Mexican Police Chief latest Fast and Furious victim; Democrats silent

Gabrielle Giffords, Sandy Hook, Colorado theater shootings, etc. etc. etc. Whenever there is a crime(s) involving gun violence, the Obama administration is always ready to exploit it. There is one exception to this rule - Fast and Furious.

Now we learn there is yet another victim. A Mexican police chief was shot and killed by a weapon that was sold in the U.S. and made its way across our southern border. Obama's lackeys in the media should be all over this one, right?

Via Los Angeles Times:

A high-powered rifle lost in the ATF’s Fast and Furious controversy was used to kill a Mexican police chief in the state of Jalisco earlier this year, according to internal Department of Justice records, suggesting that weapons from the failed gun-tracking operation have now made it into the hands of violent drug cartels deep inside Mexico.

Luis Lucio Rosales Astorga, the police chief in the city of Hostotipaquillo, was shot to death Jan. 29 when gunmen intercepted his patrol car and opened fire. Also killed was one of his bodyguards. His wife and a second bodyguard were wounded.

Local authorities said eight suspects in their 20s and 30s were arrested after police seized them nearby with a cache of weapons — rifles, grenades, handguns, helmets, bulletproof vests, uniforms and special communications equipment. The area is a hot zone for rival drug gangs, with members of three cartels fighting over turf in the region.

A semi-automatic WASR rifle, the firearm that killed the chief, was traced back to the Lone Wolf Trading Company, a gun store in Glendale, Ariz. The notation on the Department of Justice trace records said the WASR was used in a “HOMICIDE – WILLFUL – KILL –PUB OFF –GUN” –ATF code for “Homicide, Willful Killing of a Public Official, Gun.”

In the case of Sandy Hook, a weapon purchased legally was stolen by the lone shooter, who then murdered twenty-six people (twenty children). Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) wasted no time in calling on Obama to exploit the tragedy, doing so on the very same day.

Mexican police chief, Luis Lucio Rosales Astorga was murdered more than five months ago. Yet, Nadler is silent.

Even if one gives Nadler a pass on ignoring the shooting death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry on December 14, 2010 and the hundreds of innocent Mexicans who were murdered by guns from Operation Fast and Furious, why is he so silent on the shooting death of Astorga? After all, the weapon used to kill a Mexican police chief was purchased in an U.S. gun store, right? It was very likely sold to a 'straw purchaser' who then 'walked' that gun into Mexico and handed it to drug cartels.

Rep. Nadler, if you want to exploit gun crimes, it would seem this is your opportunity.

Oh, wait.

The Obama administration can't exploit Fast and Furious because it's responsible for implementing it. Had it not been caught, Nadler would be at the front of the line, calling for tighter gun restrictions.

Obama offers Fast and Furious opportunities to Conservatives at NRA Convention (So far, no takers)

On the same day that the 2013 NRA Convention began in Houston, TX Barack Obama was in Mexico telling an audience that "most of the guns used to commit violent crimes here in Mexico, come from the United States." What he didn't tell that audience was that his administration is responsible for Operation Fast and Furious, a program in which the ATF told reluctant gun store owners to sell high-powered guns to bad guys who would then 'walk' those guns to drug cartels in Mexico.

Yet, Republicans and gun rights activists have avoided bludgeoning those in the administration and on the Democratic side of the aisle by contrasting the exploitation of Sandy Hook with the failed attempt to exploit the consequences of Fast and Furious by pointing to its consequences. Those consequences have been - and continue to be - hundreds of murdered people. The Obama administration wanted to used those consequences to push gun control but couldn't because of whistleblowers in general, and one in particular - ATF Agent John Dodson.

Dodson came forward when one of the guns found at the murder scene of Border Agent Brian Terry on December 14, 2010 was a gun from Operation Fast and Furious. In 2012, Attorney General Eric Holder was found in contempt of Congress and Obama asserted Executive Privilege to prevent documents from coming forward that would reveal the truth about the operation.

Despite all of this, Obama presented every speaker at the NRA Convention with a golden opportunity to draw this contrast. To this point, no one has highlighted this contrast.

Said Obama on Friday, May 3rd, the first day of the NRA Convention:

"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... So we'll keep increasing the pressure on gun traffickers who bring illegal guns into Mexico. We'll keep putting these criminals where they belong - behind bars."

This is gall-dacity.



Despite this low-hanging fruit, even Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin have avoided contrasting Obama's exploitation of Sandy Hook with his failure to do so in Fast and Furious... because he got caught.

It's hard to explain why conservatives are avoiding the one argument that will deliver the most severe blow. They don't even use it when they're being taunted by Obama.

Makes. No. Sense.



Here is Cruz. Good speech but he also avoided Fast and Furious vs. Sandy Hook:

What if Fast and Furious guns used in murders of Prosecutors?

After Jared Loughner shot Gabrielle Giffords along with several others in a Tucson parking lot, there was grave concern among ATF agents that a Fast and Furious gun may have been used. It wasn't but now that we're seeing the shooting deaths elected officials (a prison chief in Colorado and two prosecutors in Texas), there is certainly no doubt that similar fears are rearing their heads about weapons from that ATF operation being involved.

An ABC News report on the murders is below. Though Fast and Furious is not mentioned, drug trafficking is. While there is a narrative setting in that the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (ABT) is suspected of being involved, Mexican drug cartels are certainly a possibility as well. We also know that hundreds - if not thousands - of Fast and Furious weapons have still not been recovered.

Another red flag for those suspicious of getting the truth about what is happening is that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is being viewed as a source of expertise - in both the news report below and other places. This group is extremely far left and has an agenda that does not usually involve getting to the truth.

h/t Freedom's Lighthouse:

Audio: Is Ted Cruz separating himself from the Rand / Rubio Immigration Chaff?

Conservatives are looking for someone - anyone - in the halls of power to actually assert his / her power. In the House, there are a handful of courageous Republicans (Bachmann, Gowdy, Gohmert, and a few others) but in the upper chamber, where more power is wielded and more weight is carried by each Senator, the battle has seemingly come down to three people.

Rand Paul (R-KY), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Ted Cruz (R-TX).

In a world where a few hot-button issues rotate to the front burner with increasing frequency and intensity, immigration appears to be taking its turn. In this battle, Cruz has taken the lead among conservatives and that is evident when comparing the recent positions / activities of the three men, coupled with Cruz's stated positions on Sean Hannity's April 1st radio show.

Let's take a look at the three Senators who are attempting to tap into the most passionate and sought after voting bloc of the Republican Party - the conservatives.

Paul won major points with conservatives when he decided to filibuster for twelve hours over a response he did not get from the Obama administration over the use of drones to kill Americans on U.S. soil. Regardless of where one comes down on the issue, Paul exhibited a fighting spirit that is far too often lacking from Republican leaders. However, when it comes to the issue of immigration, Paul has deviated from the conservative position and has called for a pathway to citizenship, which in the minds of conservatives, is a pathway to amnesty. Helping Paul among conservatives was the way he confronted Hillary Clinton over Benghazi.

