A Letter to All Who Voted for George W. Bush... from Michael Moore:


Dear Friends,

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 re-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, after 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 at some fundraiser with John McCain. 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 2,500 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
MichaelMoore.com
MMFlint@aol.com

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"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

yea.

Here is an interesting thought that gets me laughing inside. When the huge, money grabing, power grabing agency of homelad security was formed people starting talking about putting them 8th in the presidential line of succession. I know it sounded like a great idea to me ... if the top seven people in America get killed lets put the guy who was in charge of protecting them in charge of the country.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_line_of_succession

The good news is that it didn't happen. They are at the bottom ... 16th in line. Right where they should be if they have to exist.

Chris.

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yea.

Here is an interesting thought that gets me laughing inside. When the huge, money grabing, power grabing agency of homelad security was formed people starting talking about putting them 8th in the presidential line of succession. I know it sounded like a great idea to me ... if the top seven people in America get killed lets put the guy who was in charge of protecting them in charge of the country.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_line_of_succession

The good news is that it didn't happen. They are at the bottom ... 16th in line. Right where they should be if they have to exist.

Chris.

Thanks Chris,

I didn't know that!

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"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

A Letter to All Who Voted for George W. Bush... from Michael Moore:
SNIP...

Paulison's real qualifications, he is a democrat by the way...

Robert David Paulison attended North Miami Senior High School and earned his bachelor's degree from Florida Atlantic University, and later completed a program at John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University for government service executives. After beginning his career as a firefighter, Paulison rose through the ranks, and became fire chief of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue in 1992. He was subsequently named fire chief of the year for Florida in 1993, and has thirty years of experience as a firefighter. In addition, he was also president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs.

During his time as a firefighter, Paulison was responsible for the cleanup after Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and after the crash of ValuJet Flight 592 over the Everglades in 1996.[1]

On September 20, 2001, President George W. Bush announced that he would appoint Paulison (a Democrat) as the head of the United States Fire Administration, now a division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Directorate of Preparedness. The nomination was sent to the U.S. Senate on October 16, 2001. Paulison was confirmed unanimously on November 30, 2001.

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So he was a fire chief and helped clean up after a hurricane and a plane crash?


.

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"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

So he was a fire chief and helped clean up after a hurricane and a plane crash?


.

Which is exactly what FEMA does, right?

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You'll need to ask some people from New Orleans about their thoughts on his efficiency. Of course those with the worst opinions about it are no longer able to speak.


.

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"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

You'll need to ask some people from New Orleans about their thoughts on his efficiency. Of course those with the worst opinions about it are no longer able to speak.


.

I never said FEMA did a good job, they are about as effective as any other government agency. I would pin more of the blame on the state of Louisiana and Ray Nagin himself anyway. And they funny part is they re elected Nagin again, lol.

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You'll need to ask some people from New Orleans about their thoughts on his efficiency. Of course those with the worst opinions about it are no longer able to speak.


.

I never said FEMA did a good job, they are about as effective as any other government agency. I would pin more of the blame on the state of Louisiana and Ray Nagin himself anyway.

How do you justify blaming a state official for a federal emergency? We all knew what was happening as it happened. Heck, even before it happened they had the Army Corp specs for the levies on the news. I watched it on TV from beginning to end! We got aid to other countries after disasters quicker than we did to our own!



.

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"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

So he was a fire chief and helped clean up after a hurricane and a plane crash?


.

The hurricane guy who was appointed in Jan. 2003 was Michael D. Brown who is remembered by GWB's line, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job".

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How do you justify blaming a state official for a federal emergency? We all knew what was happening as it happened. I watched it on TV from beginning to end.
.

It was his State to lose, they neglected the levee system for years and did not have mandatory evacuation soon enough. FEMA acted too slowly afterward, but nothing was done beforehand to lessen the impact.

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mmmk

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"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

mmmk

I would also point a finger at the army core of engineers who built the levees.

Preliminary investigations and evidence were presented before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on November 2, 2005, and generally confirmed the findings of the preliminary investigations.[16]

On November 9, 2005, The Government Accountability Office testified before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. The report cited the Flood Control Act of 1965, which authorized the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to design and construct a flood protection system to protect south Louisiana from the strongest storms characteristic of the region.

In his written evidence to the committee, Ivor van Heerden, from Louisiana State University, concluded, "Most of the flooding of New Orleans was due to man's follies. Society owes those who lost their lives, and the approximately 100,000 families who lost all, an apology and needs to step up to the plate and rebuild their homes, and compensate for their lost means of employment. New Orleans is one of our nations jeweled cities. Not to have given the residents the security of proper levees is inexcusable."[16]

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How do you justify blaming a state official for a federal emergency? We all knew what was happening as it happened. I watched it on TV from beginning to end.
.

It was his State to loose, they neglected the levee system for years and did not have mandatory evacuation soon enough. FEMA acted too slowly afterward, but nothing was done beforehand to lessen the impact.

It's LOSE!

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[quote][quote]

It's LOSE!

typo... lol

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What I'm afraid of is that the new levees weren't constructed very well and will give way with the next strong hurricane, possibly Gustav. I don't see why anybody would ever want to do a half-ass job with something like this. Also the the affected New Orleanians should have enough sense to move to higher ground inland, now that their houses are already broken. It might only be a matter of five miles or so, I don't know.

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What I'm afraid of is that the new levees weren't constructed very well and will give way with the next strong hurricane, possibly Gustav. I don't see why anybody would ever want to do a half-ass job with something like this. Also the the affected New Orleanians should have enough sense to move to higher ground inland, now that their houses are already broken. It might only be a matter of five miles or so, I don't know.

Unfortanately the only cheap land down there is either marsh land or below sea level. But good point, I certaily would not move back if I knew there was a chance this might all happen again. Like you, I really hope they made the levees stronger.

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[quote][quote]

It's LOSE!

typo... lol

It's the most overdone "typo" on the Internet.

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Do you believe in Jesus? Really? Didn't he say that we would be judged by how we treat the least among us?

There you go again... assuming that the antichrist teaches sound scriptural doctrine... ;)

(It never ceases to amaze me how often 'christians' who 'follow the spirit' contradict the unchangeable Word of God... TEST THE SPIRITS???)

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It may not be 1984 but George Orwell sure did see the future . . .

It's always been a one horse town. Don't forget the dog and pony show.

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me@rescam.org