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Fahrenheit 9/11 turns up the heat
ANTONIA ZERBISIAS
Now that George W. Bush is disappointed to learn that the rah-rah Ronald
Reagan funeral coverage won't be extended until the November election ?
or the capture of Osama bin Laden, whichever comes first ? it is time to
look back at his least Reaganesque moment.
It happened at 9:05 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, when White House Chief of
Staff Andrew Card, the man who would, a year later, talk of "marketing'' the
Iraq war, informed Bush that "a second plane has hit the World Trade
Center."
Bush just sat there, blinking, listening to second graders stumble through a
story about pet goats. As he would later tell London's Daily Telegraph: "I'm
trying to absorb that knowledge ... I'm sitting in the midst of a classroom
with little kids, listening to a children's story and I realize I'm the
Commander in Chief and the country has just come under attack."
Bush, who had never got the memo (so to speak) titled "Bin Laden
Determined To Attack Inside The U.S.," just! sat! there! realizing that he's
the man.
At least Reagan would have said something kindly to the kids before
jumping into action.
According to Michael Moore's much-hyped Fahrenheit 9/11, the documentary
that will hit 1,000 screens in North America this month, what was really
running through Bush's mind is how to blame Saddam Hussein.
Which is a stretch, and probably a joke. I think.
Still, it is a testament to how the mainstream media rallied round the leader
that none of them have ever connected the dots, at least not in any
comprehensive way, from that horrible moment all the way to Falluja.
If you want to see the video of that moment, you have to go to alternative
Web sites, or see Moore's film. It's the first one-stop info shop for the
masses who, because the mainstream media haven't the facts together in
any cohesive or comprehensive manner, may have missed the stories of the
Bush family connections to Saudis who subsidize terrorists and how members
of the bin Laden family were flown out of the U.S. while American planes,
which could have been carrying more hijackers, were diverted to Canada.
Fahrenheit 9/11, Moore tells Playboy in a lengthy interview this month, is
"the temperature of hysteria that has allowed the Bush administration to get
away with a series of unconscionable acts since 9/11."
Needless to say, Moore has been denounced as a traitor by those who heat
up the airwaves with their own poison gas attacks on critics of the current
administration. Among them, former comic Dennis Miller who jokes that he
likes to "trade" the Abu Ghraib prison photos with his friends and Ann
Coulter who refers to former President Bill Clinton as a rapist. (For a
complete catalogue of all their refreshing views, visit mediamatters.org)
Rush Limbaugh, who is heard over Disney's WABC in New York where, last
ratings check, the neophyte liberal Air America radio was beating him, says
that the Mickey Mouse corporation was right to refuse to distribute Moore's
film because it is so anti-American.
These people are "patriots." But Moore, who courageously questions the
administration and the media, well, according to Fox News' Bill O'Reilly,
deserves death.
The irony is, they complain about Moore being allowed to inflame partisan
emotions during an election campaign when these right-wing gasbags never
stop doing exactly that.
Which brings us to the Great Pink North where Vancouver's Lions Gate has
the Fahrenheit 9/11 distribution rights for the U.S. while Alliance Atlantis has
them for Canada.
Last week, on the financial editorial page of the National Post, Paul Kedrosky
got his brow all furrowed over how Lions Gate, which has benefited from
some $40 million in taxpayer support over the past three years, was helping
to "topple" the U.S. government.
(This was before the news that Alliance Atlantis won the domestic rights.)
Picking up on suggestions that it could be "the first film to get a president
fired," Kedrosky complained that this could be very bad for "cross-border
economic ties."
But he's not for censorship, oh no.
Neither is Dennis Miller who says "We should fight to preserve a country
where people such as Michael Moore get to miss the point as badly as he
misses it. Michael Moore represents everything I detest in a human being."
Yeah. He's all for dissent too.
No wonder the Bush boosters are now saying that Reagan deserves a place
on Mount Rushmore, even though a more fitting memorial would be the
reformation of Dubya's stem cell research policy so that a cure for
Alzheimer's may be found.
The truth is, 50 years from now, when Reagan's many failings will have
faded from memory, he will be remembered in the history books for the part
he played in ending the Cold War.
Bush, thanks to Fahrenheit 9/11, will be recalled as the guy who blinked,
hesitated ... and lost the war he started.
[CORRECTION: Bill O'Reilly of Fox News is quoted herein as saying he
believes Moore "deserves death." In fact, a transcript of O'Reilly's Feb. 2 TV
show makes it clear that a comment he made to that effect wasn't meant to
be taken seriously or literally.]
