RAT fire anyone? ADD THIS TO YER PYRE, SCARECROW*

["a.k.a. Rebecca Gray" <smith@avn.com>]

*WARNING much, MUCH text ahead. Delete-hitters, you are ON YOUR MARK

I guess the real question is, when is Michael Moore going to run for
president, and where do I sign up?

re: GLEASON BAUER & THE POLITICS OF HOPE
re: A VOTE FOR NADER IS A VOTE FOR BUSH

----- Original Message -----
From: Mike's Message <mikemail@cloud9.net>
To: <michaelmoore-l@cloud9.net>
Sent: Wednesday, August 09, 2000 11:54 AM
Subject: [Mike's Message] Using the Supreme Court to Scare Me Into Voting
for Gore


August 9, 2000


Dear friends,


I have received a lot of mail in the last few weeks from people who have
decided to vote for Al Gore out of fear. I can certainly understand this.
Many fear that if Baby Bush is elected, a woman's right to choose would be
eliminated, not to mention the other havoc he will create.

I wrote a column on this very dilemma for grassroots.com (see below), but
apparently quite of few of you missed it. I would like to reprint it here so
you can read my thoughts about the Bush scare regarding the Supreme Court.

On our final show tonight, we hold a tickertape parade in New York to
celebrate the victory of the  anti-abortion terrorists in America. You can't
get one in 86% of the counties in this country as doctors and clinics are
too afraid for their lives to perform them. This wholesale denial and
unavailability of a legal right occured during a pro-choice administration
(it was easier to get an  abortion under Reagan and Bush!). I realize that
many of us have differences about where we stand  morally on this issue, but
it IS the law of the land -- and the lawbreakers have won.

Also tonight, we celebrate other Clinton/Gore accomplishments like doubling
the prison population  and creating millions of low-paying jobs. We're gonna
miss these guys!

See ya tonight at 10pm ET/PT on Bravo.

Yours,

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

Ain't Fallin' For That One Again
Michael Moore
Release: Tuesday, July 18, 2000

I think the first time I remember hearing this political urban myth was in
the 1976 presidential election. Somebody told me the reason I had to vote
for Jimmy Carter was because if Gerald Ford was elected, women would lose
their right to choose to have an abortion. Abortion had been legal for only
three years at that point. It was considered a great victory, one we all
wanted to support.

So, I voted for Jimmy Carter -- and guess what? One of the things he did was
to stop all abortions provided for women or wives in the armed services! He
also stopped any further funding to birth control groups overseas that
offered abortion as an alternative. And he ended all Medicaid payments for
poor women in need of an abortion.

I felt a bit abused. I mean, Gerry Ford had been pro-choice. His wife was an
ardent supporter of women's rights. And it was a Nixon appointee to the
Supreme Court -- Justice Blackmun -- that wrote the majority opinion making
abortion legal. What was I thinking? (Other than that the Nixon Nightmare
years had to come to an end! That, I correctly rationalized, was worth the
vote for Carter.)

Four years later, Democrats and liberals were going nuts over the
possibility that Ronald Reagan might unseat Carter. Dire warnings were
issued to all: If Reagan gets in, abortion will be illegal, period.

Well, I didn't vote for Reagan OR Carter, Reagan got in, and then something
strange happened: Abortion remained legal! Sure, Reagan built on Carter's
abortion restrictions, but Roe v. Wade was still the law of the land when
the Gipper rode off into the sunset eight years later.

Yet Reagan had appointed plenty of wingnuts to the Supreme Court, so when
the doomsayers in 1988 warned that George Bush would CERTAINLY send women
back to the alleys to have illegal abortions, another bizarre thing happened
-- Bush got elected, and ... four years later ... ABORTION WAS STILL LEGAL!

But Bush did leave us with Clarence Thomas, so when the Democrats came to
scare the bejeepers out of me with what Bush would do to a woman's right to
choose if he got a second term, I decided to vote for Bill Clinton.

So what's happened under our first feminist-man president?

Perhaps Clinton misunderstood his mission: he was supposed to support a
womanıs right to choose, not his right to choose women. Roe v. Wade is still
on the books (mainly because of the consistent and unwavering support from
the Reagan-appointed Justice O'Connor, the Ford-appointed Justice Stevens,
and the Bush-appointed Justice Souter! They have voted to uphold abortion
rights every single time). But it is now twice as hard for a woman in
America to obtain an abortion as it was when Clinton took office. The
anti-abortion terrorists have been so successful in their campaign of
violence against abortion clinics and doctors and hospitals who perform
abortions that a woman can now get an abortion in only 14% of the counties
in the United States. That's right. Terrorism has scored its first victory
on U.S. soil by assassinating enough doctors and firebombing enough clinics
so that no one wants to perform an abortion. So if you live in one of the
86% of counties where not a single doctor will do an abortion, let me ask
you this: what good is a "right" to an abortion if you can't get one?

