Panetta Confirmation Hearing: Obama’s CIA Pick Says No More “Extraordinary Rendition”

Also breaks a color barrier, but that’s just gravy.

Eric Holder is sworn in as attorney general

Press secretary Robert Gibbs said the gathering is another step in the president’s continuing effort to reach out to lawmakers and get to know them better in hopes of reducing the partisan rancor as they work together on the people’s business.

Since becoming president, Obama has met at the White House with congressional leaders, traveled to Capitol Hill for private sessions with House and Senate Republicans and invited a bipartisan group of lawmakers to the executive mansion for cocktails.

Obama Super Bowl Party Guest List

President Barack Obama issued a withering critique Thursday of Wall Street corporate behavior, calling it “the height of irresponsibility” for employees to be paid more than $18 billion in bonuses last year while their crumbling financial sector received a bailout from taxpayers. “It is shameful,” Obama said from the Oval Office. “And part of what we’re going to need is for the folks on Wall Street who are asking for help to show some restraint, and show some discipline, and show some sense of responsibility.”

The president’s comments, made with new Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner at his side, came in swift response to a report that employees of the New York financial world garnered an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses last year. The figure, from the New York state comptroller, drew prominent news coverage.

“Lilly Ledbetter did not set out to be a trailblazer or a household name. She was just a good hard worker who did her job — and she did it well — for nearly two decades before discovering that for years, she was paid less than her male colleagues for doing the very same work. Over the course of her career, she lost more than $200,000 in salary, and even more in pension and Social Security benefits — losses that she still feels today.

“Now, Lilly could have accepted her lot and moved on. She could have decided that it wasn’t worth the hassle and the harassment that would inevitably come with speaking up for what she deserved. But instead, she decided that there was a principle at stake, something worth fighting for. So she set out on a journey that would take more than 10 years, take her all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States, and lead to this day and this bill which will help others get the justice she was denied. …

“I intend to send a clear message: That making our economy work means making sure it works for everyone. That there are no second class citizens in our workplaces, and that it’s not just unfair and illegal — it’s bad for business — to pay someone less because of their gender, or their age, race, ethnicity, religion or disability.”

It is an example I have cited many times over the years, that Hubert Humphrey once said the 1964 Civil Rights Act was America’s single most effective foreign policy initiative.

It had nothing to do with foreign policy, but it told the world who we were and what we stood for, that our system was about fairness and equal treatment – and that it worked.

I thought about that when Barack Obama announced that torture would never be part of our national policy.

America has always been the most successful when it is leading by example, when we’ve practiced what we’ve preached.

America’s weapons did not win the Cold War; they kept the Soviet Union at bay. The war was won when the people on the other side looked across the Iron Curtain, saw a better way of life there, realized their system of government could not give it to them, and so the walls came down.

With a simple declaration, President Obama told the world our system of government is so strong we don’t need to torture people to survive. That is the way of those who would destroy us, but that is not us. We have found a better way.

That is what our message to the world must be. More importantly, that is what we want our children to know. When we are admired and respected by others, we are far more secure than any weapon can ever make us.

The presidential walk-through touched off what Associated Press writer Ben Feller described as “a wild scene,” as journalists quickly surrounded him.

“Right now I want to say hello and introduce myself to you,” Obama said, moving beyond the 49-seat briefing room to check out the tiny workspaces and broadcast booths inhabited by the White House press corps, according to reporters working there.

But even good men have their limits:

Mark Knoller of CBS News reported that Obama was asked about the White House basketball court, winning the fight to keep his BlackBerry and his selection of a former lobbyist as deputy defense secretary.

“I can’t come in and shake hands if I’m gonna get grilled every time,” he said in response to the question on the Defense appointment.

Ooh. Testy. However, it looks like the press will benefit from Obama’s visit.

He walked through to the press break room and spied the vending machines full of potato chips and chocolate bars. “We’re thinking that maybe you might have some healthier snacks, though, guys,” he said.

His final verdict on the press room?

“It’s nice — but it’s confining.”

Does he love us? I feel the love.

President Barack Obama has signed an executive order ending the ban on federal funds for international groups that perform abortions or provide information on the option….

The policy bans U.S. taxpayer money, usually in the form of U.S. Agency for International Development funds, from going to international family planning groups that either offer abortions or provide information, counseling or referrals about abortion. It is also known as the “global gag rule,” because it prohibits taxpayer funding for groups that lobby to legalize abortion or promote it as a family planning method.

Obama has spent his first days in office systematically signing executive orders reversing Bush administration policies on issues ranging from foreign policy to government operations. …

Emphasis mine, because it’s so worth emphasizing.