Breaking: White House Asserts Executive Privilege Over DOJ Fast and Furious Documents (Updates)
Ahead of today’s expected House committee vote to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with its Fast and Furious subpoena, the attorney general has requested that the White House assert executive privilege over those documents. Moments ago, the White House approved executive privilege over those documents. The documents covered by the executive privilege are those related to the February 2011 Justice letter to Congress regarding Fast and Furious, later rescinded due to numerous factual inaccuracies, along with the 90% of subpoenaed documents that Holder has failed to turn over.
This move now draws the White House directly into Fast and Furious. It may not prevent the House from moving forward with the contempt vote for Holder.
The political appointee who penned the February 2011 letter retired one week ago.
More: Presidents typically assert executive privilege over their own communications, and over sensitive military and security-related communications. Today’s move to grant executive privilege over what thus far appears to be a department-level scandal is highly unusual.
Update: Rep. Darrell Issa is moving forward on the contempt vote. He is reading the resolution into the record at this moment.
Update: Fox reports–
Obama’s decision pertains to documents from February 2011 and afterward examining how Justice officials learned about the Fast and Furious probe.
Holder, in his letter to Obama, said those documents pertain to the “deliberative process” on how to respond to congressional and media inquiries.
Update: In the landmark case that spells out presidential executive privilege, United States vs Nixon (1974), the Supreme Court found that executive privilege pertains to communications directly with the president, and otherwise limited the scope of executive privilege. Today’s move by the White House implies either that Fast and Furious reaches directly into the Oval Office, or that the White House is challenging the Nixon ruling. Either way, today’s assertion is a major escalation of the scandal.
Update: Holder’s lifeline letter to the president requesting executive privilege is embedded here.
What did Obama know, and when did he know it?
Obama authorized Fast and Furious for political reasons – to advance his gun control agenda.
This is a bigger scandal that Watergate and would be on the air 24-7 if we had an independent news media.
It certainly has a larger body count: US law enforcement and 100′s (at least) Mexican law enforcement and civilians.
And the left accuses the Republicans of “not caring about dead brown people”. Huh.
No, it wouldn’t be on the news 24/7 at this point.
It would be OLD news, because Obama would have been impeached and removed from office by now.
I’m still surprised no one in the House has made any use of this footage in pressing their case:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PNhYk9NuNc
In it, “Deputy Attorney General David Ogden announced the Obama Administration’s new and aggressive ‘comprehensive plan’ on March, 24, 2009.”
He names names, in connection with “Operation Gunrunner.”
That’s who knew, and when they knew it. =^[.]^=
Mr. “Most Open Administration Ever” reasserts his legacy.
To follow up, the clock is ticking until we hear in the MSM: (1) that Bush invoked Executive Privilege several times and (2) people are only outraged that Obama has because he’s black.
That statement is about as true as everything else O’s bio in Tales of My Father
Entirely expected.
Typical stalling technique. Wait until the last possible minute and then claim executive privilege. If the House is taken in by this then the Republican leadership needs to be voted out ASAP. It is becoming more and more clear that the White House is up to their necks in this.
Congress is still free to find him in contempt.
I have to wonder what shiny object the administration and the MSM will hold up to deflect from covering this event. Maybe they can talk about Romney’s “C” in conduct in middle school.
Wait until the Supreme Court comes out with at least a partial finding that Obamacare is unconstitutional and that Arizona may enforce its immigration legislation. That will likely be followed by bleak employment numbers around July 6th.
Pretty soon you are going to see Democrats begin to abandon and isolate the
Administration. They will begin to conclude, well before the Democtratic National convention in Charlotte, that President Obama is toxic and that he is going to drag them down by association. Fundraising is going to dry up at a more accelerated pace.
This whole F and F debacle and the Administrations reaction to it will snowball, there’s no doubt about it. An assertion of Executive Privilege in these circumstances is going to precipitate a show down that the President is likely to lose. About all he gets is some time before the roof caves in. The assertion of the privilege means that the Whitehouse is implicated or that Obama is trying to expand the coverage of the privilege. Good luck with that, Mr. Constitutional Scholar.
I am looking forward to how MSNBC handles the criminal indictments.
