Pravda on the Potomac: Washington Post Again Covers for Gov’t on Gunwalker
Washington Post writer Sari Horwitz came off a three-month plagiarism suspension just in time to run an Obama administration-shopped smear of Rep. Darrell Issa, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform who has been instrumental in exposing Operation Fast and Furious.
The administration’s surrogates are doing their best to suppress the story, and the Post is emerging as their primary media defender. The plot to smear Issa failed miserably and backfired, in that it exposed the Post as a rabidly partisan rag that would run smears turned down by left-wing blogs.
On Sunday, the Washington Post editorial board made another run at deflecting the administration’s blame in a new editorial, in a dual-pronged assault that sought to make the National Rifle Association (NRA) the villain while limiting the scope of the problem to being issues within the ATF:
Concerned to the point of paranoia about the erosion of the constitutional right to keep and bear arms, the National Rifle Association and far too many lawmakers have fought against virtually every proposal to empower the bureau to better track and crack down on illegal firearms. They have won reductions in the ATF’s already meager budget. They have restricted the bureau’s ability to share information with other law enforcement agencies. They have kept the bureau rudderless for the past six years by blocking confirmation of new directors. And they continue to fight new rules that would allow the bureau to track bulk sales of long guns that have played a major role in the drug-fueled violence in Mexico.
One could very reasonably conclude — as many Americans have — that we are a nation awash in overly restrictive laws that affect only the law-abiding. State legislatures across the country have agreed with this premise in recent years, leading to a raft of legislation to enable law-abiding citizens to carry firearms in more places, openly or concealed.
But the Post isn’t interested in debating current trends in gun law or the success these laws have had in decreasing violent crime in those areas in which the laws have been implemented. Their goal is to attack the gun lobby with grim and unsupportable generalities — and to obfuscate the depth of the Gunwalker scandal:
The ATF had hoped to move against higher-ups in the chain of command, but the operation went awry when the bureau lost track of 2,500 weapons, some of which have now been traced to criminal activity south of the border. Two such weapons were found in December at the scene of the murder of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
The Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General and Congress are investigating, understandably. The probes could help to explain what went wrong and what could or should have been done differently. But Capitol Hill’s intense interest in the ATF should not stop there.
Lawmakers should give the ATF the tools it needs to fight illegal gun trafficking. They should enact stronger penalties for straw purchases and craft a federal gun-smuggling statute; close the gun-show loophole, which allows buyers under certain circumstances to purchase weapons without a background check; resuscitate the ban on assault weapons; and give the ATF the authority to collect data on multiple sales of long guns in border states. The Senate should move quickly to confirm a director for the long-leaderless bureau.
The unsigned editorial portrays Gunwalker as an isolated anomaly within ATF. It purposefully and utterly disregards the long-established fact that Gunwalker was a multi-agency operation involving not just the ATF, but officials further up the line in Eric Holder’s Department of Justice, Janet Napolitano’s Department of Homeland Security, the Internal Revenue Service, and possibly the State Department.
Why would the Post want to downplay these facts?
To acknowledge the multi-agency involvement is to admit that Gunwalker was not an isolated incident, but a wide-ranging operation involving the highest levels of the Obama administration, a cabal of politicians and operatives that have long favored various gun control schemes and live by the mantra “never let a crisis go to waste.”
It is utterly repellent that the editorial board of the Post is more interested in acting as a public relations department for the government than it is in investigating the latest Iran-Contra or Watergate.
Once upon a time, the Post took the lead in investigating corruption at the highest levels of government.
That time and that integrity have both long since passed.
Related: Operation Fast and Furious — How the Obama Administration Conned the Washington Post
I’m still not sure what to make of this story. Either the administration is incredibly stupid, and criminal, or it’s just incredibly stupid. I tend to believe the simplest explanations for things, believing that it’s generally the case that simple is the most likely answer for almost any event. However, in this case, the administration is *acting* as if they have something to hid, and as if there’s something bigger to what’s going on. They’re acting like the conspiracy nuts are right, here, they deliberately let these guns go south of the Border, and then spent months clumsily trying to cover it up. If they did do this, then as I said they’re criminal and stupid, rather than just stupid. You’d like to think your President wouldn’t be both of these things. You’d like to think…
You’d like to think that. I’d like to think that. But we’d be wrong based on all the other things they’ve done. They’ve ignored crimes at voting places. They’ve passed bills without reading them, or allowing anyone else to read them. They’ve done their best to smear any opposition. They’ve ignored laws regarding bondholders and illegally taken over businesses rather than let them go bankrupt as they should have. They’ve stopped any attempts to reform the housing lender laws. They talk about being civil but what do they do when they can’t provide facts to back up their claims or convince people they are doing the right thing? Then they are the ones being uncivil. People need to know about the criminal actions of our government, no better than petty third world dictators rather than following the laws and constitution.
