Impressions from Politico: CIA should be shut down. Full stop

[functioning_cog]

Yes, this nation needs foreign intelligence, but the bad apples have spoiled the whole barrel. Build physically and figuratively from the ground up.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/03/dianne-feinstein-cia-senate-104582.html#.UyEeZIl5nTp

[villager]

1. And don't go to Dallas, after announcing your intention of doing so...

n/t

[functioning_cog]

3. Or be a badass who has a concealed carry permit.

Yup. Obama has the secret service but you know he's packing.

[villager]

6. Not sure concealed carry would've helped in Dallas...

...but anything to imagine a counter-history where America turns out sane, kind, and viable, is all to the good, I guess...

[functioning_cog]

8. Maybe Kennedy should have ridden in covered motorcade

His unwillingness to acknowledge the dangers was one reason Oswald was able to pull it off. I'm joking about Obama carrying. But he was born black in the USA and has understood all his life how to watch his back.

[villager]

9. Now a covered motorcade would've made a difference....

As for watching backs, hopefully Obama will someday have ours.

[functioning_cog]

10. I don't think you really know what you're talking about

vis a vis Obama watching out for us. He may not have personally hand delivered your pony, but he is showing how much the executive can and will act without congress along more economically populist lines.

[villager]

12. I don't think you really know what you're talking about

vis a vis Obama and the MIC.

You think he's going to shut down the CIA full stop?

Stay tuned.

[phleshdef]

2. Um, right... so we just shut down our entire intelligence apparatus?

We just kill all operations? Recall all agents? Fire them all? Then spend time structuring, planning and building a new agency while the rest of the world still turns?

The CIA, among a million other things, needs to be reigned in a great deal. But no, shutting it down full stop would be monumentally stupid.

[functioning_cog]

4. No. It can be quick. President decapitates the top 6 layers of mgmt.

And a group works on who moves up, who moves on, etc.

Same should happen at NSA.

This entrenched power and culture of zero accountability has to end.

The more I see what's going on with the sick attempts of CIA to hide their dirt, the more I'm reminded of Operation Endgame. Bizarre and funny and haunting movie.

[phleshdef]

5. Wow. Its like fucking Oval Office Highlander up in here.

I don't believe the real world works that way.

[functioning_cog]

7. The real world is what you make it

I see you're a big fan of organizational inertia.

[phleshdef]

11. No, I'm a big fan of recognizing reality for what it is.

We can reform the CIA with a responsible approach that doesn't upset important operations... I don't believe your approach would fit that bill at all.

[lumpy]

15. Naive

[Rex]

19. Not.

nt.

[Javaman]

25. Hitting mercury with a hammer.

You fire those top 6 levels and were do they go? in to the private sector.

then we have all sorts of truly bizarre problems. Lawsuits over secrets they start blabbing to anyone and everyone that will listen.

Better to retire them out and not fill their spots.

the CIA is always a Tiger caught in a corner. It will always exact it's revenge for anything and everything.

Check out the book, "Legacy of Ashes". It's an amazing read and I agree that the CIA has been the cause and obstacle to most of our problems during and since the cold war and should have been disbanded long ago.

but when it ran out of it's "usefulness" when the cold war ended, it reinvented itself to protect itself. It spies on everyone and everything now.

think of J. Edgar Hoover. Everyone was afraid of that old bastard because he had the goods on everyone, so no one challenged him. The CIA today is much the same way but power of it's secrets don't lie in the hands of one person but is now institutionalized.

So the reality is this: people will scream and yell, stomp their feet, feign indignity and wag a few fingers at the CIA but a the end of the day, not much will change, sadly.

[Rex]

18. LOL!

So the DHS and the NSA and FBI not good enough for you!?

[phleshdef]

23. None of those agencies serve the purpose the CIA serves.

But I believe we could consolidate all the functions of those agencies between the FBI and the CIA.... basically the way it use to be.

[MADem]

13. Politico is owned by a wingnut family; the Albrittons.

Whatever happened to "Mend it, don't end it?"

[functioning_cog]

14. Every so often a blind squirrel finds a nut

And today was Politico's day.

[MADem]

20. Like I said, why not mend it?

Just because it's morphed into a mess doesn't mean it can't be fixed.

And nature--as well as the intelligence community--abhors a vacuum.

I'd rather repair the Devil We Know.

[Javaman]

26. because what's required to "mend it" is the political will.

and so very few have the guts in washington these days to do what is needed.

taking on the CIA, unless you are a boyscout who just fell off the turnip truck, will not win you any friends and will probably kill you.

