tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post7299005545440342155..comments2024-03-28T16:08:29.578-04:00Comments on Sardonicky: CIA = Caught in ActKaren Garciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15612731479365562803noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-64564286111151844282014-03-08T22:07:09.307-05:002014-03-08T22:07:09.307-05:00P.S. As soon as I posted my comment about the CIA ...P.S. As soon as I posted my comment about the CIA I turned on a repeat on Public TV of a celebration concert in honor of Pete Seeger's 90th birthday. A great reminder of what has been and could be. The kind of people that honored Pete, never die and we have to hope that we will once more see a resurrection of that spirit. Maybe our Millennium children and/or grandchildren will open the doors. Reports are favorable for that happening. <br />Pearlnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-9466258293583073002014-03-08T22:05:53.625-05:002014-03-08T22:05:53.625-05:00Great column about the CIA, Karen.
One has to lau...<br />Great column about the CIA, Karen.<br /><br />One has to laugh at the thought of all those nice Congresspeople having their private and professional lives being exposed, and by paid groups to do<br />so yet. I hope they have lots of sleepless nights and hopefully as you said, Karen, maybe someone will have the guts to speak up. However, I think the worst of that information may well be all the rotten deals they made with<br />each other politically as well as the kinds of comments they made about the rest of us as Romney did. We need another Snowden with hot information to reveal.<br /><br />I am well acquainted with the activities of the CIA, some of which I have previously mentioned in comments here. When my husband washired and started teaching at his last possibility at the University of Miami in 1958, the University officials were visited by some representatives from an intelligence organization warning them of the danger of keeping my <br />husband on staff.<br />The people who had hired him were not only in shock at being threatened to isolate him from teaching, but by who met with them with such threats. My <br />husband was told that pressure from 'outside influences' , whose names they were forced to keep secret, were formidable and that they were helpless in the situation. They were all visibly upset and the Dean of the University privately advised my husband that it might be wise for him to consider leaving the United States as it was obvious that he would be made a scapegoat for some VERY powerful forces in the country. We had believed that <br />previous such visitations had come from the FBI, but this proved it was most certainly the CIA although I don't remember <br />if we thought so at the time.<br />This was their revenge because they could not get my husband to denounce his stepfather regarding the slanderous accusations against him. In a subsequent lengthy article in which I wrote about those years, I warned those who read what we had endured, to be aware of the dangers of the various intelligence agencies that were hunting down people they believed to be a threat to the government and what the unwelcome results might become. <br />Well it has happened in spades, and now we are reaping the unholy results of those early beginnings during the McCarthy era. I only hope people can wake up to the dangers the country is facing before it becomes irreversible. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Pearlnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-1333159286237155052014-03-08T20:06:16.291-05:002014-03-08T20:06:16.291-05:00'White shoe' refers to class. The CIA was ...'White shoe' refers to class. The CIA was run from its beginnings by that class.<br /><br />"However, it is still defined by Princeton University's Wordnet as 'denoting a company or law firm owned and run by members of the WASP elite who are generally conservative,' which shows that the original connotation has not changed entirely.[3]"<br /><br />Princeton and Yale,are still strong in that group. And it was why I referred to the CIA as the white shoe gang. The defining thing here is 'white shoe' and not the noun it modified. Allan Dulles was a classic example - 'members of the WASP elite who are generally conservative', and consider the rest of us to be, at best, their guests. For Princeton, still, a 'white shoe firm' is a firm run by white shoes; the clientele is of secondary importance. Class counts.<br /><br />No, Zee, the CIA was, and probably still is the 'white shoe gang', not the 'white shoe firm' even though one of its old nicknames was 'the company'. Can you think of why it was? James F Traynornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-75143981262513067952014-03-08T18:19:59.285-05:002014-03-08T18:19:59.285-05:00@James--
Ah, I see now. The term is actually &qu...@James--<br /><br />Ah, I see now. The term is actually "white shoe <i>firm</i>," NOT "white shoe <i>gang</i>."<br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_shoe_firm<br /><br />Google "white shoe gang" as I did when following you literally, and you'll find some surprises, James.Zeenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-25383249858517910272014-03-08T17:53:33.386-05:002014-03-08T17:53:33.386-05:00Thus spake Wikipedia:
"According to William ...Thus spake Wikipedia:<br /><br />"According to William Safire, the phrase derives from "white bucks," laced suede or buckskin shoes with a red sole, long popular in the Ivy League colleges.[1][2] Originally, it reflected a stereotype of old-line firms populated by WASPs, but some say the phrase has since become innocuous. However, it is still defined by Princeton University's Wordnet as "denoting a company or law firm owned and run by members of the WASP elite who are generally conservative," which shows that the original connotation has not changed entirely.[3]<br /><br />Business journalists typically link white shoe status to both historical reputation and current success in maintaining high prestige. A report on law firms, for example, says, "Clients like Intel and Credit Suisse First Boston mean this white-shoe law firm should keep its elite rep for years to come. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett was founded 113 years ago, and has represented a long string of corporate clients."[4] They are known for rigid dress codes, besides the shoe style.[5]"<br /><br />Surprised at you, Zee.James F Traynornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-4483702998717664492014-03-08T16:49:37.938-05:002014-03-08T16:49:37.938-05:00@James--
