- "The light at the end of the tunnel could be the
bulb in a film projector."
- - Jeanette Castillo
-
- Screens in Bartlett, Chattanooga, Jackson, Knoxville
and Memphis, Tennessee will be showing it. Screens in Layton and West Jordan,
Utah will be showing it. If you find yourself in Leawood, Merriam, Shawnee
or Wichita, Kansas, you can see it. The same goes for Centerville, Fairfax
and Abington, Virginia. If you happen to be in Akron, Bexley, Dublin or
Elyria, Ohio, you're all set. Hoover, Montgomery and Mobile, Alabama will
not be left out.
-
- Laramie, Wyoming? It's there. Bozeman, Montana? Indeed.
Should you call home Grand Island, Lincoln or Omaha, Nebraska, you have
not been forgotten. The largest mall in the country, the Mall of America
in Bloomington, Minnesota, will have it in its theater. If you are a soldier
at Camp Lejune or Fort Bragg, about to be shipped to Iraq, you can see
it in nearby Fayetteville, North Carolina.
-
- These towns, large and small, along with towns large
and small from sea to shining sea and straight through the American heartland,
will begin screening Michael Moore's documentary, 'Fahrenheit 9/11,' beginning
at 12:01a.m. Friday morning, the 25th of June, 2004. For the majority of
people who will see this movie, in those towns large and small, the experience
will be nothing short of a mind-bomb.
-
- The Who once sang about how the hypnotized never lie,
but as we have seen, people hypnotized by television and deliberately enforced
fear can certainly support a war, and a President, which are fundamentally
at odds with basic American decency. In fact, people hypnotized by television
and deliberately enforced fear will feed themselves into the meat grinder
with "God Bless America" on their lips.
-
- Michael Moore's film will snap that hypnosis, but good.
Those Americans who believed what their President told them because they
saw it on the TV will, after less than two hours in their local theater,
look at both their television and their President with doubt and loathing
when they walk from the darkness into the bright light of day. There are
millions of Americans who believed what they were told - about 9/11, about
Iraq, about George W. Bush himself - who will come into that bright light
with the realization that they have been lied to.
-
- Speaking personally, none of the data in this film surprised
me. Having spent every day of the last three years working to expose as
many Americans as possible to the truth of the man they call President,
Mr. Moore was unlikely to explode any shells across my bow. The connections
between Bush, the Saudis, the Carlyle Group and the 9/11 attacks were there.
The connections between Cheney and Halliburton were there. The connections
between Enron, Unocal, natural gas pipelines, the war in Afghanistan and
a little-known country called Turkmenistan were there. I enjoyed the fact
that Moore showed off unredacted copies of Bush's military service record,
allowing us to see the parts of those documents which had been blacked
out. I found no fact, no assertion in this film to question or doubt. I
have done my homework, and as was made painfully clear, Michael Moore did
his.
-
- Most Americans don't know about this stuff, and seeing
it fully documented and meticulously researched on the big screen will
be, to say the least, revelatory. Yes, Virginia, there are billions of
dollars to be made off this Iraq war for Bush's friends. The second door
on the left is the recruiting office. Sign on the line that is dotted,
and be the first kid on your block to die for the benefit of Carlyle's
stock options. Be sure to save your pennies beforehand, however, because
the Army will dock your pay for the days you are dead. It's policy, you
see.
-
-
- Mr. Moore put two daggers into me with this film, the
first of which had to do with American soldiers. Trooper after trooper
spoke frankly for Moore's camera, condemning both the war and the people
who thrust them into it. Several scenes graphically explained what happens
to a soldier's body when it is caught in an explosion. The result is ruinous,
and the cries of the wounded and the dying will ring in my ears forever.
-
- The most wrenching scenes in the film center around a
woman named Lila, who loves her country, loves her flag, and above all
loves her children whom she actively persuaded to join the armed services.
We learn that Lila has a son in Iraq, and because of that, she despises
those protesting the invasion. We find out later that her son was killed
in Karbala on April 2nd, when his Blackhawk helicopter was shot down. We
watch her read her son's last letter home, in which he rages against Bush
and the war. We last see Lila standing at the gates of the White House,
tears boiling from her eyes, as she discovers her true enemy, the one who
took her baby from her.
-
- The other dagger Moore put into me came during his montage
of the media coverage of the war. Journalist after journalist is shown
rhapsodizing Bush, his administration and the war. Each and every one of
them carried forth that which we now know to be bald-faced lies: That Iraq
had WMDs, that Iraq was a threat, that we had to go, and that everything
is fine. It was a slideshow of the nonsense Americans have been spoon-fed
for far too long.
-
- If you doubt this, Sidney Blumenthal's aggressive and
effective actual journalism, as found in his most recent report titled
'Reality is Unraveling for Bush,' should help you along. "Most of
the media was on the bandwagon or intimidated," writes Blumenthal.