[MADem]

28. Well, that's on We The People.

We have to send better people to DC.

Unfortunately, a lot of We The People aren't too sharp--if We were there'd be no Republicans in Congress.

I don't think the CIA are all that smart, OR that powerful.

[Javaman]

29. I agree...

not to blow my own horn but a few of my friends had suggested I run for city council or some sort of state position.

I say no, every single time.

1) I can't lie convincingly.

2) I don't suffer fools gladly

3) have this bizarre moral and ethic streak in me that prevents me from keeping my mouth shut when I see something wrong.

4) I don't want to live in a fish bowl

5) I can't work with people who don't stand by their own convictions.

And as such, I don't think I'm the only one that feels this way. In fact, I think a great many people who honestly care about the people of this nation and would make excellent politicians, feel this way and don't want to become the spectacle of the political media machines witch hunt for the feigned non-trovercy of the week.

And that is, at the end of the day, the real issue at hand. Honest people don't want to be involved with the dishonesty of Washington or even their local political machines.

[MADem]

30. Ya know what? Next time the subject comes up, ask your friends if they'll still support you if

you tell 'em the truth and it feels like hell, a la Give 'em Hell Harry.

If you grab your lance and tilt at that windmill, and don't compromise your principles, win or lose you'll be able to hold your head up and maybe you'll convince a few people that they need to shape the hell up.

Usually, when people say "RUN"--if there are enough of 'em, and they don't work for you or owe you money, that is--that means you've got something.

Oftentimes, the best answer to a "GOTCHA!!!!!!!!!" scandal is "So?" Look at the new mayor of Boston...how the fuck did he win? I think he just didn't give a shit, and didn't let people spin or define him. Examples:

Say, Maaaah-teee, is it true you were a drunkard fa yea-ahs? Yer off da sauce?

Yeah. So?

Well, Maaaah-teeee, yer not MARRIED.

Yeah. So?

And it's true yer livin' wid a WAITRESS?


Yeah. So?

Maaahteee, you wuz a punk back in the day, you got shot in a drive-by.

Yeah. So?

He just wasn't gonna get ruffled. He stuck to the issues and he had the right answers. He's got enormous shoes to fill, but so far, he's doing the right thing. He's not backing down from the "If you don't let the gay vets march in the St. Pat's parade, you can do it without ME" position. I gotta admire him.

So, don't lie. Don't suffer fools. Make it your campaign slogan. "I Don't Lie and I Don't Suffer Fools Gladly; If I See Something, I Say Something; I have integrity, and I expect it, too--Vote Javaman!"

You will be stuck in the fishbowl, but just practice saying "Yeah, so?" and eventually they'll stop bothering you. Also, get a nondescript white car--there are so many of 'em, it's easy to blend in.

I think you'd make for a nice change.

Mull it over, anyway. Run--but on YOUR terms.

[Javaman]

31. I live in Texas.

I wouldn't even make it out of the gate.

[MADem]

32. Ya never know. I'd vote for you! nt

[Javaman]

35. :)

[lumpy]

16. The voice of reason. Thanks.

[tularetom]

17. Well, to be fair, it wouldn't be much of a loss if Politico was shut down as well

Nobody outside the District of Columbia pays any attention to it.

[MADem]

21. Heh, heh-ain't that the truth! nt

[DeSwiss]

22. Of course it should.

And the Pentagon too, eventually.

K&R



''We will either live together as brothers or perish together as fools.'' - Martin Luther King Jr.

[Marr]

24. You know, I think we'd be fine if we just applied the law.

Somehow, it's become an unspoken, unquestioned truism that influential and well-connected people are above the law. We need to start putting the law breakers in prisons-- real prisons-- permanently. I expect the intelligence community (and Wall Street and every other problem sector) would rediscover their 'honor' in a matter of days.

[JoePhilly]

27. Let's just close Washington DC.

Makes about as much sense.

[Comrade Grumpy]

33. It's probably past time for a new Church Committee.

These cowboys are gettin' too big fer their britches agin.

Ask them about their secret armies while you're at it.

[pragmatic_dem]

34. CIA and NSA are both too big to fail institutions and like the banks, this administration will bail

them out every time. No questions asked. These institutions are out of control and completely unaccountable.

[FarCenter]

36. Senator Moynihan said to shut down the CIA back in 1988

Instead of attempting to reform it, it should have been shut down and it the necessary functions rebuilt from scratch within the departments of state, defense, treasury, etc.