Michael Moore's Open Letter to Pres. Bush

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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.

Bush will blame someone else, he always does. He will say it's the liberals attacking him, he'll be wrong. I honestly think people in all political parties are finally seeing what Bush lacks and how horribly his shortcoming, and lack of leadership, are affecting America.

Yale Universities list of Characteristics of Successful Leaders: link

1) They have a tremendous personal interest in leaving their individual stamp on their area of responsibility .. in bringing innovation to it.

2) They have uncompromising intellectual integrity.

3) They have a critical and objective view of the imperfection and improvability of things. This is coupled with a realistic and positive determination to make these improvements.

4) They have a deep respect for people -- other people and themselves. This enables them to maintain strong personal initiative and individuality of thought while gaining important learning and ideas from others.

5) They concentrate their energies on doing the job they are in now as well as possible -- not with undue calculation or deliberateness, but simply because that's the thing to do ... because that's what's personally rewarding. (Bush has taken more vacation days then any other president in history and he still has 3 more years to go)

6) They develop objectives and standards for themselves and for their organization which are stretching and beyond those which the average person might adopt.

7) They approach decisions and issues strategically and on the basis of principle (e.g., providing superior user satisfaction) but they try to do so on an empirical and pragmatic basis. For example, on a project designed to provide greater satisfaction to users, they want to see evidence that, in fact, users will agree that the new process is providing greater satisfaction.

8) They are decisive. They treat time as a precious commodity. They get on with it. They accept risk. They take the time needed to get the information needed to make a good decision. But they are very wary of delaying a decision to get more information than is really needed.

Isn't there some kind of test Presidents can take to see if they fall within these simple guidelines at least? :mental:

i don't need michael moore to tell me he's an IDIOT

Maybe not, but Michael Moore sure has a way with the jabbing words.