Obama fires CEO of GM: A reaction from one Michigan resident

A few thoughts, from a man who would know:

Friends,

Nothing like it has ever happened. The President of the United States, the elected representative of the people, has just told the head of General Motors -- a company that's spent more years at #1 on the Fortune 500 list than anyone else -- "You're fired!"

I simply can't believe it. This stunning, unprecedented action has left me speechless for the past two days. I keep saying, "Did Obama really fire the chairman of General Motors? The wealthiest and most powerful corporation of the 20th century? Can he do that? Really? Well, damn! What else can he do?!"

This bold move has sent the heads of corporate America spinning and spewing pea soup. Obama has issued this edict: The government of, by, and for the people is in charge here, not big business. John McCain got it. On the floor of the Senate he asked, "What does this signal send to other corporations and financial institutions about whether the federal government will fire them as well?" Senator Bob Corker said it "should send a chill through all Americans who believe in free enterprise." The stock market plunged as the masters of the universe asked themselves, "Am I next?" And they whispered to each other, "What are we going to do about this Obama?"

Not much, fellows. He has the massive will of the American people behind him -- and he has been granted permission by us to do what he sees fit. If you liked this week's all-net 3-pointer, stay tuned.

I write this letter to you in memory of the hundreds of thousands of workers over the past 25+ years who have been tossed into the trash heap by General Motors. Many saw their lives ruined for good. They turned to alcohol or drugs, their marriages fell apart, some took their own lives. Most moved on, moved out, moved over, moved away. They ended up working two jobs for half the pay they were getting at GM. And they cursed the CEO of GM for bringing ruin to their lives.

Not one of them ever thought that one day they would witness the CEO receive the same treatment. Of course Chairman Wagoner will not have to sign up for food stamps or be evicted from his home or tell his kids they'll be going to the community college, not the university. Instead, he will get a $23 million golden parachute. But the slip in his hands is still pink, just like the hundreds of thousands that others received -- except his was issued by us, via the Obama-man. Here's the door, buster. See ya. Don't wanna be ya.

I began my day today in Washington, D.C. I went to the U.S. Senate and got into their Finance Committee's hearing on the Wall Street bailout. The overseers wanted to know how the banks spent the money. And many of these banks won't tell them. They've taken trillions and nobody knows where the money went. It certainly didn't go to create jobs, relieve mortgage holders, or free up loans that people need. It was so shocking to listen to this, I had to leave before it was over. But it gave me an idea for the movie I was shooting.

Later, I stopped by the National Archives to stand in line to see the original copy of our Constitution. I thought about how twenty years ago this month I was just down the street finishing my first film, a personal plea to warn the nation about GM and the deadly economy it ruled. On that March day in 1989 I was broke, having collected the last of my unemployment checks, relying on help from my friends (Bob and Siri would take me out to dinner and always pick up the check, the assistant manager at the movie theater would sneak me in so I could watch an occasional movie, Laurie and Jack bought an old Steenbeck (editing) machine for me, John Richard would slip me an unused plane ticket so I could go home for Christmas, Rod would do anything for me and drive to Flint whenever I needed something for the film). My late mother (she would've turned 88 tomorrow if she were still with us) and my GM autoworker dad told me in the kitchen they wanted to help and handed me a check for an astounding thousand dollars. I didn't know they even had a thousand dollars. I refused it, they insisted I take it -- "No!" -- and then, in that parental voice, told me I was to cash it so I could finish my movie. I did. And I did.

So on that March day in 1989, as I was driving down Pennsylvania Avenue, my 9-year-old car just died. I coasted over to the curb, put my head down on the steering wheel and started to cry. I had no money to take it in to be repaired, and I certainly had nothing to pay the tow truck driver. So I got out, screwed the license plates off so I wouldn't be fined, turned my back and just left it there for good. I looked over at the building next to me. It said "National Archives." What better place to donate my dead car, I thought, as I walked the rest of the way home.

