An open letter to Bush from Michael Moore.

[Blackleaf]

Mirror.co.uk

September 2005

MICHAEL MOORE: DEAR MR BUSH

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 per cent 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 MMFlint@aol.com; 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.

mirror.co.uk

[sofia]

 

You just tell them that even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees 

824454[/snapback]

 

1) Bush isn't in charge of planning the budget.

2) Even if the money needed to fix the levees had been granted, the repairs wouldn't have been scheduled until 2006.

Christ. I agree that the government's involvement in helping victims has been nothing short of disgraceful, but I hardly think that Bush deserves all the blame for this. Crazy fact, people: Bush isn't the only one who makes decisions. You can't use him as a scapegoat for everything.

Edited September 3, 2005 by sofia

[Essan]

Moore's shown himself to be what he really is: ignorant garbage

[bathory]

interesting

Moore critisizes Bush for not going immediately

and then critisizes him for going, nice work Mr Moore, they could have used your incredible girth to fix up those levees

[The Caspian Hare]

What an attention whore.

[ShaunZero]

You people are being more ignorant than him, especialy by calling him a whore. I agree with some of the stuff he's saying also. If you don't like that, cry me a river, build me a bridge and GET OVER IT.

Edit; removed obscene retort.... Damn, now I did it. -_- Keep your responses civil, Zero, you should be able to criticize other members opinions without resorting to spewing insults.

Edited September 3, 2005 by Magikman

[retired UM]

i thought it was pretty entertaining, but i find it very hard to not agree with some stuf he's saying, im still on a mission to destroy all bushites' (pun intended), and if you dont like this letter, well, too bad

(rant is done)

[Faeden]

Go Moore Go, your making the people with there heads in the sand see things they do not want to see there becoming there normal aggressive selves America should thank Moore for defending America so well against the damage Bush keeps doing to America.

Again no one blamed Bush for the hurricane, just for being a incompetent idiot, and not giving a damn.

Come on republicans call him names, make fun of his weight, isn’t that what you normally resort to doing.

Moore loves America more than all the Repubs put together, if it where up to the republican robots America would be a crap heap years ago.

People act the most angry when something frightens them

All the best

Faeden

[The Caspian Hare]

And speaking of attention whores...

[Faeden]

Moore wants to expose Bush to the public for what he is, what do you want him to do, never speak to the public? If he was not trying to be known in the media, and not shouting loud, he would not be very good at what he was trying to do would he?.

Cant you come up with anything intelligent to say, rather than calling people whores redneck? I forgive you though

[The Caspian Hare]

Why should I bother? George Bush could personally pull people from the floodwaters and donate his entire fortune to the relief effort and people like you and Michael Moore et al. would still hate his guts. He is your Great Satan; every evil thing in creation is his fault. You pass off this blind hatred of yours as some kind of humanitarian outrage. I'm not impressed.

[retired UM]

if the devil himself saved 1000 people, would you stop hating him?

[Faeden]

No redneck If Bush personally pulled bodies from the water with his own hands and got stuck in (not for the cameras) I would have a great change of heart for Bush. I do not dislike every world leader like I do Bush, but then there are not many other world leaders around the world that are like Bush are there? He is the worlds most powerful man, he is also the most stupid when it comes to leaders, that is why I dislike him so much, I dislike people that are the same as him to, such as Osama. The man is stupid, that is not what annoys me the most though, its the fact that he is the worlds most powerful man and that scares me.

All the best

Faeden

[Nameless]

But how many others did he burn CPA? Bush isn't the Devil

Redneck

I see your point of view but i don't agree. I agree with Micheal Moore about the fact that there are practicly NO helicopters and barely NO rescue teams. He blew his money on the war.

Bush should see what is more important. His fellow man dying in his country or wreaking havoc in another.

[Nameless]

Faeden

We have to fear Bush. He's like a two year old with the whole army at his wake. Thats what makes him so dangerous to us and to you.

Another Opinion

[The Silver Thong]

Let's go back to the Tsunami that hit the areas around the Indian ocean,the U.S. military was there the very next day with aid,and support, why did it take days to get any type of support to new orlean's, the goverment left it up to local police to handle it WOW, There is something that is going to come out of this as a betrail by the goverment on the U.S. people. I'm affriad this is not going to be the last time either.

[Faeden]

Let's go back to the Tsunami that hit the areas around the Indian ocean,the U.S. military was there the very next day with aid,and support, why did it take days to get any type of support to new orlean's, the goverment left it up to local police to handle it  WOW,  There is something that is going to come out of this as a betrail by the goverment on the U.S. people.  I'm affriad this is not going to be the last time either.

824970[/snapback]

I hope it doesn’t happen again, this is why the American people need to get him out, Nixon was got out, now its Bush's turn. America has a dangerious enemy, its name Is George W Bush and his administration.

