Another country heard from. Al Jazeera columnist engages in collectivist projection.

14 Propaganda Techniques Fox News TV Uses to Brainwash Americans

NYTwits produce a Gunwalker Scandal story with a marvelously understated headline. Plus, more misdirection from "Hatless Lige" Cummings.

"Anybody seen my hat?" Elijah "Bloody Hands" Cummings wants you to believe he left his political hat at the door.

Best NYTwit understated headline ever: "Firearms Bureau Finds Itself in a Rough Patch."

Rough patch? Smack in the middle of the worst federal government scandal ever that has killed hundreds, if not thousands, and the New York Times calls it a "rough patch"? That's like saying Little Big Horn was Custer having a disappointing day.


25 June 1876: General Custer's disappointing day.

Then there's the old "give it to the FBI" mantra.

With 2,500 agents and a budget of roughly $1 billion, the A.T.F. has long been a stepchild to the bigger and more prestigious Federal Bureau of Investigation, and some say the two agencies should merge. Among them is Jim Kessler, a founder of Third Way, a centrist policy organization here, who said a merger would insulate the bureau.

“It needs to be within the cocoon of a much stronger, unassailable law enforcement agency,” Mr. Kessler said, adding that the N.R.A.’s aim is to “keep it weak, but keep it alive.”

The FBI has long resisted that idea because they don't want the scrutiny that comes with the mission. And believe me, as long as the current firearms laws remain on the books, American firearm owners down want the secretive FBI to have that mission either.

Indeed, the idea of putting the A.T.F. out of business draws opposition from various quarters for different reasons.

Mr. LaPierre said Congress must give the bureau “a complete scrub from top to bottom” before deciding its future. Mr. Grassley wants to find out if Justice Department higher-ups were “pulling the strings in Fast and Furious.”

Representative Cummings, who concedes that the bureau made mistakes, wants to strengthen the agency, though his bill is unlikely to pass. And he would like to see it have a leader.

“All this is about life and death,” he said. “This is serious stuff. At some point we have to leave our political hats at the door.”

Oh, right. Like Cummings himself is. What? Is he looking for a new moniker, like "Hatless Lige" to replace "Old Bloody Hands"?

And yet another country heard from on the subject of Independence Day.

E.J. Dionne rewrites history.

Independence Day: Another country heard from.

A leftie who doesn't know the difference between "reek" and "wreak".

"We hold these truths to be self-evident" -- Various ruminations upon Independence Day.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Toby Harndon, writing in the London Telegraph, rightly reports that "the mood is dark" in America this Independence Day, calling us "the United States of gloom."

The last comparable Fourth of July was probably in 1980, when there was a recession, skyrocketing petrol prices and an Iranian hostage crisis, with 53 Americans being held in Tehran.

Frank Luntz, perhaps America’s pre-eminent pollster, argues that his countrymen are much more downbeat now than in 1980. “The assumption with the Carter years was that it was a failure of the elites, not the system. We thought the people in charge screwed up. We didn’t blame ourselves.” Remarkably, many Americans think things will only get worse and the good times will never return.

Peter Mallory is "Reflecting on the strength or lack thereof of the Constitution on the 4th of July."

As we celebrate the Fourth of July, it gives us time to pause and consider the watering down of what is probably the finest political document of its kind ever written by man: the U.S. Constitution.

The people who wrote it are probably the smartest and most well informed group ever assembled for the purpose of forming a government.

Unfortunately, many Americans do not grasp the concepts that are embodied in the Constitution and have therefore little or no understanding of what is in the Constitution or why it was written the way it was.

Daniel Greenfield asks "What do we celebrate when we celebrate the Fourth of July?"

Is it the independence from being ruled by an out of touch government thousands of miles away, taxed at their pleasure, and told to be grateful for it?

Is it home rule under our own elected officials who can’t be trumped by the decision of some political appointees whom we never voted for?

A victory won by militias that don’t exist anymore, on behalf of freedoms that are constantly under assault from the nation’s own capital?

Michael Goodman is equally pessimistic, saying that we are "Forgetting Founders' tough love."

Yet all around us, traditional values of independence and hard work, based on modest expectations and personal humility, are being eroded. In the "culture of me," everybody is a star.

Should you dare protest, you are attacked as greedy. Insist that failure must have its consequences, and you are scolded for lacking compassion.

