Category: Fast & Furious


 

Obama’s Agenda Scorched In Firestorm

 

 

 

” Republicans have long depicted Obama as an advocate of a big, dangerous and overreaching government, back to the federal bailout of the auto industry he undertook during the financial crisis that greeted his first inauguration.”

 

With a great deal of accuracy , we might add …

 

” In recent weeks, it has fueled outrage over the targeting by the Internal Revenue Service of conservative Tea Party groups seeking non-profit status, and over the use of secret subpoenas and search warrants against the Associated Press and Fox News in Justice Department investigations of news leaks.”

 

But as we are seeing , that is just the tip of the iceberg …

 

” Now the headlines are focused on governmental monitoring that touches not just reporters but, apparently, just about anyone who makes a phone call. Thursday began with explosions over a story in The Guardian in London of a broad secret U.S. warrant for phone records from Verizon. By midday, Senate Intelligence Chairman Dianne Feinstein had confirmed the surveillance had been going on for years. By the end of the day, The Washington Post and The Guardian reported that a data-mining program targeting foreigners was tapping into such Internet companies as Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and Facebook.”

 

Can we call him “Big Brother” yet ?

 

” To be sure, Obama didn’t launch the data-mining initiatives, which were started during the Bush administration, though he has expanded them. He had defenders Thursday ranging from California Sen. Feinstein, a liberal Democrat, to South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a conservative Republican. “It’s called protecting America,” Feinstein said.”

 

   The American people are fast discovering that we are more in need of protection from our own government than from any foreign enemy .

 

 

” In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.”

 George Orwell

 

 

”  But his critics also spanned the political spectrum. “Is it just me, or is secret blanket surveillance obscenely outrageous?” former vice president Al Gore posted on Twitter. Rep. James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, an author of the Patriot Act that was used to obtain the court order, called it “excessive and un-American.” “

 

   Wonder of wonders , Obama has even managed to create agreement between this page and , of all people , Al Gore … We guess pigs really can fly , at least in Obama’s Amerika …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Justice In The Age Of Obama/Holder

 

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As Anger At Eric Holder Grows, So Does His Value As Obama’s Lightning Rod

 

 

” Despite its exalted status as the nation’s “top cop,” the job is best understood as a dumping ground for intermittently competent bulldogs who take out the president’s trash and act as his public-relations human shield.

As Michael A. Walsh notes in the New York Post, Holder is directly involved in essentially every aspect of President Obama’s second-term scandalpalooza. Not only did he sign off on the search warrant for Fox News’s James Rosen’s personal emails, he is at the center of questions over the state’s broad surveillance of the AP, an operation that has raised hackles across the political spectrum regarding First Amendment issues and civil-liberties concerns. (Holder did himself no favors by recusing himself from the AP case in vague and uncertain terms). Walsh notes that “even the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative and Tea Party groups for special scrutiny—[finds its] nexus at the top of the Justice Department.”

Such conservative ire is nothing new. Less than a year ago, congressional Republicans—along with 17 Democrats—voted to hold Holder in contempt for failing to deliver documents and testimony related to the “Fast and Furious” gun-walking operation directed from an Arizona office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, which answers to the attorney general. Although timed to the confirmation vote of CIA director John Brennan, Sen. Rand Paul’s epic filibuster in March was specifically targeted at Holder’s refusal to give a simple answer to questions about the use of domestic drones. Now the House Judiciary Committee is reportedly looking to investigate whether Holder perjured himself before Congress in relation to the press probes.” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Obama Objective: To Control The News

 

 

 

 

” For awhile, it looked like the White House wanted just to control “the narrative.” But its seizure of AP phone records and surveillance of Fox employees now show its real aim: to control the news.

The Obama political team at the White House has always prided itself on its media savvy. After all, they got a candidate with an otherwise unsalable socialist past elected on a campaign that sold his personality, not his platform.

But it turns out their mastery of the press went a lot deeper than just the political arts. The latest news that the Justice Department investigated Fox News reporter James Rosen and two other newsmen in the normal course of their investigative reporting on a national security matter — coming on the heels of their seizure of Associated Press phone records — suggests an administration obsessed with controlling the news itself with a heavy hand reminiscent of totalitarian regimes.”

 

 

 

 

 

Justice DepartmentTargeted TWO Fox News Channel Reporters And A Producer For Talking With Government Sources


 

” The Fox News Channel is outraged over new revelations that three of its reporting staffers were targeted by the U.S. Department of Justice in criminal investigations related to their attempts to obtain information from government sources.

James Rosen, the network’s chief Washington correspondent, has become a First Amendment cause celebre over his treatment by the Obama administration. But the DOJ, Fox says, also investigated the Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter William La Jeunesse and Fox News producer Mike Levine.

Rosen, according to affidavits filed by FBI agents, was considered a possible criminal co-conspirator.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE LOSS OF TRUST

 

 

 

 

” Leaving aside the seriousness of lawlessness, and the corruption of our civic culture by the professionally pious, this past week has been amusing. There was the spectacle of advocates of an ever-larger regulatory government expressing shock about such government’s large capacity for misbehavior. And, entertainingly, the answer to the question “Will Barack Obama’s scandals derail his second-term agenda?” was a question: What agenda?

The scandals are interlocking and overlapping in ways that drain his authority. Everything he advocates requires Americans to lavish on government something his administration, and big government generally, undermines — trust.

Obama’s supposed “trifecta” of scandals — Benghazi, the IRS, and the seizure of Associated Press phone records — neglects some. A fourth scandal is power being wielded by executive branch officials (at the National Labor Relations Board and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) illegally installed in office by presidential recess appointments made when the Senate was not in recess.

A fifth might be Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius soliciting, from corporations in industries HHS regulates, funds to replace some that Congress refused to appropriate. The money is to be spent by nonprofit — which does not mean nonpolitical — entities. The funds are to educate Americans about, which might mean (consider the administration’s Benghazi and IRS behaviors) propagandize in favor of, Obamacare and to enroll people in its provisions. The experienced (former governor, former secretary of education, 10 years in the Senate) and temperate Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., compares this to the Iran-contra scandal, wherein the Reagan administration raised private funds to do what Congress had refused to do — finance the insurgency against Nicaragua’s government.

Obama’s incredibly shrinking presidency is a reminder that politics is a transactional business, trust is the currency of the transactions, and the currency has been debased. For example:”

 

 

Read The Whole Sordid Thing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Obama Blames US Guns And Demand For Drugs For Violence In Mexico

 

 

 

 

 

” President Obama, speaking in Mexico at the Museo Nacional de Antropologia Friday, blamed US guns and demand for illegal drugs for the violence in Mexico. He said that “most of the guns used to commit violence here in Mexico come from the United States.”

 
He said: “Much of the root cause for violence that has been happening here in Mexico, for which so many Mexicans have suffered, is the demand for illegal drugs in the United States.”
He continued: “Most of the guns used to commit violence here in Mexico come from the United States. I think many of you know that in America, our Constitution guarantees our individual right to bear arms. And as president, I swore an oath to uphold that right, and I always will… But at the same time, as I’ve said in the United States, I will continue to do everything in my power to pass common-sense reforms that keep guns out of the hands of criminals and dangerous people… That can save lives here in Mexico and back home in the United States. It’s the right thing to do.” “

 

 

 

 

MUST SEE: The Epic Presidency of Barack Obama

 

 

Hope_&_Change

 

 

” The last five years of Barack Obama’s political career in the president’s own words. Set to a musical score, the video traces the arc of the enigmatic figure’s rise to world power. SHARE this video with Obama fans and your friends!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cars and Bikes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Obama: ‘Maybe I Should Just Pack Up and Go Home. Golly.’

HOUSE GOP NOT BACKING OFF FAST & FURIOUS LAWSUIT DESPITE MEDIA CLAIMS

 

 

 

 

” House Republicans are standing strong in their pursuit of Operation Fast and Furious documents, The Hill’s Jordy Yager reports, undercutting a narrative the Department of Justice has tried to seep into the media.

President Barack Obama asserted executive privilege over the documents minutes before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform voted Attorney General Eric Holder into both civil and criminal contempt of Congress last summer. The full House followed up voting on a bipartisan basis to hold Holder in contempt shortly thereafter, spurning the current lawsuit against the administration for the documents. The DOJ has declined to pursue criminal charges against Holder.

“A fight over President Obama’s use of executive privilege on the documents that led to Attorney General Eric Holder’s contempt charges is increasingly likely to be decided in court,” Yager wrote on Tuesday. “The way the court decides could drastically limit congressional subpoena powers — or curb the extent to which the president can claim executive privilege.” ”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GOP Should Subpoena Benghazi’s Silenced Witnesses

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” Benghazi: The House GOP has threatened to subpoena the survivors of the Benghazi terrorist attack, those who know the truth, and hold up the? nomination of our murdered ambassador’s replacement. It should do both.

