Michael Moore
Happy Labor Day -- Now, Get a Job!
Sat Aug 30 18:37:31 2003
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http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php
Friday, August 29, 2003
Happy Labor Day -- Now, Get a Job! (A letter from Michael Moore)


Greetings Friends,

For his part, George W. Bush will spend Labor Day doing what he does
best - not really working. Instead of protecting the country (I'll have
much more to say on that in the coming weeks) or addressing the nation's
floundering economy, he'll be raising money for his re-election campaign
in Ohio.

Bush is on pace to raise almost $200 million in time for the Republican
primaries where his only competition will be his own dismal record. In
Minnesota this past Tuesday, Bush raised $1.4 million by giving a
24-minute speech. That's about $60,000 for each minute of "work." By
contrast, the weekly salary of the average American worker is a
staggering $616.

As Ron Eibensteiner, chairman of the Minnesota Republican Party, left
the event in St. Paul, he was met by hundreds of demonstrators. Being
the dignified, freedom-loving, compassionate conservative we all wish we
could be, Eibensteiner leaned over a police barricade toward the
protestors and yelled, "GET A JOB!"

It was a positive, uplifting message to America. The Minnesota
Republican Party isn't going to do anything to turn the economy around,
and Bush hasn't done anything in almost three years in office. The best
any of them can do is yell at people.

In the past year, 700,000 people were added to the list of unemployed.
The number of people out of work for half a year or more is up 28%.
Thanks to "Welfare to Work" (and Bill Clinton), July of 2003 saw 43.8%
of the unemployed lose their state support even though they still could
not find a job-a record high. Since Bush took over the country, roughly
2.5 million jobs have simply evaporated.

Bush and the Republicans are going to need every cent of that
$200,000,000 to campaign against an increasingly angry nation of temps
and burger flippers! In fact, he might need more, which is one good way
to explain the Republican's recent attempt to paint Bush as an
'underdog.'

"Democrats and their allies," Bush's campaign chairman Marc Racicot
wrote to super-rich Republicans, "will have more money to spend
attacking the president during the nomination battle than we will have
to defend him." Obviously Bush and his team have a problem with math
that extends beyond the $400 billion deficit we'll have by the end of
this year (and the projected $6 trillion deficit we will have amassed
ten years from now under Bush's guidance). If you look at the campaign
fundraising so far, you see that Bush has already raised $35 million.
The closest Democratic candidate, John Kerry, doesn't even have half
that. Does the Bush campaign know something we don't about where the
Democrats are hiding all that money?

And who has been giving Bush all this money in a time of prolonged
economic downturn? Why, the companies that trade in money, of course! Of
the top twenty contributor's to the Bush campaign, twelve are finance
companies. With more than a year to go until the election, his top
contributor, Merrill Lynch, has already given $282,250. Doesn't it seem
just a little strange that the companies which SHOULD be suffering the
most in Bush's destroyed economy, would not only want to keep Junior
around, but then get together and pump millions into his reelection
campaign?

As for the Bush protestors in Minnesota, and the unemployed across the
country, and the millions who only make minimum wage, and the 40 million
who don't have health insurance: if you can't rake in $60,000 a minute -
or if you can't even manage the $616 weekly American average-there's
only one thing left for you to do this Labor Day: GET A JOB!

Find a temp agency. Go to Wal-Mart. Join the Army (Lord knows we'll be
in Iraq for a while, and that'll be one handsome, steady paycheck).

Or apply for work at the Minnesota Republican Party's office. Here's
their email address: info@mngop.com. Send them your resume and a nice
letter telling them you've decided to take their advice to "GET A
JOB"-and you're coming to work for them!

But whatever you do, you really must quit your whining.

You are scaring the "President."

Yours,

Michael Moore

MMFlint@aol.com

www.michaelmoore.com