<http://www.michaelmoore.com>
<mailto:mmflint@aol.com>
Dear Friend, Family and citizens:
Please take a moment to read this - for some of
you who are not in the
documentary field - Michael Moore is probably the
most "American" filmmaker
that lives. I have followed his work for
years - you may remember him with
the documentary "Roger and Me".
With this letter, he is educating all of us
on the situation in our own very backyard and
unless we educate ourselves as
citizens - they will have taken the little power
that we have left to create
changes!
If you do not wish to receive these documents,
please kindly let me know.
Be well,
Diane Estelle
Michael Moore: "George W. in the Garden of
Gethsemane"
1/29/2002
"George W. in the Garden of Gethsemane"
An Open Letter to George W. Bush from Michael
Moore.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Dear George,
when it's all over in a couple months, and you're
packing up your pretzels
and Spot and heading back to Texas, what will be
your biggest regret? Not
getting out more often and seeing the sights
around Rock Creek Park? Never
once visiting the newly renovated IKEA in
Woodbridge, Virginia? Or buying
your way to the White House with money from a
company that committed the
biggest corporate swindle in American history? I
got a feeling you didn't
miss much by not spending an entire Saturday
afternoon assembling a Swedish
bookcase-but you should have known that there was
no way you would ever
finish your term by hopping into bed with Kenneth
Lay.
It's kind of sad when you think about it. Here
you were-the most popular
president ever! -- the recipient of so much good
will from your fellow
Americans after September 11, and then you had to
go and blow it. You just
couldn't stay away from your old cowpoke friend
from Texas, Kenneth Lay.
Kenny has always been there for you. You needed a
way to fly around to all
the primaries and campaign stops in the 2000
election-so Kenny gave you his
corporate jet. Did you tell the voters when you
arrived in each city that
the bird you flew in on was from a billionaire
who was secretly conspiring
to give the bird to all his employees and
investors? He flew you around
America on the Enron company jet, and for that
favor you touched down on
tarmac after tarmac to tell your fellow citizens
that you were "going to
restore dignity to the White House, the people's
house."
You said this standing
in front of an Enron jet!
Man, you loved Lay so much, you not only
affectionately referred to him as
"Kenny Boy," you interrupted an
important campaign trip in April, 2000, to
fly back to Houston for the Astro's opening day
at the new Enron Field- just
so you could watch Kenny Boy Lay throw out the
first pitch. How sentimental!
I mean, you loved this man so intensely that,
when you were awarded a set of
keys the Supreme Court had made for you so you
could live in the White
House, you invited Kenny Boy to set up shop-at
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue! He
interviewed those who would hold high-level
Energy Department positions in
your administration.
You not only let Kenny Boy decide who would head
the regulatory agency that
oversaw Enron, you let him hand-pick the new
chairman of the Securities and
Exchange Commission-a former lawyer for his
accountant, Arthur Andersen!
Kenny and the boys at Andersen also worked to
make sure that accounting
firms would be exempt from numerous regulations
and would not be held liable
for any "funny bookkeeping" (don't you
wish you were this
forward-thinking?).
Then rest of Kenny Boy's time was spent next door
with his old buddy, Dick
Cheney (Enron and Halliburton, as you'll recall,
got the big contracts from
your dad to "rebuild" Kuwait after the
Gulf War). Lay and Dick formed an
"energy task force" (Operation Enduring
Graft) which put together the
county's new "energy policy." This
policy then went on to shut down every
light bulb and juicer in the state of California.
And guess who made out
like bandits while "trading" the energy
California was in desperate need of?
Kenny Boy and Enron! No wonder Big Dick doesn't
want to turn over the files
about those special meetings with Lay! The
only thing that surprises me more than all the Enron henchmen who ended up
in your cabinet and administration is how our lazy media just rolled over
and didn't report it. The list of Enron people on
your payroll is
impressive. Lawrence Lindsey, your chief economic
advisor? A former advisor
at Enron! Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill? Former
CEO of Alcoa, whose
lobbying firm, Vinson and Elkins, was the #3
contributor to the your
campaign! Who is Vinson and Elkins?
The law firm representing
Enron! Who is Alcoa? The top polluter in
Texas. Timothy White, the Secretary of the Army?
