The Guy's Got A Point...Or Ten
I'm not a Democrat, and I don't like Michael Moore (for the same reason I don't like Ann Coulter -- because I don't like liars), but he's right on with this letter:
Friday, September 2nd, 2005Dear 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
I don't much care for Michael Moore, either. But I would compare him favorably to Ann Coulter. Neither one is terribly honest, but I prefer the left's agenda espoused by Moore, than the right's espoused by Coulter.
In the face of this natural disaster, if anything good can ever be said to come from this, we bring home the glaring differences between the right and left. The right wants unrestricted freedom to make as much money as they can, and damned be personal responsibility to others. Now, in some ways, I can agree with this. It isn't my fault that some people in this nation don't hold jobs and want to sponge off the government for the rest of their natural lives. I don't owe money to the unmotivated parasites of this world.
On the other hand, when lack of responsibility includes not having to clean up polluted waterways where the fish are being wiped out (and the indigenous human beings are being infected) with pfisteria and people are literally being stunk out of their own homes by lagoons of pig feces, where mountain top removal sends boulders crashing into peoples' houses and wipes out the local fauna... well, with this, I have a problem.
I don't begrudge businesses the right to make money, but, damn it, clean up after yourselves. And yes, that does mean you might make less money.
I don't for a lot of things that the liberal agenda espouses either, but it's a hell of lot more palatable than the party of greed and lack of personal responsibility.
Like I said, I don't much care for Michael Moore. But he's preferable to Ann Coulter in the sense that he, at least, advocates personal responsibility, even to his own disadvantage. Let's face it. If his agenda comes out on top, he's going to be paying a hell of a lot more taxes. As opposed to Coulter, the me-centrist, who thinks about nothing but herself.
Patrick at September 5, 2005 8:08 AM
Why is Michael Moore a liar? Because everyone says he is without citing examples? He's not a liar. He's a guy who asks good questions and doesn't have any valid answers. A worthy muckraker, nothing more, nothing less.
little ted at September 5, 2005 3:58 PM
What's unfortunate about his work is, in fact, all the lies and exaggerations. He had a case in many cases wtihout stretching things. I don't recall all the exact reasons I find him a scumbag, but there are quite a few. I call a liar a liar no matter which side of the political fence they're sitting on -- or straddling, in many cases.
Amy Alkon at September 5, 2005 5:31 PM
Go Michael! No, he's not my kind of guy but there's nothing in this letter I disagree with.
Sheryl at September 5, 2005 6:39 PM
Amy, that's my point exactly. The 'I know he's a liar because, well, I can't remember why, but I know he's a liar' argument. Read the widely circulated piece by Hitchens entitled something along the lines of 'Fahrenheit 9/11 is a complete fabrication,' and tell me if you can make heads or tails out of anything in that piece other than the title.
Here's what I don't like about Michael Moore: he thinks the government can solve everyone's problems and exists for the purpose of doing so. He thinks that the government does a good job when it steps in somewhere it shouldn't.
Here's my only qualm with fahrenheit 9-11: he blames Bush for things that have nothing to do with him based on the expectation that the US government should be a benevolent force of omnipotence.
I can cite an example of this. The suggestion that it is some fault of the Bush administration that a police office in Fresno infiltrated a group of hippies in the name of protecting the country from terrorism. Hardly a lie, but a bit unfair.
It makes me sad that Fox News can call Michael Moore a liar so many times that it becomes a subliminal message that gets ingrained even in smart, reasonable people.
little ted at September 5, 2005 10:46 PM
Actually, I could have told you a while back, but I really am light in the memory department.
Amy Alkon at September 6, 2005 5:00 AM
little ted writes:
What are these places that the government "shouldn't" step in? And when did Michael Moore say that the government can solve EVERYONE'S problems?
I believe politics can make peoples' lives better. Can it do so for EVERYONE and can it solve EVERY problem? No way.
Patrick at September 6, 2005 10:59 AM
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