My Wild First Week with "Fahrenheit 9/11"... by Michael Moore
Mark
July 4th, 2004
Friends,
Where do I begin? This past week has knocked me for a loop. "Fahrenheit
9/11," the #1 movie in the country, the largest grossing documentary
ever. My head is spinning. Didn't we just lose our distributor 8 weeks
ago? Did Karl Rove really fail to stop this? Is Bush packing?
Each day this week I was given a new piece of information from the press
that covers Hollywood, and I barely had time to recover from the last
tidbit before the next one smacked me upside the head:
** More people saw "Fahrenheit 9/11" in one weekend than all the people
who saw "Bowling for Columbine" in 9 months.
** "Fahrenheit 9/11" broke "Rocky III’s" record for the biggest box
office opening weekend ever for any film that opened in less than a
thousand theaters.
** "Fahrenheit 9/11" beat the opening weekend of "Return of the Jedi."
** "Fahrenheit 9/11" instantly went to #2 on the all-time list for
largest per-theater average ever for a film that opened in wide-release.
How can I ever thank all of you who went to see it? These records are
mind-blowing. They have sent shock waves through Hollywood – and, more
importantly, through the White House.
But it didn't just stop there. The response to the movie then went into
the Twilight Zone. Surfing through the dial I landed on the Fox
broadcasting network which was airing the NASCAR race live last Sunday to
an audience of millions of Americans -- and suddenly the announcers were
talking about how NASCAR champ Dale Earnhardt, Jr. took his crew to see
“Fahrenheit 9/11” the night before. FOX sportscaster Chris Myers
delivered Earnhardt’s review straight out of his mouth and into the
heartland of America: “He said hey, it'll be a good bonding experience no
matter what your political belief. It's a good thing as an American to go
see.” Whoa! NASCAR fans – you can’t go deeper into George Bush territory
than that! White House moving vans – START YOUR ENGINES!
Then there was Roger Friedman from the Fox News Channel giving our film
an absolutely glowing review, calling it “a really brilliant piece of
work, and a film that members of all political parties should see without
fail.” Richard Goldstein of the Village Voice surmised that Bush is
already considered a goner so Rupert Murdoch might be starting to curry
favor with the new administration. I don't know about that, but I’ve
never heard a decent word toward me from Fox. So, after I was revived, I
wondered if a love note to me from Sean Hannity was next.
How about Letterman’s Top Ten List: “Top Ten George W. Bush Complaints
About "Fahrenheit 9/11":
10. That actor who played the President was totally unconvincing
9. It oversimplified the way I stole the election
8. Too many of them fancy college-boy words
7. If Michael Moore had waited a few months, he could have included the
part where I get him deported
6. Didn't have one of them hilarious monkeys who smoke cigarettes and
gives people the finger
5. Of all Michael Moore's accusations, only 97% are true
4. Not sure - - I passed out after a piece of popcorn lodged in my
windpipe
3. Where the hell was Spider-man?
2. Couldn't hear most of the movie over Cheney's foul mouth
1. I thought this was supposed to be about dodgeball
But it was the reactions and reports we received from theaters around the
country that really sent me over the edge. One theatre manager after
another phoned in to say that the movie was getting standing ovations as
the credits rolled – in places like Greensboro, NC and Oklahoma City --
and that they were having a hard time clearing the theater afterwards
because people were either too stunned or they wanted to sit and talk to
their neighbors about what they had just seen. In Trumbull, CT, one woman
got up on her seat after the movie and shouted "Let's go have a
meeting!" A man in San Francisco took his shoe off and threw it at the
screen when Bush appeared at the end. Ladies’ church groups in Tulsa were
going to see it, and weeping afterwards.
It was this last group that gave lie to all the yakking pundits who,
before the movie opened, declared that only the hard-core "choir" would
go to see "Fahrenheit 9/11." They couldn't have been more wrong. Theaters
in the Deep South and the Midwest set house records for any film they’d
ever shown. Yes, it even sold out in Peoria. And Lubbock, Texas. And
Anchorage, Alaska!