Rubio essentially began his dance with the devil when he joined the gang of eight, which included Socialist Democrats Durbin, Schumer, and Menendez along with RINOs McCain and Graham to cut a deal over comprehensive immigration reform. Rubio's achilles heal with conservatives has long been his rather vague stance on immigration. His decision to join the gang of eight didn't help him much, though to his credit, he is calling for open and robust debate, which just might scare the rest more than the prospect of not getting a deal done. Rubio was also incredibly weak when he had five minutes alone with Hillary Clinton over Benghazi.

Cruz appears to be separating himself from the other two in the pack when it comes to the immigration debate. He understands that until everyone agrees - and then demands / acts on that agreement - to secure the border before any other discussions take place, will get us nowhere, at best. Every time something is done about immigration (Rubio and Rand should listen up), it comes with an empty promise to secure the border after granting amnesty to illegal aliens.

Cruz isn't falling for it. As a result, his stock among conservatives will undoubtedly rise faster than will Rubio or Paul on the issue of immigration, which is a big one.

Via MediaIte:

Mask is off Mexican Government: Ignored Fast and Furious, Exploiting Sandy Hook

The Mexican government is now officially in on it, folks. Yes, suspicions were raised over that government's relative silence about Operation Fast and Furious as the scandal unfolded for nearly two years but now that Mexican politicians are lobbying the U.S. Senate to create a gun registry in states that border Mexico, it's confirmed.

In this local news report from a CBS affiliate in Arizona, citizens who were interviewed about this attempt by Mexican lawmakers to create a gun registry in the U.S. brought up Fast and Furious when asked for their take.

The mask is off Mexico's leaders, whether we're talking about those who didn't stand up when Fast and Furious was exposed or those who are now getting behind Obama's gun control / registration / confiscation push.

Via The Blaze:

CBS 5 - KPHO 

In Fast and Furious, the ATF instructed gun store owners in 'border states' - despite the objections of those gun store owners - to sell high powered rifles (AK-47's and .50 Cal.) to straw purchasers who they knew would walk those thousands of weapons to Mexican drug cartels. Those guns were used - and continue to be used - in the commission of countless murders. The Mexican government was all but silent as a dastardly plan by high ranking members of the Obama administration was implemented in an attempt to create the climate for gun control.

It didn't work and Sandy Hook is Plan B but it's not just the Obama administration who is implementing it. The Mexican government is playing along.

Let's go back to March 24, 2009. A lot happened on that day. First, here is Obama at a news conference telling the press that the situation with regard to guns from the U.S. going to Mexican drug cartels is 'out of control'. What would transpire over the next several months involved an agency under the purview of Obama's Justice Department intentionally making that situation much worse:



Also on March 24, 2009... Deputy Attorney General David Ogden expounds on the same subject and even made reference to 'Project Gunrunner', the larger umbrella term for Fast and Furious:



Oh, and let's not forget DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano on March 24, 2009 talking about the same subject. Notice how she talks about 'prosecuting' gun dealers who sell to bad guys. If Fast and Furious hadn't blown up in the administration's face, would the DOJ have prosecuted gun dealers who objected but who were told by the ATF to sell anyway? Napolitano starts around the 2:00 mark:



Here is Obama in April of 2009, shortly after Fast and Furious was put into motion. Notice the message. Innocent Mexicans were being murdered at the hands of guns purchased in the U.S. and something had to be done. Little did we know that the something involved the ATF accelerating the practice of sending guns to Mexico. Why? Well, to create the climate for gun control that would involve things like gun registries in border states:



Two years later, on March 3, 2011 - during a joint press conference at the White House with Obama and Mexico's president Felipe Calderon - the subject of gun violence in Mexico was discussed. Remember, the Obama administration was on defense at the time because of Fast and Furious so there was no aggressive push for gun control. All the two men could do was nibble around the edges. Here is a quote from Calderon, which takes place around the 32:00 mark:

"...with respect to the actions foreign agents in the Mexican land. The law does not allow agents of the United States or any other country to take part in tasks involving justice enforcement in our territory. As a result, they cannot carry weapons or undertake operational tasks. Their functions in line with our treaties are limited to the exchange of information and technical assistance to support Mexican authorities in these tasks... it's very clear for me as well that we must find a way of enhancing the level of protection of any and all agents who are acting within the framework of the law against crime and of course we are deeply analyzing alternatives for this and in dialogue with the Mexican Congress, who is the party who has the final say on this matter."

One of the things we learned in the wake of Fast and Furious is that the ATF was essentially sending high powered weapons to drug cartels without the Mexican government's knowledge. Yet, the Obama administration seemed to get a pass with the Mexican government while the American people are NOT getting a pass from the Mexican government, relative to something they had nothing to do with - Sandy Hook.

At that same March 3, 2011 press conference - shortly after Calderon's aforementioned statement - a liberal, sycophantic, hispanic reporter stuck his nose firmly in Obama's... never mind and asked him why he didn't have the power to 'veto' the second amendment. Obama then proceeded to lie his face off in light of what we now know happened with Fast and Furious. He then laughably says his administration has 'seen progress' with respect to catching straw purchasers.

Via CNS News:



As the operation blew up in the face of the administration, Mexican leaders were all but silent and the Obama administration stonewalled. Now that Sandy Hook is replacing Fast and Furious as the trigger for gun control, Mexican officials are teaming up with the Obama administration in an attempt to do what Fast and Furious failed to do.

Despicable: Biden still exploiting Sandy Hook; still silent over Fast and Furious

Twenty-six people - including twenty children - lost their lives at Sandy Hook on December 14, 2012. Hundreds of Mexicans (and counting) have lost their lives as the result of Operation Fast and Furious, an operation led by the Obama administration's ATF. Vice President Joe Biden continues to exploit the former for gun control while ignoring the latter, which was exposed more than two years ago and continues to be stonewalled by the administration to this day.

Why? Because Sandy Hook can be exploited to push for gun confiscation while Fast and Furious not only makes the opposite case but it also makes the case for dissolving the ATF, the prosecution of the Attorney General for contempt of Congress, and the possible impeachment of Barack Obama.

Biden's latest faux-display of emotion took place at Leesburg, VA.

Via Huffington Post:

Biden invoked the slaughter at Sandy Hook Elementary School, at one point choking up as he told of the 20 children, ages 6 and 7, who perished after being "literally riddled with bullet holes." He argued that the U.S. government has an obligation to the families and victims of the massacre to act.

"I can't imagine how [the parents] deal with it," Biden said. "But I can imagine how we will be judged as individuals, judged as a Congress, judged as a nation, if we do not. ... It's simply unacceptable."

At the heart of Biden's speech was a plea to Democrats who may be weighing political consequences of backing contentious pieces of gun-control legislation, such as bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Biden's message -- delivered with his signature passion, growing louder as he argued for urgency -- was that public opinion had shifted.

"The ability, because of all this happening, to misrepresent our positions no longer exists as it did in 1994," Biden said. "The world has changed. The American public has changed.

Then this from Biden:

"Don't tell me, 'Because we can't solve it all, we can't act at all,'" Biden said.

Yeah, well don't tell me that you don't have ulterior motives, especially in light of your continued silence over Fast and Furious. You support Obama's use of Executive Orders to push gun control and apparently also support his use of Executive Privilege to prevent the truth about Fast and Furious from coming out.

That truth? Gun Control.

