The Founding Father's Real Reason for the Second Amendment
And remember the words of Thomas Jefferson "The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." See Video of Suzanna Gratia-Hupp’s Congressional Testimony: What the Second Amendment is REALLY For, below (u-tube HERE).
The Leaders Are Here... Palin, Cruz, Lee, Paul, Chaffetz....
T'S A WONDERFUL LIFE
Can You Really Still Believe That None of These People Would Have Done a Better Job???
Joshua Pundit: Here's a smoking gun for you. Attorney General Holder is speaking to Democrat Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia of the oversight committee about the AP scandal...and at 5:00 Holder says clearly, under oath that he never had anything to do with signing off on spying on the press:
"In regard to potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material. This is not something I’ve ever been involved in, heard of, or would think would be wise policy."
And who was the DOJ attorney who filed in district court to keep the illegal surveillance ongoing and secret for years even though they hadn't found anything? That would be U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen - the same attorney who was charged with deciding whether to pursue the House’s contempt citation against his boss, Eric Holder, over Fast and Furious. And - what a coincidence - he just happens to be leading the FBI investigation into the leak that involved the DOJ subpoenaing AP reporters’ phone records.
And who appointed him to that position? None other than James Cole, Holder's deputy, who took over after Holder recused himself.
Even more disgusting, President Obama acted socked, just shocked about all this and proclaimed yesterday in that faux sincere baritone of his that he had ordered the Attorney General to review the DOJ’s guidelines for spying on reporters.
In other words, Eric Holder will be in charge of investigating what Eric Holder did. And in the areas where he recused himself , he has a couple of loyal, dependable soldiers to take care of things.
Yet the fact remains that Holder committing perjury and likely obstruction of justice, and that particular cat is now out of the bag.
Remember when the entire nation was looking for John Doe #2—the suspect that was allegedly with Timothy McVeigh when he rented the Ryder truck used in the Oklahoma City Bombing? But then the FBI deemed John Doe #2 to be a mass hallucination despite dozens of witnesses seeing him (and despite a man being beaten to death for looking like him.)
Well, now we have a mirror image of this case with the Colorado massacre—that is, the complete reverse situation now exists.
There are witnesses who state unequivocally that James Holmes had an accomplice, and both the local Aurora police and feds are ignoring this information. In fact, this now has been confirmed in a search and review of the police dispatch audio in which the police radio traffic state clearly that they believe there may be a second shooter which caused them to surround the adjacent Aurora Town Mall, believing the second suspect had fled the scene. They set up a perimeter and begin the process of an extensive search of each entrance and each internal area, but come up empty.
Alex Jones of InfoWars has discovered a little-known Fox News-affiliate program called “Reality Check” that actually did some real reporting in the Colorado massacre. They interviewed witnesses that stated, without a doubt, that Holmes had an accomplice.
Why this possible second shooter was not discussed in the next day's police press conference, even though it was mentioned by some reporters directly after the shooting, is an anomaly. It is reminiscent of the Oklahoma City bombing, in which for weeks we were told that there was a John Doe #2 who was with Timothy McVeigh when he rented the Budget truck used in the bombing. This was based on literally dozens of witnesses; yet suddenly, the government stated that all of these witnesses were suffering from a mass hallucination.
Was the suspect “James Holmes” transferred to jail and a patsy—someone suffering from mental problems and pumped full of drugs—put forward to take a fall for the real shooter?
Then there is the question of why James Holmes, in police custody, was not divested of any of his tactical gear—specifically the tactical helmet and gas mask—which completely obscured his face. Plus again the question is asked why the college ID photo of James Holmes released the day after the massacre does not match the James Holmes mug shot or the court photos and videos. It is clear that the individuals pictured are different people.
Of course, the question now is: why are the feds and mainstream media burying it?
Of course, the throngs of Lefties calling for more gun control (including our own Community-Organizer-in-Chief Barack Obama) before the victims were even in the ground caused some to wonder if the massacre was allowed to occur—or perhaps even orchestrated—by our own government.
Citing an alleged increase in the use of improvised explosive devices on U.S. soil, including last month’s Colorado massacre, the federal government and members of Congress are pushing for Posse Comitatus to be curtailed and for the U.S. military to work closer with law enforcement in fighting “homegrown terrorists”.
Warning about the “growing threat” of IEDs across the United States, the Pentagon is pushing for Congress to relax Posse Comitatus, which substantially limit the powers of the federal government to use the military for law enforcement unless under precise and extreme circumstances.
Section 1385 of the Posse Comitatus Act states, “Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.”
Citing the need for the military to aid police in dealing with IEDs, the Pentagon is ‘complaining’ about “legal restrictions on the activities of U.S. armed forces” within the United States, labeling Posse Comitatus an ‘impediment’ that “some members of Congress are pressing to change,” reports the Houston Chronicle.
House Committee on Homeland Security leaders Reps. Peter King, R-N.Y., Daniel Lungren, R-Calif., and Michael McCaul, R-Austin are leading an effort to amend Posse Comitatus in order to allow Pentagon specialists to coordinate with local law enforcement bodies.
While police being trained by military experts on how to deal with IEDs is unlikely to cause much uproar, the effort to amend Posse Comitatus, widely recognized as a barrier to the imposition of martial law, is guaranteed to stoke controversy, especially given the fact that the federal government now identifies American citizens who uphold constitutional rights as domestic extremists.
“The domestic IED threat from both homegrown terrorists and global threat networks is real and presents a significant security challenge for the United States and our international partners,” Army Lt. Gen. Michael Barbero told Congress in classified testimony.
