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Let me just come out and say, I believe Michael Moore is nothing more than a slick con man selling a bill of goods to a group of people who are blinded by their hatred for the current president of the United States, mainly because they, like Michael Moore, believe that President Bush stole the election, and lied to the American people about going to war with Iraq.
Michael Moore is not even brave enough to be interviewed by those who question many of the issues brought up in this film. He hides among his groupies and makes threats of lawsuits to anyone who says anything bad about him. He goes on trips to Europe, and tells them how stupid Americans are as a people.
If people want to believe what Michael Moore has to say, that's fine with me, but this is one American who is going to continue to look at the facts and not at the lies of a hateful individual like Michael Moore.
I for one am extremely disappointed with the Fahrenheit 9/11 criticism by syndicated right-wing conservative columnists your paper has printed.
I have been a subscriber to your paper for many years, canceling my subscription to the Tampa Tribune due the extremely conservative and biased coverage of politics. However, your newspaper too frequently now gives voice to the same conservative right diatribes I find so appalling. Two cases in point are your granting Christopher Hitchens, an ardent Bush apologist, a lengthy forum in your Sunday paper to bash Michael Moore and his anti-Bush hit movie. Tuesday your paper gave David Brooks, the same opportunity, as it does regularly also to Charles Krauthammer, William Safire, Robert Novak and many others.
I do not pay money to any newspaper to be aggravated constantly by its biased political slant.
The Bush administration took power in this country illegally and the results, it is plain to see, have been disastrous for this country, its military, its citizens and indeed, the world. Michael Moore is one of the few voices to state this true fact. Don't try to stifle the truth by allowing conservatives to drown out his voice - the voice of truth!
My wife and I decided to see Fahrenheit 9/11 on the opening day. She liked it. Most, if not all, of the people near us seemed to enjoy the movie. They thought it was funny, insightful and clever.
I did not feel the same. I did not enjoy learning about the strong connections the Bush family has with Osama bin Laden's family. I was not happy to learn the connections between the Taliban and Unocal. I was offended to learn Ken Lay of Enron was a top Bush contributor. I was appalled watching our president stare for seven minutes after he learned a plane smashed into the World Trade Center.
People roared as Bush and company made fools of themselves with their poorly worded and callous statements. Then we saw very graphic pictures of U.S. soldiers and Iraqis wounded and killed.
None of this is funny. It is disgusting. The fact that the movie is made to shock people into understanding what has happened is horrific. We are not shown these pictures on television. They would be rated intolerable for viewers. I am not laughing at George Bush. I am not laughing with Michael Moore. I find it intolerable that we have leadership that forces a ghastly movie like this to be made in the first place. None of this is humorous to me.
Re: Movie's fire sometimes succumbs to its smoke, by Howard Troxler, June 29.
I have been a long-time reader of Howard Troxler's column and really enjoy his brand of humor. I also admire the way he can point out a serious problem lurking in the woods ahead.
I thought that he should have been a lot more condescending about Michael Moore and his anti-Bush propaganda biased, piece of trash movie Fahrenheit 9/11.
I recognize this is a free country and people should watch and enjoy what they please, as long as it is within the boundaries of decency and common sense. But are we forgetting too soon the thousands of bodies in the pile of rubble in New York City?
Those that are so politically blinded as to try to put hurdles in the path of our leaders at this time are playing into the hands of terrorists. Period.
Let us, as good Americans, show that we are too united to believe in such far-left propaganda.
I hope Howard would show just a little bit more disdain toward Moore's fiasco.
I have never been so proud, and at the same time, so ashamed to be an American, but while watching Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, I equally experienced both feelings. Critics of the film can say what they want about the portrayal of President Bush, but what they cannot deny is the tremendous emotion that one feels while watching footage of an Iraqi woman deeply sob after her home was destroyed, her family killed, and her life turned upside down. You cannot help but shed tears with her as she curses this country for what we have done to her and her family. Nor can you deny the pain, which is so movingly captured by Moore, of a patriotic mother who lost her only son. If nothing else, Fahrenheit 9/11 puts a human face on an inhumane war.