Newspaper after newspaper wrote stories in tones of breathless disbelief
about people who called themselves “Independents” and “Republicans”
walking out of the movie theater shaken and in tears, proclaiming that
they could not, in good conscience, vote for George W. Bush. The New York
Times wrote of a conservative Republican woman in her 20s in Pensacola,
Florida who cried through the film, and told the reporter: “It really
makes me question what I feel about the president... it makes me question
his motives…”
Newsday reported on a self-described “ardent Bush/Cheney supporter” who
went to see the film on Long Island, and his quiet reaction afterwards.
He said, "It's really given me pause to think about what's really going
on. There was just too much - too much to discount." The man then bought
three more tickets for another showing of the film.
The Los Angeles Times found a mother who had “supported [Bush] fiercely”
at a theater in Des Peres, Missouri: “Emerging from Michael Moore's
‘Fahrenheit 9/11,’ her eyes wet, Leslie Hanser said she at last
understood…. ‘My emotions are just....’ She trailed off, waving her hands
to show confusion. ‘I feel like we haven't seen the whole truth before.’"
All of this had to be the absolute worst news for the White House to wake
up to on Monday morning. I guess they were in such a stupor, they "gave"
Iraq back to, um, Iraq two days early!
News editors told us that they were being "bombarded" with e-mails and
calls from the White House (read: Karl Rove), trying to spin their way
out of this mess by attacking it and attacking me. Bush spokesman Dan
Bartlett had told the White House press corps that the movie was
"outrageously false" -- even though he said he hadn't seen the movie. He
later told CNN that "This is a film that doesn't require us to actually
view it to know that it's filled with factual inaccuracies." At least
they're consistent. They never needed to see a single weapon of mass
destruction before sending our kids off to die.
Many news shows were more than eager to buy the White House spin. After
all, that is a big part of what "Fahrenheit" is about -- how the lazy,
compliant media bought all the lies from the Bush administration about
the need to invade Iraq. They took the Kool-Aid offered by the White
House and rarely, if ever, did our media ask the hard questions that
needed to be asked before the war started.
Because the movie "outs" the mainstream media for their failures and
their complicity with the Bush administration -- who can ever forget
their incessant, embarrassing cheerleading as the troops went off to war,
as though it was all just a game -- the media was not about to let me get
away with anything now resembling a cultural phenomenon. On show after
show, they went after me with the kind of viciousness you would have
hoped they had had for those who were lying about the necessity for
invading a sovereign nation that was no threat to us. I don't blame our
well-paid celebrity journalists -- they look like a bunch of ass-kissing
dopes in my movie, and I guess I'd be pretty mad at me, too. After all,
once the NASCAR fans see "Fahrenheit 9/11," will they ever believe a
single thing they see on ABC/NBC/CBS news again?
In the next week or so, I will recount my adventures through the media
this past month (I will also be posting a full FAQ on my website soon so
that you can have all the necessary backup and evidence from the film
when you find yourself in heated debate with your conservative brother-
in-law!). For now, please know the following: Every single fact I state
in "Fahrenheit 9/11" is the absolute and irrefutable truth. This movie is
perhaps the most thoroughly researched and vetted documentary of our
time. No fewer than a dozen people, including three teams of lawyers and
the venerable one-time fact-checkers from The New Yorker went through
this movie with a fine-tooth comb so that we can make this guarantee to
you. Do not let anyone say this or that isn't true. If they say that,
they are lying. Let them know that the OPINIONS in the film are mine, and
anyone certainly has a right to disagree with them. And the questions I
pose in the movie, based on these irrefutable facts, are also mine. And I
have a right to ask them. And I will continue to ask them until they are
answered.
In closing, let me say that the most heartening response to the film has
come from our soldiers and their families. Theaters in military towns
across the country reported packed houses. Our troops know the truth.
They have seen it first-hand. And many of them could not believe that
here was a movie that was TRULY on their side -- the side of bringing
them home alive and never sending them into harms way again unless it's
the absolute last resort. Please take a moment to read this wonderful
story from the daily paper in Fayetteville, NC, where Fort Bragg is
located. It broke my heart to read this, the reactions of military
families and the comments of an infantryman’s wife publicly backing my
movie -- and it gave me the resolve to make sure as many Americans as
possible see this film in the coming weeks.
Thank you again, all of you, for your support. Together we did something
for the history books. My apologies to "Return of the Jedi." We'll make
it up by producing "Return of the Texan to Crawford" in November.
May the farce be with you, but not for long,
Michael Moore
www.michaelmoore.com
mmf...@aol.com
init 3
>
> May the farce be with you, but not for long,
>
> Michael Moore
> www.michaelmoore.com
> mmf...@aol.com
When is that Michael More expose of Bill Clinton coming out about how he let
terrorists build up strength after the 1993 WTC bombing?
--
w 4
init 3
> How about Letterman’s Top Ten List: “Top Ten George W. Bush Complaints
> About "Fahrenheit 9/11":
How about top ten reasons nobody watches David Letterman any more:
10. Hair cut to look like hairpiece -- actually /is/ hairpiece !
9. Stupid Pet Tricks: Designed to me mock hokey segment -- actually is
*hokey*
8. Check out audience -- formerly hip New York crowd replaced by visitors
from Minnesota who got tickets from street vendors.
7. Flirtateous Dave once sparked rumours of after show romance, not sparks
rumors of potential cardiac probelms.
6. Jay Leno, stupider version of Dave, proves that bad jokes are key to
ratings success. Dave copies same !
5. Does anybody with a computer watch t.v. any more ?
4. New York, 57th street, at night. Wow! What a hip and happening place!
3. Good writers all left for MTV specials. Does Mory Amsterdam count as
retro-hip ?
2. If Paul Schaeffer starts to look any *older* will the Wax Museum call
wanting him back?
1. It stopped being funny in 1989. Dave: GIVE IT UP !
--
w 4
alohacyberian
news:QrgGc.5726$R36...@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net...
>
> When is that Michael More expose of Bill Clinton coming out about how he
let
> terrorists build up strength after the 1993 WTC bombing?
> --
> w 4
>
--
(-:alohacyberian:-) At my website there are 3000 live cameras or
visit NASA, play games, read jokes, send greeting cards & connect
to CNN news, NBA, the White House, Academy Awards or learn all
about Hawaii, Israel and more: http://keith.martin.home.att.net/
Edward Glamkowski
> July 4th, 2004
>
> Friends,
>
> Where do I begin? This past week has knocked me for a loop. "Fahrenheit
> 9/11," the #1 movie in the country, the largest grossing documentary
> ever.
Hmm, Moore can't seem to make up his mind whether the movie is
a documentary or an op-ed. Well, Michael - which is it?
> My head is spinning. Didn't we just lose our distributor 8 weeks
> ago?
Moore was lying when he announced that and he knew it.
> Did Karl Rove really fail to stop this?
Shocking as it may seem, free speech has not been obliterated
by Bush. Indeed, it would be impossible for ANY president to
do so, since it would require congress passing laws to make that
happen.
> Is Bush packing?
Not yet.
I have a question:
Is Moore really this stupid?
Of course he isn't, but he thinks you are!
He thinks Americans are the dumbest people on the planet.
Come on, Michael - don't hide in Europe making such claims,
come say it to our faces!
Oh wait, he already did - F9/11 is just that statement :-p
And Moore is laughing all the way to the bank.
Baxter
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Free software - Baxter Codeworks www.baxcode.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Edward Glamkowski" <eglam...@angelfire.com> wrote in message
news:c49f8b5e.0407...@posting.google.com...
> Mark Joh...@nospam.com (Mark Johnson) wrote in message
> > My Wild First Week with "Fahrenheit 9/11"... by Michael Moore
> > July 4th, 2004
> >
> > Friends,
> >
> > Where do I begin? This past week has knocked me for a loop. "Fahrenheit
> > 9/11," the #1 movie in the country, the largest grossing documentary
> > ever.
>
> Hmm, Moore can't seem to make up his mind whether the movie is
> a documentary or an op-ed. Well, Michael - which is it?
Why don't you see it and decide for yourself? You can download it free off
the web for just a little effort.
Jordan Lund
> ** "Fahrenheit 9/11" broke "Rocky III?s" record for the biggest box
> office opening weekend ever for any film that opened in less than a
> thousand theaters.
>
> ** "Fahrenheit 9/11" beat the opening weekend of "Return of the Jedi."
In terms of raw dollars I'm sure both of these are true. In terms of
dollars adjusted for modern ticket prices? Not a chance...