Though it wasn't easy for me, I still never had to suffer what so many of my friends and neighbors went through, thanks to General Motors and an economic system rigged against them. I wonder what they must have all thought when they woke up this Monday morning to read in the Detroit News or the Detroit Free Press the headlines that Obama had fired the CEO of GM. Oh -- wait a minute. They couldn't read that. There was no Free Press or News. Monday was the day that both papers ended home delivery. It was cancelled (as it will be for four days every week) because the daily newspapers, like General Motors, like Detroit, are broke.

I await the President's next superhero move.

Yours,
Michael Moore

(Go State!)

P.S. Please know that it has not been lost on any of us from the Rust Belt how our corporate bigwigs were treated (remember, the auto companies wanted a loan, not a handout) compared to how the titans of Wall Street got trillions of free cash, lunch at the White House and a photo op with the Prez. Trust me, we get it. And, if there is a God in heaven, the thieves of Wall Street will soon pay. Also... the sight of our president having to promise that he would back every GM warranty and give consumers a bonus if they trade in their old Grand Am for a hybrid, was alternately sad, hilarious, and just plain weird. This is what it's come to: the Commander in Chief of the Free World is now Mr. Goodwrench. Jeesh.

Stick em up, America

Michael Moore on the great new, bipartisan "Fleecing of America Bill:"

Friends,

Let me cut to the chase. The biggest robbery in the history of this country is taking place as you read this. Though no guns are being used, 300 million hostages are being taken. Make no mistake about it: After stealing a half trillion dollars to line the pockets of their war-profiteering backers for the past five years, after lining the pockets of their fellow oilmen to the tune of over a hundred billion dollars in just the last two years, Bush and his cronies -- who must soon vacate the White House -- are looting the U.S. Treasury of every dollar they can grab. They are swiping as much of the silverware as they can on their way out the door.

No matter what they say, no matter how many scare words they use, they are up to their old tricks of creating fear and confusion in order to make and keep themselves and the upper one percent filthy rich. Just read the first four paragraphs of the lead story in last Monday's New York Times and you can see what the real deal is:

"Even as policy makers worked on details of a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, Wall Street began looking for ways to profit from it.

"Financial firms were lobbying to have all manner of troubled investments covered, not just those related to mortgages.

"At the same time, investment firms were jockeying to oversee all the assets that Treasury plans to take off the books of financial institutions, a role that could earn them hundreds of millions of dollars a year in fees.

"Nobody wants to be left out of Treasury's proposal to buy up bad assets of financial institutions."

Unbelievable. Wall Street and its backers created this mess and now they are going to clean up like bandits. Even Rudy Giuliani is lobbying for his firm to be hired (and paid) to "consult" in the bailout.

The problem is, nobody truly knows what this "collapse" is all about. Even Treasury Secretary Paulson admitted he doesn't know the exact amount that is needed (he just picked the $700 billion number out of his head!). The head of the congressional budget office said he can't figure it out nor can he explain it to anyone.

And yet, they are screeching about how the end is near! Panic! Recession! The Great Depression! Y2K! Bird flu! Killer bees! We must pass the bailout bill today!! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Falling for whom? NOTHING in this "bailout" package will lower the price of the gas you have to put in your car to get to work. NOTHING in this bill will protect you from losing your home. NOTHING in this bill will give you health insurance.

Health insurance? Mike, why are you bringing this up? What's this got to do with the Wall Street collapse?

It has everything to do with it. This so-called "collapse" was triggered by the massive defaulting and foreclosures going on with people's home mortgages. Do you know why so many Americans are losing their homes? To hear the Republicans describe it, it's because too many working class idiots were given mortgages that they really couldn't afford. Here's the truth: The number one cause of people declaring bankruptcy is because of medical bills. Let me state this simply: If we had had universal health coverage, this mortgage "crisis" may never have happened.

This bailout's mission is to protect the obscene amount of wealth that has been accumulated in the last eight years. It's to protect the top shareholders who own and control corporate America. It's to make sure their yachts and mansions and "way of life" go uninterrupted while the rest of America suffers and struggles to pay the bills. Let the rich suffer for once. Let them pay for the bailout. We are spending 400 million dollars a day on the war in Iraq. Let them end the war immediately and save us all another half-trillion dollars!

