Welcome to the Soviet Union

The United Soviet States of America, where the press does what the government wants, because the press works for the government!

President Obama said he is for redistribution of wealth. Came right out and said it, he did! The Washington Post called the White House and they admitted it was him, but NBC News won't air the damning tape until they authenticate it. And don't hold your breath waiting for them to authenticate it.

The Fast and the Furious is a public relations nightmare for the Obama administration . . . if the Public knows about and believes the story. So it is very helpful for prominent bloggers to poo-pooh and spin the story in convincing fashion. What better way for the blogosphere to be sure to stay on-message than to coordinate their stories in e-mail communications with the Department of "Justice"?

Remember children, the ends justify the means for the leftist, and that includes perverting the press into an organ of the State so the leftist at the head of the State is held in high esteem by the general public!

Transparency For Thee, but None For ME!

The morning that Attorney General Eric Holder was to testify (yesterday) before Congress, and was extremely likely to face a Contempt of Congress citation for failing to cooperate, the Department of Justice (which Holder leads) called the White House and was told they could claim Executive Privilege to prevent further disclosures in the Fast & Furious gunwalking cover-up investigation.

On Sipsey Street Irregulars, there is a report that one of the President's MOST influential advisors, who is in on literally everything important and who has the President's ear, is on paper as part of the scandal. Denis McDonough (remember that name, folks) is now outed as one of the people who heard the complaints coming in up the chain of command, that we were letting guns walk - and then the guns were still ordered to be allowed to continue walking. If this McDonough guy knew, it is very likely it was mentioned to the President face-to-face. If this guy knows the President knew, that is also possibly on paper somewhere. They don't just shred the e-mails like they used to. Somewhere, in a file or a hard drive, is a very interesting communication. But we don't get to see it (yet?).

We now have the Chief Executive claiming Executive Privilege to prevent disclosure by the Department of Justice of documents related to Operation Fast and Furious. His personal advisor is in on the Operation. We are officially ONE degree of separation from blaming the President himself for this illicit program. Conspiracy theorists may now be excused for going on and on about how the international-act-of-war-gun-smuggling-program-for-political-advantage-gone-wrong-because-it-was-found-out was truly known to Obama, if not directly his idea.

But don't be surprised.

I heard several people call in to Boortz's show today and say it (the F&F scandal) is just a conspiracy by the Republicans. A distraction.

Hold on there.

If it is a Republican invention, your boy just made a stupid move. This is the FIRST time in his entire Presidency that President Obama has invoked Executive Privilege as a reason not to have documents disclosed. But wait. Executive privilege is to protect disclosure of WHITE HOUSE communications. It is just not the way things are done, to have lower members of the Executive branch protected by Executive Privilege claims. What this privilege claim is telling the world is:

"I don't want you to know what I knew, when I knew it, and/or what I said, did, or didn't do about it. Piss off; you Republicans are not going to nail this one on me." -Barack Obama (paraphrased)

But you know what? This Privilege claim puts us only that single degree from Obama being in deep on Operation Fast and Furious. The last degree, if it can be closed, means that the President of the United States was responsible* for the illegal (by national laws on both sides and international treaty) smuggling of guns into Mexico, where hundreds or thousands of Mexican nationals were murdered. Furthermore, the drug wars were perpetuated by the use of these guns. And allowing these horrors to take place . . . was the whole reason for Operation Fast & Furious.

This is an act of war. On our nearest neighbor and one of our main trading partners. And he did it for domestic political purposes. The idea was that you would be outraged by the Mexican gun violence and demand tighter regulation of American civilian-owned guns. But then the gun smuggling (by the USA government) was found out - and then the reason for it was found out. And now we have a cover-up in progress.

THAT, friends, is why Obama doesn't want you to close that last degree of separation. This if nothing else would be an impeachable offense, if not a cause for open warfare between our nations.

Ouch.