The stunning thing about this virtual elimination of abortion in America is
that it has occurred at a time when nearly 70% of the country supports some
form of legal abortion. The terrorists have literally gotten away with
murder -- with a pro-choice attorney general sitting in Washington, D.C.,
doing damn little about it. About the only reason I voted for these clowns
was because of this issue -- and where the hell have they been?

Which brings us to Ralph Nader. Vice President Al Gore, on Meet the Press
this week, told Tim Russert WHAT WOULD HAPPEN if George W. were elected
president. Women would lose their right to have an abortion, Gore bellowed,
with no equivocation and no hint of shame for what has happened on the
Clinton/Gore watch.

All the pundits -- and the Democrats -- tell us that a vote for Nader is a
vote for Bush because all Ralph will end up doing is siphoning off votes
that would have gone to Gore. This is their mantra:

 "IF BUSH IS ELECTED, HE WILL APPOINT JUSTICES TO THE SUPREME COURT AND THEY
WILL DECLARE ABORTION ILLEGAL!"

Well, I've fallen for this before and I ain't fallin' for it again. In fact,
I will go so far as to say that George W. Bush, if for some reason he is
magically elected, will NEVER do ANYTHING to make abortion illegal.

Here's my proof:

1. To recap what I have already stated: Roe v. Wade was written by a
Republican, and upheld for 27 years by Republicans. No Republican president
has made abortion illegal, and none will this time around.

2. George W. is, first and only, a politician. For crying out loud, if 70%
of the country favors legal abortion, trust me, that party boy is NEVER
going to cook his goose on this issue. He is already moving to the center on
abortion and has been doing so since the primaries. He wants to win. He
already has the majority of women supporting him in the polls, in part
because a lot of women are confident he will not upset this apple cart.

3. The New York Times two weeks ago did a study of Bush's court appointees
in Texas and found that he did NOT appoint right-wing crazies, but rather
moderates or moderate conservatives who have upheld legal abortion in Texas
and struck down some cases that tried to put restrictions on a woman's right
to choose.

4. Sometimes even conservatives end up accepting that the tide has turned
against them. The most stunning example of this came last month when
ultra-conservative Chief Justice William Rehnquist insisted on writing the
MAJORITY opinion for the court upholding the Miranda ruling that requires
the police to inform an arrestee of his or her constitutional rights. Now,
you know a guy like Rehnquist personally just hates forcing the police to
read someone their rights. But in his decision keeping Miranda the law of
the land, Rehnquist wrote that the Miranda rights are now "part of the
American culture" and therefore should not be done away with. Even
pro-Miranda liberals had never heard that line used by the Supreme Court in
backing a decision, but it was, in essence, the truth. Reading someone their
rights is now like apple pie -- and so is a woman's right to choose what to
do if she should become pregnant. The overwhelming majority of Americans
believe it a decision best left with a woman, her doctor, her God -- and
it's nobody else's dang business. That, too, is part of the American
 culture. It's called privacy, and it's been around for over 200 years.
Nobody, regardless of their political stripe, wants the politicians or the
justices in their bedroom.

So, this year, I'm not going to let the fearmongers scare me into voting
against my conscience. And I'm not going to let the Democratic candidate for
president cynically use this issue when he himself has served in D.C. for 8
years allowing the right to get an abortion to be whittled away to near
nothing.

Plus, I believe the true Nader constituency out there is among the 100
million nonvoters who have given up, thinking they no longer have a say in
what really goes on in Washington. Gore shouldn't worry about Ralph taking
votes from him. Rather he should think about what his administration with
Bill Clinton has taken away from the women of this nation.

Come November 7, I plan to enter the voting booth and vote not from fear,
but from a desire to see this country returned to the people.

******************

re: A VOTE FOR GORE MAY BE A VOTE FOR THE ENEMA
oops! I mean ENEMY
re: TIPPER IS A BOOK-BURNER

Still think the Dems are better than the GOP? From Yahoo! News via the
Hollywood Reporter today:

Wednesday August 09 02:00 AM EDT
Lieberman eyes 'X-rated world'

By Brooks Boliek

WASHINGTON (The Hollywood Reporter) --- In his first public appearance as
the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Sen. Joseph Lieberman indicated
Tuesday that he's going to continue his crusade to get Hollywood to clean up
its act.

