Fast & Furious: New Documents - New Operations

Sharyl Atkinson of CBS has been paying close attention to the things that the DOJ and the White House release late on Friday nights.  It is a favorite time to release embarrassing stuff so that the press can ignore it by Monday morning.  Tonight, she found that DOJ has released more communications, requested by the House Oversight Committee, between ATF's Bill Newell and Kevin O'Reilly of the White House Staff.  There are extensive emails discussing gun operations.  And there is a reference to an operation the year previously in Texas.  There is another reference to an operation out of Tuscon, NM. The smoking gun has turned into a blackpowder gun,with lots of smoke and flame.

People: Christie on Earned American Exceptionalism - One of Best Speeches of the Year

How do you relate to the words: "American Exceptionalism"?  They are hard to define for a lot of us. They are hard to express for those who feel them in their hearts. 

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie spoke at the Reagan Library two nights ago.  He has some answers to what we should mean and understand by the words "American Exceptionalism."  I liked what he had to say.

Read the speech here:  Chris-christies-ronald-reagan-library-speech
Read and view here:  Christie_addresses_reagan_library_obama_a_bystander_in_the_oval_office

See also here:  Christie-at-reagan-library-calling-for-unity

Big Givernment 2: Gallup Says Most of Us are Disatisfied with Government

I have my own definitions for big government, see big-government-type-2

Here is Gallup's latest poll, which has been done annually since 1936.  The dissatisfaction numbers are huge now.  Americans-Express-Historic-Negativity-Toward-Government

• 82% of Americans disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job.
• 69% say they have little or no confidence in the legislative branch of government, an all-time high and up from 63% in 2010.
• 57% have little or no confidence in the federal government to solve domestic problems, exceeding the previous high of 53% recorded in 2010 and well exceeding the 43% who have little or no confidence in the government to solve international problems.
• 53% have little or no confidence in the men and women who seek or hold elected office.
• Americans believe, on average, that the federal government wastes 51 cents of every tax dollar, similar to a year ago, but up significantly from 46 cents a decade ago and from an average 43 cents three decades ago.
• 49% of Americans believe the federal government has become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens. In 2003, less than a third (30%) believed this.

Not So Random: Leonsis to Obama - Class Warfare is Yucky

Ted Leonsis, owner of the Washington Wizards, among other things, recently wrote on his blog that our President is not fulfilling his expectations, and that he should stop with the class warfare rhetoric.  And Ted is (was?) a huge Obama supporter.  It is an interesting read, and jives rather nicely with Sarah's letter in my post below.
class-warfare-yuck

Random Search: Maybe We Should Have Elected Sarah

I was searching for something else and came across this letter to Senator Obama from February 2008.  The young woman asks a lot of good questions and proposes a lot of good actions by soon-to-president Obama.  I  find it ironic that many of the same questions are still relevant today.  How sad.
Sarah's Letter to Obama

Fast & Furious: Tuscon Townhall - 200 Mexicans Dead

At a TeaParty townhall meeting tonight in Tuscon, AZ, over 500 people listened to Rep. Paul Gosar and ATF Agent Vince Cefalu talk about the scandalous ATF Operation Fast & Furious.  Katie Pavlich of Townhall.com reported on the event, where people were extremely interested and concerned about the entire details of F&F.

In a later interview with Cam Edwards of NRA News, Sheriff Paul Babeau of Pinal County said at least 200 Mexicans have been killed by these F&F guns.  He said one of his Sheriffs was in ashootout yesterday with a cartel person, but it is still unclear if an F&F gun was used.

Sheriff Babeau directly accused Attorney General Eric Holder and President Obama of knowingly being complicit in F&F operation, and thus endangering US citizens.  He said they have "literally betrayed our trust...I am tired of the president...apoligizing for our country...

Cam also interviewed Congressman Paul Gosar who talked about the story below where taxpayers funds were used to buy guns.  He said the House Oversight Committee Staff says that is probably not true.  He said this story appears to be a DOJ attempt to discredit Paul Dodson and other agents.  Stay tuned - this little side-story will be fun to watch.

