The History News Network (HNN) conducted an unscientific poll of professional historians to compare their sense of George W. Bush's presidency to that of contemporary public opinion. The poll's flaws notwithstanding, Bush didn't do very well.

In an informal survey of 109 professional historians conducted over a three-week period through the History News Network, 98.2 percent assessed the presidency of Mr. Bush to be a failure while 1.8 percent classified it as a success.

Asked to rank the presidency of George W. Bush in comparison to those of the other 41 American presidents, more than 61 percent of the historians concluded that the current presidency is the worst in the nation’s history. Another 35 percent of the historians surveyed rated the Bush presidency in the 31st to 41st category, while only four of the 109 respondents ranked the current presidency as even among the top two-thirds of American administrations.

At least two of those who ranked the current president in the 31-41 ranking made it clear that they placed him next-to-last, with only James Buchanan, in their view, being worse. “He is easily one of the 10-worst of all time and—if the magnitude of the challenges and opportunities matter—then probably in the bottom five, alongside Buchanan, Johnson, Fillmore, and Pierce,” wrote another historian.

Bush probably would have done even worse, but some historians thought it best to wait for hindsight. One told HNN, “It is a bit too early to judge whether Bush's presidency is the worst ever, though it certainly has a shot to take the title. Without a doubt, it is among the worst.”

Hey folks, it's Blue Gal, with a special "great blogs with unusual names" round up:

Princess Sparkle Pony - dissecting Robin Givhans as she dissects John McCain's "gay sweaters."

Happy Jihad's House of Pancakes - dishes on Dinesh d'Souza. With grade B maple on top. Yum.

Circle Jerk at the Square Dance - The Bush administration can't tell you what classified information they're destroying because that's classified.

And don't forget Thrift Store Adventures , Carpe You Some Diem!, and of course, The Nefarious Lair of Lesbian Gangs Packing Pink Pistols, Inc.

Ah, the smell of a good White House scandal in the morning! Welcome back, friends of democracy and logic. Brad Jacobson of MediaBloodhound in for your a.m.-linked drive-by. Buckle up, stop signs will not be observed:

The CIA tapes scandal beats on: Laura Rozen thinks former CIA interrogator John Kiriakou is likely a Hayden surrogate, Spencer Ackerman explores how classified letters get classified and Larry Johnson queries former intelligence officers.

Pierre Tristam: “Peace isn’t breaking out in Iraq. A colder, longer war is.”

After a vigorous workout on the elliptical, what would Jesus drink? Holy Drinking Water, of course.

Will Bunch pinpoints Giuliani’s solution to problems involving people: No people, no problem. But the trains always run on time.

John Cole’s twist on The Most Vulgar, Disgusting, Foul Joke in the Word (h/t skippy). Never heard the original? Whether you have or not, this is considered one of the best versions among comedy intelligentsia (warning: not intended for office, children or foes of dark hyperbole). But for my money, this might top it.

Greg Sargent catches WashPo with two separate allusions to John Edwards’ $400 haircut in one day, then retraces the newspaper’s longtime addiction. (Plus, Rudy Giggliani!)

Speaking of skippy, experience the picket line at Paramount Studios on “Star Trek Day.” Live long and prosper get your residuals.

OK, that’s a wrap. Tomorrow is ours. Send those post suggestions to mediabloodhound (at) yahoo (dot) com.

Well, this probably won't help dispel the conspiracy theories.

If the Bush administration wanted to fuel conspiracy theories about its classified plan for maintaining governmental control in the wake of an apocalyptic terror attack, it could not have come up with a better strategy than refusing to let Congressman Peter DeFazio examine it.

The Oregon Democrat recently requested permission to enter a secure "bubbleroom" in the Capitol and examine the secret White House plan. As a member of the Homeland Security Committee, DeFazio has the requisite security clearance - and a compelling rationale for reviewing the documents.

Last Wednesday, DeFazio received word that his request had been denied. Through Homeland Security Committee staffers, he learned the White House had initially granted his request, but that it later was rejected. There was no explanation of why - and no word about who made the final decision.

There is no more certain way to feed conspiracy theorists than this kind of secrecy. As DeFazio put it: "Maybe the people who think there's a conspiracy out there are right."

Via Newshouse News Service:

Constituents called Rep. Peter DeFazio's office, worried there was a conspiracy buried in the classified portion of a White House plan for operating the government after a terrorist attack.

As a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, DeFazio, D-Ore., is permitted to enter a secure "bubbleroom'' in the Capitol and examine classified material. So he asked the White House to see the secret documents.

On Wednesday, DeFazio got his answer: DENIED.

"I just can't believe they're going to deny a member of Congress the right of reviewing how they plan to conduct the government of the United States after a significant terrorist attack,'' DeFazio said. Read more...

