Originally Posted By ARDestructo:
Unless I'm mistaken (and I'm pretty sure I'm not), it's a federal crime to interfere with Congress's power to communicate with anyone whose salary is paid by the taxpayers.

The White House cannot just tell Issa that they are making O'Reilly unavailable.

Originally Posted By WGPKlaus:


It's truly ashamed that the media opted to cheerlead for Obama/Administration (including Holder) rather than do their jobs, and apply the same pressure they did to George W. Bush and his administration. Had they done that, Holder would at the very least have been thrown to the curb where he belongs with the rest of the gutter trash, and if they were especially attentive, Obama might have very well been wrapped up in this, and we wouldn't even have to give a second thought to him winning a 2nd term, even against the likes of Mittens.

Originally Posted By raven:


The pisser is that the media went after AG Gonzales for doing something completely proper and legal (removing US attorneys appointed by the previous President).  

Originally Posted By South_Side_Shooter:


How hard would it be for Issa to hop a ride to Iraq with a US Marshall & a subpena?

"Botched."

That is the word the mainstream media too often associates with the federal gunwalking scandal known as Operation Fast and Furious—but in her new book, Fast and Furious: Barack Obama's Bloodiest Scandal and Its Shameless Cover-Up, investigative reporter Katie Pavlich fearlessly chronicles exactly why the only thing "botched" about the ill-fated operation was the Obama administration's shoddy attempt to cover their tracks.

Originally Posted By Everrest:
Townhall: Taking Down Fast and Furious: It Wasn't Botched
More at link.

Originally Posted By South_Side_Shooter:
How hard would it be for Issa to hop a ride to Iraq with a US Marshall & a subpena?

Originally Posted By Everrest:
Townhall: Taking Down Fast and Furious: It Wasn't Botched
More at link.

   Man: “Do you have an Eric Holder, 50th Street?

   Poll worker: “Let me see here.”

   Man: Xxxx 50th Street.

   Poll Worker: Let’s see, Holder, Hol-t-e-r, or Hold-d-e-r?

   Man: H-o-l-d-e-r.

   Poll Worker: D-e-r. Okay.

   Man: That’s the name.

   Poll Worker: I do. Xxxx 50th Street NW. Okay. [Puts check next to name, indicating someone has shown up to vote.] Will you sign there . . .

   Man: I actually forgot my ID.

   Poll Worker: You don’t need it; it’s all right.

   Man: I left it in the car.

   Poll Worker: As long as you’re in here, and you’re on our list and that’s who you say you are, we’re okay.

   Man: I would feel more comfortable if I go get my ID, is it all right if I go get it?

   Poll Worker: Sure, go ahead.

   Man: I’ll be back faster than you can say furious!

   Poll Worker: We’re not going anywhere.

Originally Posted By Hedonist:
obama is flapping his jaws, spewing lies at an amazing rate.

You almost have to give the guy credit as a master of misdirection - but I'm still here, checking this thread, and amazed where the investigation is at.

I do think though, that with the current head of DOJ, this goes no where until the corrupt are shown the door - and even then... by then... it won't really matter unless those responsible do actual prison time.

I am getting a sense of why those involved are silent - they just don't want to die.

Originally Posted By iRidiculous:
Excerpt from O'keefe's latest sting video:

Originally Posted By ARDestructo:


Unless I'm mistaken (and I'm pretty sure I'm not), it's a federal crime to interfere with Congress's power to communicate with anyone whose salary is paid by the taxpayers.



The White House cannot just tell Issa that they are making O'Reilly unavailable.

Originally Posted By Everrest:
This is the complete video from last week. TheDailyCaller had a shorter video. Interesting item is that the original Newell emails were provided by a whistleblower first.
Rep. Chaffetz on FOX News with Megyn Kelly with Update on Fast and Furious
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec5uimL9QPA

Originally Posted By polymer4me:

I really don't see much difference between Zero and Hugo Chávez at this point

Originally Posted By Everrest:



Rep. Chaffetz on FNC America's Newsroom on White House Stonewalling on Fast and Furious


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvpUSXWYUYk

Originally Posted By polymer4me:


Guess you can't force a King to do something he doesn't want to
   

Originally Posted By scottedward58:


Why is congress not charging anyone? It has been months since they failed to meet issa's first "deadline" and every "deadline" since then has been ignored. Issa has allowed them to ignore so many deadlines so far that if this ever goes anywhere I'm sure the DOJ will claim that they thought "deadline" was just a figure of speech and that because he let them pass on so many other "deadlines" how could they be expected to know that this one time they really meant business.

Originally Posted By Hedonist:


With dems in charge, they're not going to find themselves in contempt.

This is an honor system, and the powers in charge are not honorable.