"Cheney himself called the president of the corporation that owned
one of the networks to complain about an errant commentator. Political
aides directed by Karl Rove ceaselessly called editors and producers with
veiled threats about access that was not granted in any case. The press
would not bite the hand that would not feed it."
-
- With a single stroke, Michael Moore has undone three
years of poor, slanted, biased, factually bereft, compromised television
journalism. This, in the end, is the final greatness of 'Fahrenheit 9/11.'
Not only will Americans get a sense of the depth of the deception they
have endured, but 'journalists' all across the country will be forced to
endure the humiliation they so richly deserve.
-
- I was privileged to see this film in the company of three
groups - Military Families Speak Out, September 11 Families for Peaceful
Tomorrows and Veterans for Peace - which have stood against this disastrous
war from day one. Many in the theater had family in Iraq, or had lost family
in Iraq, or had lost family on 9/11 and seen their beloved dead used as
an excuse for unwarranted war, and there was not a dry eye in the house.
-
- 'Fahrenheit 9/11' is not a victory for anyone. We the
People should have known better, We the People should have been given the
facts before sending 851 of our children to die. We the People have been
betrayed, by our leaders and by a media that profited, and profits still,
from the daily sale of lies. This film drove that horrid fact home with
a mallet, and it hurt.
-
- I was reminded, as I filed out with this company of heroes,
of a portion of Shakespeare's rendition of Henry's speech before Agincourt:
-
- He that outlives this day and comes safe home,
-
- Will stand a tip-toe when this day is named,
-
- And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
-
- He that shall live this day, and see old age,
-
- Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
-
- And say, 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:'
-
- Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
-
- And say, 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.'
-
-
- Many of us were not hypnotized. Millions of us took to
the streets in this country and around the world, to try and stop this
madness before it was unleashed. The people in that theater with me had
done this, had never stopped doing this, though their President and their
media named them traitor. They were right. They were right. They were right.
-
- Michael Moore has unleashed a wolf within Mr. Bush's
fences. There is no getting around it. Perhaps, now that it is far too
late, we as a nation will wake up. On the day of that awakening, those
of us who never stopped standing, never stopped marching, learned to live
without sleep, learned to live in a nation that scorned truth for televised
fantasy, those patriots I was with tonight in that theater can pause for
breath. We can sit upon the grass on a bright day, strip our sleeves, and
show our scars.
-
- William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times and international
bestselling author of two books - 'War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't
Want You To Know' and 'The Greatest Sedition is Silence.'
-
-
-
-
- Activists Using Fahrenheit 9/11 As An Organizing
Tool
-
- By Scott Galindez
- Truthout Report
- 6-25-4
-
- As moviegoers come out of Fahrenheit 9/11 this weekend,
anti-war activists hope to take advantage of the anger Michael Moore's
award-winning film seems likely to inspire.
-
-
- MoveOn.org has organized a National Interactive Town
Hall Meeting for next Monday, June 28th. They have already organized over
700 house parties across the nation that night and have reserved large
meeting halls for the event. MoveOn has 110,000 people pledged to see the
movie this weekend, many of whom will hand out fliers promoting the Town
Hall Meeting.
-
- "This movie is one of the greatest opportunities
we'll have between now and November to get new folks involved," said
MoveOn's Adam Ruben. "The powerful footage in this film is going to
outrage many, many people. They'll be looking for ways to take action -
and we'll be there to connect them to other like-minded people in their
community."
-
- Voice4Change.org will have members outside theatres promoting
the Town Hall Meeting and registering people to vote. Some of the activists
will be in the traditional liberal hotspots. But many people in small towns
around the country have either pledged to register voters or are looking
for theatres near them so they can get involved.
-
-
- One obstacle they face is that some theatre owners are
refusing to show the film. If you live in the Dakotas or Wyoming, for example,
you have only one place to see it - in Fargo, North Dakota.
-
-
- One chain that has so far said no is Carmike, which owns
theatres in the Mid-West. Mike Patrick, Carmike's president, insists that
he made the decision purely for business reasons.
-
- "This is in the biggest part of our season,"
he told the Chicago Tribune. "Business is great this year, and you
think I'm going to play a documentary [instead of] 'Spider-Man?'"
-
- "I'm not so sure that has commercial appeal compared
to 'Spider-Man' or 'The Notebook' or 'White Chicks' or 'Around the World
in 80 Days' and the other seven or eight pictures I have doing great business."
-
- If inquiries placed to Mr. Patrick's theaters are any
indication of potential ticket sales, he might be misjudging his market.
-
- "We're getting about a hundred calls a day,"
said Kai Segrud, who works for Carmike in Rapid City, South Dakota,
-
- The calls started over the weekend and have continued
through this week, he said.
-
- If hundreds of people demand to see Fahrenheit 9/11 in
Rapid City, records for attendance elsewhere this weekend will likely be
broken. With activists around the country poised to organize the huge numbers
expected to attend, this will not be a good weekend for George W. BushŨ
-
- Scott Galindez is the Political Editor of truthout.org
-
-
- Comment
- From John Macedo Jr.
