died on 9/11/01? If we learned nothing and find ourselves today every bit as vulnerable and unprepared as we were on that bright sunny morning, then did the 3,000 die in vain?
Our vulnerability is not just about dealing with terrorists or natural disasters. We are vulnerable and unsafe because we allow one in eight Americans to live in horrible poverty. We accept an education system where one in six children never graduate and most of those who do can't string a coherent sentence together. The middle class can't pay the mortgage or the hospital bills and 45 million have no health coverage whatsoever.
Are we safe? Do you really feel safe? You can only move so far out and build so many gated communities before the fruit of what you've sown will be crashing through your walls and demanding retribution. Do you really want to wait until that happens? Or is it your hope that if they are left alone long enough to soil themselves and shoot themselves and drown in the filth that fills the street that maybe the problem will somehow go away?
I know you know better. You gave the country and the world a man who wasn't up for the job and all he does is hire people who aren't up for the job. You did this to us, to the world, to the people of New Orleans. Please fix it. Bush is yours. And you know, for our peace and safety and security, this has to be fixed. What do you propose?
I have an idea, and it isn't a horse show.
Yours,
Michael Moore
www.michaelmoore.com
mmflint@aol.com

The Daily Show
I went to a taping of the Daily Show last night. It was a lot of fun, it's pretty interesting to be there right in the studio watching. This week's special theme is "Evolution Schmevolution" and looks to be quite entertaining. We actually got to watch them tape a segment for Wednesday night's show, a panel discussion involving a pro-evolution scientist, an Intelligent Design proponent, and some freaky-deaky lady who must've been on acid, talking about golden curves, Phi, holy geometry...some such nonsense. Jon Stewart did make one very good observation about the Intelligent Design guy, which was that when you start using too many metaphors to back up your argument, the argument must be kind of weak. What annoyed me about the guy was how he was trying to use something in a book by Richard Dawkins to back him up, when I know full well (see an earlier post of mine) what Dawkins thinks of I.D. Watching that weird lady though...it was hard...we were all laughing while she was speaking, feeling bad about laughing while she was explaining her views, but unable to stifle the chortling. Even Jon Stewart and the scientist guy had looks on their faces that were priceless.
I did also like Jon Stewart's story on the blame game around the Katrina Disaster..."Meet the F**kers"

The not-so-daily blog
And what still annoys me: I was in the elevator last week, maybe Wed. or Thurs., and one of the little news blurbs on the display was "Louisiana National Guard returns home from Iraq" This being, what, 10 days after the hurricane? And again, how one little sentence can just irk me so much: if it weren't for Shrub's silly little war, so much more could have been done to prevent the magnitude of the disaster here at home. Money that could have been spent, rescue equipment, field hospitals, National Guardsmen...all of it, all being wasted out in the sands of Iraq.
- posted by dearsirsam @ 9:33 AM (4) comments

 
Coldplay
Went to see Coldplay in concert last night at Madison Square Garden in NYC. It was pretty fun, I don't know all of their songs, but enough that it was enjoyable, and they gave a good show. My friend Ashley would be pleased to know that not only did they play one song in honor of Johnny Cash, but they even did a little "Ring of Fire" in there too. I often like live performances less than recorded, for some reason, but there were a couple of songs that really were better live, so that was cool.

Jonathan and Jennifer
My friends Jonathan and Jennifer got married Sunday night. Jonathan is one of my oldest friends, and it was great to see him meet someone who is such a good partner in life for him. The wedding itself was fantastic, I got a chance to catch up with some S.F. friends I haven't seen in a couple years plus the NY crowd I've known since we were all little kids.
- posted by dearsirsam @ 1:44 PM (0) comments