“Among the recent examples of IED use cited by authorities is that of the Colorado theater shooter, who allegedly rigged his apartment with the device,” reports UPI.
As we saw in a recent study funded by the Department of Homeland Security, these “homegrown terrorists” the military is being brought in to counter are primarily American citizens, not Islamic extremists. According to the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland, Americans who are “suspicious of centralized federal authority,” and “reverent of individual liberty” are to be characterized as “extreme right-wing” terrorists.
Fears that martial law may be imposed to deal with widespread civil unrest in the United States have never been stronger.
As Infowars recently reported, a newly leaked US Army Military Police training manual for “Civil Disturbance Operations” outlines how military assets are to be used domestically to quell riots, confiscate firearms and even kill Americans on U.S. soil during mass civil unrest.
Back in 2008, U.S. troops returning from Iraq were earmarked for “homeland patrols” with one of their roles including helping with “civil unrest and crowd control”.
In December 2008, the Washington Post reported on plans to station 20,000 more U.S. troops inside America for purposes of “domestic security” from September 2011 onwards, an expansion of Northcom’s militarization of the country in preparation for potential civil unrest following a total economic collapse or a mass terror attack.
A report produced that same year by the U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Institute warned that the United States may experience massive civil unrest in the wake of a series of crises which it termed “strategic shock.”
“Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security,” stated the report, authored by [Ret.] Lt. Col. Nathan Freir, adding that the military may be needed to quell “purposeful domestic resistance”.
In a recent Council on Foreign Relations piece, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, General Raymond T. Odierno advocated for the U.S. Army to be “transitioned” into a more “flexible force” by deploying in situations normally reserved for domestic law enforcement officials.
Just after midnight Rocky Mountain Time today, a man opened fire on crowd at the sold out Batman: The Dark Knight Rises at Aurora, Colorado’s Century Movie Theater 16 in Theater No. 9. A three-month-old baby was reportedly shot point blank along with numerous other children. The baby’s condition is not known. A…
In social media, some of us are discussing the possibility of a false flag operation, coinciding with the United Nations Small Arms Treaty’s scheduled signing by our current regime, on July 27. That U.S. sovereignty violating treaty will then be brought to the United States Senate, where it appears extraordinarily unlikely to be approved by a 2/3 majority. Something really strange would have to happen for enough senators to approve such a treaty of treason-by-increment.
Something strange happened last night and it is not wrong to be suspicious. It is not odd. It is not paranoid. It is not “tin foil hat.” Actually, in world history, the staging of violent events to gain popular favor is classic “old hat.” The timing of this shooting is especially concerning, considering evidence indicates that the Fast and Furious scandal, which implicates Barack Obama’s Department of Justice in consequential murders, is a current example of false flag ops, intended to foment sentiments for gun control among our Citizenry.
More facts surrounding this incident will come out, some may be covered up by God knows who, and more scrutiny must be paid, bringing sound epistemological and forensic discipline to bear.
More will be shown soon in Gulag Bound about the potentials of mind control and human programming, including techniques of trance-induced programming via hypnosis and the administration of drugs. We have already begun to delve into it.
Comment:
Is the Aurora, Colorado shooting a false flag (or a psy-ops operation), applying the Manchurian Candidate theory?? I’d say yes!! This is GOVT WORK!!! TRUST ME ON THIS!!! This is Fast and Furious on Location! How coincidental that this should happen right before the United Nations Small Arms Treaty Conference that Obama and Hillary plan to sign. Just too much of a coincidence! …Victoria Baer
Updates:
It seems that the shooter James Holmes is/was a member of Black Block who caused trouble at the Denver convention – The Black block people are run by Delta force. Holmes is also an occupy wall street participant. (Amazing how the liberal media (ABC) tried to say he was a tea party member… a much older member with the same name.)
James Holmes had recently dropped out of medical school and was going for his PhD in neuroscience. Who provides the money for neuroscience research? – DARPA - Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which could perhaps explain why he was able to vex the police and bomb squad to the degree he did: Killer's Booby-Trapped Apartment Vexes Cops.
Having left England and spilling their blood for individual freedoms our Founding Fathers knew the value of freedom and therefore gave us the Bill of Rights, a Republic and a Constitution that would protect the people, if ‘We the People’ were smart enough to remain engaged and educate future generations… but we haven’t done either. They knew that Freedom of Speech and the Right to Bear Arms were essential for the average man (person) to remain free. Dictators know that as well, so they take away both as soon as they can! That is the plan of the Progressives controlling our country and elites controlling the world.
Alley Oop. Do you remember Alley Oop of funny paper and song fame? He carried a big stick and didn't walk softly. He tore the limbs off of trees.
Mr. Oop was capable of defending himself, his family, and his property. He had a big stick. Down through the ages, improvements were made in self-defense implements. Spears, bows and arrows, catapults, sling shots, etc. were invented and used. These same tools could be used for offensive purposes, also. And evil men, usually in the form of a government but sometimes other forms of gangs, used these tools of destruction to force others to comply with their demands. Demands they had no right to make. “Pay the taxes I deem necessary – or else!” Some complied, some didn't. Those who didn't were killed or banished from their land. Those who complied were treated with disrespect, and ever more demands were made until their lives were not their own. They were and are slaves. But they were and are called Freemen.
