Posts Tagged ‘Bob McCarty’

Bob McCarty

‘Fast and Furious’ Not Holder’s First Controversy Involving the Murder of an American Citizen

by Bob McCarty

While some in the news media say Eric Holder’s involvement in the controversial ATF gun-running program known as Operation Fast and Furious is “only the tip of the iceberg,” Salt Lake City attorney Jesse Trentadue says he “was way ahead of the curve” in pointing out the attorney general’s involvement in shady activities.  He points to a scathing 4-page letter (PDF) he sent to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Dec. 19, 2008, as proof.

In the letter, Trentadue told the chair of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee the following:

You need to know that Eric Holder, now nominated to become Attorney General, played a key role in covering up the torture-murder of my brother, Kenneth Michael Trentadue. You also need to know that Mr. Holder did this while serving as Deputy Attorney General and Acting Attorney General from 1997-2001.

This is not just my shocking opinion. It is also the opinion of many Americans. More importantly, it is supported by the Justice Department’s records and actions that came to light as a result of my family’s efforts to obtain a certain measure of justice for my brother’s murder.

Kenneth was killed in Oklahoma City in August of 1995. My family has spent over 13 years investigating my brother’s gruesome murder, including bringing a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court in 1997. In that case, the Justice Department hid and destroyed evidence that would have exposed my brother’s murders, and we believe that Mr. Holder was directly involved in those acts of obstruction of justice.

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Bob McCarty

Preliminary Hearing Set Monday Morning for Man Accused in Sept. 8 Murder at Missouri Bus Station

by Bob McCarty

A preliminary hearing for Mohamed H. Dawod is scheduled to take place Monday at 10 a.m. Central in Springfield, Mo. The 25-year-old Glendale, Ariz., man is charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the Sept. 8 shooting death of an Ohio man at a Greyhound bus station in the southwest Missouri community.

Mohamed H. Dawod

Dawod is accused of shooting Justin Hall, 32, of Mt. Vernon, Ohio, during a late-night rest stop for travelers on a St. Louis-bound bus full of passengers from as far away as Amarillo, Texas, point of origin for the bus.

On Sept. 9, I was the first to raise the possibility that the shooting might be a case of terrorism at my website and at BigGovernment.com after officials in the Southwest Missouri community, according to a report in the Springfield News-Leader, were quick to say the shooting appeared random.

A day later, a KSPR-TV report cited Springfield police officials as saying that, because of a language barrier, they only learned Dawod’s name and had asked the FBI to help them with the investigation. That local television report included this telling paragraph:

Ten separate witnesses say they did not notice the men fighting or arguing before the shooting. One passenger said she watched the suspect wander around the terminal until the call to line up to re-board the bus. “She then observed the suspect remove a silver and black handgun from a back pack he was carrying,” the officer wrote. “The suspect then pointed the handgun upward while saying something. The witness could not understand what the suspect said and didn’t know if he was speaking English.” No matter what was said the witness said Hall didn’t react or turn around. Shortly after the witness says Dawod shot him from a few feet away.

I went on to draw information from two other television news reports that seemed to reveal more than the “official” story lets on about the deadly incident that involved a man with a Muslim name allegedly shooting someone he did not know less than 48 hours ahead of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States:

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Bob McCarty

Green Beret Released From Prison, Fighting to Clear Name of Sex Assault Charges

by Bob McCarty

A lot has changed in the life of former Army Special Forces Sgt. 1st Class Kelly A. Stewart since the last time his name appeared on the virtual pages of Big Government’s sister site, Big Peace, Jan. 2, but the highly-decorated Green Beret and combat veteran is still fighting to clear his name from sexual assault charges that placed him behind bars.

SFC Kelly A. Stewart

On Aug. 26, 2010, Brig. Gen. Steven L. Salazar reduced Stewart’s sentence from eight years to three years, making him eligible for parole immediately. Seven months later, Stewart was released on parole from the U.S. Military Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, KS. Today, he is living and working in Virginia.