This is exactly correct, Samizdat. He has put himself into the legal position of doing Richard Nixon one better in the secrecy coverup theory, while butting heads against a unanimous Supreme Court decision dear to the heart of liberals, a significant facet of the Watergate icon.
Or, he is preparing a Rosemary Woods defense of his own clumsiness.
Either way, it is a true error. Who said this guy was smart?
Thank goodness no one who was previously a member of the Justice Department was elevated to the Supreme Court as that could REALLY be awkward should their name in any way somehow end up attached to this mess!
Oh, wait a minute…….
He is starting to make Dickey Nixon and Jimmy Carter look good.
Go back a few months. Many commenters predicted that F&F would be the scandal that would bring down the Obama administration. Well, the whole thing just got swept under the rug. The ball is now in your court Speaker Boehner. What are you going to do about it? My prediction. Nothing. The MSM has seen to it that the vast majority of Americans know absolutely nothing about the F&F travesty and you will be portrayed as a witch-hunting partisan boob if you even approach the issue of contempt of Congress let alone AG impeachment. And you and the Republican leadership lack the will and the spine to define the issue to the public. Too scary. Game over.
Don’t be too sure about that: even media on the Left are going to want to know what’s going on. Some may ask whether because they are pressured to do so or are genuinely sick of the man they backed. The conservative press is going to jump on this like hounds. The MSM cannot ignore this one, not after reporting interruptions and WaWa.
“even media on the Left are going to want to know what’s going on”
Quite possibly the funniest thing I’ve read this month. Thanks.
To be wholly fair, not long ago Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show” expressed at least theatrical outrage about F&F, and spent 10+ minutes mocking Obama, Holder, and various BATFE high muckity-mucks in connection to the scandal. I believe it’s still on Youtube, for those who care to watch it themselves.
If the Administration cannot keep even a partisan leftist like Jon Stewart carrying water for them, it seems to me that they’re losing the fight. Perhaps things are not as bleak as we think.
Well, the media will “want to know what’s going on” now that Bambi’s re-election isn’t a lock. They need a scandal to explain why the Sainted One is fading in the polls.
There’s one difference between the press and rats – rats just desert a sinking ship while the press deserts the ship and then fires a barrage of torpedoes to destroy the evidence of their being on the ship in the first place.
Well, then explain why the story is finally all over the mainstream press?
The only reason executive privilege could be claimed is if the president knew about Fast and Furious all along. In that case, Holder lied under oath since he told Congress that the president had no knowledge of the program and that he didn’t ever talk to the president about it. Can Congress do 2 impeachments at once?
You have hit upon the crucial aspect of this.
Mr Holder:
1. Executive Privilege applies only to communication with the President
2. By invoking Executive Privelege, you are admitting the President was aware of F&F
3. You testified before Congress that the President was NOT aware of it.
4. You will therefore be charged with lying to Congress.
Either they didn’t think this through in the least – or, the documents are devastating.
Methinks the documents will prove conspiracy to commit multiple felonies, which resulted in hundreds of murders.
I think that’s called, “manslaughter”.
Actually, that’s called, “felony murder” in every state in the Union. Felony murder carries a penalty of life without parole, and as a state jurisdiction, falls outside of the President’s capacity to pardon or commute.
is more like it
Executive Odor?
most definitely odorous
As we all know, any program that involves at least three separate agencies and two countries would have to be approved, or at least acknowledged by the Oval Office.
Just a matter of proving it. I suspect Holder will be retiring to spend more time with his family shortly.
And to not put too fine a political point on it, if Holder goes, the back community will view it as The One throwing another black under the bus. No telling what the repercussions of that will be.
Spending time with your family is racist. But I guess it’s ok if Holder does it.
I don’t think he can afford to step away from the control panel. He has to stay in a position to manage the news flow and stop any more leaks.
The great thing is that he can’t afford to NOT destroy evidence, and he can’t afford to let it be discovered.
The One tried to ride a tiger, and is finding it’s much easier to get on than to get off.