Eric Holder's gun control audacity vs. John Boehner's political cowardice

The comments by Attorney General Eric Holder at the U.S. Conference of Mayors were intended to help push Barack Obama's gun control agenda. What they did was further expose what Fast and Furious was all about:

"...the administration has called upon Congress to... consider a series of new federal laws imposing tough penalties on gun traffickers who help funnel weapons to dangerous criminals." - Eric Holder on 1/18/13

Aside from the fact that such penalties should apply to high ranking Obama administration officials - to include Holder himself - for what happened in Fast and Furious, this is quite the exercise in contrasting audacity with cowardice.

Audacity: boldness or daring, especially with confident or arrogant disregard for personal safety, conventional thought, or other restrictions. 

Cowardice: lack of courage to face danger, difficulty, opposition, pain, etc.

First up, the truth regarding what Operation Fast and Furious was all about. It is a truth that Speaker John Boehner has proven he'd rather ignore than confront. That operation was conceived and carried out at the highest levels of the Justice Department and ATF with the irrefutable proof that Attorney General Eric Holder's immediate subordinates knew about it.

Fast and Furious was about ATF Supervisors in Arizona requiring Gun Store owners to sell assault weapons illegally to straw purchasers who would then 'walk' those weapons into Mexico and give them to drug cartels. These thousands of assault weapons were then used to murder hundreds of innocents. Those murders will continue for years to come. As Joe Biden said about Sandy Hook's shooting victims, children murdered at the hands of the thousands of guns our government gave to Mexican drug cartels have been and are being 'riddled with bullets'.

Biden has never referred to the countless victims of Fast and Furious - which include children as well - in such fashion.

This makes the U.S. Government (DOJ / ATF at minimum) complicit in mass murder with... assault weapons.

All along, the plan was to draw attention to these murders as well as to the fact that they were sold by U.S. gun dealers in order to re-enact the 1994 assault weapons ban as well as to enact tighter gun control restrictions. The administration - as well as the usual cast of Democratic politicians like Dianne Feinstein - was even caught lying about the percentage of guns found at Mexican crime scenes.

Once you come to grips with that reality, it's easy to see what's going on with the latest gun control push. The Obama administration is clearly banking on Sandy Hook doing what Fast and Furious failed at doing. This is not conjecture. It is demonstrable.

Here is Holder at the U.S. Conference of Mayors, piggy-backing on the newly christened Sandy Hook exploitation exercise to enforce gun control.



To underscore the point, check out this video of Holder's immediate subordinate, Deputy Attorney General David Ogden in 2009, announcing what the goals of 'Project Gunrunner' (the larger umbrella term for Fast and Furious) were. Take note what he says at the very beginning as well:

"The president has directed us to take action to fight these cartels and Attorney General Holder and I are taking several new and aggressive steps as part of the administration's comprehensive plan."

It's rather eye-opening to watch this after watching Holder above:



That Eric Holder still has a job is not only brazen on the administration's part but it exposes Obama's complicity in Fast and Furious. We already know he's complicit in the coverup.

Just look at Obama's ultimate actions in Fast and Furious and Sandy Hook to this point. The former involved Executive Privilege and the latter involves Executive Orders. The primary difference between the two is that Fast and Furious blew up in the administration's face.

Sandy Hook is Plan B.

Only because it continues to be relevant... Eric Holder in 1995, when he was a U.S. Attorney. Note his comparison between gun owners and smokers. He refers to smokers as people who 'cower outside of buildings'. Nearly twenty years ago, Holder wanted a world where gun owners would 'cower' when it came to owning guns.

What's happening today?

The Obama administration is attempting to get gun owners to 'cower' by somehow blaming them for Sandy Hook. This administration is attempting to shame gun owners and the NRA. It's even brought back its 2012 election campaign team to help do it.

What the Republican establishment still refuses to either learn or admit is that the reason why the Obama campaign was so effective before the election was because the Romney campaign didn't fight. It will only be effective in the gun control push if Republicans repeat their failing formula.

The third presidential debate is where Romney lost the election. Why? Because he didn't hit Obama where the President was weakest - Fast and Furious and Benghazi.

On the same day that Holder was speaking at the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Boehner's office was asked to respond to Obama's unconstitutional gun control push via twenty-three Executive Order slaps in the face of Congress.

The response from the most powerful Republican in the United States?

Speaker Boehner will "review the recommendations". One could make the argument that this is strategic on Boehner's part but his history doesn't indicate that in the slightest.

In 2009, Eric Holder called his political opponents 'cowards'. Boehner continues to prove him right.

Sandy Hook vs. Fast and Furious: The tale of two Bidens

On January 9th, Vice President Joe Biden told reporters that 'it's critically important that we act (on gun control)' and that 'the president is going to act with Executive Orders'. Seated immediately to Biden's right was Attorney General Eric 'gunwalker' Holder. That would be the same Eric Holder who was found in both criminal and civil contempt of Congress for not honoring a lawfully issued subpoena for documents that would help get to the bottom of an operation led by the Department of Justice and the ATF.

The gall of Holder to willingly become one of the faces of gun control today is incredible. This may be the Obama administration at its most audacious - and it thrives on audacity.

For two years, the DOJ stonewalled Congress, culminating in the President asserting Executive Privilege to prevent the subpoenaed documents from being released.

With that as a backdrop, ask yourself if it would have been more appropriate for the likes of Biden to turn to his right in this video and address Mr. Holder instead of reporters:

Whenever gun rights advocates rightfully claim that Operation Fast and Furious was about the DOJ and the ATF intentionally putting thousands of assault weapons into the hands of bad guys so they could murder innocent people, the left claims it's a conspiracy theory. Yet, the facts are in. The ATF ran an operation that did put assault weapons into the hands of Mexican drug cartels, who then used them to kill hundreds of innocent people.

All that's left to ascertain is motive but for two years, the administration stonewalled. Why is the urgency with which Biden is advocating gun control now, nowhere to be found for two years relative to the DOJ and the ATF? Why wasn't Obama demanding action be taken when the ATF was caught engaging in egregiously criminal behavior? Instead, he deferred to an Inspector General, who took well over a year to issue its final report.

Again, why didn't Obama demand action on gun control when it was learned that the ATF had placed thousands of assault weapons into the hands of Mexican drug cartels?

Remember this interview with Univision's Jorge Ramos more than three months after the shooting death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry? Compare Obama's stance then to Biden's stance less than one month after the Sandy Hook shootings:



A silver lining to the administration's stance today - enunciated by Biden on January 9th - is that the truth about the motivation behind Fast and Furious becomes even more clear. The actions of this administration today are 180 degrees from its actions in the wake of Fast and Furious being exposed that it is even easier to see why the ATF armed the cartels.

It was an effort to create the climate that would facilitate gun control, just like the Sandy Hook shootings are being exploited for the EXACT. SAME. PURPOSE.

Operation Fast and Furious blew up in the administration's face. Had it gone according to plan, I have no doubt that Biden or someone else from the administration (perhaps Holder) would have been sitting in front of reporters just like Biden did on January 9th and demanded action on assault rifles because of all the deaths in Mexico.

In this excerpt from Biden's comments to reporters, notice how he accentuates the fact that the children of Sandy Hook were 'riddled' with bullets. Yeah, Joe, hundreds of innocent Mexicans have been - and continue to be - riddled with bullets from assault weapons your administration intentionally gave to hardened criminals.

