On more than one occasion I’ve been known to advance the observation that picking on Liberals can be like shooting the proverbial fish in a barrel … with a bazooka. Here, for example, are but a handful of our liberal brethren’s beliefs de jour.

The desecration of Christian imagery … say submerging a crucifix in urine or smearing images of the Madonna with feces … is "art" so profound it justifies public subsidy via the National Endowment for the Humanities … and … the laughable allegation that an individual drawing a government paycheck may have “abused” the Koran at Gitmo, (by finding a way to flush a large book down a toilet), constitute an grave indictment of the American character.

Flaming skyscrapers aside Islam is a religion of peace … and … despite more than 40 years of peaceful protest against the murder of the unborn fundamentalist Christians are hatefully intolerant.

Israeli Jews who build a wall to stop the indiscriminate murder of their children are aggressively immoral … and … Muslims who use their children as time bombs are simply misunderstood freedom fighters.

The constitutional rights of Americans are under assault because foreigners conforming to the profile of the average modern terrorist (young, male, agitated and Muslim), traveling on passports issued by countries that espouse a hatred of the United States are searched before they are allowed to embark on airplanes destined for American territory … and … searching eighty five year old grandmothers on their way to Disney Land proves our moral superiority.

Michael Moore takes reasoned political positions … and … George Bush is a pathological liar.

Mink and other fur bearing animals have a right to life … and … unborn humans do not.

The UN, an organization in which Libya can head the Committee on Human Rights, and in which every petty dictatorship and authoritarian regime has both a bully pulpit and a vote, is our best guarantor of liberty.

We can safely ignore the fact that democracy and capitalism are the two surest creators of wealth and fix the healthcare system via socialism.

The fact that the mainstream press tried to determine the outcome of the last the Presidential election with what they manifestly knew to be forged documents proves absolutely nothing … and … the mere existence of the Fox News Channel is clear evidence of a vast right-wing media conspiracy.

Halliburton is an evil cabal … and … the UN Security Council is the last best hope of mankind.

The French are our allies.

Decency requires that the 10 commandments not appear in any public building … and … attempts to curb the worst excesses of a vaguely pornographic radio show constitute intolerable censorship.

There are (mysteriously unwritten) Constitutional rights to gay marriage and abortion … and … there is no right to own a gun despite the fact that such a right actually appears within the text of the Constitution.

We must, at all costs, protect the rights of women to kill their unborn children on virtually any pretext … and … the legal execution of a convicted mass murderer constitutes an act of state terrorism.

Bill Clinton was a principled humanitarian when he launched an invasion of without so much as a casual nod to the UN … and … George Bush approaches the status of war criminal for approving an invasion of without the explicit endorsement of the UN Security Council.

Taxing the rich will cause the poor to become rich because you can create jobs by increasing the amount of income tax (& thereby decreasing the wealth) of the people whose wealth creates jobs.

Allowing people a say in how their own money will be allocated when planning for their own retirement income constitutes a government power grab.

Demanding preferential treatment of some races over others in employment and the distribution of tax revenues in no way constitutes racism … and … Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are the best Black American has to offer.

Despite 1000 plus years of common law theory ... and a lifetime of hard work ... your property is not actually not yours if any other person of higher socio-economic status can convince the local authorities they can use it to provide the government with more tax revenue than you can.

The treatment of terrorists detained at Gitmo and in is a national disgrace … and the Democratic Party isn’t.

There now … aren’t you glad you’re a conservative?

Professionally, speaking I’ve just been forced to the realization that I am one of the rarest animals on the planet … a prfoundly conservative high school history teacher. The sheer volume of multi-culturalist pap that gets kicked around on any given day by my earnestly lefty colleagues could drown a herd of elephants. Despite that, (perhaps because of it), I love what I do. This time of year, when I’m sitting at home waiting for Christmas Break to end I really start to pine for the classroom and my students … but I’m beginning to wish a few of the adults would just stay home.

Tragically, our faculty’s general liberal bent has only gotten worse as a result of the recent unpleasantness in the Mideast. In a sterling example of that trend my boss’s boss’s boss (the District Superintendent) recently sent several hundred teachers a copy of After Grief, The Fear We Won’t Admit an article published by Robin Wright in the Washington Post on the third anniversary of 9/11. The article was accompanied by a note in which the Superintendent suggested we all embrace Wright’s perspective.

No surprise … Wright’s article is a summation of a position increasingly espoused by the Left with respect to the War on Terror. Mark Steyn, writing in the National Review, best described that position as “a palpable longing to make the Islamists just a garden-variety terrorist movement.” Under this line of reasoning the whole “War on Terror” thing is entirely misguided. What is called for is “dialogue.”

At the outset one should observe that Mr. Wright’s writing style is almost entirely disingenuous to the extent that his use of language and sources imply that there is broad agreement among what he calls “Mideast scholars” that our national salvation arises only from the course of action he proposes … in a word “appeasement”. That is simply not true.

