Yesterday many progressives, myself included, noted that Darrell Issa’s witch hunt against Eric Holder and the Obama Administration stems from an absurd conspiracy theory that Obama did this to take away their guns. Needless to say, there was a scramble on the right to deny that Issa and other Republican leaders buy into this. However, they have touted the conspiracy theory on the Republican Ministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise.
Rep. Darrell Issa, Republican chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, spoke at the NRA’s mid-April national convention in St. Louis and appeared on NRA News’ Cam & Company to discuss Fast and Furious. News coverage of the convention focused on the extreme rhetoric of NRA board member Ted Nugent, but Issa made some rather explosive comments of his own.
Fast and Furious was launched under the Bush administration, and continued by the Obama administration, to investigate and undermine the smuggling of guns from the US to Mexico by drug cartels. However, the government lost track of many of the guns sold through the program, and some were connected to the murders of Mexican citizens and a US federal agent. Issa thinks he knows why.
Issa, speaking to the NRA faithful, advanced the baseless and reckless conspiracy theory that the Obama administration intentionally lost track of guns sold through the program in order to boost gun violence and clear the way for an assault weapons ban. Issa posed this as a rhetorical question and then answered it:
They’ve never answered the question, "What were they thinking of?" Could it be that what they really were thinking of was in fact to use this walking of guns in order to promote an assault weapons ban. Many think so. And they haven’t come up with an explanation that would cause any of us not to agree.
Later in the interview, Issa suggested that the Obama administration let people die in order to promote gun control and then described Fast and Furious explicitly as part of a larger assault on the Second Amendment… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Right Wing Watch>
Here’s the video.
Here are even more Republicans from Rachel Maddow.
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There is no denying that they support the conspiracy theory, when we can see an hear them doing just that. What better proof could anyone want?
Republicans clearly love hooking their sheeple on carefully crafted delusions, the more absurd the better. Here we go again.
9 Responses to “More Fast and Furious Proof”
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If Issa and his bunch are really this dim, somebody should take their guns away. Before they hurt themselves.
Excellent point, old friend.
Issa and his ilk should be declared dangerous offenders — offenders of good sense!
Issa is doing nothing but creating issues of no consequence to mark time and take away from getting the people's work done. The Republican/Teabaggers are a conspiracy theory!
Amen!
I was having video and computer issues so my 1 st comments were incomplete.
Fast and Furious originated in the Bush administration and was shut down by the Obama administration.
But the Fast and Furious conspiracy theory, something totally different, originated with Vanderboegh, the militia blogger from Alabama who incited people to attack Democrats and their offices.
Limbaugh — "… Fast and Furious was to create mayhem … deceitful, sneaky, it was going against the American people, it was liberalism on parade … " etc etc ad nauseum. — caveat emptor!
In Canada, we have a law that stops untruthful news reporting which is why Fox News has not been allowed in. I think that the US really needs this type of law, but good luck getting it! It wouldn't surprise me if Canada bans news shows from the US no matter what the network if other networks are going to allow themselves to be bated and used as pawns by Faux Noise.
All this is such bear scat — confuse the American low-effort thinkers so that they are nothing more than robots doing the business of their masters, the 1% and corporations and their political whores,the Republican/Teabaggers.
Two big goals for the US — 1) get the money out of politics; and 2) by law, require all news to be truthful.
You're either woefully misinformed, willfully prevaricating or willfully ignorant. Fast and Furious was strictly an Obama administration operation which did NOT track shipments but simply allowed the weapons to "walk" across the border.. The Bush administration launched an operation called Operation Wide Receiver in 2006 and ended it in 2007, well before he left office. Unlike Operation Fast and Furious, Operation Wide Receiver did NOT allow any weapons to walk across the border. Let enlighten you with the differences between Operation Fast and Furious and Operation Wide Receiver.
Wide Receiver – The number of guns used in the operation from the beginning until the end of the operation was 300.
Fast & Furious – The number of guns used in the operation from the beginning until the end of the operation was 2,000.
Wide Receiver – Guns were traced with miniature GPS devices inserted inside the guns.
Fast & Furious – No tracking devices were used.
Wide Receiver – ATF agents were ordered to follow the gun smugglers from the gun store to the US/Mexico border.
Fast & Furious – ATF agents were ordered to stand down and not follow the gun smugglers after they left the gun store.
Wide Receiver – Mexican army and police was in the loop about Wide Receiver. They took over the surveillance of the gun smugglers after they crossed with the guns in Mexico.
Fast & Furious – Mexican authorities were kept in the dark by the ATF and the US DOJ. They had no idea about Fast & Furious and the fact that guns provided to gun smugglers by the American authorities were "walked" in Mexico into the hands of drug cartel murderers.
Wide Receiver – When a small number of guns (30-40) were lost due to the malfunctioning GPS tracking devices operation Wide Receiver was immediately aborted and cancelled.
Fast and Furious – Operation continued even after ATF and DOJ lost track of all 2,000 guns sold to Mexican drug cartels.
I was not a fan of the Bush administration but to attempt to let the Obama administration off the hook by attempting to pin the blame on Bush with either lies or from ignorance is reprehensible. Bush is long gone. It's about time the present administration stopped using the blame shift tactics of a 12 year old to weasel out of what it is responsible for.
William, first read the rules page here. We treat each other with respect, and your implication that Lynn was being intentionally dishonest falls far short of that standard. We welcome differing views, but not uncivil behavior. This is your only warning.
Second Lynn was quoting an article I used as a source. I intended to correct the error in that source, but forgot to do so. In an earlier article, I had differentiated the two. She is blameless in this.
Third, both Linebacker and F&F were planned and carried out locally. There are ATF people ready to testify that Holder and DOJ, DC were not informed prior to the news story that brought it to Holder's attention, when he shut it down. Issa refused to allow them to testify.
Thanks William for clarifying these details.
I am a Canuck and as such, certain US news stories do not get the same detail up here. Additionally, back when this was going on, I didn't give a rat's ass about US goings on as I was in the midst of a year from hell — death of father, death of step father, death of step brother, death of my little 'partner' and my mother being diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
I work hard to understand American politics as it also casts shadows on Canadian politics, and I think if you would take the time to listen, you'd find I'm a reasonably fast learner — I'm just slow on the jigsaw puzzles. I am not woefully misinformed, willfully prevaricating or willfully ignorant — I leave that to the politicians, particularly the Republican/Teabaggers.
Thanks again.
Lynn, the Right Wing Watch article stating that F&F started in the Bush administration was incorrect. Linebacker, the original gun walking sting, was started under Bush., I should have corrected their error in the article.