Despite being out from behind bars, Stewart is still fighting to clear his name and shed the “sex offender” label that will stay with him the rest of his life if justice remains out of reach.

How did he get that label in the first place?  Here’s the short version:

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Bob McCarty

Government Burning Family Tree at Both Ends

by Bob McCarty

EDITOR’S NOTE: Recently, a woman I’ll call “Janet” met with me for more than six hours to discuss two court cases in which she’s involved. One is a Family Court case involving the welfare of a child, while the other is a Probate Court case involving the welfare of that child’s great-grandmother. Names and case-specific personal details in the stories below have been changed in order to protect the identities of the innocent people involved.

Unlike other middle-age Americans who find themselves caring for both young children and elderly parents, Janet’s status as a member of the “sandwich generation” is unique. Rather than simply care for her almost-seven-year-old granddaughter and her octogenarian mother at the same time, the 40-something woman who once earned six-figure income as manager of a high-end fitness center/spa in a posh St. Louis suburb finds herself fighting for both of them in separate cases at the St. Louis County (Mo.) Courthouse. After years of legal wrangling, she now finds herself on the verge of bankruptcy, having thrown everything she had into the effort to save the two most important people in her life.

“Sometimes I feel like that movie is my life,” said Janet, referring to “Changeling,” a 2008 film in which a grief-stricken mother takes on the Los Angeles Police Department to her own detriment after it stubbornly tries to pass off an obvious impostor as her missing child. Unlike the movie, however, Janet’s child isn’t missing; instead, her granddaughter is on the verge of being taken from her family permanently. In addition, her mother has, for the most part, already been removed from her life.

SAVING A GRANDDAUGHTER

Janet’s most-pressing concern is the fight to keep her granddaughter, a little girl for whom she’s been the primary caregiver during most of early life, from being placed up for adoption — possibly by total strangers. In less than 10 days, a court hearing could determine whether or not she succeeds in the fight that begun in earnest 15 months ago.

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Bob McCarty

‘Operation Fast and Furious’ Coverup Not Unique

by Bob McCarty

Documents obtained exclusively by Fox News Channel suggest a third gun linked to “Operation Fast and Furious” was found at the scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s murder, according to the network’s exclusive report Friday. Further, those documents appear to contradict earlier assertions by federal agencies that police found only two weapons tied to the federal government’s now infamous gun interdiction scandal, and network sources say emails support their contention that the FBI concealed evidence to protect a confidential informant. But is this a unique occurrence? One man says, “No.”

Jesse Trentadue has seen similar behavior during his investigation of the Oklahoma City Bombing, an effort he hoped would lead to the truth about the death of his brother, Kenneth Trentadue several months after the bombing while in custody at the U.S. Bureau of Prisons Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City.

Via the Freedom of Information Act, Trentadue has, for more than three years, sought copies of the videotape images captured by more than 20 surveillance cameras operating in the vicinity of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City prior to 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995. In addition, he’s tried to obtain a copy of the original videotape taken by the dashboard camera on Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Charles Hanger’s vehicle showing the arrest of Timothy McVeigh a short time later on the same morning.

While the FBI did produce tapes from the buildings around the Murrah Building, the tapes had been edited, Trentadue said. As for the tapes from the cameras on the Murrah Building, the contents of which are describe in a timeline prepared by the Secret Service, the FBI claims it cannot find.

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Bob McCarty

Was the Deadly Shooting at Bus Station on Eve of 9-11 Anniversary a Terror Attack?

by Bob McCarty

Mohamed Dawod, a 25-year-old man from Glendale, Ariz., faces a murder charge today, accused in the shooting death of Justin Hall, 32, of Mt. Vernon, Ohio, at a Greyhound bus station in Springfield, Mo., late Thursday night. Whether or not this was a case of terrorism, however, remains up in the air after officials in the Southwest Missouri community were quick to say the shooting appeared random, according to a report in the Springfield News-Leader. But was it really?