Never mind that you lived with the old values, that you sacrificed and worked and saved for what you have. Now you must pay and pay again for those who didn't. Oh, and shut up about it, too.

That is the fault line of America's culture war in 2011. Pray that the spirit and wisdom of the founders prevails. Otherwise, our nation won't.

I wish I could write something uplifting this Independence Day.

I cannot.

I wish I could say that all the pessimism reflected above is unwarranted.

It is not.

Abraham Lincoln, who was so very wrong about the Constitution and many other things was right about this: no nation can long exist half slave and half free. It must eventually become one or the other. It is more than a little ironic that Lincoln cynically used slavery to attack the Founders' conception of liberty and to vastly expand the power and reach of the Federal government, yet in the largest sense Lincoln was correct. A country is either dedicated to liberty or collectivism.

As it happens, today we are in fact two countries existing withing the same border. One people views the government as the source of everything good. The other views it, as the Founders did, as a bulwark of ordered liberty and opportunity -- BUT NOTHING MORE. We agree with Washington that government is a dangerous servant but an even more fearful master. The question is, will the federal government serve the people's interests or the people serve the government's interests?

We are, as people, far more philosophically divided now than ever before in our history. As a diligent student of history, I can tell you that societies so divided never have reconciled such deep divides without violence.

And, like 1860, we are just one dead Supreme Court justice, one stolen election, one Reichstag fire or even one failed Gunwalker Scandal investigation away from the irresistible slide to civil war.

The only thing I can do myself is to continue to strive to maintain what liberty is left -- and to regain lost liberties -- by peaceful means while preparing myself and others for doing so by other means.

And that's the only Independence Day declaration I have for you today.

Paul Helmke explains the strategic vision behind the Gunwalker Scandal.

Bye, bye, Paulie. It's been fun.

"Gun control not futile, departing Helmke insists."

The former three-term mayor of Fort Wayne has pressed for more-extensive background checks on gun buyers, banning the sale of assault weapons and ammo clips that hold more than 10 bullets, and limiting the number of firearms a person can buy at one time. He was critical of Starbucks for allowing customers to openly carry guns in the company’s California stores.

“Polls show the American people support the specific things I talk about,” Helmke said. “So it’s not an issue of trying to change the hearts and minds of the American people, it’s an issue of getting enough of them upset and pushing their elected officials and making their electeds realize this is something they should be dealing with.

Well, thank you, Paulie for explaining the strategic vision behind the Gunwalker Scandal. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

"Giant midget" arrested in New Jersey! No, not really, just a "semi-automatic machine gun."

Thanks to KABA for this: "Nearly a month since city police began a crime abatement program, the department has seized 16 weapons, including a semi-automatic machine gun, officials said."

Typical comment to the story: "Semi automatic machine gun. Sort of like a giant midget I guess. LOL!! Maybe it was in the same room as a unicorn because they both only exist in liberals no nothing about guns fantasyland."

Left-collectivist anti-FOX blog takes on Vince Cefalu.

Fast And Furious: The Latest Fox News Hunt For Eric Holder’s Scalp

"Grassley: Many 'Very High Up' in DoJ Knew of ATF Gun Sting."

From NewsMax

Local Gestapo spank.

Since some of you don't understand the reference:

RICK: Maybe. Well, it seems you are determined to keep Laszlo here.

RENAULT: I have my orders.

RICK: Oh, I see. Gestapo spank. (Renault stands up.)

RENAULT: My dear Ricky, you overestimate the influence of the Gestapo. I don't interfere with them and they don't interfere with me. In Casablanca I am master of my fate. I am captain of my -- (He stops short as his AIDE enters.)

AIDE: Major Strasser is here, sir. (Renault starts to leave.)

RICK: Yeah, you were saying?

RENAULT: (hurriedly) Excuse me.

(He hurries away. Rick smiles cynically.) -- Casablanca, 1942.

Leader of Pima County's GOP faces removal effort.

Fighting a losing multi-front bureaucratic war, Obama forces Holder to seek a truce with CIA. "About as willing as a rape victim." Gunwalker driven?

