A Blast From The Past: Micheal Moore’s Katrina Letter
I was digging around my archive of old posts and found my mention of this open letter Micheal Moore wrote to President Bush about Hurricane Katrina. For anyone who feels that Obama somehow fell short of his response to the Gulf Oil Spill, this will give your memory a bit of a kick as to what was going on 5 years ago in New Orleans following Katrina.
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 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.
Thanks for reposting this. As a San Diego tourist trapped in the Superdome this was quite poignant for me.
In addition, a video and transcripts were uncovered 6 months after Katrina that clearly show President Bush being forewarned by Gov. Blanco, the Head of the Hurricane Center, and the Head of FEMA (Brownie) that the levees might be breached and that this storm was very likely to be devastating. Bush seemed indifferent, said everything was taken care of and days after Katrina stated that “no one could have foreseen the breach of the levees.” This video showed him caught in a lie and fully warned. Can you imagine how Fox “News” would have treated a Democrat had they perpetrated such a lie on the American public?
Paul Harris Author, “Diary From the Dome, Reflections on Fear and Privilege During Katrina”
Your book looks like an amazing read, I’m going to have to pick it up. What amazes me when it comes to Fox News is how the opposition to Bush was a grassroots movement from the people protesting his stealing of the election at the inauguration through opposition to both the Afghanistan and Iraq War. Now Fox has started a fake grassroots movement of people opposing Obama who don’t know why they are opposing Obama beyond Fox catchphrases.