Dallas Software Guy:

I'll take my text for today  from an essay by  Col. Bob Pappas, "Deceit, Lying, Easter and Freedom"

"It doesn’t take a genius to conclude that great harm results from deception and lying whether at the personal, communal or national level. Likewise “spin” is an interpretation of someone’s communication. It transforms the communication from precisely what was stated to a fallacious derivation with an underlying motive pertaining to what was stated; or in plain English: spin is a deception pertaining to a set of facts with the intention to sway opinion. We see it every day in politics or life in general, the purpose of which is to gain some advantage or avoid some undesirable outcome. Human life at every level is best when all parties deal in truth. i.e. No spin; “Let you yea be yea and your nay be nay;”  or, as the courts require, “tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

As one who started small, I became the purveyor of some real whoppers when it came to deception and lying. I deceived and lied in little things, medium sized things, and life-event things.  I even lied when I didn’t “have to” lie. By the time I was in my thirties, deceiving and lying were so routine and flowed so easily from my lips that they became all but indistinguishable from truth. Not that I always lied, on the professional front, when dealing with hard data, I could be as factual as anyone. But when it came to protecting my ego I made excuses that were nothing more than deception and lies whether the circumstances were personal or professional. "
http://www.gulf1.com/columns/pappas/pappasframe.htm

With that as background, now to the matter at hand .

My  major thesis is this:  It appeared to me that Perry felt somehow threatened by the Beyler Report. You may not agree. As you suggested,  people can be slow to come around to what they don't want to see. (And yes, conversely, people more readily see what the want to see.)

About a month before he appointed Bradley to the Forensic Science Commission we had this report in the Dallas Morning News, an article by Todd J. Gillman dated September 19, 2009:

    WASHINGTON – Gov. Rick Perry on Friday strenuously defended the execution of a Corsicana man whose conviction for killing his daughters in a house fire hinged on an arson finding that top experts call junk science.

    "I'm familiar with the latter-day supposed experts on the arson side of it," Perry said, making quotation marks with his fingers to underscore his skepticism."

However, those "latter-day supposed experts" were having their way with the Forensic Science Commission. Perry then appointed Bradley who did his best to put a stop to it.  They were supporting the conclusions of the Hurst report, the one that debunked the 'expert' arson testimony in the Willingham trial.but which Perry had dismissed at the time of the execution. 

You keep attempting to deflect this, saying all those courts also called it 'just another opinion' but I don't think Perry is defending the courts in this case. He's attempting to cover his own failing.  At least it's my contention that if he didn't feel guilty about it, if he had nothing to hide, he would have had no occasion to make  the changes he did

I have to admit this brought to mind another of Perry's appointments. Don McLeroy admired himself for being willing to "stand up to experts" and Perry appointed him to be chairman of the State Board of Education. I was irked to see him doing the same thing with the Forensic Science Commission.

All that said, I am very appreciative of this editorial.  I encourage the editors to keep up their good work.
Editorial: Willingham report still lacks answers to major questions