Klarinet Archive - Posting 000527.txt from 2004/06

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausmann1@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] The Bush Junta and Michael Moore
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2004 18:41:49 -0400

At 09:06 AM 6/30/2004 -0400, Erik Tkal wrote:

>So you watch the movie and take it with a grain of salt. Or a pound.

An ocean's worth would be required!

>No different from what I do with press releases from our own government
>lately. They seem to be at least as remiss as Mr. Moore in their fact
>checking. IMHO our administration has performed several impeachable
>offenses, not the least of which is going to war claiming a clear and
>present danger from another country, despite the fact that no such
>imminent threat has ever been proven.

The intelligence data we had at the time showed the danger. Intelligence
data (and believe me, I know -- I used to work in that field) is best-guess
work, like archeology. You fit the puzzle pieces you have together into
the most plausible picture you can. It is not always right, and at BEST is
incomplete. Frankly, I still think we will find the WMD's, although they
may very well no longer be IN Iraq. You can argue all day about how
"imminent" the threat was, and never get anywhere. That is ALL opinion.

>And now we back out and hand over control to what I suspect will be a
>puppet government on a dictated schedule with none of the original stated
>criteria met, simply to say we did what we said we would do.

We do everything we SAID we would do, despite people saying it could not be
done, but we are still wrong? I don't get the logic. At the very LEAST it
should show we tell the truth! We never said we would LEAVE on that
date. Also note that similar violence occurred in Germany and Japan after
WWII, and there was an outcry that we were "losing the peace" THEN, too.

>If we put half the money and effort that we put into this "war" instead
>into fixing our roads and our schools and our health care system, and kept
>our collective nose out of other countries' business (qv Bush's recent
>comments to the EU, Isreal/Palestine, etc, etc, etc), then such terrorists
>would have no reason or desire to attack us. There is no excuse for our
>behaviour other than greed and arrogance and hubris.

There is no excuse for terrorist attacks, PERIOD. NO argument of the point
is possible. No matter how much they dislike our policies, etc. Besides,
if we are doing this for greed, what is the payoff? We have (twice now)
NOT taken over the oil fields.

>And all Michael Moore is trying to do is to get people to think. We do far
>too little of that. More than half the population simply believes what the
>papers say, what the TV says, what the radio says, assuming there is no
>spin on it. Ha! So you watch the movie and make your own opinions. Even if
>there are a few mistakes and inconsistencies, what about the rest, is it
>all wrong?

If SOME of it is lies (not mistakes, LIES), you can't tell about the
rest. You have to assume the worst.

>Do so many people have to shout out to get others to not go to see it
>because they are nervous that there is some truth in it? Why are
>right-wing groups, and now Disney even, trying so hard and funneling money
>into efforts to stop it from being shown?

Disney was simply (and rightly) ashamed to send it out under their
name. They had no problem with selling it to someone ELSE to distribute,
as they did. The right wing groups are probably wasting their effort. No
one will go to the movie except those who are already desperate to believe
what is in it. You watch. Business will fall of DRAMATICALLY in a hurry
once all the converted have already seen it. It IS a free-speech issue,
though. Moore has every right to make an ass of himself on the screen, and
people are entitled to pay money to watch the spectacle. Or avoid it if
they choose. But he should be honest enough to admit that what he is
hawking is FICTION or, at best, wishful thinking.

Bill Hausmann

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is TOO LOUD!

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