According to a KSPR-TV report, Springfield police said that, because of a language barrier, they only learned Dawod’s name and have asked the FBI to help them with the investigation.  Also in that report was this telling paragraph:

Ten separate witnesses say they did not notice the men fighting or arguing before the shooting. One passenger said she watched the suspect wander around the terminal until the call to line up to re-board the bus. “She then observed the suspect remove a silver and black handgun from a back pack he was carrying,” the officer wrote. “The suspect then pointed the handgun upward while saying something. The witness could not understand what the suspect said and didn’t know if he was speaking English.” No matter what was said the witness said Hall didn’t react or turn around. Shortly after the witness says Dawod shot him from a few feet away.

Witnesses featured in two television news reports, however, seem to reveal more than the “official” story lets on about the deadly incident that involved a man with a Muslim name and Middle East appearance shooting someone he did not know less than 48 hours ahead of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

The first television report, which aired on St. Louis NBC affiliate KSDK prior to any names being released or charges filed, features witnesses saying it appeared the assailant would have kept shooting, but his gun jammed.

The second report (below), which aired on the same station after the Springfield Police Department announced the alleged shooter’s name and charges against him, offered much the same story.

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Bob McCarty

Wildfires Follow Grounding of Tankers, Budget Cuts

by Bob McCarty

While the KXAN television news video below paints a graphic portrait of the damage wrought by wildfires in the Texas Hill Country east of Austin during the past two weeks, it makes no mention of three blameworthy factors that might have played pivotal roles in reducing the size and scope of this red-hot disaster.

The three factors appear below:

First, there’s the lack of enough firefighting air tankers. One could blame President Barack Obama for this, according to a Human Events report Wednesday, because someone in his administration grounded nearly half of the federal government’s firefighting air tankers after a contract dispute with Aero Union just weeks before wildfires swept through the Lone Star State. That decision, no doubt, left fewer resources available to Gov. Rick Perry and his team to fight the fires.

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Bob McCarty

After Jimmy Hoffa Calls for War on Tea Party Movement, Barack Obama Forgets What He Said in Tucson

by Bob McCarty

Can’t remember what Barack Obama said when he spoke in Tuscon, Ariz., at the Jan. 12 campaign rally disguised as a memorial service to honor the people killed in Tucson four days earlier? You’re not alone. After hearing AFL-CIO President Jimmy Hoffa call for war on the Tea Party Monday, the president seemed as if he had forgotten his words, too. Those words, by the way, surface at the 1:01:19 mark of the video below:

His exact words:

“But at a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized – at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do – it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds.”

Now, fast forward to Monday when AFL-CIO President Jimmy Hoffa spoke to a mostly-union crowd at a Labor Day rally in Detroit before introducing President Obama. The video below captures the first “lowlight” of the event:

Hoffa used the following inflammatory rhetoric:

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Bob McCarty

Spread the Wealth Around: New Board Game Highlights Many Failures of Obama Administration

by Bob McCarty

A small business owner and self-described “recovering politico,” Philip Guthrie couldn’t resist the urge to poke fun at the Obama Administration. That’s why the 37-year-old developed SPREAD THE WEALTH AROUND, a board game that “exists to train you bitter clingers to practice the art of class warfare, dodge death panels, cheat on your taxes and do your small part to increase our national debt.”

Recently, Guthrie began shipping copies of “The Unauthorized Obama Board Game” to like-minded individuals around the world. My copy arrived last week, and I have to say it made a good first impression.

Pulling it out of the padded shipping pack, I found the likeness of President Barack Obama dressed as Uncle Sam and pointing his tax-and-spend finger in my direction. A synopsis of the game tells you a lot:

Choose membership in one of four organizations: Public Service, ObamaCare, Big Labor or Wall Street. From your perch atop the ruling class, you’ll bankrupt other players, drag them before show trials, carve them up in unnecessary surgery or just get one of your big labor goons to wack ‘em in Rocko Roulette.