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(*everything his government does is ultimately his responsibility)

Your Tax Dollars Hard At Work

The FBI and DEA were paying a couple guys to turn information about Mexican drug cartels at the same time BATFE was paying the guys to smuggle guns to the cartels so they could see what would happen to the guns. And the DEA and FBI didn't tell the ATF they were informants.

These people make, what, 50, 60, 70 grand a year, each? Then they have known felons doing felonious stuff on a level that qualifies as an act of war against Mexico, and they don't bother telling each other.

THEN they complain that YOU finding out about these shenanigans is making their job harder! Oh, the poor little sad pandas. Here's mud in your eye.

Hat tip to Sipsey Street Irregulars! If you have a couple bucks, Mike would appreciate a donation - he's doing more investigative journalism while recuperating from SURGERY than all the rest of the national press corps, combined.

Nothing To See Here

. . . just a routine law enforcement activity. Please disregard the nine dead people and don't look forward to the next few days when over a hundred will die. Thank you for not inquiring too sharply into this matter.

Love,

Uncle Sam

What's That Noise?

This is the sound of a conspiracy falling into pieces. No wonder this was all over the news. ATF and Justice are going to be hurting pretty bad pretty soon. The list of demands in this new subpoena is both extensive and specific. The light apparently must also shine on the DEA.

To recap the cast of Project Fast & Furious/Gunrunner characters:

• ATF knew what they were doing, this is not a failed operation
• Multiple BATFE field offices were doing it (Tucson, Houston, Dallas, maybe some in Florida?)
• FBI was involved
• DEA was involved
• Secretary of Department of Justice knew or should have known

• . . . but the President was in the dark.
  

Riiiiiight.

YOU Killed A Man

An informant was kicked out of the CIA's pool of informants for being a murderer. This means the FBI would NEVER hire the informant if they played by their own rule book. They hired him. The FBI gave him your tax dollars to buy guns for Mexican drug cartels. Three of those guns turned up at the scene of the murder of Agent Terry. One of those guns was more easily traced to this informant.

One of those guns disappeared. Guess which? To cover the tails of the people responsible for hiring this unsuitable informant, the cause of justice has been perverted by persons unknown.

Someone must go to prison, or there is no law at all in the United States of America. Possibly several someones must do very many years in prison for multiple felonies.

The cover up: blown wide open.

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I just wrote my national Elected Heroes about this. Will you?

Keep Your Friends Close

. . . and your potential liabilities closer. It is easier to keep an eye (and tight leash) on your potential whistleblowers when you promote them and move them back to the home base.

So it makes sense that three of the higher-level BATFE agents in charge of operation Fast & Furious in Mexico (who committed acts of war against Mexico on orders from higher in DOJ) would be promoted and sent to D.C. You see, they are not being insensitive to the feelings of the dead peoples' families, they are just in CYA mode. Nothing to be upset about at all

The Buck Stops Where It Stops

Interesting rumblings that an advisor to the President MAY have been personally briefed on us breaking international weapons treaties to see where the "Operation Fast & Furious" guns went. Very interesting indeed. The story has progressed from rogue agents in the BATFE, through acting Director Melson not throwing himself under the bus, to a national operation with Dept. of Justice complicity, and the FBI giving a nod to felonies being committed under the guise of an ongoing investigation. Now all the way to the White House?

The FBI is not so full of back stabbing political animals as the ATF, I understand. The FBI will lash out to protect itself, and it is possible, just possible, that they will lash all the way to a certain not-quite-round Office in the White House.

If President Obama or Secretary Clinton, or both, were complicit in these crimes, will they go to Federal PMITA Prison?

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Bonus birther joke: If you convict a President of a High Crime, THEN do you have I.C.E. deport him back to Kenya? :rimshot:

Who Coulda Guest?

The BATFE allowed shady purchasers to buy lots (2500+ at last report) of guns, despite the puzzled "are you sure?" from lots of gun shops. The idea was, you know, to, like, see where they went, and junk.

