The MSM embargo of Operation Fast and Furious continues

Nope…no liberal media bias!

NYT calls for the head of the Attorney General

Wow…who would have thought that the leftist rag would demand the resignation/firing of the Attorney General of the United States?  I guess the offense was just that horrible!  Excerpt:

It (the administration) has offered up implausible excuses, hidden the most damaging evidence and feigned memory lapses, while hoping that the public’s attention moves on. But this scandal is too important for the public or Congress to move on. This story should not end until Attorney General [redacted – CL] is gone, and the serious damage that has been done to the Justice Department is repaired.

Kudos to the NYT for demanding that the integrity of the office of the AG and the Department of Justice be preserved!  I guess Operation Fast & Furious, a botched federal government operation which resulted in our government arming Mexican drug lords who, in turn, killed Border Patrol agent Brian Terry PLUS 300+ Mexicans, was just so egregious that even the liberal apologists at the Old Gray Hag couldn’t defend USAG Eric Holder over it.

Hmm?  What’s that?  The NYT column isn’t talking about Holder or Fast & Furious?

Oh, wait.  That’s right!  My bad.  The column was demanding the head of Bush’s AG Alberto Gonzales on a silver platter for the far more disgusting crime of…firing U.S. Attorneys who serve at the pleasure of the administration.

No, as it turns out, the NYT is allowing Holder and the administration to get their talking points out about Fast & Furious.  Naturally and predictably, Holder whips out the race card, and the NYT is more than happy to accommodate Holder.

But Mr. Holder contended that many of his other critics — not only elected Republicans but also a broader universe of conservative commentators and bloggers — were instead playing “Washington gotcha” games, portraying them as frequently “conflating things, conveniently leaving some stuff out, construing things to make it seem not quite what it was” to paint him and other department figures in the worst possible light.

Of that group of critics, Mr. Holder said he believed that a few — the “more extreme segment” — were motivated by animus against Mr. Obama and that he served as a stand-in for him. “This is a way to get at the president because of the way I can be identified with him,” he said, “both due to the nature of our relationship and, you know, the fact that we’re both African-American.”

From Big Journalism:

Conflating things? How do we “conflate things” when we provide the documents PROVING our points? Plus if we are leaving out things it’s because Mr. Holder and the Department of Justice aren’t providing us with all the details.
…
How about members of the Congressional Black Caucus Mr. Holder and Mr. Savage? As Mr. Boyle and Michelle Fields report the feeling in the caucus is that the congressional investigation is warranted. So do they feel this way because Mr. Holder is an African American? Are they racists against their own race?

To recap:  Republican A.G. fires US Attorneys (within his job duty), and the NYT demands he lose his job.  But Democrat A.G. arms a Mexican drug cartel and gets over 300 people killed, including federal border patrol agent Brian Terry (whose name the NYT can’t bother themselves to mention), and the NYT yawns disinterestedly and allows unfounded accusations of racism and sensationalism to go unchecked.  Because proof is racist, or something.

Nope…no liberal media bias!

ATF wanted Fast & Furious fiasco to push for more gun control

Remember last month when Eric Holder said that the botched Operation Fast & Furious, which resulted in the deaths of people including a border patrol agent (of which Holder is not remorseful), was proof that we needed more gun control laws in the U.S.?  As if more gun control laws would have stopped our own government from arming Mexican drug cartels, right?  Anywho, new e-mails are surfacing that showed ATF officials were indeed using the power of their office, coupled with the fiasco that was OF&F, to push more gun control legislation.  Details:

ATF officials didn’t intend to publicly disclose their own role in letting Mexican cartels obtain the weapons, but emails show they discussed using the sales, including sales encouraged by ATF, to justify a new gun regulation called “Demand Letter 3″. That would require some U.S. gun shops to report the sale of multiple rifles or “long guns.” Demand Letter 3 was so named because it would be the third ATF program demanding gun dealers report tracing information.

