Fahrenheit 9/11 or 411??

"If an eighth of Michael Moore's documentary is true -- Bush should be sitting next to Saddam right now.." : Me - after watching the movie for the first time....

Well - we did it..

As unbelievable as it sounds, our little "poke" town finally got Fahrenheit 9/11.. This afternoon my girl and I made it to a Sunday Matinee and let's just say that people clapped after the documentary was over.. Not exactly your standard response from a movie at another theater, but it happened..

Now much of what I say here are filled with spoilers -- so if you're not interested, don't even venture any further..

Also - let's just say that I embraced the movie - so if you're not interested in hearing the various comments from someone who questioned the war, questioned the Presidency, then you probably shouldn't be reading any further.......

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Okay -- enough warning..

I'd like to make the following statement very clear: I do not know all of Michael's sources or some of the basis of some of his arguments.. As I indicated up above, should an 1/8th of this documentary be factual - then George needs to step aside.. If (and there's a significant proportion of folks and groups that challenge Mr. Moore) the documentary is a hoax, then it's a masterful peace of propaganda..

Clearly there is a bias and motive on Mr. Moore's behalf to give his version of the Bush administration.. That said, he provides sound clips, bytes and images that we don't always see in mainstream USA.. Granted - again - there's no way of saying if statements and images were taken out of context.. But the stories.. The footage from families, soldiers, and the Iraqi people are compelling.. *That* is a very impressionable story that has gone unreported..

It goes unreported because the press can remember what happened in Vietnam.. They can remember that due to their reports of people dying over there - that eventually led to our pull out.. Is this so that they remain in favor of the government - who supplies them with leaks and other information?? Perhaps.. Still it's bothersome for me - and my girl to think that we don't get the whole story when we tune in our televisions or read our newspapers..

So, Michael's documentary did something very good for me: My eyes are once again, open..

Much of what Michael did - I do remember all the way from the Florida voting issues to the curious military record of our President..

But what interested me the most was the correlation between the Saudis and the Bush family.. There's more documented facts that really have me in awe.. The tangle of connections between the Bush's and the Saudi's make for a very interesting argument of what *actually* happened for the last 12+ years.. Bush Sr. continued to be a consultant for a Saudi oil production company.. Even George's appointments in Afghanistan and the Saudi ambassadorship were ex-execs of the company George worked for before he became governor..

(Remember all of those claims about how Clinton only appointed his close friends?? -- erase that now......)

Then there was a very curious point about the fact that Bin Laden's family was flown out of the country shortly after Bush called for every airplane to be grounded.. There were over 20 flights that left the country - sending the Bin Laden family out of here.. A very curious charge by Michael Moore.. Because it really flies in the face of reason because of few points:

1.) if we do not know it was Bin Laden, then why not keep them and ask some questions as to his possible location or possible uncovering of additional plots against the US..

2.) things were a lot more prepared to get the Bin Ladens out of the US than originally thought..

3.) Considering that 15 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia (a fact that may not have been known at the time) -- yet Saudi Arabia asks that 142 of Saudi Arabian nationality be flown out of the country.. Interesting -- because why these 142?? Certainly there are MORE than 142 Saudi Arabian nationals here in the US.. Did we accidentally send off collaborators and didn't even know it??

4.) Saudi Arabia had their hand in the cookie jar a lot more than we know.. One of the claims in the documentary stated that the Saudis have hundreds of billions of dollars invested in the US.. HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS.. I submit that THIS is the real reason why we haven't investigated Saudi Arabia's role further..

Interesting questions to say the least..

Then there were the alarming facts that stood out:

1.) How we didn't send in our special elite task force for 2 months following 9/11..

2.) How Bush was at the elementary school after the first plane hit the towers.. (Why this is even relevant is that I remember something Bush said in an interview where he knew that it was a terrorist act from the first plane hitting the Towers..

2a.) Okay -- if that's the fact, WHY in God's green Earth did he STAY at the elementary school??

2b.) WHY did he continue to read to the children after the second plane hit the towers??

2c.) WHY didn't he excuse himself, go into the school to start with??

2d.) IF he knew it was a terrorist attack, IF he knew this going into school -- WHERE is the leader of our country SUPPOSED TO BE AT A TIME LIKE THAT???????

3.) How it has been reported by the Washington Post that for the first year or so in his Presidency, 42% of the time was spent on vacation, on a boat, cutting wood at his farm, or playing golf........ Moore made the comment that Bush missed those all important memos because he wasn't working as much.. Bush's retort: "you don't have to be working at the White House and not be working....." (um, right..)

4.) How one of the administration official didn't want to hear about the terrorist briefings anymore.....

5.) Then there's all of the stir from Richard Clarke's opinions as to what his version of events were when he was advising the President.. Clarke didn't understand why there was a push to Iraq when we should've been focusing on Bin Laden.. In an interview with one of the news programs, Clarke came out and said that Iraq didn't have any weapons of mass destruction.. That's no big shock -- even to this date there's nothing..

6.) Out of every representative and senator, only ONE has an active member of their family in the military.. Conversely, in Flint, Michigan, there are recruiters (probably not just there) that are practically selling anything and everything to get young kids to enlist.. "Ever hear of Shaggy (the rap artist)? He was a Marine.." "David Robinson played basketball when he was in the Navy.." And that's just wrong.. Neither Snoop (and especially) nor David Robinson ever went into military action.. In fact, David Robinson got a nice kooshy job doing recruiting or some thing like that.. Moore's point was taken: "why not send your own children first before sending someone else's.." Then to hear Bush's comment: "I don't want to send my children, no one wants to send their children.." *ouch*

Again..... why??

The 9/11 commission recently issued their findings over the last few weeks.. Most of the blame seems to be failing to brief the administration correctly.. But my main question to that position is: "why??" Shouldn't there be a motive for the CIA to give faulty information so that we have no choice but go into Iraq?? Moore's movie does not answer this.. I can accept the fact that the CIA lied, okay - but WHY??

*ahem*

The reviews have been rather scathing.. Moore has been branded everything from a jihadist, to a traitor, to a sympathizer to terrorism.. Moore is being called un-patriotic, an idiot and just an all around bad dude who calls Bush an idiot.. But in all the critiques, all of the name calling, branding, treacherous labels slapped on Mr. Moore, there's one important thing I haven't read anyone, or hear anyone say:

"Mr. Moore, that which you bring out in the movie is complete and utterly false.."

Nope..

Nada..

Nothing..

I have heard people saying that it's a brilliant work of fiction.. That it shouldn't be considered a documentary because there aren't any facts in it.. Okay - that's a valid start to the argument but I haven't come across anyone who can denounce aspects of Fahrenheit 9/11 based on fact.. People are pissed that Michael Moore made a movie that calls to question many of the things this administration has done..

Is that wrong??

Is that unpatriotic??

Why?? Why can't people like Michael Moore and Rush Limbaugh rely on whatever version of facts that they want to?? Please note that I'm avoiding the other questionable angles of Mr. Moore's movie: the so called financial (greed) motive for attacking Iraq, the connections between Bush, his family, and the merging of companies and the Middle East.. I leave that for conjecture since there are investment deals like this all of the time.. What I don't get is why Halliburton has off-shore accounts in the Cayman Islands.. That sounds a bit wishy washy for some reason..

Having seen the movie with my own two eyes, President Bush is not put into a positive light.. There's no spinning the movie into a positive for conservatives and that's what's getting under their craw.. They don't want their man to come out of this with a black eye..

To be honest - he should never have gotten into this mess to begin with.......

Here endeth the lesson..