Fast & Furious: ATF Actually Bought Guns and Sold Them to Traffickers

(Update 1:  This story may not be true, but may be part of a DOJ cover-up.  See next post.)
(Update 2:  This story seems true but it was about another case not connected to F&F.  The cover-up part may still be in play.)

Further F&F amazing facts.  You couldn't make this disaster up even if you were Steven King:

From Fox News:  "Not only did U.S. officials approve, allow and assist in the sale of more than 2,000 guns to the Sinaloa cartel -- the federal government used taxpayer money to buy semi-automatic weapons, sold them to criminals and then watched as the guns disappeared. 

This disclosure, revealed in documents obtained by Fox News, could undermine the Department of Justice's previous defense that Operation Fast and Furious was a "botched" operation where agents simply "lost track" of weapons as they were transferred from one illegal buyer to another. Instead, it heightens the culpability of the federal government as Mexico, according to sources, has opened two criminal investigations into the operation that flooded their country with illegal weapons."

John Dodson, one of the first whistle blower agents, was ordered to buy 6 guns and sell them  He has an authorization letter form his supervisor.

Read more:  US-government-bought-and-sold-weapons-during-fast-and-furious-documents-show

Obama Gets Personal

"You've got a governor whose state is on fire, denying climate change."

This from a president who hasn't even bothered to ask if Texas required an emergency declaration for all the fires that burned 1500 houses last month, or the fires in the last year, or for the one year drought.  What planet is he on?  Oh, right, the political planet.

From Fox News today after I wrote the above:  perry-camp-obama-playing-politics-tx-fires

Scandals: LightSquared Cubed

It looks increasingly like the approval of LightSquared's spectrum was done because of political favoritism in the White House.  Jed Babbin, a former undersecretary of defense, said tonight on NRANews that this "bunch in the White House is the most corrupt" we've seen in a long time.

And LightSquared continues to insist that the problem of interference can be fixed by simply retrofitting GPS units with a little gizmo.  Trouble is, the gizmo doesn't exist.  2nd trouble is, think of how many models of GPS units are owned by the general driving public, the military, the general aviation community, the boating community, back country hikers, etc.  3rd trouble is, LightSquared assumes users would buy these gizmos themselves - NOT!

Economics: Who Actually Pays the Taxes?

President Obama of late has been making a lot of the phrase, "They must pay their fair share."  His inference is that the rich (supposedly those making more than $250,000) are somehow not paying enough in taxes and that the millionaires are paying even less.  Well, is that really true?  According to the IRS that is a very poor assumption.  See here:  top10-percent-income-earners

Be sure to click on the colored dots and notice how the share of the Top 1%  has gone from about 20% to about 40% since 1980.  And how the share of the bottom 50% of taxpayers has gone from 7% to about 2.7%.

So, if you listened to Peter Schiff in the previous posting, you can see that the people who create the jobs are being asked to both support the economy with their hard earned tax money and to create more jobs at the same time.  But these things are mutually exclusive to a great extent.

The chart above is from the 2011 Budget Chart Book, prepared by the Heritage Foundation.  Budget Chart Book  It makes simple and interesting reading.

Economics: Peter Schiff Testifies on Why Only Private Sector Produces Wealth

The current Administration has been practicing what is popularly known as Keynesian economics for three years now, and the economy is not responding or recovering as expected from the 2009 recession.  The infusion of Government money has done little to create lasting jobs or increase economic activity enough to produce the tax revenue necessary to reduce deficits.  Those who practice conservative style of economics say this is because only the private sector can produce long-term, wealth creating jobs.

On Sept 13, Mr. Peter Schiff,  CEO of Euro Pacific Capital, testified before Congress on how "he has been fined thousands of dollars by regulators for hiring too many people" and how "regulators have required him to stop hiring all together."  He "followed up these shocking revelations with straight talk on how exactly big government policies choke free markets. He also went on to explain in detail exactly why a number of liberal ideas are disastrous in reality."  