- Jordan
Jordan Lund
> When is that Michael More expose of Bill Clinton coming out about how he let
> terrorists build up strength after the 1993 WTC bombing?
Too bad it didn't happen... Or to quote my response to one of the
conservative e-mails bouncing around:
> > After the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which killed six and
> > injured 1000; President Clinton promised that those responsible would
> > be hunted down and punished.
The person behind the 1993 bombing, Ramzi Yousef, was hunted down,
captured and put on trial. He and a co-conspirator were convicted on
four counts on November 12, 1997. He is in jail to this day and Bush
had absolutely nothing to do with it. Meanwhile, the mastermind of
9/11, Osama Bin Laden is still on the loose and George W. Bush says
"So I don't know where he is. You know, I just don't spend that much
time on him, Kelly, to be honest with you." (Source: the White House
web page - http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/03/20020313-8.html)
> > After the 1995 bombing in Saudi Arabia, which killed five U.S.
> > military personnel; Clinton promised that those responsible
> > would be hunted down and punished.
Actually Clinton never said that, the Saudis in charge of the
investigation said that. But when you consider that most of Al Qaida's
funding comes from Saudi Arabia and most of the 9/11 hijackers were
Saudi citizens is it any surprise that nobody has been caught? Oh
yeah, that means Bush hasn't caught them either... Way to "cover it".
> > After the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, which
> > killed 19 and injured 200 U.S. military personnel; Clinton promised
> > that those responsible would be hunted down and punished.
It turned out that Iranians were responsible for that bombing, what
did Clinton do?
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20040330/6059788s.htm
"Undisclosed until now, Operation Sapphire took place in 1997. Though
the bombers who struck the Khobar Towers barracks were mostly Saudis,
U.S. investigators quickly determined that Iranian intelligence
officials had trained and organized the plotters. The former U.S.
official said Iran was intimidated enough by the U.S. counterspy
operation that it stopped targeting Americans after the bombing."
Gee, looks like Bush wasn't involved in "covering" that one either...
> > After the 1998 bombing of U.S embassies in Africa, which
> > killed 224 and injured 5,000; Clinton promised that those responsible
> > would be hunted down and punished.
As of July 10, 2000 two of the six suspects were in custody and facing
trial, but the mastermind was Osama Bin Laden... Yup, the same guy
that Bush is "not spending much time on." He sure is covering
something, but it's certainly not "It".
> > After the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 and
> > injured 39 U.S. sailors; Clinton promised that those responsible would
> > be hunted down and punished.
10 suspects were captured shortly after the bombing and remained in
custody through the end of the Clinton administration. Additional
suspects continue to be captured up until the present day.
> > Maybe if Clinton had kept his promise, an estimated 3,000 people in
> > New York and Washington, D.C. that are now dead would be
> > alive today.
Maybe if the Republican controlled Congress had passed the Patriot Act
in 1995 when Clinton first introduced it (instead of focusing on a
fellatio witch hunt) those people would be alive today.
http://www.lectlaw.com/files/leg06.htm
TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES:
Today I am transmitting for your immediate consideration and
enactment the "Antiterrorism Amendments Act of 1995." This
comprehensive Act, together with the "Omnibus Counterterrorism Act of
1995," which I transmitted to the Congress on February 9, 1995, are
critically important components of my Administration's effort to
combat domestic and international terrorism.
The tragic bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City
on April 19th stands as a challenge to all Americans to preserve a
safe society. In the wake of this cowardly attack on innocent men,
women, and children, following other terrorist incidents at home and
abroad over the past several years, we must ensure that law
enforcement authorities have the legal tools and resources they need
to fight terrorism. The Antiterrorism Amendments Act of 1995 will
help us to prevent terrorism through vigorous and effective
investigation and prosecution. Major provisions of this Act would:
* Permit law enforcement agencies to gain access to financial and
credit reports in antiterrorism cases, as is currently permitted with
bank records. This would allow such agencies to track the source and
use of funds by suspected terrorists.
* Apply the same legal standard in national security cases that is
currently used in other criminal cases for obtaining permission to
track telephone traffic with "pen registers" and "trap and trace"
devices.
* Enable law enforcement agencies to utilize the national security
letter process to obtain records critical to terrorism investigations
from hotels, motels, common carriers, storage facilities, and vehicle
rental facilities.
