Mike's Message
Why Don't We All Just Cut the Crap Right Now
5/1/2001
http://www.michaelmoore.com/2001_0501.html
Dear friends,
Well, 101 days into the Junta and the fear mongers are having a heyday,
aren't they? Even good liberals and Democrats have joined in the mantra. To
listen to them, you'd think George W. Bush had opened the gates of hell and
unleashed the legions of Satan upon the American people.
These good people actually believe Junior has put the arsenic back in the
water, given the go-ahead to spew massive CO2 emissions into the air, torn
up our national forests, and raped the Alaskan wilderness. With all the fury
that has been whipped up, I'm sure any minute we'll also hear that Baby Face
Bush recently held up a 7-11 in Denver, and now plans to release bubonic
plague into the atmosphere over Ohio.
Now, don't get me wrong. There's no doubt that this illegal squatter in the
Oval Office is not to be trusted farther than you can throw Katherine
Harris. But, please, let's cut the crap and tell the truth: George W. Bush
has done little more than CONTINUE the policies of the last eight years of
the Clinton/Gore administration. As hard as that is for many to swallow,
that is the truth -- and the sooner you stop the scare campaign, the sooner
we'll be able to fight Bush in a way that will stop him for good.
For eight long years, Clinton/Gore resisted all efforts and recommendations
to reduce the carbon dioxide in the air and the arsenic in the water. Just
last October, Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle and sixteen other
Democrats successfully led the way to STOP any reduction of arsenic in the
water. Why? Because Clinton and the Democrats were beholden to the very
industries who had financed their campaigns --- and who were responsible for
high levels of arsenic in the water.
On top of that, Clinton/Gore became the first administration in twenty years
NOT to demand higher fuel efficiency standards from Detroit. Millions of
barrels of oil that did not need to be refined and spewed out into our air
were guzzled unnecessarily. It wasn't that way under Reagan. His
administration ordered that cars had to get more miles per gallon. Under
Bush I, the standards were made even stricter. Under Clinton -- zip.
Nothing. How many more people will die from cancer, how much faster will
global warming be sped up thanks to Bill and Al being in cahoots with one of
their chief patrons, the top lobbyist for the Big 3 auto companies -- Mr.
Andrew Card, currently the chief of staff for the man occupying the federal
land at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? Am I the only one who remembers one of the
most lavish inaugural parties thrown for Clinton after his election? The
host: General Motors and its man-about-town in DC, Andrew Card.
Yes, there is a difference between the Democrats and the Republicans. The
Democrats say one thing ("Save the planet!"), and then do another, quietly
and behind the scenes with all the bastards who make this world a dirtier
place. The Republicans just come right out and give the bastards a corner
office in the West Wing. In some ways, maybe it's better we see the evil out
in the open rather than covered up in a liberal sheep's clothing that seems
to fool a lot of people.
Bill Clinton waited until the final days of his presidency to suddenly sign
a number of presidential decrees and regulations to improve our environment
and create safer working conditions. It was the ultimate cynical move. Wait
'til the last 48 hours of your term to finally do the right thing so that
your "legacy" will be improved. Every one of these regulations Bush has
"overturned" was signed by Clinton in December and January. And that's ALL
he did -- sign worthless pieces of paper.
Do you believe Clinton removed the arsenic from the water? Not only did he
NOT do that, not only did he make us drink arsenic-laced water for the last
8 years, this order he signed stipulated that the arsenic was not to be
removed from the water "until 2004." That's right. Look it up. Clinton's big
environmental do-good act in the last minutes of his term guaranteed that we
would be drinking the same levels of arsenic we've been drinking since 1942
-- the last time a REAL Democrat had the guts to stand up to the mining
interests and reduce the levels of this poison. The Canadians and Europeans
did it long ago. Clinton made it official that we would all be drinking
arsenic during the entire Bush administration. Maybe he was doing us a
favor.
And how about those CO2 emission regulations that Bush II overturned? Did I
say "overturn?" Overturn what? All Bush did was maintain the Clinton status
quo. He said, in essence, that "I'm going to pollute the air at the very
same levels Clinton did during his entire eight years, just as you are going
to drink the same arsenic in the water under my watch as you did under
Clinton's."