Rather than accumulate wealth in Spread the Wealth Around, you’ll rack up mountains of debt – just like Obama’s America. Scam dead people and collect their Social Security in Public Office. Unplug granny and play the lawsuit lottery in ObamaCare. Gamble and go burnin’ and lootin’ with Big Labor. Cut in line for your Wall Street bailout – it’s all for the children.

Spread the Wealth Around is the perfect gift to cure that troglodyte Republican friend or conservative relation. No need for sensitivity training or coaching on tax and spend Obamanomics. Put away those teacher’s union pamphlets and Mao’s little red book. Play the political game that’s making the world safe for socialism!

Do you believe everything you see in the mainstream media, or just feel like you missed out on Cash for Clunkers and ACORN brothels? Do you want to take other people’s money for the nanny state and social justice? You’ll play this political game like any pro in Washington.

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Bob McCarty

Patent Reform Act Threatens ‘Engine’ of Prosperity

by Bob McCarty

Editor’s Note: Paul R. Hollrah is a senior fellow at the Lincoln Heritage Institute and a contributing editor for Family Security Matters and a number of online publications, including mine, BobMcCarty.com.  Today, I published a piece by Paul that deserves widespread attention.  For that reason, I share it below.

In early February 1997, I received a telephone call from a longtime friend in Washington. He was calling to say that we were being recruited for a very important assignment, an assignment related to national security.

He explained that, in 1996, the Clinton administration agreed to give the People’s Republic of China a complete set of magnetic tapes from the U.S. Patent and Trademarks Office computers, containing every iota of American technology registered with the patent office in the previous 160 years. With the information from those tapes on their computers, the Chinese would know exactly how to make everything we make. But more importantly, by tracking the long-term development of every conceivable kind of technology and extrapolating the path of development into the future, the Chinese could “leap-frog” our own technological development.

No American president could possibly think it was a good idea to do such a thing – unless, of course, he owed a debt of gratitude to the Chinese and he was more concerned about that than he was about the future prosperity of the American people. The American people would never have known how many factories were being built in remote provinces of China, employing workers who were happy to work for two or three dollars a day. When the proposed technology transfer was inadvertently reported in a Commerce Department newsletter, the offer was withdrawn.

But what was potentially more damaging to the United States was contained in a Memorandum of Understanding with the Japanese government, signed by Commerce Secretary Ron Brown… an agreement to introduce legislation in the U.S, Congress that would destroy the U.S. patent system, as we know it. The vehicles for that treachery, already introduced in Congress, were H.400 and S.507, the House and Senate versions of the Omnibus Patent Reform Act of 1997.

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Bob McCarty

Denver Media Outlets Fail to Cover Multitude of Juicy Stories Behind Recent Rabbit Farm Raid

by Bob McCarty

Since breaking news about a July 21 raid on a farm 12 miles north of Denver that resulted in local law enforcement officials seizing 193 rabbits from a nationally-recognized rabbit expert, I’ve learned more disturbing details about the case. Perhaps least shocking was my discovery that members of the Denver-area news media appear to have swallowed everything thrown at them by the Jefferson County (Colo.) Sheriff’s Office.

Before pressing on, I’ll recap the lowlights of what transpired after someone placed an anonymous call — the first ever, according to officials with the Sheriff’s Office — to a new statewide Crime Stoppers hotline that had been set up in June, specifically to take reports from citizens of suspected animal abuse:

1. Without a warrant, officials with the Sheriff’s Office descended upon Debe Bell’s Six Bells Farm Candle Factory and Rabbitry at approximately 10:30 a.m., accompanied by three veterinarians and several volunteers from the local branch of the House Rabbit Society — a nationwide group comprised of people who, according to Bell, think rabbits need to be raised like small children.

2. During the next three hours, according to Bell, the throng of law enforcement officers, veterinarians and volunteers opened the doors of her 600-square-foot barn, turned off the water to the swamp cooler (an air conditioning system for the barn) and caused the temperature in the barn to rise to 84 degrees.

3. Some six hours after they arrived, Sheriff’s Office officials produced a warrant which spokesperson Mark Techmeyer said was obtained after they convinced a judge that they had seen “what they believed to be some issues” at Six Bells Farm.