Re: Moore's ends may justify his means, by William Raspberry, June 28.
Anyone who is reasonably well read knows that the left-wing liberals have for years taken the stand that the end justifies the means. But it has been a long time (if ever) since, I have been aware of so candid an admission as was presented by William Raspberry. He freely admits that the movie Fahrenheit 9/11 contains lies and deceptions. But then he goes on to say that they are justified if they will help rid the country of George W. Bush's presidency.
No matter how one tries to defend that philosophy, it is morally corrupt.
Re: Moore's ends may justify his means.
William Raspberry's column of June 28 correctly characterizes Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 as propaganda that "doesn't pretend to be fair," but which is nevertheless highly effective. It is fascinating that right-wingers are so outspoken in their outrage at seeing President Bush criticized so unfairly and misleadingly.
Liberals have had to put up with talk-radio hosts such as Rush Limbaugh as they have given exactly the same unfair and viciously misleading characterization of Ted Kennedy, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and now John Kerry for many years.
I guess what goes around comes around. Michael Moore is just the left's version of Rush Limbaugh.
Re: Moore propaganda at the multiplex, June 26.
I do not think it is responsible journalism to print a column, which in essence is a movie review written by someone who did not see the movie.
Columnist James Glassman claims that Michael Moore has never had much respect for the intelligence of the American public. No. Moore doesn't have respect for writers like Glassman who attempt to influence public opinion with nothing but nonfactual personal bias.
I did see the movie. I can unequivocally say that Moore's slant is at least based on actual events, where as Glassman's slant is based on a movie he never saw. In addition, Glassman states that the United States is currently engaged in a war with a dangerous enemy that killed 3,000 people in New York. He's not referring to Iraq and 9/11 is he? Because even the current administration now admits there is no direct evidence linking the two. I guess he's referring to the Afghanistan war. Now, who doesn't have respect for the intelligence of the American public?
Re: Why we are in Iraq?
The Times' June 18 editorial alleged a disagreement between a 9/11 commission staff statement and the Bush administration over the relationship between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida. The fact is, however, nothing in the staff report contradicts previous administration assertions that there were contacts between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida, and that those contacts raised troubling questions.
Don't take my word for it. Responding to media assertions that the staff statement contradicted the administration, 9/11 commission Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton, said, "It seems to me the sharp differences that the press has drawn, the media has drawn, are not apparent to me."
The 9/11 commission staff statement documents such contacts. According to the statement:
Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden "explored possible cooperation with Iraq during his time in Sudan."
"A senior Iraqi intelligence officer reportedly made three visits to Sudan, finally meeting bin Laden in 1994."
"Contacts between Iraq and al-Qaida also occurred after bin Laden had returned to Afghanistan."
In addition, Saddam Hussein provided a safe harbor for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of a terrorist group that is responsible for a number of deadly attacks throughout Iraq. U.S. intelligence officials believe that it was Zarqawi who personally executed American Nicholas Berg last month in Iraq.
It may be that all of the contacts between Iraq and al-Qaida never resulted in joint terrorist attacks. President Bush is on record saying we have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved in the 9/11 attacks. But considering all that we knew, no responsible leader could take for granted that such collaboration would never happen.
Re: Cheney says he "felt better' after slur in Senate, June 26.
I'm glad to hear that Vice President Dick Cheney felt better after having said to a U.S. senator, "go f--- yourself."
Cheney must find it frustrating that, in the face of his administration's disastrous foreign policy, irresponsible fiscal policy, destructive environmental policy, and collusion with private industry on health care and energy policy, people are starting to ask questions, and are refusing to accept the administration's imperial authority. If Cheney had anything of substance to say in response, I'm sure he would have said it. All he could come up with was, "go f--- yourself."
It doesn't matter to him that he is part of an administration whose stated purpose was to change the tone in Washington, and to restore honor and integrity to the White House. It doesn't matter to him that he was violating a long-standing tradition of civility on the Senate floor. All that matters to him is that he felt better.
Come November, after America's voters put him out of office, Cheney will probably be telling us all to go f--- ourselves. Let's hope it makes him feel better.
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