Eric Gay / Associated Press / August 13, 2009

By Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau

June 24, 2011
Reporting from Washington—

The acting director of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is strongly resisting pressure to step down because of growing controversy over the agency's surveillance program that allowed U.S. guns to flow unchecked into Mexico, according to several federal sources in Washington.

Kenneth E. Melson, who has run the bureau for two years, is reportedly eager to testify to Congress about the extent of his and other officials' involvement in the operation, code-named Fast and Furious.

Melson does not want to be "the fall guy" for the program, under which ATF agents allowed straw purchasers to acquire more than 1,700 AK-47s and other high-powered rifles from Arizona gun dealers, the sources said. The idea was to track the guns to drug cartel leaders. But that goal proved elusive, and the guns turned up at shootings in Mexico, as well as at the slaying in Arizona of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in December.

How long before this guy has an "accident"?

Hypocricy They Name Is U.S.

RT America TV anchor detained over dancing at Jefferson Memorial.
If you don't know, RT is Russia Television.

An anchor of satellite TV channel RT America's political show Adam VS The Man, Adam Kokesh was arrested on Saturday during the silent dancing flashmob at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, RT said in a statement on Sunday.

Kokesh, along with the other participants, was arrested after he had started silently dancing at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial protesting the U.S. District court's decision that imposes a ban on dancing within the memorial.

The Final Nail In The Coffin!

Ron Paul-The only one that really gets it.

Hail Mr. Transparent

OK so I'm beating a dead horse-Barack Obama promised to have the most open and transparent administration of all time.  Perhaps we should call Mister Obama, Mr. Orwell.  It's seems that almost everything uttered out of the man is Newspeak.  Totally opposite of what he promises.

If he is not banning the Boston Herald reporter from the fundraiser in Boston he is locking reporters in closets.
President Obama also has a penchant for punishing whistleblowers.
One case is that of former NSA senior director Thomas Drake.
The Justice Department’s indictment narrows the frame around Drake’s actions, focussing almost exclusively on his handling of what it claims are five classified documents. But Drake sees his story as a larger tale of political reprisal, one that he fears the government will never allow him to air fully in court. “I’m a target,” he said. “I’ve got a bull’s-eye on my back.” He continued, “I did not tell secrets. I am facing prison for having raised an alarm, period. I went to a reporter with a few key things: fraud, waste, and abuse, and the fact that there were legal alternatives to the Bush Administration’s ‘dark side’ ”—in particular, warrantless domestic spying by the N.S.A.
The indictment portrays him not as a hero but as a treacherous man who violated “the government trust.” Drake said of the prosecutors, “They can say what they want. But the F.B.I. can find something on anyone.”

When President Barack Obama took office, in 2009, he championed the cause of government transparency, and spoke admiringly of whistle-blowers, whom he described as “often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government.” But the Obama Administration has pursued leak prosecutions with a surprising relentlessness. Including the Drake case, it has been using the Espionage Act to press criminal charges in five alleged instances of national-security leaks—more such prosecutions than have occurred in all previous Administrations combined. The Drake case is one of two that Obama’s Justice Department has carried over from the Bush years.
Gabriel Schoenfeld, a conservative political scientist at the Hudson Institute, who, in his book “Necessary Secrets” (2010), argues for more stringent protection of classified information, says, “Ironically, Obama has presided over the most draconian crackdown on leaks in our history—even more so than Nixon.”

Corruption

From ARS Technica.

Remember when our Liar in Chief promised that the Obama government would not be a revolving door for lobbiests?  I do.
Here is the latest-
Meredith Attwell Baker, one of the two Republican Commissioners at the Federal Communications Commission, plans to step down—and right into a top lobbying job at Comcast-NBC.

The news, reported this afternoon by the Wall Street Journal, The Hill, and Politico, comes after the hugely controversial merger of Comcast and NBC earlier this year. At the time, Baker objected to FCC attempts to impose conditions on the deal and argued that the "complex and significant transaction" could "bring exciting benefits to consumers that outweigh potential harms."

Four months after approving the massive transaction, Attwell Baker will take a top DC lobbying job for the new Comcast-NBC entity, according to reports.

War On Drugs-winning-dah.

From Bloomberg.com.

Why can't we win the war on drugs?
Answer-because we can't afford to.  From Afganistan to Columbia to Mexico to the U.S. the government-bankster consortium is up to their noses (pun intended) in the action.
Wachovia Corp., Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. admit that for years they have been laundering drug money from narcotics traffickers.  Wachovia admitting handling almost 4 billion dollars in drug money from 2004-2007 which is equal to 1/3 of Mexico's current gross domestic product.  These banks aren't the only ones involved in this, American Express, Western Union and others were also involved.

I Was For It Before I Was Against It.

Senator Biden was pretty specific when he warned then president Bush that he had better not invade Iran without first getting the Congress to declare war on them. He even trotted out the Constitution as the basis for this opinion.

Apparently Vice President Biden believes the Constitution only applies to Republican presidents.

