This page was last updated on September 1, 2011.
Selective criticism -- again; Lonzie Cox, Jr.; Beaver County Times; August 31, 2011. I am not related to Mr. Cox.
Most of Mr. Cox’s at least 69 letters since 2004 are tinged with race, and all take leftist positions. The most recent previous Cox letter I critiqued was “Apology not accepted.”
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“President Barack Obama’s much deserved vacation ended early.
“Those who criticized his time off included Republicans, Fox News, hate radio and the Teabagger class.”
[RWC] While we’re discussing “selective criticism,” what about selective memory? I don’t recall Mr. Cox defending then-President George W. Bush’s “much deserved vacation[s]” from criticism by Mr. Cox’s fellow lefties.
A couple of years ago when someone criticized Mr. Obama for his time outside of Washington, DC, I wrote the following: “As I’ve written about other presidents, the President of the United States is never really out of the office. A chunk of the White House staff travels with the President and Air Force One is equipped with enough communications capability so the President can conduct business while he travels. Using former President George W. Bush as an example, even when he was on ‘vacation’ at his home in Crawford, TX, he continued to conduct/receive daily meetings/briefings from his traveling staff as well as members of his administration who remained in Washington.”
As I’ve opined before, I wonder if Mr. Cox’s obsession with “the Teabagger class” is an example of projection.
“I would remind them that the most damaging presidential vacation ever taken was that which George W. Bush took in August 2001.
“On Aug. 6, 2001, Bush received a presidential daily briefing informing him that al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was planning to attack American cities using hijacked aircraft.”
[RWC] As you will read below, this is a gross misrepresentation of the PDB. I have a tough time believing Mr. Cox doesn’t know this.
“Bush’s response was to ignore the warning and fly to Texas for another of his many vacations.”
[RWC] Maybe it makes a difference or maybe it doesn’t, but it appears all of Mr. Bush’s vacations were taken at his Texas home and Camp David (the presidential retreat about 60 miles outside of Washington, DC), not resorts.
“If only Bush had simply increased all airport security in the United States most of the dead of 9-11-01 would be alive today. Bush ignored the warnings and thousands died because of it.”
[RWC] Back in 2004 before he became a convicted felon, former-State Rep. Frank LaGrotta (D-Ellwood City) made the same assertion to me about the 8/6/01 PDB. Below is my response to Mr. LaGrotta.
“Regarding the sentence [Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.] you cited below, I heard that excerpt during the 9/11 Commission testimony so it’s not new. So what? Everyone knew terrorists wanted to strike inside the United States. In your quest to ‘INFORM,’ you omitted the previous sentence which identified ‘that time’ as 1998. Therefore, the statement doesn’t identify a new specific threat. It’s saying this activity was observed over a 3 1/2 year period, three of which were during the Clinton administration. You also conveniently omitted the paragraph following your excerpt which said, ‘The FBI is conducting approximately 70 full field investigations throughout the US that it considers Bin Ladin-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our Embassy in UAE in May saying that a group of Bin Ladin supporters was in the US planning attacks with explosives.’ It sounds to me like a lot of agents were pursuing leads, though obviously they didn’t bear enough fruit to stop the attack.
“The following will sound harsh, but I don’t mean it to be. Mr. LaGrotta, you don’t inform people. Most politicians don’t regardless of party, so I’m not picking on you. As nearly all career politicians and pundits, you pick out and pass along what supports your agenda and ignore the rest. Your taking that one sentence out of context is an example. When quoted outside the context of the entire declassified PDB, it sounds bad. When read as part of the whole PDB, it tells another story. This trick didn’t work for Richard Ben-Veniste when he tried it on Dr. [Condoleezza] Rice on Thursday.
“FYI, I don’t dump the blame on former President Clinton either. He had far more time to deal with terrorism than did Bush, 8 years vs. 7 months, but terrorists are responsible for 9/11, not the U.S. government. I wasn’t a Clinton fan, but I didn’t blame him for the actions of terrorists. Blaming President Bush for 9/11 would be equally irresponsible.
“Your complaint about President Bush living a life -- as in playing with his dog -- in the month prior to 9/11 is as silly as Republican activists were when they made fun of the way Sen. Kerry ordered and ate a Philly cheesesteak. Even if President Bush did have actionable intelligence, which all evidence gathered so far shows he didn’t, did you expect him personally to track down the terrorists? Was he to stay holed up in the White House doing exactly what terrorists want? Why didn’t Clinton stop the first WTC bombing? After all, he had been in office for over a month! What was he thinking taking jogs thorough the park with Secret Service agents in tow when he should have been personally combing the streets of New York and New Jersey for the bombers? <g> Ignoring his polio for a second, why wasn’t President Roosevelt flying a fighter in the skies over Pearl Harbor on 12/7/41? Did he dare live a life during the month prior to the Japanese attack? Was FDR responsible for Pearl Harbor?”
Don’t take my word for what I wrote about the PDB. See for yourself. Note Mr. Cox didn’t make the same offer.
© 2004-2011 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved.