Thursday Quick Links

Henry Payne cartoon via Townhall

There’s just too damn much going on, today, I can’t keep up. Most of the news, of course, has to do with politics and Obama’s grandiose “jobs speech”, but I’ve been more focused on the Obama administration’s Gunwalker fiasco which is blowing wide open, this week.

AoSHQ: Obama Releases Talking Points To Liberals; Meanwhile, Darrell Issa Is Releasing His Own Talking Points, Publicly, On Twitter:

The Teleprompter Presidency is teleprompting its allies. Including lowly bloggers.

The teleprompter script for tonight’s speech by President Barack Obama is still a secret, but the White House’s script for spinning reporters, bloggers, and their audiences has been leaked to The Daily Caller…

The talking points repeat Obama’s favored campaign-trail themes, depicting the economy as a victim of President George W. Bush; the Republicans as unpatriotic and greedy partisans; and Obama as an optimistic, fair-minded, reformist, bipartisan, fiscal moderate.

The proposal will be called “The American Jobs Act.” (Clever!)

Gateway Pundit: Wow! Speaker Boehner Invites Business Leaders – All Who Got Jacked Around By Obama Administration – To Obama’s Speech Tonight:

Rock Katschnig confronted Barack Obama at Wyffels Hybreds in Atkinson, Illinois last month. Rock was upset with the increase in the amount of burdensome rules and regulations under the Obama regime. He told Obama, “Please don’t challenge us with your rules and regulations from Washington DC. We would prefer to start our day in a tractor cab or combine cab rather than filling out forms and permits to do what we like to do.” Rock will be at the speech tonight along with Henry Juszkiewicz from Gibson Guitar and Lisa Ingram from White Castle among others.

Love it. High fives to Boehner’s staff.

Michelle Malkin: A Trumka history lesson for Mrs. Obama:

What better way to illustrate the contrast between Team Obama and the GOP tonight.

Speaker Boehner’s sitting with real-world, private-sector job creators.

Mrs. Obama’s sitting with AFL-CIO thug-in-chief and taxpayer-subsidized, coerced-dues-funded job destroyer Richard Trumka.

For Mrs. Obama’s benefit, I am reprinting my history lesson about Trumka’s bloody rise to power.

Must watch: Breitbart TV: ‘Fox & Friends’ Gretchen Carlson Spanks Jay Carney on Obama Job Loss Proposals

Funny how Obama Administration officials don’t get interviewed like this on “Morning Joe”.

Damn. She had him panting for breath by the end of the interview.

White House Dossier: The Top Ten Proposals Obama Will Make Tonight:

White House Dossier has gotten its greedy hands on President Obama’s list of new proposals for reviving the economy, which he will recite this evening in an address to Congress.

It turns out, contrary to expectations, that many of the proposals are new and have not been tried before by this president. Here are the top ten initiatives that Obama will offer:

Keep reading…

This is EPIC: Hot Air: Breaking: FBI raids Solyndra:

Barack Obama plans on talking about using stimulus funds for job creation tonight.  Think he’ll mention Solyndra, which his administration fast-tracked to $535 million in taxpayer-financed loan guarantees?  Naaaah:

FBI agents armed with search warrants descended this morning on bankrupt solar company Solynrda this morning.

The investigation comes after a request by the Department of Energy’s inspector general, FBI spokesman Peter Lee told NBC Bay Area News.

Agents arrived at 7a.m. and are examining the factory. Solynrda has a skeleton crew of 100 workers on the scene, closing the factory down. A CNBC photographer on the scene says the FBI has promised a press conference. An agency spokesperson at its San Francisco headquarters says he’s unaware of any such plans.

Getting some of this in the comments:

Isn’t Holder in charge of the FBI? He will shut down the investigation and conduct a DOJ investigaton of his own in 5.4.3…

First, the FBI has performed professionally for decades in regards to politics; they learned their lesson from Watergate and the long Hoover reign.  Second, the DoJ isn’t conducting the investigation, and technically neither is the DoE.  The IG is an independent actor, and the FBI would have to turn over all products from the search to the IG.  However, it wouldn’t be a bad idea for Darrell Issa to insist on access to the materials as well, since Congress has oversight jurisdiction on executive-legislative agencies like the DoE.

John over at Verum Serum is really rubbing Obama’s nose in it:

Flashback: White House Video of Sec. Chu and VP Biden at Solyndra Groundbreaking

Flashback: Official White House Video Praises Solyndra as a Recovery Act Success Story

AoSHQ: Liberal Fourth Circuit Panel Rejects ObamaCare Challenge:

As far as expectations: This is what we expected.

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals said Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) does not have a legal right to sue over the law’s requirement that most people buy insurance. The court vacated a lower court’s ruling in the case and instructed the lower court to dismiss the suit.
The Supreme Court is almost certain to have the final say on whether the coverage mandate is constitutional. Most legal observers expect the court to hear arguments during the term that begins in October, and rule in the summer of 2012.

The 4th Circuit’s long-awaited decision isn’t a huge surprise: those who attended oral arguments in the suits said the judges seemed skeptical of the mandate’s critics, especially Cuccinelli. All three of the judges who heard the case were appointed by Democratic presidents, and two were appointed by Obama.

Ace again: Error In ObamaCare Drafting May Permit States To Substantially Block ObamaCare On Their Own Initiative:

A drafting error in ObamaCare may permit states to mostly gut the law.

Also, based on a tip from a trusted source, Ace thinks the ruling may be completely wrong.

Bottom line:

…the ruling contained in their decision is simply wrong. And not “wrong” in the usual meaning of “we disagree on interpretation of the Constitution and precedent,” but “wrong” as it “just completely, demonstrably in error, as written.”

Assuming I have the facts and law here right (and, again, I am reporting this based on a single source), what is the upshot?

Personally, I think judges are hard-on personality types, by and large, and are not going to correct even a gross error of simple fact.

However, if this is true, then the 4th Circuit’s opinion will count for nothing in front of the Supreme Court.

He’s waiting for confirmation on that.