A government was instituted among men by men who understood the need for self-defense. The people had and still have the right to defend themselves from thugs of all kinds. In an amendment of the founding documents, spelled out very clearly is a guarantee that the government has no power to interfere with the natural right of every citizen to his or her own self-defense in whatever mode might be available. The latest technology is available to the private individual as well as to the police and military.
Since the establishment of that government, and even prior to that establishment, men and women have had weapons for self-defense. The same type of weapons has been used for destruction as well. A very few men and women go about killing each other for the flimsiest reasons. As a result of people killing each other, some nincompoops have coalesced into various groups with the intent to deprive those of us with a little common sense of our right to self-defense.
Amendment II of the Constitution of the United States of America prohibits the government of any power to interfere with our natural right to self-defense – the defense of ourselves, our families, and our property. Even Alley Oop, a Neanderthal man brought to the 20th century by a time machine, knew he had that right.
Currently, in our federal government, our hirelings and agents are debating whether or not they should give an International Agency the power to regulate our Natural right to own implements of self-defense. The people of this nation, in whose name the elected officials act, did not grant any power or right to their representatives, agents, or hirelings to even debate the action, let alone actually taking a vote on the subject. This is a sovereign nation. We rule ourselves. It is not up to a foreign entity such as the United Nations, or a treaty with other nations, to regulate the actions of the American People. We are a self-regulating group of adult men and women and are fully capable of making our own decisions about what we own or don't own. We do not need the input from an agent of a foreign nation such as Iran or China to tell us how to conduct our daily lives.
On the 27th of this month, the Senate will be voting on whether or not to give the power to an entity other than ourselves to regulate our daily lives and tell us what we can and cannot own. The members of the Senate do not have the right or the power to make such a commitment. We should tell them so.
Alley Oop had the common sense to obey the Natural Law of self-preservation. The fools that we have hired and sent to Washington, District of Criminals have not the common sense of a Neanderthal Man.
Hitler of Germany, Stalin of Russia, and Mao of China, among others, disarmed the citizens of their respective countries and then murdered them by the millions. 60,000,000 people were murdered in China alone, by one report. In light of these facts, one wonders why the Clintons, the Bushes, the Carters, and Our Fearless Golfer polluting the air in our house at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D. C. are so determined to disarm the good people of the United States of America.
We were not invaded by Japan during World War II because the Emperor was aware that the Americans were well-armed and we would defend out land.
I would seem that our Neanderthal man, Mr. Oop, had more common sense than those who are now promoting the disarmament of the American People. People such as Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Our Fearless Golfer, the Queen of England, the various Ayatollahs, Castro, Mao, Chavez, and any number of people that are our sworn enemies want us disarmed for a reason. What could that reason be, do you think?
Remember, when seconds count, the police are only minutes away. When seconds count, it is best to be prepared to take care of oneself.
Only would-be-dictators and tyrants are afraid of the citizenry. Thomas Jefferson rode his horse daily out in public without guards. George Washington had no troop of armed guards. Andrew Jackson, however, needed guards; for he had made a formidable enemy for himself – the bankers. They wanted him dead.
The government has overstepped just one time too many, maybe, and a backlash is about to be let loose. And that government wants to disarm us. Be careful.
Thank you.
Sheriffs that Support Gun Control… God Help Us!
Idaho--and a Bingham County election...
Some things speak for themselves. Thanks to J.H., who posted the following elsewhere, but gave me permission to post it on my blog:
"Just before the Idaho primaries this past Tuesday, there was a forum where people were asking questions of the candidates for sheriff of Bingham County. When incumbent sheriff Dave Johnson was asked what he would do if the Federal Government mandated to take all firearms away from private citizens, he responded that he would have to comply with the feds. When candidate Craig Rowland was asked the same question, he responded that he would deputize every citizen who owned a firearm. Rowland got an applause and was elected Bingham County Sheriff this last Tuesday. Congratulations to Craig Rowland!" Yeah. Gotta love Idaho.... :) And the Second Amendment. And the Constitution.
If any other sheriffs out there hadn't thought of this, I think that it's brilliant. After all, if a firearm is a part of your emergency preparation, you may find yourself in trouble if someone takes it away. There are many emergency situations where a firearm may be needed. In any case, if you are personally against firearms, please work out a plan where you have what you need for food procurement, etc. in case of such emergencies.
And hopefully, no matter what one thinks personally about firearms, they will vote for people who will uphold the Constitution and the freedoms we hold dear--and the right to bear arms is one of them.
Former UN Ambassador John Bolton: “The UN's Real Agenda Is Gun Control! — Former ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton spoke at the NRA Annual Meeting on Friday, saying Barack Obama is laying the foundation to push an ambitious gun control agenda if he wins a second term.” (GunReports.com) Bolton @ NRA Annual Meeting Said: Obama Wants Gun Control in … - Ambassador Bolton ‘On the Record’: Video: US Gun Owners in Foreign Crosshairs
Ryan Bomberger of SoOutLoud.com is out with Get Out, a catchy pop tune that skewers Barack Obama for his “slick marketing” and for being “fast and furious with all the lies,” referring to the “Fast and Furious” scandal.
Bomberger suggests that people were tricked by Obama’s “slick marketing.” He sings, “the slick marketing, a logo that promised everything, but hope and change meant you hoped to change my constitutional liberty.”
He sings repeatedly amid copious images of the Obama-campaign symbol: “You gotta get out, you need to get out. BHO’s gotta go don’t you know. Yes we can kick him out.”
The chorus is featured three times in less than two minutes and finds every way possible to tell Obama to “get out.” Bomberger urges his listeners, “Don’t you know, yes we can, vote him out.”
