Posted on 06/21/2012 4:54:00 AM PDT by Sir Napsalot
The Republicans shamelessly turned what should be a routine matter into a pointless constitutional confrontation. And the White House responded as most administrations do at some point: it invoked executive privilege to make a political problem go away.
(snip) Executive privilege cannot and should not be allowed to shield the executive branch from regular, valuable Congressional oversight. There was no reason the House committee and the Justice Department could not work out a deal to produce the documents requested, or some form of them. Instead, they show again that every issue, large or small, can be turned into ammunition for political combat.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
As if Rep Issa had not issued one deadline after another for the past 1 (2?) years. Folks, no bias here.
And their readers responses are to be expepcted -
Guns kill.
“We desperately need stronger laws, regulations and oversight of the sale, distribution and use of firearms. - DrE”
Why does this paper continue to call itself a news agancy.
It is nothing more than a propaganda arm for Obama.
Any self-respecting journalist would be ashamed to admit they work there.
At least the PRAVDA reporters were under fear of gulags and death.
MSM gives up the right to a free press willingly for ideology. Anything that serves The Party...
In other words, the NYT is upset that the Administration has done something that the NYT cannot, with intellectual honesty, defend.
You will absolutely LOVE this!
The New York Times is no longer a great newspaper but has fallen to the news quality of the worst tabloid. Their release of numerous articles revealing National security secrets over the years has done great harm to the country and our safety but for the Times sensationalism and ratings are more important than National security.
They should be investigated for Treason as should the leakers.
More insane repsonses -
To neutralize DoJ and prevent Dem voters in Nov election
Rep Issa is well known in CA as an extremist
........
Hmmm. Border Patrol Agent Terry, dead. ICE Agent Zapata, dead. 300+ Mexican citizens, dead. And it is a "routine matter"? What a POS article. The cover-up continues. But it is TIME that Eric "the Red" Holder was in Jail and Obozo with him.
This is not a partisan subject at all.
WTF is wrong with the Democrats?
This is about an administration plan that got people killed.
What? No barf alert?
The article does demonstrate how you can twist an issue any way you want it. That is why it is really important to get many people’s take on this.
A popular argument is to simply say that this was Bush’s program to begin with, so what’s the big deal. First, not only is that akin to blaming Henry Ford Sr. for problems with the Pinto, but it ignores things like this:
From here: http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybens..._bush_is_a_lie
The key to [Democrats’] strategy is conflating two very different programs: Operation Fast & Furious and a Bush era ATF initiative known as Operation Wide Receiver. In the questions from Judiciary Committee Democrats (principally, Senators Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Schumer there may have been others but, again, I didnt see the entire hearing), it emerged that Wide Receiver began in 2006, when Alberto Gonzales was the Bush administration attorney general...Wide Receiver actually involved not gun-walking but controlled delivery. Unlike gun-walking, which seems (for good reason) to have been unheard of until Fast & Furious, controlled delivery is a very common law enforcement tactic. Basically, the agents know the bad guys have negotiated a deal to acquire some commodity that is either illegal itself (e.g., heroin, child porn) or illegal for them to have/use (e.g., guns, corporate secrets). The agents allow the transfer to happen under circumstances where they are in control i.e., they are on the scene conducting surveillance of the transfer, and sometimes even participating undercover in the transfer. As soon as the transfer takes place, they can descend on the suspects, make arrests, and seize the commodity in question all of which makes for powerful evidence of guilt. Senator Schumers drawing of an equivalence between tracing in a controlled-delivery situation and tracing in Fast & Furious is laughable. In a controlled delivery firearms case, guns are traced in the sense that agents closely and physically follow them they dont just note the serial numbers or other identifying markers. The agents are thus able to trace the precise path of the guns from, say, American dealers to straw purchasers to Mexican buyers.
To the contrary, Fast & Furious involved uncontrolled deliveries of thousands of weapons. It was an utterly heedless program in which the feds allowed these guns to be sold to straw purchasers often leaning on reluctant gun dealers to make the sales. The straw purchasers were not followed by close physical surveillance; they were freely permitted to bulk transfer the guns to, among others, Mexican drug gangs and other violent criminals with no agents on hand to swoop in, make arrests, and grab the firearms. The inevitable result of this was that the guns have been used (and will continue to be used) in many crimes, including the murder of Brian Terry, a U.S. border patrol agent. In sum, the Fast & Furious idea of trace is that, after violent crimes occur in Mexico, we can trace any guns the Mexican police are lucky enough to seize back to the sales to U.S. straw purchasers who should never have been allowed to transfer them (or even buy them) in the first place. That is not law enforcement; that is abetting a criminal rampage.
And our response should be: Then join us in condemning this program that provided thousands of firearms to the most brutal criminals in North America!
The US collaborated with a cartel to get information on other cartels.
Did the guns go to the cartel we back?
Or was it just dump American guns in Mexico to justify abridging 2nd Amendment rights here?
But we have elites like Krauthammer say ing the MM will have to cover this issue.MM is worse than PRAVDA.
Sorry, I thought it was ‘automatic’, ‘redundant’, and ‘pointless’ to issue barf alert.
To your other point, we need MORE concise argument to combat the “Bush Started It” talking points currently favored by the Left. Esp. consider regular public who have never been told F&F.
It is our job to make the argument more effective.
Seems that there was another gun running operation involving the same cartels and guns going to Chicago.
I thought I heard Dr. Krauthamme caution Boehner to make too much political hay out of the Executive Previlige business on the panel, it will turn public away.
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