We should not make too much of this. The "Fifth Column," whoever they were, did not give us enough information to finish off the political career of Bill Clinton, or even to achieve justice for the Waco and Oklahoma City innocents. And every agency has its factions, divisions and bifurcations. But Obama has struck at the twin engines of the CIA's institutional life force -- operational secrecy and agent anonymity. They will not forgive him easily for it, and Obama's own narcissistic egomania will likely get in the way of any true mea culpa. And the corrupt Leon Panetta, of all people, is hardly competent enough to unfornicate this. -- Mike Vanderboegh, 5 May 2009, The CIA's Fight With Obama: An Inside Baseball Story Told in a Riverfront Stadium About To Be Wrecked By the Godzilla of Events.

So I wrote more than two years ago. Panetta proved to be a much better hand at achieving a modus vivendi with the institutional forces at CIA than I thought at the time, and he has become their greatest advocate within the Obama administration. All of which was viewed with surprise and chagrin by the more doctrinaire left-collectivists in the administration such as Eric Holder. "Holder," according to one of my retired intelligence "old hand" sources speaking a few months ago when this subject came up, "thought Panetta had been kidnapped and held in thrall by trolls. He couldn't believe it. Leon was sent over there to get the CIA 'under control' and ended up taking their side. Holder thought it was the 'Stockholm Syndrome' at work."

When I made the observation highlighted at the top, I was reacting to this column by Jack Kelly, "The CIA's Fight With Obama."

Has Barack Obama made an enemy who can sabotage his presidency?

The presidency of George W. Bush began to unravel when some in high positions at the Central Intelligence Agency began waging a covert campaign against him. . .

Why would some at the CIA want to sabotage President Bush? One motive might have been to deflect blame for intelligence failures. The CIA confidently had predicted Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. But none were found. The tactical intelligence the CIA provided to the U.S. military forces invading Iraq proved nearly worthless. And the CIA was caught flat-footed by the insurgency that developed several months after Saddam's fall.

There may have been a simpler motive. The novelist Charles McCarry was a deep cover CIA operative for ten years. "I never met a stupid person in the agency," he said in a 2004 interview. "Or an assassin. Or a Republican."

The CIA's war against President Bush was motivated by ass covering, or by political partisanship. But with President Obama, it's personal.

Eight days later, as I observed here commenting on this story, the Democrats in Senate were claiming the "CIA is out to get us."

Democrats charged Tuesday that the CIA has released documents about congressional briefings on harsh interrogation techniques in order to deflect attention and blame away from itself.

So Panetta worked out his modus vivendi with the Agency, and eventually the CIA provided the coup that Obama could claim as his own, the killing of Bin Laden. Holder, for his part, continued his war on the CIA bureaucracy, albeit at a lesser decibel level. But now, under extreme threat from the Gunwalker Scandal, Holder has been forced to declare a truce.

Holder curbs his CIA investigation

U.S. Army General David Petraeus was confirmed by the Senate as the new CIA director, and Attorney General Eric Holder sent him a Washington-style concession.

The concession was found in Holder’s statement, which indirectly said his lawyers were ending their investigation of CIA officials involved in 101 interrogations of suspected jihadis.

Holder’s statement provides “clear indication that CIA interrogators who adhered to the [administration’s] enhanced interrogation policy were innocent of any wrongdoing,” said Fran Townsend, President George W. Bush’s senior counter-terrorism adviser. Townsend is now a lawyer in private practice in New York. . .

The recommendation cited by Holder that urged further investigation came from Assistant United States Attorney John Durham of the District of Connecticut. “Mr. Durham has advised me of the results of his investigation, and I have accepted his recommendation to conduct a full criminal investigation regarding the death in custody of two individuals,” said Holder’s statement.

The next sentence revealed that Holder was ending his controversial investigations of CIA interrogators begun in 2009. “The Department has determined that an expanded criminal investigation of the remaining matters is not warranted,” said the statement.

“He buried the lede,” because Holder’s decision to end 101 interrogation-related investigations is far more important than his decision to continue two death-related inquiries, said Debra Burlingame, an activist who has campaigned against Holder’s investigation of the CIA interrogators. . .

Holder’s 2009 decision to investigate the CIA officials prompted sharp objections from many national-security experts. Former Vice-President Dick Cheney, for example, called the investigation an “outrage.” The investigation, critics said, would deter current investigation of seized jihadis, some of whom would know of planned attacks on soldiers and civilians. . .

The news was applauded at the CIA. “I welcome he news that the broader inquires are behind us,” outgoing CIA director Leon Panetta told the New York Times. “We are now finally about to close this chapter of our agency’s history.”