The Obama administration is fond of using a familiar tactic, the shield of an “ongoing investigation,” to cover up its malfeasance in the deaths of Americans serving their country.

  It was used to hide the truth regarding the administration’s Fast and Furious gun-running operation to Mexican drug cartels, which resulted in the deaths of agents Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata. They are using it again concerning Benghazi.

   The only American witnesses to the Benghazi attack who have been named by the Obama administration are the four whom the terrorists killed in the Sept. 11 attack on our Benghazi mission — Ambassador Chris Stevens, State Department Information Management Officer Sean Smith, and former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, who were working for the CIA.”

CPAC 2013 – Blogger of the Year Award

Katie Pavlich

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Sweet! NRA to Sponsor NASCAR Cup Race in Texas

 

 

 

 

” The deal with Texas Motor Speedway comes at a time when the NRA is involved in a renewed debate on gun violence in the wake of the December shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

“It’s not about politics. It’s about sports marketing,” TMS president Eddie Gossage said Monday after the announcement of the one-year agreement with the NRA that includes a renewal option. “

 

Eric Holder Sounds the Sequester Alarm

 

This is Holder's idea of protecting us .

 

 

 

” The looming budget sequestration will make Americans less safe, Eric Holder says—and anyone who says otherwise isn’t telling the truth.

“This is something that is going to have an impact on the safety of this country,” the U.S. attorney general told ABC’s Pierre Thomas on Wednesday in a wide-ranging, exclusive interview.

“And anybody that says otherwise is either lying or saying something that runs contrary to the facts,” Holder said.

The Justice Department is going to lose nine percent of its budget between now and September 30th. We’re going to lose $1.6 billion. There are not going to be as many FBI agents, ATF agents, DEA agents, prosecutors who are going to be able to do their jobs,” Holder said. “They’re going to be furloughed. They’re going to spend time out of their offices, not doing their jobs.” ”

 

How does 2%  budget-wide transfer to 9% of Justice’s budget … It’s not like Holder has made us safer anyway … Fast & Furious anyone ?

Leaked Department Of Justice Memo Calls For Gun Ban And Registration

 

 

 

” In order for gun checks to have any kind of effect at stopping crime, according to the memo, a system of gun registration would have to be implemented, and would only work if it were “massive and coupled with a ban.” Gun rights supporters say that gun registration is the first step towards confiscation.

According to the NRA, the memo “shows that the administration ‘believes that a gun ban will not work without mandatory gun confiscation’ and thinks universal background checks ‘won’t work without requiring national gun registration’ — ideas the president has not proposed or expressed support for,” Fram writes.”

SOVEREIGN to SERF

Americans Fear Government | Roger Sayles, From Sovereign to Serf  SERFS-UP.NET

Majority Says the Federal Government Threatens Their Personal Rights

As Barack Obama begins his second term in office, trust in the federal government remains mired near a historic low, while frustration with government remains high. And for the first time, a majority of the public says that the federal government threatens their personal rights and freedoms.

View original post 1,224 more words

7 Things Democrats Would Have Freaked Out About If Bush Had Done Them

 

” 2. American deaths in Afghanistan have skyrocketed since Obama took office.

Actually, the death tolls in Afghanistan under each administration look like this:”

 

 

Actually, the death tolls in Afghanistan under each administration look like this:

 

 

 

 

Pressure Mounting on President, Attorney General Regarding Lack Of Prosecutions For NICS Denials

” As detailed in a February 21 press release, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) are pressing U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department to explain why they have failed to prosecute the vast majority of convicted felons and fugitives from justice who are failing background checks under the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

And, on February 22, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary–led by Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.)–sent letters to President Obama and to Attorney General Holder demanding answers on the lack of prosecutions and enforcement of our nation’s existing gun laws.  In the letter to the President, the committee noted that, during Obama’s administration, “federal firearms prosecutions have fallen to the lowest levels in over a decade.” ”

   This is an administration that is best known for arming the criminals and terrorists and denying protection to both the law-abiding and it’s own employees here and abroad . Is it any wonder that the criminals of America are less persecuted prosecuted than the law-abiding?

   One could almost envision a scenario where-by this government is actively pursuing policies designed to foment civil unrest and provide an excuse to curtail/eliminate our civil rights .

  If anyone is still naive enough to believe that this cabal in the White House has the Nation’s best interests at heart ask the families of Brian Terry , Christopher Stevens , Tyrone Woods , Sean Smith , Jaime Zapata , Glen Doherty and hundreds of dead Mexican’s what they think .

