May 13, 2011 - 8:09 pm
It’s not bad enough that Texas has seen 2.5 million acres burn during this record drought.
Reuters reports that the ATF was helping local bomb squads in Motley County to destroy some explosives. The wind kicked up, but the explosives were ruled too dangerous to move. A burning fragment escaped into the surrounding grass, setting off a 150 acre fire.
Said county attorney Tom Edwards: “You can quote me on it: That bunch has a real corner on stupid.”
Was he referring to the ATF’s inability to arrest those who violate federal firearms laws? Or perhaps it was a veiled reference to ATF’s penchant for helping firearms walk across the border after observing illegal straw purchases made by drug cartel agents?
We may never know.
First they give guns to the Mexican gangs to kill Texans with and then they try to burn us out.
Don’t know what we would do with Federal protection.
Maybe that DEA Agent that shot himself in the ass can get a job with ATF.
I knew an exATF guy. After Waco (he hinted he was actually there) he transferred to the DEA and also hinted (okay. outright said) most of his ‘work’ was investigating actual everyday innocent folk and was the reason he started to think of a change, but that the idiocy of Waco was his “I’m Getting The Hell Out Of Here” moment.
Apparently a lot more people leave DEA to join ATF than the reverse, it is considered a better job with more independence, variety, and stability.
All DEA agents do these days is travel around and work wires. ATF is actually the lead federal agency in violent crime enforcement, at a per capita clip at over five times the FBI in number of defendants referred for prosecution and years of incarceration generated.
Don’t forget that they also initiated (and bungled) an avoidable confrontation with the Branch Davidian Wackos in Waco. If we’re looking for places to trim federal spending, we couldn’t do better than to start by eliminating the entire bureau.
They truly are a waste of tax money. Not that that ever stopped the feds, of course.
The incompetence and illegality of the ATF and their whole “SPORTING USE” rationale for existence is a feature, not a bug.
Ha, you guys are only mentioning the Firearms bungles. The agency is named “Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms”. You only know 1/3 of the ass hattery this agency commits daily. Seriously.
Alcohol is legal, Tobacco is legal, Fire Arms are legal. The AFT not so much… Why do they even exist.
On the hot seat again, I see. I went to majority leader.gov/YouCut and told them there to cut ATFE.
Excellent idea. For the record, that link is:
http://www.majorityleader.gov/YouCut/
At the bottom of the page is a heading “Submit Your Ideas for Spending Cuts”. I clicked there and requested that the firearms section of the ATF be fired.
Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms should be a convienence store, not a government agency.
I heard Mr Edwards on the radio yesterday, and his quote is even more hilarious in audio. I’ve tried to find an audio link, but haven’t been successful.
One historical note: The ATF is the direct descendant of the old Prohibition Bureau. By the way, J. Edgar Hoover, upon taking over the FBI, kept the FBI out of Prohibition enforcement because he feared they might become corrupted by the bootleggers. The ATF used to celebrate Eliot Ness’ birthday on April 19, but discontinued it after the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building on that date. The ATF remains a red-headed stepchild.
God, but I love how Texicans talk. “That bunch has a real corner on stupid.” ranks right up there with Ron White’s “You can’t fix stupid.”
FEMA has not denied Texas aid for its wildfires. Although FEMA has not issued a disaster declaration in the state of Texas which would then allow it to provide assistance to civilians. FEMA states that it “continues to support the state of Texas with 22 Fire Management Assistant Grant (FMAG) declarations, including 15 FMAGs since the beginning of April.”
As NBC’s Dallas-Ft. Worth affiliate reports, FEMA has provided aid that “[helps] firefighters pay for things such as equipment repairs, food and shelter.” As The Houston Chronicle states: This aid covers “75 percent of Texas’s costs for emergency response work.
Alabama is also a red state (Obama lost the state by more than 11 points in 2008). However, after the devastating tornadoes there, Obama signed a disaster declaration for that state.
FEMA also established several disaster recovery centers to aid those impacted by the severe storms. And Alabama is far from the only “red state” to receive FEMA aid.
Like most Red states the Tax Foundation, a business-backed tax policy group, found that Texas receives more federal funding than it pays in taxes. Between 1981 and 2005 Texans paid about $147 billion in federal taxes in 2005 while the state received $149 billion in federal aid and other funding.
I’m not clear on what your comments have to do with the subject of a federal agency screwing up for the 1000th time and getting away with it, leaving the mess for others to clean up.
“They gave you the mess for free, so you should be happy”?
If you pay $20 to come into my house and then take a $#!+ on the rug, I’m still going to be right ticked.