Ruh Roh: Email Shows ATF Director Knew of Gunwalking in December, 2010

On July 4th, 2011 Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson gave testimony to congressional investigators representing Rep. Darrell Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley. In that interview, Melson allegedly pleaded ignorance about Operation Fast and Furious, saying that when he'd learned about guns walking, he became sick to his stomach.

However, now email evidence has been uncovered that shows Melson not only knew about gunwalking at least as early as a few days after Brian Terry's death but he seemed to be much more concerned about ATF agents leaking information about Fast and Furious to the public than in actually addressing the problem.

Via Western Center for Journalism:

Discovery of a January 2011 e-mail exchange between then Acting ATF Director Ken Melson and the Bureau’s chief council Steve Rubenstein has put the kibosh on Obama administration elites’ latest “we didn’t know about it” defense concerning the regime’s involvement in Operation Fast and Furious.

After reading a post from an alleged ATF agent on the website CleanupATF.org, Melson contacted ATF Chief Counsel Steve Rubenstein. It appeared that Melson got the answer he was looking for because he told Rubenstein thank you and that he would be forwarding the email to Internal Affairs, which has become known as the place to go to report ATF agents whose minds aren't right (wink, wink).

Instead of expressing outrage or even a modicum of concern about the charges, Melson's reaction at least seems to imply he's in support of disciplining ATF agents who had a problem with letting guns walk.

This one is another bombshell and an unwelcome development if you're a member of the Barack Obama administration.

Here is the email exchange in question:

Melson Email

Must See Video: Five People Play One Guitar

Oh yeah, they're REALLY good too. If you find yourself wondering why the guy on the far right plays a part in this video, wait until the end.

The guy in the middle has a voice reminiscent of Peter Gabriel.



h/t Verum Serum

Mitt's Super PAC Responds to Newt's Super Pac Documentary

Well, that didn't take long. As soon as Newt's Super PAC - Winning Our Future - released the full length documentary, King of Bain, which goes after Mitt Romney's private sector experience, Mitt's Super PAC - Restoring Our Future - releases an ad going right after Newt on a host of issues. Gingrich has backed off of his attacks on Romney over Bain but that didn't stop his Super PAC from doing so. If the documentary gets traction, Newt might just enter the ring again on that issue. It is a powerful documentary, regardless of what side of the argument you're on.

As for the mano-a-mano between Newt and Mitt that is fully underway, it helps two people - Ron Paul and Rick Santorum.

Newt hinted after the Iowa caucus that he would attack Romney almost on behalf of Santorum, like a Nascar driver running interference for his teammate.

Nonetheless, this battle between two Republicans can only get uglier.

The good news? Perhaps it will give us a nominee willing to take the gloves off against Obama this time.



h/t Hot Air

Video: Bain Capital Documentary now available

This is from Newt's Super PAC and despite the attempts of talk show hosts Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity to denounce the attacks on Bain as attacks on capitalism, this could be quite damaging to the presumptive Republican nominee.

Via King of Bain:

Solyndra is Seeking to Pay Bonuses (yes, you read that right)

Forget the fact that Solyndra squandered more than $500 million of taxpayer dollars; forget the fact that it restructured the loan and placed those taxpayers at the back of the bus when new investors showed up, in an attempt to keep the company afloat. The attorneys for the now bankrupt, taxpayer subsidized train wreck of a company, wants to incentivize remaining employees with bonuses.

Via Washington Times:

Now seems an unlikely time for handing out bonuses at bankrupt Solyndra LLC, but that’s the plan of company attorneys intending to dole out up to a half-million dollars to persuade key employees to stay put.

Nearly two dozen Solyndra employees could receive bonuses ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 each under a proposal filed by Solyndra’s attorneys in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.

The attorneys say the extra money will add motivation at a time when workers at the solar company have little job security and more responsibilities because so many of their colleagues have been fired.

The names of the bonus-eligible employees are not disclosed in the court filings that outline the bonus proposal. None of the employees is among the so-called corporate “insiders” — top officers or members of the board of directors, records show.

The proposed bonus recipients include nine equipment engineers, six general business and finance employees and up to two information technology workers.

The biggest bonus, for $50,000, would go to a Solyndra employee whose job title is listed as a senior director with a base salary of $206,499 per year. Two senior managers stand to receive bonuses of $30,000 and $32,500.

Bankruptcy attorneys said the so-called “key employee incentive plan” aims to keep important personnel from leaving the company.

This is what we call 'unmitigated gall,' boys and girls.

h/t Fox Nation

DNC Chair Still Blaming Tea Party for Giffords Shooting

There's a difference between spinning to score political points and outright egregious propaganda to further an agenda. Here, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz engages in the latter by attributing culpability to the Tea Party while discussing the Tucson shootings one year ago.

The time for attempting to understand this level of evil is long past but that doesn't make it any less important. The facts on the Tucson shooting came in long ago. Shooter Jared Loughner was an insane individual who was, at best, apolitical. If anything, the evidence points to him being leftist, if political at all, which would place him on Wasserman-Schultz's end of the spectrum.

After all, he listed the Communist manifesto and Mein Kampf as two of his favorite books. The former is at the heart of left-wing ideology and the latter was authored by Hitler, a man who sympathized with Islamists, like the left does today.



h/t Hot Air

Disgraceful: Mercedes Uses Che Guevara to Promote Vehicles

Those who make the charge that the push for green technology in the name of preventing climate change have a hidden and very nefarious agenda just had their case bolstered by an unlikely source - Mercedes Benz. Hitler was an environmentalist and the German car maker Mercedes Benz is using an image of Che Guevara - with a Mercedes logo on his beret - to promote car pooling to help save the environment.

Via CBS News:

"Some colleagues still think that car-sharing borders on communism," Mercedes-Benz Chairman of the Board of Management Dieter Zetsche said onstage at CES today, speaking about Mercedes' new CarTogether initiative. "But if that's the case, viva la revolucion!"

To be sure, a luxury-car maker like Mercedes is not actually promoting communism. But during his CES talk, Zetsche pushed hard on a vision that the company has for a greener future that allows drivers to reduce emissions by using connected and social technology to easily find compatible passengers to share rides with.

Still, it's odd--and no doubt intended to stir up conversation--to hear a company so inexorably tied to money and lavish lifestyles invoking philosophies like communism. Especially with a picture of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara towering over Zetsche as he talked. Of course, Che's signature beret sported a Mercedes logo.

It's a crime in Germany to deny the holocaust. It's apparently a-ok for one of that country's best known car makers to use a Hitler wannabe to sell cars.

Truly insane times.

No, I mean truly insane times.

Read it all.