Hundreds Of Dead Mexicans

Obama, Holder Called Out for Not Enforcing Gun Laws

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” A group of 23 Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee Friday sent letters to President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder demanding existing gun laws be enforced before additional limitations are passed.

  The committee, which has held hearings in recent weeks on ways to prevent gun violence, again called into focus statistics that show a dramatic drop in federal weapons prosecutions over the past decade.

   The letters cite a Syracuse University study that show firearms prosecutions under  President George W. Bush peaked at 11,015 in 2004 while the Obama administration has prosecuted about 7,774 firearms cases in 2012.

  A prosecution rate this low is not indicative of a Department of Justice that takes the act of illegally attempting to acquire a firearm seriously,” Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said in a statement accompanying the letters.”

Was Mexican Billionaire Drug Kingpin El Chapo Killed?

 

 

 

” Although there is no official confirmation  in the Unites States,Mexico or Guatemala that Mexican billionaire Drug Kingpin El Chapo Guzman could have been killed in Guatemala, the rumor spread faster than lightning throughout cyberspace.

The story broke late on February 21 when Guatemalan authorities said that  they were investigating whether Guzman was one of at least two men killed in the Peten, an area bordering  Mexico controlled by the Zetas, a rival gang to El Chapo’s Sinaloa cartel. While it is not clear what led officials to think that one of the dead men could be El Chapo,  according to the Guatemalan media, local residents reported a gun battle between drug gangs and said one of the dead “resembled”  the world’s most-wanted drug lord.  As I’m writing this post,  AP is reporting that the Guatemalan government “apologized”  for what it called a “misunderstanding” about  an alleged shootout where El Chapo might have been killed.”

 

 

Further reading :

 

Sinaloa Group 101: Five Facts About Mexico’s Powerful Drug Cartel

 

Five Months After Benghazi Murders: Killers Frolic Untouched There

” Five months ago, radical Islamists in Libya murdered four American officials, and President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that the administration would not rest until those responsible were caught.

Yet it seems as if nothing has been done: just as the White House did nothing on September 11, 2012, while the U.S. consulate was under attack, it has done nothing serious since, and is doing nothing now.

Want proof? Consider this report:

Just days after President Barack Obama vowed to hunt down and bring to justice those responsible for the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound here, Ahmed Abu Khattala — one of those considered a ringleader — spent two leisurely hours Thursday evening at a luxury hotel full of journalists, relaxed in a red fez and sandals, sipping mango juice on a patio overlooking the Mediterranean and scoffing at the threats coming from both the American and Libyan governments.

Libya’s fledgling national army was a “national chicken,” Abu Khattala said, using an Arabic rhyme. Asked who should take responsibility for apprehending the mission’s attackers, he chuckled at the weakness of the Libyan authorities. And he accused U.S. leaders of “playing with the emotions of the American people” and “using the consulate attack just to gather votes for their elections.” “

 

Behold the 900-MPH Supersonic Ping-Pong Bazooka

 

 

 

” The Internet can teach you how to build a gun that launches ping-pong balls at a few hundred miles per hour. Big deal—where’s the fun in shooting projectiles at subsonic speed? To kick it up a notch, a team of mechanical engineers at Purdue University has reconfigured the ping-pong-ball gun into a supersonic bazooka.

Click hereto watch as it turns four aluminum cans into shrapnel. For years, Mark French has been using the regular subsonic version of the gun to teach kids about physics.”I’ve brought it to 4-H clubs and to schools. I’ve gotten ridiculous mileage out of this thing. With all that use, you can’t help but wonder whether you can improve it.”

Once the engineers got the bazooka up and running, they tested it on all sorts of materials, including VHS tapes, 3/4-inch plywood, stereo speakers, and even a sheet of steel. “The ball didn’t go through the steel, but it put a whopper of a dent in it,” French says. “Normally what happens is the ball comes out in pieces—it’s shattered but not deformed. For this one, it melted and buckled. I didn’t expect that.” ”

 

More Pics , Video and info at the link

HT/Instapundit

 

Family Of Slain ICE Agent Files Wrongful Death Lawsuit

 

 

” The family of a U.S. Customs Enforcement agent killed in a 2011 ambush on a Mexican highway and another agent who survived are suing the government and others.

The federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in Brownsville arises from the Feb. 15, 2011, attack on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Jaime Zapata and Victor Avila.”