This truly pathetic item appeared today at Daily Kos. The poster calls him or herself a "progressive" but surely that was meant to throw us off the track while getting hysterical over the fact that the President is not spending every waking moment scaring the public.

Your faithful correspondent responds:

Dear President Bush:

Thank you for your frantic post today. We are happy to see that, perhaps about eight years too late, you have decided to worry about our safety.

It has been decided, however, not to follow your lead and try to scare the United States every time someone tries to hurt us. As you certainly know, we cannot stop every person who wants to attack us. You were saved whatever ignominy you imagine adheres to the President when the shoe bomber's fuse did not light, and we are all grateful for that and for what happened the other day to frustrate this latest attack. But to say a President fails every time one of these bleepholes gets through is absurd.

On the other hand, failing to do anything at all (other than to tell agents that they have adequately covered their ass) when told that "bin Laden Determined to Attack U.S." was, and continues to be, inexcusable. Your predecessor acted on similar information around the faux millenium, January 1, 2000 and, yes, through a combination of increased awareness around that date and some good work by a customs agent, we were speared a major attack during the Clinton administration.

Sadly,similar vigilance was not such a high priority in your administration. Reading to schoolchildren when you finally ended your month long vacation in Texas was, though you seemed to have no interest in or concern about the information you received since it did not include the specific flights or targets in its otherwise comprehensive review of the uptick in excitement among those out to get us.

If you have any evidence to suggest that the current President ignored any similar information, please let us know.

Best wishes,

Barth