The song also mocks Obama for backing the redefinition of marriage and for making “sure that religious liberty doesn’t mean a thing.”
He blames Obama for “spend[ing] billions to make a worse economy” and forcing Americans to choose “prison or your Obamacare policy.”
Also, Bomberger admits in the song that he is biracial like Obama and then adds, “racial profiling is okay if it’s a vote for you.”
The catchy tune should strike a chord with young voters my engaging them on their level.
Back on April 23rd, 2000 Fox News’ Judge Andrew Napolitano had a few questions for (then Deputy) Attorney General Eric Holder. Here they are thanks to The Media Research Center :
Napolitano : Tell me, Mr. Holder, why did you not get a court order authorizing you to go in and get the boy (Elian Gonzalez)?
Holder : Because we didn’t need a court order. INS can do this on its own.
Napolitano : You know that a court order would have given you the cloak of respectability to have seized the boy.
Holder : We didn’t need an order.
Napolitano : Then why did you ask the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals for such an order if you didn’t need one?
Holder : [Silence]
Napolitano : The fact is, for the first time in history you have taken a child from his residence at gunpoint to enforce your custody position, even though you did not have an order authorizing it. When is the last time a boy, a child, was taken at the point of a gun without an order of a judge…Unprecedented in American history.”
Holder : “He was not taken at the point of a gun.”
Napolitano : “We have a photograph showing he was taken at the point of a gun.”
Holder : “They were armed agents who went in there who acted very sensitively…”
This “sensitivity” consisted of the INS macing, kicking, and gun-butt their way into Lazaro Gonzalez's house on the morning of April 22, 2000, wrenching a bawling 6-year-old child from his family at machine-gun point and bundling him off to Castro’s Stalinist fiefdom, leaving 102 people injured, some seriously.
Thanks to the ritual MSM-Castroite collusion most people forget (or missed) the crucial legal and ethical details of this circus/tragedy — which were mostly established during the first week after Elian’s rescue at sea, after his heroic mother’s drowning. The “son-belongs-with-his-father” crowd, for instance, “missed” (with the help of the MSM-Democratic complex) that Elian’s father was initially delighted that his motherless son was in the U.S. and in the loving arms of his uncles and cousins.
The evidence — frantically buried by the MSM-Democratic complex — was overwhelming. Mauricio Vicent, a reporter for Madrid newspaper El Pais, wrote that during that first week he’d visited Elian’s home town of Cardenas and talked with Elian’s father, Juan Miguel, along with other family members and friends. All confirmed that Juan Miguel had always longed for his son Elian to flee to the United States . Shortly after Elian’s rescue, his father had even applied for a U.S. visa!
Elian’s Miami uncle, Lazaro, explained it repeatedly and best: “I always said I would turn over Elian to his father, when Juan Miguel would come here and claim him. But I (along with practically everyone with experience under communism from Cambodians to Hungarians and from Lithuanians to Cubans) knew such a thing was impossible. He couldn’t do that. I knew it wasn’t Juan Miguel requesting Elian– it was Fidel .”
The legal-weasels forgot (or missed) that on Dec, 1st 1999 the INS asserted that Miami-based uncle Lazaro was indeed Elian’s legal custodian and Florida’s family court indeed the place to arbitrate further issues .
Then on Dec 5th, 1999, Castro clapped his hands and his MSM minions snapped to attention.
Within weeks Clinton’s INS had turned its initial decision on its head. Within months this same INS was kicking down Lazaro’s door, pummeling camera men and elderly ladies to the ground with jackboots and wrenching a screaming Elian from his legal custodians in a blaze of pepper gas and machine guns. When asked for the legal authority for this, they brandished either a search warrant to seize evidence that didn’t exist (and would not have been hidden anyway) or an arrest warrant to seize someone who no one claimed was a criminal or even a lawbreaker.
“They never made it clear just what kind of warrant” it was. And neither would it have been legal,” patiently explained Alan Dershowitz (no less)
So why did Elian’s father change his tune?
Remember Godfather II? Remember the Senate hearings where Frankie Pentangeli, under FBI protection, was prepared to testify against Michael Corleone? The stage was set. Looked like a done-deal for the Feds. Then Frankie looks up and sees his bewildered brother Vincenzo from Sicily, sitting next to Mikey.
Whoops! Frankie sure changed his tune, didn’t he?
Think of Juan Miguel as Frankie Pentangeli. The gun Fidel Castro held to Juan Miguel’s head was as invisible (to those without experience with Communism) as the one Mikey held to Pentangeli’s head was to most spectators at those hearings.
Recently Uncle Lazaro Gonzalez, who suffered ten years in Castro’s dungeons and torture-chambers provided an update: “The Castro regime won’t allow us to contact the boy “and the entire family is forbidden to speak to us. Every time they detect a call from us in Miami, the line drops. I’d love to go and see Elián, talk to him. But they’ll never let us.”
Fast and Furious is NOT the only reason to put the corrupt Eric Holder in an Orange jumpsuit
Holder: What Was His Part in Oklahoma City?
By Kevin “Coach” Collins
Eric Holder’s part in Fast and Furious and its cover up constitute serious felonious conduct. Any street cop in America can look at what his man did and recognize the numerous felonies he committed in this very ugly display of treachery. Nevertheless, Eric Holder was involved in a much greater crime, one that official Washington of both Parties has yet to find enough courage to even mention, let alone investigate it. There is clear and incontrovertible evidence that Holder was involved in covering up the Clinton Administration’s part in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.