Mr. Wright’s basic contention is that we must “Bring Islamic movements and groups into the political process. Give Islamist parties new political space – wide open space – to absorb passions and sap anger … encouraging Islamists and their parties to participate … differentiating between Islamists and jihadists, and accepting anyone willing to work within a system to change it rather than work from outside to destroy it.”

My inclination, as an historian, is simply point out that appeasement has never worked as means of securing lasting peace. To put a finer point on that critique … replace the word “Islamists” in Mr. Wright’s formulation with the word “Fascist” and the word “jihadists” with “Nazis.”

Mr. Wright also endorses Reuel Gerecht’s argument that “Moderate Muslims are not the answer. Shiite clerics and Sunni fundamentalists are our salvation from future 9/11s.”

As Steyn pointed out in his critique of this kind of  “logic”: “Many mainstream imams want to stone adulteresses to death, behead all sodomites, and kill all the Jews. Maybe the Grand Congress of Reconciliation would thrash out a compromise whereby we lightly pebble-dash adulteresses, merely castrate sodomites, and kill only some of the Jews, just the troublemakers, maybe 10 percent.”

To the sad fact that much of Islam’s fundamentalist agenda is simply unconscionable Misters Wright and Gerecht can only respond “Let it roll … Don’t walk away. Its part of the process. It’s trying to ensure the system is sufficiently open that fundamentalists burn themselves out.”

Surely this is the Left’s much vaunted “tolerance” taken well beyond furthest reaches of absurdity.

Wright references Oliver Roy to similar effect. Roy’s observation that “Conservative and even fundamentalist views of religion are manageable in a plural environment, as shown by a host of Protestant, Catholic and Jewish cases” is certainly true … as far as it goes. However, it is also irrelevant. In the argument at hand we are not dealing with Protestant, Catholic or Jewish fundamentalism. We are dealing with Islamic fundamentalism and the cases are not analogous. The first three (Protestantism, Catholicism and Judaism) all preach tolerance …. the very crux of the matter at hand is that Islam essentially does not.

Similarly, one would be hard pressed (to put it mildly) to develop any meaningful list of “plural environments” in the modern Arab world. Roy’s contribution (at least as it reported by Wright) amounts to little more than wishful thinking.

Gerecht/Wright want us to “First, hold a genuine two-way dialogue.” Alas. This is simply more wishful thinking. No such conversation is possible because the other side has no “genuine” interest in negotiation. However, like the Israelis with the Palestinians, we could forge ahead regardless and attempt such a dialogue. The recently departed Mr. Arafat, and the organization(s) he represented, were received (indeed fêted) by the UN, the EU and the Arab League. Israel, via a plethora of major and minor US brokered agreements, (most notably Oslo), conceded to literally 95% of the Palestinian demands. And what has this bought? Today Israel is a place where jihadists run rampant …where becoming a suicide bomber and blowing up a school bus full of Jewish children earns your mother both a hefty check and bragging rights on Arab television.

There can be no “genuine two-way dialogue” with a party whose ultimate goal is to see you dead. Hussein Massawi (of Hezzbolah) famously responded to just such an overture: “We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you.”

Wright’s second concrete proposal was “… to use economic tools … (for example) the United States could use WTO membership to induce change and force countries to embrace the rule of law.” Iran can counter (with 100% veracity) that they already embrace the “rule of law” … Islamic law. And, according to the “let it roll embrace the Islamists” line of reasoning on what authority are we to argue our rule of law is superior to theirs and still maintain sufficient credibility to maintain our “genuine two-way dialogue”?

The third prong of Wright’s solution consists in the admonition that we “Embrace our own Islamic identity.” Nothing the author writes in the following paragraph explains precisely what this is supposed to mean. To be fair he seems to be arguing that Muslims in democratic societies must be afforded protection of the law and all rights associated with citizenship. But, Muslims in true democracies are afforded protection of the law and the rights of citizenship. Ironically in no small measure that is precisely why Muslims from around the world immigrate to western democracies in such large numbers. They have no such rights within Islam! Given the economic and social status of the American Muslim community the author’s contention that Muslims are somehow “on the fringe” of American society is simply laughable.

On a more parochial level it may be worthwhile to reflect upon the likely reaction of my multiculturalist Superintendent were I to distribute an article that called upon Muslim Americans to “embrace their own Christian Identity.”

At the level of the individual religious tolerance … indeed deep and meaningful respect for religious teachings other than one’s own … does not require one to abandon either logic or the fundamental tenants of one’s own faith. My faith demands that I love, respect and accept people of all faiths. But neither faith, law or logic require that I embrace the teachings those faiths espouse.

