Consider, an assault weapons ban that had been in effect for
10 years expired in 2004, with no attempt on the part of President Bush or
congress to renew it. One can imagine
that the gun manufacturers were ready to rush into production, that dealers had
orders already placed, and that NRA/GOA were ready with model legislation to
encourage their sale and distribution.
It was not surprising to hear over the next few years reports of AK47’s
being smuggled into Mexico from the USA, in opposite flow to drugs being
smuggled from Mexico into the USA. Irrespective of any operations in which
FBI/ATF may have been involved, as has been recently divulged.
NRA would have encouraged this smuggling, they made money
off of it, it is not inconceivable that they might have encouraged border
patrol to look the other way as the trucks rumbled through.
Now as to the role that FBI/ATF allegedly played in running
guns in a kind of convoluted sting operation, which if true is the most
abominably ridiculous of any operation the FBI/ATF has ever run, to what extent
might NRA have played a part in that? We
know that NRA writes legislation to be presented in their favor, particularly
at state level, such as the stand-your-ground laws, concealed weapon and open
carry laws, allowing guns in public places, parks, bars, or whatever they were
able to ram through a given legislature.
And even a law at the federal level to force states that did not allow
concealed weapons to allow people with such permits from other states to carry
in their states. So much for states’
rights. Is it then inconceivable that
NRA might have designed the FBI/ATF operation, which has apparently gone
through several incarnations beginning in the Bush administration?
Now we are engaged in a great public farce, in which Rep Darrel
Issa is conducting an investigation into “Fast and Furious,” but refuses to
call ATF agents or FBI agents to question, or to listen to Democrats, or allow
Democrats to do any of the questioning.
Attorney General Eric Holder has appeared at least nine times, to be
insulted, accused of lying, and now threatened with contempt proceedings for
not turning over all the documents Rep Issa has demanded, some of which it
would be illegal to turn over, such as, documents on grand jury hearings and on
wiretaps. The president is accused of “covering
up” because he cites executive privilege to support withholding of the
documents. Both
Holder and Obama have said they knew nothing about the operation until it was
exposed, and Holder closed it down as soon as he heard about it. And now Republicans, including Issa, are
echoing right-wing loud mouths and NRA, are claiming that the whole operation
was a cockamamie scheme on the part of the Obama administration to take your
guns away. How prescient of President
Bush to set this up in advance for President Obama. But Democrats are claiming that the investigation
is a witch-hunt, a cockamamie scheme to
get rid of Holder because of his blocking of some voter-suppression laws.
And then here is the NRA, flexing its muscles and showing
who is really in charge, by warning Representatives that the vote for contempt
is being scored and will affect financial support that the congresspeople get
in their hometown elections. And targeted
Democrats are sitting up and taking notice and signaling that they may indeed vote
for contempt. Ah,
yes, our principled legislators.
But hark, what is this I hear on the Martin Bashir program
this evening? The whole “Fast and
Furious” operation may all be a chimera?
Wha—a—at? Didn’t see that coming,
as Cenk would say.
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