In simpler terms, and something I can easily grasp, they, that is, those currently in power in our government, are the smart-ass rich kids in class. They think they are smarter than you, and that claim is simply based on the fact that they are more privileged than you or I. Oh how I hate that our government elected officials have such huge staffs, travel about in limos and private jets and have all the security they could ever want. No, I’m not speaking “class-hatred” because for me to hate them based on class, they’d have to have class to begin with.
No, I refer to their crying for the little guy while they blow more money at lunch than I make all month and then charge it to me and others like me. Their contempt for me attenuates every time I see them climb into another limo.
But along with this, they make seemingly arbitrary decisions based on what will keep them in good standing with the other “cool kids”. As Rush has pointed out, people’s mentalities never leave high school. The social norm from those “formative” years pretty much run our personalities well into adulthood. It’s just that some humans recognize this and try to think more objectively rather than staying in the comfort zone of “what’s cool”.
But it’s really simple and it explains the smirks and down-the-nose looks one gets from Biden, Obama, Pelosi, etc. No one has the right to question them; They are uber-elite and us troglodytes are only useful for getting them re-elected. It’s no more complicated than that. Therefore, it naturally follows that the decisions they make that appear to satisfy constituents’ wishes are merely window-dressing to get more votes. If you’ll notice they very rarely are subjected to the same treatment under the law that us “regular people” are. (A pardon for Blago in 3, 2, 1.) In fact, when Hambone is voted out, that will be one of his parting shots at the conservatives, among other things.
They feel that laws are for the “little people” as all reigning monarchs have since the beginning of organized societies. Looking though history, it’s always been that way. For a time, the United States was able to avoid this but due to the cleverness of the human species, we have figured out a way to make it just like it always was. Though I believe strongly in the way this nation was founded, it’s just not functioning that way anymore.
To SG-1:
Well said, sir. Well said.
I was thinking about the very points you alluded to, just the other day. Our government has morphed itself into the same aristocratic, ruling class society as the one we ran from under George III
You nailed it on the SG-1 about people never leaving high school. Argue with liberal a liberal and they always have smug attitude they are better than you. They seem to always be saying “well this is what all the smart people think, and I am one of that group, whats wrong with you, don’t you want to be part of our group?”
How about Mrs. O’s trip to South Africa, it cost us from $700,000 to a slick million. That’s her third vacation this year. It use to be when our President or his family wanted a vacation, they would go to Camp David or such. At least they were spending the money at home not abroad.
Now let’s examine their solution for the fiscal problem………………more taxes anyone.
Orwell wrote about it. The pigs are wearing human clothes and they’re living in the farmers house. “All humans are created equal, but some humans are more equal than others,” they think.
One mark of maturity is the ability to face facts.
What I’m seeing in DC – and have seen for quite some time – is the intersection of stubborn stupidity, paranoid madness, AND genuine evil.
Stupid, crazy, and evil is no way to go through life, and the centralization of federal government power forces us all to share that fate.
The editorial is a self-contradictory joke. As commenter “SageThrasher” at WaPo said, “the Washington Post somehow thinks such amazing stupidity shows the ATF should have MORE power???? And I suppose drunk drivers should be given bigger vehicles so they don’t hurt themselves when they plow into oncoming traffic?”
Good analogy!
I would vote for tank
) For drunk driver can be tricky to stay on road.
I will tell you what to make of the story. America has in Demon within and it is ignorance and the lack of tacking the time to find out what is going on. We are divided by sides like a college or professional sport. We have far to many sheep!
As the way to arrest drug cartel people is to “turn” drug peddlars, the gun runner “sting” makes no sense. It does make sense if the object is to make the case that US citizens should own fewer guns. “Drug Cartel Guns come from US” etc. (Well they do if it’s the ATF bringing them in.) “Operation Fast and Furious” is just another example of the Obama administration’s war against the US Constitution.
“To acknowledge the multi-agency involvement is to admit that Gunwalker was not an isolated incident, but a wide-ranging operation involving the highest levels of the Obama administration, a cabal of politicians and operatives that have long favored various gun control schemes and live by the mantra “never let a crisis go to waste.”
