Tag: Conservative Agenda
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Fortune Magazine Shows What You Suspected: Weak, NRA-Written Gun Laws Are to Blame for Fast and Furious
Fortune magazine proves what everyone who doesn’t watch FOX News suspected: The congressional investigation into the Fast and Furious program is a partisan witch hunt, and much of the responsibility for the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry has to go to the gun lobby, which blocks maintaining a database of firearms.
A six-month Fortune investigation reveals that the public case alleging gun walking is replete with distortions, errors, partial truths, and even some outright lies
Quite simply, there’s a fundamental misconception at the heart of the Fast and Furious scandal. Nobody disputes that suspected straw purchasers under surveillance by the ATF repeatedly bought guns that eventually fell into criminal hands. Issa and others charge that the ATF intentionally allowed guns to walk as an operational tactic. But five law-enforcement agents directly involved in Fast and Furious tell Fortune that the ATF had no such tactic. They insist they never purposefully allowed guns to be illegally trafficked. Just the opposite: They say they seized weapons whenever they could but were hamstrung by prosecutors and weak laws, which stymied them at every turn.
Indeed, a six-month Fortune investigation reveals that the public case alleging that [ATF Supervisor Dave] Voth and his colleagues walked guns is replete with distortions, errors, partial truths, and even some outright lies. Fortune reviewed more than 2,000 pages of confidential ATF documents and interviewed 39 people, including seven law-enforcement agents with direct knowledge of the case…How Fast and Furious reached the headlines is a strange and unsettling saga, one that reveals a lot about politics and media today…
“Republican senators are whipping up the country into a psychotic frenzy with these reports that are patently false,” says Linda Wallace, a special agent with the Internal Revenue Service’s criminal investigation unit who was assigned to the Fast and Furious team (and recently retired from the IRS). A self-described gun-rights supporter, Wallace has not been criticized by Issa’s committee.
…Irony abounds when it comes to the Fast and Furious scandal. But the ultimate irony is this: Republicans who support the National Rifle Association and its attempts to weaken gun laws are lambasting ATF agents for not seizing enough weapons—ones that, in this case, prosecutors deemed to be legal.
Take a few minutes and read the whole piece.
How to Wake Up an Electorate Dominated by the Rightwing Culture of Scarcity
Try to ignore the ad agency’s patting of itself on the back in this video — although they kind of deserve to. They explain the very different approach they used to reframe the issue in a space usually dominated by no-tax drivel. Bravo!
A Video Reminder that Breitbart Added Nothing to Cultural Dialogue but Noise, Lies
When Andrew Breitbart died unexpectedly in March 2012,* he was hailed by those on both the right and the left who lauded his “mischievous spirit and Barnum-esque knack for creating a stir.” But he wasn’t really like some little bad boy, he was a big bad boy, capable of mean-spirited and dishonest acts.
As this long-lost video shows, however, the only thing Breitbart really cared about was winning the argument and defeating — by any means — the monolithic, juggernaught-like LEFT, which seeks to impose “cultural Marxism” and “political correctness” on the poor little helpless right.
So watch the tape (not the whole thing, it’s 18:30), but enough to remind you of Breitbart’s ability to talk and never really say anything. Given the current level of discourse in this country — an environment ripe for Breitbart’s brand of creative video editing and aggressive smear campaigns — we’re better off without him.
* Thanks for the correction, Paula.
Drug Testing Welfare Recipients Shows One Group Was Right — the Welfare Recipients
What do you do when the facts don’t support your actions, which were based on extremist rhetoric and false notions? If you’re Gov. Rick Scott (GOP/Tea – Fla.) you simply change the mission.
The results are in, and drug testing of welfare recipients as a means to deny them assistance costs more than it saves and fails to shrink the welfare rolls. On the plus side, it shows that drug use is lower among welfare recipients than in the general population.
The idea that people on public assistance are lazy, fatcat, dishonest, drug using cheaters of the system who eat steak and drive Cadillacs is so deeply held on the right that it can’t be shaken — no matter how much the facts pee all over it.
The facts have Gov. Scott and the Florida legislators who introduced the bill — which is being challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) even as it is under consideration in 25 other states — pivoting. They say their idea wasn’t so much to save taxpayer dollars, which is precisely what they claimed at the time, but to cut illegal drug use and…um…give me a second here…what sounds good? Something about children? Maybe?
“It’s not about money, it’s about the drug issue,” said Rep. Jimmie Smith, R-Lecanto, who sponsored the legislation. “It’s about using every tool we have in the toolbox to fight drugs.”
Jackie Schutz, a spokeswoman for the governor’s office, said the governor agreed: The drug welfare law is about protecting children and getting parents back to work.
So along with saving taxpayers money, fighting drugs, protecting children, and getting parents back to work, that brings the total number of things the new law isn’t accomplishing to four.
Vote on Ending Big Oil’s Government Handout Came Down to the Math
- Since Obama became president, my dog’s hip dysplasia has gotten worse.
- Since Obama became president, my car’s value has decreased.
- Since Obama became president, violence in Syria has skyrocketed.
- Since Obama became president, all kinds of sh*t has happened.
How about it? What else has changed over three years that we can blame on Obama? Anybody?
Back here in Realityland, we are amazed at the low-information people who eat up this post hoc mess, produced by the American Energy Alliance. The AEA is a lobbying group opposed to Obama’s plan to discontinue government subsidies for the richest industry in the world, which quit needing government subsidies in the days before Jed Clampett became a millionaire.
After Ad Stampede, Rush is a Few French Fries Short of a Happy Meal
Reality has never been Rush Limbaugh’s strong suit but his capacity for denial seems stronger than ever.
But one thing the man does know about is food, so we might have to accept his version of the effect of the advertiser exodus from his show.
The recovering drug addict has tainted the Rush brand to the point that the band “Rush” wants their good name back
…Limbaugh told his audience that the reports of advertiser defections had been greatly exaggerated by his opponents, and that the companies that pulled ads accounted for a small minority of the overall ad inventory on the 600 affiliates that carry his show.
“That’s like losing a couple of French fries in the container when it’s delivered to you at the drive-through,” Limbaugh said. “You don’t even notice it.”
I bet Rush does notice missing French fries but that’s neither here nor there. The fact is, at least 45 advertisers have (forever) pulled or (weaselly) suspended their ads from his show. As this goes to press, there is a big, blank hole on his web site where an ad used to be.