Turns out when bad people buy guns to distribute to other bad people, the guns go all over the place. Sure there are hundreds of dead people from thousands of guns allowed to "walk" into Mexico. Plus a couple of US Americans which suddenly made it a problem, and lookee lookee, what a surprise: "Gunwalker" guns showing up in the USA, as well.

If President Obama was in on this plot, what would happen? I mean, aside from the obvious attempt to have a coordinated falling-on-the-swords by everyone who knew he knew . . . .

This May Get More Interesting.

Acting BATFE Director Melson was designated as the scapegoat, but he appears to be refusing. Mike may be giving the Obama administration too much credit when he thinks Melson won't be murdered. The only out is immunity and singing like a stool pigeon.

If the director of the ATF wants to roll over, you know someone higher than he in the administration has blood on their hands.

Two Clicks

Two clicks, three text boxes, and you have fought fire with fire. You remember when I pointed out that there is a blatant spam/form letter for submissions in favor of an egregious thing the ATF wants to do?

Now there's a spam/form letter for submissions against it. Please do your nation a favor: click this link, fill in your name and email address, and hit the submit button. It takes less than a minute, and can make a real difference.

Further explanation here

Not Sure How I Feel On This One

On the one hand, I don't like anyone publishing my name and email address for all the world to see . . .

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The BATFE had a comment period for you to say what you thought of their proposed rules regarding importing non-sporting shotguns (proposed rule: they're all non-sporting and they ought not be imported). The initial comment period came and went and we all missed it. Then the proposed rulemaking got closer and the alarm was raised. ATF opened up another comment submission period. Lots of the People of the Gun pointed out that "sport" is not the same as "things done where there is grass, to animals, to obtain food."

They picked around 500 comments to publish in a .pdf. They published them WITH the submitted full names, e-mail addresses, and in some cases full mailing addresses of the submitters of comments. Because, hey, who needs some email spam? YOU GUN PEOPLE need some email spam! LOL zing that'll teach 'em to speak up!

You know what? We gave them contact information as part of a PUBLIC comment period. If they didn't publish your email address and name, maybe the next conspiracy theory is that they made up your comment. This is a lose/lose for the ATF. Just be glad they didn't publish all the comments they received; lots of people have said their comments weren't in the .pdf.

Sure, they published your name and email. They published mine, too. Should they have done? I don't know but it's rather a moot point now, isn't it? Should we get worked up over the breach of privacy? Would you get worked up if the newspaper published your photo as a participant in a political rally?

Why? Did you do it in public? What expectation of privacy have you when you act in public?

********

Edit: hey look, SPAM! They apparently have a fun habit of publishing contact information for submitted comments. For kicks I went here and clicked on this .pdf at the BATFE website. It's comments received for their proposal to require multiple (read: TWO) rifle sales to be reported to the ATF. See if you can count the number of times the perzact same verbiage was copy/pasted and counted as an "in favor" comment. Then look at THIS file. The same exact verbiage, times a zillion. Seminar callers apparently have email addresses? or was it just a spambot? Either way, the other side is messing with the system. If you hear of a public comment period, remember they are bombarding the agency with comments the opposite of what you would say . . . IF you bothered to submit a comment.

It's YOUR government. What are you doing about it?

Well, When You Put It That Way

The government of the United States, under the pretext of preventing guns going to Mexico, allowed guns to go to Mexico and into the hands of narco-terrorists. Hundreds (thousands?) of people died, and that includes two US Federal agents, by being shot with these guns.

Now there is an investigation. The BATFE is stonewalling as always, but Darrell Issa is not going to blink. I knew it was bad, but then Vanderboegh raised the point and he is right:

If the feds allow straight-up felonies and murder, and nothing happens to the "law enforcement agents" responsible, what use is the current system of government? We get 50% of our money taken in taxes to do things in the least efficient way possible, and they can't even not MURDER people? SRSLY? What use is a ballot box if this is what comes out the other side? Every. Single. Time.

