Headline Round-up

by Deb Cupples |  Today's New York Times has a story entitled, "Democrats Say CIA Deceived Congress for Years."  Duhhhhh. On that note, The Washington Independent tells us:

On June 26, six seven Democrats on the committee — Anna Eshoo (Calif.), John Tierney (Mass.), Rush Holt (N.J.), Mike Thompson (Calif.), Alcee Hastings (Fla.) and Jan Schakowsky (Ill.) [Update: I received an early version of the letter. Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.) also signed it] — wrote to Panetta, “Recently you testified that you have determined that top CIA officials have concealed significant actions from all Members of Congress, and misled Members for a number of years from 2001 to this week.”

The letter — which doesn’t explain what those “significant actions” concerned* — asks that Panetta “publicly correct” his May 15 statement that it isn’t CIA “policy or practice to mislead Congress.” TWI acquired a copy of the letter, which comes after CQ reported that committee chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) also nebulously stated that CIA “affirmatively lied” to the committee.

Meanwhile, The Politico focused on matters of far greater national importance -- reporting that Sen. Tom Coburn knew, about a year ago, that his Republican colleague Sen. John Ensign was having an extra-marital affair with a staffer.

The BBC tells us that dozens were killed in bombings in Iraq.

In the U.K., one of Rupert Murcoch's newspapers reportedly paid $1.6 million to settle cases alleging that Murdoch's reporters had worked with private investigators to hack into public officials' cell phones.  Say it ain't so: Mr. Murdoch's minions don't actually play fair?

The Washington Post commented on Judge Sonia Sotomayor's record, stating that it --

"show support for the rights of criminal defendants and suspects, skepticism of corporations, and sympathy for plaintiffs alleging discrimination."

I can understand why guys like Dick Cheney --  -- and the slew of corporate executives who were behind the robbing of us taxpayers (contractor fraud), the crashing of our nation's financial system (other kinds of fraud), and the damaging of our nation's economy -- would cringe at the thought of a judge like Sotomayor, who actually seems to care about the rights of us ordinary citizens, shareholders, and taxpayers.

And what would the day's news be without some mention of ex-VP candidate and soon-to-be-ex Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin.  The Plum Line reports that the key reason Mrs. Palin gave for resigning as governor might be false.  You mean Mrs. Palin might have told a half-truth, twisted truth or untruth?

I'll end this post the way I started it: with a big, long duhhhhhhh!