Congratulations, Corporate Crime Fighters! Coup Averted for Three Days! ...From Michael Moore

Friends,

Everyone said the bill would pass. The masters of the universe were
already making celebratory dinner reservations at Manhattan's finest
restaurants. Personal shoppers in Dallas and Atlanta were dispatched to
do the early Christmas gifting. Mad Men of Chicago and Miami were
popping corks and toasting each other long before the morning latte
run.

But what they didn't know was that hundreds of thousands of
Americans woke up yesterday morning and decided it was time for revolt.
The politicians never saw it coming. Millions of phone calls and emails
hit Congress so hard it was as if Marshall Dillon, Elliot Ness and Dog
the Bounty Hunter had descended on D.C. to stop the looting and arrest
the thieves.

The Corporate Crime of the Century was halted by a vote of 228 to
205. It was rare and historic; no one could remember a time when a bill
supported by the president and the leadership of both parties went down
in defeat. That just never happens.

A lot of people are wondering why the right wing of the Republican
Party joined with the left wing of the Democratic Party in voting down
the thievery. Forty percent of Democrats and two-thirds of Republicans
voted against the bill.

Here's what happened:

The presidential race may still be close in the polls, but the
Congressional races are pointing toward a landslide for the Democrats.
Few dispute the prediction that the Republicans are in for a whoopin'
on November 4th. Up to 30 Republican House seats could be lost in what
would be a stunning repudiation of their agenda.

The Republican reps are so scared of losing their seats, when this
"financial crisis" reared its head two weeks ago, they realized they
had just been handed their one and only chance to separate themselves
from Bush before the election, while doing something that would make
them look like they were on the side of "the people."

Watching C-Span yesterday morning was one of the best comedy shows
I'd seen in ages. There they were, one Republican after another who had
backed the war and sunk the country into record debt, who had voted to
kill every regulation that would have kept Wall Street in check --
there they were, now crying foul and standing up for the little guy!
One after another, they stood at the microphone on the House floor and
threw Bush under the bus, under the train (even though they had voted
to kill off our nation's trains, too), heck, they would've thrown him
under the rising waters of the Lower Ninth Ward if they could've
conjured up another hurricane. You know how your dog acts when sprayed
by a skunk? He howls and runs around trying to shake it off, rubbing
and rolling himself on every piece of your carpet, trying to get rid of
the stench. That's what it looked like on the Republican side of the
aisle yesterday, and it was a sight to behold.

The 95 brave Dems who broke with Barney Frank and Chris Dodd were
the real heroes, just like those few who stood up and voted against the
war in October of 2002. Watch the remarks from yesterday of Reps. Marcy Kaptur, Sheila Jackson Lee, and Dennis Kucinich. They spoke the truth.

The Dems who voted for the giveaway did so mostly because they were
scared by the threats of Wall Street, that if the rich didn't get their
handout, the market would go nuts and then it's bye-bye stock-based
pension and retirement funds.

And guess what? That's exactly what Wall Street did! The largest,
single-day drop in the Dow in the history of the New York Stock
exchange. The news anchors last night screamed it out: Americans just
lost 1.2 trillion dollars in the stock market!! It's a financial Pearl
Harbor! The sky is falling! Bird flu! Killer Bees!

Of course, sane people know that nobody "lost" anything yesterday,
that stocks go up and down and this too shall pass because the rich
will now buy low, hold, then sell off, then buy low again.

But for now, Wall Street and its propaganda arm (the networks and
media it owns) will continue to try and scare the bejesus out of you.
It will be harder to get a loan. Some people will lose their jobs. A
weak nation of wimps won't last long under this torture. Or will we? Is
this our line in the sand?

Here's my guess: The Democratic leadership in the House secretly
hoped all along that this lousy bill would go down. With Bush's
proposals shredded, the Dems knew they could then write their own bill
that favors the average American, not the upper 10% who were hoping for
another kegger of gold.

So the ball is in the Democrats' hands. The gun from Wall Street
remains at their head. Before they make their next move, let me tell
you what the media kept silent about while this bill was being debated:

1. The bailout bill had NO enforcement provisions for the so-called
oversight group that was going to monitor Wall Street's spending of the
$700 billion;

2. It had NO penalties, fines or imprisonment for any executive who might steal any of the people's money;

3. It did NOTHING to force banks and lenders to rewrite people's
mortgages to avoid foreclosures -- this bill would not have stopped ONE
foreclosure!;

4. It had NO teeth anywhere in the entire piece of legislation,
using words like "suggested" when referring to the government being
paid back for the bailout;

5. Over 200 economists wrote to Congress and said this bill might actually WORSEN the "financial crisis" and cause even MORE of a meltdown.

Put a fork in this slab of pork. It's over. Now it is time for our
side to state very clearly the laws WE want passed. I will send you my
proposals later today. We've bought ourselves less than 72 hours.

Yours,

Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com