Friday, September 02, 2005

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

I know I said I was taking a few days off from blogging, but this letter needs to be read by as many people as possible. Pass it on...

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

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.

4 comments:

Damien said...

The choice not to use Army engineers to bolster the levies and send them to Iraq represents about 40% of federal spending to address the flood prevention program in New Orleans. Bad choice considering that flooding in New Orleans was rated as a top three natural disaster concern in the US.

Snave said...

Poor, poor Dubya... what will he do? That is nowhere near as important as asking "what will New Orleans do?" But it is still worth asking. I doubt Dubya will do much. If he does something, I doubt it will be something that has a positive impact... at least, when one looks at his record so far, there isn't much cause for optimism.

New Orleans will rebuild itself DESPITE Dubya, probably not with his help.

Sheryl said...

I wonder where Cindy is tonight. They were scheduled to be in Shreveport, Louisiana today. I can't imagine that they actually went to Shreveport in all this mess.

Anonymous said...

Now that the "fabulous" Lizzie has a Blog...I can send in comments from the view of a retired Liberal New Yorker like:

The Amrican public is the most uninformed populace in the world outside of countries that have no national press, tv or widespreadf computer Blog activity. They don';t take the trouble to learn who and what is governing their lives...they just hope it will all be O.k.
Now the chickens have come home to roost!
A president who was raied with a silver spoon in his mouth by a mother who pits her foot in her own.
A Grandfather who was a Republican isolationist and probably fascist as well.
"W" is a reformed (?)alcoholic with a blue blood background whose only contact with the working class probably were those who took care of the Kennebunkport or Txas properties.
We get what we deserve!