In the video below, Biden says:

"Every once in a while, there's something that awakens the conscience of the country."

Mr. Vice President, the only reason Fast and Furious didn't do that to a greater extent was that the administration for which you work covered it up and stonewalled attempts to uncover it.

Utterly. Shameless.

Firefighter Shooter beneficiary of 'Straw Purchasing' (think Fast and Furious)

In the days after the fatal shootings of firefighters Mike Chiapperini and Thomasz Kaczowka in Webster, NY on Christmas Eve, it was learned that the shooter did not have legal access to guns; he had already been convicted of murdering his grandmother with a hammer. So how did he get them?

If you're familiar with what happened in Operation Fast and Furious, you're likely familiar with the term 'straw purchaser'. In the case of that operation, which began in 2009 and ended shortly after the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry on December 14, 2010, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) led the operation with the approval of the Department of Justice. Straw purchasing was a key component of Fast and Furious as gun store owners were instructed by the ATF to sell weapons to straw purchasers, who then walked those guns across the border into Mexico, putting them into the hands of the drug cartels. The weapons found at the scene of Terry's murder were purchased by a straw purchaser with the ATF's knowledge and approval.

Back to the firefighter shootings...

It's now being reported that the man who lured firefighters to his burning home before shooting at them - killing Chiapperini and Kaczowka - was the beneficiary of a straw purchaser, who also happened to be his neighbor.

Via the Daily Caller:

The neighbor, 24-year-old Dawn Nguyen, was arrested on Friday after police traced the serial numbers on two weapons used by William Spengler, the shooter: a Bushmaster AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and a 12-gauge shotgun, both purchased in 2010.

In exactly the same way, the guns found at Terry's murder scene were traced back to a gun store in Arizona where they were sold to someone who was known to be a straw purchaser for the drug cartels. When you add in the fact that the ATF knowingly allowed those guns to walk across the border, it becomes a matter involving the U.S. State Department, as this exchange from October of 2011 between Rep. Connie Mack and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton illustrates:



Remember, in the case of Fast and Furious, thousands of weapons were allowed to 'walk' into Mexico by U.S. Government officials and hundreds of people were murdered as a result. Here is what Nguyen did in the case of the firefighter shootings:

Nguyen violated federal law by signing a form declaring to a gun retailer that she would be the sole owner of the firearms, U.S. Attorney William Hochul said Friday. She also faces a state charge of filing a falsified business record, a state police investigator added.

“She told the seller of these guns … that she was to be the true owner and buyer of the guns instead of William Spengler,” Hochul said. “It is absolutely against federal law to provide any materially false information related to the acquisition of firearms. … It is sometimes referred to acting as a straw purchaser, and that is exactly what today’s complaint alleges.”

When it came to the weapons sold to straw purchasers in Fast and Furious, all of the aforementioned things took place, with one difference. The ATF knowingly allowed it in advance. There's another difference when it comes to consequences. No one at the ATF has been arrested. To give one an idea of how criminal this all is, consider the charges that Nguyen is facing based on the fact that she provided her neighbor with guns used in the commission of two murders in the U.S. (which didn't included the added element of straw purchasing and then transporting them across international borders):

The federal charges alone could send Nguyen to prison for a maximum of 10 years and levy a fine of $250,000. Both Nguyen and her brother told the media after the shooting that Spengler had stolen the weapons from her, but Nguyen later called police and admitted buying the guns for Spengler, according to police.

Spengler also possessed a .38-caliber revolver during the shooting, which he reportedly used to shoot himself in the head after his rampage. That weapon has not been connected to Nguyen.

Another difference between what the ATF did and what Nguyen did very well could be motive. Did Nguyen know what Spengler was going to do with the weapons she purchased for him? That has yet to be determined but the ATF absolutely knew what was going to happen as a result of allowing straw purchasers to walk those guns into Mexico; hundreds of people were going to get killed.

So what was the motive of the U.S. Government? The answer is the same thing we're seeing today - the exploitation of a 'crisis' to push a gun control agenda.

It becomes obvious that the rule of law applies to some and not others. In another incident involving the ATF, Meet the Press anchor David Gregory was allegedly allowed to break the law by holding up a 30-clip magazine on national television during a recent interview. Subsequent to that interview, it was reported that the ATF gave him permission to do so, despite their having no jurisdiction. To this day, the ATF official who allegedly gave Gregory permission has not been named.

What was Gregory's motive for displaying the magazine during his interview with the NRA's Wayne LaPierre?

As was the case with the ATF in Fast and Furious, gun control. Yet another example of the ATF allowing laws to be broken for a similar purpose.

Ends always justify the means when you're a creature of the left.

Some might remember this powerful report from Univision earlier this year, in which the carnage that resulted from Fast and Furious was investigated. Remember, straw purchasing is what enabled all of these murders, the same kind of straw purchasing that enabled the Christmas Eve firefighter shooter:

Video: Univision personalizes Fast and Furious deaths in Mexico

Narrated by Jorge Ramos, a Univision report into Operation Fast and Furious focused on the Mexican victims of the U.S. Justice Department's failed gun walking operation. Over the last two plus years, anyone following the details of the scandal would here about Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, who was murdered at the hands of a gun U.S. authorities let walk. To a lesser extent, ICE Agent Jaime Zapata has been mentioned, though the evidence linking his murder directly to Fast and Furious isn't as strong.

But what about the hundreds of murdered Mexicans. Until the Univision report aired on September 30th, they were nameless statistics to many in America. They were identified as victims but not as people, teens, or children with families.

That all changed with the Univision Report.

Via Daily Caller:

The Spanish language television news network Univision unleashed a bombshell investigative report on Operation Fast and Furious Sunday evening, finding that in January 2010 drug cartel hit men slaughtered students with weapons the United States government allowed to flow to them across the Mexican border.

“On January 30, 2010, a commando of at least 20 hit men parked themselves outside a birthday party of high school and college students in Villas de Salvarcar, Ciudad Juarez,” according to a version of the Univision report in English, on the ABC News website.

“Near midnight, the assassins, later identified as hired guns for the Mexican cartel La Linea, broke into a one-story house and opened fire on a gathering of nearly 60 teenagers. Outside, lookouts gunned down a screaming neighbor and several students who had managed to escape. Fourteen young men and women were killed, and 12 more were wounded before the hit men finally fled.”

Citing a Mexican Army document it obtained and published, Univision reported that “[t]hree of the high caliber weapons fired that night in Villas de Salvarcar were linked to a gun tracing operation run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).”

That operation was Fast and Furious.

Again, I ask: Where is the Congressional Hispanic Caucus?

Answer: with the Democrats, who have defended Eric Holder at every turn, save for a few that voted to find him in contempt of Congress.

Here is nearly 10 minutes from the one hour long bombshell report from Univision.

Via ABC News:

Video: Univision report on Fast and Furious to focus on Mexican victims

Those familiar with Operation Fast and Furious often think of murdered Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, along with hundreds of Mexicans who were murder victims as well. At 7pm EST on Sunday, September 30th, Univision will be airing its explosive report on the scandal that is likely to humanize those hundreds of dead Mexicans.

It's... about... time.