Panetta also pushed back against Holder’s decision to continue investigating the last two death-realted cases. “No decision has been made to bring criminal charges [and] both cases were previously reviewed by career federal prosecutors who subsequently declined prosecution,” he wrote in his June 30 letter to CIA employees.

But “the real reason they’re dropping [the 101 interrogation investigations is that President Barack] Obama practically wherever he goes, either stumping or commenting, gets his line in there ‘I killed bin Laden,’” said Burlingame. Obama “would look pretty small boasting about that while the criminal investigation of the [CIA] guys who made it possible as is still underway,” especially if the media asked Petraeus for a comment, said Burlingame, who pilot-brother was murdered on 9/11 by the jihadis.

Holder’s admission that “investigation… is not warranted” is a blow to left-wing and progressive legal groups, such as the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). The groups have argued for several years that officials working for President George W. Bush should be prosecuted for violating international laws barring interrogations deemed tough enough to be torture. “They wanted President Bush and Dick Cheney to go to jail, they wanted criminal prosecutions against the CIA… and now this going out with a whimper,” said Burlingame. The continued investigation into the two deaths, she said, “is a face-saving sop to the left.”

Burlingame is right, but this is not mostly about appearances of hypocrisy.

As one of my sources said when I asked why Holder was dropping his war on the CIA now, "Because he was ordered to by Obama. From what I hear, Holder was about as willing to do this as a rape victim." But, he added, "Holder's on the way out and everybody knows it. Your little scandal (Gunwalker) will take him down and Obama isn't interested in anything else at the moment but avoiding public responsibility for it and getting re-elected. . . There are people at CIA who know everything there is to know about (Gunwalker) and who the guilty operators are in the administration. Wouldn't you want to make those people happy if you were in his shoes?"

More Gunwalker Miscellany

Elijah Cummings gestures with one of his bloody hands. When he ran the Oversight committee he did nothing about ATF abuses.

Politico pimps the Democrats Gunwalker meme: 'Fast and Furious' inquiry broadens

Houston Chronicle: Dems use forum to push tighter gun laws. Lawmakers introduce new legislation and stricter penalties.

Watkins said that though she hadn't seen the discussion at the Democratic forum, the majority believes gun control issues simply aren't relevant to the investigation of Fast and Furious.

"We're really on two different planes here," she said.

From BlueRidgeNow: Did Justice create a false flag operation?

There may be some reason, other than false flag, that high-ranking officials in the Justice Department encouraged the transfer of legally purchased guns to Mexican drug lords, but I can’t think of one. If you can, let me know.

John Richardson on Fisking The Obfuscators.

The Obfuscators, otherwise known as the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, issued a report today entitled Outgunned which sought to shift the blame for Operation Fast and Furious from ATF to gun control laws. As I said yesterday, they are merely diversionary tactics to divert attention from the Obama appointees in the Department of Justice (and maybe DHS) who more than likely authorized this project in order to build support for more gun control in America.

It looks like CNN and the LA Times are buying into it which doesn't say much for the intelligence and integrity of much of mainstream journalism. CNN took much of what Rep. Elijah Cummings and the rest of Democrats at the "forum" said as gospel. . .

Just posted on Senator Grassley's website: Focusing on the Facts of the ATF’s Flawed Gun Strategy.

Link.

Focusing on the Facts of the ATF’s Flawed Gun Strategy

Since January, I’ve been hounding the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Department of Justice for answers about a deeply flawed policy that allowed guns to be sold to known straw purchasers and then transported across the border to Mexican drug cartels.

Until this week, my efforts to conduct my constitutional responsibility of oversight have been stonewalled by the Justice Department. Finally, the administration agreed to provide me the same access to documents and witnesses that are afforded to the Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Darrell Issa, and the Justice Department Inspector General.

In the meantime, in an effort to distract from the investigation Congressman Issa and I are conducting, the ATF released selective statistical data that inaccurately reflects the scope and source of the problem of firearms in Mexico and the drug trafficking organization violence. The implication made by the ATF and various press reports that 70 percent of the firearms found in Mexico come directly from U.S. manufacturers or U.S. Federal Firearms Licensees selling guns to drug trafficking organizations is incomplete and misleading. Not only does this paint a grossly inaccurate picture of the situation, but there’s also evidence that the U.S. State Department doesn’t believe it either.