One more reason we may not survive even the first term of an Obama Presidency. A second would have at least even odds of destroying the country in a way even the audience of American Idle would understand.

Well, Well, Well!

VERY good job keeping this one under wraps! The higher-ups at the BATFE may finally have to answer for their crimes. Don't hold your breath waiting for justice for Brian Terry or Jaime Zapata, but at least it just got much harder to ignore the Project Gunwalker scandal. Good.

Kerfluffle Kudos

Congratulations to Mike Vanderboegh who has apparently succeeded in "facilitating a diplomatic kerfluffle."

If CBS, Fox News, and the NRA, as well as a few well-placed Senators are all asking questions which echo into the legislature of Mexico, I think it is fair to say the hornets' nest has been stirred-up to the point of being Kind-of A Big Deal. Good on Vanderboegh and Codrea for not letting this criminal behavior stay hidden. Here's hoping for some good long prison sentences for some untouchables in the Concrete Asshole of the Universe.

Scandal? What Scandal? ATF is Altogether Righteous!

Eric Holder just told the President of Mexico and the Ranking Member on the Senate Judiciary Committee to go fornicate themselves. He's saying that his cover-up is more important to him than truth and decency. All this from a guy who spoke soothing, meeching, insincere words upon the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

It's almost like they're trying to foment armed rebellion. Is it malicious corruption, foolishness, or total ineptitude? It is rather hard to tell.

Project Gunwalker, Stirring The Pot a Little

Project Gunwalker continues. I just wrote my Elected Heroes asking what they are going to do about the BATFE. When are you planning on writing?

ATF Flys Under The RADAR

Because you won't find this story on the news, ever:

Let me repeat that for our slower readers in Keene, New Hampshire: the BATFE is smuggling semiautomatic weapons into Mexico to support their claim that the drug cartels are being equipped by American gun dealers.

Sipsey Street Irregulars: because Mike cares what his government does and so do I.

Feel fortunate that you have something like a "news" outlet if you hear on your broadcast news how the Pima county Sheriff failed to prosecute the crazy person for making death threats. The loony toons may feel free to ascribe the crazy person shooting up a Town Hall meeting to the ATF's controlling his mind with syntax, to give the ATF cover while the Walking M-16s story blows over. At least the MSM seems to be doing fairly poorly with their "the righty gun clingers caused it" rhetoric.

Don't Talk To ANYONE

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the beginning of the slaughter at Ruby Ridge. A dog and his boy, as well as a federal stooge agent and an unarmed woman, were all killed in those two days in 1992. The guy at the center of it all was shot but survived.

Why?

Because the man had disgruntled neighbors, and was not careful enough about the people to whom he sold guns.

SRSLY they killed them for that?

No, they killed them because over-reacting is what government does best. It is possible the whole mess could have been avoided if a judge could have gotten over himself for a week. Or if the ATF hadn't pressed charges out of retribution for lack of co-operation with their efforts to investigate the man's friends.

The charge that got Lon Horiuchi out to the Ruby Ridge murder zone? A fraction of an inch of metal was missing from the tip of a machine.

DIY: How To Convert a Ruger 10/22 to Automatic Operation

No, I will not help you.

Until the laws and applicable regulations are changed, a combination of:

proof that you know how to do it (plans, books, email correspondence, etc)

possession of the means to do it (a file and a screwdriver, or a machine shop, whatever, not necessarily even the RIGHT tools!)

possession of the weapon
can be (has been!) used in court to show that you are a filthy disgusting evil person who was waiting for the BATFE to turn their backs for 5 minutes just so's you could make you a MACHINE GUN!!!!!!1!!

Besides which, I picked the Marlin Model 60 as my .22 rifle of choice. I haven't a 10/22 in the arsenal and I don't intend to buy one. I couldn't detail strip one without the aid of Mr. Google nearby.

Sorry.