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An Open Email from Michael Moore

26 X World Champs

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I received this email this morning from my friend Michael Moore. You remember Michael, he's the guy that one of you in this forum just yesterday wrote in several posts that he was worse than Hitler. He's the same guy some of you love to hate and you hate him with extreme prejudice. Steam blows out of your ears at the very mention of his name. Some of you associate all that is wrong with Liberal America as being Michael's fault. You dismiss everything he says, does or writes.

Mike's email is VERY critical of Bush as we all would expect. Get over it, please and instead try to answer the specific questions that he asks. His questions are pointed and harsh because the situation we're in is pointed and harsh which begets tough questions. Let's see if those of you who adore President Bush can come up with responses to these questions that are more than a rehash of the same talking points that you've used over and over again when avoiding direct replies to harsh questions. Let's see if you can give a direct answer to direct questions? Up for it?

Well let's see what all of you have to say about this email from Michael? You think you can respond without invoking political prejudice? You know, read this email and respond to its content. Novel thought really! Write a reply based on what is said in this specific post rather than trying to smokescreen a response with Michael Moore "hate talking points" that so many of you have expressed in countless other threads.

So let's see how many of you are able to stay focused on this email?

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 widow 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
source: www.michaelmoore.com
 
Very hard not to induce political prejudice when the letter itself invokes such.
But, I will enter a few of my observations.

1. The mayor REFUSED help from our federal government, the red cross, and state national guard.
2. The govenor REFUSED help from our federal government, the red cross, and state side national guard. Later she cited that she didn't know she had to ask for help. DOH! :doh
3. President Bush entered a state of emergency 24 hours BEFORE the incident happened. This simply was ignored by the mayor and govenor.
4. The horse show guy is an attorney 2x over. This doesn't quite qualify him to run FEMA, but is shows that he is not 100% inept. If FEMA were setup and running correctly, his job should have been simple. The only job he really has is public speaking.
5. Every state is it's own entity. Requests for help must be made or we have national marshal law all the time.

I submit that it was the Mayor, Govenor, and FEMA that were at fault. President Bush acted quickly and responsibly by declaring a state of emergency which the govenor did not accept until is was too late.

Oh, and one more thing. The mayor asked that folks leave, but FAILED miserably in providing assistance.
 
Last edited:
Whaddaya want me to say? He's got good points, as anyone would have in the frame of the catastrophe that hit the south of the country.

Is Bush and the BA respinsible? To a certain extent, yes. The others too.

We are talking 'bout deaths, here. As much as I think MM can be right, using this against Bush seems low to me.

Later on, when things get in hand, we'll have the time to talk 'bout it. Right now, the goal is to help the poeple to get over this horror.

Just my opinion.

Y
 
26 X World Champs said:
I received this email this morning from my friend Michael Moore. You remember Michael, he's the guy that one of you in this forum just yesterday wrote in several posts that he was worse than Hitler. He's the same guy some of you love to hate and you hate him with extreme prejudice. Steam blows out of your ears at the very mention of his name. Some of you associate all that is wrong with Liberal America as being Michael's fault. You dismiss everything he says, does or writes.

Mike's email is VERY critical of Bush as we all would expect. Get over it, please and instead try to answer the specific questions that he asks. His questions are pointed and harsh because the situation we're in is pointed and harsh which begets tough questions. Let's see if those of you who adore President Bush can come up with responses to these questions that are more than a rehash of the same talking points that you've used over and over again when avoiding direct replies to harsh questions. Let's see if you can give a direct answer to direct questions? Up for it?

Well let's see what all of you have to say about this email from Michael? You think you can respond without invoking political prejudice? You know, read this email and respond to its content. Novel thought really! Write a reply based on what is said in this specific post rather than trying to smokescreen a response with Michael Moore "hate talking points" that so many of you have expressed in countless other threads.

So let's see how many of you are able to stay focused on this email?


source: www.michaelmoore.com

I like this letter better, and it's just as objective:

http://themiddleground.blogspot.com/2004/10/open-letter-to-michael-mooreosama-bin.html
 
vauge said:
Very hard not to induce political prejudice when the letter itself invokes such.
But, I will enter a few of my observations.

1. The mayor REFUSED help from our federal government, the red cross, and state national guard.
2. The govenor REFUSED help from our federal government, the red cross, and state side national guard. Later she cited that she didn't know she had to ask for help. DOH! :doh
3. President Bush entered a state of emergency 24 hours BEFORE the incident happened. This simply was ignored by the mayor and govenor.
4. The horse show guy is an attorney 2x over. This doesn't quite qualify him to run FEMA, but is shows that he is not 100% inept. If FEMA were setup and running correctly, his job should have been simple. The only job he really has is public speaking.
5. Every state is it's own entity. Requests for help must be made or we have national marshal law all the time.

I submit that it was the Mayor, Govenor, and FEMA that were at fault. President Bush acted quickly and responsibly by declaring a state of emergency which the govenor did not accept until is was too late.

Oh, and one more thing. The mayor asked that folks leave, but FAILED miserably in providing assistance.

I agree with 1,2 and 3. Number four? I understand the man's an attorney, but he is still head of THE group responsible for disastors. You don't think he should have any experience at all? Not even a little? Why don't we just put in a real estate attourney when Greenspan retires. I mean, he'll be an attourney after all!

There's more to qualifying a person for a job of this magnitude than a law degree.

As for Pres. Bush acting responsible? I understand that the governor and mayor didn't ask for aid. And I hold them partially accountable too. But at what point should a president ignore that and send aid in anyways? What if 2 weeks go by, and they still haven't requested help? The president is just supposed to sit on his ass and let everyone die? I say he should have sent people in anyways. And I hold him responsible for appointing Brown.
 
I'm not a liberal or conservative, but the none the less I can't stand the man. I gave him an honest chance, but his methods hold very little water if researched correctly. He's a partisan hack at this point and clearly ignores anything that had to do with the previous administration. Clinton cut funding for that levee as well, but we won't hear that from such an objective mouth piece such as Moore.
 
vauge said:
4. The horse show guy is an attorney 2x over. This doesn't quite qualify him to run FEMA, but is shows that he is not 100% inept. If FEMA were setup and running correctly, his job should have been simple. The only job he really has is public speaking.
.

If FEMA were setup and run correctly? Doesn't Bush have an obligation to make sure the guy in charge of FEMA will have a clue as to whether FEMA is set up and run correctly or not? ESPECIALLY after 9/11? It's been 4 years, there has been ample time to have that agency ramped up and utterly prepared for anything. I mean, what is the point otherwise, just a high payed patronage job? This is by far the most damning part of Bush's failure. Instead of picking someone with guts and skill to help bail America out in an emergency, he gives the gig to a friend of his campaign manager with dubious qualifications. I would have no problem with Bush eating cake and playing guitar if he had had the foresight to make sure that America's emergency services were up to the job. He didn't. They failed. And that's why a big hunk of this mess is on him.

If Bush has any sense, Russel Honore will be in charge of FEMA by the end of this week. But I ain't holdin my breath.
 
vauge said:
Very hard not to induce political prejudice when the letter itself invokes such.
But, I will enter a few of my observations.

1. The mayor REFUSED help from our federal government, the red cross, and state national guard.
2. The govenor REFUSED help from our federal government, the red cross, and state side national guard. Later she cited that she didn't know she had to ask for help. DOH! :doh
3. President Bush entered a state of emergency 24 hours BEFORE the incident happened. This simply was ignored by the mayor and govenor.
The Gov. asked him to declare a state of emergency and he did promptly.

No sources(web links)?
 
scottyz said:
The Gov. asked him to declare a state of emergency and he did promptly.

No sources(web links)?

Doesn't work that way...The Govornor can declare a state of emergency at any time...she doesn't ask anyone for it...

Watch the news...Just two weeks ago, Gov. Richardson of New Mexico declared a state of emergency because of immigration...which is the exact thing Bush WOULDN'T want...so "asking" is not an issue...
 
Wow, like his other charades, he wastes no time in exploiting the Katrina disaster to his best interests and to the cheers of hypocrits everywhere. Can't wait for the movie.

I wonder how many small villages in Africa he could feed if he turned his back on the buffet occassionally. Oh was that a cheap and personal attack.....maybe I should leave that to the "professionals."
 
