He's not Molly Ivins

But like Molly he calls a Spade a Spade..not a mobile implement for which to move earth.

Begin forwarded message:

From: "maillist@michaelmoore.com" <maillist@michaelmoore.com>
Date: September 2, 2005 2:18:40 AM PDT
Subject: Vacation is Over... an open letter from Michael Moore to George W. Bush
Reply-To: maillist@michaelmoore.com

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.

Notes from the Bus

School is back in session. Oakland public schools returned to class on August 29th. This means my morning commute is a tad 'crowded' lets say. I find myself getting up a little earlier in order to miss some of the morning's human traffic. Gone are the days you saw fleets of big yellow buses (or for some of us, the short yellow bus for the 'special kids. Yes, I was a "window licker" for a year--another story for another time.) School districts so desperately strapped for cash can no longer afford to purchase and maintain fleets, much less pay for drivers, and leasing a service to do it for you is nearly unheard of. The City provides a 600 series of buses as a public transit school bus. They run to the majority of high schools and junior highs in the city. Still, there is always that core contingent of kids who wouldn't be caught dead on a school bus. And they wait for the regular service bus as a point of pride. I have to smile...I was like that too after a certain age.

My young man is back. I saw him yesterday, that tosseled sandy blond hair. He's grown over the summer--inches taller. This year, at least currently, he was dressed in crisp khakis and a new shirt. I remember watching him all last winter, catching the bus in a t-shirt and no jacket or coat. He looked worn down but determined. Creative, nervous, his freshman year at the new Arts-Magnate school downtown. What a difference a year makes. He looks more self-assured. He's a sophomore now. He glanced at me and I smiled. He blushed. I was wearing a low cut shirt and I have no doubt he feels a bit awkward around me.

There is an older man who is often seated on the bus when I get on. He's a bit 'slow', developmentally challenged. I don't know his name, but I have sat quietly near him many, many mornings. He gets off when I do and transfers to the same connecting bus I do. We then get off again, together, at the same stop. He is a man whose life is defined by routine and consistent habit. One of them is three strong tugs on the rope for his stop. I always let him pull the rope, because I notice that if someone else does, and the notice bell *BINGS* he still pulls the rope, strongly, three times. Then he gets confused because he doesn't hear the responding bing. "Fairmont please, Fairmont please.." his voice betrays a sense of confusion and anxiety that the driver won't stop, because the rope and the BING didn't work. When that happens I will speak to him quietly. "The light is on...don't worry the driver knows to stop." He'll sit back, looking no less anxious really "Oh, okay." We get off, I turn right, he goes straight. I never know where he goes to.

She's sorta short, dresses urban drab, and has a hair style that can only be described as 'hacked at with dull, rusty sheers'. It's also bright red over blonde. Well, bright red for about 3 days then it waters down to an uneven dye job. She travels with a young boy who appears to be 8 or 9 years old. What impresses me most is every morning, they sit down and read together. Sometimes he reads out loud, sometimes she reads out loud. They do not get off at my stop and for a year, I've never known where they head to. Three weeks ago, I found out. I was sitting in the lobby of Planned Parenthood when she arrived at the door in a white clinic coat, dullish red hair, doc martins and called out a patient's name. She is Loralie and she is a nurses assistant, single mother, advocate, urban woman.

I'm impressed and...I'm now out of time for contemplation.

Double your efforts towards relief.

This is no sham and no joke. My sister is the customer service manager for the commericial division of McCollister's United van lines in Coppell, TX. Dan McCollister will match dollar for dollar every single dollar donated to the Red Cross towards the Katrina relief aid.

While I am not a big fan of donating money to the Red Cross (vs supplies/blood) I have to set aside my own prejudice and maximize what little I can offer to relief and rescue.

If you want to double your donation send check or money order MADE OUT TO THE RED CROSS to:

K. Bressler
Customer Service Manager
McCollister's Transportation Group, Inc.
1303 Crestside Drive
Coppell, TX 75019

DO NOT SEND CASH. DO NOT SEND CHECKS OR MONEY ORDERS ADDRESS TO THE COMPANY

She will get them added into local contributions and the employee's contributions and the sum total will then be doubled--Matched by McCollisters and given to the Red Cross.

DEMAND the same from your Company today!

Already McCollister's has given over trucks and drivers to transport goods, food, and medical supplies into the Gulf States.