The Other McCain: VIDEO: Herman Cain Smacks Around Liberals in MSNBC Post-Debate Panel

Al Sharpton starts off by obnoxiously “correcting” Cain on the year of the Civil Rights Act. But Cain was right. Sharpton got it wrong.

AWKWARD!

The Right Scoop: Rush to Brian Williams: Can you sleep at night knowing NBC supports Obama’s assault on American way of life?

Are you having trouble sleeping at night? You and your network have supported Obama’s inept budget-breaking failed economic policies. Your network has supported, encouraged, applauded, defended Obama’s assault on the American way of life. Brian, how are you sleeping at night? I’d like to know.

I promised I wouldn’t waste my time on this guy, but that doesn’t mean I won’t link to other bloggers who will:

The Other McCain again: Gov. Benzene: Huntsman a ‘Green’ Phony:

Why the hell is this guy — “Governor Asterisk,” an irrelevant distraction, a Charlie Crist clone who represents no actual GOP constituency — being included in the Republican debates and treated with fawning deference by the media? After last night’s debate, when Huntsman attacked Rick Perry as “anti-science” for his skepticism toward global warming, I remarked, “Might as well invite Al Gore to the GOP debates.”

Turns out that remark was more accurate than I suspected because, just like Gore, Huntsman is a two-faced hypocrite whose “green” rhetoric doesn’t match his record. Although Huntsman has been called “the greenest Republican in the presidential race” — which may account for the MSM’s otherwise inexplicable crush on him — his actual record has been exposed by the Environmental Integrity Project in a devastating report full of nasty little details like this:

Keep reading.

Linked by Michelle Malkin in Buzzworthy, thanks!

The Latest On Gunwalker: Remember the name, Dan Restrepo

The name will ring a bell to bloggers who covered the Obama administration’s bizarre handling of the Honduran affair, two years ago. In the summer of 2009, the Honduran government chose to depose their out-of-control President Zelaya when he tried to go full-Chavez on them in an unconstitutional bid to essentially make himself el-Presidente for life. It shouldn’t have even been a question for a pro-American, pro-Democracy administration to support the Honduran government during that crisis. Once the facts of the situation were laid out, it was a no-brainer. But the Obama State Department took Zelayas‘ side in the dispute, calling the ouster a “coup”, and punishing the pro-American Honduran government for what they did.   The pro-Zelaya side marched under the  Communist flag, and  included Chavez, Castro, Ortega, (all of the Socialist countries in the region) and the United States government. Their attempt to force the reinstatement of Zelaya ultimately failed, but the shocking episode marked the first time in my life I had ever regarded my own country as one of the “bad guys” on the world stage.

Restrepo, the National Security Council’s top man for Latin America, was one of the figures behind the  U.S. Honduras policy. Hiding behind the curtain was the Puppetmaster, himself.

Mary O’Grady of the WSJ passed along this tidbit about Restrepo’s participation in a delegation sent to Tegucigalpa to negotiate a compromise:

Participants in those talks say Dan Restrepo, senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs at the National Security Council, let slip that the U.S. interest had to do with American politics. The Republicans, he said, were using the administration’s support for Mr. Zelaya, an ally of Venezuelan Hugo Chávez, against the Democrats. It’s not going to work, Mr. Restrepo is said to have informed the other negotiators, because “we have the power” and would be keeping it for a long time.

It can’t have been comforting for Hondurans to learn that while their country was living a monumental crisis, fueled by U.S. policy, Mr. Restrepo’s concern was his party’s power. For the record, an NSC spokesman says “Mr. Restrepo didn’t say that.” But my sources are more plausible considering what has transpired since.

Prior to moving to the National Security Council,  Restrepo was the director of the Americas Project at the Center for American Progress (CAP), the Soros funded liberal think tank, whose President and Chief Executive Officer is John Podesta…

He also appears to be part of the brain trust behind the Obama administration’s gunwalker fiasco.

Late last Friday, CBS News and the Los Angeles Times reported that Restrepo and two other officials, were in on ATF memos from the Gunwalker operation known as “Fast and Furious.”

As Investors Business Daily notes:

That blows apart White House claims that it had no idea the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was encouraging frontmen for Mexico’s cartels to buy weapons from U.S. gun dealers — to “trace” them afterward.

Some 2,000 U.S. guns were sold in Gunwalker but simply disappeared — until they turned up at massacres in Mexico and at the murder scenes of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata.

But outgoing ATF acting director Ken Melson and others who’ve been the fall guys in this scandal darkly hint that their orders came from the White House, and domestic critics think Gunwalker can only be explained as a White House bid to boost support for gun control. Restrepo’s involvement distinctly raises both possibilities.

Restrepo is a political operative whose interests are more domestic than Latin American. As a result, he’s botched every Latin American operation he’s had his hand in, appeasing enemies and blaming the U.S. (see O’ Grady story mentioned, above.)

You can read the litany of offenses at IBD.

The ATF’s Tampa Field Division and the Department of Justice’s Middle District of Florida ran an operation known as ‘Operation Castaway which trafficked arms to criminal gangs in Honduras.

The goal of the Gunwalking operations was to pin Mexico’s drug war not on Hugo Chavez’s trafficker allies, but on gun dealers from the U.S.

MORE

From the Center for Security Policy on the Soros, Restrepo and drug trafficking connection during the Honduran affair:

An extremely influential figure in Restrepo’s life is Center for American Progress’ strongman George Soros, who is an advocate for the legalization of illicit drugs. In fact, Soros is a member of the board of the “Drug Policy Alliance,” a non-profit organization with the principal goal of ending the American “War on Drugs.” As a side – note, George Soros financially contributed to the political campaign of Barack Obama, together with four other family members – daughter Jennifer, sons Jonathan and Robert and wife Susan. He has also financially supported John Kerry, Howard Dean, Hillary Clinton, Tom Daschle, Charles Schumer, Joseph Biden, Patrick Leahy and Barbara Boxer. Soros also funded Al Gore for President.

Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia are the region’s main producers of drugs, especially cocaine, and Mexico has become a major drug transit country and an important supplier of methamphetamine to the United States. In recent years, Honduras and other Central American nations have become major transshipment points for Colombian cocaine, particularly as Mexico’s government cracks down on cartels. So it is not surprising that one of Soros’ main interests would be to try to convince Latin American leaders that the U.S. Government’s war on drugs is wrong. Remember, he wants to legalize drugs. To this end, he is actively pushing to move away from the use of national and global law enforcement resources against the drug trade.  He is also fiercely opposed to Plan Colombia. To achieve this goal, he has purchased the services of several former Latin American government officials to campaign to end the war on drugs.

Actually, in October 13, 2008, then Honduran President Manuel Zelaya said at a Soros – funded Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy conference held in Tegucigalpa: “Drug use ought to be legalized as a way to combat violence.” He proposed creating a regional counternarcotics plan that would displace the US-led efforts in Colombia and Mexico. It was in this conference that Soros presented his plan for a paradigm shift within democracies to accommodate legalization. A few weeks later
 Zelaya appeared with Soros at a U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean conference in the Dominican Republic openly calling for the legalization of drugs – supposedly to reduce violence. [10]

Many have been asking, what is behind Soros’ obsession with drug legalization? Does he have clients in his hedge funds that have links to illegal activities? Soros has categorically denied receiving money from drug cartels or any criminal network, but the fact remains, however, that at least some of his financial operations have been based offshore, in banking and financial centers that are widely reported to be considered conducive to money laundering.  The Soros fund is based in the Netherlands Antilles, a self-governing federation of five Caribbean islands. A CIA factbook describes the region as “a transshipment point for South American drugs bound for the U.S. and Europe; and a money-laundering center.” In fact, Soros’ partner, Peter Lewis, considered by the Washington Post as “one of the country’s 10 most generous philanthropists,” was arrested in 2000 in New Zealand for “importing” drugs, including hashish and marijuana. [11]

Soros and Lewis together founded “America Coming Together”, a political organization designed to defeat George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election. Both have helped bankroll a campaign to legalize marijuana, featuring a public relations effort that falsifies the dangerous nature of marijuana and presents it as “medicine.” Since 1991, Lewis has contributed $5 million to the ACLU to fight drug laws, and has made large contributions to drug “legalization” campaigns in Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon, Utah, Florida, Maine, and Massachusetts. [12]

While it is often difficult in determining the exact motivating factors in driving an administrations’ foreign policy, these connections are interesting to consider. That the Obama Administration chooses to go along with Zelaya, who violated the Honduran Constitution and is a protégé of Chavez and would therefore employ all the same anti- American policies, appears to be working against our own national security interests. Certainly, without Zelaya in power Chavez has lost, for now, another country to the forces of democracy.

 The plot thickens….

Sipsey Street Irregulars has more on Restrepo.

STILL MORE:

Sipsey St. Exclusive: In DC, no bad deed goes unrewarded. National Security Council adviser Dan Restrepo’s first venture into political dirty tricks.

Video: Remembering 9/11

Brought to you by The Heritage Foundation:

 

The Heritage Foundation, has been busy reminding Congress of the importance of “staying the course” in the War on Terror, writes The Foundry:

In the past 10 years, at least 40 terrorist plots have been foiled due, in large part, to our enhanced counter-terrorism efforts. But despite this progress, efforts are underway to undermine some of this progress by rejecting the very policies that have kept us safe.

In a new report, James Carafano lays out many of the problems with the current strategy:

The Administration now seeks to treat terrorism under a law enforcement paradigm that failed to protect Americans from terrorism when it was adopted by the Clinton Administration before 9/11. In addition, the White House intends to follow a “small footprint” strategy for overseas operations, relying primarily on Special Forces operations, covert action, and strikes with unmanned aerial vehicles.

The President’s strategy cedes the initiative to America’s enemies and provides them the opportunity to reconstitute both their moral and physical assets.

Video: Rudy On Bloomberg’s Decision To Keep Clergy Away From September 11th Memorial Dedication

Nobody disputes that Rudy was the right man for the job of Mayor of NYC on that fateful September morn, ten years ago. His unwavering strength and competence helped New Yorkers get through the agonizing hours, days and weeks that followed the tragedy. Mayor Bloomberg, however, may very well be the worst man for the job of Mayor of NYC for the tenth anniversary of September 11. The ban on clergy pleases only the anti-Christian, anti-religious brigades.

Religion, Giuliani reminds us, played a very significant role in helping many New Yorkers through the day, and days following the attack, something even non-believers can understand:

Video via AIM.

Related:

Mediaite: Megyn Kelly Takes Atheist Activist To Task Over Ground Zero Cross Lawsuit

Hat tip: Brian B.

Ground Zero Mosque Denied Tax Payer Monies from LMDC

Major props go to Pamela Geller, for leading the fight against the GZ Victory Mosque.:

Islamic supremacist grifter Sharif El Gamal was denied the jizya. This is the people’s victory. Because you stood against this cultural obscenity. The LMDC knew the firestorm that would ensue if they went against the will of the overwhelming majority opposed to this 15-story middle finger to America.

Oh, oh happy day!

Downtown Nonprofits reports:

In all, the LMDC awarded 38 grants after receiving 266 applications seeking a total of $191 million, more than 10 times the amount that was available. Eligibility was limited to nonprofits or government agencies with projects below Houston Street.

One organization that applied for a grant but did not receive funding was Park51, the mosque and community center two blocks north of the World Trade Center site.

Park51′s request for funding sparked controversy among those who did not want to see an Islamic center so close to the site of the 9/11 attacks. It appears that Park51 did not meet the eligibility requirements because the organization has not yet received its nonprofit certification.

This doesn’t mean they won’t keep trying to secure funds, but at least it won’t be with tax-payer money.

There will be a 911 Freedom Rally on Sept 11 at West Broadway and Park Place to take the place of the soulless, and anodyne (no first responders or clergy) Obama/Bloomberg affair.

Video: Newt Gingrich Calls For Congressional Investigation of Gibson Guitar Raid; Republicans Invite CEO To Obama Speech

Neil Cavuto opened  the segment with the news that presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich was calling for an investigation in Congress of the Gibson Guitar raids.

Also, CEO Henry Juszkiewic, has been invited by Republicans to sit with Republicans for Obama’s jobs speech, Thursday night:

Eric Holder maintained that the raid was based on the “facts” (what facts?), the law (which wasn’t being violated), and the enforcement responsibilities they have (why don’t these enforcement responsibilities extend to Dem Guitar makers?), and denied that politics were involved (yeah, right).

Everything that corruptocrat Eric Holder’s DOJ does is politically motivated.

An investigation is in order, and the fact that Republicans have invited the CEO to possibly sit in the Speaker’s Box suggests that Republican Leaders are amenable to the idea:

Political Punch reports:

Henry Juszkiewicz, the CEO of Gibson Guitar Corp., will either sit in the House Gallery as the guest of his member of Congress, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. (members of Congress each get to invite one guest to sit in that balcony), or he will be invited to sit in the speaker of the House’s box for the speech, Republican officials tell ABC News.

As of Wednesday afternoon, officials in House Speaker John Boehner’s office were trying to decide where he should sit.

Last month, the Nashville company was raided by federal officials for importing ebony from India that the Justice Department says was “fraudulently” labeled to evade Indian export laws. The Justice Department says the mislabeling constituted a  violation of a 2008 law requiring companies to detail information about wood they import, and to abide by the relevant laws of foreign nations.

UPDATE:

Andrew Stiles  at The Corner: In the Speaker’s Box Tonight:

House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) will host more than a dozen special quests in the House gallery during President Obama’s jobs speech to Congress this evening. According to the speaker’s office, the guests “are all employers who have run into unnecessary Washington-made barriers as they’ve tried to create jobs,” including Gibson Guitars CEO Henry Juszkiewicz.

Read the full list at The Corner.

Linked by Michele Malkin, thanks!

Hat tip: Gateway Pundit

Pure Genius: MSNBC’s Schultz Says Reason Obama’s Poll Numbers Are Down Is Because “Nobody in the White House is Talking Like James Hoffa”

Sergeant Schultz was giddy because when Union boss James Hoffa said he wanted to take out those sons of bitches in the tea party, he was “spot on!”

Schultz proceeded to make some truly absurd remarks about how there was nothing wrong with what Hoffa said because of things previously uttered by conservatives such as former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann.

I guess he forgot about all the calls for civility in political discourse – including from himself! – following the tragic January shootings in Tucson.

Missing his own hypocrisy, Schultz actually told his viewers that President Obama’s poll numbers are down “because liberals in many parts of the country are very frustrated that nobody in the White House is talking like James Hoffa.”

Yeah, he really said that.

Note, he even took time to slam the Republican “young guns” ( Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy, Paul Ryan) because “young guns” is somehow a troublesome nickname, while glorifying Hoffa’s violent rhetoric.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Schultz brought Hoffa on via satellite to ask the burning question, “Do you think the Republicans are sons of b—hes?”

Hoffa responded, “Well, I think they are if they’re trying to take away food out of the mouth of working people.”

Well yes, that’s the thinking man’s answer. Of course middle class tea partiers (who work for a living, too) “want to take food away from the mouths of working people.” That makes perfect sense.

-

After listing off a litany of tea party offenses from wanting to take away public union “collective bargaining rights” (guilty!) to “basically (wanting to)take away their pensions” (make modest cuts), he declares, “that’s a BAD person!”

-

You can count me among the legions BAD persons and SOBs out there who aren’t down with the Obama/big labor/CPUSA agenda.

Left-Wing Idiots Think They Caught Charles Koch Calling Obama Saddam Hussein

Good Gad, if you take a look at  Memorandum, today, you’ll see this is a top story in the left-wing feverswamps: Exclusive Audio: Inside the Koch Brothers’ Secret Seminar. Oh my guh-ness, what are those eeevil Koch brothers up to now???

“We have Saddam Hussein,” declared billionaire industrialist Charles Koch, apparently referring to President Barack Obama as he welcomed hundreds of wealthy guests to the latest of the secret fundraising and strategy seminars he and his brother host twice a year. The 2012 elections, he warned, will be “the mother of all wars.”

Operative word here – apparently because Obama could just as apparently not be who he was referring to. The sentence doesn’t even make sense as a reference to Obama.

It probably took John from Verum Serum all of two seconds to figure this out:

The problem with Brad Friedman’s report is that Charles Koch wasn’t referencing the President here. The reference is in fact to Saddam Hussein who on January 17th, 1991 was still full of bravado:

In Baghdad, Saddam Hussein remained defiant. He said the “Mother of all Battles had begun”.

Here’s a contemporaneous printed report of the same statement. Granted, Mr. Koch remembered it as the “mother of all wars” instead of battles, but he was speaking extemporaneously.

There is one more reason I’m certain this is the correct interpretation of the remarks. If you listen carefully to the full audio at Brad’s site, you can hear a missing word which didn’t make it into his transcript. It should read:

But we’ve been talking about — we have as Saddam Hussein, this is the Mother of All Wars we’ve got…

What dolts.

Brad plans to crap out part two of his groundbreaking report on the sooper secret Koch Bros Seminar at Mother Jones, tomorrow.

(Btw, I don’t know about you, but it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy that those boys are raising big time bucks to defeat President Zero, who is projected to raise a billion dollars for his re-election campaign.)

The Koch brothers rock!

MORE:

John updates with:

Mother Jones isn’t going to correct this and thus another BS progressive factoid is born.

Of course.

UPDATE II!

Follow Up on Mother Jones-Brad Friedman Attack on Charles Koch

Verum Serum now has the the official Koch brothers response.

(Hint: It’s pretty much what you’d expect.)

Linked by Michelle Malkin, thanks!

New Front Opens In Gunwalker scandal: ATF and FBI “Gangwalker” Allowed Indiana ‘Crime Gun’ Sales

The outlaw Obama regime’s horrendous “Gunwalker” saga has just taken an almost unimaginable turn. Whereas before, most of the victims of this unholy and God-awful anti-gun scheme lived across the border into Mexico, the victims or potential victims of “Gangwalker” live in the heartland of  America. This is a developing story – it’s not yet known how lethal or widespread this operation was, but it chills me to the bone that now I  get to worry about the possibility that the Obama administration is arming criminal gangs throughout the United States while the CBC is running around the country demonizing the tea party and stoking the flames of racial division. What in the world? —

David Codrea of the Gun Rights Examiner has the exclusive:

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has acknowledged an Indiana dealer’s cooperation in conducting straw purchases at the direction of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.  Exclusive documents obtained by Gun Rights Examinershow the dealer cooperated with ATF by selling guns to straw purchasers, and that bureau management later asserted these guns were being traced to crimes.

From the confidential source providing the documents:

The dealer…was sent a “demand letter,” based on the number of traces to him, which was retracted after his attorney pointed out they resulted from his cooperation with ATF. (Strangely, he got two voicemails from two different ATF people, both saying they were the head of the tracing operation).

Some of the straw men turned out to have felony convictions, the agents called the FBI background check system and fixed it so the transactions would be approved, something which may also have happened in Phoenix. (The attorney wasn’t clear as to whether the guns were actually delivered to the gangs).

Well, I’m thinking  if the guns were traced to crimes, they would have to have been delivered to the gangs?

The letter informed the dealer that he was required to provide acquisition and disposition information on firearms obtained from non-licensees, as well as to provide quarterly reports, based on ATF’s assessment that the dealer “had an unusually high number of traces of new crime guns with a relatively short ‘time-to-crime’…”

In the response, dated March 10, 2011, attorney Brent R. Weil of Kightlinger and Gray, LLP, informed Charles J. Houser, Chief, National Tracing Center Division:

Specifically, my client participated with and cooperated in certain law enforcement operations  during 2009/2010 at the behest of ATFE enforcement officers from the Evansville, Indiana office (Agent Kevin Whittaker) and in the course of doing so, followed their instructions regarding the completion of certain transactions and the delivery of firearms to purchasers who did not clear the standard NICS [National Instant Check System] background check and were suspected of being involved in the purchase and transportation of handguns out of state despite passing NICS’s background checks.

Read the rest at The Gun Rights Examiner.

Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars adds his thoughts:

Fact is, if the the ATF was worried about “crime gun traces,” they WERE in fact actually delivered to the gangs.

Fact is, the principal market for straw-purchased weapons in Indiana is Chicago.

Andrew Traver: What does he know about “Project Gangwalker” and when did he know it?

Fact is, Andrew Traver, Obama buddy and still declared heir-apparent to the ATF mini-throne would have known about any such gunwalking operation involving his area of operations. He would have had to have been briefed.

Fact is, David just broke an incredibly important story.

Fact is, once again, the new media beats the old media.

Bob Owens at Pajamas Media on the profound ramifications of this breaking story:

The apparent purpose of the operation was to lend the thinnest veneer of truth to the 90-percent lie spread by Barack Obama, Eric Holder, and Hillary Clinton from the very beginning of the Obama administration. It makes sense only as a plot to manufacture evidence for the punitive gun control laws that Obama has championed his entire political career. Indeed, even after Gunwalker was exposed, the number of U.S. guns in Mexico, many of which were put there by the actions of the government itself, was still brazenly used as the excuse for ATF long gun reporting requirements currently being challenged in courts.

Likewise, what Codrea has dubbed as “Gangwalker” appears to be another attempt to provide guns to criminals in order to generate more gun crime and then more calls for gun control.

The biggest difference between the two operations at this early date only seems to be that Gangwalker is a purposeful attempt to create the deaths of American citizens in order to pursue the administration’s fanatical anti-gun agenda.

American deaths, for political gain.

Think about that claim for a minute, and what that would mean.

Operation Fast and Furious (and the suspected operations in Texas and Florida) was reprehensible and more than likely calculated to raise the level of violence in Mexico, sacrificing the lives of law enforcement officers, soldiers, and civilians in order to pursue a policy goal. It wasn’t until an American agent died that whistleblowers finally arose and cried out. It was as if Mexican lives meant less than American lives … and in this sick political calculus, maybe that was exactly the mindset.

But if Gangwalker is what it appears to be, then we are staring down a president, attorney general, secretary of Homeland Security, and key members of the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security gone entirely rogue.

If Gangwalker and Gunwalker are two sides of the same insidious coin, we’re looking at the very definition of “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

We’re looking at impeachment for the most serious of charges, and possible criminal prosecutions for a widespread conspiracy to commit murder that walks right up to the line of the legal definition of treason

If Vice President Biden is caught up in this, too, then we’re looking at a President Boehner before Obama’s term is up. (I can dream, can’t I?)

As most of the MSM continues to sit this story out, Sipsey Street Irregulars advocates opening “a second front” to complement House Oversight Committee investigations:

Here’s my first suggestion. Let’s get the House Foreign Affairs Committee working on the foreign policy implications of the Obama administration violating ITAR, facilitating the smuggling of weapons and committing numerous acts of war against a sovereign country and its people. There are several GOP members on this committee who are already on record about this scandal. Let’s make them put their money where their mouths are.

Here’s my second suggestion. Lamar Smith. From Texas, Smith is not only the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee but he sits on the House Homelands Security Committee. Both of these committees have the jurisdiction and the authority to pursue other avenues of this scandal which can complement, not conflict with, the Issa committee. We have been told off the record that the Issa committee has to focus their inquiry and not get involved in what are, to them and their brief, secondary issues.

So let’s get them some help. If the GOP is sincere about getting to the bottom of this, they will use ALL their considerable resources in the House to do so.

So crank up the emails, phones and faxes again, folks.

Demand a second front in the Gunwalker Plot investigations.

You heard the man – melt those phone lines, crank up those emails and faxes. Demand an independent Special Prosecutor.

What are they waiting for????

SEE ALSO:

Michell Malkin: Fast and Furious update: And now…Project Grenadewalker?!; Plus: The Indiana story:

The truth is still seeping out, despite Team Obama’s best efforts to cover up and shut up the Fast and Furious whistle-blowers.

Last week, we noted the latest evidence that the scandal went straight to the top and chronicled the desperate dance of the lemons. In discussing the quiet resignation of U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke in Phoenix, I talked with NRA News’s Cam Edwards about Burke’s transparent attempt at liability avoidance.

Today, the WSJ spotlights the Phoenix USAO’s botched handling of an Arizona man accused of supplying grenades to a Mexican drug cartel. Business Insider provides a closer look (h/t William Amos):

Keep reading at link…

Hat tip: Instapundit

Linked by @rdbrewer4 at AoSHQ’s Top Headlines and Disrupt the Narrative, thanks!

PREVIOUSLY:

Video: Debbie Wasserman Schultz Also Not Interested In Condemning Violent Anti-Teaparty Rhetoric

Debbie Wasserman-Schultz has been less than stellar in her media appearances since she took on the mantle as head of the DNC, last Spring. I’ve covered some of her more risible moments here at Nice Deb. This interview with Gretchen Carson on Fox and Friends was her most pathetic performance to date, as she steadfastly refused to answer Gretchen Carson’s question, opting to jibber about jobs, instead. Note the nervous laughter, and “Are you kidding me?”

No ma’am, we’re not kidding. What happened to the new tone?

It was clear, yesterday, when the President failed to distance himself from James Hoffa’s unhinged Labor Day rhetoric, that the Democratic party as a policy, was  condoning, (even encouraging) violent anti-tea party speech. His speech wasn’t, after all, any worse than the anti-teaparty rhetoric we’ve been hearing for the past several weeks from Democratic congressmen. The Democrat party has apparently declared war on the tea party, and is using copious amounts of class-war, race-war, violent anti-teaparty rhetoric….but to what ends? To inspire the more violent, and unhinged members of the left-wing mobs to wreak havoc? They know that “Days of Rage” protests are planned September 17 in New York City…..is that the sort of rhetoric they want the left hearing right before they attempt to “occupy Wall Street”? Liberals love to talk about “dog whistles”…I think what we’ve been hearing for the past few weeks is one big dog whistle.

The White House had no comment on  Hoffa’s demented anti-teaparty rant in which he said:

“President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march…Everybody here’s got a vote…Let’s take these sons of bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong.

Which shouldn’t surprise anyone given that the President himself is on record telling a Hispanic audience to “punish their enemies.” We’ve long known that this is not a President who wishes to preside over all Americans. The divisive speech he used from the very beginning of his presidency assured us of that.

James Hoffa, himself, expressed that he had “no regrets” for anything he said in his speech.

Media Matters is in full spin mode, trotting out the standard, “taken out of context” trope they use every time a lib is caught saying something stupid. (Yes, libs are forever being taken out of context.)

Jay Carney Absolutely Refuses To Criticize Hoffa’s “War” and “Son of a Bitch” Comments

MORE:

A response from the right:

The Daily Caller: Palin calls out Hoffa’s ‘thuggery’ for his ‘sons of bitches’ remarks

Newsbusters: Scarborough: There Seems to be a Rule – If You Support Obama You Can Say ‘Take People Out’

Linked by Michelle Malkin, thanks!

Hat tip: The Blaze

Happy Labor Day! (With Updates)

I hope you’re all enjoying your picnics and BBQs.

Labor Day doesn’t mean a whole lot to me other than it’s a good day for a picnic. Union thuggery has so sullied the reputation of organized labor in this country, I have absolutely no desire to celebrate a movement that I believe is contributing to the destruction of the country.

Here’s a video compilation of union thuggery created by Minnesota Majority earlier this year:

In honor of the day, Michelle Malkin has put up her list of the top 10 union thug moments of the year.

I’ve added some honorable mentions at Moonbattracker.

UPDATE:

Your Union thug moment for Labor Day 2011, via Allahpundit at Hot Air:

Video: James Hoffa on Tea Party; “Let’s Take These Son of a Bitches Out”, while President Obama nods in approval…(video corrected).

A clearly delusional and unPresidential Obama used Labor Day to attack Republicans:

President Obama to a riled-up union crowd in Detroit, Michigan: “You say you are the party of tax cuts? Well, then prove you will fight just as hard for tax cuts for middle class families as you do for oil companies and the most affluent Americans. Show us what you got! The time for Washington games is over. The time for action is now. No more manufactured crises, no more games. Now is not the time for the people you sent to Washington to worry about their jobs, now is the time for them to worry about your jobs.”

Uh….”manufactured crisis?” As in Cloward Piven?!

Politico 44: Biden fired up at Ohio rally:

By “fired up”, they mean “more unhinged, uncivil, anti-tea-party rhetoric”:

This is a fight for the existence of organized labor. You are the only ones who can stop the barbarians at the gate! That’s why they want you so bad.”

Like these tea party barbarians,  hounding a Democratic State Senator in front of the State House in Wisconsin?

Can you say P-R-O-J-E-C-T-I-O-N?

UPDATE II:

Political Punch: White House Declines To Comment On Union Leader’s Anti-Tea Party Rhetoric At Labor Day Rally

He should not be surprised when his future calls for civility fall on deaf ears.

Like I keep saying, YOU FIRST.

UPDATE III:

Instapundit has a great round-up of blog reactions to Hoffa and Zero’s Labor Day speeches.

Video: House Probes Obama Corruption in ‘GreenJobs-Gate’

House investigators said they “smelled at rat” from the beginning of this green jobs boondoggle, and now have uncovered evidence that White House officials became personally involved in an Energy Department review of the ill-fated $535 million loan guarantee to the California solar company Solyndra.

Video via Newsforconservatives

More from Jim Hoft at Big Government:

Top Obama bundler George Kaiser made multiple visits to the White House in the months before the company was granted a $535 million loan from the government.
iWatch News reported, via Free Republic:

The i Watch News investigation confirmed that at least 18 other bundlers have ties to businesses poised to profit from the president’s political agenda, through stimulus money, government contracts, or other spending to promote clean energy technology or green development.

Oklahoma billionaire investor George Kaiser is one. A longtime Democratic donor, he is a big financial backer of a company that in March of 2009 won a $535 million loan guarantee [19] from DOE for a solar plant in Silicon Valley. He had multiple visits to the White House in the months before he was awarded the contract. Kaiser has not responded to interview requests from iWatch News.

Darrell Issa has to be the busiest man in Washington, right now, thanks to all the Obamacrat corruption.

Your Sunday Hymn: I Heard The Voice Of Jesus Say

This is a gorgeous choral arrangement of one of my  favorite hymns, (I know I say that every week, but seriously – it’s in my top five.) Lovely use of tin whistle in this version of I Heard The Voice of Jesus Say, written by Horatius Bonar in 1846:

Like buttah.

Another beautiful version, here.

While pastor of a Presbyterian church in Kelso, Scotland, Horatius Bonar (1808 – 1889), known as the Prince of Scottish Hymn Writers with more then 600 hymns, wrote this text in 1846, which he intended to be a children’s hymn. Entitled The Voice from Galilee, the text was published in Bonar’s Hymns Original and Selected (1846) with a reference to John 1: 16 (“From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another”). The truth of the biblical imagery and the spiritual depth of the personal responses to Christ captured in this text have made this a hymn much loved by children and adults. It is often considered to be among the finest of Bonar’s many hymn texts.
Each of the three stanzas has two parts: the first half quotes Jesus’ words, and the second half testifies to the personal experience of responding to Christ. The entire text invites us to accept what Jesus offers: rest from our burdens (st. 1), living water to quench our thirst (st. 2), and light for life’s journey (st. 3).

Charles Krauthammer: “President Zero’s” Speech Next Week All About His Re-Election

Charles Krauthammer says Obama has his “foot on the economy”, and  his speech next week will not to be a serious attempt to turn things around – it’s a speech to frame the debate for his re-election. It will include ridiculous things he knows the republicans will reject, setting up the premise he will use to blame the bad economy on them. Then he’ll accuse Republicans of selfishly politicizing the issue.

It’s a sick and cynical campaign strategy, but about all we can expect from President Zero at this point:

Keith Koffler at WH Dossier is saying basically the same thing:The Big Setup

Obama must make his proposals as big a deal as possible, so that everyone knows how hard he’s “trying to help.” That’s why he’s scheduled an address to Congress. No higher profile than that.

And he must calibrate his ideas as carefully as possible so that they seem like they should be palatable to the GOP. He’ll offer ideas that some Republicans have supported, but which in the current high-deficit environment will be rejected.

Then he will talk about his largely meaningless initiatives every chance he gets. And then later, every chance he gets, he will talk about how Republicans rejected them and ruined his noble crusade.

It’s a huge gamble, because Obama has already decided not to take the sweeping measures needed to help the economy. Instead, he’s been running for reelection.

Absent major fiscal reforms that take a significant bite out of entitlements, the government’s fiscal picture and the overall economic outlook are not going to improve. Stimulus has not worked. What the economy needs is confidence, and to build confidence we must get a handle on the federal debt. And a president who has shown no leadership on the issue – who in fact has vastly increased spending and the debt – and who is instead trying to politicize the debate, is not going to lead us to that particular Promised Land.

Friday Free-For-All

Obamabow to Boehner via Michelle Malkin

Michelle Malkin reports on today’s  “historic” jobs news report: President Zero; Update: White House runs away from costly EPA regs:

Critics of cypher Barack Obama have been calling him “President Zero” for years. (See herehereherehere, for example.)

Now, the lib media is discovering just how fitting that moniker has been.

After today’s report of ZERO net job growth, the New York Times “reports” on the “demeaning” “new” label:

G.O.P.’s New Obama Label: President Zero

It took the Republican National Committee exactly 94 minutes to coin a new, demeaning title for Barack Obama: President Zero.

In an email to reporters, the R.N.C. took note of the worst job report in nearly a year, saying that there has been “two and a half years of Obamanomics and nothing to show for it.”

What? How President Zero “demeaning? At least they have the courtesy of including his title in the monicker – most of us just call him “Zero”.

Today, the White House rejected the controversial ozone regs:

President Barack Obama on Friday asked the Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw a proposed regulation for ozone air quality standards, citing the nation’s wobbly economy.

President Obama, in a statement, said that by requesting withdrawal of the ozone regulations “I have continued to underscore the importance of reducing regulatory burdens and regulatory uncertainty, particularly as our economy continues to recover.”

See, he’s the second coming of Reagan just like they’ve been telling us.

Sipsey Street Irregulars includes a nuclear mushroom cloud graphic to  emphasize the importance of the latest news on the Gunwalker scandal: The cover-up is undeniable. Grassley & Issa drop a nuke on Phoenix US Attorneys Office. Emails utterly damning. Newell perjury certain.

CBS has this blockbuster here.

Congressional investigators tell CBS News there’s evidence the U.S. Attorney’s office in Arizona sought to cover up a link between their controversial gunwalking operation known as “Fast and Furious” and the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

Terry was murdered in Arizona near the US border last December. Two assault rifles ATF had allegedly allowed onto the street without interdiction were found at the scene.

But the US Attorney’s office working both the Terry murder and the “Fast and Furious” operation did not immediately disclose the two had any link. Two Republicans investigating the scandal, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) say there’s evidence that officials at ATF and the US Attorney’s office sought to hide the connection.

***

Today’s letter from the Congressional Republicans also criticizes Hurley’s boss, US Attorney Dennis Burke. It says Burke denied a connection between Fast and Furious and Terry’s murder in court, but recently “readily admitted the connection” in an interview with Congressional investigators. Burke resigned from his job on Tuesday.

The Justice Department had no immediate comment. Burke and Hurley were not immediately reachable for comment.

Here’s the Wall Street Journal take.

LATER: The target of this is Burke. Burke is in a bind. He is reported to have been losing both sleep and weight, and is looking “haggard and weary.” His interview with the committee a few days was unsatisfactory, from what I hear, on both sides. He’s going to have to give a lot more up before he gets any kind of deal. Who could he give up?

The references to OCDETF are no accident. F&F was a DOJ-driven operation encompassing a whole lot of other agencies besides ATF — including, significantly, DHS — and higher ups in DOJ. And Burke was? Anybody? Bueller? That’s right, Napolitano’s former chief of staff. Burke can give them a whole hell of a lot more than he has so far. The reference to the FBI investigation was not done idly either. The prairie fire picks up velocity.

A Sipsey Street commenter conspiratorially notes that “the stage has been set with Burke’s depression being noted in the article by the W.S.J., and others”:

Burke had better RUN to the closest US Marshals office and get in the Witness Protection Program… No wait they were in on Gun-Walker also. Sorry Dennis your SCREWED, But maybe if ya can get back to Issa and Grassley maybe they can arrange for protection with the Secret Service. They are the only Federal Agency NOT implicated in Gun-Walker, so far.

Another nuclear blast via Michelle Malkin: Fast and Furious update: Yes, the White House got e-mails:

The three officials who were briefed: Kevin M. O’Reilly, director of North American Affairs for the White House national security staff; Dan Restrepo, the president’s senior Latin American advisor; and Greg Gatjanis, a White House national security official.

Sipsey Street Irregulars:FOX: “Evidence Suggests Cover-Up in ATF Scandal, as More Guns Appear at Crime Scenes.”

 Also late Thursday, Sen. Charles Grassley’s office revealed that 21 more Fast and Furious guns have been found at violent crime scenes in Mexico.

This American Thinker piece will make you want to toss your lunch: Predators with Ph.D.s:

The latest offensive against morality, decency, and sanity in America has been launched by a pro-pedophilia group and several academics who openly advocate for the normalization and legalization of pedophilia.  Referring to Judeo-Christian moral principles and values as “cultural baggage of wrongfulness” and an adult’s desire to sexually molest a child as “normative,” these predators with Ph.D.s are hell-bent on destroying key moral boundaries and critical societal norms that protect innocent children from pathological and dangerous adults.

On August 17 of this year, the pro-pedophilia group B4U-ACT sponsored an event in Baltimore attended by researchers, professors, mental health professionals, and “minor-attracted persons” (MAP, a euphemism for “adults who crave sex with children”).  These individuals endorse the adult molestation of children, consider this sexual perversion as normal, and advocate for the declassification of pedophilia as a mental illness by the American Psychiatric Association (APA).

The academic panelists who presented at this “pedophilia-friendly” scientific symposium came from such distinguished institutions as Johns Hopkins University, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and the London School of Economics and Political Science.

***

What do the leadership of John Hopkins University, Harvard Medical School, and the University of Louisville have to say about their professors attending a pro-pedophile conference and advocating for the “normalization” of adults having sex with children?  What about the donors, supporters, and alumni who support these institutions?  Are they aware that their donations pay for these professors’ salaries and help promote these kinds of “academic” activities?  Is this an indication of the level of “scholarship” and “intellectual discourse” we expect to see in the future from these acclaimed institutions?  What’s next?  A conference on how to de-stigmatize and normalize producers, distributors, and users of child porn?

My own feeling is that something more than public pressure is in order, here. These criminally depraved people are becoming bolder and bolder. Last year, a book appeared called, The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure: A Child-lover’s Code of Conduct. Why hasn’t the author, Phillip R. Greaves been arrested? If no laws are being broken when pedophiles hold conferences and write books to further their cause of violating children, there should be. This is the type of regulation I think most people, even libertarians, could support.

From LifeNews: Catholic Bishops: Revoke Obamacare-Abortion Drug Mandate:

Taking advantage of the public comment period offer before the recommendation goes into effect, the nation’s Catholic bishops are urging the Obama administration to reverse a decision that forces insurance companiesto pay for birth control and drugs that can cause abortions under the Obamacare government-run health care program.

In August, Obama officials tentatively approved a recommendation from the Institute of Medicine, opposed by pro-life groups, that called for the Obama administration to require insurance programs to include birth control — such as the morning after pill or the ella drug that causes an abortion days after conception — in the section of drugs and services insurance plans must cover under “preventative care.” The companies will likely pass the added costs on to consumers, requiring them to pay for birth control and, in some instances, drug-induced abortions of unborn children in their earliest days.

Hey Catholic Bishops? Maybe if you had put Catholic Voter Guides in all of the church vestibules in 2008, we wouldn’t be in this mess, now. President Zero won with a majority of the Catholic vote because they didn’t know what the hell they were voting for. And that happened with your help:

The following text is from the IRS ruling stating that this Voter’s Guide does not itself constitute the political campaign intervention prohibited to 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations such as churches:

[Catholic Answers, Inc.] created, published and distributed the “Voters Guide for Serious Catholics” (“VGSC”).The VGSC asserts that it is intended to help the reader vote for candidates for public office in a manner consistent with Catholic moral teachings.The VGSC identifies five issues it deems to be “nonnegotiable” issues and instructs the reader on how to narrow down the list of candidates to those who are acceptable based on the non-negotiable issues.The VGSC does not directly or indirectly make reference to any specific candidate, political party or election.Therefore, the content of the VGSC, standing alone, is not political campaign intervention because the VGSC does not support or oppose any specific candidate for public office.
–Internal Revenue Service, Addendum to Letter 3609P, May 2, 2008

Marathon Pundit has another raging Obami success story: Valerie Jarrett-managed slum apartments to be torn down with federal cash

Valerie Jarrett, a close friend of the Barack and Michelle Obama is the former CEO of Habitat Company, which managed Grove Parc, a federally subsidized apartment complex on Chicago’s South Side that can be accurately described as a slum. Jarrett is now a senior adviser to the president.

Keep reading.

The Other McCain: Tommy Christopher’s New Assignment: Covering Speaker Boehner’s Resignation:

While I’m not familiar with Tommy’s term “fetish foe false objectivity,” I certainly do not believe that journalists must be strictly neutral in every political conflict. However, a tendency toward emotional hysteria is not generally desireable in this line of work.

Tommy: We are talking about the scheduling of a speech.

As for the “time of national crisis,” it hasn’t even impinged on the president’s golf schedule. The matter of postponing his World-Historic Address to a Joint Session of Congress — “Four score and seven revised-downward jobs reports ago . . .” — from Wednesday to Thursday hardly seems the kind of “unprecedent insult” that would require the resignation of the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Not to pile on Tommy, but wtf, dude?

Your laugh of the day, via Newsbusters: Rush Limbaugh: ‘If They Ever Do a Colonoscopy on Obama They’re Gonna Find Richard Wolffe’s Head There’

Hat tip: Brian B. for many of these stories.