Radical Islam is not a cultural misunderstanding or a political movement. It is a pernicious evil. Evil is like alcoholism. The first step in it’s defeat is to recognize it for what it is and deal with it from there on that basis. The evil of radical Islam must be called by its true name as a first step. That the Washington Post, (not to mention my boss’s boss’s boss), cannot do even this much is a symptom of the Liberal uber-tolerance that inevitably leads to moral relativism and from thence ultimately to utter defeat.

 Abraham Lincoln once observed that hanging was the most appropriate way to treat a member of Congress who gave rhetorical support for the enemies of the United States. With that in mind one wonders, (not for long), what Ol’ Abe would make of Senator Dick Durbin’s comparison of the Gitmo detention facility to the genocide practiced by the Nazis, Soviets and Khmer Rouge. The ancestors from whom we inherited this land often disagreed … sometimes violently … over an array of issues large and small. However, there was also a broad general agreement on all sides of the political spectrum in the idea of American exceptionalism: that the United States was a place set aside, a polity … never perfect … but one far, far better than any that had come before or since.

No more. Senator Durbin’s remarks, (despite his quavering lipped pseudo-retraction), played well on the Left. Red state America reacted with anger to Durbin’s likening the United States to a cabal of the most evil political regimes of the past century. But a large chunk of Blue America actually believes the United States is a malevolent force in the world today. Anti-Americanism is the thread stitching together the modern American Left. And it is high time they were called to task for it.

Overt anti-Americanism permeates political discourse on the left from Teddy Kennedy to Howard Zinn through Michael Moore and moveon.org. Liberals nod sagely at almost any statement that takes as its premise that America (and Red State Americans) are inherently evil. Indeed, what passes for intellectual discourse on the Left has undoubtedly become nearly as powerful a purveyor of hatred for American on the international scene this side of Al-Jazeera.

Anti-Americanism hasn’t infected everyone who happens to hold a Democratic Party membership card. (Witness Zell Miller and Joe Lieberman). Similarly, it would be a gross over-simplification to say everyone who thought of themselves as “liberal” must, de facto, hate America. But it is also clear that American exceptionalism is widely disparaged on the Left generally. And in those areas of cultural life dominated by the more radical Left: the Democratic Party, academia and the popular media the idea that America is at best just another polity in a fundamentally flawed international system and at worst the most malevolent force on the planet is widely held.

Recall, for example, how well Moore’s monumentally silly Fahrenheit 911 was received in liberal circles and on the Arab Street. Both Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky are widely embraced in academia precisely because an overt loathing for Red State America runs throughout their work. Dan Rather actually resorted to forged documents in a vociferous media campaign to ensure the election of the Left’s candidate in the last presidential election. Does anyone doubt that Senator Durbin’s remarks will be equally well received by the fanatics facing our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Make no mistake what we call “the War on Terror” is ultimately a struggle for the survival of Western Civilization. Our enemy is fighting to establish an Islamo-Fascist world in which the rights of free speech, assembly and religion are non-existent, women are kept in servitude and Jews are but a memory … and that’s just for starters. Of course the aims of our enemy are literally fantastic. Nevertheless, in many ways, the fact that Islamo-Fascists are fantasists makes them more … not less … dangerous.

Despite this the Left has not hesitated to call the President a liar, the Vice President a war monger or the United States a genocidal regime. These fictions may provide grist for the domestic political mill but they also provide aid and comfort to our enemies. Alas, that fact appears to be of little importance to the radicals who make them. Many good and decent people on the Left may not see, (or believe), that the stakes in this conflict are quite as high many on the right believe them to be. Frankly, in and of itself that’s a scary thought. More frightening by far however, is the possibility that the radical Left understands the stakes in this conflict entirely … and simply isn’t on our side.

For much of the radical Left, America (and Western Civilization) are simply not worth fighting for. Unfortunately, the radical Left increasingly includes the Lefts’ opinion makers (ie. Moore, Chomsky et. al.) and money generators (i.e. George Soros). In order to score points with their increasingly radicalized base liberal politicians indulge in the most egregious rhetoric regardless of the damage such posturing may ultimately do.

In what isbecoming a tradition of sorts with me I have again replied to one of Michael Moore's "open letters."

A Liberal's Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives ...by Michael Moore

To My Conservative Brothers and Sisters,

I know you are dismayed and disheartened at the results of last week's election. You're worried that the country is heading toward a very bad place you don't want it to go. Your 12-year Republican Revolution has ended with so much yet to do, so many promises left unfulfilled. You are in a funk, and I understand.

In the words of a great American “There you go again Mike”. Look, we appreciate your concern but conservatives are neither “dismayed nor disheartened”. Nor do we think the country is headed toward a very bad place. First of all the liberal wing of the Democratic party had to move decidedly to the right in order to pick up just a tad under the historical average for congressional elections held during the 6^th year of a presidential term. The average margin of victory for most of the seats that changed hands was less than 3% points of the popular vote. And this you managed against the backdrop of an unpopular war and a widely unpopular (Republican) President.