I don't hear him objecting to Obama's authorization to drop bombs and fire hundreds of missiles into Libya.

If we can't impeach Obama for this userption then what will it take?

The New Ministry Of Truth.

It appears that the "Ministry of Truth", the ABC television network, has solidified it's inside position by appointing Jay Carney, the husband of ABC News reporter Claire Shipman, to the new White House Press secretary.  This is on the heals of ABC News announcing that they have picked Ben Sherwood as its news division president.   Sherwood's older sister, Dr. Elizabeth Sherwood Randall, is a special assistant to President Barack Obama and senior director of European Affairs on the National Security Council.

Could You Be Any More Evasive???

Keep in mind that this is the Inspector General of the Federal Reserve. This is the extent in which our money is being managed.

Too Little, Too Late.

Texas Governor Rick Perry has had it with President Obama robbing states of their rights. He is informing the Obama clique to quit their despotic measures or else Texas will slice through DC’s power clutch.
He stated: “’I believe that our federal government has become oppressive in its size, its intrusion into the lives of our citizens, and its interference with the affairs of our state."
“’I believe that returning to the letter and spirit of the U.S. Constitution and its essential 10th Amendment will free our state from undue regulations, and ultimately strengthen our Union.

“’Millions of Texans are tired of Washington, DC trying to come down here to tell us how to run Texas.’”

This is all well and good but where was Governor Perry when George Bush was doing exactly the same thing with his hundreds of signing statements and establishing precedent for Obama to use these extra constitutional power grabs?

Team Obama

Yes you are known by the company you keep.
President Obama seems to have an unprecedented problem filling his cabinet. It appears that his circle of "Family and Friends" is populated with people that don't pay their taxes or have other legal issues. The following is a list of some of the "hope and change" nominees that didn't make the cut, and a couple who were actually confirmed:
Tom Daschle-Health and Human Services Services, admitting that he failed to lpay more than $100,000 in taxes on a car and driver.

Nancy Killefer- withdrew because of a lien against her home for failure to pay unemployment tax for household help.

Hilda Solis-Labor Secretary, confirmed on Febuary 11 even though her husband had liens on his business going back 16 years.

Tim Geithner- confirmed on Febuary 24 for Treasury Secretary, failed to pay $34,000 in self-employment taxes.

Susan Tierney, Deputy Sec. of Energy, dropped out on March 3, without citing a reason.

Jane Garvey, Dep. Sec. of Transportation, dropped out on March 3, reportedly for financial reasons.

Former Dallas Democratic Mayor Ron Kirk, nominated for Trade Representative, failed to pay $10,000 in back taxes for speaking fees over three years.

Annette Nazareth, Caroline Atkinson and Dr. Sanjay Gupta, withdrew for personal reasons.

Move along, nothing to see here.

What's In It For Me-Al Franken?

Why does it seem that most of the people that want to run our lives don't seem to be able to handle their own affairs worth a damn. From the crooked Obama nominees to Portland's new mayor, they somehow think that laws and rules are for the common sheeple.
Not funny, funnyman Al Franken has just admitted that he owes over $50,000 in back taxes and penalties. He also was hit with a $25,000 penalty for failing to carry worker's comp insurance for his employees in New York. He blames the shortage on his accountant. This is just slightly more plausible than Tom Daschle's Turbo Tax excuse.
Franken is also demanding that the Minnesota Supreme Court direct the Governor and the Sec. of State issue an election certificate declaring him the winner of the senate election even though under current Minnesota law, a winner cannot be certified until all legal avenues of appeal have been exhausted. Pretty brazen for cheating tax scofflaw.

Four presidential candidates make Top-Ten

Judicial Watch has just announced it's ten most corrupt politians. It's worth a read because four of the presidential candidates make this list.

1. Senator Hillary Clinton: Blocked the release of her white house records. Allegations of filing false financial disclosure forms with the U.S. Senate (again)(See previous post-Hillary Uncensored). Her top campaign contributor, Norman Hsu was exposed as a felon and a fugitive from justice in 2007.

2. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani: his office "billed obscure city agencies for tens of thousands of dollars in security expenses for his affair with Judith Nathan. His former Police Cief and business partner Bernard Kerik pleaded guilty in 2006 to accepting a $165,000 bribe in the from of renovations to his apartment.

3. Governor Mike Huckabee: According to the AP his career has been colored by 14 ethics complaints and a volley of questions about his integrity. Rather than cooperate with investigators, Huckabee sued the state ethics commission twice and attempted to shut the process down.

4. Senator Barack Obama: He was given a "Dishonorable Mention" last year and managed to move up in the ranking in 2007. In 2006 it was discovered that he was involved in a suspicious real estate deal with an indicted political fundraiser. It was reported that just two months after he joined the senate, he purchased $50,000 worth of stock in speculative companies whose major investors were his biggest campaign contributors. He was also nabbed conducting campaign business in his Senate office, a violation of federal law.

Please don't elect another criminal, vote Ron Paul.