I’m not so sure; I have a suspicion that Holder is actually a lot closer to the Alinskyites who pull the strings in the party than Obama is. I think they tend to regard Obama as a useful idiot, but they see Holder as one of their own. I think that if Obama were inclined to fire Holder, he’d do nothing until after the contempt measure is voted on, and then do it. Instead, we’ve got this panicky claim of executive privilege to cover Holder’s rear end. That tells me who’s on top in that relationship. Holder has the backing of the Alinskyites and he’s calling the shots in this affair.
Good point Cousin Dave. It could be Holder is just under Soros in the chain of command.
Waltc said “I suspect Holder will be retiring to spend more time with his family shortly”
I suspect you’re right Walt. At least partially. He will vacation with his family I’m sure, however, it willk be a vacation in a non extradition country.
Now that the Republicans smell smoke, that would be the worst tactical decision he could make. Once Holder is no longer AG, he can be subpoenaed to testify again, and this time, there is no executive privilege to fall back on.
Factually incorrect: Executive Privilege would still apply.
hmmmm
This isn’t something I’ve been following closely, but this escalates it about an order of magnitude.
It certainly makes it look like the crooks and criminals are hiding something. That’s no surprise to PJM readers, but it opens a nice little window into the tawdry world of the mafia administration that millions of people might otherwise not have an interest to peek throught.
There must be something very VERY incriminating in those documents.
Just curious. Precisely *why* haven’t you been following it closely? Either you’re a brainwashed liberal spy or just plain braindead, either of which makes me mentally mark your name as someone whose postings are not to be read or heeded in the future. You can still, however, partially redeem yourself by promising not to ever never vote for Obama nor contribute to his re-election.
the weekend morning i saw our kool, clever kenyan talking to the brady bunch on a morning news/interview show about having something going on ‘under the radar’, i knew he had an extra card ‘up his crooked sleeve’. he had just lost his latest shot at removing our guns in the ussc, so i was waiting to see what new thing he was scheming to overturn our constitutional protections. it was my expectation that hitlery’s negotiations on a u.n. small arms treaty was a part of it. then we hear of this botched program and its horrific consequences. now we see a coverup in real time. what a mess. maybe we should check people’s credentials before allowing them into high government positions, ya think! we do it with all lower level gov. ee’s.
its sickening watching the excuse makers in congress trying to misdirect the investigation. maybe if the ead had been democrats it would be diff.
Hard to say if that’s what Hillery is trying to do. She’d like to I’m sure, but it would interfere with her own POTUS run in 2016 or 2020. In any case such a ban ain’t gonna make it through this Senate. Treaties take 2/3 to pass.
I’d love to see the 2013 Congress pass a joint resolution for the next POTUS to submit to the UN declaring the Bill of Rights amendments 1 through 8 (at least) to be fundamental human rights. The UN would reject it of course, but it would put them on record as having done so. Kick their faux moral high horse right out from under them.
Of course Dear Liar knew about it. Bureaucrats from DOJ, Homeland Security, State, and Treasury worked on F&F together. Bureaucrats are not going to cooperate with other agencies on such a risky program without orders from their bosses — meaning Cabinet Secretaries. And you aren’t going to have 4 Cabinet Secretaries meeting and planning such a program without their boss being involved.
bends over, drops his pants, and moons the united states congress
his authority and waiting for them to line up and kiss it.
Yup. He’s a bit confused over which “ring” the lackies are supposed to kiss.
he has his head up one of them, and his finger in the other
The only reason the prez would claim executive privledge is that he is implicated in this failed program. He has lied throughout his whole term. Remember he said he was working “under the radar” on gun control.
ROFLM*O
During the Watergate Committee hearings, I was living out west and going into work at 9:30AM. I’d be glued to the TV until the instant arrived to turn it off and run out the door. Why does this feel like the onset of deja vu?
I expect that this Administration knows it’s toast. The only question is … how soon?
Congressman Issa rumbles Obama. Good work! wp.me/px10v-kG
This is a huge error. I would like to call it an unforced error, but it looks like Congressman Issa is holding fast. Good.
This is one more example of something I have been saying since 2008: Obama can be rumbled.
Good.
Now the White House is directly involved.
We knew that, but we had no smoking gun (pun intended).
Now we have it, the Administration is saying that the President is responsible.