On July 14, 2010 after ATF headquarters in Washington D.C. received an update on Fast and Furious, ATF Field Ops Assistant Director Mark Chait emailed Bill Newell, ATF’s Phoenix Special Agent in Charge of Fast and Furious:

“Bill – can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same (licensed gun dealer) and at one time. We are looking at anecdotal cases to support a demand letter on long gun multiple sales. Thanks.”

On Jan. 4, 2011, as ATF prepared a press conference to announce arrests in Fast and Furious, Newell saw it as “(A)nother time to address Multiple Sale on Long Guns issue.” And a day after the press conference, Chait emailed Newell: “Bill–well done yesterday… (I)n light of our request for Demand letter 3, this case could be a strong supporting factor if we can determine how many multiple sales of long guns occurred during the course of this case.”

There’s much more at the link.  Here’s guessing that House Oversight Chair Darrell Issa is going to grill the hopelessly corrupt Eric Holder on this at today’s hearing.

Holder: We need to tighten gun control laws so we at the federal government don’t give any more guns to murderous Mexican drug cartels

What a #*&@% moron!  This guy must possess another chromosome or two, because this is just idiotic on so many levels.  Details:

In his testimony, Holder also advocates for new gun-control laws that he says would have halted, or at least prevented, Operation Fast and Furious. Holder echoes California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s comments from last week, when she argued that stricter gun laws would have stopped law enforcement agents from facilitating the sale of guns to Mexican drug cartels.

Just to make sure I understand this properly…

The feds force reluctant gun dealers to sell guns to Mexican drug lords, who then turn around and use those guns (unexpectedly, of course) to commit crimes, especially murder.  When the resulting (and predictable) operation blows up, Holder and his minions scramble into CYA mode to deal with the humilation and possible criminal charges.

Their response?  We need stricter gun control laws.  Of course.  I mean, stricter gun control laws that applied only to American citizens would have prevented the federal government from this insanely stupid government operation (forcing gun dealers to sell arms to Mexican drug lords), right?  Hmmm?  They won’t?

You know, if I were cynical, I would think that the feds are using this debacle as a cover for  implementing more gun control laws against the populace.  If I were cynical, that is.

Feds used taxpayer dollars to buy and sell illegal weapons to Mexican drug lords in “Operation Fast & Furious”

Oh, I’m furious, no doubt.  New details:

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.

So what was Operation Fast and Furious?

Operation Fast and Furious began in October 2009. In it, federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives encouraged gun stores to sell weapons to an arms smuggling gang, then watched as the guns crossed the border and were used in crimes. Each month, the agency allowed hundreds of guns to go South, despite opposition from some agents.

All told, the gang spent more than $1.25 million for the illegal guns.

In June 2010, however, the ATF dramatically upped the ante, making the U.S. government the actual “seller” of guns.

According to documents obtained by Fox News, Agent John Dodson was ordered to buy six semi-automatic Draco pistols — two of those were purchased at the Lone Wolf gun store in Peoria, Ariz. An unusual sale, Dodson was sent to the store with a letter of approval from David Voth, an ATF group supervisor.

Dodson then sold the weapons to known illegal buyers, while fellow agents watched from their cars nearby.

This was not a “buy-bust” or a sting operation, where police sell to a buyer and then arrest them immediately afterward. In this case, agents were “ordered” to let the sale go through and follow the weapons to a stash house.

According to sources directly involved in the case, Dodson felt strongly that the weapons should not be abandoned and the stash house should remain under 24-hour surveillance. However, Voth disagreed and ordered the surveillance team to return to the office. Dodson refused, and for six days in the desert heat kept the house under watch, defying direct orders from Voth.

A week later, a second vehicle showed up to transfer the weapons. Dodson called for an interdiction team to move in, make the arrest and seize the weapons. Voth refused and the guns disappeared with no surveillance.

David Voth and a slew of others within the administration should be fired over this.  With the exception of FNC, the rest of the MSM is quieter than MSNBC’s prime time coverage of the Solyndra scandal.