The Wandering Minstrel

Representative Darrell Issa (R CA) wrote a letter to the Attorney General regarding Fast and Furious in which Issa assigns ownership of the scandal directly to Holder. Personally, I think ownership belongs to the Obamination. Both Holder AND Obama need to be fired. Michelle Malkin posted the entire letter on her site, but I found the last two paragraphs concisely state Rep. Issa’s sentiments:

Mr. Attorney General, you have made numerous statements about Fast and Furious that have eventually been proven to be untrue. Your lack of trustworthiness while speaking about Fast and Furious has called into question your overall credibility as Attorney General. The time for deflecting blame and obstructing our investigation is over. The time has come for you to come clean to the American public about what you knew about Fast and Furious, when you knew it, and who is going to be held accountable for failing to shut down a program that has already had deadly consequences, and will likely cause more casualties for years to come.

Operation Fast and Furious was the Department’s most significant gun trafficking case. It related to two of your major initiatives – destroying the Mexican cartels and reducing gun violence on both sides of the border. On your watch, it went spectacularly wrong. Whether you realize yet or not, you own Fast and Furious. It is your responsibility.

Emphasis mine.

I received an email from our Congressman, Trent Franks (R - AZ 2), yesterday. It was a newsletter containing information about the Congressman’s September activities. It turns out that he is one of a growing number of legislators in Washington demanding information about the Fast and Furious/Gunrunner debacle.

From Phoenix Business Journal:

Arizona lawmaker wants Fast and Furious papers from Obama

U.S. Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., wants the Obama administration to release all its documents and data for its ill-fated Operation Fast and Furious gun-running investigation.

Franks made the request today as Republicans press the White House on the gun investigation. That investigation involved trying to track guns purchased in Arizona and other states by straw buyers and then transported back to Mexico for use by drug cartels.

The problem occurred when federal police failed to arrest the gun runners and the weapons showed up at Mexico and U.S. crime scenes. One of the guns was used to kill a U.S. Border Patrol agent. The Fast and Furious fallout may have been a factor in U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke being fired.

Franks said as many as 2,500 guns were part of the investigation, and wants the White House to turn over more documents and information.

Scandal: A major-league pitcher was indicted for lying to Congress about steroid use. Administration memos show Eric Holder lied about what he knew about Fast and Furious and when he knew it. What’s the difference? Somewhere, Scooter Libby must be scratching his head. He was indicted and convicted simply because his recall of when a meeting occurred differed from others. He didn’t lie about a gun-running operation that led to the deaths of two American agents and at least 200 Mexicans. But Attorney General Eric Holder did, according to memos obtained by CBS News and Fox News. They show Holder lied to Congress on May 2, 2011, when he was asked about when he knew about the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Fast and Furious gun-running operation. - Investors Business Daily

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Late developments in the Fast and Furious investigation may lead to a massive ATF reorganization or perhaps it will be disbanded. We can only hope.

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So, it would seem that the fact suppression comes directly from the oval office. From Investor’s Business Daily (via The Patriot Post):

New documents reveal the Department of Justice lied to Congress and show how U.S. officials bought guns with tax dollars and then made sure no one stopped their transfer to Mexican drug cartels. The funneling of thousands of American guns into the hands of Mexican drug cartels in the operation known as Fast and Furious was not a botched sting operation or the result of bureaucratic incompetence. It was not designed to interdict gun trafficking, but to facilitate it. We now know that it involved not just the use of straw buyers, but also agents of the federal government purchasing weapons with taxpayer money, ordering the licensed dealers to conduct the sales off the books, then calling off surveillance of the gun traffickers and refusing to interdict the transfer of the weapon or arrest the people involved. … A two-year-old C-SPAN video shows Deputy Attorney General David Ogden, who would resign nine months later after less than a year’s service, telling reporters at a Justice Department briefing of major policy initiatives to fight the Mexican drug cartels. ‘The president has directed us to take action to fight these cartels,’ Ogden began, ‘and Attorney General Holder and I are taking several new and aggressive steps as part of the administration’s comprehensive plan.’ Ogden said the administration’s plan, at the president’s direction, included the ATF’s ‘increasing its efforts by adding 37 new employees in three new offices, using $10 million in Recovery Act funds and redeploying 100 personnel to the Southwest border in the next 45 days to fortify its Project Gunrunner,’ of which Operation Fast and Furious would be a part. … Fast and Furious should spark our pursuit of the truth, even if the trail leads to the Oval Office.

A word about General Electric . . .

From an email I received from a former colleague:

General Electric is planning to move its 115-year-old X-ray division from Waukesha, Wis., to Beijing. In addition to moving the headquarters, the company will invest $2 billion in China and train more than 65 engineers and create six research centers. This is the same GE that made $5.1 billion in the United States last year. but paid no taxes-the same company that employs more people overseas than it does in the united States.

So let me get this straight. President Obama appointed GE Chairman Jeff Immelt to head his commission on job creation (job czar). Immelt is supposed to help create jobs. I guess the President forgot to tell him in which country he was supposed to be creating those jobs.

If this doesn’t show you the total lack of leadership of this President, I don’t know what does. Please pass this information to others and think about it before you buy a GE product.

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Breaking News: ATF FAST AND FURIOUS SECRET AUDIO RECORDINGS

As CBS News first reported last February, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allegedly allowed thousands of weapons to “walk” onto the streets without interdiction into the hands of suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels in its operation “Fast and Furious.”

In the following audio excerpts, the gun dealer Howard and ATF Agent MacAllister discuss possible involvement in the investigation into Fast and Furious by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT). They also mention Attorney General Eric Holder.

Found on Gun Owners of America. The investigation of ATF getting closer to the Whitehouse according to CBS (Via Sipsey Street Irregulars).