Mr. Obama, tear down this wall of omerta’.
pre-Boomer Marine Brat – I just wish that were true, that this administration knows it’s toast. Sadly, the MSM knows it is also up to it’s neck in this as well as the White House….they are going to work together to obstruct the process with a never ending series of straw men. The White House is depending on the MSM to run interference for the Great One. True Patriots in both houses of Congress need to reach down deep inside and commit to exposing the truth, no matter where it leads.
“Is the White House protecting Obama adviser David Axelrod in this? ”
No. He’d throw Axelrod under the bus in a Chicago minute.
It’s Valerie Jarret – who has talked Holder of the resignation ledge more than once, if Ed Klein’s ‘Amateur’ is to be believed.
Obama protects Obama.
Nobody else.
If it seems he’s protecting someone else, it’s only because that someone can incriminate Obama.
For people steeped in a legal background, the administration seems to have little understanding they have, from a news viewpoint, done the same thing as filing a lawsuit without thinking it will enable an opponent to use discovery against them. Obama may have sunk his Presidency shielding a man who has been a corrupt racist from day one. Now everyone is gonna wanna know just what’s in those documents. Heads will roll on this one.
Here, let me fix that for you:
If Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter had a son – He’d look like Barack.
Cover up.
The executive privilege does not apply to 140,000 pages of information, it does not apply to any attempt to conceal a crime, it does not apply to any attempt to circumvent the Constitution, it does not apply to any attempt to commit or suborn perjury, it does not apply to the attempt to cover up the commission or subornation of perjury.
Two questions that we must ask ourselves as we try to salvage this land of ours from the now less than silent coup against our nation, is this:
Who the hell are these people?
And, who the hell do these people think they are?
Right now the executive branch, their minions, lackeys and sniveling toadies in the Senate and Supreme Court, and their Propaganda and Lies Ministry on their flanks have essentially told the REAL bosses of this land…we, the people…to go straight to hell, they don’t care one whit about our rules, regulations, checks and balances, our Constitution, our freedoms, our liberties, our borders, our free will, our military, our security, our intelligence community, our intelligence secrets, our allies, our economy or our democratic self-governance.
The unmitigated gall and tyrannical arrogance is now so far beyond the pale that it is clear our Congress and our Supreme Court cannot (and possibly will not try)succeed in protecting us from the imposition of tyrannical rule.
So far, both other branches and the conspiratorial and treasonous cohort media have utterly failed to rein in the staggering abuse of power, in the case of the Senate and the media, they have actively aided and abetted the commission of a grave crime against the republic.
Agent Brian Terry is dead. It is high time that somebody who cares about this land of ours does not let his death pass in vain.
Our military and intelligence secrets are being routinely exposed to our enemies, in such a blatant and naked manner as to shock the conscience.
Who the hell do these people think they are?
Our freedoms are being pried from our fingers and ripped from our grasp each and every day. And the Propaganda and Lies Ministry covers it up, glosses over it and fills the air with lies and distortion.
Treason fouls the air.
Forced purchases of government goods and services, bankruptcy preferences for the Workers Party, recall elections for no good reason, seizure of industries, running guns to drug cartels, exposing state secrets, passing unread legislation in the dead of night without discussion or debate, exposure to our enemies of vital and damaging intelligence communications, failure to submit a budget for over three years to the people.
Who the hell do these people think they are?
I have a modest suggestion:
Our masters.
And:
who the hell do these people think we are ?
Sheep ?
ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ
Well since you brought the subject up; Obama’s Rasmussen poll numbers really have not changed in three years. That is three years of not only being the worst President in US history but one of the worse, if the worst, elected leader of a free people in world history. So the answer to your question should be 47% of the people are sheep (with a smaller subgroup of that number simply masochist).
One question I have that should be resolved in the next four years; what will the effect of a second Obama administration have on the 47%? Although Obama will probably lose the popular vote 47-53% he will probably win the electoral vote because of northern Virginia and possible voter fraud in Ohio. That means at the least a far worsening economy, probably an Iranian bomb, the US reduced to third rank power, the betrayal of democratic movements overseas and the continued erosion of American liberties and sovereignty (see membership in UNHRC and ICJ). Will anything shake the faith of the 47%?
cfb,
Brilliant. I would add several dozen murdered Mexican citizens to the tally for this particular event.