I have to stop writing this and you have to stop reading it. They are staging a financial coup this morning in our country. They are hoping Congress will act fast before they stop to think, before we have a chance to stop them ourselves. So stop reading this and do something -- NOW! Here's what you can do immediately:

1. Call or e-mail Senator Obama. Tell him he does not need to be sitting there trying to help prop up Bush and Cheney and the mess they've made. Tell him we know he has the smarts to slow this thing down and figure out what's the best route to take. Tell him the rich have to pay for whatever help is offered. Use the leverage we have now to insist on a moratorium on home foreclosures, to insist on a move to universal health coverage, and tell him that we the people need to be in charge of the economic decisions that affect our lives, not the barons of Wall Street.

2. Take to the streets. Participate in one of the hundreds of quickly-called demonstrations that are taking place all over the country (especially those near Wall Street and DC).

3. Call your Representative in Congress and your Senators. (click here to find their phone numbers). Tell them what you told Senator Obama.

When you screw up in life, there is hell to pay. Each and every one of you reading this knows that basic lesson and has paid the consequences of your actions at some point. In this great democracy, we cannot let there be one set of rules for the vast majority of hard-working citizens, and another set of rules for the elite, who, when they screw up, are handed one more gift on a silver platter. No more! Not again!

Yours,
Michael Moore

P.S. Having read further the details of this bailout bill, you need to know you are being lied to. They talk about how they will prevent golden parachutes. It says NOTHING about what these executives and fat cats will make in SALARY. According to Rep. Brad Sherman of California, these top managers will continue to receive million-dollar-a-month paychecks under this new bill. There is no direct ownership given to the American people for the money being handed over. Foreign banks and investors will be allowed to receive billion-dollar handouts. A large chunk of this $700 billion is going to be given directly to Chinese and Middle Eastern banks. There is NO guarantee of ever seeing that money again.

P.P.S. From talking to people I know in DC, they say the reason so many Dems are behind this is because Wall Street this weekend put a gun to their heads and said either turn over the $700 billion or the first thing we'll start blowing up are the pension funds and 401(k)s of your middle class constituents. The Dems are scared they may make good on their threat. But this is not the time to back down or act like the typical Democrat we have witnessed for the last eight years. The Dems handed a stolen election over to Bush. The Dems gave Bush the votes he needed to invade a sovereign country. Once they took over Congress in 2007, they refused to pull the plug on the war. And now they have been cowered into being accomplices in the crime of the century. You have to call them now and say "NO!" If we let them do this, just imagine how hard it will be to get anything good done when President Obama is in the White House. THESE DEMOCRATS ARE ONLY AS STRONG AS THE BACKBONE WE GIVE THEM. CALL CONGRESS NOW.

Note to MM - we can't give them backbone. We have been trying ever since we elected them to stop the Neocon bleeding, and they have capitulated every single time, every single bill.

They didn't end the war, end warrantless wiretapping, or even penalize those who perpetuated it. They let the Republicans overturn a 25 year moratorium on offshore drilling when they should have been using their majority to pass new alternative fuel incentives. They refused to hold Bush accountable for lying, stealing, for allowing New Orleans to drown without assistance, or for breaking any of the countless laws he has laughed at. They didn't honor their oaths of office and defend our Constitution from the actions of a tyrant.

They haven't even tried to stop the bleeding! Pelosi lost her table, and her nerve. They couldn't even get Rove to appear before Congress. I hold them all in contempt.

They are toothless, compromised cowards; embedded with the Neocons. I'm sure this new fleecing bill will make their corporate owners quite happy. Meanwhile, witness the final gutting of America.

As Lincoln once said - and he was nothing if not prescient:

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.

Believe me - if congressional Democrats and Republicans think they can get away with this in an election year, they can and they will. They know damn well we have no alternative. We either vote (in our fake elections) for toothless, corporate idiots... or we're stuck with evil Neocons. Talk about voting for the least worst alternative...

