It's really hard to know what to say to such a profound example of incompetence.
This morning, some random guy found the entire detailed travel plan for Bush's Florida visit by some trash truck.
There on the floor next to a big trash truck was a thick sheaf of papers with nearly every detail of the President's voyage.
"I saw locations and names and places where the President was going to be. I knew it was important. And it shouldn't have been in a trash hole like this," he said.
What kind of clowns are in charge of national security?
The documents details the exact arrival and departure time for Air Force One, Marine One and the back up choppers, Nighthawk 2 and Three.
It lists every passenger on board each aircraft, from the President to military attaché with nuclear football. It offers the order of vehicles in the President's motorcade.
The Secret Service is apparently playing it cool, according to the short local news piece. The official line right now, is hey, this stuff's not classified. Well, how many people are issued these sensitive papers? This info details which car in the motorcade holds which official, who has the nuclear football, the exact timetable of each escort vehicle, holy crap. Can you imagine beng in the Secret Service and knowing this stuff is just lying around? The Secret Service is apparently saying hey, WE didn't fuck up, this was not one of our docs.
Someone needs to start grilling Tony Snow just what the hell happened here. And who will be held accountable. What a perfect example of just how little faith Americans should have in a Republican ability to manage national security.
Will the Democrats take this golden opportunity to underscore how unseriously Republicans take this stuff? That's the $64,000 question. As of now, the White House is refusing comment. Let's see if we can change that.
Update [2006-5-10 11:39:20 by RepublicanTaliban]: Several commenters have pointed out that just last month Air Force One's security was compromised when detailed specs concerning its defenses were posted online for all to see. Ironically, the San Francisco Chronicle's article starts off:
Whenever the president travels, security is a prime consideration. Motorcade routes are kept secret, and premature release of information about a presidential trip aboard one of the twin Air Force One planes can result in the Secret Service canceling a visit.
Well, those motorcade route details are sometimes casually discarded like your average Twinkie wrapper, apparently.