Random Michael Moore Deceits [#16]

Oregon Coast [from Fahrenheit 9/11]

Dude, Who’s Guarding Our Borders?

The responsibility for guarding the American coastline belongs to the Coast Guard . . . and the United States Navy. These folks are paid by the federal government; their commander is the president. Michael Moore feels confident that he can ignore these facts because his poorly-educated fans have little understanding of how their nation is governed.

So when Michael Moore heard that Oregon state troopers were clamoring for a pay raise, he rushed up to Oregon with a camera crew and captured their complaints on film. In Fahrenheit 9/11 Moore depicts the troopers as under-paid and their numbers stretched far too thin to provide an effective defense of the Oregon coast. Moore’s purpose is to suggest that the Bush administration is not sincere about homeland security. Moore makes no mention of the fact that the Oregon state government was in the midst of a state budget crisis and that the state of Oregon alone was responsible for paying its troopers; George Bush is not their paymaster. Moore makes no effort to enlighten his audience about the relentless patrolling by our Navy’s powerful air and sea forces, nor does he mention the 1,287 active-duty personnel, the 459 reservists or the 1,600 volunteers of the auxiliary whom the Coast Guard employs to protect the Oregon-Washington coast. If it weren’t for the rampant ignorance of millions of Americans, Michael Moore and P.T. Barnum would have remained penniless failures. For the record, the Oregon state troopers have one assignment: to patrol that state’s highways. It was never their job to repel amphibious invasions.

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