tommy and i went to see michael moore's "farenheit 9-11" tonight, and found the theater surprisingly full for a monday. my opinion is mixed. i had read in reviews that this documentary will change no one's views on bush--if you went in hating him you'll leave hating him more, and if you liked him you'll just hate michael moore. my views didn't change; i still think he's a moron. an EXCELLENT example: his ridiculous failure in trying to repeat the adage "fool me once, shame on you..." (he couldn't quite figure it out). this guy went to YALE. they didn't let wendy into yale, but they let in this illiterate texas hick. *sighs*

anyway, the best phrase to describe the film, tommy and i agreed, is propaganda. it's propaganda that i generally agree with, but it is propaganda all the same. it is the purposeful skewing of the facts to present a desired picture: basically that bush is the devil and that he is in fact gleefully profitting from the whole 9-11 disaster. i don't believe that. i worry that too many people who know far too little about anything that's been going on outside our country the last few years will lap up moore's words like milk and suddenly be anti-bush. they'll be going down the right path for the wrong reason.

don't get me wrong; i do dislike bush, and i look forward to kerry unseating his sorry ass in november. however, i disagreed with a lot of moore's tactics in the film and also some of his insinuations. for example, he made a huge deal of the fact that two days after 9-11, the white house helped about 25 members of the bin ladn family (friends of the bush family) leave the US. yes, that was a bad move because they should have been questioned, but moore, in referring to this point over and over, tried to make it look as thought the bush family was actively supporting terror by associating with the family of a known terrorist. he tried to make it seem like the bin ladns were guilty by association, and ignored the widely-known fact that they disavowed osama more than a decade ago. him making one appearance at some random cousin's wedding does not mean that they are welcoming him with open arms. also, if every family were to be judged by their black sheep relative-- well, i'd be doomed. look at jen. i just didn't like the way moore tried to spin that issue.

without going into a full-blown critique of the film (which you really should go see, it will at least make you think), i'd just like to say that though i sympathize with moore's intentions vis-a-vis ridding the world of bush, i did not particularly like the way this film was packaged. he made everything seem dirty, everything look bad, when you know that the other side could just as easily spin it the other direction. he had some good points and raised some good questions--mostly, why the fuck are we in iraq--but he also said some really dumb shit, like in referring to our invasion of iraq, saying that we were attacking a "sovereign nation" that had never threatened the US and never threatened a US citizen. he was making it sound like we attacked Norway or something. i'm sorry, but it was FUCKING IRAQ, run by a sadisitic dictator who did threaten American troops in the Gulf war--hello, chemical weapons? and also tried to have a former president of the US assassinated. c'mon, we weren't attacking a kennel full of puppies here.

also, he made insinuations about the fact that the elder bush, now an advisor to a bunch of saudi oil execs and such, exercises his presidential right to a daily CIA briefing, simply because "few presidents ever do so". he hinted that bush was using the information he gained from the cia to basically do insider-tradiing with his saudi cronies. i'm sorry, but the bush sr was a former director of CIA, and knowledgeable about foreign affairs. i can understand that he would want to take advantage of the best news source government money can buy--why shouldn't he?

and finally, in one of a number of stupid theories moore puts forth about what bush is thinking at various moments, moore asks "hmm, don't you think that maybe when bush wakes up in the morning, his first thought is about what's best for the saudis, rather than what's best for the american people?" no, mr. moore, i don't. he may be a greedy, dumb son of a bitch, but he's an american first and foremost, and i think he actually believes in his cowboy-style patriotism. i don't believe that his family colluded with terrorists or that they somehow helped to bring about 9-11. so basically, this movie is a well-documented propaganda piece, designed to make the liberals cheer and the middle-of-the-roads quake in fear of the monster who occupies the white house. i'm voting for kerry come november, but moore has nothing to do with it.

oh, also, tommy mentioned that he may not vote because he hates bush but isn't sure about kerry either. AAAAHHHH. look, if you hate bush, vote for non-bush! and by that i do NOT mean voting for the green party (haha ralph nader, your own party fucked you over) because we all know that such a vote is a wasted one. just don't let bush win, people. turn on a goddamned tv, look that little bastard in his monkey face, and decide if you want THAT running our nation over the next four years. i know the saying goes "better the devil you know than the devil you don't", but unless i see a picture of kerry sporting some hooves and a furry little tail, he's got my vote.