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It turns out we actually do have a news media in this country. Unfortunately it’s in Spanish:

Daily Caller:

Spanish-language television network Univision plans to air a television special that it said reveals more violence than previously known, as well as the stories of how many more Operation Fast and Furious victims were killed, the network announced in a Friday release.

“The consequences of the controversial ‘Fast and Furious’ undercover operation put in place by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in 2009 have been deadlier than what has been made public to date,” the network said. “The exclusive, in-depth investigation by Univision News’ award-winning Investigative Unit — Univision Investiga — has found that the guns that crossed the border as part of Operation Fast and Furious caused dozens of deaths inside Mexico.”

Among other groups of Fast and Furious victim stories Univision says it will tell in the special to air Sunday evening at 7 p.m., is one about how “16 young people attending a party in a residential area of Ciudad Juárez in January of 2010″ were gunned down with weapons the Obama administration gave to drug cartel criminals through Fast and Furious.

“Univision News’ Investigative Unit was also able to identify additional guns that escaped the control of ATF agents and were used in different types of crimes throughout Mexico,” the network added. “Furthermore, some of these guns — none of which were reported by congressional investigators — were put in the hands of drug traffickers in Honduras, Puerto Rico, and Colombia. A person familiar with the recent congressional hearings called Univision’s findings ‘the holy grail’ that Congress had been searching for.”

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The show will be in Spanish with English subtitles. Check your local listings for exact time and channel numbers in your area.

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Contempt for Holder

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The U.S. House of Representatives voted 255 to 67 to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt. 17 Democrats voted yes on the resolution, while 108 walked out without voting.

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Ignorance is bliss

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LZ Granderson at CNN:

Don’t be nosy about Fast and Furious

We are a nosy country.

Though to be fair, it’s not entirely our fault. Between the 24/7 news cycle, social media and reality TV, we have been spoon fed other people’s private business for so long we now assume it’s a given to know everything. And if there are people who choose not to disclose, they must be hiding something. Being told that something’s “none of your business” is slowly being characterized as rude, and if such a statement is coming from the government, it seems incriminating.

Times have changed. Yet, not everything is our business. And in the political arena, there are things that should be and need to be kept quiet.

[...]

Heads should roll because of the Fast and Furious debacle. We don’t need every detail of that operation to be made public in order for that to happen.

If it were an isolated sting, maybe. But it is at least the third incarnation of a gun-running scheme stretching across two administrations, which means we could be pressing to open Pandora’s Box. We do not want to open Pandora’s Box, not about this and certainly not about a bunch of other potentially scandalous things the federal government has been involved with.

[...]

Think about it: We have allowed weapons to cross the Mexican border and into the hands of criminals for years. Many of these weapons were involved in killing innocent Mexicans. There’s nothing very admirable about that. But the truth is, it’s very American.

By allowing guns to infiltrate Mexico’s drug cartel, we thought we could trace them up the ladder to the leaders. Take off the head and the body dies. As for the innocent people who lost their lives? Collateral damage. That’s the uncomfortable backstory to this scandal. And there are likely other operations like it in our nation’s history that we don’t even have a clue about.

And maybe it’s better for us not to be so nosy, not to know everything because, to paraphrase the famous line from the movie “A Few Good Men,” many of us won’t be able to handle the truth.

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WTF?

This guy is a journalist?

There is such a thing as operational security. Law enforcement and military operations would be compromised if there was no secrecy. Spies, informants and undercover agents need to be protected.

But nothing stays secret forever. One of the biggest Allied secrets in World War II was Operation Overlord – D-Day, the invasion at Normandy. But eventually the Germans found out because our troops started landing on the beaches.

When law enforcement runs undercover operations the goal is to catch criminals. At some point the deception ends and (hopefully) arrests are made.

Sometimes operations go awry. Mistakes are made. Even with the best of intentions things go wrong and people get hurt or killed. When that happens it is important to find out why. Was it bad planning or bad luck? Were any laws broken? Who was responsible?

Fast and Furious was a major-league fuck-up. A couple hundred Mexicans and two US Agents died. That’s not collateral damage.

Whose idea was it? What did Eric Holder know and when did he know it? What about President Obama? Who else was in the loop? When the scandal broke, what attempts were made to cover it up?

We have every right to know these things.

Some unsolicited advice for Darrell Issa

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Hey Darrell, what’s up?

Congratulations on your big day yesterday. Well played sir, well played indeed. I just want to make sure you boys don’t snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Your side did that before when you tried to impeach Bill Clinton for lying about a blow job. You got carried away and it blew up in your faces.

Remember the connection between goals, strategy and tactics. (I tried to tell this to the OWSers but they didn’t listen. See how that turned out?) Keep focused on your goal – to defeat Barack Obama. Your strategy is simple – cause maximum political damage to Barack Obama between now and November 6th. In the process you do not want to damage yourselves.