But sure, I'll call my toothless, corporate idiots again.

Michael Moore responds to Joe Lieberman

And now if I may, I'd like to respond to Michael.

If you haven't noticed already, I don't watch the conventions. I didn't watch the DNC and I'm certainly not going to poison my spirit by watching the RNC. The Democrats may have mostly forgotten their ideology (think Roosevelt,) but the GOP is now tilting wildly in the direction of fascism. And their product stinks.

My response to Michael Moore? The reason Joe Lieberman and McCain, and every other Republican bash you in public is because you have the nerve to uncover holes in the 'product.' You are successful when you comment on the fact that their product doesn't deliver. They've spent millions in advertising to promote their product and conceal its true crappiness, and they aren't going to let you walk in off the street with a movie camera and reveal the truth without a strong counter-attack.

The product is in fact, garbage. You reveal the fact that it doesn't work, has never worked (despite the advertising,) and that the money-back guarantee was always bogus. You are discrediting their product, and so they are now working hard to discredit, or marginalize or harrass you -- all tested corporate battle tactics.

The GOP is so obsessed with corporate business and the market, that they have literally become a corporation themselves, with a name brand and a product. Their product is terrible (for everyone but the top 1% of the economic pyramid,) but they keep selling it to the struggling masses through a carefully crafted advertisement plan. That, and a whole lot of intimidation.

The long term goal is to run their competition out of business; or simply buy them out - Joe Lieberman being an excellent example - so that their lousy product is the only one on the market.

They've already bought the media, so as to keep their advertising campaign on the air 24/7, while subtly bashing anything that threatens their product under the guise of 'covering the news.' If the actual news of the day shows their product in a negative light, they simply withhold this news or make up an alternate reality. Spin is in.

Its just business, Michael.

But Michael... you just won't play. You don't like their product, and you won't join their corporation. And so of course they see you as The Competition. The Competition must be hit and hit hard, at every opportunity.

You are actually advocating something that isn't even a product; a dangerous (to their product) mindset that they hope to eventually stamp out with their corporate world view. Democracy.

'SiCKO Truth Squad' corrects CNN

This is priceless. First Moore gives us 'SiCKO,' and exposes the endless BS and abuse we've been putting up with via health insurance companies for years. Now he's outting CNN's lousy news reporting! Go Michael!

I've lost all respect for Dr. Sanjay Gupta. No wait... that happened years ago.

Michael Moore kicks butt and takes names!

Wow! Michael Moore just inflicted a serious take-down on Wolf Blitzer and all of CNN for their lack of coverage (hahahaha, sick em Michael!) It's classic. This is truly a must-see - best thing anyone has seen on CNN in a very long time.

Video already available at Crooks and Liars (I'll replace this with a YouTube once one is available, but it's a bit long.)

UPDATE: YouTube video found. Enjoy.

Get out and see Sicko!

Michael Moore is out on Daily Kos right now with a new diary about Sicko, and is talking to the folks out there - great discussion.

He mentioned in one comment that the sales from this weekend will affect whether theaters keep the movie around for another week - so if you have been putting it off, get out and see it this weekend!

Here is a terrific interview about Sicko that Michael gave on the Bill Maher show earlier in the year (well, part of it anyway!)

Michael Moore denied entry to NYSE

I guess Michael Moore is making the money guys a little 'Sicko' to their stomachs right now. Aw. At least they can afford the health care... I'm sure this is nothing a martini and a good day of trading won't fix.

"Sicko" producer says US government trying to impound film

Boy, the necons went and stepped in it this time. Damned if they do and damned if they don't - now everyone is going to want to see this film!

Talk about free advertising! You'd think by now someone in the Bush administration would have figured out that any time you try to stop people from seeing something -- they're immediately going to line up to see it. This is basic psychology.

Weinstein must be loving every minute of this. The wilder this gets, the better it will be for film sales around the world.

By the way, if you've somehow missed it, "Sicko" is Michael Moore's latest documentary, which apparently delves into the state of American healthcare, and focuses on the pharmaceutical giants, while lambasting health insurers.



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