And, like the built-in three-year delay in his arsenic reductions, Clinton's
orders on the toxic emissions in his last days specified that they were not
to be totally reduced '"until 2008, per the Kyoto agreement." So, after
violating the Kyoto accords he had signed by doing NOTHING about CO2 in the
past few years, he then tries to look good by doing NOTHING about CO2 for
another seven years! So the air that was dirty is still dirty and will
remain dirty, just as Clinton had ordered.
The list goes on and on. For eight years Clinton did NOTHING about carpal
tunnel syndrome as it relates to OSHA regulations. Then, in the middle of
pardoning some rich guys during his all-night kegger on January 19, he
decides to finally do some good for all those women who sit at keyboards all
day and who, with their crippled hands, went to the polls TWICE to make him
their President.
Friends, you are being misled and hoodwinked by a bunch of professional
"liberals" who did NOTHING themselves for eight years to clean up these
messes -- and now all they can do is attack people like Ralph Nader who has
devoted his ENTIRE life to every single one of these issues. What
unmitigated gall! They blame Nader for giving us Bush? I blame THEM for
being Bush! They suck off the same corporate teat and they support stuff
like NAFTA which, according to the Sierra Club, has DOUBLED the pollution
along the Mexican border where the American factories have moved. And then
they wring their hands over Bush and his "reversals!" Where is Orwell when
we need him? How much slicker can the doublespeak get?
Had Clinton done the job those of us who voted for him in 1992 expected him
to do, we wouldn't be in the pickle we're in. Imagine if on his first day in
office over eight years ago Clinton had ordered a reduction of the arsenic
in the drinking water -- and all of America had been drinking cleaner, safer
water for the last eight years. Do you think there is any way in hell this
Junior Bush would have been able to say, "OK, America, you've been drinking
water without poison in it long enough. Time to go back to the good old days
of sucking down that ol' arsenic!"? Hell no! The public -- no one -- would
have stood for it. And he'd know that. He wouldn't even have tried it. But
because Clinton waited to the last minute and never removed any of this crud
from the water or the air, there was no political or popular support base
for the decision. So it was easy for Bush to do what he did. He figured,
you're not going to miss what you never had removed in the first place.
Finally, a word about that order Bush issued to ban money for abortions
overseas. Wrong again. Pro-choice Clinton, like the three presidents before
him, had already signed an order banning any American funds to pay for
abortions in foreign countries. What Bush did was to expand the order to
include cutting off any monies to foreign birth control groups that offer
abortion as an alternative. Worse, yes -- but he only got away with it
because our Democratic president had laid the groundwork in continuing the
abortion-funds cut-off, placing his "liberal" approval on a piece of the
right-wing agenda. If you give the devil a bone, he doesn't just go away --
he wants the whole damn leg.
So spare me all the hand wringing and indignant moralizing. Those who want
to turn Bush into some sort of cartoon monster have an agenda -- to keep
most of us from seeing the beast that they themselves have become. Of course
they hate Ralph Nader. He's an ugly reminder that they sold out a long time
ago -- and he didn't. Blame Nader, blame Bush, it's all part of the same
distraction, to keep you from focusing on this one, very important fact:
Republican arsenic or Democratic arsenic, it really is the same damn crap
being forced down your throat. I am committed to changing that, either
within or without the Democratic
Party.
Please feel free to pass this letter on to anyone you know who believes that
Bush "overturned" what Clinton did.
Thanks.
Yours,
Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
P.S. -- Well, a miracle of sorts happened in Texas a few weeks back. Michael
Moore, the inmate on death row, got a last-minute reprieve! This never
happens in that kill-happy state. Thanks to all of you who wrote a letter to
the Texan officials. His fate is now up in the air.
A bill is also pending in the Texas legislature calling for a moratorium on
executions -- and, surprisingly, it is receiving a lot of support. I'll keep
you informed of its progress, and in the meantime, please write to the Texas
House and Senate and demand its passage.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma will execute a woman later today who was convicted, in
part, on the testimony of a police forensic expert who has just been found
to have falsely supplied evidence in at least a half-dozen death row cases
-- including this woman's. Some of those who were the victims of this
forensic "expert" have already been put to death. It now appears they may
have been innocent. Timothy McVeigh murdered 168 Oklahomans. Today, the
people of Oklahoma and its governor will murder one more.
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