A letter from Michael Moore

[Late BrakeU2]

Just for the record I hate fat Moore because of his propaganda and disrespect for those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for their beliefs.That being said,it's been a dark decade for our great nation-

Subject: Fwd: Vacation is Over... an open letter from Michael Moore to George W. Bush



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]
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.

[Chris396]

I think the slow response from the government is an embarrassment.

[kwhizz]

[ QUOTE ]
I think the slow response from the government is an embarrassment.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree...........I am a Bush supporter, but the open borders and this deal are just crazy.......I don't understand his logic in the border area especially...........

Ken

By the way.....Mr Moore is a P.O.S.......But he has the right to say whatever he wants

[dreemz]

I find it interesting that people with little understanding of the demographics or topography of a place like New Orleans would post a letter from Michael Moore to express their dissatifaction of how the hurricane disaster was managed. Maybe instead of whining or pointing fingers you could send a check to the Red Cross or Salvation Army to help. Do really believe first of all that it's either edifying or constructive to post a letter from someone who loathes the Bush administration as an objective analysis of how the serach/rescue/recovery issue was handled? Instead of politicizing such a monumental tragedy why can't people just try to help make a difference? Or maybe we should try and prove that George Bush was the sole instigator behind Katrina because (as announced by a particular rapper last night on an NBC celebrity fundraiser)he doesn't care about blacks?

[ANDY M]

I AGREE 100% that proactivity trumps blame every time.
The enormity of the amount of damage is what is hard to comprehend, and even if it is understood, the logistics of saving or helping all of these people is almost incomprehensable.
To try to put it in perspective, if this storm had come down from Canada and hit Lake Erie, there would have been severe damage from Toledo to Erie PA, and flooding as far south as Akron.
It would have taken FEMA a year to prepare for the rescue and clean up operations, and they only had a few days.
Mr. Moore may hate Bush, but there is no doubt that the government was too slow in responding. I'm not a Bush supporter, but I had to agree with him that this is not the worst catastrophe, nor will it be the last, and that the people in rural Mississippi might be the last on the list, but their suffering is just as bad as the folks in NO.
POINT IS:
HELP!! DO WHATEVER YOU CAN!
And pray that this place doesn't get hit again this year. Huricane season is not over yet.

[Donutblue]

I agree 100 percent that the best way to support those souls in this troubled time is to send $$$$ to some organization whose CEO's and administrators are not taking a major portion of the donated moneys (do some research here, I'm not gonna bash any charitble organizations). Further, it may be a nice gesture to see OPEC open their purse and help the U.S at this time. Not only will these gas prices be attached to all consumer goods, wait until you see what happens to lumber and building supplies ! We all will be paying for this tragedy in one way or another.

[427TJ]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't understand his [Bush's] logic in the border area especially

[/ QUOTE ]

It' simple economics. Generally speaking, illegal immigrant labor (Mexican and south and central American, in this case) is the cheapest available. Illegal immigrants don't form labor unions, they don't have pensions or health care/retirement plans, and they are easily replaced by the steady inflow of more illegal immigrants. Oh, and most of them work like draft horses when handed a shovel, hoe, pick, leaf blower, or paint brush, in rain or shine. They also wield a large political influence in certain states (California, for one) via local Hispanic-American political groups. But, the bottom line is economics. Illegal labor does our dirty work and they do it CHEAP. If there's one thing we Americans love it's CHEAP anything, especially cheap labor.

Let's say you want some landscaping work done and you have a choice between an American guy driving a brand new $30,000 diesel crew-cab pickup truck with $2,000+ in chrome wheels and a lift kit. He wants $10,000 to do the job (and he'll probably have a crew of young Hispanic men do it). The other guy is an illegal immigrant from south of the border who has been here for ten years and he drove up in a '70s beater Datsun pickup. He wants $1,000 to do the job and his family will help him. The American guy has a truck payment, a fishing boat payment, and a house payment. He also has a '67 Camaro SS that he wants to buy a crate 502 for. The Hispanic illegal immigrant basically has none of that high-overhead stuff, just himself and his family to feed and a one-room apartment. He sure doesn't have a house payment to worry about. They're both digging a big hole in your backyard. Who will you hire?

(By the way, who does most of the block-sanding and other back breaking work in body shops? You gonna' pay Chip Foose to do it or the Hispanics down the street who'll do it just as well for a tenth of the cost? No offense to Mr. Foose, of course. He deserves every dollar he earns.)

As for the president (Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, and on back), his powerful political allies/campaign donors in the business community (agribusiness especially) desperately need illegal labor. American companies have always wanted the cheapest possible labor (cost control) and with illegal immigrants they can scare Americans with the constant threat of replacement.