GySgt said:
Oh was that a cheap and personal attack.....maybe I should leave that to the "professionals."
Did someone call me?
 
curisz said:
If FEMA were setup and run correctly? Doesn't Bush have an obligation to make sure the guy in charge of FEMA will have a clue as to whether FEMA is set up and run correctly or not? ESPECIALLY after 9/11? It's been 4 years, there has been ample time to have that agency ramped up and utterly prepared for anything. I mean, what is the point otherwise, just a high payed patronage job? This is by far the most damning part of Bush's failure. Instead of picking someone with guts and skill to help bail America out in an emergency, he gives the gig to a friend of his campaign manager with dubious qualifications. I would have no problem with Bush eating cake and playing guitar if he had had the foresight to make sure that America's emergency services were up to the job. He didn't. They failed. And that's why a big hunk of this mess is on him.

If Bush has any sense, Russel Honore will be in charge of FEMA by the end of this week. But I ain't holdin my breath.


Simpleton. You're smarter than this aren't you? Blame Bush...Blame Brown...Blame FEMA...Blame the military...Blame the Governor...Blame the Mayor...Blame the individual citizen.

The problem is our governmental system. The same system that American citizens have been protected by for centuries. The seperation between Federal, State and City and the bureaucracy that ensures that each has it's secular power was the problem. It will continue to be a problem, because in the end, our great people would rather suck on it then to risk doing something that might give the Federal Government more power over the state.
 
cnredd said:
Doesn't work that way...The Govornor can declare a state of emergency at any time...she doesn't ask anyone for it...

Watch the news...Just two weeks ago, Gov. Richardson of New Mexico declared a state of emergency because of immigration...which is the exact thing Bush WOULDN'T want...so "asking" is not an issue...
http://www.gov.state.la.us/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=976

Press Release
Date: 8/27/2005


Contact:Denise Bottcher or Roderick Hawkins at 225-342-9037


Governor Blanco asks President to Declare an Emergency for the State of Louisiana due to Hurricane Katrina


BATON ROUGE—Today Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco forwarded a letter to President Bush requesting that he declare an emergency for the State of Louisiana due to Hurricane Katrina. The full text of the letter follows:

She did and he promptly followed her request.
 
Guess I owe every one here an oppoligy!
I said that Gov Blanco asked Bush to declare Louisiana a state of emergency on August 26th.
I was wrong. It was August 27th!!!:roll:
>>>2 Days before Katrina hit.<<<:lol:
 
There were certainly failures on all three levels of gov't, state, local, AND federal. However, with that being said, I find anyone attempting to politisize a national tragedy, as Moore has done time and time again, first with Columbine then with 9-11, and now again with Katrina, is a scum bag of the highest order. Hay MOORE! why don't you give your prophets from Bowling for Columbine to gun crime victims? You pompous self serving, self agrandizing, hypocrit! And how exactly am I your fellow American, don't you live in France? Oh, and one more thing Moore, anyone bitching about the excesses of American culture, probably shouldn't weigh 500 lbs. Just food for thought and we all know how much you love food. lmfao
 
Trajan Octavian Titus said:
There were certainly failures on all three levels of gov't, state, local, AND federal. However, with that being said, I find anyone attempting to politisize a national tragedy, as Moore has done time and time again, first with Columbine then with 9-11, and now again with Katrina, is a scum bag of the highest order. Hay MOORE! why don't you give your prophets from Bowling for Columbine to gun crime victims? You pompous self serving, self agrandizing, hypocrit! And how exactly am I your fellow American, don't you live in France? Oh, and one more thing Moore, anyone bitching about the excesses of American culture, probably shouldn't weigh 500 lbs. Just food for thought and we all know how much you love food. lmfao
The Bush admin. never politicizes 9/11!!!!!!111111!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111
 
scottyz said:
The Bush admin. never politicizes 9/11!!!!!!111111!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111

That's how you defend Michael Moore?

The difference being a politician's move to make decisions (right or wrong) based on an event and a shark that feasts on human tragedy wherever it strikes for personal gain as he criticizes the actions of others, while offering no solutions. In other words, he builds nothing and he creates nothing positive.
 
I see Michael Moore as a clever opportunist who is laughing all the way to the bank and I see his followers as sheep. He saw Jesse Jackson padding his bank account by using hatred and divisive rhetoric to inflame a racial minority and MM uses the same tactics to make himself a rich man while all the while denigrating the wealthy and Capitalism.........wake up SHEEP. He is using you ....... how does it feel to be used as pawns in his huge money making scheme? He and Jesse are giants in the game of hypocrisy and it is just a game to them, make no mistake about it.