I completely agree with the somber tone of your post. There are so many serious breaches of trust, faith, and constitutional liberty going on right now, that I am at a loss to fully consider the enormity of it all.
I guess in November we get to see if the American people, legal and illegal, give a damn about the lies, corruption, and trashing of the constitution or if they are just looking for the next piece of the pie that Obama will send them. My wife and son are hoping Obama forgives all college debt. They can’t tell me where the money will come from to do it and from what I can tell don’t care. Must be a stash or something. And let me tell you these are good, honest, intelligent, hard working people, my wife and son that is and THEY don’t see anything wrong with all of this. The MSM is winning in many sectors and I live in one of those sectors.
Fast and Furious, buried. Maxine Waters, buried. Barnie Frank and Dodds collusion in the subprime mess, buried. The list is endless and mostly buried.
Brilliant, cf. I do believe I’m going to be linking that comment.
Another great piece, Bryan. We miss you over at H/A!
Thanks! No need to miss me though, I’m right here.
I want to point out something of importance–what destroys the ability of the people to put faith and trust in their institutions is, once after the final victory is won after the guilty party has contested it step by step, often in a destructive way, making the people to doubt there would ever be justice, is for their to be some kind of clemency. Assuming clear guilt, of course.
I will remind you of the damage done by Ford’s pardon of Nixon. Liberals criticized that to no end. They should thus not expect anything similar for Eric Holder.
Or anyone else.
Assuming clear guilt, of course.
Obviously the notion of the rule of law does not apply to Obama and his administration. I am gobsmacked that they would do an end run and defy Congress which is trying to find out who and what policies are responsible for the death of a US border agent AND for the thousands of guns that were handed over to Mexican drug cartels. Is this anything this administration won’t do in defiance of laws and the US Constitution?
Stop being gobsmacked, Sandra. Wake up and smell the coffee. Of COURSE they don’t respect the rule of law, and it’s naive of you to be surprised at that fact.
These people are hard-core MARXISTS. They are not just people who have a different view of how some parts of our government should run. They are out to DESTROY our country and make it into a socialist paradise.
Start being informed. Stop being surprised.
This is just another blatant racist attack against a hard working public servant merely because is a black man. Open and shut case. Nothing to see here folks, just move along.
If Congress allows the Attorney General of the United States of America to flout the law, what hope have we for any law and order in the future. Boehner, please do not cave on this issue; it’s too important.
If the nation’s chief law enforcement official can blatantly ignore the rule of law, what does that say for the future of our Republic and our Constitution?
Sect. 4. The president, vice-president and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. – Constitution of the United States, Article II, Section 4
1. Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court. – Constitution of the United States, Article III, Section 3, Paragraph 1
The Mexican drug cartels, the primary beneficiaries of Fast & Furious, are arguably enemies of the United States…
And the Mexican drug cartels are a primary source of Obama campaign money laundered thru connections in California. It is why CA is so important to the Machine. It is why the address and identification controls are once again turned off off the credit card campaign donations. Follow the money. Always follow the money. Cheers -
As far as I’m concerned, this just seals the deal that Holder is guilty as sin. The only question is, will Obama go down with Holder? And yet nobody is calling for a special prosecutor for Fast and Furious. I hope Congress and the Republicans remain firm and cite Holder for contempt. This now is a huge scandal and Obama’s refusal to release these documents only proves that Holder knew about this, and probably Obama did too. This is also much worse than Watergate because nobody died in Watergate. Here we have a dead border patrol agent and God knows how many dead Mexicans. This is going to be Obama’s Waterloo by the looks of it, assuming that the Republicans can stand tall and keep after Holder.
Now that Obama has asserted executive privilege, he has now involved himself very deeply into this scandal. Before it was only Holder. But Obama believes he is truly above the law us peons are subject.
“Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday that the Constitution does not protect U.S. suspects plotting to kill other Americans.”
What if the suspects in this case are Barack Obama and Eric Holder? Suddenly they can assert executive privilege and plead the Fifth about their plot to violently overthrow the Second?