Who, exactly, are the "white shoe g...@James--<br /><br />Who, exactly, are the "white shoe gang?"<br /><br />I tried Google and came up with answers ranging from "the Mafia" to a collection of young black kids in Brooklyn who wore stolen, white tennis shoes so as to emulate the young seminarian who was working with them twice a week.<br /><br />http://blogbyedkent.blogspot.com/2010/01/white-shoe-gang.htmlZeenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-89520729623149564022014-03-08T16:44:10.723-05:002014-03-08T16:44:10.723-05:00“Congress can act to hold the CIA’s feet to the fi...<i> “Congress can act to hold the CIA’s feet to the fire or, better yet, to cut that agency down to size any time it chooses to. Just cut its budget.” </i> —Jay-Ottawa<br /><br />I guess I'm not so sure.<br /><br />J. Edgar Hoover retained his hold over the FBI for decades thanks to his collection of secret files on everbody who was anybody. <br /><br />Who knows what interesting information the CIA may have on those who <i> purport </i> to be in power today?Zeenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-88384028848096066392014-03-07T22:57:54.340-05:002014-03-07T22:57:54.340-05:00It’s very simple. Congress does not have to plead...It’s very simple. Congress does not have to plead with the White House and its agencies to release documents the Congress is entitled to. Why this wringing of hands by Senators and Representatives? Poor dears.<br /><br />Congress can act to hold the CIA’s feet to the fire or, better yet, to cut that agency down to size any time it chooses to. Just cut its budget. That’s how Congress got the Pentagon out of Vietnam: it stopped the appropriations for more war. So stop the appropriations for more spying on the homeland. Duh. Sometimes money is more powerful in its absence than in its presence.<br /><br />Of course, voters will not rise up here, there and everywhere during the campaign between now and November 2014 to demand of both incumbents and their challengers that they take a pledge to reign in the CIA and other rogue surveillance agencies through budget cuts, the biggest club in the hands of Congress, should they ever again decide to use it. Seems to work whenever crushing poor people and sick people strikes them as necessary.Jay–Ottawahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10360356126450612113noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-22653389663354814532014-03-07T17:33:39.460-05:002014-03-07T17:33:39.460-05:00The CIA was run by the white shoe gang for years a...The CIA was run by the white shoe gang for years and still has that aura, but slightly more thuggier - Bogart with a switchblade. Long past time it was cleaned up, along with dumping the Patriot Act, NDAA and Citizens United. Talk about the Augean stables.James F Traynornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-65861155580897668742014-03-07T15:59:36.631-05:002014-03-07T15:59:36.631-05:00Just saw an op-ed, or something, by a guy named Hu...Just saw an op-ed, or something, by a guy named Hunt, in the NYT, about possible Dem contenders for the crown in '16. After much stalling, he gets around to Elizabeth Warren who he agrees would be favored by the activists and the voters, but is a political neophyte, meaning by that, of course, she has yet to take the King's shilling.James F Traynornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-33156979072816202752014-03-07T14:13:33.191-05:002014-03-07T14:13:33.191-05:00Oh please. Democrats like Rachel Maddow always fee...Oh please. Democrats like Rachel Maddow always feel free to go on the attack as long as they leave Obama out of the mess. Are we still supposed to believe how naive he is? Obama is very much at the center of these problems of spying and letting torturers off the hook, among a host of other executive abuses of the Constitution - covered very well at jonathanturley.org<br /><br />If Obama hasn't been groomed by the CIA all along, I would expect he will be after he leaves office. He enjoys the dark side far too much and knows all the secrets. Can't let all that go to waste. <br /><br />Here's my recent comment to the NYT's 'The Cost of Not Looking Back at Torture'. <br /><br />"Don't forget John Kiriakou, the 14 year veteran of the CIA who is sitting in prison for helping to reveal this practice of torture by leaking classified information to a journalist. He is the sixth person, but not the last, smitten by the heavy hand of the Obama regime on Espionage Act violations.<br /><br />For someone who claims he wants to look forward and not backward, Obama certainly enjoys landing a heavy blow on those who reveal government secrets, no matter how heinous. His record of prosecuting whistle-blowers under the Espionage Act is excessive and unwarranted, intended to chill if not freeze out the truth. Don't expect this President to cooperate in any manner except with empty words such as 'I welcome this debate'.<br /><br />Does it seem likely that a President who boasts proudly that he is 'good at killing people' would have any qualms about torturing? I have my doubts that it has even ended. That's could be the real reason he is stonewalling - to keep the truth from coming out."<br /><br />http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/06/the-cost-of-not-looking-backwards-at-torture/#commentsContainerannenigmanoreply@blogger.com