Subj:	Gib'em'ell,Michael!
Date:	2/1/02 10:22:19 AM Pacific Standard Time
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(Pass this "Baby" along to all those on yer mailing list, KIDS !  It's a GOOOdy !)

George W. in the Garden of Gethsemane

An Open Letter to George W. Bush from Michael Moore

Dear George,
When it's all over in a couple months, and you're packing up your pretzels
and Spot and heading back to Texas, what will be your biggest regret? Not
getting out more often and seeing the sights around Rock Creek Park? Never
once visiting the newly-renovated IKEA in Woodbridge, Virginia? Or buying
your way to the White House with money from a company that committed the
biggest corporate swindle in American history? I got a feeling you didn't
miss much by not spending an entire Saturday afternoon assembling a Swedish
bookcase -- but you should have known that there was no way you would ever
finish your term by hopping into bed with Kenneth Lay.
It's kind of sad when you think about it. Here you were -- the most popular
president ever! -- the recipient of so much good will from your fellow
Americans after September 11, and then you had to go and blow it. You just
couldn't stay away from your old cowpoke friend from Texas, Kenneth Lay.
Kenny has always been there for you. You needed a way to fly around to all
the primaries and campaign stops in the 2000 election -- so Kenny gave you
his corporate jet. Did you tell the voters when you arrived in each city
that the bird you flew in on was from a billionaire who was secretly
conspiring to give the bird to all his employees and investors? He flew you
around America on the Enron company jet, and for that favor you touched down
on tarmac after tarmac to tell your fellow citizens that you were "going to
restore dignity to the White House, the people's house." You said this
standing in front of an Enron jet!
Man, you loved Lay so much, you not only affectionately referred to him as
"Kenny Boy," you interrupted an important campaign trip in April, 2000, to
fly back to Houston for the Astro's opening day at the new Enron Field --
just so you could watch Kenny Boy Lay throw out the first pitch. How
sentimental!
I mean, you loved this man so intensely that, when you were awarded a set of
keys the Supreme Court had made for you so you could live in the White
House, you invited Kenny Boy to set up shop -- at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue!
He interviewed those who would hold high-level Energy Department positions
in your administration.
You not only let Kenny Boy decide who would head the regulatory agency that
oversaw Enron, you let him hand-pick the new chairman of the Securities and
Exchange Commission, Harvey Pitt -- a former lawyer for his accountant,
Arthur Andersen! Kenny and the boys at Andersen also worked to make sure
that accounting firms would be exempt from numerous regulations and would
not be held liable for any "funny bookkeeping" (don't you wish you were this
forward-thinking?).
The rest of Kenny Boy's time was spent next door with his old buddy, Dick
Cheney (Enron and Halliburton, as you'll recall, got the big contracts from
your dad to "rebuild" Kuwait after the Gulf War). Lay and Dick formed an
"energy task force" (Operation Enduring Graft) which put together the
county's new "energy policy." This policy then went on to shut down every
light bulb and juicer in the state of California. And guess who made out
like bandits while "trading" the energy California was in desperate need of?
Kenny Boy and Enron! No wonder Big Dick doesn't want to turn over the files
about those special meetings with Lay!
The only thing that surprises me more than all the Enron henchmen who ended
up in your cabinet and administration is how our lazy media just rolled over
and didn't report it. The list of Enron people on your payroll is
impressive. Lawrence Lindsey, your chief economic advisor? A former advisor
at Enron! Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill? Former CEO of Alcoa, whose
lobbying firm, Vinson and Elkins, was the #3 contributor to the your
campaign! Who is Vinson and Elkins? The law firm representing Enron! Who is
Alcoa? The top polluter in Texas. Timothy White, the Secretary of the Army?
A former vice-chair of Enron Energy! Robert Zoellick, your Federal Trade
Representative? A former advisor at Enron! Karl Rove, your main man at the
White House? He owned a quarter-million dollars of Enron stock.
Then there's the Enron lawyer you have nominated to be a federal judge in
Texas, the Enron lobbyist who is your chair of the Republican Party, the two
Enron officials who now work for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, and the
wife of Texas Senator Phil Gramm who sits on Enron's board. And there's the
aforementioned Mr. Pitt, the former Arthur Andersen attorney whose job it is
now as SEC head to oversee the stock markets. George, it never stops! My
fingers are getting tired typing all this up -- and there's lots more.
Don't get me wrong, George -- I do not think you're an evil man. You don't
need any crap from people like me -- heck, you got mother-in-law problems!
Now, I have a very good relationship with my mother-in-law, but then, I
never told her to put $8,000 of her money into a company my administration
knew was going belly-up.
You say you didn't know? Your bag man -- Don Evans, the man who squeezed all
that money for you from Enron as your campaign finance chairman (and is now
collecting his reward as your Commerce Secretary) -- has admitted that he
got calls from Enron begging for help last year because they were going
under. Didn't he tell you this?
Then Paul O'Neill, your Treasury Secretary, admitted that Enron and Kenny
Boy called him, too, for some special favors to save Enron. Didn't he
mention this to you? They claim to have called your chief of staff, Andrew
Card, and he said he didn't bother to inform you. What does your
mother-in-law think about these boys her daughter's husband consorts with?
I love watching the O'Neill and Evans show. What a couple of cut-ups!
They're, like, all proud of themselves for "not doing Enron any favors."
Actually, I think it's more like they didn't do your MOTHER-IN-LAW any
favors. Enron got LOTS of favors. And why not? Kenny Boy has been your
number one financial backer since you ran for governor. No other American or
Saudi has given you more money than Kenny Boy and his gang at Enron.
O'Neill, Evans, Cheney, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham -- ALL of them gave
Lay and Enron special favors from day one. The New York Times last May was
so concerned about how Kenny had the run of the place (1600 Pennsylvania
Ave.), they referred to Lay as the "shadow advisor to the president."