A former vice-chair of Enron Energy! Robert
Zoellick, your Federal Trade
Representative? A former advisor at Enron! Karl
Rove, your main man at the
White House? He owned a quarter-million dollars
of Enron stock.
Then there's the Enron lawyer you have nominated
to be a federal judge in
Texas, the Enron lobbyist who is your chair of
the Republican Party, the two
Enron officials who now work for House Majority
Leader Tom DeLay, and the
wife of Texas Senator Phil Gramm who sits on
Enron's board. And there's the
aforementioned Mr. Pitt, the former Arthur
Andersen attorney whose job it is
now as SEC head to oversee the stock markets.
George, it never stops! My
fingers are getting tired typing all this up-and
there's lots more.
Don't get me wrong, George-I do not think you're
an evil man. You don't need
any crap from people like me. Heck, you got
mother-in-law problems! Now, I
have a very good relationship with my
mother-in-law, but then, I never told
her to put $8,000 of her money into a company my
administration knew was going belly-up.
You say you didn't know? Your bag man-Don Evans,
the man who squeezed all that
money for you from Enron
as your campaign finance chairman (and is now
collecting his reward as your Commerce Secretary)
-- has admitted that he
got calls from Enron begging for help last year
because they were going
under. Didn't he tell you this?
Then Paul O'Neill, your Treasury Secretary,
admitted that Enron and Kenny
Boy called him, too, for some special favors to
save Enron. Didn't he
mention this to you? They claim to have called
your chief of staff, Andrew
Card, and he said he didn't bother to inform you.
What does your
mother-in-law think about these boys her
daughter's husband consorts with?
I love watching the O'Neill and Evans show. What
a couple of cut-ups!
They're, like, all proud of themselves for
"not doing Enron any favors."
Actually, I think it's more like they didn't do
your MOTHER-IN-LAW any
favors. Enron got LOTS of favors, and why not?
Kenny Boy has been your
number one financial backer since you ran for
governor. No other American or Saudi has
given you more money than Kenny Boy and his gang at Enron.
O'Neill, Evans, Cheney,
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham-ALL of them gave
Lay and Enron special favors from day one. The
New York Times last May was
so concerned about how Kenny had the run of the
place (1600 Pennsylvania
Ave.), they referred to Lay as the "shadow
advisor to the president."
And what advice! Who was it that wanted you to
deregulate the energy
industry further? Kenny Boy! Who was it that
convinced you to explore the
sick idea of PRIVATIZING our water supply and
then allow private
corporations to "trade" it in the
future? Kenny Boy! Who was it that wanted
Social Security to be tied to the stock market?
Yup, Kenny Boy! (Imagine, if
you will, what would have happened to our
precious Social Security funds had
they been invested in Enron stocks as you,
George, suggested be done during
your campaign as yuppies everywhere clucked along
in agreement over that
genius idea.)
O'Neill's and Evans's admission that they
"did nothing" when Enron told them
of the company's shell game and impending
collapse is reason enough for you
and yours to hit the Beltway and never return to
that sacred trust we call
Our American Government. They are proud of
"doing nothing?" By doing
nothing, millions of Americans have been
swindled. Tens of thousands have
lost their jobs. Thousands more have lost their
savings and their
retirement. Yet your cabinet secretaries gloat
over what a "good job" you
and they did by "doing nothing."
Let me ask you this: If someone was setting a
house on fire, and they called
you to help them set it on fire, and you said no
you wouldn't help them-
BUT then you also DIDN'T call 911 and inform the
police that someone was
going to burn down a house, do you think you
would have committed a crime?
Of course you would have! You had prior knowledge
and then you knowingly and
purposefully HID this information from the
authorities and the people living
in the house! You only admitted that you knew a
house was going to be
torched when you were confronted by the police.
Are you complicit? Yes! Are
you an accessory? Yes! Who would even think of
going around boasting, "Hey,
look what a great guy I am-a friend of mine told
me he was going to commit
an act of arson, and then I decided NOT to tell
ANYONE about it!!
WHOO-HOO!!"
Enron and Kenny Boy bought your silence and the
silence of your cabinet
members. You yourself didn't have to actually
raid the 401(k) accounts of
those poor people in Houston (many of whom
probably voted for you every time
your name was on a ballot). All you had to do was
remain silent, change the
government regulations that let them get away
with it, and install their
handpicked cronies to sit on the
"oversight" boards, which were supposed to
be keeping an eye on them.