On to the next step.
When the contempt citation goes before the full House, the NRA needs to make clear it will be a recorded vote that will affect their 2012 pre-election ratings.
Then we’ll see where the “pro-gun Democrats” really stand.
But, but, but … Bush did it! And Reagan! And Nixon!
That’s all the mind-numbed masses are going to hear other than a little background music about partisan witchhunts, mean-spiritedness, and, of course, RACISM. Even if it goes to the USSC, it will be the five conservative, corporatist, racist justices ruling against Comrades Obama and Holder because they are Black. And, in any event, it doesn’t actually have to go very far. If there is a House finding of contempt or an adverse ruling by a court on the privilege assertion, it can easily be delayed past the election, and that’s all that really counts.
Basically, the answer is that if there is virtue in the people, we need not fear. If there isn’t, we are already sunk.
No group is monolithic. Both the “black” and “Hispanic” communities have some of the finest cadres of decency that exist in America, nay the world. The case *can* be made to them that at the end of the day the sinner himself must accept responsibility for his sin, and no one of Earthly creation can absolve him of it if he did it. I truly believe that they will not support such, once finally put in a position where they are asked to make a judgment call and not otherwise worried about other matters.
They have the historical memory of the lash of brute force and blatant disregard for principle. Do we think they can not be made to see the advantages in upholding a system that immediately swoops down on those abusing power? Those who have been weak *always* feel safer when they think a God is in his heaven, ready to act. Make them understand that is what it is about, and they will at least abandon those who do wrong, if not outright join the cause.
I’ve been kinda’ hopin’ this Exec. Priv. thing wouldn’t happen until after the Dem Convention. Now we have the spectre of a Johnsonian ‘I will not seek, I will not accept’ speech and an open convention with Broomstick One or Sibelius as the nominee.
“Broomstick One”
Ha! Took me a second. Good one, Bob!
Awww shucks … but I can’t claim credit. I remember it as the reported call sign for her aircraft when she visited Iraq.
And don’t forget: there are already delegates for “Not Obama” headed to the convention, some pledged to specific individuals; others to anybody but Obama. Randall Terry could make things nice and interesting if abdication results in a brokered convention.
The horses Congress provides stable and feed for have gone wild. How long will Congress continue to spend dollars we don’t have on ever grander stables, and ever more feed?
This event could be a watershed event, a high watermark. No one like to spend money on what they don’t own, and which causes havoc against to them.
Someone might want to point out to all those illegal aliens in America that Obama just gave amnesty to exactly how many dead Mexican bodies are notched on Obama’s guns because of F&F. I wonder if the Latino media (both here and there) are carrying this story, too.
“Update: One week ago, AG Holder claimed under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee that Bush AG Michael Mukasey knew about Fast and Furious. Today, Holder has reportedly retracted that claim.
Which was made under oath.”
Seems to me, Roger Clemens just went to trial over lying to Congress. Prosecute Eric Holder.
Hear!, hear!, what this good man has to say!
Rush mentioning this now.
Special grammar notes regarding my post 41 (starting “The horses Congress provides”):
(1) “No one” is plural, as the “they” in the second clause of the sentence reflects, thus the verb form “like” rather than “likes” is used.
(2) The construction “havoc against to them” is a stretch, true. The normal usage is “havoc against them” or perhaps “havoc to them”. The intent was to strongly distinguish between the chaotic undirected form of “havoc”, to a more directed form of “havoc”, applied against some enemy. Perhaps I should have used “havoc against on them”, which would be even stranger.
Yeah, well, I got that wrong twice then. I’m redacting my grammar comments! All of thems.
We, as Americans, are approaching a key milestone in our history. At some very near date, the MSM must explain why they have never covered a growing constitutional crisis, involving murdered peace officers, for years. Some day soon, Mitt Romney must take a position on a resolution to this constitutional crisis. It is bigger than Watergate, or Arms for Hostages: Americans lie in graves, ATF agents have been deep sixed, and DoJ big shots are bailing. Unless somebody blinks, it will go the Supreme Court, Executive Privilege has never been claimed to cover prima fascia evidence of criminal conduct by government employees. This puts enormous pressure on Congressman Cummings. He must choose between his party, and his country. Thus far, he is acting just like a politician. And, of course, Eric Holder’s excuses de jour now lie in the land of the absurd; his mommy could not believe him.