That last thing the Washington Post and the New York Times want to do is admit that Obama and his minions screwed up this badly, let alone probably broke a bunch of Federal laws in the process. And let’s not forget that at least one US border agent was killed as a result of this stupid program. Nope, the Washington Post is going to cover for the Democratic man/boy that’s in the White House to the bitter end. They just can’t admit that they had made a terrible mistake getting this empty suit elected. Issa and the rest of the Republicans in Congress should just keep going with this investigation until it goes all the way to the top, or at least Eric Holder and probably Janet Napolitano. Both of them should at least be fired over this, maybe even have charges brought against them. I guess when the amount of evidence against these two becomes undeniable, then papers like the Washington Post will not be able to ignore it or hide it anymore. The truth is the best way to get back at these people.
Your optimism is monumental! WAPO really does not need to make a profit selling papers as its owners just want a megaphone to lie loudly with! They will do their masters’ bidding!
The WaPo is no doubt angling for a Federal bailout. Here in its home delivery area consisting largely of white, middle-class Federal gov. workers, support for Obama is still unwavering. They will still vote for him in 2012 regardless of the moronic things he and his administration does. Their main gripe — he hasn’t gone far-Left enough.
I recall the WaPo at the front of investigating Watergate. Big difference when a Democrat is in office.
Duh-UGH!
This is simple..Holder has finally gotten his nose caught in the window trying to escape, it is about time this small version of obama was put on front street he like obama believe that they are both so far above the law and of course the main stream media will pull them out of any real trouble and bury it so deep we will never hear of it again..this situation the fast and furious will dissappear into the night in no time watch by next week not even a blip on the radar, there will be something new..I mean what happened to not proscecuting cases of civil rights if white people were the ones being treaded upon? I mean did I miss something or was that not rather a big deal but it did not even last one day I knew then that this DOJ was a smaller version of BHO so until we get a new president we are stuck and from what I see the Republicans have offered up as a replacement I do not see this happening in the next 4 years so I just read the stories and shake my head in disbelief and wonder what it was I fought in the War for oh yeah God and Country hahahahahaha thats almost funny now….
Why have none of our elected officials, like Issa, stated that people are “going to serve time for this lawbreaking program? Declaring this openly might cause more folks in the DOJ, BATF, Border Patrol, et al to come forth. If this goes unpunished, the gun-owner becomes the default perp.
How can the bureaucrats in the chain of command redact anything they’re ordered to produce?
Without such results, the whole investigation process is toothless, just a waste of time and our money.
when the bureau lost track of 2,500 weapons,
Hey, it can happen to anybody.
A new slogan for the federal bureaucracy: You can trust us — to screw up.
The problem with your slogan is the BATFE never planned to track the weapons in question! The ATFE, DEA, and probably the DHS should be dissolved and their duties taken over by the FBI. I know, the FBI has competency problems, but, I don’t believe, deliberately so.
I just wonder if there is a case to be made for treason against the United States, in offering comfort, support, and material to the enemy in a time of “The War on Drugs”, as well as the criminal co-enterprises engaging in human trafficking of “operatives” transporting “material” across the front lines?
The NRA opposing consistent idiocy of “unintended” consequence of BATF? Um…that’s ONE of their reasons for being, all without a single “gub’mint” dime, and despite consistent Federal, State, and “Municipal”, gub’mint “common-sense restrictions” to operation.
“We the people…” or something like that.
Just ask Barney Frank.
Why are those charged with enforcing the law allowed to break it? Is there an exemption for law enforcement? Or should these people be in prison with the criminals they enable?
This administration is nothing but “high crimes and misdemeanors”, and the Pravda on the Potomac, the Washington Post, is a willing accomplice.
You know how it is, you create something you have to stick with it. The media will stick with and protect Obama and his team of trash to the bitter, and I mean bitter, end.
Bitter for us that is.
johnt – The longer the LSM sticks with him, and the more he screws up, the more the LSM loses its credibility. Not a bad outcome after all.
The ATF can lose track of over 2500 guns that they owned, but I’ll bet they know exactly where YOUR guns are.
Not a chance, Diggs, not a chance!
AND I hope thats true for alot of folks out there!
The former Pravda and Izvestia were the two major papers in the USSR. Pravda (“The Truth”) and Izvestia (“The News”) were the official papers of the Communist Party and the Soviet government, respectively. An often used comment about these papers: “There is no Pravda in Izvestia, nor any Izvestia in Pravda.” It is a sad comment that the New York Times and the Washington Post appear to have been assuming those roles on behalf of the Democratic Party and this administration.