(Hell Mike the new Senator from Virginia was the Undersecretary of the Navy during the Reagan administration. Several of the new Dems are avowed gun rights advocates & pro-life. Nancy Pelosi couldn’t get Murtha a leadership post even before the new folks come on board.

The widely held view among conservatives is that the Republicans got trounced precisely because they governed as moderates in the pork barrel style of liberals. (They weren’t conservative enough.)

I don’t know about the Republican movement (and frankly I don’t really care.) Frankly, it looks like the conservative movement is doing pretty darn well. Why, exactly, would we be in a “funk”?

Well, cheer up, my friends! Do not despair. I have good news for you. I, and the millions of others who are now in charge with our Democratic Congress, have a pledge we would like to make to you, a list of promises that we offer you because we value you as our fellow Americans. You deserve to know what we plan to do with our newfound power -- and, to be specific, what we will do to you and for you.

Thus, here is our Liberal's Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives:

Dear Conservatives and Republicans,

I, and my fellow signatories, hereby make these promises to you:

1. We will always respect you for your conservative beliefs. We will never, ever, call you "unpatriotic" simply because you disagree with us. In fact, we encourage you to dissent and disagree with us.

Don’t you ever get tired of lying for a living? This tripe gets trotted out just about every time one of your brethren makes a speech they hope will be perceived as “brave” by the stupid wing of the Democratic party. Let’s not pretend we’re high school sophomores Mike. Please name one conservative politician who has used the word “unpatriotic” to describe any liberal politician in the past 8 years. None of this “I heard it from a friend who heard it from NBC who got it from NPR who sourced it from the CNN rumor mill who got it from either you or Moveon.org. Cite the quote and document it Mike or shut up.

2. We will let you marry whomever you want, even when some of us consider your behavior to be "different" or "immoral." Who you marry is none of our business. Love and be in love -- it's a wonderful gift.

Wanna bet? No you won’t. Your own Charlie Rangel is on record saying that the Democrats are going to stay away from gay rights and gun control.

Mike, here is a cold hard political FACT. The Democratic party will do nada, zilch, nothing, zero on a gay marriage amendment. Liberals haven’t got the courage of their own convictions. Never have. Never will. Ms. Pelosi may be a former grand marshal of the Gay Pride parade but the truth is neither she nor her party have the guts to push for gay rights. They know that adopting an aggressive gay rights agenda will virtually guarantee handing back both houses and the presidency to the GOP in ’08.

3. We will not spend your grandchildren's money on our personal whims or to enrich our friends. It's your checkbook, too, and we will balance it for you.

This … from the party who fear mongered the only meaningful attempt at reforming and saving social security since its inception? Lay off the crack pipe Mike! The Democratic party hasn’t even attempted to “balance a checkbook” since JFK … and by today’s standards Mr. Camelot would be a fiscal conservative. Christ man, a Democratically controlled congress hasn’t submitted a balanced budget proposal in living memory. You’re going to raise the minimum wage (thereby cutting jobs), raise taxes, feed off of class envy, expand entitlements, and try like hell to get as many people addicted to the dole as you possibly can. Have we missed something or hasn’t that essentially been the liberal agenda for the past seventy years or so?

4. When we soon bring our sons and daughters home from Iraq, we will bring your sons and daughters home, too. They deserve to live. We promise never to send your kids off to war based on either a mistake or a lie.

Mike, the word “lie” used as a pejorative by the man who made Bowling For Columbine”? Are we supposed to laugh or cry?

Let’s not pretend that conservatives and liberals are taking the same risks with respect to Iraq. Last I checked virtually all of your sons and daughters were safe in school. Our kids are fighting and dying. The only thing liberal kids are willing to fight for is their victim status and the only people in danger of losing a life at their hand are their own unborn children.

Would you say your party’s record on Vietnam was a fair indication of their honesty in time of war? What about the fact that about 90% of them voted for this war too? Doesn’t that make them “liars”?

5. When we make America the last Western democracy to have universal health coverage, and all Americans are able to get help when they fall ill, we promise that you, too, will be able to see a doctor, regardless of your ability to pay. And when stem cell research delivers treatments and cures for diseases that affect you and your loved ones, we'll make sure those advances are available to you and your family, too.

No you won’t. There will be no universal health coverage bill passed in this congress or the next or the one after that. (We know, we know: you’re making a “film” on health care.) Here’s the nub of it pal (and this is gonna hurt). America is way too socially conservative for socialized medicine. It’s not going to happened in your lifetime.

And by the way the issue (for conservatives) with respect to stem cells isn’t whether or not you may find cures for diseases. The question is weather or not the research is moral. (I know you guys don’t believe in that sort of thing but we do.) As we see it stem cell research is immoral. So, frankly, even if your stem cell research produces a “cure” for a “disease” I might have (and the science is doubtful on it), I’ll take a pass. Those of us who are conservative would rather have our ethics (and immortal soul) intact. I’m happy to go to my maker a tad quicker.