The Clinton Administration’s “story” actually started to unravel even before the sunset on April 19, 1995, the day a homemade bomb brought down the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City murdering 168 women men and children. But it is hard to find that fact in the mainstream media.
An investigation into the jailhouse death of a man named Kenny Trentadue by his brother Jesse an attorney led to Jesse bringing a lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
All Jesse Trentadue wanted was answers about how his brother died and nothing more. Trentadue was not on a political crusade. He had no idea the strange pieces of information he was able to pry out of the Federal Government using Freedom of Information requests would take him from Oklahoma City to the office of Assistant United States Attorney Eric Holder in Washington. In the “discovery” phase of his successful wrongful death suit against the Clinton Federal Bureau of Prisons, Trentadue came upon the fact that Eric Holder had been sent from Washington to Oklahoma City to “manage” the investigation surrounding Trantadue’s death. That is clear and not contradicted by any available evidence, but why did Eric Holder assume that responsibility?
Jesse Trentadue’s lawsuit proved the Clinton FBI, Department of Justice and CIA were behind (NOT involved in or mixed up in, but BEHIND) the Oklahoma City bombing and that Bill Clinton KNEW he needed his most reliable “cleaner” to smother the story a supine media was only too happy to ignore.
The conspirators needed to eliminate “loose ends” so they murdered Kenny Trentadue. They didn’t realize Kenny Trentadue an innocent man who looked like the man they were looking for and was NOT part of the conspiracy. The same FBI that botched Ruby Ridge and Waco murdered the wrong man. When investigating his brother’s death Jesse Trentadue discovered that the puppet master of the cover up of his brother’s death was Eric Holder Barack Obama’s Attorney General. He also discovered much more about the Oklahoma City bombing and who planned it.
Keep this in mind as this week’s events unfold in the House investigation of Eric Holder’s part in Fast and Furious continues. See the many attached links and decide for yourself about Holder. Is Fast and Furious or Oklahoma City Eric Holder’s worst crime?
JUST SO YOU KNOW WHY ERIC HOLDER WILL LOSE THE EP FIGHT
By Ken Klukowski
20 June 2012 - breitbart.com/
President Obama’s assertion of executive privilege to prevent Attorney General Eric Holder from complying with congressional subpoenas on the Operation Fast and Furious fiasco will blow up in the White House’s face. But not for the reasons you’ve heard on the first day of this legal fight.
Some Republicans are saying and some media commentators are reporting that executive privilege only applies when the president himself is involved. That’s incorrect as a matter of law.
It’s important to get this right, because some are suggesting that today’s invoking of the privilege means Obama himself is involved, a smoking gun that could make this the next Watergate. Not true. The White House might be involved, but we don’t know one way or another… yet.
As I’ve written before, there are two types of executive privilege. One is a strong form rooted in the Constitution, called the presidential communication privilege. But there is another type, much weaker and rooted in common law instead of the Constitution, called the deliberative process privilege. That second, weaker variety is what President Obama invoked today regarding Holder.
It’s still the White House asserting the privilege, because only the president can assert executive privilege for his entire administration. (Except that the vice president can also assert it, but only for matters directly involving the VP.) So Obama has invoked it on Holder’s behalf.
Others are also incorrect in saying executive privilege only applies to military matters, diplomatic secrets, or national security situations. The courts have repeatedly held that executive privilege covers much more than that, most recently in 2004 in Cheney v. U.S. District Court, where the Supreme Court considered whether the VP’s conversations with energy industry leaders was protected by the privilege. Executive privilege is strongest when those three issues are on the table, but it’s broader than that.
There are several factors courts look to. The most important is whether the president was involved, since that determines which privilege (presidential communications versus deliberative process) is in play. Beyond that, several factors weigh in favor of Congress and against Holder here. This was domestic policy (not foreign), in an operation out of an agency (not the White House), where crimes may have been committed, and none of the president’s constitutional prerogatives are implicated by the case. Factors favoring Obama are that this is not legislative policymaking, and it does have a diplomatic angle because of relations with Mexico. But surveying 200 years of court precedent shows that Congress has the better claim here.
The only way to beat an executive privilege claim is by court order. To take this issue to court, the full House must vote to hold Holder in contempt of Congress, then when federal prosecutors predictably inform the House that they will not prosecute their boss the full House must pass a second resolution authorizing Rep. Darrell Issa to file suit in the U.S. District Court for D.C. on behalf of the entire U.S. House.
Holder will lose the court fight. He’ll appeal, of course, but eventually the appeals will be over, and we’ll all learn the truth of what really happened in Fast and Furious.
And whom to hold accountable.
***********************************************
By Breitbart News legal contributor Ken Klukowski is on faculty at Liberty University School of Law, and author of Making Executive Privilege Work, published by Cleveland State Law Review.
“Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, who first began the Fast and Furious investigation, said the assertion by the White House of executive privilege raises “monumental questions.”
“How can the president assert executive privilege if there was no White House involvement? How can the president exert executive privilege over documents he’s supposedly never seen? Is something very big being hidden to go to this extreme? The contempt citation is an important procedural mechanism in our system of checks and balances,” he said.”
By now, you probably know that President Barack Obama invoked executive privilege to stall Congress’ attempt to get Attorney General Eric Holder to fork over documents in the Fast and Furious Scandal.
You probably also know, by now, that Obama explicitly spoke out against executive privilege before he was president, saying “the American people need to know what’s going on,” in yet another classic “do as I say, not as I do” moment brought to you by the first dictator in the history of the United States.