His  comments are some of the best presented that I’ve heard on how government spending in general and stimulus spending in particular fails to deliver jobs and wealth.  The interplay with Dr. Boushay shows the essential disconnect in the way our current Administration understands the way an economy works and how actual business people understand commerce and economy.   Mr. Schiff has it exactly right.

Be sure to watch the second video, especially at about the 13 minute point.  See Mr. Schiff here:  ceo-congress-i-was-fined-because-i-hired-too-many-people

Fast & Furious: Abolish ATF? Rumors of a White Paper

Katie Pavlich at Townhall.com is reporting that a white paper is circulating within DOJ advising that shutting down ATF would be a good approach to the F&F scandal.  Imagine, how better to cover up the F&F scandal?  They would fire 450 agents; explosives would become part of the FBI; other ATF responsiblities would go to other agencies.

So if you shutdown an agency (usually an anathema in Washington), what happens to all of the records of operations?  Do they just disappear?  How convenient would that be?  And if everyone who was anyway involved with F&F went to other places, then how does an investigation proceed?

Holder's DOJ and the Administration have no shame at all.

Link of the day: Slightly dated history of Fast & Furious:  gun-running-timeline-how-doj-s-operation-fast-and-furious-unfolded

26th Beemer BASH: Once Again a Great Rally in Quincy

The Central California BMW Riders held their annual rally this past weekend.  FastKitty and I were there at the last minute, overcoming some illness to attend and help out.  Despite the economy there were about 330 riders and guests in attendance from many states.  The weather was again flawless, the beer was cold, the food was hot and fresh and the conversation flowed like fine wine. I was fortunate to spend some time with David Hough, a renowned writer of motorcycle how-to books on safety and proficiency.  Here's a few pictures:

GS Ride guys ready to head into the wilds of Sierra National Forest

David expounds on Sidecar dynamics

Our Gals are happy and hard working!

Scandals: More to Pick From

LightSquared:  A company called LightSquared is trying to develop a broad area wireless system using spectrum close to the GPS frequencies.  Severe interference has been found in testing.  DOD is concerned for their weapons systems.  Of course, the FCC is saying this will be great.  This week, a general was pressured to change his testimony to make it appear the problems were less severe.  President Obama was an investor in a previous incarnation of LightSquared.

Gibson Guitars:  Why is the US Fish and Game raiding a guitar company over wood?  And why do they need a SWAT team to do it?  And why are they enforcing Indian laws? 

Solyndra:  It just keeps getting more embarrassing for the Administration.  The White House pressured DOE officials to hurry up the loan.  And now, on Sept 22, we learn that Solyndra's officials will plead the 5th before the investigative committee.

Who's on the Ball? Rep Gohmert Files "American Jobs Act" before President

Last week President Obama spoke to all of Congress to announce his new American Jobs Act.  Too bad John Boehner didn't ask to sign it right then...of course it wasn't finished yet.  The President unveiled his bill this week.

BUT, too late, Rep. Louis Gohmert (R) already stole away the name for a bill of his own.  His American Jobs Act is HR 2911.  

Gohmert's Act is only two pages long and would end all current federal taxes on income earners and corporations by setting the tax rates to zero.  "The amount of the tax imposed by subsection (a) shall be zero percent of taxable income"  In contrast, President Obama’s “American Jobs Act” raises taxes on individuals and corporations, and gives tax credits for preferred groups.

See here for a good laugh:  conservative-nabs-naming-rights-to-american-jobs-act-after-obama-delay

Fast & Furious: More crimes confirmed

Robert Reich, DOJ attorney, in a letter to Daryl Issa say that 8 crimes have been conformed where F&F guns have turned up.

Fast & Furious: Why Isn't Anybody at DOJ Angry?

The liberal press uniformly calls F&F a "botched" operation, implying that it failed in execution.  Eric Holder says that maybe some mistakes were made, but we tried our best.