Bob Owens – You finish your column by saying: “Once upon a time, the Post took the lead in investigating corruption at the highest levels of government.” I would amend to ” … investigation corruption at the hightest levels of government when the Administration is Republican.” In any event, thank goodness for Pajamas Media and people like yourselves who writer here.
The question is ‘how long before those among us wake up’?
Last week I stated that – “When facing a flotilla – sink a ship’!
With the trash that’s being published today by the Post and the Times -
I do think it’s time – ‘To really STOP the presses’!
I mean ‘sinking the presses’ doesn’t really work – any more than ‘stopping a flotilla ship’ would.
“Hey – I think someone stopped the ship”!
Very mild – try this one –
“Hey – I can’t swim – glub glub glub”.
If you are going to do it – do it right!
The Coffee Guy cares.
…but the operation went awry when the bureau lost track of 2,500 weapons. One wonders what the cost of those weapons are. Insignificant, really, compared to the $5 billion reportedly ‘lost’ in Iraq by our ‘gubmint’. That story died a quick death as well. All bureaucrats cover for each other and always will. Job security depends on it. The current administration gets perhaps more cover from the left media than the prior one since the prior one was supposedly right wing. What in hell is the difference ‘tween a democrat progressive or a republican one? Unless we elect, in this next cycle, representatives and a president who truly believe in the constitution of the U.S. and they then act to uphold it, actually reduce the size of the federal govt. and allow us our freedom once more, we are doomed.
Coeurmaeghan in 29 Palms, CA
You are, of course, entirely correct. We haven’t had a truly conservative government (both Houses of Congress, the President and USSC) in over 100 years now. It’s high time we got back to the conservative principles of the founders, which MAY be the only way we’re able to save this Republic from total destruction.
So let me get the Posts position straight. The ATF royally screwed up, and their screwup killed people, while doing zippo to advance their supposed mission, stopping illegal guns, and in fact harmed that mission. So the posts solution, give this agency more money and power, and pass more gun bans, so the ATF can finance even bigger crewups. And the NRA is evil for saying that is not a good idea. And by the way, Holder and his top aides knew nothing about it, but Holders top aides fully briefed Issa. Sure makes sense to me.
The MSM can’t even tell decent lies anymore, they are only capable of telling incompetently stupid lies. Of course there are still plenty of incompetently stupid lefties who will beleive those incompetently stupid lies, just like the animinals in Animal Farm who beleived Squealers latest post on the barn wall.
Typo correction, that was Animal Farm, not animal house.
“The ATF had hoped to move against higher-ups in the chain of command, but the operation went awry when the bureau lost track of 2,500 weapons…”
Went awry?
i take it that’s lefto-speak for: got caught red-handed supplying Mexican drug gangs (and murderers) with thousands of guns. The purpose being to aid and abet crime and violence in Mexico, so they could point to said crime and violence and say: “Oh look, we need to outlaw the private manufacture of guns in America!”
Our government is composed of the scum of the earth.
What I would like to know is why hasnt a federal prosecutor a local law enforcement official or a state attorney general sought an indictment for those who have broken state and federal laws regarding the illegality of allowing the sale of guns to people who clearly were disallowed from purchasing firearms,accessory to murder,federal firearm law controlling exporting firearms.Many laws have been broken and no one can force you to violate the law,no one is above the law,unless this fundemental corner stone of our society is honored all is lost.
“[N]o one is above the law, unless this fundemental corner stone of our society is honored all is lost.”
Sorry to tell you, all IS lost, for at least the next year and a half and possibly even longer… which could lead to “forever.”
The Washington Post has for long preened and postured as a calm island of objectivity in the partisan political sea of Washington, DC. But what it really is at core is a liberal rag that tries its best to clean up dem messes and dems messes only.
Let’s imagine what life would be if we had only the marxist newspapers, the marxist movies from Hollywood, and the marxist university teachers.
It would be sad. It would be dark.
We would be slaves.
It would be the Soviet Union of America.
We must get rid of all these zombies.
We must ridicule them and humiliate them so deeply that they will disappear into the fog of history, with their islam supremacist friends, and with their soviet and nazi ancestors.
@25
What do you mean ‘imagine’?
You’re living it.
Suck it up.
We must NEVER forget that the BATFEO (That’s “Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, Explosives and Oleomargarine, by the way) is, in essence, a TAX COLLECTION agency–NOT a law enforcement arm of the government, except in the sense that there are laws that govern the collection of taxes on all those things. BATF is principally charged with responsibility to collect taxes levied on alcohol, tobacco, firearms, explosives and oleomargarine (a tax insisted upon about 100 years ago by the dairy industry so oleo wouldn’t undercut the price of butter too badly–and one of the principle reasons that oleo costs as much as it currently does.) These are the “revenooers” of “Thunder Road” infamy, who chase down moonshiners, blow up their stills, etc. NOT for making “white lightening” but for refusing to pay the taxes levied on the alcohol they do make (and also for not allowing the government to regulate their businesses)!
“Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small;
Though with patience he stands waiting, with exactness grinds he all. (Friedrich Von Logau).
Yesterday, the former Governor of Illinois was convicted of crimes which carry a sentence of three centuries. The essence of his crime: selling the Senate seat which Barack Obama left vacant by assuming the office of POTUS. Governor Rod Blagojevich has howled holy innocence since the talk of his impeachment was first voiced. He will be the fourth Illinois Governor to go to jail in the last several decades.
This week, we learn that high officials within the ATF may have broken the law. It is clear that they ordered their workers to allow thousands of military weapons to handed over to Mexican drug lords. This will take years to sort out, and will certainly heavy influence the next election, as will Blagojevich’s felonies.
Grind away all. The words of WaPo only disgrace their authors.
The old Soviet era joke about their newspapers was: Pravda means “Truth” and Izvestia means “News” – and everyone in the USSR knows that there is no news in the “truth” and no truth in the “news”. How sad sad sad that the New York Times and the Washington Post have become the in-house “company” newsletters for our rapidly declining power elite.
Stan Horwitz, Stan, Stan, Stan for you to try to blame the NRA for any wrong or impeding our government in tracking weapons. As for law bidding citizens who registry their weapons, criminals do not register their weapons as involving Fast and Furious. Again our government is caught selling weapons to our enemies not the NRA. Stan that puts you one toke over the line even for a bias newspaper person like yourself. Anyone who claims that holder and obama did not know about and approve Fast and Furious is a pure liar. Every time these 2 open their mouths the lies just fall out. You can cover for them but you can not hide the truth!
That’s Sari.
Once there were two things that would get a scribbler instantly fired. 1. Not apologizing when your editor told you to. 2. Plagiarism. Lying was negotiable.
Gun laws would not have helped here unless the new gun law prohibited the US Government (read that BATFE) from owning, regulating, or posessing guns. It was not gun shows, it was not private citizens, it was the BATFE that was responsible for guns getting into the hands of criminals! Ban, dispose of, eliminate, defund the BATFE. Put those in charge of the BATFE in jail. We can use that money elsewhere.
“Once upon a time, the Post took the lead in investigating corruption at the highest levels of government.”
So long as the enemy was Republican.
I live in a university town. I can tell you right now that in all likelihood the PRAVDA story is already internalized and the narrative is a meme. It is incredible how their ideology sets them up to believe lies instinctively, and because these folks are all mildly autistic, they remember details, whether they are real or not, with photographic precision.
The ATF had hoped to move against higher-ups in the chain of command….
Right, because no one knows who and where in Mexico the Drug Cartels are!
On the contrary, the Adm. is actually soliciting campaign contributions from the Cartels and their large number of dependents, just as it was by way of making war on Arizona, and now also from the Taliban and its sponsors by withdrawing from Afghanistan AMA – against military advice.
Attn., any Committee/Entity charged with overseeing Campaign Finance, “Follow the money! Interdict!” –> aka, “the audacity of hope”?
Plus – and therefore, rejoice all Ye Progressive Regressives, forget “closing Gitmo” – “Afghanistan is Vietnam!”
Iran-contra and Watergate were under Republican administrations. Gunwalker is under a Democrat administration. I think that pretty much describes the scope of the Post’s “investigative” excellence.
The Washington Post stopped being a newspaper when it started groveling at Obama’s feet. It has no interest in the news anymore, Just in being a propaganda rag for Obama and other extremest.
The only reason to read it is to find out what lies it is telling. Then they can be refuted so they don’t get away with them.
It’s rather sad to see the media in this country go from actually reporting the news and investigating government corruption to being complicit in government corruption and spreading lies to protect the criminals in government.
I’ve read hundreds of comments about Obama’s breaking of laws, acting contrary to the US Constitution, appeasing enemies during a time of war. And I have to assume all of this to be true. So !!! Why isn’t the man in jail? Hung for treason, deported to Indonesia, and at the very least, kicked out of office?
Where are the other two factors, the Congress and the Supreme Court??
And if those two won’t do it, where are the patriotic Americans who can and should??
51 percent of Americans are mentally ill.
And the 49ers need to wait a year to do anything about it.
Good luck with that.