A dream to have the best in office

8/14/2004

Wouldn't it be great if

The presidential candidates had the same amount of money to spend on their campaigns, it was from the U.S. Treasury, and none of it was from special interests or private donors with a payback needed. The candidate using the money the best would probably win, and we want the best in the White House.

The president would get a one-time term of eight years and would not have to spend his/her time raising money or pushing bad programs to satisfy his donors or to get votes in the next election. All the time could be spent for the good of the United States and its citizens.

The president could not waste time bad-mouthing the other party for the sole reason of being against an idea just because it is the other party's idea. Doesn't the other party ever have a good idea?

Similar rules applied to the House and Senate.

The dream is that our elected politicians would spend all of their time working for us and working together, not against each other, which is the norm now.

Unfortunately this is a dream that will never come true. But wouldn't it be great if we moved in this direction?

Carl Happ

Whitehouse, Ohio

Learning the truth about Moore's film

A few readers continue to defend the indefensible in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, claiming that it used actual film footage and recorded sound bites, was vetted by fact checkers, and that there would be lawsuits flying around if his claims were false.

There have been a couple of lawsuits filed, but it would take more space than we have here to explain all the cutting and splicing that Mr. Moore uses, and the changes in context and perspective to twist a subject into a caricature based on his agenda. For readers interested in the truth, there is a web site that has documented 36 major falsehoods in Fahrenheit 9/11, with footnotes and sources that will help anyone interested in knowing how Mr. Moore goes about his task. The Web site is http://fahrenheit_fact.blogspot.com/.

Independent fact-checkers now watch, analyze, and expose Mr. Moore's every move. So his credibility is down to a decreasing number of partisans who agree with him regardless of the facts. Where Mr. Moore has become dangerous is when he goes overseas and ridicules all Americans as fools. Since a growing number of Americans are now on to him, he is obviously talking about the few partisans he is still able to fool.

The most dangerous use of Fahrenheit 9/11 I have heard of is its distribution in Syria and Lebanon by Hezbollah, one of the most notorious terrorist organizations for killing Americans, and is apparently using it as a recruiting tool against the diabolical America of Michael Moore's propaganda.

At the recent Democrat convention, Mr. Moore was a prominent celebrity seated right next to ex-President Jimmy Carter on one occasion. He told interviewers he was not a Democrat, until a skeptical reporter found that he has always been registered as a Democrat. Nothing wrong with that, but why deny it?

Mario Goveia

West Bancroft Street