Dude, Where's My Country_ - Michael Moore [96]
The “Coalition of the Willing” was listed, as of April 3, 2003, on the White House Web site, www.whitehouse.gov.
Stories of the Bush administration lashing out at the French are found in the following: William Douglas, “Paris will face consequences,” Newsday, April 24, 2003; “Rumsfeld dismisses ‘old Europe’ defiance on Iraq,” CBC News, January 23, 2003; and “Commander-in-Chief,” Dateline NBC, April 25, 2003.
The more ridiculous and petty attacks on the French come from many different sources, and are only a small sampling of the anti-French backlash. John Kerry and his alleged-“French” look was reported by Adam Nagourney & Richard W. Stevenson, “Bush’s aides plan late sprint in ’04,” New York Times, April 22, 2003. For more about Jim Saxton’s proposed bill to punish the French economically, see “Congress slow to act on anti-France bill,” Associated Press, March 10, 2003. Ginny Brown-Waite’s absolutely ludicrous call to dig up the bones of the WWII dead buried in France deserves only the most colorful coverage, so I will point you to the New York Post’s March 14, 2003 article “Dig up our D-Day Dead,” written by Malcolm Balfour. Richard Ruelas’s Arizona Republic article “McCain isn’t saying ‘oui’ to Bush’s tax cut plan,” of April 25, 2003 discusses the attack ads on the two Republican weasels who were having second thoughts about Bush’s disastrous tax cut. The always level-headed Sean Hannity let his emotions get the best of him in talking about Jacques Chirac’s betrayal on his one-sided debate show, Hannity & Colmes,on June 11, 2003.
From pouring French wine down the toilet, to the wonders of the Freedom Fry, to the satisfaction of rolling over photocopied French flags in an armored car, and much more, see the following: Deborah Orin & Brian Blomquist, “White House just says Non,” New York Post, March 14, 2003; John Lichfield, “French tourism counts cost as Americans stay away,” The Independent, July 29, 2003; Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “An Order of Fries, Please, But Do Hold the French,” New York Times, March 12, 2003; “Fuddruckers jumps on ‘Freedom fry’ bandwagon,” PR Newswire, March 14, 2003; Brian Skoloff, “Central Valley dry cleaners called French Cleaners vandalized,” Associated Press, March 20, 2003; Rob Kaiser, “Sofitel surrenders, lowers French flag,” Chicago Tribune, March 1, 2003; “Merchant stands his ground as Americans boycott fromage.com,” Toronto Star, February 16, 2003; J.M. Kalil, “Everything French Fried,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, February 19, 2003; Floyd Norris, “French’s has an unmentioned British flavor,” New York Times, March 28, 2003; Alison Leigh Cowan, “French exchange students get the cold shoulder,” New York Times, July 4, 2003; and finally, for the French weasel embedded in the White House—Elisabeth Bumiller, “From the President’s patisserie, building a coalition of the filling,” New York Times, May 5, 2003
If you would like to find out more about the life, and genealogy, of Paul Rivoire, visit the Paul Revere House online, www.paulreverehouse.org/ father.html
For more on the integral helping hand the French gave the colonists during the Revolutionary War, track down Stacy Schiff’s article, “Making France our best friend,” from the July 7, 2003 issue of Time.
Figures on Iraq’s oil exports to various countries comes from the Energy Information Administration’s “International Petroleum Monthly,” for July 2003. Our overall trade numbers with Iraq for 2001 can be found through the Foreign Trade Division of the Census Bureau.
Jennifer Brooks wrote of Saddam’s receiving a key to Detroit in the Detroit News, March 26, 2003. Rumsfeld’s visit to Iraq is well documented, and the National Security Archive at George Washington University (cited above) has a cute picture of the two men shaking hands. For a quick look, however, see Michael Dobbs, “U.S. had key role in Iraq buildup,” Washington Post, December 30, 2002.
Statistics on telephones per capita in Albania, along with many other fun facts, can be found in the CIA’s World Fact Book, 2003, available online at www.cia.gov. This is also a great place