Well this certainly inspires confidence in the ability of the federal government to protect me:

How much do you think Osama bin Laden would pay to know exactly when and where the President was traveling, and who was with him? Turns out, he wouldn't have had to pay a dime. All he had to do was go through the trash early Tuesday morning.

It appears to be a White House staff schedule for the President's trip to Florida Tuesday. And a sanitation worker was alarmed to find in the trash long hours before Mr. Bush left for his trip.

Well, it seems to be at least as effective as TSA at the airports.

As long as the Bushes and Clintons continue to carry on with their chummy public relationship, it may be a good idea for one of the president's people to ask to borrow one of Hillary's document shredders. While those in use during the Rose Law Firm days may be pretty well burnt out, there might be a spare one in Chappaqua, NY which has not yet been unwrapped.

Besides, there's no reason to suspect liberals confine their perusal of wastage to that of judicial nominees.

Osama doesn't want dubya dead.

By failing to force congress to keep spending in check, and push through social security, taxation, and trade reform, he's doing more longterm damage to the american economy while he's alive.

Those planted documents were part of a deliberate disinformation campaign...

Reminds me of the time President Clinton visited New Zealand in 1999- the entire deployment details of the Secret Service were faxed to a Whangarei poultry farm.

Osama doesn't need to pay a flogging dime as long as we house TRAITORS like bash, and priest, and such.

They are Journalists? yes, but even as journalists they must pick a side. Sorry press, you don't belong to the world, you belong to US, the US as long as you USE the protections of the US you must succumb to the RESPONSIBILITIES of a US citizen.

If you think otherwise? you get no 1st ammendment protections no matter your arguments about the fourth, and the 9th says that if you threaten us all, we all deserve to know.

Suck it up BAD constitutional lawyer, I know, I'm a bad constitutional lawyer myself, I'm not even a lawyer, but I'm MUH more valid than you madame priest.

SUCK THAT

I disagree that the journalist did anything wrong by reporting the story. However, I find this completely disingenious:

And a sanitation worker was alarmed to find in the trash long hours before Mr. Bush left for his trip.

Yeah, he was so alarmed that instead of contacting the White House, he went to the nearest TV station and dropped it off. Maybe he realized that while OBL may not spend a dime, the MSM would be more than happy to pay for a news story.

From what I heard yesterday, the sanitation worker did try to contact the White House first, only to be blown off.

Wow. The nutcases are out in force this morning...

I always find these "blame the media for reporting something" comments tiring. What people fail to realize is that oftentimes government officials will ignore the complaints of a private citizen that something is wrong, or they will cover up their own mistakes. It is only when the media shines the spotlight on a problem that the officials--or the bureaucrats--will take notice. When they are publicly embarrassed they have an incentive to fix things. Furthermore, if the whole affair remains private, the Secret Service could simply cover it up and their bosses would never know what happened.

Think about how this guy would have been (or actually was?) received by the Secret Service: "Agent Smith, I have a man on the telephone. He says he is a garbage collector and he has important information on presidential security." They get dozens of cranks and lunatics calling them everyday and it would be easy for them to ignore this guy.

Now that he has taken the issue to the press, the Secret Service is going to pay attention and start asking why these documents were not shredded but were instead simply tossed in the garbage. Now the Secret Service cannot simply sweep the thing under the rug, and you can bet that some high-ranking official in the White House is going to call the ranking Secret Service agent and grill him about what happened. American citizens should not be required to help hide the mistakes of their government officials.

Larry,
I was going by CNN's Erica Hill's report. It wouldn't be the first time CNN was wrong, and I certainly hope the guy would have tried to contact the White House first. However reading CBS News, their affliate was apparently where he went, and they don't mention him trying to contact the White House. That would be as big a story as finding the document. If he said he was a sanitation worker, that he found the document, and what should he do... I'd hope somone from the White House security detail would have investigated the situation.

Anyway, I can't find any article collaborating that Randy Hopkins contacted anyone prior to the press.

So why should a sanitation worker be alarmed? I would bet that this is not the first time that he's seen allegedly important stuff in a trash can.