Nobody is gonna get impeached over this. At most you’ll get a resignation or two, but you’re probably better off without any. You WANT Eric Holder to stay there as Attorney General. If he resigns the media will declare that the scandal is over.

Fast and Furious is about incompetence. Someone in the Obama administration came up with a bird-brain scheme to sell guns to Mexican drug gangs. The scheme went full-frontal FUBAR, thousands of guns went south of the border and a bunch of people died, including U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. After the fuck-up came the cover-up.

The tactic to employ here is the one you’re using – use your Congressional oversight power to drag this scandal out into the light of day. Rub the administration’s collective nose in it. But in this case less is more. Let the facts speak for themselves.

This will take some internal discipline. Your side needs to avoid grandstanding and speechifying. You want to be talking about “justice for Brian Terry” and “accountability.” Keep mentioning “thousands of guns” and “Mexican drug gangs.” Keep asking “What is the Obama administration hiding?” but don’t speculate on the answer – let the voters do that.

This is an ugly scandal. The Lewinsky scandal was salacious gossip but nobody died. This one ended in multiple murders. Keep it simple and don’t get in your own way. The media won’t help you the way they did with Monica and Bill. Don’t get distracted by what the Democrats do or say. Just keep pushing the facts out there and skip the constitutional showdowns.

Keep your eyes on the prize.

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Sarah says

Fire Eric Holder

It’s tempting to get distracted with the horse race aspect of electoral politics during a primary season. But as pundits talk about “who’s up and who’s down” in the 24 hour news cycle, we must keep our eye on the ball with the Obama administration. They rely on distraction to skirt responsibility, but we’re going to hold them accountable for their corruption and incompetence.

When the stories about Operation Fast and Furious first broke, it sounded too crazy even for this administration.

Why would any government official with an ounce of common sense think it’s a good idea to facilitate the smuggling of thousands of guns into the hands of violent Mexican drug cartels? That’s what Operation Fast and Furious did.

You might think Eric Holder’s Department of Justice was setting up a sting operation in which our federal agents would swoop down and arrest the bad guys the minute the guns traded hands. But that’s not what happened. Eric Holder’s DOJ had American gun dealers sell weapons to “straw purchasers” tied to drug cartels without actually following the movement of the guns as they were then sold to Mexican drug lords. They apparently thought this so-called “gun-walking” operation would help them chart the path of gun smuggling, but they didn’t have a plan to actually control the weapons’ movements as the guns were allowed to “walk” into Mexico. All Holder’s DOJ did was arm violent criminals. What manner of fools do we have working in this administration? What’s next? Supplying nuclear weapons components to the Iranians so we can track their activities?

Fast and Furious isn’t just your typical government incompetence. This is a deadly tragedy. U.S. border agent Brian Terry was gunned down with weapons connected to Holder’s debacle. At least 200 Mexican citizens were also killed by criminals using Fast and Furious weapons. We can only imagine how many more people will be murdered by criminals our government armed.

When an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives blew the whistle on this operation, the DOJ leaked sensitive information about him to the press. This week, the former U.S. Attorney for Arizona, who was ousted in the wake of the scandal, admitted to being the leaker.

And where is President Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder in all of this? When did he first know about the operation? In his testimony to the House Oversight Committee on May 3, 2011, Holder stated, “I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks.” But the DOJ’s own documents prove that Holder had been receiving briefings on Fast and Furious for nearly a year before that date. In other words, our government’s top law enforcement official, Eric Holder, lied to the American public. He finally admitted this week to the Senate Judiciary Committee, “In my testimony before the House committee [on May 3], I did say a few weeks. I probably could have said a couple of months. What I said about a few weeks was inaccurate based on what happened.”

When the nation’s highest law enforcement official lies to the American people, he must go.

And if he claims that he didn’t lie, then how else do we explain this situation? He’s either lying or he’s so grossly incompetent and lazy that he didn’t read important life and death briefings from his deputy attorney general and didn’t know about this deadly operation run by people under him. So, which is it? Incompetent, lazy, or lying? No matter which explanation fits, he needs to go.

Holder conceded this week, “I have ultimate responsibility for what happens in the department.” He can prove it by resigning. And if he refuses to resign, then President Obama – with whom the bucks ultimately stop – can prove that he respects honesty, transparency, and accountability in his administration by firing Holder.

I stand with the members of Congress who are calling for Holder’s resignation. I stand with the family members of Brian Terry who are demanding transparency and accountability. Mr. President, where do you stand?

- Sarah Palin

P.S. It can be argued that some elements of this scandal give the appearance of perhaps being intended to be used to infringe on our Second Amendment rights. I invite our President to correct concerned Americans if they’re wrong on this.

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It’s the cover-up.

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