What are they hiding? I posted about this Presidential Directive in May, Bush Wants Full Control Of Government During Catastrophic Attack, which garnered a lot of discussion -- it now appears the White House is attempting to block Congressional review of that directive. Contact your representatives in the House and Senate to let them know your thoughts on this. As I've mentioned before, please remind them (politely) that Congress is a coequal branch of our government and that President Bush is a public servant and therefore accountable to the people HE SERVES.

I don't know about you, but I've had a sneaky suspicion since this story broke that we weren't getting the whole story...

Herald Sun (Australia)

Roy Lynn Oakley, 67, worked for Bechtel Jacobs, a contractor at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a US nuclear research facility created in the 1940s to develop a nuclear bomb.

Mr Oakley was charged with taking US government data and hardware and agreeing to pass it to another person.

ABC television said he was arrested trying to sell it to an undercover agent.

It was unclear how the low-level contract worker, who did maintenance work and escorted visitors at the Oak Ridge National lab in Knoxville, Tennessee, managed to access the classified documents.[..]

Mr Oakley had reason to believe that equipment would be "utilised to injure the United States and secure an advantage to a foreign nation,'' the Justice Department statement said.[..]

The US Department of Energy said the materials posed no threat to people who may have come across them.

And the hits just keep on coming... The Gavel:

At 10:00 a.m. the Oversight Committee (held) a hearing, "FEMA's Response to Reports of Toxic Trailers." The Committee will hold a hearing investigating formaldehyde levels in FEMA trailers provided for victims of the Gulf Coast hurricanes and FEMA's response to these reports. The Committee will hear from current residents occupying FEMA trailers, experts who are familiar with the health impact of formaldehyde, and from FEMA Administrator Paulison. Formaldehyde is a chemical used in paint and adhesives, and is classified as a "known carcinogen" by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Reports of high formaldehyde levels found in FEMA issued trailers and FEMA's response raise serious public health concerns. Supplemental Memo and Exhibits

Waxman: "Another FEMA official wrote, the office of general counsel has advised ‘We do not do testing, because it would imply FEMA's ownership of this issue.' Early in the process, due to the perseverance of a pregnant mother with a four month old child, FEMA did test one occupied trailer. The results showed that their trailer had formaldehyde levels 75 times higher than the maximum workplace exposure levels recommended by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The mother evacuated the trailer. FEMA then stopped testing other trailers."

More videos of testimony available at The Gavel.

The Gavel:  The Bush administration is drastically cutting back on satellite monitoring of global warming

The Spy Who Billed Me: The office of the nation's top spy inadvertantly revealed the keys to classified national intelligence budget.  Here's an update

My Two Sense: Civic discourse? If it's not Al Gore's clothes, it's John Kerry's wife, or John Edwards' hair. Now it's Dennis Kucinich's size...and his wife

The Brad Blog: What member of congress would vote against the banning of illegal, invisible, unverified, electronic ballots?

The Democratic Daily: 'Fleeting expletives' catch up with Bush & friends

The Rude Pundit: When Dick Cheney visted the boys at the Wyoming Boys State conference

Reuters (h/t Gregory):More than 800 Hong Kong residents have called on authorities to reclassify the Bible as "indecent" due to its sexual and violent content, following an uproar over a sex column in a university student journal.[..]

The complaints follow the launch of an anonymous Web site -- www.truthbible.net -- which said the holy book "made one tremble" given its sexual and violent content, including rape and incest.

The Web site said the Bible's sexual content "far exceeds" that of a recent sex column published in the Chinese University's "Student Press" magazine, which had asked readers whether they'd ever fantasized about incest or bestiality.[..]

If the Bible is similarly classified as "indecent" by authorities, only those over 18 could buy the holy book and it would need to be sealed in a wrapper with a statutory warning notice.

I'm pretty sure that Larry Flynt would appreciate the great irony. Do you suppose that Bill Donohue will get on TV to condemn all of Hong Kong?

Stories like this one deserve quite a bit more attention than they generally receive.

Security practices at the White House are dangerously inadequate say current and former employees of the security office there, according to a letter sent today from the House Oversight Committee to former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, asking that he cooperate with the committee’s investigation into the alleged security lapses.

“These security officials described a systemic breakdown in security procedures at the White House,” wrote the chairman of the committee, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.

Among the lapses cited by the security officers, who spoke to the committee anonymously, are multiple instances of breaches being reported to the security office that were ignored and never investigated. Several of those instances allegedly involved the mishandling of SCI (Sensitive Compartmentalized Information), which is the highest level of classified information.

The White House’s treatment of classified materials ranges from clumsy to negligent to near-criminal. And we’re not just talking about the obvious scandals such as outing a covert CIA operative for partisan purposes ; there’s more of a casual disregard for keeping secrets secure. (In one instance, for example, a White House official reportedly left highly classified materials in a hotel room during a foreign trip with Bush. In another, the deputy director of the White House Security Office allegedly put classified material on an unsecured computer.)

The irony, of course, is that the Bush gang appears to value secrecy above almost anything else, but when tasked with actually keeping national security materials under wraps, carelessness rules the day.