6. Even though you have opposed environmental regulation, when we clean up our air and water, we, the Democratic majority, will let you, too, breathe the cleaner air and drink the purer water.

Man you’re an idiot. Check the numbers Mike. Air and water quality are better in the US than they have been since the 1960s. What are you on?

7. Should a mass murderer ever kill 3,000 people on our soil, we will devote every single resource to tracking him down and bringing him to justice. Immediately. We will protect you.

OK. That’s one we’ll take you up on. You’re in charge buddy and you’ve made your promise right here. When can we expect you to deliver Osama Bin Ladden? Shall we say “immediately”? Well ………………………….. we’re waiting!

8. We will never stick our nose in your bedroom or your womb. What you do there as consenting adults is your business. We will continue to count your age from the moment you were born, not the moment you were conceived.

Oh come one Mike. Bill Clinton stuck his nose in lots and lots of wombs and you never complained then. We really don’t care about “your” womb at all Mike. It’s the hostages you have there we’re worried about. Hell you keep tossing their dead bodies out one by one. Didn’t you expect us to take notice? Do you really expect us to let you commit murder and remain silent just because the murder happens to take place in “your womb”? Not a chance fella.

Here’s a crazy thought: how about you guys take a deep breath and practice some self control? If you’d stop making babies you wouldn’t have to kill so many of them.

Mike, no conservative gives a damn about what you do in your bedroom. We do object to your wanting to move your bedroom into our living rooms. Keep your sexuality private and virtually nobody NOBODY is going to bother you about it. We just really think that we shouldn’t have to hear about the details of your proclivities. We also don’t think people’s “alternate” sexuality has any right to the title of “marriage”. Tell you what …. If you stop trying to force homosexuality down our throats (figuratively of course) we’ll stop “sticking our noses in your bedroom.” Keep your sex life private (like other civilized people) and civilized people will treat you with civility. Insist on public discussion of your sexual activity and you should expect civilized people to ask you to shut up. Hate to break it to you but you’re a bore not a revolutionary.

9. We will not take away your hunting guns. If you need an automatic weapon or a handgun to kill a bird or a deer, then you really aren't much of a hunter and you should, perhaps, pick up another sport. We will make our streets and schools as free as we can from these weapons and we will protect your children just as we would protect ours.

And we believe you. In fact we expect the same treatment you gave the speech Charlton Heston gave at the NRA National Convention in Denver. You remember that don’t you Mike? You’ve got TONS of personal credibility on this issue.

Oh yeah: Charlie Rangel again, the Dems are going to “stay away” from gun control remember?

10. When we raise the minimum wage, we will pay you -- and your employees -- that new wage, too. When women are finally paid what men make, we will pay conservative women that wage, too.

Women are paid precisely the same as men in America in every meaningful sense. It takes a truly political IQ to look at the data and conclude otherwise.

When you raise the minimum wage the laws of economics will kick in and small businesses will fire minimum wage employees. After a market adjustment (prices go up & business makes up the profit short-fall) those minimum wage jobs will “reappear”. Of course, the purchasing power of the minimum wage will correspondingly fall. But what the hell it only puts a couple hundred thousand people on the street for a few months and it only closes a couple thousand small businesses. It happens every time minimum wage has been raised by the feds since the minimum wage was instituted. Check out the history. Have fun. Make yourself feel good about helping the “needy.” Just don’t pretend you’re actually doing anything helpful.

11. We will respect your religious beliefs, even when you don't put those beliefs into practice. In fact, we will actively seek to promote your most radical religious beliefs ("Blessed are the poor," "Blessed are the peacemakers," "Love your enemies," "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God," and "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."). We will let people in other countries know that God doesn't just bless America, he blesses everyone. We will discourage religious intolerance and fanaticism -- starting with the fanaticism here at home, thus setting a good example for the rest of the world.

Slow down Mike, you got control of Congress not the Heavenly Choir.

By the way, when were you intending to re-distribute your wealth Mike? How are you gonna make it to heaven when you’re so bloody rich? Mike, people are starving and you own Haliburton stock! Remember Mike … courage of your convictions.

12. We will not tolerate politicians who are corrupt and who are bought and paid for by the rich. We will go after any elected leader who puts him or herself ahead of the people. And we promise you we will go after the corrupt politicians on our side FIRST. If we fail to do this, we need you to call us on it. Simply because we are in power does not give us the right to turn our heads the other way when our party goes astray. Please perform this important duty as the loyal opposition.

Are you willfully blind or just plain stupid? Your current “leadership” includes an impeached judge, several named unindicted conspirators in various bribery scandals, a member of congress whose staff member/lover ran a gay prostitution ring out of his DC townhouse, and a Grand Wizard of the KKK. You’re going to lecture us about corruption? Really?

