god, i wish people would stop posting in basso threads - this one just keeps going on and on and on...supporting his goal of turning the BBS into his own political wing-nut blog.
I'm not going to rule out overreach by the Obama on this so this still appears to be jumping to a big conclusion. My own personal view is that this is a tactical move by the Obama Admin since they had offered to release the documents earlier until Issa threatened them with a contempt of Congress ruling.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...tempt-vote/2012/06/20/gJQAGImIqV_story_1.html [rquoter]In a bid to head off a contempt vote, Holder met with Issa and several other lawmakers Tuesday evening. The attorney general agreed to turn over documents that Justice officials think would answer Issa’s questions if the committee would consider the subpoena issues related to Fast and Furious to be “resolved.” He told reporters afterward that the set of documents “pretty clearly demonstrates that there was no intention to mislead, to deceive.” Issa declined the offer, however, saying he would not make such a determination until he saw the documents. [/rquoter]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/19/fast-and-furious-eric-holder-darrell-issa_n_1609965.html Holder said he would give a presentation about why the documents could not be released and then provide documents that back up their presentation. They didn't agree to give them anything that they wanted.
Holder held in contempt. Roberts votes w/ Liberals. Italy defeats Germany. Nadal out at Wimbledon. end days are upon us.
I'm ready. I have my guns, but then hey . . .nothing compared to the thousands our lovely government gives out to the good people of Mexico. Free Heath care and free guns, and if you don't get a gun then pay a tax...Let's do that while we are at it
Fixed. If those had happened, well, I don't know what I would be doing, it sure wouldn't be posting here.
Maher was absolutely terrible in this segment. Some of his arguments were so nonsensical it was puzzling.... Sadly, I didnt think Maddow added much by way of compelling arguments either (and she's someone whose views and opinions I really respect). To see liberals reinforcing the absolute worst in establishment political culture by advocating for political immunity is unfortunate. Thankfully, Jon Stewart's been on point when discussing Fast and Furious, as has been Greenwald when calling out CNN.
it's a BFD. GOP sues to force Obama compliance on Fast and Furious By Stephen Dinan-The Washington Times Monday, August 13, 2012 House Republicans on Monday asked the federal courts to intervene and force the Obama administration to turn over documents from the botched Fast and Furious gun-walking operation, escalating what had been a simmering constitutional crisis. House Speaker John A. Boehner said President Obama and his team were ignoring a congressional subpoena — something the courts have long recognized as valid — and said lawmakers were left with no choice but to ask the third branch to referee. “By stonewalling Congress and ignoring a contempt order, the Justice Department has left the House no choice but to take legal action so we can get to the bottom of the Fast and Furious operation that cost border agent Brian Terry his life,” Mr. Boehner said. Terry was killed in December 2010 in a gun fight with bandits who had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. Two of the weapons recovered at the scene were part of Fast and Furious, an Obama administration operation that was supposed to try to track guns being sold to Mexican cartels, but which lost track of the weapons, allowing thousands to stream across the border. The operation was halted in the wake of Terry’s death, but left Mexican authorities enraged and members of Congress demanding to know more. In a bipartisan vote in June the House held Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over documents the House had subpoenaed as part of its official investigation. The administration first said it would try to work out a way to release the documents and said they didn’t show anything incriminating. But the White House later reversed course and claimed executive privilege prevented them from having to release the information. Justice Department spokeswoman Tracey Schmaler said the House GOP chose to fight rather than work the matter out. “We were always willing to work with the committee, instead the House and the committee have said they prefer to litigate,” she said. Republicans have said they are trying to get answers in part on behalf of the family of the slain Border Patrol agent — and the family has called for more information to be released. But House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, rallied to the administration’s defense, saying the GOP push was misplaced. “This partisan lawsuit wastes taxpayer dollars and resources, and is a distraction from the urgent business before Congress: acting to create jobs and grow our economy,” she said. She also repeated her claim that Republicans are using the fight against Mr. Holder in retaliation against his own push to halt GOP-led state laws designed to crack down on voter fraud. Republicans on Capitol Hill want to know who approved the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) operation in the first place, and they have rejected Obama administration assurances that it was lower-level staffers. Emails and documents that have been released paint a complex picture, showing some details either were or should have been noticed by high-level Justice Department officials. Mr. Holder has disputed those characterizations — though he has already had to retract an official communication to Congress that had false information about the operation itself, and has also officially withdrawn part of his own testimony that seemed to suggest one of his predecessors under President George W. Bush had known of a similar operation.
