Whose lies hurt more? (Australian take on F 9/11)

[Keirsey]

Fahrenheit 9/11 just opened in Australia. The Bush stories are news to me, and probably to many Americans.

MICHAEL Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, which officially opens today in cinemas across the nation, is a polemic. It mercilessly reveals the inadequacy and, at times, immaturity of US President George W. Bush and, in doing so, turns the tables on the farce we often get when watching television news.

We got it last October when John and Janette Howard climbed up the steps of Air Force One instead of waiting at the bottom to welcome George and Laura Bush to Canberra. All four turned to wave under floodlights to a nonexistent crowd in the middle of the night to beguile Australian TV audiences next morning.

We got it when the terracotta pots and plants were stacked outside Parliament House so the cameras would not see Bush exposed to thousands of Australians protesting against his Iraq war down the slopes of Capitol Hill.

Remember how the Australian people were locked out, TV cameras banned and the elected representatives gagged while the non-elected Bush gave his speech in our House of Representatives instead of in the perfectly adequate Great Hall next door?

What about Bush's scrambled eulogy to Howard in Canberra in which he claimed that the term "man of steel" was the Texan equivalent of the Australian fair dinkum. Howard would have vetted the speech. He let the gaffe stand -- it made him feel so good. That helps answer Moore's question: "How is it that someone like John Howard could get in bed with George W. Bush?" Which begs the question: Has our Prime Minister seen Fahrenheit 9/11 and did he feel as good afterwards?

rest of the article...

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,10273610%5E7583,00.html

[Cha]

1. This is classic and thank you so much for this article from

Australia!
"I really hope they don't re-elect that fool," US soldier Michael Pederson wrote to his mother before he was killed in Iraq. Pederson was talking about Bush.

Now that Moore has made a film aimed to help Pederson's wish come true, the critics are howling from every fence. The problem for Moore's critics is Bush, not Moore. The documentary is successful not because Moore nails the President but because the President nails himself. No Bush absurdities, no Moore Palme d'Or."

This guy nails it!

[the Kelly Gang]

2. very radical piece for The Australian ( Murdoch rag) then I realised

it was by Bob Brown who rocks !:bounce:

[glitch]

3. Excellent! Thanks for posting and welcome to DU! nt

[calimary]

4. Seconded!

Welcome! Liked this one - thanks for posting it. In a MURDOCH rag, no less? Well, Pox "News," here, also had a surprisingly favorable critique of "Fahrenheit 9/11" after it first opened.

[Wind Dancer]

5. Great article!

"Bush's moment of truth came when he sat reading My Pet Goat to schoolchildren while the twin towers burned. Where was the maturity, intelligence and action to be expected of the most powerful human being on the planet in such a moment of peril? What do his defenders make of the gormless failure of the Commander-in-Chief to take immediate command in the crisis?

The office of the president is held in great respect by Americans. Maybe Moore's film is doing so well in cinemas because he shows how the office, not Bush, has been betrayed. Bush has purloined the office for himself and his rich cronies while poor Americans are sidelined, sent to the Iraq frontline or, worst of all, brought home secretly in body bags."

[mom cat]

6. Welcome to DU and thank you for that cheery bit of news from down

under. I can just see those idiots waving to a non exsistent croud. I sort of like that as a metaphor for their campaign. I think that they will wake up to find that the croud is never there.

[Luna_Chick]

7. Goodonya

Thanks for posting that! Always good to read what our friends down in Oz think of all this. I still remember my first of several holidays in Australia, how enlightening it was to see the U.S. from the outside. Here's hoping Howard will get the message and pull his head in.