I promise all of the above to you because this is your country, too. You are every bit as American as we are. We are all in this together. We sink or swim as one. Thank you for your years of service to this country and for giving us the opportunity to see if we can make things a bit better for our 300 million fellow Americans -- and for the rest of the world.

Nice to see you end on an up note. Really, we wish you nothing but luck because you’re right this is our country too. You’ve got the keys for a while. Just bring back the car in one piece ok?

By the way where was all this “we sink or swim as one” stuff in the last 6 years Mike?

Signed,

Michael Moore

P.S. Please feel free to pass this on.
P.S. Yes, please do.

On the anniversary of the 9/11 attack the preternaturally bloated jackass Michael Moore published an open letter to those of us who voted for George Bush. It made it into my e-mail via the auspices of a very dear (and tragically liberal) friend. I have included the text of Mr. Moore’s missive. My responses are interspersed with his original diatribe.

Sunday, September 11th, 2005
A Letter to All Who Voted for George W. Bush from Michael Moore

To All My Fellow Americans Who Voted for George W. Bush:

On this, the fourth anniversary of 9/11, I'm just curious, how does it feel?

What a bizarre question. I assume every American feels the same tragic mélange of sorrow, anger and determination …

How does it feel to know that the man you elected to lead us after we were attacked went ahead and put a guy in charge of FEMA whose main qualification was that he ran horse shows?

That's right. Horse shows.

Oh! I’m sorry … I assumed your inquiry was about the most vicious attack on American soil by a foreign enemy in the history of the nation. It simply hadn’t crossed my mind that one might leverage two national tragedies to score a cheap rhetorical point. But, that’s probably why you’re a multi-millionaire “socialist” and I’m a capitalist mired down here in the middle class.

Having said that. Absent all other issues I have no problem with a FEMA Director whose management experience was earned primarily in the horse show business. It wouldn’t bother me if he had been a hamburger executive … or a car executive … or a former military executive. Organizational and management sills are organizational and management skills regardless of in what context they are learned.

Moreover, isn’t this the same FEMA team (and administration) that did such a laudable job during the hurricanes that hit Florida? Why yes it is! The difference in the equation isn’t those people. It is the scope of the disaster (category 5 hitting a city built below sea level) and the different LOCAL authorities responsible for responding. In Florida it was a bunch of Republicans. In Louisiana it’s a bunch of Democrats.

But why quibble? No rational person believes the government response to Katrina was perfect. Just as no rational person believes it was callous or …. Oops. Sorry.

I’m quite sure that, if one had been available, the President would have chosen someone with extensive experience in category 5 hurricanes slamming into the east coast of the US to head FEMA. Alas, none applied.

I really want to know -- and I ask you this in all sincerity and with all due respect -- how do you feel about the utter contempt Mr. Bush has shown for your safety? C'mon, give me just a moment of honesty. Don't start ranting on about how this disaster in New Orleans was the fault of one of the poorest cities in America. Put aside your hatred of Democrats and liberals and anyone with the last name of Clinton. Just look me in the eye and tell me our President did the right thing after 9/11 by naming a horse show runner as the top man to protect us in case of an emergency or catastrophe.

What an odd statement posing as a question. How, precisely has Mr. Bush shown “utter contempt” for my, or anyone else’s safety?

Honestly … nobody I know on the right has argued that poverty caused the disaster in New Orleans. (We do believe it made it worse.) Clearly, the hurricane itself was an act of nature. Honestly … no amount of money can stop something like that, nor can any amount of education … nor can any amount of good intention … nor can anyone sitting in the oval office. Had Mr. Clinton been ensconced in the White House the hurricane still would have been a category 5 and nothing would be different. That is, of course, with the notable exception that you probably wouldn’t be blaming it on him.

While it is physically impossible to look you in the eye as I write this I can assure you, that if it were possible to look you in the eye I would say precisely the same thing.

I want you to put aside your self-affixed label of Republican/conservative/born-again/capitalist/ditto-head/right-winger and just talk to me as an American, on the common ground we both call America.

Well, that whole “with all due respect” had real staying power didn’t it?

Are we safer now than before 9/11? When you learn that behind the horse show runner, the #2 and #3 men in charge of emergency preparedness have zero experience in emergency preparedness, do you think we are safer?

Yes. We are much safer now than before 9/11.

You are having a very difficult time keeping your disasters straight. 9/11 was a willful attack planned and carried out by evil men. Katrina was a category 5 hurricane … a force of nature.

Mike, really, looking you right in the eye, with all due respect and in total honesty, and fully putting aside my self affixed label of Republican/conservative/born-again/capitalist/ditto-head/right-winger … there is no way to be prepared for a category 5 hurricane other than to live many, many miles away from where they may occur.