After watching this report, ask yourself if the Obama administration cares about the Mexican people or Mexican votes.

Daily Caller has more.

Here is a preview of the Univision report, via ABC News:

Obama against violence after he was for it?

When Barack Obama talks about solutions to violence in American cities, he's doing nothing more than preventing a crisis from going to waste. Just look at his administration's record. Before we get to that, check out this excerpt from a Reuters article:

"All of us recognize that these kinds of terrible, tragic events are happening with too much regularity for us not to do some soul searching to examine additional ways that we can reduce violence," Obama said at an Oval Office ceremony to sign an unrelated bill.

In this instance, Obama was referring to the Aurora shootings from late last month, as well as the Sikh Temple shootings from earlier this month.

However, Obama has not only been conspicuously silent when it comes to the gun violence / crimes wrought by Fast and Furious, a federal program that put thousands of guns into the hands of bad guys in Mexico; he's gone out of his way to prevent Congress from getting answers about its origins or architects. No one has really been held accountable. He went so far out of his way to prevent the truth from coming out that he asserted Executive Privilege to withhold documents from Congress at the same time Congress was holding the Attorney General in criminal contempt.

Today, we had an explosive report published by The Blaze that could take Fast and Furious to an entirely new level:

A high-ranking Mexican drug cartel operative currently in U.S. custody is making startling allegations that the failed federal gun-walking operation known as “Fast and Furious” isn’t what you think it is.

It wasn’t about tracking guns, it was about supplying them — all part of an elaborate agreement between the U.S. government and Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa Cartel to take down rival cartels.

The explosive allegations are being made by Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla, known as the Sinaloa Cartel’s “logistics coordinator.” He was extradited to the Chicago last year to face federal drug charges.

Zambada-Niebla claims that under a “divide and conquer” strategy, the U.S. helped finance and arm the Sinaloa Cartel through Operation Fast and Furious in exchange for information that allowed the DEA, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agencies to take down rival drug cartels. The Sinaloa Cartel was allegedly permitted to traffic massive amounts of drugs across the U.S. border from 2004 to 2009 — during both Fast and Furious and Bush-era gunrunning operations — as long as the intel kept coming.

If Zambada-Niebla is telling the truth, Obama's administration - presumably some big fish inside it - decided that trading intelligence for innocent lives was a good idea. Hundreds of dead Mexicans and Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry will have lost their lives in exchange for "intelligence". Then again, Saul Alinsky (one of Obama's heroes) was a believer in ends-justify-the-means thinking. If the ends are intelligence and the means include dead bodies, Saul would have to agree.

Let's go back to that Obama quote in the wake of the Aurora / Sikh Temple shootings...

"...these kinds of terrible, tragic events are happening with too much regularity for us not to do some soul searching to examine additional ways that we can reduce violence."

How about the latest findings by Judicial Watch? The legal watchdog group claims to have come into the possession of documents that show the White House had a hand in telling police to "Stand Down" during the Occupy Wall Street protests last year:

Judicial Watch announced today that it has obtained records from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) indicating that the General Services Administration (GSA), with the blessing of the Obama White House, instructed law enforcement officers to “stand down” and not arrest “Occupy Portland” protestors who were in violation of the law.

The records, obtained pursuant to a November 11, 2011, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, include internal DHS correspondence. One November 6, 2011, e-mail exchange between DHS/National Protection and Programs Directorate Chief of Staff Caitlin Durkovich and GSA Public Buildings Service Commissioner Robert Peck (who has since been fired) specifically related to Occupy Portland protests taking place on federal property in Portland:

Here is the relevant portion of that email exchange, beginning with Durkovitch:

I am sorry to be emailing you on a Sunday night, but wanted to let you know our Press Shop has received a couple of calls from Portland media outlets about a group of 11 protesters who again set up camp at Terry Shrunk Plaza in Portland last night. They have chained themselves to a large drum filled with concrete. GSA controls the permits and has asked FPS [Federal Protective Services] not to enforce the curfew at park and the prohibition on overnight encampments. Reporters have asked if we will be arresting the protestors as FPS did last week.

Our FPS Commander in Portland says they are standing down and following GSA’s request to only intervene if there is a threat to public safety.

 Peck responds:

Caitlin: yes, that is our position; it’s been vetted with our Administrator and Michael Robertson, our chief of staff, and we have communicated with the WH [White House], which has afforded us the discretion to fashion our approach to Occupy issues…The arrests last week were carried out despite our request that the protesters be allowed to remain and to camp overnight…

As of August 2, 2012 there have been over 7300 arrests involving the Occupy Wall Street movement. The Tea Party? Not so much. Yet, there is a paper trail that shows the White House gave its blessing when the GSA expressed a desire to have law enforcement "stand down" and not arrest OWS lawbreakers.

Back to that Obama quote...

"All of us recognize that these kinds of terrible, tragic events are happening with too much regularity for us not to do some soul searching to examine additional ways that we can reduce violence."

Isn't it strange how Obama decries violence when there is a political opportunity. Then again, signs are increasingly pointing to him supporting violence for the same reason.

About those Fast and Furious Reports

On July 30th,  Los Angeles Times reported that Operation Fast and Furious was being laid at the feet of "five senior ATF officials," while mentioning that there are still two more reports due out from Congressional Investigators. Still, the news that ATF officials were being identified as the responsible parties for the operation didn't seem to jibe with what is known about DOJ leadership.  The Times piece, published before that report was released to the public, may have left readers (this one included) with the impression that this was basically the final word on the operation.

However, since then, increased focus has been placed on two more reports expected to come out; they will detail things like what the Justice Department knew, covered up, or refused to release. Those reports are likely going to be more explosive.

Before I get to those, let's consider what the consequences should be for those five senior ATF officials. Here are their names, via the Daily Caller:

The five ATF officials Grassley and Issa point to as responsible for Fast and Furious are:

William Newell, the special agent in charge of the phoenix field division
William McMahon, Newell’s boss who was ATF’s deputy assistant director for field operations
Mark Chait, McMahon’s boss who was ATF’s assistant director for field operations
William Hoover, ATF’s former deputy director
Kenneth Melson, former acting ATF director

Our system of Justice will be tested here because as of right now, those five men have been reassigned. When one takes a look at the blood on their hands, based on this 211-page report, the next thing to watch for is accountability. Check out what the Los Angeles Times piece (mentioned above) relayed from the report:

They found that William Newell, the special agent-in-charge in Phoenix, exhibited “repeatedly risky” management and “consistently pushed the envelope of permissible investigative techniques.” The report said “he had been reprimanded ... before for crossing the line, but under a new administration and a new attorney general he reverted back to the use of risky gunwalking tactics.”

His boss, Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations William McMahon, “rubber stamped critical documents that came across his desk without reading them,” the report alleged. “In McMahon’s view it was not his job to ask any questions about what was going on in the field.”

They added that McMahon gave “false testimony” to Congress about signing applications for wiretap intercepts in Fast and Furious.

His supervisor, Mark Chait, assistant director for field operations, “played a surprisingly passive role during the operation,” the report said. “He failed to provide oversight that his experience should have dictated and his position required.”

Above Chait was Deputy Director William Hoover, who the report said ordered an exit strategy to scuttle Fast and Furious but never followed through: “Hoover was derelict in his duty to ensure that public safety was not jeopardized.”

