Michael Moore Does Eugene
I just got back from a rally with Michael Moore, part of his ‘Slacker Uprising Tour’. Highlights included:
–a half dozen satire ads he was offering Bush to use that were quite funny
–a series of interruptions from a small group of Nader supporters launched him into the longest sustained criticism of anything else in his speech. He began a whine reminescent of Judy Tenuta about their ‘holier-than-thou purity’. He indicated he agreed that Ralph was more correct on the issues but being correct was not enough. After all, Nader said he’d bring home the troops in 6 months, and Moore said his choice would be to bring them home today, so he was even purer than Ralph, so vote for him. He made it clear how silly that would be.
“I know how it feels because I voted for Ralph twice,” he related. “You pull the curtain in the booth and it’s just you and Ralph. Ohhhhh Rallllphh ! I feeeel sooo gooooood, Ralph! But didn’t your parents ever teach you 5 minutes of feeling good can have lifelong consequences?”
He said he told Ralph “A quality of a great leader is in the ability to listen, and Ralph, you’e not listening to what the people are telling you.”
The 5,000+ sellout crowd ate it up. The Nader group continued to disrupt and security quietly directed them to leave.
–An audience member said her daughter was an MP in Iraq and had a bootleg copy of Fahrenheit 9-11, which was so popular it had caused her entire unit to vote. Moore indicated it was the most popular DVD at military bases across the US when it came out and implied the bootleg copies in Iraq may have come from him.
–He got visibly angry at a couple of points. One was during a brief rant at our media that he said had failed us completely. He was even angrier while discussing the disenfranchisement of the Black vote which “people have fought and died for” as he demanded to know “haven’t we done enough to our Black brothers and sisters?”
–He reminded everyone that if Bush gets elected, he’d be “Bush unleashed”, a nightmare we can’t let happen. He spoke of seeing Kerry at the winter soldier’s meeting and that he truly believed he was a very good and progressive man, even though he’s had no contact with Kerry’s campaign.
–He encouraged everyone to ignore the polls and said young people and the largest turnout of non-voters ever would win this thing because “we are the majority.”
–He indicated he and his wife had helped fund 3,000 lawyers to go to Florida, and was making a call for ‘an army of videocameras watching all the polls’ and said if they stole this election he was going to call for nationwide massive nonviolent civil disobedience, for everyone to take to the streets and refuse to leave until everyone who wants to vote gets their votes counted.
There’s more, but he left the crowd energized and enthusiastic, a crowd that had folks aged 8 to 80 in it.
October 18th, 2004 at 6:08 pm
Kev, is it true that the Bush supporters can rig the election (again) in his favor? We’re reading reports over here that they are up to all sorts of shenanigans to avoid having Democrat votes properly counted etc. Read in today’s (Oct.18) Guardian, article by Gary Younge “Any Means Necessary” . This truly frightening and cannot be allowed!
October 18th, 2004 at 6:26 pm
Yes, Natalie. There are numerous efforts afoot that could delegitimize the election. The great hope here is that the vote will be wide enough to thwart their effort. My research indicates this will happen, with new voters making the difference.
October 18th, 2004 at 10:39 pm
I was at the Conway, Arkansas event with Moore. It went over basically like the one you detail. It was an amazing show. Moore is a hilarious man.
October 19th, 2004 at 1:08 am
i’m from minnesota, which has never been considered a swing state before. when i read the polls, i keep reminding myself of jesse ventura’s election. the polls never predicted that one, and most of us didn’t see it coming either.
October 19th, 2004 at 9:31 am
The 9/11 DVD as well as any other movies that come out can be found on the streets in DVD form the day the movie comes out at a movie hall. Bootleg DVDs are all over the place. My brother is in Iraq and he has 9/11 on his computer he bought it on the street in Iraq.
October 19th, 2004 at 2:12 pm
“Fahrenheit 9-11, which was so popular it had caused her entire unit to vote. Moore indicated it was the most popular DVD at military bases across the US when it came out…”
Which is why I thought the poll about the military overwhelmingly supporting Bush was crap. No doubt that was the officer core more like senior officers. Enlisted personnel have the best BS detectors in the world.
October 21st, 2004 at 12:50 am
Good Reading
Digby does a good job of explaining why the Bush administration shouldn’t be trusted on the flu vaccine issue, reminding fellow citizens that back in the day, Cheney advocated universal anthrax innoculations but was stopped by the outcry from the…