Since you insist on confusing the two we might note that, had the Left been awake at the wheel during the previous administration, 9/11 would most likely never have happened. You guys conveniently “forget” that 9/11 was the SECOND time the Islamo-facists tried to destroy the twin towers. Had your party actually done something after the first attack the 2^nd may never have occurred.

When you look at Michael Chertoff, the head of Homeland Security, a man with little experience in national security, do you feel secure?

I don’t look to Mike Chertoff. I look to the Commander in Chief and the United States Military. Both of which are doing an outstanding job under very difficult conditions.

When men who never served in the military and have never seen young men die in battle send our young people off to war, do you think they know how to conduct a war? Do they know what it means to have your legs blown off for a threat that was never there?

Mike … Look me in the eye and honestly tell me that you’ve seen “legs blown off” in battle. If combat experience is required to comment on, or manage, a war what, precisely, are your qualifications? I mean, dude, you and your entire cabal have spent the last thirty years running as fast and as far as possible away from military service.

Moreover, (and I know this is a bothersome point), we have a thing called the Constitution … and it actually spells out what the legal qualifications are to be the Commander in Chief. (Seeing “legs blown off” isn’t one of them.)

Moreover …. “threat that was never there” … I’ve seen your “films” and read several of your “books” so I know you’re more than a bit delusional. But, precisely how many Republican/conservative/born-again/capitalist/ditto-head/right-wingers do the Islamo- fascists have to behead before you’ll concede there is a “threat.”

Do you really believe that turning over important government services to private corporations has resulted in better services for the people?

Yes. Absolutely. Without a doubt. But only if we are using your definition of what constitutes legitimate “important” government services. Mine, I suspect is a somewhat shorter list.

Why do you hate our federal government so much? You have voted for politicians for the past 25 years whose main goal has been to de-fund the federal government. Do you think that cutting federal programs like FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers has been good or bad for America? GOOD OR BAD?

BAD. (Wow. It feels good to keep the caps lock on doesn’t it? Really kinda cranks up the self-righteousness. KNOW WHAT I MEAN?)

We don’t hate “our federal government.” We want it be the limited federal government we all agreed to (you know the one defined in that Constitution thing) not the tyrannical elitist pseudo-socialist dance macabre that the left has favored for the past forty or so years.

Our main goal isn’t to de-fund the federal government (that is merely a tactic)… Our goal is to make the government rational and get it out of the business of infringing on the legitimate rights of the citizenry in the name of racist elitism posturing as “social justice.”

With the nation's debt at an all-time high, do you think tax cuts for the rich are still a good idea? Will you give yours back so hundreds of thousands of homeless in New Orleans can have a home?

Yes. Tax cuts for everyone are a really, really good idea. Check the numbers Mike. When the tax rates go down federal revenues go up. Happens virtually every time. Moreover, I am not rich. You are. So I am sure you are living in a $160,000 home, much like mine and donating the balance of your ill-gotten, greedy capitalist “profit” to those less fortunate than you. For the record … I have given more money to the relief effort than I anticipate getting from any tax cut.

Do you believe in Jesus? Really? Didn't he say that we would be judged by how we treat the least among us? Hurricane Katrina came in and blew off the facade that we were a nation with liberty and justice for all. The wind howled and the water rose and what was revealed was that the poor in America shall be left to suffer and die while the President of the United States fiddles and tells them to eat cake.

Yes. I do believe in Jesus. Really. And yes. He did say something very much like that. But how Katrina proves we are not a just nation is an idea that continues to elude me.

Please, Mike. The wind howled to the level of a category 5 on a Thursday. On Friday the levees, built to withstand category 3 hurricanes, broke and flooded the city. What man, other than the aforementioned Jesus, plans or reacts to that with perfection?

But, leaving aside the pre-storm screw ups of local (Democratic) officials, and the small army of dysfunctional idiots who turned the city into a war zone just when charity and team work were needed most, ( and who were largely created by 40 + years of a sustained Liberal attack on the family generally, and an equally vicious 40 + year long Liberal crusade to keep black America as poor and ignorant as possible … and therefore totally dependant on the government teat.) The fact remains …

Federal responders were on the ground within the week.

That's not a joke. The day the hurricane hit and the levees broke, Mr. Bush, John McCain and their rich pals were stuffing themselves with cake. A full day after the levees broke (the same levees whose repair funding he had cut), Mr. Bush was playing a guitar some country singer gave him. All this while New Orleans sank under water.

As you confuse disasters you confuse men. Mr. Bush is not Jesus. Perhaps Jesus could have foreseen the extent of the disaster … and the fact that fatuous nut-jobs posing as social crusaders would leap at the chance to use a tragedy of biblical proportions for political gain … but alas Mr. Bush has no such powers.