The truth is the only "botching" is because they got caught running an imbecilic operation in an imbecilic manner.  Two agents are dead, maybe hundreds of Mexicans are dead, and 2000 guns have disappeared.

So that leaves some logical questions:  Why isn't anyone at DOJ absolutely livid about all the mistakes, about men dying, about guns disappearing, about obvious ill-handling of the whole thing?  Why isn't Eric Holder out looking for scalps?   One would think that a good leader would be outraged that his department had devised such a debacle of a plan, had poorly executed it and is now covering it up.  One would think that he would want to root out the bad apples and fix the agencies (DOJ, ATF, FBI, DHS, and CIA) that are all involved.  Curiously, one would be totally wrong. 

Equally good questions are:  Why are Democrat members of Congress angling for more power for ATF and more gun laws?  Why is the NYT and Washington Post blaming the NRA and gun owners?  Simple - deflection.  For the left guns are always bad and the ends justify the means, even if it means burying your head in the sand.  As well, they can take a chance on making Mr. Obama look bad for 2012.

All of the above begs the ultimate question:  What did Eric Holder and President Obama know, and when did they know it?  Hmmm, sounds familiar....

9/11: Thought of the Day

George W. Bush spoke Saturday afternoon at the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. It is a moving speech.  A significant line from the speech was,

“One of the lessons of 9-11 is that evil is real and so is courage.”  The past ten years have proven beyond a doubt that courage will out over evil.  The price may be high, but the cause and necessity are true.

In counterpoint, he also said,  "We have a duty to remain engaged in the world...The temptation of isolation is deadly wrong.  A world of oppression and anger and resentment will be a source of never-ending violence and threats.  A world of dignity and liberty and hope will be safer and better for all.  The surest way to move toward that vision is for the United States of America to lead the cause of freedom."

Former U.S. president George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush bow their heads during ceremonies marking the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attack in Shanksville, Pennsylvania September 10, 2011.

Bush's 9/10/2011 speech:  President Bush's Speech at Memorial Ceremony
Bush's 9/11/2001 speech:  Looking-back-10-years-president-bushs-address-to-the-nation

Other Ways to Give

Pass it on - Outdoor Mentors:  Experienced outdoorsmen take kids on camping and hunting trips.   www.outdoormentors.org

Catch a Dream Foundation:  Provide the last dream for terminally ill kids who dream of an outdoor experience.   www.catchadream.org

Farmers and Hunters Feeding The Hungry:   They have provided 11,000,000 meals of venison in 14 years.  www.fhfh.org

9/11: Ways to Give Back

On NRA News each night they interview many amazing people who run charities to help our troops and police and firefighters who were impacted by 9/11 and the current wars.  Here are some amazing people who had a good idea and followed through:

Honor Flight:  Dedicated to transporting WW2 veterans to Washington to visit the new WW2 Memorial.  They are dying quickly and are usually too shy to ask.  No cost to the veteran.  Hooray for Southwest for sponsoring.  http://www.honorflight.org/

Picture A Hero:  Family photos for deploying troops.  http://www.pictureahero.org/

Homes for Our Troops:  Building homes for handicapped troops.  Started by a builder who saw a need and had a skill.  Built 97 homes in 7 years. Impressive.  http://www.homesforourtroops.org/site/PageServer

Homes for Heroes:  Other home building organizations exist.  Watch for the .org sites to make sure they are non-profit.    http://www.buildinghomesforheroes.org/about.htm.

Snowball Express:   A Christmas Gala for families of fallen heroes.   http://www.snowballexpress.org/

Blue Star Families:  Support for military families.    http://www.bluestarfam.org/

Special Operations Warrior Foundation:  Started after the 1980 Beirut debacle, provides college educations for children in SpecOps surviving families.  http://www.specialops.org/

Scandals: Pick one to your liking...

Currently there is Fast & Furious.  Likely as big as Watergate eventually.  But there are other scandals that the "most open administration" in history is involved in.