- 6-26-4
-
- Dear Jeff,
-
- I just got in from seeing the Fahrenheit 911 film
and I have to say, I have mixed feelings about what I saw. Although there
have been many negative reviews already in the mainstream media news and
although I didn't care for some of the editing techniques that Michael
Moore has used in the past (Bowling for Columbine), this film will contribute
and help to shape and direct people's minds in the next few months leading
up to the election. Hopefully, people will take the next step and start
researching the facts a little deeper, finding sites like Rense.com as
well as several others which might help them wake up from their slumber.
-
- Moore's movie touches on many of the questions that
really needed to be asked, including the analysis of the main players and
characters who are currently orchestrating this invasion that is currently
going on in Iraq. For people like myself, a person who has been listening
to Jeff Rense for the past several years as well as reading the works of
Jim Marrs, John Kaminski, Alex Jones, David Icke and countless others who
have contributed to exposing the truth about 9/11 and other attrocities
these corrupt men and women have been getting away with, right before the
public's eye, there was little if anything new to offer in the way of convincing
or informing me of what really needs to be exposed, addressed and scrutinized.
No, this movie was for the general brainwashed masses of sheeple that have
been hypnotized by FOX, CNN and all of the news media outlets. And for
that, I applaud his effort.
-
- Now, if I might give an honest review of the film,
one which you won't hear in the mainstream news. Moore, in his efforts
to go after Bush and even those in government, (both democratic and republican
parties), doesn't apply the more critical and important questions which
really need to be asked about September 11th and the aftermath that we
are living with now. He hints at failures within the current administration
to address the attacks brought on by Osama Bin Laden as well as he exposes
some personality flaws of several individuals within the current administration.
This is where Moore fails however in that he places dots all over his movie,
but he never connects them enough to form a clearer picture. He tells you
the who and where and what they are doing and which businesses are profiting
from this invasion in Iraq, but the movie is still too tame to bring about
an awakening of the masses if that was the intent for this movie being
made, which I don't personally think it was. With that, I can honestly
see how some might criticize Moore and state that he is really working
for the NWO and that this movie is really more for calming the masses as
there might have been too much talk about Skull and Bones and failures
with both parties in the past several months in the news and this movie
might just help polarize enough people to one party (Democratic) which
is better than a total upheaval by the masses as well as a demand for a
better system of checks and balances.
-
- I also had the chance to do something positive while
attending this movie today. There was quite a line for the showing I was
at and there were two young boys ahead of me in line. When they got to
the ticked counter and the woman asked, "How old are you?" they
replied, "14 and 13" years of age. As she proceeded to tell them
that the movie was an 'R' rating and they had to be accompanied by an adult
I quickly said, "Hey, what's wrong with you guys? Just because you're
paying for yourself doesn't mean you're not with me." The young woman
asked if they were and I said, "Yeah, they thought I was paying for
everything today, their mothers gave them money for the movies though.
They thought because they were paying they weren't with me. Silly kids."
I got inside and they ACTUALLY THANKED ME! I told them, "What you
are going to see today is more important than whatever else you could be
doing in the next 2 hours. It's going to give you some insight to the real
news and what should be known about this invasion in Iraq. I commend you
both for deciding to see it." Jeff, the proud look on their faces
was worth the good deed I felt I did. I pray that in my assistance to admitting
those two youthful, soon to be young men, that they were listening closely
at the part of the movie where Michael Moore is chasing down two Marine
recruiters and videos the absurdity of their recruiting techniques, as
well as when they cut to a soldier who tells the audience, "This isn't
like a video game, it's not like looking through a view finder and seeing
something far away. You see dead women and children right there, face to
face. A man was carrying his dead wife in his arms right in front of me."
(paraphrased) If they got that message, then I did a very good thing today.
Perhaps they will even tell their parents what I did and they will be either
angry or pleased. Either way, these two youth got a chance to exercise
THEIR individual rights and freedom for information. I pray the same for
all the youth these days.
-
- That's about it for now and I thank you for covering
both sides of the issue on this film, with criticisms and praises both.
As you, your listening audience and readers and I all know, something like
Alex Jones and others is what really needs to get out to the masses. But
if you look at the bigger picture, this one film might be the pivotal point
where people start asking more questions and wanting more films and information
to come to light. We might very well see the guests of your program going
on to make film deals that become mainstream hits as well, if the box office
receits impress upon Hollywood and all the copycats who will want to turn
out their own documentary hit. We have witnessed that the Carlyle group
has invested in Loews now. This movie might be a check to their trying
to position their influence on all future media and the artistic, creative
and freedom of speech issue as well. That was one of the main reasons I
saw this film today as well, opening day. To send a strong message to the
media, to Hollywood and most importantly BUSH and company. That there are
many who want to know the truth and many more who will be breathing down
his neck and watching what he and his staff do a bit closer.
-
- Sincerely,
- John Macedo, Jr.
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