I get e-mails periodically from Grassfire.net, a kind of political news type site that has delt a lot with issues such as gays in Boy Scouts, "Under God" in the Pledge, and the situation of Bush and Iraq. The following is the e-mail promoting their new pamplet they are selling about the misleading information in Michael Moore's new documentary movie "Fahrenheit 9/11," and how he made it seem that President Bush's reaction was far too slow in taking action. It's a pretty good read.
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We continue to be amazed at how political leaders are reading off the Michael Moore playbook as outlined in is movie, "Fahrenheit 9/11." It further emphasizes the importance of Grassfire's new publication, "Michael Moore’s Misleads."
For example, Moore goes to great lengths in an attempt to show that President Bush didn't know what to do when he first found out that America was under attack on 9/11. Moore shows footage of the President sitting in a Florida classroom for seven minutes after an aid told him about the World Trade Center attacks. Moore makes the President look incompetent and
confused.
It's a Moore mislead. Moore manipulated the video footage and ignored the facts. We expose Moore's tactics in our pamphlet. It's Mislead #6.
+ + Kerry attacks Bush for the 7-minute delay
A few days ago, Sen. John Kerry read from the Moore playbook in criticizing President Bush for the supposed 7-minute delay.
Here is what Kerry said:
Had I been reading to children and had my top aide
whispered in my ear, 'America is under attack,' I would have
told those kids very politely and nicely that the President of
the United States had something that he needed to attend
to -- and I would have attended to it.
+ + What Did Kerry Actually Do On 9/11?
Before we go on, we want to state that we disagree with Michael Moore's analysis of the supposed "7-minute delay." We also disagree with leaders like Sen. Kerry making this an issue. Events were unfolding quickly and there was much confusion in those first moments.
That said, it is important to point out the hypocrisy of Sen. Kerry by looking at what Kerry himself did at that same moment in time.
Here is Sen. Kerry's explanation of what he was doing when the first attacks came:
KERRY: I was in the Capitol. We'd just had a meeting --
we'd just come into a leadership meeting in Tom Daschle's
office, looking out at the Capitol. And as I came in, Barbara
Boxer and Harry Reid were standing there, and we watched
the second plane come in to the building. And we shortly
thereafter sat down at the table and then we just realized
nobody could think, and then boom, right behind us, we saw
the cloud of explosion at the Pentagon. And then word came
from the White House, they were evacuating, and we were to
evacuate, and so we immediately began the evacuation.
+ + Kerry: "Nobody Could Think"
For the record, it was about 40 minutes between the when the second tower was hit and when the Pentagon was hit. For 40 minutes, Sen. John Kerry, a sitting member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sat in a room with Senate Leader Tom Daschle.
In Kerry's own words, "nobody could think."
Sen. Kerry sat in a very vulnerable place on Capitol Hill for 40 minutes after the second tower was hit. What did he mean when he said, "nobody could think"? Perhaps the chaos and confusion of the moment meant that a group of top leaders in the Senate really did not know what to do! So they sat in a vulnerable Senate office, exposed to attack. Apparently, Kerry and others
did not yet realize that America was at war.
When did Kerry know America was at war?
Again, in Sen. Kerry's own words:
And as we went out of the building, my immediate feeling
was, we're at war. I mean, that was the sense, that we are
under attack. People are attacking the United States of
America and we needed to respond.
So, more than 45 minutes after the second tower was hit, as Sen. Kerry was evacuating the Capitol, his "immediate feeling" was that America was "at war." In his own words, it took Sen. Kerry 45 minutes to come to this conclusion.
We do not fault Sen. Kerry or President Bush for their reactions immediately following the 9/11 attacks. But we find it offensive that Moore and Left leaders are trying to use those tragic events to attack our President.
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H-D 