And what advice!  Who was it that wanted you to deregulate the energy
industry further? Kenny Boy! Who was it that convinced you to explore the
sick idea of PRIVATIZING our water supply and then allow private
corporations to "trade" it in the future? Kenny Boy! Who was it that wanted
Social Security to be tied to the stock market? Yup, Kenny Boy! (Imagine, if
you will, what would have happened to our precious Social Security funds had
they been invested in Enron stocks as you, George, suggested be done during
your campaign as yuppies everywhere clucked along in agreement over that
genius idea.)

O'Neill's and Evans's admission that they "did nothing" when Enron told them
of the company's shell game and impending collapse is reason enough for you
and yours to hit the Beltway and never return to that sacred trust we call
Our American Government. They are proud of "doing nothing?" By doing
nothing, millions of Americans have been swindled. Tens of thousands have
lost their jobs. Thousands more have lost their savings and their
retirement. Yet your cabinet secretaries gloat over what a "good job" you
and they did by "doing nothing."

Let me ask you this: If someone was setting a house on fire, and they called
you to help them set it on fire, and you said no you wouldn't help them --
BUT then you also DIDN'T call 911 and inform the police that someone was
going to burn down a house, do you think you would have committed a crime?
Of course you would have! You had prior knowledge and then you knowingly and
purposefully HID this information from the authorities and the people living
in the house! You only admitted that you knew a house was going to be
torched when you were confronted by the police. Are you complicit? Yes! Are
you an accessory? Yes! Who would even think of going around boasting, "Hey,
look what a great guy I am -- a friend of mine told me he was going to
commit an act of arson, and then I decided NOT to tell ANYONE about it!!
WHOO-HOO!!"

Enron and Kenny Boy bought your silence and the silence of your cabinet
members. You yourself didn't have to actually raid the 401(k) accounts of
those poor people in Houston (many of whom probably voted for you every time
your name was on a ballot). All you had to do was remain silent, change the
government regulations that let them get away with it, and install their
hand-picked cronies to sit on the "oversight" boards which were supposed to
be keeping an eye on them.

While doing all this, you told the American people that these rich friends
of yours were not getting any special breaks -- when, in fact, Enron had
already scammed their way out of paying NO taxes in four out of the last
five years. Your economic "stimulus" bill that you got the House to pass
after 9-11 had a section that would give Enron a gift of $250 million of our
tax money. You were pushing this bill in November and December, long after
your administration knew that Enron was raiding the vault and screwing its
workers and investors.

You and your Republican friends are quick to point out that Enron had their
claws into the Democrats as well. Yes, they did, and thank you for making
the case why we not only need an alternative to the current make-up of the
Democratic Party, we need private money removed from our electoral process
ASAP.

But, George, let's be real -- the Democrats only got a pittance from Enron
compared to the millions you and the Republicans received. Democrats just
don't have the killer instinct to do anything right, and they certainly
don't know much about making money the old-fashioned way, one off-shore tax
shelter at a time. I would expect nothing less from a Party that couldn't
even put their candidate in the White House after he had already won the
election.

The Democrats are like a Yugo -- you know it won't last long or work well,
but it will occasionally get the job done. Fat cats know they can buy the
Democrats at discount prices, and so they do. Anyone who tries to deflect
this scandal away from you, George, or away from the Republicans, or away
from the whole dirty way we elect our leaders, is someone who is desperately
trying to cling to what's left of a very crooked system that has to go and
go now.

The saddest part of this whole affair was the day the scandal was
revealed -- and you denied that you even knew your good friend, Kenneth Lay.
"Ken who?" you said. Oh, he's just some businessman from Texas. "Heck, he
backed my opponent for governor, Ann Richards!" was your way of trying to
deflect the truth that was hitting you like a Mack truck. You knew that he,
in fact, endorsed YOU and gave you THREE times the money Ann Richards ever
saw from him.

I hardly ever talk to the guy, you said. You were like Peter in the Garden
of Gethsemane, denying he knew Jesus, three times.

And then the cock crowed.

And Peter felt shame and ran away.

What shame do you feel tonight, George, for the lies you have told? What
shame do you feel using the dead of 9-11 as a cover for your actions, hoping
that our sorrow  for  those lost souls and our fear of being killed by
terrorists would distract us from what your boys and Kenny Boy were up to
during those horrific weeks in September and October?

It was during those very days, while the rest of us were in shock and
sadness, that the executives at Enron were selling off their stock and
shifting assets to their 900 phony partnerships overseas. Did they notice
the remains of the dead being pulled from the rubble while they were
downloading their millions, or were their eyes glued only to the bottom
third of the TV screen as the stock ticker with the rigged Enron price
crawled across the images of firemen desperate, in tears, to find their
fallen brothers?

The country was behind you when you said you were fighting the evildoers who
did this. In fact, all the while, the real fight your friends at Enron were
conducting was the fight against the clock, to see how fast they could
transfer all the loot to their personal accounts and run away. Those were
the evildoers, George, and you knew it. And because you, by design or
negligence, allowed this to happen, it is time for you to resign. The cock
has crowed for the last time.

At the very least, your mother-in-law deserves better.

Yours,
Michael Moore
American
Son-in-Law
Owner of 7th LARGEST COMPANY IN AMERICA! (revised ranking)
mmflint@aol.com <mailto:mmflint@aol.com>
http://www.michaelmoore.com <http://MichaelMoore.com/>