ANTONIA ZERBISIAS
Now that George W. Bush is disappointed to learn that the rah-rah Ronald
Reagan funeral coverage won't be extended until the November election ?
or the capture of Osama bin Laden, whichever comes first ? it is time to
look back at his least Reaganesque moment.
It happened at 9:05 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, when White House Chief of
Staff Andrew Card, the man who would, a year later, talk of "marketing'' the
Iraq war, informed Bush that "a second plane has hit the World Trade
Center."
Bush just sat there, blinking, listening to second graders stumble through a
story about pet goats. As he would later tell London's Daily Telegraph: "I'm
trying to absorb that knowledge ... I'm sitting in the midst of a classroom
with little kids, listening to a children's story and I realize I'm the
Commander in Chief and the country has just come under attack."
Bush, who had never got the memo (so to speak) titled "Bin Laden
Determined To Attack Inside The U.S.," just! sat! there! realizing that he's
the man.
At least Reagan would have said something kindly to the kids before
jumping into action.
According to Michael Moore's much-hyped Fahrenheit 9/11, the documentary
that will hit 1,000 screens in North America this month, what was really
running through Bush's mind is how to blame Saddam Hussein.
Which is a stretch, and probably a joke. I think.
Still, it is a testament to how the mainstream media rallied round the leader
that none of them have ever connected the dots, at least not in any
comprehensive way, from that horrible moment all the way to Falluja.
If you want to see the video of that moment, you have to go to alternative
Web sites, or see Moore's film. It's the first one-stop info shop for the
masses who, because the mainstream media haven't the facts together in
any cohesive or comprehensive manner, may have missed the stories of the
Bush family connections to Saudis who subsidize terrorists and how members
of the bin Laden family were flown out of the U.S. while American planes,
which could have been carrying more hijackers, were diverted to Canada.
Fahrenheit 9/11, Moore tells Playboy in a lengthy interview this month, is
"the temperature of hysteria that has allowed the Bush administration to get
away with a series of unconscionable acts since 9/11."
Needless to say, Moore has been denounced as a traitor by those who heat
up the airwaves with their own poison gas attacks on critics of the current
administration. Among them, former comic Dennis Miller who jokes that he
likes to "trade" the Abu Ghraib prison photos with his friends and Ann
Coulter who refers to former President Bill Clinton as a rapist. (For a
complete catalogue of all their refreshing views, visit mediamatters.org)
Rush Limbaugh, who is heard over Disney's WABC in New York where, last
ratings check, the neophyte liberal Air America radio was beating him, says
that the Mickey Mouse corporation was right to refuse to distribute Moore's
film because it is so anti-American.
These people are "patriots." But Moore, who courageously questions the
administration and the media, well, according to Fox News' Bill O'Reilly,
deserves death.
The irony is, they complain about Moore being allowed to inflame partisan
emotions during an election campaign when these right-wing gasbags never
stop doing exactly that.
Which brings us to the Great Pink North where Vancouver's Lions Gate has
the Fahrenheit 9/11 distribution rights for the U.S. while Alliance Atlantis has
them for Canada.
Last week, on the financial editorial page of the National Post, Paul Kedrosky
got his brow all furrowed over how Lions Gate, which has benefited from
some $40 million in taxpayer support over the past three years, was helping
to "topple" the U.S. government.
(This was before the news that Alliance Atlantis won the domestic rights.)
Picking up on suggestions that it could be "the first film to get a president
fired," Kedrosky complained that this could be very bad for "cross-border
economic ties."
But he's not for censorship, oh no.
Neither is Dennis Miller who says "We should fight to preserve a country
where people such as Michael Moore get to miss the point as badly as he
misses it. Michael Moore represents everything I detest in a human being."
Yeah. He's all for dissent too.
No wonder the Bush boosters are now saying that Reagan deserves a place
on Mount Rushmore, even though a more fitting memorial would be the
reformation of Dubya's stem cell research policy so that a cure for
Alzheimer's may be found.
The truth is, 50 years from now, when Reagan's many failings will have
faded from memory, he will be remembered in the history books for the part
he played in ending the Cold War.
Bush, thanks to Fahrenheit 9/11, will be recalled as the guy who blinked,
hesitated ... and lost the war he started.
[CORRECTION: Bill O'Reilly of Fox News is quoted herein as saying he
believes Moore "deserves death." In fact, a transcript of O'Reilly's Feb. 2 TV
show makes it clear that a comment he made to that effect wasn't meant to
be taken seriously or literally.]
This Politics forum idea better stick 'round! 
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