And they said Melson, a longtime career Justice official, “often stayed above the fray” instead of bringing Fast and Furious to an “end sooner.”

But, the investigators said, ATF agents said that they were hamstrung by federal prosecutors in Arizona from  obtaining criminal charges for illegal gun sales, and that Melson “even offered to travel to Phoenix to write the indictments himself. Still, he never ordered it be shut down.”

In the November 2010 slaying in Mexico of Mario Gonzalez, the brother of Patricia Gonzalez, then attorney general for the state of Chihuahua, two of 16 weapons were traced back to Fast and Furious after they were recovered from a shootout with Mexican police.

But 10 days later, ATF Agent Tonya English urged Agent Hope MacAllister and their supervisor, David J. Voth, to keep it under wraps. “My thought is not to release any information,” she told them in an email.

When Patricia Gonzalez later learned that two of the guns had been illegally obtained under Fast and Furious, she was outraged. "The basic ineptitude of these officials [who ordered the Fast and Furious operation] caused the death of my brother and surely thousands more victims," she said.

Based on the findings in this report, there should be jail time and / or plea bargains for every one of those five individuals. They each have blood on their hands.

Moreover, the first report does, in fact, point to senior DOJ leadership, something that was given scant to no attention by the L.A. Times piece.

Via Daily Caller:

Darrell Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley — both Republicans — concludes senior Obama administration officials appear to have set the stage for, and possibly encouraged, ATF officials to walk guns into Mexico.

The report finds that Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, who leads the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, told Holder about the Firearms Trafficking Working Group (FTWG) in an Aug. 19, 2009, memo of recommendation.

“The FTWG’s mission was to formulate a plan to improve the U.S. government’s efforts in stemming the illegal flow of weapons, which was fueling escalating violence along both sides of the Southwestern border,” the report reads. “The working group’s first recommendation was that the ‘attorney general and secretary of Homeland Security should form an interagency Southwest Border (‘SWB’) firearms trafficking strategy group.’ According to the Justice Department, ‘the deputy attorney general responded to the specific proposals in this memorandum by forming the Southwest Border Strategy Group, which he chaired.’”

Shortly thereafter, then-Deputy Attorney General David Ogden, the No. 2 official in the Department of Justice, drafted and disseminated a new planning document titled “Strategy for Combating the Mexican Cartels.”

In that document, Ogden laid the groundwork for the Obama administration’s senior-level political support of gunwalking.

“[M]erely seizing firearms through interdiction will not stop firearms trafficking to Mexico,” Ogden wrote in that memo, obtained by congressional investigators and released along with the report Tuesday.

“We must identify, investigate, and eliminate the sources of illegally trafficked firearms and the networks that transport them.”

Ogden’s directive was an official policy statement directing agents to stop focusing exclusively on arresting straw purchasers. Instead,the Department of Justice would zero in on more complex conspiracy cases.

The Ogden memo and its explicit support from senior administration officials opened the door for agents like Bill Newell, who led ATF’s Phoenix field division, to allow guns to walk in large numbers. Newell, one of five officials to whom Issa and Grassley have pointed as responsible for Operation Fast and Furious, had already tried similar tactics during the George W. Bush administration.

In short, it may have been a bit premature to look at this as Holder and the gang escaping accountability. It's also premature to say that they won't. The next two reports, and what comes from them, will tell a lot.

Also, to be fair to Issa and Grassley, they've really fought hard and against long odds. For example, the fate of those five senior ATF officials is shockingly in the hands of none other than Eric Holder.

Fast and Furious: Beanbags, the Unsealed Indictments, and the three men who were 'cleared'

Yesterday, the Justice Department unsealed five indictments of suspects in the murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. One of those suspects is in custody; four of them are believed to be in Mexico. In the video at the bottom of this post, Fox's William LaJeunesse makes reference to the revelation that before Terry was shot, he and his fellow agents were firing beanbags at their assailants before switching to actual bullets. Rep. Darrell Issa is also in the video and condemns the "timing" of the unsealing of the indictments, which clearly points to a political motive.

The Arizona Daily Star actually reported that on March 3, 2011, which I wrote about here. This is from an FBI document excerpted in that article:

"When the suspected aliens did not drop their weapons, two Border Patrol agents deployed 'less than lethal' beanbags at the suspected aliens. At this time, at least one of the suspected aliens fired at the Border Patrol agents. Two Border Patrol agents returned fire, one with his long gun and one with his pistol.

"Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was shot with one bullet and died shortly after. One of the suspected illegal aliens, later identified as Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, was also shot."

There is another excerpt from that article that I'd like to get to in a minute but first, check this out from David Codrea:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation unsealed an indictment in Tucson and offered a $1 million reward “for information leading to the arrest of four fugitives” wanted in connection with the death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, the Bureau’s Phoenix Division announced today.

“Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, Jesus Rosario Favela-Astorga, Ivan Soto-Barraza, Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes, and Lionel Portillo-Meza are charged with crimes including first-degree murder, second-degree murder, conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery, attempted interference with commerce by robbery, use and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence, assault on a federal officer, and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person,” the FBI press release revealed. “A sixth defendant, Rito Osorio-Arellanes, is charged only with conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery.”

Ok, of those five suspects, only one - Manuel Osoria-Arellanes - is in custody. The other four are believed to be in Mexico. That leads me back to a question about the March 3, 2011 article by Brady McCombs. Here is an excerpt from that article I found potentially interesting (or could be nothing):

...search warrants were requested to examine fingerprints and a hair sample from Osorio-Arellanes, who was one of four men arrested that night near the shooting scene. The other three arrested, illegal immigrants from Mexico, have been cleared in connection with the crime and deported back to their home countries.

This raises a logical question: What were the identities of the three men who were "cleared"? Like I said, it could be (and probably is) nothing but remember, this Justice Department's leadership has been caught lying, covering up, and stonewalling on multiple occasions. It should be fair to rule out the possibility that any of the three men who were released might be among the four whose indictments have been unsealed.

Back to Codrea's piece. In particular, check out his very last paragraph, in which he discusses the possible fate of the four wanted men:

If the unsealing somehow forces the suspects in from the cold, the gamble with their lives will have paid off, but that assumes they are still alive and they are guilty. If they are instead caught first by the cartels, the adage “Dead men tell no tales” will certainly fuel further speculation among those who don’t believe the government has been forthcoming about its role in a deadly operation that has already claimed known and untold lives, an unfortunate but logical consequence of earned mistrust.

Again, I'm not alleging anything here but as Codrea says, the government has put itself in the position of not being trusted. Besides, if the names on those indictments were in fact released this week so that they could be targeted and silenced by the cartels, wouldn't the government have wanted them "cleared" and "deported" shortly after Terry's murder as well?

Here's the Fox News report with Megyn Kelly, LaJeunesse, and Issa:



**UPDATE** Check out the photos released by the FBI of the four wanted men that are allegedly across the border. Note how only three of them have photos available. Remember that in McCombs' article, three men were 'cleared' and 'deported'.

Where / when were these photos taken and what were the names of the three men who were deported?