In his official introduction as the No. 2 on the Gore-Lieberman ticket, the
lawmaker from Connecticut pledged to "help renew the moral center of the
nation."

In his remarks, made during an appearance in Nashville with Vice President
Al Gore, Lieberman evoked statements that Tipper Gore, his running mate's
wife, made as leader of the Parents Music Resource Center when she crusaded
against explicit music lyrics during the 1980s.

"We're going to stand with parents across the country who are working so
hard to raise PG kids in an X-rated world," Lieberman said.

Lieberman has been one of the entertainment industry's toughest critics in
Washington. He has pushed for an industry code of conduct, given out "Silver
Sewer" awards for offensive programming, pushed for reinstatement of the
so-called "family hour" and called for investigations into the industry's
marketing practices.

While Lieberman did not specifically mention the entertainment industry, his
pledge that the Democratic ticket will empower "parents to pass on to their
children their faith and moral values" echoes his calls in Congress to get
the entertainment industry to clean up so parents will not have to fight
Hollywood as they raise their children.

*********

re: WHAT'S GOING ON AROUND HERE, ANYWAY?

----- Original Message -----
From: Mike's Message <mikemail@cloud9.net>
To: <michaelmoore-l@cloud9.net>
Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2000 4:22 PM
Subject: [Mike's Message] YEAH! No Chicks on the Tix! -- A Letter from
Michael Moore


> Tuesday, August 8, 2000
>
> Dear friends,
>
> Women put up with a lot of crap, but
> this year's Presidential farce has to
> take the cake.
>
> We now have four men on the "two"
> major party tickets running for the
> White House. Neither candidate,
> Democrat nor Republican, even
> bothered to CONSIDER a woman for
> Vice President, let alone appoint one.
>
> Women: 53% of the population -- the
> MAJORITY gender -- and once again,
> there is ZERO representation. The
> minority still rules, still calls the
> shots, still holds the reins of power.
> That's called "apartheid."
>
> You know what amazes me? That
> neither Gore nor Bush even tried to
> PRETEND they were considering a
> woman for Vice President! In the past,
> the all-male Presidential candidates
> have at least "floated" some names, or
> said "so-and-so" was on "the short
> list." They thought women might be
> upset if it looked like they were being
> ignored. So they played the game of
> interviewing "Pat Schroeder" for the
> job, or mentioning "Elizabeth Dole" as
> a "possibility."
>
> No more.
>
> This year, in what appears to be a
> political version of "battered women's
> syndrome," guy politicians have
> discovered that they don't have to do a
> damn thing to placate women voters.
> They are convinced women will just
> take it -- in silence.
>
> And just as Dick Cheney is the true
> face of George W. Bush, Joe Lieberman
> is the true face of Al Gore.
> Lieberman's number one financial
> backer in Connecticut is the insurance
> industry -- and when they say "jump,"
> he leaps. He even opposed Clinton's
> watered-down health insurance bill. He
> is an enemy of affirmative action. He
> has voted for tax cuts for the rich,
> voted for NAFTA, supports a form of
> prayer ("the minute of silence") in the
> public schools (and the granting of
> vouchers to help fund religious
> schools), and joined Al Gore as one of
> only 10 Democrats in the Senate who
> supported Bush the First in starting
> the Gulf War.
>
> In short, a real guy's guy.
>
> Of course, not to beat a dead Corvair,
> there is a candidate who is now,
> according to Tim Russert on "Meet the
> Press" last Sunday, polling between
> 11% and 15% in some surveys, and
> has chosen a woman as his running
> mate. His name is Ralph Nader and HER
> name is Winona LaDuke. She is a
> Harvard graduate from Minnesota and
> a Native American. She has a bunch of
> wild ideas women usually come up
> with, the kinds of things that probably
> keep them off the other tickets -- like,
> everybody should be guaranteed
> insurance if they get sick, or working
> moms and kids deserve day care, or
> maybe we shoud build a few less
> submarines in Connecticut and build a
> few new schools in the Bronx. Stuff
> like that. Chick stuff, ya know. Stuff
> us guys ain't got time for.
>
> Ralph and Winona have tripled their
> standing in the polls since they
> started. There is a momentum taking
> place and maybe, just maybe, the
> majority - women - will rise up and
> say enough of this male apartheid.
>
> Yours,
>
>
> Michael Moore
> http://www.theawfultruth.com
> http://www.michaelmoore.com
> mmflint@aol.com
>
> PS Tomorrow night (Wednesday,
> August 9) is the final episode of "The
> Awful Truth" for the season. More on
> this in tomorrow's letter -- and my
> thoughts about the Supreme Court in a
> possible George the Second
> Administration.

**************************

LOVE REBECCA