When you start with a lie, this is where you end. We are almost there.
THE PRESIDENTS’ HALL OF SHAME
The trajectory of the Obama presidency was downhill from the start when he became the first president in history to fumble the oath of office-doing so on the word “faithfully.” Now as the hour glass on his presidency runs out Obama is moving fast and furiously to presidential infamy soon to join Herbert Hoover, LBJ and Jimmy Carter in the one term presidents’ HALL OF SHAME.
The problem with silver linings – there’s always a damn cloud in front of them. On the gripping hand they might soon start to air out the linen in the John Mitchell suite at Maxwell.
So the question I’ve been asking myself for a long time is: why? What was the point of F&F? Yes, the conventional wisdom has it that Obama wanted to be able to point at U.S. gun owners as evil people responsible for the deaths of brown people in Mexico. But I just don’t see scoring a few political points regarding gun control (especially in the face of the federal courts’ new-found respect for the Second Amendment) as being worth the risk that they took with F&F. And now there’s the additional political and legal risk that they’ve taken with the EP claim. What *was* worth the risk?
Call me paranoid, but here’s what I think was supposed to happen: F&F puts a bunch of arms in the hands of Mexican drug cartels. These cartels then succeed in either outright overthrowing the Mexican government, or marginalizing it to the point where law and order (such as it is in Mexico) breaks down. The country is thrown in chaos. It’s a crisis! And what do we do with a crisis? In this particular case, we use the crisis as an excuse to throw the borders wide open, and admit millions of Mexicans to the U.S. as a new permanant-dependent class! Millions of new reliable Democratic voters! Had F&F worked, this could have given the Democrats the permanant entitlement-class majority that they’ve been trying to build for decades. Heck, in the most favorable outcome, I could even see the possibility of the U.S. being offered the opportunity to annex Mexico. Every Mexican would instantly become a U.S. citizen. At that point, conservatives and libertarians may as well pack their bags.
I’ve thought F & F was an attempt to ‘nullify’ the Heller decision via chaos and U.N. intervention. MacDonald was decided in 2010 – after F & F had already imploded. By then it was too late to back away and they went into stonewall mode in anticipation of ‘re-election’ and ‘greater flexibility’. Agent Terry’s murder six months later ended that hope.
BTW – the rememberbrianterry.com site has t-shirts for sale. Now may be the appropriate time to flood them with orders – and, if you can afford it, consider sending one as a gift to Holder and/or the Resident.
Conservative counter-offer for that scenario: offer Mexico peaceful annexation and statehood per Article IV of the US Constitution. While it makes the Mexicans US citizens, it also empowers the FBI to fight the Mexican drug cartels. Mexico’s southern border is far more defensible than our own.
Is there a legal or Constitutional limit to the length of time an annexation can or must be a territory ? The U S is the original U N. For those who reply that the colonies were culturally homogenous, consider the modern demographic trends. Just me, I feel that a ten year territorial status followed by a statehood-or-independence plebiscite could allow FBI etc. to clean up the drug and terrorist elements, air out the local governance organs, and could stabilize both economies, and give hope to millions. Whichever way the vote went, it would be a net plus for both sides.
The problem is, of course, that it would be impossible under a Progressive POTUS. GBUSA
“Is there a legal or Constitutional limit to the length of time an annexation can or must be a territory ? ”
None that I know of. AFAIK, the only requirement historically is that the territory must stand up a government to the satisfaction of Congress, and pass a state constitution.
Holder and Obama both out on the Executive Privy ledge.
Jump! Jump!
OBAMA’S OMINOUSLY BAD TIMING
ON THIS DAY JUNE 20, 1972
The infamous 18 minute gap appeared in the tape recording of the conversations between Richard Nixon and his advisers regarding the recent arrests of his operatives while breaking into Watergate. This set off quite a firestorm like Obama’s Doc Block is doing now. Does the most deceitful president since Richard Nixon have a Watergate size scandal on his hands?
June 20… for crying out load. Who said this guy Obama was smart?
