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View Article  GOP Seeks Arrest of Michael Moore
GOP Seeks Arrest of Michael Moore

by Michael Moore

You may have heard by now that the Michigan Republican Party has called for my arrest. That's right. They literally want me brought up on charges - and hope that I'm locked up.

No, I'm not kidding. The Republican Party, on October 5th, filed a criminal complaint with the prosecutors in each of the counties where I spoke last week in Michigan.

My crime? Clean underwear for anyone who will vote in the upcoming election.

Each night on our 60-city "Slacker Uprising Tour" through the 20 battleground states, I've been registering hundreds (and on some nights, thousands) of voters at my arena and stadium events. I then ask for everyone over 23 who has never voted (or didn't vote in the last election) to stand up. I tell these slackers that I understand and respect why they think politicians are not worth the bother. I tell them that I may have been the original slacker, and that I do not want them to change their slacker ways. Keep sleeping 'til noon! Keep drinking beer! Stay on the sofa and watch as much TV as possible! But, please, just for me, on 11/2, I want you to leave the house and give voting a try - just this once. The stakes this time are just too high.

If they promise me that they'll do this, I give the guys a 3-pack of new Fruit of the Loom underwear, and the women get a day's supply of Ramen noodles, the sustenance of slackers everywhere.

I then close by having them repeat the 2004 Slacker Oath: "Pick nose! Pick b--t! Pick Kerry."

It seems to have worked, as each night the volunteer tables are swamped afterwards with hundreds of new and young voters signing up to campaign for regime change for the next four weeks.

The satire of all this seems to have been lost on the Republicans. Or maybe it hasn't. The state of Michigan (where we spent most of last week) reported that over 100,000 young people recently registered to vote, a record that no one saw coming. The Slacker Tour has turned into a huge steamroller with a momentum all its own.

So, the Republican Party, to show their gratitude that so many young people will now be involved in our system, has demanded that I be sent to jail for trying to "bribe" students to vote.

Of course, this would be quite laughable if they weren't so serious about their charges. But they are. I may soon be a wanted man in Michigan - simply because I convinced a few slackers to change their underwear and eat a healthy meal of artificially-flavored noodles.

I thought I'd seen it all this year - Disney refusing to distribute the film they paid for, right-wingers harassing theater owners who showed "Fahrenheit 9/11," conservative action groups trying to get the FEC to kick our film ads off the air, the unnecessary restrictive R-rating that forced teenagers to sneak in to see it, and all the stupid, crazy attacks on me and my movie that I've had to listen to as I watched the public ignore them and pack the movie houses anyway, where my film was being shown. And when all that failed, five different Republican groups made five different attack dog tapes (oops, "documentaries!") against me in a period of about six weeks. But they were all so bad, so boring, so right-wing, no one wanted to watch them and they too went away, a sad waste of good videotape.

Now, after enduring all this, with no tricks left in their bag, they've just decided, "Let's toss his sorry *ss behind bars - him and his noodles and his gift of clean underwear!"

My friends, they will not catch me. Though I may be on the run, and I may never be able to return home to my beloved Michigan, I make this solemn vow to you and yours: The slackers of America shall not be denied their noodles, they will proudly wear their clean underwear as free Americans, and they will vote Bush out of office come November 2nd (though they will not show up to the polls until well after noon)!

Stay strong, stay slacker, and please remember to turn the underwear inside out every three days. As for the noodles, add boiling water, stir.

Yours,

Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
www.michaelmoore.com

P.S. My favorite moment of the VP debate: Cheney saying to the moderator that this was the first he heard that many black women in America had AIDS. Clueless. Cheney, for an entire 90-minutes, only mentioned Bush's name - that's his running mate, the "pResident" - once. They should have called this the "pResident (Cheney) - Vice President (Edwards) Debate."

P.P.S. "Fahrenheit 9/11" is now out on home video and DVD!



Iowa State - Michael Moore will present a free lecture at Hilton Coliseum on Sunday, Oct. 17

His appearance in Ames is open to the public. No tickets are required. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the lecture will begin at 7:30 p.m.

In "An Evening with Michael Moore," the documentarian will discuss current events, show film clips, answer audience questions and sign copies of his books. The performance is expected to be part political commentary, part stand-up comedy.

View Article  A New Kind of Democrat
 A NEW KIND OF DEMOCRAT

by Darrell Lewis

Much has been said of the Howard Dean-inspired movement inside the Democratic Party all across America.  Last night, I had an opportunity to talk to dozens of young people who are newly registered and will be voting in their first election on Nov. 2.  Their excitement, optimism and youthful energy are inspiring and gave me cause to ponder just what is going on within our party.

The best I can conclude is that there is a new kind of Democrat emerging.  We don't play by the same old rules and we dare to believe that by our involvement we can make a difference.

We have watched over the last two decades as the Republican Party has been dragged to the right by its most radical religious elements.  We listen to our moderate Republican friends talk about how their party has been hijacked and how they now have to rely on the votes of the radical right to win elections.  Many conservative Republicans have found themselves forced to abandon their traditional values of "states rights" and balanced budgets.  Democrats, frustrated with the success of the emerging ultra-conservative Republican Party, somewhere along the line came to the conclusion that they, too, had to abandon many of their core principles and also pander to the radical right.  Democratic insiders like to point to the election of Bill Clinton as evidence that this move to the right was necessary and successful; yet we all know the real truth about Clinton's success and his name was Ross Perot.

Howard Dean was the first voice who loudly cried foul almost two years ago and asked where the real Democrats are.  His bold challenge of the inside party establishment rallied hundreds of thousands of us to action.  Our sense of higher purpose created a bond and community that still mystifies the traditional Democratic Party insider and scares to death politically-savvy Republicans.

This new kind of Democrat is both a throwback to traditional Democratic values and at the same time embraces some of the traditional aspects of conservative Republicans.  Yes, it’s a bit of an odd mix and your politico types still don't understand it.  Yes, we truly do believe fiscal responsibility is necessary.  We are firmly committed to a balanced budget and only spending the resources we have.  However, we do believe that given the choice of eliminating corporate tax breaks or cutting a needed program, we will choose to keep the needed program and not cut corporate taxes.  We come very much from a "libertarian" perspective, that the government simply has no business in our personal lives and we value highly our personal liberties.  

Yes, in many ways we are Boy Scouts.  We believe in helping the little old lady cross the street.  We believe in doing a good turn daily.  We believe that it is NOT a crime to be poor and YES, we believe government has a responsibility to make sure everyone's boat rises.

So, what are we?  We are a new kind of Democrat and as Howard Dean loves to say, we do have the power - the power to change America for the better.


Darrell Lewis is a DFIA Founding Member.  He runs the Drury for Iowa Senate blog.


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