The Village is not happy. And when The Village is not happy, no one is happy.
Leon Panetta is an excellent choice to head the CIA. You know it, I know. Go vote for it:
http://www.cnn.com/
The Village has already started the "failed Obama presidency" trial balloon. They tried that with Clinton, slamming him before he was even sworn in. Obama has been doing a masterful job of laying this all at the feet of Bush -- "We only have one president at a time." Every time he says it people remember how desperate we are to get W out of the White House.
I do not agree with all his choices, of course. But this is extremely important choice.
Leon Panetta is going to force the spooks to justify the amount of money we spend to pay their bills. He is going to make them justify their budget. And he is going to end torture and, possibly, let me be all flustered here, American support of torture.
I get all fuzzy just thinking about it. He might even demand the School of the Americas (renamed Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation after people heard about it) justify itself or close. That is what happens when a person with genuine management skill (NOT to be confused with a CEO) takes charge. Useless, horrible legacies are closed down.
With 35 Representatives who voted to continue funding the SOA/WHINSEC losing their seats in Congress on November 4th, we are in a great position to pressure the new Congress to permanently shut down the school in 2009. The last vote to defund the SOA/WHINSEC, in 2007, lost by a margin of only six votes.
from http://www.soaw.org/
The US has trained people to torture, paid to have people tortured, and simply looked the other way when people are tortured. Leon Panetta knows that torture doesn't work for anything but inflicting horrible pain on one person while warping the torturer even further.
Please vote! Make your voice heard! This is amazing wonderful news.
http://www.cnn.com/