I work in the airline industry and there are fewer and fewer "Americans" and more and more immigrants in and around the airplanes. My airline fired all of its cabin cleaners (mostly white women but others too) and they have been replaced by Somali women and other (many Muslim) immigrants. All of the local ramp workers (unionized employees with full benefits) were also recently fired and replaced with cheaper workers supplied by an outside vendor (much cheaper). Northwest's mechanics are on strike but were immediately replaced by scabs laid-off from other airlines--the "brotherhood," so to speak. The pressure's on in the race to the bottom.

Basically there's a war on labor and it's been going on for decades. With the recent globalization trends of the past 10-15 years the war on labor has heated up through out-sourcing (China, India) and other downward pressures on the cost of labor. When corporate managers seek cost control they go straight to labor's pockets and shove both hands in. I myself have taken a 32% pay cut this year and my company really wants to cut into my retirement plan when we start contract negotiations in 2006. As far as the airline business is concerned, the demand for lower and lower fares (and higher and higher fuel prices) has a cost and it comes right out of the employee's pockets. My company's management team continues to pay itself generous "performance" cash bonuses and the stock price is up a little.

Illegal and legal immigration has long been a cheap source of labor in this country and it's not about to end just because a few concerned citizens are patrolling the Arizona border. $10,000 vs. $1,000 -- you make that choice every day.

"Buy American" means that your money usually pays for unionized labor with healthcare and retirement benefits. It also pays for new pickups, fishing boats, vacations, college tuition, four-bedroom houses, a musclecar or two in the garage, etc., etc. But, Americans apparently have been speaking with their wallets and purses in recent years and the result is a continued high demand for ever-cheaper products and services. As America "Wal-Mart-izes" the ripple will be felt across the economic spectrum. As American's pay goes down, so does its spending power. Pretty soon that Hispanic illegal immigrant guy asking $1,000 to dig a hole in your backyard is the only choice you'll be able to make.

Oh, as one of the things I've had to cut back on because of my pay cut, I had to stop taking my 5 year-old son to the barber shop for $16 haircuts every few weeks. I now cut his hair in the kitchen with a $15 haircut kit that paid for itself the first time I used it. My barber's wife actually got a bit angry that I am cutting my son's hair. But, my barber buys a new car or truck every six months or so and has moved into three different houses in the seven years I've known him. Think of me as an illegal immigrant barber getting around the high cost of American barbers.

[Late BrakeU2]

[ QUOTE ]
I find it interesting that people with little understanding of the demographics or topography of a place like New Orleans would post a letter from Michael Moore to express their dissatifaction of how the hurricane disaster was managed.[ QUOTE ]


I am very intimate with the goegraphic dynamics of the region,but thanks for the condescending overview.Perhaps you should re read that one paragraph from which you gleaned I was pro.. Moore?

[ QUOTE ]
Maybe instead of whining or pointing fingers you could send a check to the Red Cross or Salvation Army to help.[ QUOTE ]


Exactly,and what I felt was a glaring omission in his letter..but he did have room for Cindy.


[ QUOTE ]
Do really believe first of all that it's either edifying or constructive to post a letter from someone who loathes the Bush administration as an objective analysis of how the serach/rescue/recovery issue was handled?[ QUOTE ]


Yes, both edifying and constructive,because it clearly illustrates the man's political agenda.His callous,glib spin shows absolutely no class while people are still dying by the hour.A real man would have waited till at least the situation stabilized,but hey strike when the iron's hot and let's throw the race card in for good measure.

[ QUOTE ]
Instead of politicizing such a monumental tragedy why can't people just try to help make a difference?[ QUOTE ]


See above

[ QUOTE ]
Or maybe we should try and prove that George Bush was the sole instigator behind Katrina because (as announced by a particular rapper last night on an NBC celebrity fundraiser)he doesn't care about blacks?

[/ QUOTE ]

Last time I checked bullets,and extreme weather don't discrimnate but something tells me they would not be sniping dustoffs in Kennebunkport.

[jfkheat]

It seems that a lot of people want to point fingers at Bush and the Federal government for their slow response to the mess in New Orleans. I agree that the response has been slow but what did the Louisiana local and state governments do to prepair for this? What have they done to help after Katrina hit? From what I have seen, not very much. The New Orleans Mayor and Louisiana governer are as much or more to blame as anyone else. Mississippi and Alabama were hit very hard too but you don't the same things happening there that are happening in in New Orleans.
James

[whitetop]

I think the biggest lesson to be learned from this whole deal is NEVER rely on the government for your protection and NEVER give up your guns. This is a perfect example how thin that "blue line" actually is.

PC term for looters= "Undocumeted Shoppers"

Keep your powder dry;
whitetop