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Worst President Ever. Worst Administration Ever.

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 10 2007 9:00 AM

Submitted by FearTheReaper. Edited By erin_broadley.

TAGS: al-Qaeda, Bush, White House, SITE

It is one thing to just make bad decisions based on your flawed ideology. There are many presidents in our past who have fucked up continually. Herbert Hoover's poor decision making led to the worst economic period in our history. Warren Harding was famously corrupt and Richard Nixon was forced to resign for his shenanigans. But Bush and his cronies have done something puts them to shame. For political purposes they continue to harm the security of our nation. It�s about scoring points for them, nothing else.

First came the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame�s name to the press. Why? To get back at her husband, who had foolishly told the truth to the press about Iraq�s total non-involvement of securing Uranium for Niger. Plame just happened to be part of a �clandestine operation� monitoring Iran�s nuclear weapons pursuits.

Several intelligence officials described the damage in terms of how long it would take for the agency to recover. According to their own assessment, the CIA would be impaired for up to "ten years" in its capacity to adequately monitor nuclear proliferation on the level of efficiency and accuracy it had prior to the White House leak of Plame Wilson's identity.

Now we find out the Bush administration leaked national security information to Fox News and destroyed a private intelligence company�s surveillance of al Qaeda. On September 7th, the SITE Intelligence Group informed the Bush administration they had obtained an Osama bin Laden video. Two �senior� administration officials were given access, with one condition: DO NOT reveal the existence of the tape until al-Qaeda releases it. Any revelation would �reveal sensitive details about the company's methods� in acquiring the video.

So, what did the Bush administration do? They leaked the tape to the media. Twenty minutes after the White House was alerted to the existence of the tape, Intelligence agencies began downloading the video from the SITE website.

By mid-afternoon that day, the video and a transcript of its audio track had been leaked from within the Bush administration to cable television news and broadcast worldwide.

The founder of the company, the SITE Intelligence Group, says this premature disclosure tipped al-Qaeda to a security breach and destroyed a years-long surveillance operation that the company has used to intercept and pass along secret messages, videos and advance warnings of suicide bombings from the terrorist group's communications network.

Nice work, boys. Thanks for your continued incompetence for political reasons. Why am I so certain it was released for political reasons? Because of the timing. As I noted in an article from September, the timing of the Osama tape release was extremely suspicious, arriving just two days before General Petreaus spoke to Congress. The General and Bush have been making a hard media push to convince America that al-Qaeda is the big bad in Iraq. And it never hurts to have an Osama tape pop up when you want to justify your bullshit wars. Who cares if it undermines a great terrorist intelligence source?

Al-Qaeda supporters, now alerted to the intrusion into their secret network, put up new obstacles that prevented SITE from gaining the kind of access it had obtained in the past, according to Katz.

"Techniques that took years to develop are now ineffective and worthless," said Rita Katz, the firm's 44-year-old founder, who has garnered wide attention by publicizing statements and videos from extremist chat rooms and Web sites, while attracting controversy over the secrecy of SITE's methodology. Her firm provides intelligence about terrorist groups to a wide range of paying clients, including private firms and military and intelligence agencies from the United States and several other countries.

Yeah, but the White House needed to show that the threat was out there. Although, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino today said the administration is concerned about the leak.

"To the extent that we have Americans coming forward to provide us information, whether it be a private citizen or a private corporation or anybody in America who can provide the government information, we take it very seriously that they should: one, feel comfortable in providing that information that their sources will be protected and that we will act on it if necessary," Perino said. "We appreciate what they did. This was a cause of concern that the information was leaked."

Riiiight. I�m sure whoever had a hand in it will be fired, also.

FearTheReaper thinks anyone who doesn't believe the White House leaked Valerie Plame's name is a fucking moron.

110 Comments

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... 8

Zarth

Seattle, WA

December 2004

OCT 10, 2007 09:05 AM

And yet, it's still a violation of state secrets to discuss well-documented instances of government incompetence, corruption, and abuses.

68stretch

Portland, OR

March 2003

OCT 10, 2007 09:11 AM

I smell a couple new medals of freedom.

mydogfarted

Waldwick, NJ

June 2003

OCT 10, 2007 09:17 AM

Jesus... I'm moving to Canada. At least then I can smoke up legally and not care.

meggle

Berkeley, CA

November 2002

OCT 10, 2007 09:28 AM

...and how about those early bin fatty tapes from 2001...when it wasn't even him? that was classic. thereafter, repugs have trotted him out like a tired circus clown when they need to scare up some fear in the polls...talk about a worn out pattern. but remember bush said he didn't even care where bin laden was? first dead or alive, then let him go at tora bora, then not a care and a disbanded cia unit that was trying to find him while the fbi takes him off the list for 9/11 due to lack of evidence. then more videos and election time. then bin who? now, general betray us spins out, quick call bin laden! get some feed! we need to ramp up the boogeyman knob to 11! what a tool. bush and the lot of us for too often buying it (like the 40% of americans that still think iraq was behind 9/11 and the 31% of people that still think w is a great leader- who are these people?). sad truth is, they'll keep this ruse going for the rest of our lives, or theirs. uncle rummy even promised. it's their ticket. and that says nothing of convenient and constant leaks...it's the white house m.o. this latest example takes the yellow cake.