4. During the next four hours, according to Bell, the same throng loaded her rabbits in cardboard boxes, put them in a horse trailer and hauled them off to the county fairgrounds. There, the rabbits were placed in dog and cat crates with solid-bottom floors, meaning, “The minute they urinate, they’re standing in their own urine.”

5. For several days after their arrival at the fairgrounds, Bell said, the crated rabbits were kept in a non-air conditioned concrete-stalls horse barn until officials with the Foothills Animal Shelter — a group tasked by the Sheriff’s Office with caring for the animals — decided that wasn’t working out and obtained a swamp cooler.

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Bob McCarty

Anonymous Call to New Animal Abuse Hotline Leads to Raid on Colorado Woman’s Rabbit Farm

by Bob McCarty

Debe Bell will probably never forget Thursday, July 21. It was the day she found herself surrounded by people from her local law enforcement agency, and they weren’t there to help.

Unlike John Dollarhite of Nixa, Mo., and several magicians across the country who’ve been hounded and threatened with massive fines by agents from the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Bell had to go face to face with her hare-brained local sheriff.

An anonymous Crime Stoppers hotline tip led animal control officers from the Jefferson County (Colo.) Sheriff’s Office to descend upon Bell’s one-acre farm at about 10:30 that morning and, before the day was over, remove nearly 200 rabbits from the property. The 59 year old was being accused of 24 misdemeanor charges of cruelty to animals, including charges that she somehow mistreated two meat rabbits already inside her freezer. More on the hotline later.

Bell had purchased the 1.01-acre property 12 miles north of Denver nearly 40 years earlier with plans to raise as much livestock as she wanted. After all, it was zoned for agricultural purposes (“A-2”) and had everything she needed, including a four-bedroom, tri-level home and a 600-square-foot barn. It looked like a great place to raise a family.

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Bob McCarty

Appeals Court Upholds Army Officer’s Conviction, Ignores Evidence in Death of Al-Qaeda Operative

by Bob McCarty

Terrible news surfaced Wednesday: The U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals rejected the appeal of Michael C. Behenna of Edmond, Okla., and upheld his murder conviction and 15-year prison sentence at the U.S. Military Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth.

1st Lt. Michael Behenna

Who is Michael Behenna? He is the Army Ranger first lieutenant who, on July 31, 2008, was charged with the premeditated murder of Ali Mansur, a known Al-Qaeda agent operating near Albu Toma, an area north of Baghdad. He is the one-time leader of the 18-member Delta Company, 5th Platoon of the Army’s 101st Airborne Infantry Division who, seven months later, was convicted of unpremeditated murder and sentenced to 25 years confinement — later reduced to 15 — at Fort Leavenworth.

Why do I staunchly support Lieutenant Behenna? Because even the government’s top witness, Dr. Herb MacDonell — a man who wasn’t allowed to testify after new evidence was shared with him and he told prosecutors he believed the young officer was innocent.

Below is an excerpt from a Dec. 12, 2009, post at BigG, one of the more than four dozen posts I’ve written about Lieutenant Behenna’s case, that outlines the forensics expert’s position:

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Bob McCarty

St. Louis Cookie Stand Lawsuit Goes to Court

by Bob McCarty

Remember the story of sisters Caitlin and Abigail Mills, the St. Louis-area girls who were told to close their cookie stand by local bureaucrats who insisted they were violating city ordinances? Well, the girls — 16 and 14, respectively — are back in the news and headed to court.

On Thursday morning, according to attorneys Dave and Jenifer Roland at the Freedom Center of Missouri, St. Louis County Judge Maura McShane will hear arguments on Hazelwood’s motion to have the Mills’ cookie stand case thrown out.

I reported the basics of the case in a post April 8:

Each February and March for the past six years, Caitlin Mills, 16, and Abigail Mills, 14, have put a card table in front of their home in Hazelwood, Mo., and sold Girl Scout cookies to drivers passing by. This year, however, the city of Hazelwood notified their mother, Carolyn Mills, that the girls’ cookie stand violated city ordinances and must be shut down.

