You're Not Stupid! Get the Truth: A Brief on the Bush Presidency - Softcover

Cox, William John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 093085232X ISBN 13: 9780930852320

Publisher: Progressive Press, 2004

Synopsis

Information is power, and in this day and age, most Americans are powerless. That’s why this book is written for you, a busy person, to collect the key points scattered in a score of new political books in this election year.

Many of us are sitting in the dark, staring at the wall, watching Fox News and MSNBC under the mistaken belief we are seeing the truth. But You’re Not Stupid: Get the Truth - A Brief on the Bush Presidency helps drag us into the sunlight by providing an examination of George W. Bush and his presidency.

At a time when most citizens don’t have the time to seek out discrepancies between the Bush rhetoric and the Bush reality, You're Not Stupid marshals information and provides an overview of Bush and his administration. In order for any voter to engage in intelligent debate over our government’s actions for the last three and a half years, he or she needs to know what those actions were. To this end, You're Not Stupid provides facts familiar to most as well as obscure information ignored or under reported by mainstream media. For example, how often has it been reported that Afghan President Hamid Karzai is a former employee of Unocal? That Saddam Hussein was installed by the CIA and maintained in power by President Bush Sr., who gave him permission to invade Kuwait to maintain oil prices? That the Bush administration’s candidate to head the new Iraq government, another CIA retainer, Ahmed Chalabi, is a convicted felon?

But just as important as providing the details, William John Cox presents the big picture. For instance, in order to fully grasp the catastrophe of 9/11, every American must consider the facts leading up to the attack and then evaluate the missteps that followed. To this end, the 9/11 overview provided in this brief is invaluable.

Cox has collected a large amount of information and condensed it into an accessible format. He approached this work as an attorney – gathering the facts and asking you, the reader, to reach a conclusion. Each chapter contains evidence that many would rather not acknowledge, but as an intelligent public, we must face, and question, the current state of our nation, while also supporting our troops and facing the realistic threat of terrorism in our own country.

The brief is, as the author says, "about you and me, the ordinary hard-working people in this country who need to look truth in the face, take a deep breath, draw a line, and take a stand for our families, our communities, and our nation."

If information is power, then You’re Not Stupid is a source of empowerment.

You are the jury. Read the brief and then decide.

About this title

About the Author

For more than 40 years, William John Cox vigorously pursued a career in law enforcement, public policy and the law. As a police officer, he was an early leader in the "New Breed" movement to professionalize law enforcement.

Cox wrote the Policy Manual of the Los Angeles Police Department and the introductory chapters of the Police Task Force Report of the National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals, which continues to define the role of the police in America.

As an attorney, Cox worked for the U.S. Department of Justice to implement national standards and goals, prosecuted cases for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, and operated a public interest law practice primarily dedicated to the defense of young people.

Professionally, Cox volunteered pro bono services in two landmark legal cases. In 1981, representing a Jewish survivor of Auschwitz, he investigated and successfully sued a group of radical right-wing organizations who denied the Holocaust. The case was later the subject of the Turner Network Television motion picture, Never Forget.

Cox later represented a "secret" client and arranged the publication of almost 1,800 photographs of ancient manuscripts that had been kept from the public for more than 40 years. A Facsimile Edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls was published in November 1991. His role in that effort is described by historian Neil Asher Silberman in The Hidden Scrolls: Christianity, Judaism, and the War for the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Cox retired as a Supervising Trial Counsel for the State Bar of California, where he led a team of attorneys and investigators who targeted the prosecution of attorneys accused of serious misconduct and criminal gangs engaged in the illegal practice of law.

Over the years, Cox has written extensively on public policy, politics, philosophy and the human condition.

From the Inside Flap

About the Cover
The Spirit of 76

This all-time favorite American painting was created in 1876 by Archibald McNeal Willard (1836-1918) for the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. General John Devereux, whose son posed as the drummer boy, bought the painting as a gift for his hometown of Marblehead, Mass. Willard continued to improve upon the image in a number of later copies.

Since The Spirit of 76 is a powerful symbol of Americans defending their freedom, the author wrote to the Marblehead Board of Selectmen, "The use of Willard s painting would be most appropriate for the book cover... it is in fact patriotic to question the war and other government inroads on civil liberties."

Although the town has consented to use of the painting many times over the years for a wide variety of purposes, one selectman was quoted in The Salem News: "given the politically inflamed situation, we probably wouldn t grant use." After several delays, the Board denied permission.

The Salem News editorialized, "Our advice to the author? Go ahead and use it.... Both the image and the sentiment it embodies belong to every American."

Following this advice, the author located one of Willard s last paintings of The Spirit of 76, known as "Barton s Gift," at the Herrick Memorial Library in Wellington, Ohio. Its use on the cover is "by permission of the Herrick Memorial Library.

Edition details

• Publisher: Progressive Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 093085232X
• ISBN 13: 9780930852320
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352