Is Partisan Politics Polarizing Fast and Furious Hearings?
First it was “Blame Bush” and now it seems the media is ready to readily accept the findings of Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md. This week USA Today noted with a biased headline, “Report: Agents, not Justice Dept. to blame in Fast and Furious“:
A U.S. House minority report on the gun-smuggling probe known as Fast and Furious blames federal agents in Arizona for the flawed operation while exonerating top-level Justice Department officials.
The 89-page analysis, released Tuesday by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., ranking minority member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, is based upon five congressional hearings, testimony from 22 witnesses and about 12,000 pages of documents.
Its conclusion: “Operation Fast and Furious was the latest in a series of fatally flawed operations run by ATF agents in Phoenix and the Arizona U.S. Attorney’s Office.
And there you have it. The media has ignored the story for months, but now that the blame can be cast away – far away from President Obama and his henchman Eric Holder – the media has decided this is a story worth covering!
Town Hall Reports What We Are All Thinking
This week the headline on Town Hall said what we were already thinking in regards to “Fast and Furious: Democrats Fully Engaged in Fast and Furious Coverup.” Writer Katie Pavlich noted:
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are officially trying to cover for Attorney General Eric Holder just before he testifies on Thursday about Operation Fast and Furious, with anti-Second Amendment Ranking Member Elijah Cummings leading the way. Last night, Cummings released a 95 page waste of paper and taxpayer money report, alleging that top Justice Department officials did not authorize the program, despite evidence showing otherwise. The report tries to pin the blame back on a few “rogue” managers in the ATF Phoenix Field Division. This is the same argument we’ve heard since the beginning of the scandal: it was a local operation, nobody important knew anything.
The media has tried to Blame Bush, and if during the Bush administration tried to pass the buck to the local ATF office there would be full on media outrage. But one thing that Pavlich has failed to note is that the media accepts this coverup because it is so much better than reporting the truth.
Fast and Furious: Is it Partisan Politics at Play?
This week The New York Times showed how divided the nation truly is, and nowhere more so than the nation’s capitol building:
Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Tuesday are expected to publish a report on the disputed gun trafficking investigation called Operation Fast and Furious, concluding that agents in Arizona — not Obama administration officials — were responsible for the tactics used in the inquiry and for providing misleading information relayed to Congress.
Of course this argument is more of the “Blame Bush” strategy that we’ve seen for months, and it is an attempt to distance President Obama as well as Attorney General Eric Holder from Fast and Furious. But the question still remains, even if Holder didn’t know (which according to recent information seems hard to believe), why didn’t he know?
NRA News: Rep. Blake Farenthold on Friday Night Fast and Furious Document Dump
Ginny Simone talks to Congressman Blake Farenthold (R-TX)
NY Post: “A Fast & Furious fib”
Could it be that Eric Holder was lying? Actually we already think most of what comes of his mouth comes out of another part of a male cow, but that’s not just our opinion it seems. Writing for The New York Post over the weekend, Michael A. Walsh offered this commentary:
It’s not the crime, it’s the coverup, goes the old Washington cliché. In the case of the Fast and Furious gun-walking scandal, it’s both.
As Attorney General Eric Holder gets ready to face more congressional grilling Thursday, something’s clearly rotten at the Justice Department. The stench goes all the way to the top — to Holder.
Walsh noted that according to new emails Holder had known about Fast and Furious all along. Walsh closes this piece noting:
With a tough re-election fight, President Obama doesn’t need F&F to become a campaign issue. But surely even he realizes that the nation has had enough of Holder’s polarizing tenure at Justice. Given a choice between himself and Holder . . . well, there’s always room for one more under the Obama bus.
We agree with Walsh, except we have to note… the media has been mum on this story. The mainstream media doesn’t want this story to get out. And that makes it all the more important for the story to be told.
Documents Say DOJ Knew Of Fast And Furious Connection Day After Terry Murder
David Codrea:
Email from aide appears to demonstrate Holder perjury
“Emails Show How ‘Fast and Furious’ Ambush News Unfolded At Justice Dept.,” NPR reports tonight.
“For the first time, the Justice Department has made public a series of sensitive messages that passed to the highest levels of the agency within hours of an ambush that killed a U.S. border patrol agent…The email messages show the former top federal prosecutor in Arizona, Dennis Burke, notifying an aide to Holder via email on Dec. 15, 2010 that agent Brian Terry had been wounded and died. ‘Tragic,’ responds the aide, Monty Wilkinson. ‘I’ve alerted the AG, the acting Deputy Attorney General…’”
This correspondent was on the phone with Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars a few hours ago ths evening, shortly before the NPR release. From Vanderboegh’s assessment:
“White House dumps 500 plus pages of documents tonight…NPR was apparently the preferred outlet for the dump…Holder is screwed. Of course the only reason they’re doing this is to further the modified limited hangout, which now apparently includes Eric Holder. Remember, these are the emails that the WH WANTED to release. What does that tell us? That they’re protecting the White House and are willing to dispose of Holder to do it.”
Continue reading on Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/documents-say-doj-knew-of-fast-and-furious-connection-day-after-terry-murder
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is a long-time gun rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He is a field editor for GUNS Magazine, and a blogger at The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance. Read more at www.DavidCodrea.com.
NRA News: Issa says Holder should apologize to Mexico: ‘Justice has blood on their hands’
Cam Edwards talks to Matthew Boyle from The Daily Caller
NRA News: Arizona Lawmakers Announce Plans for Fast and Furious Committee
Cam Edwards talks to State Rep. David Burnell Smith (R-AZ)
AK-74 Sales Up in 2011 – U.S. Media Ignores the Story
Russian media outlet RIA Novosti offered a story that has barely had any pickup in the United States, noting “Kalashnikov Rifle Maker Sales up 57.4% in 2011.” The article noted:
Izhmash, the manufacturer of Kalashnikov AK assault rifles, said its sales were up 57.4 percent last year at 5.73 billion rubles (about $190 million).
Civilian weapon sales rose 25 percent and a similar increase is expected this year, Izhmash press secretary Yelena Filatova said.
Production is to increase 30 percent this year, to 5.1 billion rubles, she added.
In September 2011, Chief of the Russian General Staff Nikolai Makarov said the Defense Ministry had stopped procuring AK-74 rifles because of oversupply, indicating that new models of small arms and light weapons would replace it.
The AK-74 is the most widely used and well-known assault rifle in the world. It is used by some 50 armies around the world, as well as countless guerrilla movements.
Now this is worth noting because it does mean that not only is this the most commonly used firearm in the world at present, but is probably the most widely illegally trafficked firearm as well. While fingers continue to point at American firearms, where is the mainstream media reporting on the AK-74 sales? And notice that the Russian military has an oversupply but the sales are increasing, so where are those guns going?
A related story also noted, “Venezuela plant to make 50 million Kalashnikov rounds annually,” which is a huge number. Could those bullets be fueling the cartel wars in Mexico? Just asking…
NRA News: Rep. Trey Gowdy on DOJ Official Refusing to Testify on Fast and Furious
Ginny Simone talks to Congressman Trey Gowdy (R-SC)