Socialist-Dominated Congressional Black Caucus plan to Race-Bait at Contempt Vote

The Congressional Black Caucus, led by a registered socialist, Emanuel Cleaver, is planning to stage a walkout during the House vote to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt.

Via The Hill:

The move comes less than 24 hours before the House plans to vote for the first time in history to hold a sitting attorney general in contempt of Congress for not complying with a congressional subpoena. Holder is the first black attorney general in U.S. history.

The walkout is reminiscent of a similar move made by Republicans in 2008 during a Democratic-led vote on whether to hold two senior staffers in President George W. Bush’s administration in contempt of Congress.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) — then the minority leader — led the walkout with Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) following closely behind him. Issa, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is the sponsor of the contempt resolution against Holder.

The reference to the walkout in 2008 was not based on race and it did not involve the murder of one Border Patrol Agent (Brian Terry) as well as hundreds of dead Mexican nationals on the OTHER side of the border. It involved holding Harriet Miers and Josh Bolton in contempt for withholding documents relative to the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys by the Bush administration. If you want to make the argument that the documents should have been turned over, fine (I'd probably agree with you). If you want to make the argument that the Republicans shouldn't have walked out, fine. If you want to dismiss the fact that Bill Clinton fired 93 out of 94 total U.S. Attorneys all at once and without consequence, fine.

The contempt citation for Eric Holder is rooted in a demand for documents related to a confirmed lie to Congress on February 4, 2011 when a letter signed by Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich said that the ATF does not allow gun-walking. Ten months later, the DOJ withdrew the letter, an admission that it was false.

As for the Congressional Black Caucus, shouldn't it matter that 67% of its current members were registered with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) caucus in 2009? If you don't include the six freshmen that were elected in 2010, that number jumps to 78%. One of those freshmen is Lt. Col. Allen West (R-FL), who joined the caucus likely for reconnaissance purposes more than anything else, suggested there are 78-81 members of Congress who are registered with Communist Party USA. Being embedded with 29 registered socialists in the CBC might serve to lend his charge some credibility.

Socialists and Communists lie. It's part of the rule book (Obama lied about not being registered with a socialist party). The Congressional Black Caucus is dominated by confirmed, registered socialists. 67% of the current 43 members were registered with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) caucus in 2009. Obama's ideological mentor, Saul Alinsky believed that ends not only justify the means but failure to use any means necessary is a sin (that would be a sin against Lucifer, apparently). Check out this excerpt from his book, Rules for Radicals:

"The end is what you want, the means is how you get it. Whenever we think about social change, the question of means and ends arises. The man of action views the issue of means and ends in pragmatic and strategic terms. He has no other problem; he thinks only of his actual resources and the possibilities of various choices of action. He asks of ends only whether they are achievable and worth the cost; of means, only whether they will work. ... The real arena is corrupt and bloody." p.24

Consider the real agenda behind Fast and Furious - putting guns into the hands of bad guys, who would use them to kill innocent people, which would help create the political climate for more gun control in the United States. Sounds bloody, huh?

Following Alinsky's instructions to the letter would permit the sacrifice of innocent people if your desire for gun control is strong enough and if dead bodies furthered that agenda (kinda like abortion furthers Planned Parenthood's agenda). We also know that in 2009, the Democrats - to include Obama and Hillary Clinton - pushed a false statistic that 90% of all guns used to commit crimes in Mexico come from the United States. This has been debunked.

Back to lying communists and socialists. Of the 43 Congressional Black Caucus members who will be walking out of today's contempt vote, at least 67% of them are registered socialists. Discover the Networks has the following to say about how Socialism and Communism is related:

Marxist doctrine holds that just as society evolved from feudalism to capitalism, it will inexorably progress still further to socialism and eventually communism. Communists consider socialism to be an intermediary step between capitalism (out of which socialism is said to grow) and communism. That is, communism (whose motto is “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”) is deemed a further development, or “higher stage,” of socialism (whose motto is “From each according to his ability, to each according to his deeds”). Communism, in other words, is viewed as the more “perfect” of two systems that both advocate public ownership of the means of production, centralized economic planning, and the widespread redistribution of wealth.

The best possible thing one could say about socialists is that they are using a gateway drug that turns them into communists. Not holding a lawless administration accountable for a program that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people might just put any of those socialists who aren't already stealth communists, over the top.

Placing the cherry on top of a heaping pile of irony is the position of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) when it comes to Fast and Furious. Like the CBC, the CHC is dominated by Democrats; Chairman Charles A. Gonzalez is one himself.

On the day that the House Oversight Committee voted to hold Eric Holder in contempt of Congress - also the same day that Obama asserted Executive Privilege - the Congressional Hispanic Caucus condemned Chairman Darrell Issa for voting in favor of contempt.

Here is a quote from Gonzalez, via NBC Latino:

“Congress must exercise its authority responsibly and in the interest of the American people, not to score partisan political points,” said Charles Gonzalez, Hispanic Caucus Chairman, in a statement. “The Justice Department and Attorney General Holder have provided the Committee leadership with unprecedented access to the documents it requested; yet Rep. Issa refuses to be reasonable. When partisan advantage is the primary motivation, it’s really the American people who suffer,” he added.

Calling 7600 documents out of a population of 140,000 "unprecedented" is a lie; it is a bald-faced one at that. The bigger question is: Why is a caucus that is supposed to represent Hispanics, not standing with those who want to get to the bottom of a government-led operation that led to the deaths of hundreds of Hispanics?

Socialists and Communists lie. Perhaps that explains both the February 4, 2011 letter as well as the behavior of the racially based Caucuses to demands that the truth comes out.

For some reason, this 1963 short film narrated by former FBI Agent Herbert A. Philbrick comes to mind.

Part 1:



Part 2:

Romney blowing Fast and Furious Opportunity

"Bob, if the president cares so much about the plight of Mexicans who seek a better life, how did an operation like Fast and Furious, in which hundreds of Mexicans lost their lives, take place under his administration"?

Mitt Romney didn't say that... but he should have.

On Sunday, June 17th, Republican nominee Mitt Romney sat down with Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation and had no answer when it came to Obama's Executive Order granting amnesty to a million illegal aliens. He didn't insist that the real issue is Obama's lawlessness and he wouldn't answer the question about whether he would rescind the EO if elected.

Instead, he hemmed, hawed, and remained incoherent in his responses. It was like watching all the incremental gains Romney has made over the last several weeks get washed away thanks to self-inflicted, political cowardice.

The Republican establishment is known to fight with pitter-patter jabs while the left is constantly throwing haymakers. Sunday was the one opportunity for Romney to throw a knock out punch of his own and instead, he covered up. The Sarah Palin wing of the party waved their hands and rolled their eyes.

When the subject of the interview turned to why Romney thought Obama signed the EO, Romney would not overtly say that Obama did so for political reasons, saying only that politics were "certainly part of the equation."

When the Obama campaign decided to make hay over Seamus, the Romney family dog being stuck on the roof during family vacations, the Romney campaign came back with Obama, in his own words, saying that he ate dog in his youth.

