Various Irks

Hmm. Seven Democrats from the House Intelligence Committee (there's an oxymoron for you) wrote a letter accusing Leon Panetta of lying when he said the CIA doesn't mislead Congress.

On the one hand, if true, this should be pursued and steps taken to punish people appropriately, even tho this letter-writing smacks of politics as much as it does moral outrage.

On the other hand—what? Are these guys surprised? Of course the CIA lied. It's part of their job. It's no surprise that once you encourage lies, cover-up and deception in one area, like foreign entanglements, that behavior slips over into other areas, like reporting truthfully to those who theoretically are monitoring the behavior.
A practice performed often enough becomes a habit, and the habit becomes hard to break.

Rep. Patrick Murphy of Pennsylvania, Iraq war veteran, has started a movement in Congress to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." I saw him on yesterday's Rachel Maddow show
(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#31808171) and he was quite impressive. He's fairly conservative and straight, if that matters, and he's determined to get this passed. He made a good case for Obama NOT making an executive order to stop "Don't Ask", saying Congress passed the law and it was the responsibility of Congress to repeal it.
He also said that when you're patrolling an Iraqi street, you don't care about the people with you being straight or gay. You care about if they can shoot their weapons and act accordingly under fire.

Even tho he wants Congress, not Obama, to put a stop to "Don't ask," I still wish that Obama would say more than just he'd sign the bill if it came to his desk. I'd like to hear him being more forceful in speaking to Congress and the nation about it.

And what's with the continuation of Bush policies around secrecy? Transparent government? Only in selected areas it seems. Most be some kind of virus or mold there in the White house that causes Presidents to turn away from openness to secrecy. Yeah, you need some, but it seems like President Obama is being more like George Bush and less like Candidate Obama around this issue.
And don't let me get started on Guantanamo and military commissions to judge prisoners there.

There is a pertinent and thoughtful article by Jennifer Pozner on the NPR site about Sarah Palin and how the media treats her.
(http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106384060)
She's referring to the comments relating to her femaleness, not ethics or politics. All the talk about clothes, her attractiveness, is she going thru post-partum depression, yadda yadda. The usual guy talk about an "uppity" woman.
And there were and are so many substantive political issues one could go after her about. Of course that would be treating her (giving her the same respect) like a man.

I think I'm a little sorry about this resignation. I think her tenure in office would not have helped her political aspirations, and been a further drag on Republican efforts to regain the White House.
Now she's free from the possibility of doing a bad job as governor. Her quitting in itself will be an issue, of course, but she does learn a little from mistakes. No more posing in front of the turkey slaughter. Now she's in waders and going fishing, and looking competent and pretty much "one-of us"ish. Even I was thinking yeah I'd like to be there too. But then maybe that was my love of fishing clouding my judgement.
Positive images. If she can keep that up for another three years…

Nah. She'd still lose.

I'm outa here, bye.