How many of his millions has he donated to the victims of Katrina????.......I personally don't know but perhaps you sheep should ask that question because IF he has donated a substantial amount it would give him some credibility which he doesn't have now except in the eyes of his sheep.
 
Michael Moore is not the villian.

We have evidence Bush could've prevented 9/11.

Anyone who isn't brain dead knows Bush lied about Iraq's WMD.

We know Bush failed miserably at having any kind of post war plan for stabilyzing Iraq.

And now we have Katrina, where Bush dwadled for two days at his Texas ranch and allowed 5 days to pass before setting foot in the devasted region, meanwhile, having the gall to make flippant speeches commending FEMA for the job they were doing.

And later, even his mother gets in the act by saying the refugees seem to be content living in a stadium..."you know, they were underprivleged anyway, so this is working very well for them."

Meanwhile bodies continue to float in the water for 5 plus days.

Then we have people wading through chest high waters, searching for food, water and clothing, condemned by some on the right as looters, yet the true looters were the gas companies, who helped put Bush in office, who saw Katrina as an opportunity to raise gas prices, nation-wide, overnight while enjoying the tax breaks and subsidies given to them by Bush and raking in a good 24 billion in profits last year. ( Exxon-Mobil)

The ultimate humiliation is when a poor nation like Sri-Lanka offers to send aid to the once great nation of the United States.

It's not the stench of the bodies in New Orleans that shames our nation, but the stench rising from this administration that shames all of us in the eyes of the world.

We need a leader who puts America first.
 
Wow! What a steaming load.

Coming from the same Michael Moore who has been repeatedly proven to be a liar on everything from the gun deal at that bank in rural America to the mythical Bush-Saudi conspiracy, I'm going to take a wild stab here and suspect that Mooreon is perhaps strethcing things a bit when he asserts such a lame basis for the hiring of the FEMA director.

The rest of this moronic drivel isn't worth further attention.
 
"We have evidence Bush could've prevented 9/11."

We have way more evidence that Clinton could have prevented Bin Laden from doing a lot against our military in the 90's and was allowed to live to plan 9/11. Attacks on our military went largely ignored by our President and civilian populace. I guess Bin Laden got your attentions in New York...the second time. Funny how hindsight is so perfect, isn't it?

"We know Bush failed miserably at having any kind of post war plan for stabilyzing Iraq."

Not true. There was a plan, however nobody, including the military, expected the widespread looting and pillaging that followed or the insurgency that followed that. Perhaps if Katrina had happened before Iraq, we would have been prepared for it, given that we would have had our own people's horrible behaivor to remind us.

The ultimate humiliation is not that countries that we have helped over the years is taking the advantage to help us and to return the favor. The ultimate humiliation was the detestable conduct of "Americans" on our own soil.

The rest of what you wrote is too dramatic for me.
 
Micheal Moore has some valid points. Even though I'm no fan of his, he does make sense. Some of the blame goes to the local and state governments, who delayed assisting impoverished and destitute victims, hance, created a man-made disaster. As a consequence of their actions, there are more deaths and anguish than was necessary.
 
I suppose the response to Katrina would've been faster if all the victims were young comatose females with feeding tubes in their bodies, then the republicans would've been crawling all over themselves to help.
 
GySgt said:
We have way more evidence that Clinton could have prevented Bin Laden from doing a lot against our military in the 90's and was allowed to live to plan 9/11. Attacks on our military went largely ignored by our President and civilian populace. I guess Bin Laden got your attentions in New York...the second time. Funny how hindsight is so perfect, isn't it?

An outright distortion of the facts...Clinton did more to combat terrorism then any president in history, and was fought every step of the way by a republican congress.

"We know Bush failed miserably at having any kind of post war plan for stabilyzing Iraq."

GySGT said:
Not true. There was a plan, however nobody, including the military, expected the widespread looting and pillaging that followed or the insurgency that followed that.

The only plan Bush had in place for post war Iraq was who was going to sweep up the flowers thrown by all the grateful citizens. The truth is, Bush's post war plan failed miserably...Bush was also warned by the CIA in Febuary of 2003 that armed opposition was inevitable after the war.

The White House should've listen to General Zinni, and others, who warned of the post war Iraq problems, but Bush was content to allow the unwarranted optimism of Rumsfield and Wolfowitz to go unchallenged by the 'liberal' media.

We should've learned from Afghanistan that while military might may win the war, it may not win the hearts and minds of the people.
 
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