But did you know the president has to be involved in a situation in order to invoke executive privilege?
Under those precedents, the privilege, which is constitutionally rooted, could be invoked by the President when asked to produce documents or other materials or information that reflect presidential decision making and deliberations that he believes should remain confidential.
Note the emphasized language, and the grammar of the sentence that leaves no doubt that the president MUST be involved in whatever issue for which he invokes executive privilege: “when asked to produce documents or other materials or information that reflect PRESIDENTIAL DECISIONMAKING AND DELIBERATIONS.
You won’t hear this from the lapdog media. But, hey, I’m just a blogger.
So, what we have here, then, is the president not only protecting Holder, he’s also protecting himself.
Meanwhile, over at Think Regress (see comments), the left is rejoicing about the president’s actions, once again, as leftists do, defending the indefensible.
I wonder how the president’s new 800,000 voters feel about him covering up information about the murder of Mexicans.
UPDATE II: Breitbart is saying this is deliberative process privilege, rooted in common law not the Constitution, and therefore Obama didn’t invoke EP to protect himself.
This is what we, in the data analysis community call “contrary facts.” In other words, one datum (“we knew nothing”) contradicts the other (“we will not reveal what we knew”).
Expect the Media Myth Generators to offer a package of “reasons” explaining how you can deny knowing and yet still claim “privilege” to protect the “nothing” that you know.
Head them off at the pass. Call them on it.
They.
Are.
Lying.
To us.
Never mind lying to Congress. They are lying to the entire population.
“Lying to America” may not be a crime on the books, but I reckon it’s a crime nonetheless.
A quick update from a longtime D.C. political operative who indicated two years ago the Obama administration was facing a serious political crisis rooted within the Department of Justice. With a contempt vote now looming over Obama Attorney General Eric Holder, and Barack Obama’s use of Executive Privilege in refusing to comply with Congressional requests for related Fast and Furious documents, – that political crisis foretold to readers of the UlstermanReport has now arrived in full.
I’m watching the news reports same as you. Made a number of calls back to my people in D.C. Getting many different versions of things but they all share the same thing and that is a real sense of urgency and shock at a couple of things. One is the use of Executive Privilege by the Obama White House. That makes a direct tie to the administration now. The perception of that is now the reality of it. Obama owns Fast and Furious. He can’t walk that back. It’s his. He is telling Congress he won’t hand over docs. The line in the sand was placed there by the president himself. That alone has people really scrambling now to figure out how deep this thing could go. Will it hurt the re-election. Will there be blowback against the party. Basically all the things I told you were concerns before have now become concerns. And some of them I told myself months and well over a year ago to prepare. Some listened. Some didn’t. Poor bastards who didn’t.
Second, something just now breaking out is Holder walked back a Blame Bush statement he gave to Congress just last week. Fast and Furious was nothing like anything the Bush boys did. Bush era program was much smaller and had the full cooperation of the Mexican authorities. Holder lied when he attempted to link the two and now he is already trying to correct that testimony from one week ago. This kind of sloppy mistake is a clear sign he’s in big trouble and really feeling the heat. It’s also a signal to party leaders and the White House he is falling apart on this.
Obama is saying to Congress “come and get me if you dare”. Now we gotta see if Republicans dare. It’s an election year so the White House is banking on enough Republicans in the leadership to not want to look like they are beating up too bad on Obama. They fear the race card. Part of me says they are a bunch of spineless pukes for that fear and the political operative in me understands the concern. The White House is more than willing to push that race issue much farther than we have seen already. You know what I’m talking about there.
So now we wait to see what the Republicans do. Contempt vote? How hard are they gonna fight the Executive Privilege order? Are they willing to make this a presidential election year issue? Word back to me is some are. Some don’t even care about the politics of it. They are pissed and disgusted by what this administration and Eric Holder have done. It’s a fight of principle vs politics within the Republican Party right now.
Lastly I want to give a nod to the Old Man. This entire Fast and Furious thing was a slow drip not so long ago. He made a push on some folks who in turn had a few meetings on the Hill and got this thing going again. At least he was a big help in that. Not sure if you know but there’s been another health setback for him and we probably won’t hear from them for a bit. I’ll update you on that situation as soon as I know anything more. It’s not hopeless but it’s not good. Say some prayers for him. He really wants to make it to the next inauguration.
I’m on the road but like I said, am keeping contact back in D.C. If there is anything new on FnF will clue you in when I can.
-WHI
Secondly, something just now breaking out is Holder walked back a Blame Bush statement he gave to Congress just last week. Fast and Furious was nothing like anything the Bush boys did. Bush era program was much smaller and had the full cooperation of the Mexican authorities. Holder lied when he attempted to link the two and now he is already trying to correct that testimony from one week ago. This kind of sloppy mistake is a clear sign he’s in big trouble and really feeling the heat. It’s also a signal to party leaders and the White House he is falling apart on this.
Received in-house word regarding “scrambling” at the White House. Something has them very spooked. I hinted at this to you last week regarding the meeting that had staff coming out looking very concerned. The Grassley message had to have shook them up. Told Issa has been repeating comparisons to Watergate to staff and fellow House members. White House must be aware Issa and Co. might have something that could inflict a hell of a lot of damage.
Dem leadership sent out signals to staff to prepare for necessary insulation from the White House to limit damage to individual campaigns. Black Caucus member engaged in a 10 minute “explosive” rant against someone from Issa’s office following a recess. Some Dems getting openly fearful and aggressive. Chaffetz had “face to face” with one of them. He is proving very willing to aggressively engage the opposition at any time.
