Two top Republican lawmakers are questioning the independence of the Obama administration investigator tasked with probing Operation Fast and Furious, saying it appears her office is choosing not to interview high-level political employees in the Justice Department.
Rep. Darrell Issa of California and Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa wrote a letter Thursday to Cynthia Schnedar, inspector general at the Justice Department, suggesting the office could be shielding close aides to Attorney General Eric Holder from scrutiny.
“Apparently, despite the advanced stage of its review, your office has not interviewed several key figures in Fast and Furious,” they wrote of the controversial and defunct gunwalking operation undertaken by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF.
The lawmakers asked why it appears Schnedar has failed to interview three deputy attorneys generals, all appointees close to Holder. They are worried Schnedar’s report, which is expected later this year, will avoid casting blame on the Justice Department.
The Senate on Thursday blocked a move to speed along the approval and construction of the controversial Keystone pipeline, after the White House lobbied Democrats to oppose it.
A total of 11 Democrats, though, ended up breaking with the president to vote for the Republican-backed amendment — at a time when gas prices are rising and pipeline supporters are using that trend to pressure the administration to act.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said after the vote that the Democrat-controlled Senate had “turned its back on job creation and energy independence in a single vote.”
McConnell, referring to reports later confirmed by the White House that Obama personally lobbied Democrats to oppose the measure, also used the vote to place blame for the pipeline’s delay squarely on the president.
A conservative civil liberties group accuses the Internal Revenue Service of attempting to “intimidate and silence” a number of tea party groups that have applied for tax-exempt status.
The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) says IRS requests for information about the groups included “probing questions” that violate the free speech and freedom of association rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.
“This appears to be a coordinated attempt to intimidate Tea Party organizations by demanding information that is outside the scope of legitimate inquiry and violates the First Amendment,” said Jay Sekulow, ACLJ’s chief counsel.
“These organizations have followed the law and applied for tax exempt status for their activities as Americans have done for decades. The problem here is the IRS has gone beyond legitimate inquiries and is demanding that these organizations answer questions that actually violate the First Amendment rights of our clients.”
Read the rest.
by AWR Hawkins
On February 14th I received an email from House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa’s (R-CA) office, containing a copy of a letter the Congressman just sent to Attorney General Eric Holder. In it, Issa points out Holder’s “lack of good faith,” in not complying with document requests heretofore, and to the fact that the DOJ as a whole appears “more concerned with protecting its image through spin control than actually cooperating with Congress.”
FN Five-sevens were among the weapons allowed to walk.
Wrote Issa:
The Justice Department’s request for additional time has, unfortunately, not been followed by efforts to bridge the significant differences between its legal obligation to Congress and the reality of its stonewalling. The [House Oversight and Government Reform Committee] is determined to know what happened in Operation Fast and Furious and how the Justice Department responded when it was publicly confronted with evidence of reckless conduct after Agent Terry’s death. If the Justice Department cannot commit to providing, at a minimum, a detailed description of documents it is withholding, and the legal basis for doing so, then the committee has no other option than to move forward with the contempt process against Attorney General Holder.
In addition, the letter sets forth central questions that have to be answers, among which are:
This is the first in a Daily Caller investigative series on Media Matters For America. Daily Caller reporters Alex Pappas and Will Rahn contributed to this report.
David Brock was smoking a cigarette on the roof of his Washington, D.C. office one day in the late fall of 2010 when his assistant and two bodyguards suddenly appeared and whisked him and his colleague Eric Burns down the stairs.
Brock, the head of the liberal nonprofit Media Matters for America, had told friends and co-workers that he feared he was in imminent danger from right-wing assassins and needed a security team to keep him safe.
The threat he faced while smoking on his roof? “Snipers,” a former co-worker recalled.
“He had more security than a Third World dictator,” one employee said, explaining that Brock’s bodyguards would rarely leave his side, even accompanying him to his home in an affluent Washington neighborhood each night where they “stood post” to protect him. “What movement leader has a detail?” asked someone who saw it.
Grijalva hosts hearing on border issues
Congressman Raul Grijalva was working on border issues Friday. He hosted three other Congressmen for a tour through the Nogales area.
Texas Congressman Silvestre Reyes, Illinois Congressman Luis Gutierrez and California Congressman Michael Honda joined Congressman Raul Grijalva for a hearing on border issues.
Santa Cruz Sheriff Tony Estrada told them strong Federal and Local law enforcement and the border fence, have pushed violent crime to remote areas.
House Speaker moves forward to address problems with IRC
The Arizona Capitol Times is reporting that House Speaker Andy Tobin has introduced a host of measures that would set a special election enabling voters to decide whether to use legislative and congressional maps drawn by elected legislators representing constituencies – as was the practice prior to the passage of Prop. 106 in 2000. Democrats and Republicans worked together to draw the lines.
Arizonans are currently faced with oddly configured and decidedly partisan maps approved last month by Arizona’s Independent Redistricting Commission.
He died in 1972, at the age of sixty-three, a marginalized figure in his own obscure field and seldom mentioned outside of it.
But to close followers of the topsy-turvy GOP presidential primary, the late Saul Alinsky is suddenly becoming a household word. This is due, in large measure, to the mantra-like repetition of the name by Newt Gingrich, who invokes it every day on the campaign trail as part of his stump-speech indictment of President Obama.
“We need somebody who is a conservative and who can stand up to him and debate and who can clearly draw the contrast between the Declaration of Independence and the writings of Saul Alinsky,” Gingrich told a large crowd outside the Wings Plus restaurant in Coral Springs, Florida Wednesday.
FN Five-sevens were among the weapons allowed to walk. Photo: Wikipedia
As I wrote in a post for Big Government this past Sunday, January 22, the Arizona’s legislature has decided once more to do the job the feds won’t do, and has launched its own investigation into Fast and Furious. And during an appearance on FOX NEWS this morning, Arizona House Speaker Andy Tobin explained why they’ve taken this step. He said that constituents were flooding their offices with questions about the gun-running operation, and he said one recurring question was, “You’re not waiting for the feds [to do something] are you?” He then said the answer to that question was “No.”
Said Tobin:
This is an incident that occurred on Arizona soil, with Arizona business owners, [where we lost] an Arizona agent (Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry), and quite frankly we felt it needed a lot more attention. We felt our citizens needed a place to go to share their stories. Maybe there’s more there. This was a failed program right from the start and I think the idea is to put more light on it.