 

Originally Posted By jeffco55:
Can someone help me with finding video of the news conference where Bill Newel denies that any gun walking took place? It was the one in Phoenix on January 25, 2011.

Originally Posted By Hedonist:


With dems in charge, they're not going to find themselves in contempt.

This is an honor system, and the powers in charge are not honorable.


 

Originally Posted By Hedonist:
Dems control the DOJ - with numerous branches that had hands in this mess.  You really think Holder is going to authorize anything either Congress or the Senate demands?  Issue a warrant, for himself?

I doubt it - there is no bi-partisan outcry.  There is the honorable, and then there is our DOJ.

They are shielded by the most powerful branch in our government - the media.

Originally Posted By Everrest:
NRAVideos: Senator Chuck Grassley with the Latest on Operation Fast and Furious
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMJFkFFY6WM

Originally Posted By scottedward58:


With everyone of these interviews I'm starting to think this is more and more about scoring political points than justice. It is looking more and more like the dems were right, at least about the Rs caring more about what they can get out of this politically.

Originally Posted By RocketmanOU:


FWIW, if I were a republican looking to score points, I'd be moving the investigation forward as fastly and furiously as I could. Seriously, there are a hell of a lot more points to be scored by uncovering a huge scandal than moving so agonizingly slowly.If my letters have been any indication to them, they have to know that every new interview that shows little to no progress scores them zero points.

Originally Posted By Scott_R:
Two Texas men indicted for attempting to smuggle ammunition and magazines into Mexico.

LAS CRUCES – U.S. Attorney Kenneth J. Gonzales for the District of New Mexico announced that a federal grand jury sitting in the El Paso Division of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas has indicted Ricardo Montalvo, 28, and Carla Gonzales-Ortiz, 29, both residents of El Paso, Tex., on conspiracy, firearms and smuggling charges.

Montalvo is an agent with the U.S. Border Patrol who has been on administrative desk duty since January 2011, when the investigation into the case was initiated. Montalvo’s girlfriend, Gonzales-Ortiz, is a Mexican citizen who is a legal permanent resident. Montalvo and Gonzales-Ortiz were arrested without incident this morning, and will make their initial appearances tomorrow before a U.S. Magistrate Judge in the El Paso Division of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.

Montalvo and Gonzales-Ortiz are charged in a 20-count indictment, which was filed under seal on April 4, 2012, and was unsealed earlier today. The indictment alleges that, between November 2010 and January 2011, Montalvo and Gonzales-Ortiz participated in a conspiracy to illegally purchase firearms, ammunition and high-capacity magazines of the type for which there was a ready market among the Mexican Cartels. The defendants allegedly made these purchases knowing that the firearms, ammunition and magazines were intended to be illegally exported to Mexico.

During the three-month period covered by the indictment, Montalvo, Gonzales-Ortiz and others allegedly obtained nine firearms by falsely claiming that they were the actual purchasers of the firearms, when in fact they were acting as straw purchasers who were buying the firearms on behalf of others. According to the indictment, Montalvo allegedly purchased approximately 20,000 rounds of ammunition and 97 high-capacity magazines, including ten 100-round magazines for 5.56 mm rifles and ten 75-round drum magazines for 7.62x39 mm rifles, during this period. Montalvo also allegedly purchased four 37 mm flare launchers, which are desired by Mexican Cartels because they may be converted easily into grenade launchers.

The indictment charges Montalvo and Gonzales-Ortiz with conspiracy to make false statements in connection with the acquisition of firearms and smuggling goods out of the United States. If convicted of this charge, each defendant could receive a sentence of five years of imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. The indictment also charges Montalvo with seven counts of making false statements during the purchase of a firearm and Gonzales-Ortiz with two count of making false statements during the purchase of a firearm. A conviction on any one of these false statement counts carries a maximum penalty of five years of imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. Montalvo additionally is charged with 10 counts of purchasing and receiving ammunition and magazines knowing that these goods were intended for illegal export from the United States. The maximum penalty on any one of the exportation counts is ten years of imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nathan J. Lichvarcik and Mark Saltman of the Las Cruces office of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico, and was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Office of Internal Affairs.

An indictment is only an accusation. All criminal defendants are entitled to a presumption of innocence until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Originally Posted By Scott_R:
Two Texas men indicted for attempting to smuggle ammunition and magazines into Mexico.

Federal agents raided an award-winning gun shop in Eagle Pass on Tuesday, alleging it aided in sending guns and ammo across the border.
Agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations descended on Hesles Gun Store in the center of town on the heels of a federal indictment that alleges its operators were complicit with smugglers suspected of supplying drug gangs in Mexico.
The suspects, brothers Richard R. Hesles Jr. 32, and Damien R. Hesles, 22, had taken over the family business after their father — who previously ran the store — passed away in recent years.
“There was evidence that they were knowingly selling ammunition and firearms being taken to Mexico,” said Richard Durbin, chief of the criminal division for the San Antonio-based Western District of Texas. The federal district includes Eagle Pass.