This is far from won but recent events are proving to be damn favorable to those of us who want to defeat the president.
Don’t get over confident though. This administration is gonna fight this hard.
I’ve been called back. That indicates this has become real important real fast to a lot of real important people.
20 June 2012: It is interesting that it was exactly forty years ago this week that five “burglars” were caught inside the Watergate complex, setting off one of the most notorious presidential scandals in U.S. history. The events of June 17, 1972 resulted in the resignation of U.S. President Richard Nixon just over two years later. During that two years, the press was aggressive in its coverage and investigation, while the White House denied any involvement with, connection to, or knowledge of the incident.
During the two years following the arrests of the men caught inside the Watergate complex and until the White House could no longer suppress evidence behind the claims of “executive privilege,” the press and congressional investigators were relentless in determining “what Nixon knew and when he knew it.” How times have changed.
Not very fast, and no fury
Unless you’ve been trapped in a cave or your television has been stuck on MSNBC, chances are good that you are aware of a growing scandal known as Operation Fast & Furious. Chances are equally good that you don’t know all of the intricate details of Fast & Furious, as it has been the practice of this administration and many in leadership positions to confuse the public, convolute the facts, and downplay the murderous scandal that leads directly to the highest levels of this administration.For example, Chris Matthews of MSNBC has stated that anyone wanting Operation Fast & Furious investigated is “another strain of the crazy far right.” Rachel Maddow, however, believes that the coverage of Fast & Furious is “the insane paranoid message from the NRA.” Jon Stewart of The Daily Show is even less articulate, calling any investigation into Fast & Furious “f***ing crazy.” (As noted by Katie Pavlich, author of “Fast & Furious, Barack Obama’s Bloodiest Scandal and it’s Shameless Cover-Up”).
Meanwhile and unlike the Watergate era, all but a few in power and the media have been proactive in their quest for answers, except for Washington based CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson. Add the disinformation deliberately published on the internet, one is likely to be left confused, uncertain of those involved and the timelines, and the actual components of this mother of all scandals.
Background: “Project Gunrunner”
Operation Fast & Furious is the name of an aggressive anti-gun initiative launched and conducted by the United States Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, an agency under the oversight of the U.S. Department of Justice. It officially began in early 2009 as an extension of a program known as Project Gunrunner, an operation that was started under the Bush administration in 2005 as part of the Southwest Border Initiative (SBI). The pilot program for Project Gunrunner began in Laredo, Texas. The objectives were to conduct surveillance, identify and stop the flow of weapons and ammunition from the U.S. illegally entering Mexico and eventually making their way to the drug cartels.
In April of 2006, the program was expanded to a national level as a weapons interdiction program under the BATFE, formerly known as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). Project Gunrunner also involved the use of an Internet based weapon tracking system known as eTrace, a program that would permit participating law enforcement agencies to track the origin of confiscated or questionable guns, through their serial numbers, to their point of origin.
On April 10, 2008, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey briefed the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations on the status of the project. At that time, Mukasey stated that the “ATF has approximately 148 special agents…and 56 industry operation investigators (IOI) responsible for conducting regulatory inspections.” Mukasey also stated that the ATF “is also expanding its presence at the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) which serves as the central repository and “clearinghouse” for all weapons related intelligence collected and developed by ATF’s field personnel and attaches in Mexico as well as by all other Federal, State and local law enforcement entities involved in narcotics interdiction and investigation along the U.S./Mexico border.”
At the end of the Bush administration, Project Gunrunner was responsible for approximately 650 criminal cases being filed against about 1400 defendants, involving about 12,000 firearms.
It is relevant to point out here that “Project Gunwalker” is not the name of any legitimate operation, but a satirical moniker attached to Project Gunrunner.
Operation Fast & Furious
Under the Obama administration, “Operation Fast and Furious” was launched in early 2009. By extension of Project Gunrunner, the BATFE commissioned gun shops along the southern U.S. border to sell weapons to known criminal suspects. Ostensibly, this operation was for interdiction purposes, but the agents involved were directly ordered not to interdict the weapons. What resulted was a mass amount of weapons that actually and genuinely originated in the U.S., with the knowledge and approval of the BATFE, being permitted to “walk” unmolested across the southern border (hence the satirical name “gunwalker”).
From early 2009 through December 2010, this process was repeated over and over in the southern U.S. despite the objections of numerous BATFE agents and gun shop owners. During this time, several agents began to notify congress and became “whistleblowers” about the stand-down orders.
Late on the night of December 14, 2010, the inevitable happened. U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was gunned down in Rio Rico, Arizona by an AK-47 that was “walked” across the U.S. Mexican border with the knowledge and allowance of the BATFE. Two weapons that were allowed to “walk” across the border were found at the murder scene.
The guns found at the scene were traced to a purchase made on January 16, 2010 from a U.S. gun shop with the full knowledge and authority of the U.S. government by a Mexican national identified as Jaime Avila. On January 16, 2010, Jaime Avila bought 52 firearms, and paid for the guns in cash. ATF agents watched, but were ordered not to stop Avila from making the purchase or crossing back into Mexico.
In addition to Agent Terry, Immigration Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata, 32, was also killed by a weapon allowed to “walk” into Mexico. Agent Zapata and his partner, Victor Availa, were driving a government SUV with diplomatic plates on a Mexico highway, returning from a meeting at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City when they were ambushed. Agent Availa was badly injured but survived. It should be noted that neither agent was armed, as Mexican law prohibits U.S. agents from carrying weapons in Mexico.