http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_new...and-furious-gun-running-sting?lite&ocid=msnhp Investigation finds no evidence AG Eric Holder knew of 'Fast and Furious' gun-running sting A long-awaited report on the U.S. government’s controversial gun-trafficking operation known as “Fast and Furious” released Wednesday found no evidence that Attorney General Eric Holder knew of the botched effort to trace the flow of guns to Mexico’s drug cartels prior to its public unraveling in January 2011. The report by the Justice Department’s Inspector General Michael Horowitz said there is "no evidence that ... Holder was informed about Operation Fast and Furious, or learned about the tactics employed by ATF in the investigation" before Congress began pressing him for information about it in early 2011. The inspector general did determine that the acting deputy attorney general, Gary Grindler, received a briefing about the ill-fated gun-tracing operation in March 2010, but that the briefing "failed to alert Grindler to problems in the investigation." The report also concluded that the operation was "seriously flawed and supervised irresponsibly" by federal officials in Arizona, who allowed it to continue in hopes of scoring a big case against a gun-trafficking organization despite obvious problems. No one in Arizona, at ATF headquarters in Washington or at the Justice Department acted to end the operation until two weapons that were allowed to flow into Mexico were found at the scene of a shootout where a federal border agent, Brian Terry, was killed in December 2010. "Fast and Furious" was an attempt to trace the flow of guns from the US into Mexico. ATF agents were instructed to allow suspected gun runners for the Mexican cartels to take guns into Mexico, because local ATF officials and local prosecutors believed they could then follow the weapons to the cartel higher-ups in Mexico. It didn't work that way, and roughly 2,000 guns were lost, most of them AK-47-type rifles, the report said. Even after two of the trafficked guns showed up at the scene of Terry's death, senior ATF leaders did little to find out what went wrong. Instead, the report said, Kenneth Melson, then the acting ATF director, seemed more concern that agents were leaking information to the news media about the botched operation. Read the full report Holder, in a statement issued immediately after the report's release, said its "key conclusions are consistent with what I, and other Justice Department officials, have said for many months now," that senior Justice Department officials were unaware of the "flawed strategy and tactics" that dated back to the administration of George W. Bush and made no effort to "cover up information or mislead Congress about it." Holder also announced that Melson, who was transferred out of the top job at the ATF last year, was retiring, effective immediately. A second Justice Department official, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein, has resigned. The report said Weinstein failed to tell Attorney General Holder about problems with the Fast and Furious operation. In all, 14 current federal employees were singled out in the report for potential disciplinary action. The report's publication seemed to do little to end the bitter rivalry between Holder and Rep. Darrel Issa, the California Republican who was among the first to question the Fast and Furious operation. "It is unfortunate that some were so quick to make baseless accusations before they possessed the facts about these operations -- accusations that turned out to be without foundation and that have caused a great deal of unnecessary harm and confusion," Holder said in his statement. "I hope today's report acts as a reminder of the dangers of adopting as fact unsubstantiated conclusions before an investigation of the circumstances is completed," he said. In his own statement, Issa said, "Contrary to the denials of the attorney general and his political defenders in Congress, the investigation found that information in wiretap applications approved by senior Justice Department officials in Washington did contain red flags showing reckless tactics and faults Attorney General Eric Holder’s inner circle for their conduct. Advertise | AdChoices "It’s time for President Obama to step in and provide accountability for officials at both the Department of Justice and ATF who failed to do their jobs," Issa said. Politically charged partisan dispute The operation has become a politically charged partisan dispute heading into the November elections, with congressional Republicans charging that the Obama administration has withheld documents that would show the involvement of senior government officials, including Holder. On June 28, the Republican-led House of Representatives voted to hold Holder in contempt of Congress for failing to disclose internal Justice Department documents in response to a subpoena – the first time that sanction has been imposed on a sitting member of a president’s Cabinet. The department’s inspector general spent more than a year investigating the so-called “gun-walking” scandal – in which agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, commonly known by the ATF acronym, in Arizona allow suspected gun runners to take guns into Mexico. The Fast and Furious operation was part of a broader initiative known as Project Gunrunner. Local ATF officials and local prosecutors believed they could then follow the weapons to the cartel higher-ups in Mexico. It didn't work that way. Thousands of guns were lost and only lower-level straw buyers of the weapons were ever arrested. Two of the weapons turned up at the scene of a shootout where a federal border agent, Brian Terry, was killed on Dec. 14, 2010, near the Mexico border, though those guns were never tied directly to his death. A Mexican legislator, Humberto Benitez Trevino, claimed last year that weapons that crossed the border during the attempted sting have been linked to the deaths or wounding of at least 150 Mexican civilians, but did not provide any supporting documentation or say how that number was calculated.
The Justice Department did an investigation into the Justice Department and found the head of the Justice Department did nothing wrong. Sounds legit...... http://ace.mu.nu/ Still a good idea by Holder. It will satisfy the brain dead left.
Even agents directly involved said it was not Eric Holder's fault. Darryl Issa will have to find another way to waste money on personal witch hunts until he finds his smoking blue dress.
no duh. Drug-fueled violence in Mexico is not entirely the fault of the Mexican people, he said. Instead, the United States shares the blame because much of the violence is centered around the Americans' demand for illegal drugs and the fact that guns are smuggled into Mexico from the United States. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013...OP20130503?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews
