I was thinking this morning about how different the American left would have perceived U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's testimony on the Fast and Furious gunrunning operation if it had surfaced after Rand Paul's
Filibuster instead of before it.
When Paul's old-school filibuster captured the public's attention Holder released an audacious statement where he gave his stance on the constitutionality of domestic drone strikes with a snarly opening line to make it sound like he had not been asked about the question before. We know better. We saw Holder's sophomoric attempts to weasel out of that same question when asked by U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX, the day before.
This incident provided a platform to civil liberty warriors of all stripes to rain down on the Obama administration about drone strikes, including many leftists. Clearly, this episode had some impact on that way Holder is perceived by those people.
So imagine if Holder's testimony on Fast and Furious came out now instead of last summer. I expect the sides people fell on that issue would not have been split so evenly along partisanship lines if everyone knew what a weasel Holder is at the time.
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Showing posts with label Fast and Furious. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fast and Furious. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Monday, July 16, 2012
Outsourcing is not a scandal
Even though I have no intention of voting for Mitt Romney in this election, it looks like I have to defend him again.
President Obama's reelection campaign is trying to stir up economic illiterates by accusing him of being in charge of Bain Capital when some of the firms it dealt with outsourced jobs. That is to say, they are accusing him of giving jobs to foreigners when he should be reserving them for privileged Americans.
Romney's response was to say that he diverting all of his attention to running the Salt Lake City Olympics at the time and was CEO in name only, and the bickering is about how accurate that telling of events is.
What both sides are taking for granted is that outsourcing is some kind of scandal.
The American left seems to love foreigners when they want to move here and work, or stay in their place of birth, but the moment they try trade with us they become the enemy. The American right is different; they seem to dislike foreigners across the board.
Is there any trace of a legitimate scandal here? The only room for criticism I can see is that Romney is denying he was responsible for outsourcing, and if it turns out he is, the lie is the scandal, not the outsourcing. That's a pretty tall order, especially from people who are willing to overlook President Obama's Fast and Furious scandal.
Romney is accused of trying to cover up his role in giving jobs to foreigners. Obama is accused of trying to cover up his role in killing foreigners. Even if it's true, I have trouble seeing why he's the one I should be upset with.
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President Obama's reelection campaign is trying to stir up economic illiterates by accusing him of being in charge of Bain Capital when some of the firms it dealt with outsourced jobs. That is to say, they are accusing him of giving jobs to foreigners when he should be reserving them for privileged Americans.
Romney's response was to say that he diverting all of his attention to running the Salt Lake City Olympics at the time and was CEO in name only, and the bickering is about how accurate that telling of events is.
What both sides are taking for granted is that outsourcing is some kind of scandal.
The American left seems to love foreigners when they want to move here and work, or stay in their place of birth, but the moment they try trade with us they become the enemy. The American right is different; they seem to dislike foreigners across the board.
Is there any trace of a legitimate scandal here? The only room for criticism I can see is that Romney is denying he was responsible for outsourcing, and if it turns out he is, the lie is the scandal, not the outsourcing. That's a pretty tall order, especially from people who are willing to overlook President Obama's Fast and Furious scandal.
Romney is accused of trying to cover up his role in giving jobs to foreigners. Obama is accused of trying to cover up his role in killing foreigners. Even if it's true, I have trouble seeing why he's the one I should be upset with.
Read more...
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Nick and Rachel get furious, fast
I am completely smitten by a 10 minute clip of Nick Gillespie's appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher where he begins to set the record straight on the Fast and Furious scandal. But first, here's the background:
Under President George W. Bush, the ATF conducted Operation Wide Receiver, where guns were sold in a classic sting operation. In theory, the guns were to be tracked through surveillance, hidden transmitters and cooperation with the Mexican authorities so they could be recovered. When this system started to fail the program was scrapped.
Under President Barack Obama, the ATF conducted Operation Fast and Furious where the guns were sold to people working for drug cartels. The serial numbers were recorded, but there was no surveillance, hidden transmitters or cooperation with Mexican authorities. The idea was to get the guns in the hands of the Mexican drug cartels to try to establish a link with the original purchasers.
After guns ATF agents put in the hands of the drug cartels were used to kill a Border Patrol Agent and an ICE agent, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee investigated the Fast and Furious program.
It's entirely possible that the Obama administration, including Attorney General Eric Holder, did not know about Fast and Furious until it started, and then shut it down when they learned about it. We don't have proof of any further knowledge on the subject.
What we do know, however, is that Holder told Congress that he knew nothing of Fast and Furious. He said that no emails of conversations about the operation existed, but later President Obama used Executive Privilege to block the congressional committee from seeing the documents - the same documents Holder said did not exist while he was under oath.
A vote declares Holder in contempt of congress, despite a failed attempt from democrats to protect Holder and paint the vote as a partisan witch hunt.
For more information on Fast and Furious, see Jon Stewart and Mike Munger.
Read more...
Under President George W. Bush, the ATF conducted Operation Wide Receiver, where guns were sold in a classic sting operation. In theory, the guns were to be tracked through surveillance, hidden transmitters and cooperation with the Mexican authorities so they could be recovered. When this system started to fail the program was scrapped.
Under President Barack Obama, the ATF conducted Operation Fast and Furious where the guns were sold to people working for drug cartels. The serial numbers were recorded, but there was no surveillance, hidden transmitters or cooperation with Mexican authorities. The idea was to get the guns in the hands of the Mexican drug cartels to try to establish a link with the original purchasers.
After guns ATF agents put in the hands of the drug cartels were used to kill a Border Patrol Agent and an ICE agent, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee investigated the Fast and Furious program.
It's entirely possible that the Obama administration, including Attorney General Eric Holder, did not know about Fast and Furious until it started, and then shut it down when they learned about it. We don't have proof of any further knowledge on the subject.
What we do know, however, is that Holder told Congress that he knew nothing of Fast and Furious. He said that no emails of conversations about the operation existed, but later President Obama used Executive Privilege to block the congressional committee from seeing the documents - the same documents Holder said did not exist while he was under oath.
A vote declares Holder in contempt of congress, despite a failed attempt from democrats to protect Holder and paint the vote as a partisan witch hunt.
For more information on Fast and Furious, see Jon Stewart and Mike Munger.
Read more...
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