With the tragic death of agents Terry and Zapata, questions began to be raised about Operation Fast & Furious, but it was evident that no one from the Obama administration wanted to talk. Attorney General Eric Holder, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, and Barack Hussein Obama claimed that they had absolutely no knowledge of Operation Fast & Furious or that any weapons were being permitted to be sold and “released.”
Fatalities increase
If the goal of Operation Fast & Furious was to interdict weapons and stop the cross border violence, and that objective is certainly in question, it was a dismal failure from the beginning. In December 2009, there were 849 people murdered. Every month thereafter, the numbers grew: 937 in January, 2010; 988 in February, 2010, and 1200 in March of that year. In total, 15,273 people were murdered in drug cartel related activity.
Despite this obvious increase in fatalities, no one from our government put a halt to the gun shipments to Mexico. Why?
The real objective behind Fast & Furious?
After taking office, Barack Hussein Obama began a coordinated effort with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to control the purchases and ownership of guns in the United States. To justify the implementation of tougher gun control laws and in a direct assault on the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, this administration cited a statement made to Congress by William Hoover, Assistant Director for Field Operations for the BATFE on February 7, 2008. According to that report, 90 percent of the weapons used by the Mexican drug cartels were purchased from or originated in the U.S.
That stunning revelation empowered the Obama administration to solicit public support for banning so-called assault weapons in the U.S., and calling for tougher gun control laws. The problem, however, is that the statement is disingenuous at best.
First and perhaps most transparent, it has been noted that only 1 in 5 guns that have been recovered in Mexico actually underwent any form of tracing, leaving 80% untraced. Accordingly, the 90 percent figure is already factually inaccurate.
In 2009, 21,313 guns were recovered in Mexico and submitted for tracing. Less than a quarter of those guns were found to have originated in the U.S.
Secondly and perhaps the most scandalous of all is that all figures of cited by this administration pertaining to weapons tracing include weapons sold to the Mexican military via U.S. arms-trading policies under programs such as Direct Commercial Sales (DCS) initiatives.The fact is that the bulk of the arms used by the Mexican drug cartels did not – and do not originate from gun shop sales in the U.S.,but from U.S. government sponsored programs that sell weapons and ammunition to the Mexican military as well as other third-world nations. This process was accelerated under Obama.
Many of the weapons used in Mexico and counted in border violence statistics actually arrived in that area from Central American countries involved in U.S. government sanctioned programs administered by the Pentagon and with the knowledge and imprimatur of the U.S. State Department.
Interestingly, confirmation of the government’s programs and knowledge by government officials, particularly Hillary Clinton was made public by the release of State Department cables published by Wikileaks. The cables prove that the U.S. State Department and Hillary Clinton knew the origins of the bulk of the weapons used by the Mexican drug cartels, although kept this information secret for the greater agenda of U.S. gun control.
Meanwhile, it appears that the Obama administration with the full cooperation of Eric Holder, used various weapons tracking programs already implemented to inflate the statistics involving guns originating in the U.S. to advance even tougher gun control measures.
Research and investigation indicates that a series of programs implemented under the umbrella of a government sanctioned program known “Project Gunrunner” were purposely exploited with the knowledge and consent of government officials at the highest of levels.
According to several agents who have provided testimony, each operation where weapons were allowed to “walk” into Mexico from the U.S. was approved at the highest levels of the United States Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of State. Some believe that operations of this magnitude could not have been possible without the knowledge and approval of Obama himself.
Forty years after the biggest scandal to rock the nation, it is again time to ask the question to Eric Holder, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama under oath and in front of congress: What did you know and when did you know it?
Update: President Obama and Eric Holder have decided to blame Bush and President Obama asserted Executive Privilege, but the AG Eric Holder has been held in Contempt by the Congressional oversight committee anyway. Good job Representative Issa and Committee! Next week it goes to a full vote of the House of Representatives. Get involved. Keep up the pressure and demand Holder be held in Contempt and a full investigation. Shades of Watergate??
OBAMA & HOLDER – FAST & FURIOUS CONTEMPT PROCEEDINGS – BLAME BUSH
By: AJ
President Obama and Eric Holder have decided to blame Bush for their Fast & Furious gun program that sent thousands of US guns to Mexican drug cartels, gangs and murderers who used them to kill Mexicans and Americans.
The prelude to the Obama/Holder Fast & Furious gun program was the false narrative, perpetuated publicly by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, claiming that 90% of the foreign guns found in Mexico come from the US . In actuality, the majority of weapons were from other countries – not the US .
Obama’s “blame Bush” tactic is used on every front to make excuses for his failures. In this case, however, Obama is using this tactic as cover because he was caught deliberately putting guns in the hands of Mexican criminals.
Why would Obama want to flood Mexico with US weapons? To impose more restrictive US gun laws on Americans by making his narrative true – ‘90% of the foreign guns found in Mexico come from the US ’.
Rest assured that if Obama and Holder had not been caught, they would not be asserting Executive privilege on the eve of Holder’s contempt proceedings, and they would not be asserting the false “blame Bush” narrative.
thecommunists, I remained silent; I was not a communist.
Then they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat.
Then they came for the trade unionists, I did not protest; I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics, I did not protest; I was a Protestant.
Then they came for the Jews, I did not speak out; I was not a Jew.
When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.
Election 2014 - What Is Really At Stake
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