I received additional documentation from an ATF database of firearms, and learned that the actual percentage of firearms found in Mexico and traced back to U.S. based federal firearms licensees in 2009 and 2010 was only 24 percent. It turns out the discrepancy lies in the fact that most of the firearms found in Mexico may actually have been sold between governments in direct military to military transactions or were exported directly from manufacturers approved by our government. In either case, U.S. gun dealers are the last people who should be blamed.

And, to make the release of the misleading numbers even more egregious, I obtained an unclassified U.S. State Department cable that dispels myths about the source of weapons trafficked to Mexico. The unclassified cable includes sections such as: “Myth: An Iron Highway of Weapons Flows from the U.S.” and “Myth: The DTOs (Drug Trafficking Organizations) are Mostly Responsible.”

When the ATF promotes this kind of misleading data, it distracts from the real questions of our investigation: Why was the ATF was involved in a policy to allow guns to fall into the hands of straw purchasers who were then transporting them to Mexican drug cartels and who approved this reckless strategy? Congressman Issa and I are committed to getting to the bottom of this irresponsible decision, regardless of agency attempts to manipulate the truth.

July 1, 2011

Nice "Only Ones" story.

Cops Just Love Those Tasers.

A growing cultural appreciation of Obama. "What the heck happened to Walter ?"

ap·pre·ci·a·tion, noun

1. gratitude; thankful recognition: They showed their appreciation by giving him a gold watch.

2. the act of estimating the qualities of things and giving them their proper value.

3. clear perception or recognition, especially of aesthetic quality: a course in art appreciation.

Senator Marco Rubio described Obama's performance at the press conference the other day: “It was rhetoric, I thought, that was more appropriate for some left-wing strong man than for the president of the United States.”

Right behind the email advising me of that story, I received another one from a DC friend, this one a joke making the rounds:

Obama goes to a primary school to talk to the kids to get a little PR. After his talk he offers question time. One little boy puts up his hand and Obama asks him his name.

" Walter," responds the little boy.

"And what is your question, Walter?"

"I have 4 questions:

First, why did the USA Bomb Libya without the support of the Congress? Second, why do you keep saying you fixed the economy when it's actually worse? Third, why did you say that Jeremiah Wright was your mentor, then said that you knew nothing about his preachings and beliefs? Fourth, why are we so worried about Brazil drilling for oil, but we aren't allowed to?"

Just then, the bell rings for recess. Obama informs the kiddies that they will continue after recess.

When they resume Obama says, "OK, where were we? Oh, that's right: question time. Who has a question?"

Another little boy puts up his hand. Obama points him out and asks him his name.

"Steve," he responds.

"And what is your question, Steve?"

Actually, I have 6 questions.

First, why did the USA Bomb Libya without the support of the Congress? Second, why do you keep saying you fixed the economy when it's actually worse? Third, why did you say that Jeremiah Wright was your mentor, then said that you knew nothing about his preachings and beliefs? Fourth, why are we so worried about Brazil drilling for oil, but we aren't allowed to? Fifth, why did the recess bell go off 20 minutes early? And sixth, what the heck happened to Walter ?"

Tarheels change their militia law.

Thanks to Irregular Chuck for the link.

Gunwalker Scandal Miscellany

John Hayward at Human Events writes on "The Gun Walker Pushback: The scandal which can no longer be ignored."

The New York Times, having successfully largely ignored the Gunwalker Scandal for so long, is happy to write about it now that Bloody Hands Cummings has given them a gun control meme to parrot: "House Panel Members Joust Over Border Gun Program"

Along the same lines in the LA Times: "Democrats seek crackdown on gun trafficking."

Glenn Beck's The Blaze, conspicuous by their absence throughout the early to middle months of the Gunwalker Scandal, notices the ouster of Vince Cefalu: Tossed for the Truth? ATF Fires ‘Project Gunrunner’ Whistleblower.

"Weapons linked to controversial ATF strategy found in Valley crimes." Local Gunwalker investigative reporting at its best from ABC15 in Arizona.

Link.

David's take here.

The "Leave Me Alones" vs. the "Make It Betters."

From Sultan Knish.

The two streams in American politics are not liberal vs conservative, they can be roughly defined as "Leave Me Alone" vs "Make It Better". Leave Me Alone seeks personal independence, self-reliance and freedom from interference. Make It Better believes in the progressive betterment of society through regulation, intervention and education.

Praxis: "Nerf" Guerrilla Warfare

Interesting.