I do believe that the claim of executive privilege has been used to cover various flunkeys throughout the administrative branch, and can be claimed by the white house gardener about his use of manure, as long as the POTUS backs him on it.
At least this story will get some air time… Keep on pressing for the truth!
is the discretion to:
1. cup his balls during the Star Spangled Banner
2. bow in submission to the King of Saudi Arabia
3. put his feet up on white house national treasure furniture
4. obstruct justice in congressional investigations
5. insult the Supreme Court before the House and Senate
6. dictate orders instead of following legal procedure
7. trample on the US Constitution
8. etc., the list is long
The biggest problem for Obama has been the press. The Democrats have been used to the press covering for them for the past 40 years. They even got CBS to stop covering this scandal. The loss of narrative control has caught them flat-footed, and the lies are clumsier than usual since they didn’t expect to come to this point.
The “executive privilege” excuse seals it – Obama knew, and the communications prove it.
Punch back twice as hard, guys.
The key question during Watergate was knowingly shielding malfeasance.
It’s the thing Obama can be reasonably suspected of with Fast & Furious.
President Obama’s actions in asserting Executive privledge for AG Holder means there is enough in those documents to put all of the top guys at Justice in prison and to impeach Obama.
Nixon’s actions post Watergate Break-in showing Nixon was knowingly shielding malfeasance was what flipped the House Judiciary Committee in 1974 and decided them on the path of impeachment rather than further investigation.
It also caused one of the great political speeches of the last fifty years, by the late Representative Barbara Jordan, which if House Chairman Issa is half smart as Jordan he’ll be dragging out excerpts from:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_K9Wi-g3Rk
(That’s an excerpt from Great American Speeches. The sound quality is better than on any other YouTube of the speech; there’s about 2 min of background about Watergate, and a 3 min bio of Jordan, before the actual speech begins at about 5 min into it).
Democrats, including their Main Stream Media Wing, now face a Democratic Nixon as President.
I wish them luck with that, as bad luck here will be very bad for the American Republic as we know it.
I don’t want it to stop with just impeachment.
Clinton was impeached, and we still had to put up with him.
I want it to go full monte and see him convicted by the Senate and removed from office.
THEN I want to see him tried for his multiple felonies.
This is an old link, but read Obama’s own words. They were workign under the radar on gun control. Hello, they knew over a year ago about this. I even think the quote is from 2010 meetings.
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/05/25/obama-were-working-on-gun-control-under-the-radar/
Tremendous congratulations and continued encouragement are in order for the entire PJM Fast and Furious reporting team, who have thoroughly covered this topic with perseverance, professionalism, and journalistic integrity (in all the old-school good senses of that word).
How long until the Democratic Convention?
I suspect that Holder in in on the plot to replace Obama with another candidate. Clinton has been doing “softening up operations” for months now and other Democrats are keeping their distance (see WV delegation).
Don’t be surprised if we see a rapid turnover in candidates.
Either late August or early September, after the Olympics are over.
The talking points that this was a Bush program have gone out and I’ve seen posters on other boards trying to push that disinformation. Now that Holder has admitted that he was lying (inadvertently) when he said Mukasy (sp?) had been briefed, their fairy tales don’t hold water.
Even so, look for that lie to be pumped up as much as possible. This is shameless.
If the Dems think they’re going to get rid of Obama then they are playing a very dangerous trick. Black voters are not going to be very amused by them replacing their first president that looks like them (’cause that’s what’s important doncha know) with a very white woman who appears to be as big a partier as her husband.
This time it is the coverup AND the crime.
surprisingly, an accurate review by John Stewart. And only a year old!
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-june-21-2011/the-fast-and-the-furious—mexico-grift
It appears that Obama has roped himself into this issue and thinks it is serious enough to risk his presidency on its outcome.
I would have thought that the premiss behind the whole object was too serious to even attempt such a stupid method to restrict the Second Amendment. But political calculation can always go awry.
The one think we can count on is that this issue is not going to go away.
140,000 pages of documents withheld, using executive privilege, which is for correspondence directly with the White House/President, on a program that the President supposedly learned about on the news?
Sure, it’s all about race.