The Rich Are Staging a Coup This Morning ...a Message From Michael Moore

Friends,

Let me cut to the chase. The biggest robbery in the history of this
country is taking place as you read this. Though no guns are being
used, 300 million hostages are being taken. Make no mistake about it:
After stealing a half trillion dollars to line the pockets of their
war-profiteering backers for the past five years, after lining the
pockets of their fellow oilmen to the tune of over a hundred billion
dollars in just the last two years, Bush and his cronies -- who must
soon vacate the White House -- are looting the U.S. Treasury of every
dollar they can grab. They are swiping as much of the silverware as
they can on their way out the door.

No matter what they say, no matter how many scare words they use,
they are up to their old tricks of creating fear and confusion in order
to make and keep themselves and the upper one percent filthy rich. Just
read the first four paragraphs of the lead story in last Monday's New York Times and you can see what the real deal is:

"Even as policy makers worked on details of a $700 billion bailout of
the financial industry, Wall Street began looking for ways to profit
from it.

"Financial firms were lobbying to have all manner of troubled investments covered, not just those related to mortgages.

"At the same time, investment firms were jockeying to oversee
all the assets that Treasury plans to take off the books of financial
institutions, a role that could earn them hundreds of millions of
dollars a year in fees.

"Nobody wants to be left out of Treasury's proposal to buy up bad assets of financial institutions."

Unbelievable. Wall Street and its backers created this mess and now
they are going to clean up like bandits. Even Rudy Giuliani is lobbying
for his firm to be hired (and paid) to "consult" in the bailout.

The problem is, nobody truly knows what this "collapse" is all about.
Even Treasury Secretary Paulson admitted he doesn't know the exact
amount that is needed (he just picked the $700 billion number out of
his head!). The head of the congressional budget office said he can't
figure it out nor can he explain it to anyone.

And yet, they are screeching about how the end is near! Panic!
Recession! The Great Depression! Y2K! Bird flu! Killer bees! We must
pass the bailout bill today!! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Falling for whom? NOTHING in this "bailout" package will lower the
price of the gas you have to put in your car to get to work. NOTHING in
this bill will protect you from losing your home. NOTHING in this bill
will give you health insurance.

Health insurance? Mike, why are you bringing this up? What's this got to do with the Wall Street collapse?

It has everything to do with it. This so-called "collapse" was
triggered by the massive defaulting and foreclosures going on with
people's home mortgages. Do you know why so many Americans are losing
their homes? To hear the Republicans describe it, it's because too many
working class idiots were given mortgages that they really couldn't
afford. Here's the truth: The number one cause of people declaring
bankruptcy is because of medical bills. Let me state this simply: If we had had universal health coverage, this mortgage "crisis" may never have happened.

This bailout's mission is to protect the obscene amount of wealth that
has been accumulated in the last eight years. It's to protect the top
shareholders who own and control corporate America. It's to make sure
their yachts and mansions and "way of life" go uninterrupted while the
rest of America suffers and struggles to pay the bills. Let the rich
suffer for once. Let them pay for the bailout. We are spending 400
million dollars a day on the war in Iraq. Let them end the war
immediately and save us all another half-trillion dollars!

I have to stop writing this and you have to stop reading it. They
are staging a financial coup this morning in our country. They are
hoping Congress will act fast before they stop to think, before we have
a chance to stop them ourselves. So stop reading this and do something
-- NOW! Here's what you can do immediately:

1. Call or e-mail Senator Obama.
Tell him he does not need to be sitting there trying to help prop up
Bush and Cheney and the mess they've made. Tell him we know he has the
smarts to slow this thing down and figure out what's the best route to
take. Tell him the rich have to pay for whatever help is offered. Use
the leverage we have now to insist on a moratorium on home
foreclosures, to insist on a move to universal health coverage, and
tell him that we the people need to be in charge of the economic
decisions that affect our lives, not the barons of Wall Street.

2. Take to the streets. Participate
in one of the hundreds of quickly-called demonstrations that are taking
place all over the country (especially those near Wall Street and DC).

3. Call your Representative in Congress and your Senators. (click here to find their phone numbers). Tell them what you told Senator Obama.

When you screw up in life, there is hell to pay. Each and every one
of you reading this knows that basic lesson and has paid the
consequences of your actions at some point. In this great democracy, we
cannot let there be one set of rules for the vast majority of
hard-working citizens, and another set of rules for the elite, who,
when they screw up, are handed one more gift on a silver platter. No
more! Not again!

Yours,

Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com

MichaelMoore.com

P.S. Having read further the details of this bailout bill, you need
to know you are being lied to. They talk about how they will prevent
golden parachutes. It says NOTHING about what these executives and fat
cats will make in SALARY. According to Rep. Brad Sherman of California,
these top managers will continue to receive million-dollar-a-month
paychecks under this new bill. There is no direct ownership given to
the American people for the money being handed over. Foreign banks and
investors will be allowed to receive billion-dollar handouts. A large
chunk of this $700 billion is going to be given directly to Chinese and
Middle Eastern banks. There is NO guarantee of ever seeing that money
again.

P.P.S. From talking to people I know in DC, they say the reason so
many Dems are behind this is because Wall Street this weekend put a gun
to their heads and said either turn over the $700 billion or the first
thing we'll start blowing up are the pension funds and 401(k)s of your
middle class constituents. The Dems are scared they may make good on
their threat. But this is not the time to back down or act like the
typical Democrat we have witnessed for the last eight years. The Dems
handed a stolen election over to Bush. The Dems gave Bush the votes he
needed to invade a sovereign country. Once they took over Congress in
2007, they refused to pull the plug on the war. And now they have been
cowered into being accomplices in the crime of the century. You have to
call them now
and say "NO!" If we let them do this, just imagine how hard it will be
to get anything good done when President Obama is in the White House.
THESE DEMOCRATS ARE ONLY AS STRONG AS THE BACKBONE WE GIVE THEM. CALL CONGRESS NOW.