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Leon Panetta Returns to Panetta Institute Stage for 2013 Lecture Series
March 20, 2013
Leon Panetta doesn't stay off the stage for long. The former U.S. secretary of defense is back home in Carmel Valley after a belabored Senate confirmation process approved Chuck Hagel as Panetta's successor.
And he today announced a star-studded lineup for the Leon Panetta lecture series at the Panetta Institute at CSU Monterey Bay. The theme for 2013: Gridlock or Action? It'll cover some of the most divisive topics federal lawmakers are currently tackling.
Panetta, also the former director of the CIA under President Barack Obama, will moderate this year's series, which starts April 8 with a panel on immigration featuring Tom Ridge, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Doris Meissner, former commissioner for U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, former Congressman and Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Howard Berman, and Monterey County Supervisor Simon Salinas.
Discussions on the budget battle, gun control and the pursuit of peace in the Middle East follow. Invited speakers include former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Vice President Joe Biden, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former U.S. senators Olympia Snowe, Richard Lugar and Joe Lieberman.
Comments
Panetta is a spineless sellout to the military industrial complex, which is taking the USA's economy and reputation around the world down the toilet as we speak. The CIA, including while he was director, has been the most dysfunctional, counterproductive, bunch of screw ups on the planet with no real oversight by the American public. It's a colossal bunch of f-ups doing idiotic, misdeeds around the world. Panetta did nothing to change any of these corrupt, money sucking, evil institutions.
And, just because Panetta is "from Carmel Valley and washed dishes as a teen", shouldn't impress anyone either. His career is about as noteworthy as George W. Bush's and Dan Quayle.
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