Tom,

While I agree with your point about blaming the media. However, I think your getting emotional here again.

Think about how this guy would have been (or actually was?) received by the Secret Service: "Agent Smith, I have a man on the telephone. He says he is a garbage collector and he has important information on presidential security." They get dozens of cranks and lunatics calling them everyday and it would be easy for them to ignore this guy.

This may seem nutty to you, Tom, but he could have simply walked up to any one of the agents guarding the White House grounds and handed them the document. How might that be received? They probably would have recognized the validity of the document. Then they would have checked out his credentials. They might have discovered he was an ex-con, but they probably would be able to discover that he did indeed work for the sanitation department that handles the White House trash.

This guy knows the media pays for these type of leads. He's an ex-con, not an idiot.

Again, I think the media should report this stuff. I also think it is a good thing that White House security suffer this embarrassment, so as to reconsider certain practices.

"However, I think your getting emotional here again."

This is a classic web tactic. If you disagree with someone, accuse them of being "emotional" or of "whining" or claim that their argument is a strawman. In other words, make an ad hominem attack against the poster, calling them irrational, rather than addressing their comments.

This is a classic web tactic. If you disagree with someone, accuse them of being "emotional" or of "whining" or claim that their argument is a strawman. In other words, make an ad hominem attack against the poster, calling them irrational, rather than addressing their comments.

You mean like this?

Wow. The nutcases are out in force this morning...

Except for the portion of the citizenry which finds itself perpetually distraught, it has been otherwise known with certitude that the media has been irresponsible in their "coverage" of many matters as well as in their spraying security leaks in every conceivable direction.

While it was their obligation to report such a gaffe, I'm sure the embarrassment to the White House has added that certain relish which also accompanies the reports of casualty milestones, or the sought after singular pfc whose unlimited knowledge of world affairs renders his assessment of Rumsfeld's plan as incomprehensible.

As for the motives of the ex-con/idiot/patriot, I've no idea, nor am I concerned - except to predict he'll get his 15 minutes.

Leland, the guy wouldn't have to call the Secret Service. They have agents IN the White House, 24/7.

They're the friggin Secret Service not a laundry service and it's the friggin White House, NOT White Castle!! I've been near the White House, these guys LOOK like agents, they ain't hard to find!!

All he had to do was walk down the hall and say, "...yo, Secret Agent man, look at this BS. I found this memo in ???'s trash can. Where's my reward?"

Instead, he, this civil serpent, decides the best course of action is to release the info to the media. That certainly would protect the President and anyone else on Air Force One. Our media is well known for being able to keep a secret!!

What this guy did was wrong. It was and is still against the law to give out days and times of ship / unit movements to the general public. How would this be legal. Air Force One is a military plane, flown and manned by Air Force personnel.

Steve:

Maybe you missed this comment of mine:
he could have simply walked up to any one of the agents guarding the White House grounds and handed them the document.

I've been to DC too, and walked around the White House. I've also had some experience with Secret Service Agents and have found them to be very rational people.

I disagree that what this guy did was "wrong", especially in a legal sense. Let's not forget that someone in the White House screwed up, and they ought to suffer a few lectures on how to handle sensitive information. I also remember a court decision that decided what ever was thrown in the trash was public domain once at the curb. Unless this guy job was to destroy the document, then his use of the document was his decision.

What I find funny is Mr. Hopkins professed desire to do "his civic duty" and the manner in which he carried out that duty.

Bah! I think it's terrible that this guy went to the press. He's helping Osama!

I, for one, trust my government. I have no problem with them monitoring my telephone conversations or who I call on the phone. In fact, I would have problems if they were NOT doing this. They SHOULD be monitoring us. And we SHOULD NOT trust the press. The press has been covering up Hillary Clinton's misdeeds for decades and we all know it.

I see we have picked up another sufferer of repeated penile impaction by straw syndrome.

I'm curious if OBL/AQ could even respond that fast to such intelligence. My hope is that our efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq have made certain that AQ can not communicate and mobilize that fast.