All the best

Faeden

Edited September 3, 2005 by Faeden

[matthewgoad]

There was 8 ft of water in New Orleans. You can't exactly roll all the trucks in there can you? It takes time to get boats in those areas becuase of debris, and the people there are going crazy. They are stealing boats, I saw the videos. Armed people are taking boats from those trying to help. I saw where they stole an ambulance that was transporting people. They are shooting at the hospitals. Not to mention the looting.

Now that conditions are safer the help has arrived. I know that many people have suffered and many have died and I'm sorry for that. It saddens me to the point of tears. I have on several occasions while watching the coverage cried because of what I've seen.

People were told to evacuate New Orleans and many did, but many were too poor to do so. I believe the government should have done something to get people out, but I don't feel that you can blame Bush for everything. There's alot here that is beyond his control. Help is coming, for some it is too late, but we have to go in save those that we can.

If you want to blame someone, feel free, but wait until things are settled down. Right now the focus should be on the peoplem, not the government.

[StalingradK]

Um, most areas are not able to get to by boat, it must be done by helicopters, boats are blocked to much by debris is the water such as rolled over cars and what not.

[Conspiracy]

Faeden

We have to fear Bush. He's like a two year old with the whole army at his wake. Thats what makes him so dangerous to us and to you.

Another Opinion

824936[/snapback]

plus the amount of nukes he has

[Baldwin]

It seems like their almost waiting for disease to spread through-out the still water. Once decomposition sets in and the water becomes a sesspool it will only get worse.

[sofia]

 

Go Moore Go, your making the people with there heads in the sand see things they do not want to see there becoming there normal aggressive selves   America should thank Moore for defending America so well against the damage Bush keeps doing to America. 

 

Again no one blamed Bush for the hurricane, just for being a incompetent idiot, and not giving a damn. 

 

824842[/snapback]

 

I think most of us can agree that the relief 'efforts' were disgraceful. That isn't the point here.

Michael Moore has, as usual, taken a valid point and completely warped it to back his own political agenda. As mentioned previously, Bush is not the only one responsible for making decisions. Rather than seek out those who are responsible, Moore continues to use Bush as a scapegoat for his outrage. Not only is this misleading, it's also lazy.

Extremists like Moore are giving liberals a bad name. The man isn't a political genius -- he's a sensationalist zealot who relies on half-truths and deceit to make his points. He's no better than the people he criticizes.

Come on republicans call him names, make fun of his weight, isn’t that what you normally resort to doing.

Not everyone who dislikes him is a Republican. Keep that in mind.

I do agree that making fun of Moore's weight is uncalled for, though. How petty can you get? Personal attacks in political debates really p*** me off.

[AztecInca]

I agree, he did have a reasonable and valid point but completly twisted it out of proportion using it for his own agenda as usual and losing the respect of even more people.

[LarryOldtimer]

Moore is nothing but a fat fool with his ego hanging out further than his obscene belly does. Only in Hollywood.

[LarryOldtimer]

Let's go back to the Tsunami that hit the areas around the Indian ocean,the U.S. military was there the very next day with aid,and support, why did it take days to get any type of support to new orlean's, the goverment left it up to local police to handle it  WOW,  There is something that is going to come out of this as a betrail by the goverment on the U.S. people.  I'm affriad this is not going to be the last time either.

824970[/snapback]

It is amazing to me how little people know about the laws in the US. Bush is Commander in Chief of the US armed forces, and can direct them to do just about anything outside of the United States. He cannot use them domestically . . . it is against our law. Only when a state legislature meets and agrees to ask that they be used can they be. By the same token, National Guard forces can be called up by the federal government . . . for use only in a foreign war. For domestic use, National Guard forces are under the jurisdiction of the governors of the various states . . . not the president's. What Bush could and did do was declare a state of emergency . . . and get FEMA forces up and running and positioned where they could do the most good . . . in the aftermath of the hurricane . . . and keep in mind that Katrina was still a category 1 hurricane many hours after it struck New Orleans . . . and that is not the only place where massive destruction occurred. The total area of severe destruction is larger than the land area of all of England. Even FEMA forces had to wait to see what infrastructure was left before they could begin planning as to how to actually distribute the aid. From a standpoint of someone who actually knows about how things have to be done to be effective, I think that the response of the federal government was remarkably fast. The helicopters were used to first rescue those thousands on roof tops . . . one at a time, before they could be used for supply purposes. The horns of a dilemma, certainly, but in my opinion, was settled wisely. The survivors in need of food and water could wait . . . those on rooftops couldn't. But then, if you want to compare Bush to a fairy godmother, who has only to wave a magic wand to make things right, yes, Bush was a bit slow.