* Expand the authority of law enforcement agencies to conduct
electronic surveillance, within constitutional safeguards. Examples
of this increased authority include additions to the list of felonies
that can be used as the basis for a surveillance order, and
enhancement of law enforcement's ability to keep pace with
telecommunications technology by obtaining multiple point wiretaps
where it is impractical to specify the number of the phone to be
tapped (such as the use of a series of cellular phones).
* Require the Department of the Treasury's Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, and Firearms to study the inclusion of taggants (microscopic
particles) in standard explosive device raw materials to permit
tracing the source of those materials after an explosion; whether
common chemicals used to manufacture explosives can be rendered
inert; and whether controls can be imposed on certain basic chemicals
used to manufacture other explosives.
* Require the inclusion of taggants in standard explosive device raw
materials after the publication of implementing regulations by the
Secretary of the Treasury.
* Enable law enforcement agencies to call on the special expertise
of the Department of Defense in addressing offenses involving
chemical and biological weapons.
* Make mandatory at least a 10-year penalty for transferring
firearms or explosives with knowledge that they will be used to
commit a crime of violence and criminalize the possession of stolen
explosives.
* Impose enhanced penalties for terrorist attacks against current
and former Federal employees, and their families, when the crime is
committed because of the employee's official duties.
* Provide a source of funds for the digital telephony bill, which I
signed into law last year, ensuring court-authorized law enforcement
access to electronic surveillance of digitized communications.
These proposals are described in more detail in the enclosed section-
by-section analysis.
The Administration is prepared to work immediately with the Congress
to enact antiterrorism legislation. My legislation will provide an
effective and comprehensive response to the threat of terrorism,
while also protecting our precious civil liberties. I urge the
prompt and favorable consideration of the Administration's
legislative proposals by the Congress.
WILLIAM J. CLINTON
alohacyberian
news:vqooe0peas4kl3jtn...@4ax.com...
> On 6 Jul 2004 13:30:26 -0700, eglam...@angelfire.com (Edward
> Glamkowski) wrote:
> >I have a question:
> >Is Moore really this stupid?
> >
> >Of course he isn't, but he thinks you are!
> >He thinks Americans are the dumbest people on the planet.
> >Come on, Michael - don't hide in Europe making such claims,
> >come say it to our faces!
> >
> >Oh wait, he already did - F9/11 is just that statement :-p
> >
> >And Moore is laughing all the way to the bank.
>
> truth."
> ~ Edith Sitwell (1887 - 1964)
>
>
Moore follows his GUT, by which I mean his Grand Universal Theory: Bush is to
blame for everything. Because of Bush, the Saudis secretly run U.S. policy.
Because of Bush, the Taliban were in bed with Texas energy executives.
Because of Bush, the Taliban got toppled. . . . Whoa, hold up a minute, I
thought he was all pals with the Taliban. The Saudis certainly were, which is
why they opposed the liberation of Afghanistan.
But by now Moore's moved on to pointing out that Bush's Afghan stooge Hamid
Karzai used to work for the Texas energy company panting for that big Afghan
gas pipeline.
But hang on, I thought the Texan energy guys already had the Taliban in their
pockets and were funded by the Saudis . . . "
[...]
Here's the way it works: If Bush is wearing the blue boxer shorts, they're a
suspicious personal gift from Crown Prince Abdullah. If Bush is wearing the
red boxer shorts, it's a conspiracy to distract public attention from the
blue ones he was given by Crown Prince Abdullah. If he's wearing no boxer
shorts, it's because he's so dumb he can't find his underwear in the morning.
So, shortly after 9/11, Moore wrote that footage of one of the World Trade
Center planes showed that it was being trailed by an F-16 -- i.e., the
government could have shot it down but chose not to, so it could hit all
those Al Gore voters. Imagine if, on Sept. 11, the U.S. Air Force had blown
four passenger jets to kingdom come. Moore's film would be filled with
poignant home movies of final Christmases and birthday parties and
exploitative footage of anguished parents going to Washington to demand the
truth about what happened that day and an end to the lame Bush spin about
vague "threats" to public buildings.
~ Mark Steyn, "Connect the dots when you watch 'Fahrenheit'"
~ http://www.suntimes.com/output/steyn/cst-edt-steyn04.html