Gonzales-Ortiz and others allegedly obtained nine firearms by falsely claiming that they were the actual purchasers of the firearms, when in fact they were acting as straw purchasers ... - This is the definition of straw purchasing

If convicted of this charge, each defendant could receive a sentence of five years of imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. - This is the maximum sentence allowed, for each count, under the law

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-

Montalvo additionally is charged with 10 counts of purchasing and receiving ammunition and magazines knowing that these goods were intended for illegal export from the United States. - This is the definition of arms trafficking

The maximum penalty on any one of the exportation counts is ten years of imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. - This is the maximum sentence for each count of this crime

Originally Posted By Everrest:
You make a point that I've been thinking about mentioning for a few days now. The # of weapons, trafficing, and other charge that could and should be charge for the people in F&F are being pleaded to nothing.
The ATF recently sent out a Press Release on a felon in possession of a pistol who was given 110 months.  I've seen several others get more than the traffickers.  
I have almost came to the conclusion that DOJ is pleading  cases down to keep from going to trial and showing what they knew and when. They get a high conviction rate and they can complain about the need for more gun control and stiffer penalties.

FUEH

Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s visit to Washington last week featured his usual lecturing of Americans about gun control. This time, he had some good ideas, although he remains wedded to many bad ones, too. A polite guest, Mr. Calderon did not mention the “Fast and Furious” operation during his public events with President Obama. But reports indicate that he did bring it up privately, and he was furious - justifiably so. From late 2009 until early 2011, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) orchestrated the delivery of more than 2,000 firearms to Mexican drug cartels. According to Mexico’s attorney general, those firearms have been used in 200 homicides in Mexico. Another victim was U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, killed in December 2010.

If Mr. Obama gave Mr. Calderon the same explanations that his administration has been propounding since last year, there was no reason for Mr. Calderon to take Mr. Obama seriously. The administration’s all-purpose excuse of “It’s Bush’s fault” has been applied to Fast and Furious. From 2006 to 2007, the very same Phoenix ATF office that perpetrated Fast and Furious ran a similar operation, which supplied more than 400 guns to Mexican drug trafficking organizations. The head of the Phoenix ATF office, gun control enthusiast William Newell, led both operations.

The difference is that when ATF headquarters in Washington found out about Mr. Newell’s gun-walking, they took immediate action, which led to the operation being shut down. But during the Obama administration, they enthusiastically supported Fast and Furious.

In her explosive new book Fast and Furious, Katie Pavlich makes the case that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano not only failed to stop an operation that led to the death of one of her own, Border Agent Brian A. Terry, but she may have also lied to Congress in sworn testimony at a hearing held to find out what really happened.

Inside sources told Pavlich that Napolitano’s testimony was in direct contradiction to emails she exchanged, and reports and briefing she received, according to an exclusive preview of the book by Human Events.

Pavlich’s book Fast and Furious is due to be released Monday, April 16. It is published by Regnery Publishing, owned by Eagle Publishing, which also owns Human Events.

Most of the focus in the Fast and Furious scandal has been on attorney Gen. Eric Holder, because his Department of Justice ran the program through its Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, still referenced to as ATF, its old initials from before it was tasked with explosives.

But while Holder's people waved the questionable gun purchasers through the checkout line, Napolitano was in charge of the Mexican border those guns crossed.

Originally Posted By Everrest:
HumanEvents: Napolitano perjured herself to Congress in Fast & Furious testimony
More at link.

Originally Posted By Everrest:



HumanEvents: Napolitano perjured herself to Congress in Fast & Furious testimony




More at link.

Originally Posted By RocketmanOU:


I hope that gets some congresspeople moving. I'd love to see her go down for this as well.

Originally Posted By Everrest:
HumanEvents: Napolitano perjured herself to Congress in Fast & Furious testimony
More at link.

“Let me tell you something about Janet,” another source said to the author. “Janet will be lucky not to go to prison.”

GOP Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney applauded House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley for their efforts to investigate the Obama Justice Department’s lethal Operation Fast and Furious today during a speech at the NRA Annual Meeting Leadership Forum in St. Louis. This is the first time any GOP presidential candidate has mentioned the Fast and Furious scandal by name in a public speech, officially bringing the scandal into the 2012 general election with President Barack Obama. Romney also embraced the NRA’s calls for Attorney General Eric Holder to resign or be fired for his role in Fast and Furious.

Originally Posted By Everrest:
Townhall: Fast and Furious Launched Into 2012 Presidential Election by Mitt Romney

Originally Posted By NoloContendere:


He did. Sitting close to the stage. Newt did a great job too attacking doj on F&F