Zarth

Seattle, WA

December 2004

OCT 10, 2007 09:31 AM

mydogfarted said:
Jesus... I'm moving to Canada. At least then I can smoke up legally and not care.

And in Soviet Canuckistan, girlfriend has you!

Wait, what?

Shell_Shock

Rockmart, GA

May 2007

OCT 10, 2007 09:41 AM

Per FearTheReaper:
"Herbert Hoover's poor decision making led to the worst economic period in our history."

Blaming Herbert Hoover for the Great Depression is like blaming Gerald Ford for Vietnam. Most of the credit for the depression could arguably be given to his predecessor, Calvin Coolidge. Coolidge ran the country pretty much the way Barry Switzer ran the Dallas Cowboys.

King_Mob

Orchard Park, NY

September 2005

OCT 10, 2007 09:56 AM

mydogfarted said:
Jesus... I'm moving to Canada. At least then I can smoke up legally and not care.

Yer just goin for the sex. Admit it.

JDPatriot

Great Barrington, MA

January 2004

OCT 10, 2007 09:57 AM

I hated Bush before it was cool.

BlastProcessing

Knoxville, TN

OLD SKOOL

OCT 10, 2007 10:01 AM

JDPatriot said:
I hated Bush before it was cool.

I'm pretty sure this goes a little bit beyond an emotional response to a sitting president at this point.

OneWithAll

Charlton City, MA

October 2005

OCT 10, 2007 10:12 AM

so very sad

FattyFatty2x4

Salt Lake City, UT

May 2006

OCT 10, 2007 10:49 AM

So I take it no one will be coming to my "Best President EVER" party? I have anal lube so it wont hurt so much when the man fucks you too.

sitandspin

Brooklyn, NY

June 2004

OCT 10, 2007 11:00 AM

Herbert Hoover can hardly be blamed for the Great Depression. Herbert Hoover was by most accounts an incredibly intelligent businessman (a self-made millionaire, in fact) and a world renowned humanitarian. It was not his fault that the previous Harding and Coolidge administrations were too lackadaisical to slow the rampant inflation. Also, since there had not yet been a Great Depression, economic policy had not yet advanced to the cautionary values that the Bush Administration today ignores.

Also, while Warren G. Harding is usually regarded from a historical perspective as the worst American president, it wasn't so much for his corruptability as his staff's, chiefly Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall, the only Cabinet member ever to be imprisoned. While Harding was likely a very corrupt person, he was not liked for his inability to prevent Teapot Dome or other such dirty dealings, as well as for his general ineptitude, his marital indscretions, his gambling, etc.

The question remains, is Bush a worse president than Harding? I would say yes, because while Harding was a fool and a corrupt president, his foolishness did not effect as many facets of foreign and domestic policy as Bush's. Also, Bush seems much more actively stupid, forcing his bad policies through Congress.

KingHELL

Portland, OR

July 2003

OCT 10, 2007 11:04 AM

I had a moment of clarity just after I first read this article somewhere else. After clicking on the headline and skimming the first three paragraphs, I clicked away, not even realizing for several more minutes that I hadn't paid enough attention to retain even the most basic facts of the story. And I'm a compulsive news junkie.

I'm so beyond outrage at this point. The administration could show up at my house and take a shit in my mouth, and I'd just casually spit it out, brush my teeth and go back to fucking work.

Uncognitive

Brooklyn, NY

May 2003

OCT 10, 2007 11:15 AM

sitandspin said:
Herbert Hoover can hardly be blamed for the Great Depression. Herbert Hoover was by most accounts an incredibly intelligent businessman (a self-made millionaire, in fact) and a world renowned humanitarian. It was not his fault that the previous Harding and Coolidge administrations were too lackadaisical to slow the rampant inflation. Also, since there had not yet been a Great Depression, economic policy had not yet advanced to the cautionary values that the Bush Administration today ignores.

Also, while Warren G. Harding is usually regarded from a historical perspective as the worst American president, it wasn't so much for his corruptability as his staff's, chiefly Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall, the only Cabinet member ever to be imprisoned. While Harding was likely a very corrupt person, he was not liked for his inability to prevent Teapot Dome or other such dirty dealings, as well as for his general ineptitude, his marital indscretions, his gambling, etc.

The question remains, is Bush a worse president than Harding? I would say yes, because while Harding was a fool and a corrupt president, his foolishness did not effect as many facets of foreign and domestic policy as Bush's. Also, Bush seems much more actively stupid, forcing his bad policies through Congress.

Hoover has to shoulder some of the blame for the Great Depression, since he reacted to it with little more than a shrug and "things are going to improve, just you wait".

I'd also rank James Buchanan as a worse president than Harding, since while both of them were massively inept, Harding's abbreviated stint in the White House didn't have the same impact as Buchanan twiddling his thumbs as the Civil War loomed.

Bush Jr. is closer to Nixon on my personal presidential Suck-O-Meter, since they're both actively terrible presidents. Hoover, Buchanan and Harding are considered crappy presidents because of what they didn't do, while Nixon and Bush Jr. were pro-active in putting their terrible ideas into practice.