9/28/2011 @ 10:56AM |173,270 views 
"Fast And Furious" Just Might Be President Obama's Watergate
Put the state of modern journalism aside, this scandal is so inflammatory few realize that official records show the current director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), B. Todd Jones — yes the individual the Obama administration brought in to replace ATF Director Kenneth Melson Aug. 30 in an effort to deflect congressional criticism — also has questions to answer about his involvement in this gunrunning scandal.
Fast and Furious was an operation so cloak-and-dagger Mexican authorities weren’t even notified that thousands of semi-automatic firearms were being sold to people in Arizona thought to have links to Mexican drug cartels. According to ATF whistleblowers, in 2009 the U.S. government began instructing gun storeowners to break the law by selling firearms to suspected criminals. ATF agents then, again according to testimony by ATF agents turned whistleblowers, were ordered not to intercept the smugglers but rather to let the guns “walk” across the U.S.-Mexican border and into the hands of Mexican drug-trafficking organizations.
When the Gunrunning Program Began
A Jan. 8, 2010 briefing paper from the ATF Phoenix Field Division Group VII says: “This investigation has currently identified more than 20 individual connected straw purchasers…. To date (September 2009-present) this group has purchased in excess of 650 firearms (mainly AK-47 variants) for which they have paid cash totaling more than $350,000.”
This is an important fact because the U.S. Justice Department hasn’t made it clear to tell congressional investigators when the Fast and Furious operation began and who authorized it; as a result, this ATF briefing paper’s mention of September 2009 is thus far the earliest we can trace the operation.
The next important event we know of occurred in October 2009 when the ATF’s Phoenix Field Division established a gun-trafficking group called “Group VII.” Group VII began using the strategy of allowing suspects to walk away with illegally purchased guns, according to a report from the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the staff of Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. The report says, “The purpose was to wait and watch, in hope that law enforcement could identify other members of a trafficking network and build a large, complex conspiracy case…. Group VII initially began using the new gunwalking tactics in one of its investigations to further the Department’s strategy. The case was soon renamed ‘Operation Fast and Furious.’”
This report and later official explanations from the ATF say the Fast and Furious program was created to deal with the problem that arresting low-level suspects doesn’t necessarily help ATF agents get to the heads of Mexican cartels.
On Oct. 26, 2009, a month or so after Fast and Furious seems to have been initiated, a document shows that a teleconference was held between 13 officials. One of the issues discussed was the possible “adoption of the Department’s strategy for Combating Mexican Drug Cartels.” The officials listed to have been in on the call included Kenneth Melson, who was then the director of the ATF, Robert Mueller, the director of the FBI and a number of attorneys with the U.S. Department of Justice. B. Todd Jones, the current director of the ATF, was not listed in the document, but the title he held in September 2009 is listed as being in on the conference call. It doesn’t take much reporting to find out that in September 2009 Jones was the chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (AGAC) and so was at least supposed to be in on the conference call. (When asked about the teleconference, an ATF spokeswoman told us “we don’t discuss active investigations.”)
Rep. Issa says Fast and Furious subpoenas will be issued soon
October 09, 2011|By the CNN Wire Staff 
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa says subpoenas may be issued this week.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa said Sunday that he could issue subpoenas to the Justice Department this week in connection to a now-discredited federal gunrunning operation.
Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," Issa said that he wants a better understanding of who knew what, when about Operation Fast and Furious.
"But more importantly, we have to understand at what level did the authorization really come?" he said.
"People at the top of (the) Justice (Department) were well briefed, knew about it and seemed to be the command and control and funding for this program."
September jobs report: Hiring gains momentum
"It's hard to get too excited even about the positive news," said Tig Gilliam, president of the North American unit of job placement firm Adecco. "In the long-term we're still treading water. No one is hiring unless they absolutely have to." While Businesses added a respectable 137,000 jobs, that number was bolstered by 45,000 Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500) strikers who returned to work last month. And that hiring was slightly offset by a loss of 34,000 public jobs, mostly at the local government level. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 9.1%, in line with economists' forecasts. Economists expect relatively modest hiring and no change in unemployment for the rest of this year, according to a CNNMoney survey, and only a slight pickup next year, bringing unemployment down to 8.6% by the end of 2012.
"This is a positive report, but employers are definitely still cautious in general," said Scott Melland, CEO of Dice Holdings, a leading provider of specialized career web sites. "This is definitely not the recovery everyone hoped it would be."
Governor Gary Johnson:
My Neighbor’s Dogs Have Created More Shovel-Ready Jobs Than Barack Obama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sPYOvOcBgOg
AND of COURSE: “OBAMACARE”
PLEASE VOTE REPUBLICAN
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
The Candidates
Michele BachmannBachmann is a three-term congresswoman and founder of the House Tea Party Caucus. She is a former attorney known for fiery attacks on President Obama and her formidable fundraising 
Herman CainCain is the former chief executive of Godfather's Pizza and former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. He lost the Georgia Republican primary for a U.S. Senate seat in 2004. He was recently the host of Atlanta-based radio show 
Newt GingrichGingrich served nearly four years as Speaker of the House after leading the 1994 Republican Revolution. He was first elected to Congress in 1978 and served through 1998. He has authored more than a dozen books 
Jon HuntsmanHuntsman is a former U.S. ambassador to China and a former two-term governor of Utah. His father is billionaire businessman and philanthropist Jon Huntsman Sr. 
Ron PaulPaul is serving his 11th full term in the U.S. House. He’s an obstetrician-gynecologist and was the Libertarian nominee for president in 1988. He unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for president in 2008 
Gary JohnsonJohnson served as governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2002. He founded what would become one of the largest construction companies in New Mexico. He has competed in several triathlons and climbed Mount Everest 
Mitt RomneyRomney is the former governor of Massachusetts. He was the head of a private equity firm and is credited with rescuing the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. He unsuccessfully ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 
Rick SantorumSantorum served two terms in the U.S. House and two terms in the U.S. Senate. He became the Senate's third-ranking Republican in 2001. He was defeated for reelection in 2006 
Rick PerryJames Richard 'Rick' Perry is the 47th and current Governor of Texas
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