The Big One Page #3

now we're into two minutes.

"This guy's eyes...

They've not blinked, not once."

And the doctor said,

and I quote...

"Well, that's not human."

[Laughter]

I'm getting a theory

going here in my head, you know?

Not human. Right?

I'm thinking,

"Don't look in his eyes.

"Don't look in his eyes.

Look away. Don't."

You don't look at his eyes,

but he gets us with the sound.

"Flat tax, flat tax,

flat tax, flat tax..."

Aah! Turn that sound down!

"Flat tax, flat tax, flat tax."

MOORE, CONTINUING:

So back in February...

I was here in Des Moines,

for the lowa caucuses...

and I decided to go over

to the Forbes headquarters...

to see if

Steve was some kind of...

freak X-File

brother from another planet.

And this guy comes out...

and he says,

"Hi, my name is Chip Carter."

"Chip Carter?

That's Jimmy Carter's son."

"No, I'm the other Chip Carter."

He had this weird look

in his eyes too.

MOORE:
How long

has Mr. Forbes been here?

Really only been

on the ground 6 to 8 weeks.

Invasion of lowa.

Invasion of

the Body Snatchers in lowa.

Steve Forbes was born where?

I have no idea.

I can't remember.

You don't know?

[Laughter]

Where did Steve Forbes

come from?

Steve Forbes seems to have

come from nowhere.

- Right?

- Pretty much.

Where is nowhere?

It's somewhere out there.

[Laughter]

I'm freakin' out, man.

I'm thinkin'...

"OK, I'm in the Ramada

in Des Moines tonight...

"and I'm triple

dead bolting the door."

"I am not gonna die

in Des Moines...

"you know, taken away

by these space beings...

"calling themselves

the Forbes campaign."

Where are you taking

the spaceship here after lowa?

I'm gonna go home to Oklahoma

for a few days and rest...

and then they'll send me

to another state.

[Chuckles]

OK. Um, all right.

Uh, I think we should

probably let him go.

MOORE:
So anyways,

the guy has disappeared, right?

And the only time

that now you have any idea...

that they're still with us

is if you ever notice...

certain people

reading the publication...

with the name Forbes...

the name of their leader...

on the magazine.

Usually men

in three-piece suits...

white guys that look like

they got a lot of money.

They're the aliens.

Beware of these people

who read "Forbes" magazine.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

[Chattering]

MOORE:
As I was

signing copies of my book...

I was handed an anonymous note.

It read, "Hey, Michael...

"we're organizing here

at Borders in Des Moines.

"There's a secret meeting

statewide tomorrow night.

"We thought

you should know that...

"we, the ragtag employees

at Borders are not allowed...

"to do the book table

for your reading.

"Only management

is here tonight...

"selling your book

to these people.

"Borders headquarters

in Ann Arbor...

"says they're

protecting us from you.

"Ah, well, you know the shtick.

Take care."

They were awfully happy

that you were here.

Great.

MOORE:
This was not

my first strange encounter...

with the Borders book store

chain on my tour.

At their Philadelphia store

I had refused...

to cross a picket line

blocking their entrance...

and instead I had brought

the protesters...

inside with me to my reading.

That resulted in Borders

refusing to let me speak...

at my scheduled appearance

the following week...

in their New York store.

So, we got your note inside.

You're the people

that work at Borders?

Mm-hmm.

And you're trying

to organize the store?

MAN:
Yeah.

MOORE:
And you wanted to meet me

out here in the dark?

What's going on?

Well, we're actually...

Tomorrow night is

an organizational meeting.

The entire store

is getting together...

and we're meeting

with an organizer...

and we're gonna go from there.

- Because why?

- Because... There's a car.

MOORE:
Who's that?

WOMAN:
It's no one. It's...

MOORE:
They told me...

they were afraid

of being seen with me...

because the Borders

regional manager...

had shown up to the event

unannounced...

with a man

they didn't recognize.

MAN:
I don't even know

who that person is.

WOMAN:
No.

We don't even like...

MAN:
I don't want to think

about who that person was.

WOMAN:

We're afraid enough as it is.

SECOND WOMAN:

Some corporate thug.

MAN:
Yeah. Some union buster

guy from Omaha.

Borders workers such as

yourselves were not allowed...

to work the table here

at the event tonight?

BOTH:
Right.

Only management

could work the table?

MAN:
Yes.

WOMAN:
Field the questions.

To protect us.

MOORE:
Protect you from what?

From me?

MAN:
I don't know. I even asked.

Pointedly, I said...

"You mean you don't want us

to hear what he has to say?"

Everybody in the store

bought your book...

after they put the crunch on.

MOORE:
[Laughing]

After they what?

WOMAN:
Well,

we felt this pressure...

MAN:
After we all got

kicked off the table...

we said,

"What's in this book?"

MOORE:
Right.

"Why can't we be here?"

MAN:
It was really interesting.

MOORE:
They then told me

that Borders was deducting...

money from their paychecks

for a health plan...

that had no doctor

in Des Moines.

We don't actually have

health benefits at the moment.

We're paying for them.

We started

paying for them in April...

but we don't have them.

So that was what really

galvanized a lot of people.

They were sort of like...

"I'm paying for

all of this and it's not..."

So it's actually,

we don't have any benefits.

Almost everybody

in the store has another job.

MOORE:
Mm-hmm. Really?

You have to work a second job

if you work at Borders?

- Yes.

- You have to do it.

MOORE:
To pay the bills.

What do you...

MAN:

We make six bucks an hour.

MOORE:
What second jobs

do you guys work?

Discount retail store.

MOORE:
Yeah. In addition

to working at Borders?

They post the results

by our time cards,

So you sit there and you look at

these long numbers...

of how much over profit

we're doing...

and how well we're doing...

and then you're punching

in and out...

and you're getting

your little paycheck...

with your big hunk

for health insurance...

that you can't use.

MOORE:
After taxes,

what's your paycheck?

WOMAN:

Mine's usually about 325.

MAN:
That's every two weeks.

MOORE:
Every two weeks?

So that's about, what?

A hundred and sixty a week.

About 8,000 a year, after taxes.

What do you want?

What do you hope

the union will get you?

We're not asking

for 15 bucks an hour.

We're not even asking for ten.

- You'd be happy with...

- Good God. Eight.

- Good luck.

- Thanks, Michael.

Thank you very, very much.

I really support you.

And I'll do what I can

to help you win.

MOORE:
We headed off

to Rockford, Illinois...

which, like my hometown

of Flint, Michigan...

had just been named

by "Money"magazine...

as the worst city

in the country.

Driving through Rockford,

I realized...

there were

other similarities to Flint.

We had game show host

Bob Eubanks.

They had actress

Susan Saint James.

Culturally, we had

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