When Obama claimed that the reason he granted amnesty to so many illegal Mexican aliens was because he truly cared for them and wanted to embrace their contributions, the Romney campaign should have pointed to the operation that has left hundreds of innocent Mexicans dead in what appears to be an attempt at gun control. Romney could have continued to hammer away at the fact that after 18 months, there are still no answers and even Attorney General himself said that more people are likely to die as a result of the operation. Here he is one year ago admitting as much to Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX):



Additionally, as the details of this scandal have unfolded, it continues to reach the highest levels of DOJ, DHS, State, and even reaches to the White House (Kevin O'Reilly). Romney didn't even choose the safest route, by asking Bob Schieffer why Eric Holder still has a job. Any objection raised by Schieffer could have been met with Romney asking, "Where does the buck stop, Bob"? Instead, Romney played defense.

It's really sad to watch Mitt Romney against Obama at a time when a strong conservative would absolutely be running away with this race right now.

Here is the incoherent, uninspired, and defensive exchange with Schieffer, via Washington Post (relevant portion starts at :20 mark):

Obama in 2011: Executive Order Amnesty Illegal

I'm far more often than not, in agreement with the conservative activists who were at Right Online this weekend, but not this time. Apparently, a consensus among the group was that the Daily Caller's Neil Munro was wrong in challenging Obama at the rose garden as the president's announcement that an Executive Order had been signed to grant amnesty to 2-3 million illegal aliens.

Even if it were conceded that Munro was rightfully chastised, the offense committed by Obama is so much worse that Munro's actions should have been rendered insignificant. In my view, they're warranted. As I've said before, at some point, Obama's actions need to be seen as provoking these responses. The president blatantly lies and breaks the law while the story is how others don't respect the office of the presidency?!

Recap: On September 9, 2009, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) shouts, 'You Lie' at Obama during a joint session of Congress, after Obama said Obamacare would not apply to illegal aliens. In March, 2011, Obama told Univision's Jorge Ramos that using Executive Orders to grant amnesty to illegal aliens was against the law. On June 15, Obama signed the Executive Order he admitted over a year earlier, was illegal for him to sign.

Let's also not forget that when Obama granted amnesty on June 15th, Joe Wilson was shown to be right.

Yet, Neil Munro is the bad guy?

Here's video of Obama in 2011 saying that what he did in 2012 would be illegal.

Via Freedom's Lighthouse:

Mexican Ambassador's foolishly flawed logic in Fast and Furious argument

Mexico's ambassador to the United States is actually making the argument that Operation Fast and Furious so damaged his country's perception of America that tighter gun control laws should be enacted here.

What? Yeah, I know.

Via the Hill:

The Mexican ambassador to the United States on Thursday said a botched gun-tracking operation by America “poisoned” public opinion of the United States for the citizens of its southern neighbor.

Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan told a room of reporters on Capitol Hill that the failed Operation Fast and Furious, which has been the focus of a Republican investigation in the House for more than a year, “put a lot of strain” on U.S.-Mexico relations.

“Fast and Furious has poisoned the well-spring of public opinion in Mexico as it relates to the cooperation and engagement with the United States,” Sarukhan said.

“It does put a lot of strain on the huge strides that we’ve achieved with two successive administrations in the United States,” he said.

Sarukhan was on the Hill at the invitation of Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) to promote tighter gun laws in the United States, including the reinstatement of the federal assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004.

It long ago became apparent that the reason the ATF was forcing gun store owners to sell weapons to straw purchasers who would then 'walk' those guns into Mexico was so that those store owners could be set up and tighter gun laws could be enacted as a result. Fast and Furious was all about creating a political climate that would facilitate the passage of such laws. The lives of innocent Mexicans and at least one U.S. Agent have been sacrificed in the name of gun control.

Yet, when whistle blowers came forward after the murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was found to be connected to Fast and Furious, the jig was up. ATF was outed. In the many months since, so has Eric Holder's Justice Department.

Despite all of this, Sarukhan is pointing to Fast and Furious as a reason for tighter gun laws?? Fast and Furious is a reason for accountability at the highest levels in the U.S. Government, not a reason for further hamstringing law abiding gun store owners. Nonetheless, Mexico has apparently decided to help the Obama administration double down on the reason why Fast and Furious was implemented; that reason was gun control. Period.

It would appear that Mexico's formal position involves threading a needle that makes them look unbelievably foolish in the process. The good news is that Fast and Furious has gotten too big to be ignored.

The bad news for Mexico is that their position on it is akin to a 2 + 2 = 5 argument.

Darrell Issa going after Holder on Mexican Deaths

The deadly consequence that has garnered the most attention when it comes to the Fast and Furious investigation has been the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. His is a name and a face that basically represents everything that's wrong with the ATF operation that put guns into the hands of bad guys.

However, there's another aspect to the operation with hundreds of casualties; those casualties are Mexican citizens. In an interview with the Daily Caller, Chairman Darrell Issa highlights this point and says that 'Justice has blood on its hands.' Fast forward to the 4:00 mark if pressed for time.

The deaths of hundreds of Mexican nationals is something that no one in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) seems interested in holding Attorney General Eric Holder accountable. Go figure, they're all Democrats. I wrote about this after watching one of those members, Pedro Pierluisi, gushed in support of Holder at the House Judiciary Committee hearing in December.

More at Daily Caller

Immunity Deal between U.S. and Sinaloa Cartel?

The layers on the Fast and Furious onion continue to get peeled back, one at a time. The latest is a charge by a drug trafficking defendant who is claiming that Sinaloa drug cartel leaders were given immunity in exchange for information on rival gangs.

Via CNS News:

A Mexican drug trafficker awaiting trial in a Chicago federal court claims that the notorious Sinaloa cartel received weapons from “Operation Fast and Furious” under an alleged immunity agreement that the U.S. government made with cartel leaders, in exchange for information on rival gangs.

The defendant in a trafficking case before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Vicente Jesus Zambada-Niebla, also claims the immunity deal allowed the criminal cartel to “continue to smuggle tons of illicit drugs” into the United States.

He wants the U.S. government to provide documents relating to the botched gun running sting operation along the southwest border, arguing that it would benefit his defense.

The defendant, Vicente Jesus Zambada-Niebla, makes the case that because the U.S. government sanctioned gun trafficking to the Sinaloa cartel, he should be granted some form of immunity as well, but there's a small problem. Our U.S. government is denying the allegation has merit:

The defendant argued that he is protected from federal prosecution for trafficking drugs into the U.S. between 2004 and 2009 under an alleged immunity deal struck between the U.S. government and Sinaloa leaders.

According to court documents, Zambada-Niebla claims that the immunity deal provided the cartel’s leadership with “carte blanche to continue to smuggle tons of illicit drugs into Chicago and the rest of the United States” in exchange for information on rival drug cartels.

U.S. prosecutors deny the existence of such an immunity deal between the U.S. government and the cartel. 

Nevertheless, the U.S. government last September filed a motion to invoke the Classified Information Procedures Act, which is aimed at assuring that national security information stemming from criminal cases – such as details associated with CIA operations – are not leaked to the public during court proceedings.

As a drug trafficker, Zambada-Niebla would be in a position to know of any such immunity deal. Then again, he is a drug trafficker who could be using the Fast and Furious scandal to his advantage.

That said, these charges have been made by others.

In any event, this is another blow to Holder's DOJ and the Obama administration. The fact that Zambada-Niebla trafficked drugs to Chicago during Obama's tenure as a US Senator is interesting as well.

h/t Free Republic