Yesterday saw the start of a potential Solyndra scandal.  Notice how green, solar, or Solyndra was not mentioned last night?  Well, the FBI invaded Solyndra looking for items in a sealed search warrant.  Sealed warrants are wrong, but it is pretty obvious they are looking for favoritism in awarding the $535 Million loan guarantees (and subsequent re-negotiation) for Solyndra.  From Mar 2009 to April 2011 at least 20 visits to the White House were made by Solyndra executives and influencers like George Kaiser, a campaign funds bundler and large donor for Obama and a backer of Solyndra.  In the week before the loan was made about 5 visits were made. 

Then there is PigFord.  If you are black and claim to just want to be a farmer, or your daddy was a farmer, you can claim $75,000 in reparations for injustice done to you by the Department of Agriculture over many years.  As much as 80% of claims by 94,000 farmers could be fraudulent in this case where Congress appropriated $1.5 Billion to make amends.  Of course lawyers will see most of the money.

And how about Black Panther Voter Intimidation?  Big mean looking guys with bats standing around voting places to keep out the wrong kind of voters.  Eric Holder's DOJ simply let the charges drop.  Amazing.

And let's not forget voter fraud, with ACORN convictions, stuffed ballot boxes and rigged voting machines.  ACORN may be dead, but its children live on in most states under different names.  It is still dangerous.

Agenda 21: The Ultimate Land Grab

If you don't know what Agenda 21 is, you owe it to yourself to do some research.  There is lots of information available on the web. For scary reading, look at the United Nations web sites.

Private property rights in California are being subjected to Agenda 21, a United Nation's declaration on the collective society's right to control private property.  Agenda 21 is being worked into all phases of land planning by zealous planners.  If you value your private property rights (land, possessions, thoughts, money) start with this simple video:
Youtube: Agenda 21 in California

Fast & Furious: Napolitano Too?...and 27 Crimes

Last week Dennis Burke resigned.  He was the US Attorney for the Phoenix District who ran F&F. No explanation was given; could it be to protect his friends? 

One friend is Janet Napolitano, Head of Homeland Security.  Burke worked for Napolitano when she was Clinton's Attorney General.  Then he became her chief deputy in 1998 when she was elected Arizona's Attorney General. In 2002, when she became AZ Governor, he followed as chief of staff, then followed again to DHS until 2009, when he struck out on his own as a US Attorney.   DHS was read into F&F on numerous occasions and it appears Burke sent weekly updates to DHS.  And the White House asks us to believe there was no discussion of F&F between any of them?

See here:  Did-napolitano-know-about-fast-and-furious?

More Crime Scenes:  One source I saw says that F&F guns have been found at 27 crime scenes.  I can't confirm that.  But on Sept 14, Sharly Atkinson at So far, we know over two hundred guns ended up in the hands of Mexican cartels.
Fast-Furious-Mexico-crime-scenes

Jobs Speech: Jobs or Campaigning? Oops!

President Obama got one thing right tonight...he finished his so-called jobs speech in time for the NFL season kickoff.

Other than that, it sounds a lot like the last three years of speeches:
- Pass the bill now, pass the bill now (but wait until next week when we finish writing it)
- Tax the rich (because I like class warfare)
- Let's spend another $447 Billion on something, anything (this fulfills my budget pledge to reduce spending 'cause it's only half of the Stimulus spending)
- Everyone pull together (as long as you do it the way my government says...I'll be the cheerleader)
- I'll work to reduce regulations (oh, don't mind the 75 major new regulations in the past 3 years that cost  business $75 Billion)
- How about we rebuild schools? (but we'll have to start next summer because 95% of school construction/revamp occurs in the summer)
etc., etc.

Even for a campaign speech, this is all getting tiresome.  Too bad for the country.

BANANAS: More bans on everything

When I was trying to bring more gas into California, we often refered to the anti-everything folks as BANANAS = Ban Absolutely Anything Anywhere Near Anything.  This was a good methaphor for attacks on industry, but seems to apply well to other bans, which are proliferating these days.

