Off-Topic

Looks like this has been going on for a while...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ATF_BUSH_ERA_PROBE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

AP sources: Bush-era probe involved guns 'walking'

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The federal government under the Bush administration ran an operation that allowed hundreds of guns to be transferred to suspected arms traffickers - the same tactic that congressional Republicans have criticized President Barack Obama's administration for using, two federal law enforcement officials said Tuesday.

QUIT BRINGING UP BUSH, PAUL! HE ISN'T PRESIDENT ANYMORE!

Eric Holder is cooked... He will be the fall guy.

None of the possible GOP candidates have any real ties to the Bush administration, so I don't think "blame Bush" or "Bush did it too" will be as effective a counter attack as it was against McCain, since he had worked closely with Bush on alot of legislation. I think Holder goes down for this and it will definitely be picked up by the GOP candidate in 2012.

You mean besides the whole deliberately allowing illegal guns confiscated from criminals to be trafficked to mexico under the ATF's nose? That's probably enough.

edit.. oh yeah, and those illegal guns were traced to the deaths of two American's.. nice work there Holder. I wonder if Obama approved Fast and Furious?

Holder doesn't have the brains or even the ambition to put something like F&F together... However, #1 he should have known about it, and #2 it was illegal. He found out about it, and tried to cover it up. He'll take the fall and get pardoned by Obama, and wind up with cushy job with a team O crony... maybe chief of police in Chicago?

The original program was an ATF program "Project Gunrunner" which started out as a pilot program in Laredo in 2005, and went national in 2006. The intention was to stop the sale and export of guns from the United States into Mexico in order to deny Mexican drug cartels the firearms it needed to overwhelm local enforcement.

However, since September 2009 under Project Gunrunner, Operation "Fast and Furious", did the opposite by the ATF permitting, encouraging and facilitating 'straw purchase' firearm sales to traffickers, and allowing the guns to 'walk' and be transported to Mexico.

Who's idea was this? Did congress vote on it?

Part of the charges of cover-up are about how the border agent was killed with one of the guns. There are ATF agents on tape talking about it (read this weeks ago, so I don't have a link).

Oh and don't get me wrong, if it happened under Bush it's just as wrong. Trying to track down arms traffickers by giving them guns to see where they go is an asinine idea. Those guns are eventually used, and our government has no business getting into that. And now that a border agent is dead by one of them, I hope the whole idea of this is squashed forever.

Did both operations allow for straw purchasers to buy guns under ATF/DOJ surveillance? Yes, however, the key difference between Operation Fast and Furious under Obama and Project Gunrunner under Bush is that under Obama guns were allowed to go back into Mexico without interdiction or arrests. According to Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Darrell Issa, straw purchaser arrests and prosecutions have been way down under this administration, so much so it's almost as if the Obama Justice Department has no interest in prosecuting illegal straw purchasers at all. (A straw purchaser is someone who buys guns illegally for those who cannot buy them. In this case, cartels members can't buy guns, so they hired "straw purchasers" to buy weapons for them)

Although "Operation Wide Receiver" does need more looking into, for the Associated Press to try and turn the pressure away from President Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder, who may soon be facing perjury charges, onto the Bush Administration is both predictable and non-factual. The "same tactics" under heavy criticism were not used under Bush.

Dept. of Labor IG recommends shutdown of green jobs training program.

***

A $500 million green jobs program at the Department of Labor has so far provided only 15 percent of current participants with jobs, leading the agency’s inspector general to recommend that the bulk of the money be returned to the Treasury.

The program, which was funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, aims to find employment for almost 80,000 people by providing grants for labor exchange and job training projects. With those grants expiring over the next 15 months, IG officials concluded that the program would fail to come close to that target.

Holder is subpoenaed

Oh my god, here's likely a NEW scandal for the Obama administration - hiding governmental business from the public and inquiring media.

Jeff, we really need an entire board for Obama administration wrongdoing.