By the way … where were you & your rich pals. No doubt within moments of hearing of the disaster you had personally pledged … what ¾ … at least … of your multi-million dollar fortune to the relief effort. I mean, Mike, how much does one man need? Surely you aren’t keeping a positive balance in your check book when there is so much suffering going on right in front of your nose? Have you at least sworn off cake? (Nothing personal … but it couldn’t hurt.)

It would take ANOTHER day before the President would do a flyover in his jumbo jet, peeking out the window at the misery 2500 feet below him as he flew back to his second home in DC. It would then be TWO MORE DAYS before a trickle of federal aid and troops would arrive. This was no seven minutes in a sitting trance while children read "My Pet Goat" to him. This was FOUR DAYS of doing nothing other than saying "Brownie (FEMA director Michael Brown), you're doing a heck of a job!"

All of which is utterly irrelevant. Of what possible use is a fly over by anyone? This is going to come as a shock Mike … but famous people wandering around trouble spots don’t generally accomplish anything more than stroking their own out-sized egos. Well, OK .. I admit you’ve also made a lot of cash off of it … but it doesn’t help anyone who really needs it.

Like your “seven minutes” stupidity this is a red herring of Moby Dick proportions.

My Republican friends, does it bother you that we are the laughing stock of the world?

My Democratic friend … ask Bin Laden if we’re a laughing stock … ask the “Arab street” … ask any Islamic Fascist how funny they think the US is post 9/11. Oh they’re mad … hell they hate us … they’re dancing in the streets at our misery. But the only laughing they do is of the utter frustration type.

The only folks I see working to make us a laughing stock are … well … you and your ilk. Durbin is a laughing stock and an historical ignoramus … Kennedy is a monumental hypocrite and a laughing stock … you are a bloated ignoramus who has made a fortune via cheap shot, distortion and intellectual flabbiness. By any rational analysis you are the poster boy for “laughing stock”.

But the United States of America .. a laughing stock … maybe in the circles you travel in Mike. But, so long as legions of people continue to risk death and imprisonment to immigrate to the US on a daily basis … Well, let’s just say your question probably says more about the company you keep than the status of America Mike.

And on this sacred day of remembrance, do you think we honor or shame those who died on 9/11/01? If we learned nothing and find ourselves today every bit as vulnerable and unprepared as we were on that bright sunny morning, then did the 3,000 die in vain?

You just refuse to get don’t you? Dude … the evidence is entirely to the contrary. Since that “bright sunny morning” we have not been attacked on American soil.

Our vulnerability is not just about dealing with terrorists or natural disasters. We are vulnerable and unsafe because we allow one in eight Americans to live in horrible poverty. We accept an education system where one in six children never graduate and most of those who do can't string a coherent sentence together. The middle class can't pay the mortgage or the hospital bills and 45 million have no health coverage whatsoever.

The US has spend something like 7 TRILLION dollars fighting poverty since 1965. Still, by your own reckoning 1 in 8 Americans still live in “horrible poverty” after the largest transfer of wealth in human history.

Face it Mike … forty years of arrogant liberal posturing have been nothing more than a concerted attempt to create and maintain precisely the conditions you describe above. You NEED an underclass. You WANT and underclass. Your party DESPERATELY RELIES on the existence of a permanently impoverished and ignorant pool of voters who are addicted to the dole.

We don’t accept any of that. Hell ... we’ve been fighting 40+ years to fix it. What the poor need is less government not more. Fewer handouts not a lifetime of welfare. Strong families … not abortion on demand and programs that reward children for becoming pregnant.

In short, what the poor need is what the rich used to get rich … LIBERTY. Give it back you greedy, arrogant twit.

Are we safe? Do you really feel safe? You can only move so far out and build so many gated communities before the fruit of what you've sown will be crashing through your walls and demanding retribution. Do you really want to wait until that happens? Or is it your hope that if they are left alone long enough to soil themselves and shoot themselves and drown in the filth that fills the street that maybe the problem will somehow go away?

We will never be totally safe Mike. That’s life. But, we can minimize many of the risks that come with living in the modern world. How can we do that? With a very strong military a commitment to the creation of wealth that capitalism ensures and reliance on the strength of our polity and the justice of our cause.

We are certainly not made safer when fat, rich white boys make a career of denigrating the very system that makes them so comfortably fat & rich.

I know you know better. You gave the country and the world a man who wasn't up for the job and all he does is hire people who aren't up for the job. You did this to us, to the world, to the people of New Orleans. Please fix it. Bush is yours. And you know, for our peace and safety and security, this has to be fixed. What do you propose?

Yes. We do know better … much, much better than you. As a rule we can distinguish truth from lies and patrotism from arogance … which is why we can confidently relegate you and the nonsense you palm off on our more ignorant brethren to the ash heap.

I have an idea, and it isn't a horse show.

Yours,

Michael Moore
www.michaelmoore.com
mmflint@aol.com