California July 2012:  Ban on Foie Gras becomes effective.  The French Laundry restaurant manager in Yountville says "We are resigned to the ban..."

California:  Ongoing efforts to ban lead containing ammunition.  Now in effect in condor areas.  No good science on this has been put forward.

Chicago:  Foie Gras ban from 2006 to 2008.  Finally the butter loving palettes prevailed.

New York City:  Mayor Bloomberg loves to ban stuff:  Transfats, salt, sugar drinks, knives, guns, common sense, clergy and fireman at 9/11 ceremonies...

California:  Fish and Game is trying to ban fishing on private property by creating burdensome regulations for lake owners and fish hatcheries and requiring a fishing license for using private property lakes.

Fast & Furious: Grenades and Indians; and Watergate?

F&F style investigations are proliferating. 

GrenadeGate:  A guy arrested in Mexico for making grenades for sale to the Sinaloa Cartel was released by ATF in Arizona in July 2010.  Why?  Original WSJ:     ATF: Let's_release_man_giving_grenades_to_cartels

IndianaGate:  And some folks in Indiana seem to have been used/released in a similar way as the Phoenix straw purchasers.

And further to practicing the time-honored coverup methods, ATF is moving F&F cases from Phoenix to Los Angeles and Dallas.

On another tack:  How many news outlets are now comparing F&F to Watergate?  I Googled the terms and came up with dozens of hits:
Investors Business Daily:  Fast-And-Furious-Scandal-A-Watergate-For-Obama
US Daily Review:  Fast-and-furious-obamas-watergate
Brit Hume on Daily Caller:  Hume-obama-handling-of-fast-and-furious-reminiscent-of-scandal-plagued-nixon-doj
Canada Free Press:  Watergate Article
Big Government:  AWR Hawkins:  Which-was-worse-watergate-or-operation-fast-and-furious?

Admittedly, many hits are for blogs, but many of those are fairly respectable and widely read blogs.

Climate: Sun or CO2?

A friend sent me a provocative link about new research reported in Nature from CERN:  New-evidence-debunks-manmade-global-warming.  It quotes two Financial Post articles by Lawrence Solomon, although it has been well and truly cherry picked to prove a point.  So I looked into it a little further, and came up with...maybe-it-is  or  maybe-it-isn't.

First, I think Solomon’s missive that “The science is now all-but-settled on global warming” as stated in the article seems a little premature.   However, it appears that a good case can be made that nucleation by cosmic rays is a real phenomenon but not necessarily that it is a very important contributor.

A little more searching finds some info on the CERN CLOUD experiment.  Here is official CERN announcement: CLOUD_SI_press-briefing_29JUL11  Note that they say more work must be done to identify vapors in the lower atmosphere that also contribute to nucleation.

Here are Solomon’s Financial Post articles: 

Part 1:  Lawrence-solomon-science-now-settled   Be sure to click on the Hidden Graph link.

Part 2:  Lawrence-solomon-our-cosmic-climate/#more-8257

I find it interesting that many people have been proposing to inject salt particles or sulfur particles into the upper atmosphere to promote cloud formation, and thus reflect sunlight in order to reduce temperature rise.  And of course volcanoes inject lots of ammonia into the atmosphere.  So the nucleating vapors used here are similar.

BUT, refer to this link contained in a comment to Solomon’s articles:   http://mediamatters.org/research/201108310023    Now, I know this is from Media Matters, whose main goal is usually to make the conservative media look stupid, but the quotes from reputable people and Jasper Kirkby, the main scientist behind the research, provide a strong caution about how to interpret this new research. 

I think what has happened here is that the press has flown off into the sun, and both sides have had their wings singed by their overarching ambition to prove the other guy irrefutably wrong.  As  Pat Robertson says in the video, “Don’t get stampeded by the latest theory.”

The science battle may be getting closer to being won, but the political battle has a long way to go.  Let’s keep watching.