While doing all this, you told the American
people that these rich friends
of yours were not getting any special
breaks-when, in fact, Enron had
already scammed their way out of paying NO taxes
in four out of the last
five years. Your economic "stimulus"
bill that you got the House to pass
after 9-11 had a section that would give Enron a
gift of $250 million of our
tax money. You were pushing this bill in November
and December, long after
your administration knew that Enron was raiding
the vault and screwing its
workers and investors.
You and your Republican friends are quick to
point out that Enron had their
claws into the Democrats as well. Yes, they did,
and thank you for making
the case why we not only need an alternative to
the current make-up of the
Democratic Party; we need private money removed
from our electoral process
ASAP.
But, George, let's be real. The Democrats only
got a pittance from Enron
compared to the millions you and the Republicans
received. Democrats just
don't have the killer instinct to do anything
right, and they certainly
don't know much about making money the
old-fashioned way, one off-shore tax
shelter at a time. I would expect nothing less
from a Party that couldn't
even put their candidate in the White House after
he had already won the
election.
The Democrats are like a Yugo-you know it won't
last long or work well, but
it will occasionally get the job done. Fat cats
know they can buy the
Democrats at discount prices, and so they do.
Anyone who tries to deflect
this scandal away from you, George, or away from
the Republicans, or away
from the whole dirty way we elect our leaders, is
someone who is desperately
trying to cling to what's left of a very crooked
system that has to go and
go now.
The saddest part of this whole affair was the day
the scandal was
revealed-and you denied that you even knew your
good friend, Kenneth Lay.
"Ken who?" you said. Oh, he's just some
businessman from Texas. "Heck, he
backed my opponent for governor, Ann
Richards!" was your way of trying to
deflect the truth that was hitting you like a
Mack truck. You knew that he,
in fact, endorsed YOU and gave you THREE times
the money Ann Richards ever
saw from him.
I hardly ever talk to the guy, you said. You were
like Peter in the Garden
of Gethsemane, denying he knew Jesus, three
times. And then the cock crowed.
And Peter felt shame and ran away.
What shame do you feel tonight, George, for the
lies you have told? What shame do you
feel using the dead of
9-11 as a cover for your actions, hoping
that our sorrow for those lost souls and our fear
of being killed by
terrorists would distract us from what your boys
and Kenny Boy were up to
during those horrific weeks in September and
October?
It was during those very days, while the rest of
us were in shock and
sadness, that the executives at Enron were
selling off their stock and
shifting assets to their 900 phony partnerships
overseas. Did they notice
the remains of the dead being pulled from the
rubble while they were
downloading their millions, or were their eyes
glued only to the bottom
third of the TV screen as the stock ticker with
the rigged Enron price
crawled across the images of firemen desperate,
in tears, to find their
Gethsemane fallen brothers?
The country was behind you when you said you were
fighting the evildoers who
did this. In fact, all the while, the real fight
your friends at Enron were
conducting was the fight against the clock, to
see how fast they could
transfer all the loot to their personal accounts
and run away. Those were
the evildoers, George, and you knew it. And
because you, by design or
negligence, allowed this to happen, it is time
for you to resign. The cock
has crowed for the last time.
At the very least, your mother-in-law deserves
better.
Yours,
Michael Moore
American
Son-in-law
Owner of 7th LARGEST COMPANY IN AMERICA! (Revised
ranking)
<http://www.michaelmoore.com>
<mailto:mmflint@aol.com>
Footnote: there are men and women in the penitentiaries across
the nation, for lesser-crimes, involving fewer people, especially when
it comes to the honor and integrity of American business and
government.
BUT, the problem is, these "people" don't
have
a name, or initials of some honorarium, or business position
title, that packs the power and influence to cause heads to
be turned away, from acknowledging their deeds, and unseen
sly smiles and nods of approval of "atta-boy! Wish I could have
had a piece of that action.
Otherwise, trot it all out and parade it on the news
media for
and appropriate time. Toss them [the citizen’s of America]
their "token crumbs" from the banquet table. Then "they"
will soon
tire of the hub-bub and the noise and "WE" can quietly smile
in "OUR" decadence and stolen luxury, smile smugly and
say; "eat your heart out suckers!"
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