ORLANDO- Disney, Disney, Disney. The
company that made a child's dreams true. The company that gave us
‘The Mickey Mouse Club’, Donald and Goofy and
‘Fantasia’ is following up that tradition of imagination and forethought
and not releasing Michael Moore’s new movie ‘Fahrenheit
911’ because it’s critical of George Bush. I can just imagine
the sound of money jingling in the Disney boardroom.
“Yes Mr. Eisner, Michael Moore is a wonderful
filmmaker. And we own the distribution rights to his next movie about
the real life business connections between the
Bin Laden family of Saudi Arabia and the Bush family of Kennebunkport.
Can you believe the Bushes provided a haven for
the non-violent Bin Laden’s in the days after 9/11?”
“Tell me, how much do Moore's films make?”
“The last one, 22 million.”
“$22 million! Dumbo ate $22 million worth
of peanuts last year! Why, we get that in Florida tax breaks every
time I
go to the john. Don’t you know that Jeb
Bush will change the finance laws, string us all up and then boil me in
oil?”
Well, it goes something like that.
For the few of you who don’t know, Michael Moore
is the radical, leftist commie who gave us ideologically biased,
factually challenged films such as ‘Bowling for
Columbine’ and ‘Roger and Me.’ I hate to say it, but his little movies
have found a faithful audience and are made for
the right reasons: to keep people questioning authority, to put our
culture of unthinking and complacency at bay
for at least one day, and hell, to be a little fun. Isn’t it a release
to
pick on our bosses and leaders, to tell someone
you once saw Sam Walton with a piece of toilet paper stuck to his
shoe, or Ray Crock with mustard on his tie, or
Bill Clinton with his zipper half open (but that one was on purpose).
Sadly, it looks like Disney won’t give us the
chance when we need a real pick me up. Come on guys, don’t you read
the papers? Our economy is down a million
jobs, we’re stuck in a no win war without an exit strategy, and all our
former
allies think we’re third-string amateurs swinging
a giant stick and displaying the intellectual capacity of an adolescent
boy.
But despite this Administration’s failings and
all of Bush’s shortcomings, I have to give him credit. What can you
say
about a man who can get appointed President after
posting a C- college average, who failed at just about every job
he’s ever tried, who’s first fiancé left
him before the wedding because he was such a dork, who’s own family thinks
he’s way over his head, and who says he’s ‘a
war president’ but spent his Vietnam ‘War’ years getting his teeth
cleaned and hiding out at an Air National Guard
base somewhere in Texas or Arkansas.
Well, I can say that he has $100 million stashed
in a campaign slush fund and a lead in the polls over a real life war hero,
silver stars, purple hearts and everything.
He has America thinking that Iraq is still a good idea. He has Osama
Bin Laden
hiding in an Afghani cave craving take out food.
And he’s shipping jobs overseas and telling us it’s a good for national
security.
Not bad for someone who probably can’t tell you
where Saskatchewan is or who Idi Amin was.
So please Disney, bite the bullet and try to uphold
the free speech principles that we fought a war over way back in 1776,
against another guy named George. If you
don’t remember, our ancestors had to put up with George I and George II
before they beat George III and sent him back
to where he came, and all because they wanted certain inalienable rights.
So let’s hope we have a free and open chance to
rightly decide if this George and the one that will follow, stand for
the same things that we didn’t want then and
shouldn’t want now.