Despite much national media attention, including coverage at Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, city officials have, according to the Mills’ attorneys, “dug in their heels.”

In a media advisory today, the Rolands said the City of Hazelwood “has enlisted four high-priced attorneys to fight to ensure the government’s power to prohibit these icons of American childhood, and those attorneys have asked the court to dismiss the Mills family’s case.”

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Bob McCarty

Roy Blunt Sides With USDA Against Missouri Man Facing Up to $4 Million in Fines for Selling Bunnies

by Bob McCarty

The visual I found on the official website of U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) at 9:42 a.m. Central today seems an appropriate metaphor for the way the longtime congressman-turned freshman senator and members of his staff have rushed to the aide of Nixa, Mo., resident John Dollarhite.

Two months ago, Dollarhite contacted Senator Blunt for help in fighting USDA fines of up to $4 million in fines for selling too many bunnies. The senator replied with an electronic letter in which he said, among other things, that “Eliminating the option of humanely reducing the horse population may lead to even greater suffering on the part of these horses.” In other words, Dollarhite said, the senator’s staffers weren’t much help and his interaction with them left him “pissed off.”

Now, fast forward to the present day, and things aren’t looking much better.

On the Facebook group page, USDA Bunny Tyranny of the Dollarhite Family, the head of the Dollarhite household posted the following status update early this morning:

Roy Blunt is for BIG Goverment….. I called Roy’s office in Springfield & Jefferson City today. They are supportive of the USDA and I should NOT have the right to own any animals of any kind because I did not have a license…… Please protest Roy’s Offices.

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Bob McCarty

Missouri Rabbit Raiser Responds to USDA Proposal

by Bob McCarty

Facing a July 29 deadline, John and Judy Dollarhite of Nixa, Mo., responded Friday to officials at the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service with a “Substitute Stipulation Agreement” that, hopefully, will allow the couple to avoid fines of up to $4 million in fines for selling too many bunnies.

The substitute agreement, prepared on behalf of John Dollarhite by attorney Richard Anderson, was submitted almost a month after I reported on John Dollarhite being “not happy” with the USDA’s revised offer which came on the heels of substantial national attention — including coverage on Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, The Rush Limbaugh Show and The Drudge Report — about their plight.

The substitute agreement was addressed to Sarah L. Conant, a USDA bureaucrat with a very long title — Chief, Animal Health and Welfare Enforcement Branch, Investigative and Enforcement Services — who was the focus of my June 27 post, Animal Rights Activism Fuels USDA Rabbit Chase.

Below is the “meat” of the cover letter that accompanied the substitute agreement:

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Bob McCarty

Project Gunrunner Tied Directly to President Obama

by Bob McCarty

In a Dec. 3, 2009, article about the announced resignation of Deputy Attorney General David Ogden, the Wall Street Journal’s Evan Perez wrote that Ogden hasn’t been identified with any major Justice Department policy initiatives. Now that this C-SPAN video from March 24, 2009, is making the rounds anew, it appears Ogden’s name — and that of President Barack Obama — is going to be associated with one now.

That initiative — which could go down in the annals of presidential history as “Obama’s Watergate — goes by the name, “Operation Fast and Furious,” and it’s an offshoot of “Project Gunrunner.”

Ogden is shown in the video that resurfaced Friday as he addresses reporters at a Department of Justice briefing.

“The president has directed us to take action to fight these cartels,” Ogden begins, “and Attorney General Holder and I are taking several new and aggressive steps as part of the Administration’s comprehensive plan.”

He goes on to outline that plan, using the exact words below:

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Bob McCarty

Rep. Billy Long Votes to Fund Pigford, Then Cites Need to ‘Slow Out-of-Control Government Spending’

by Bob McCarty

Three weeks ago, I published two posts about a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to continue funding for the colossal case of fraud known as the Pigford II Settlement. Today, I offer a third piece in which I cast light on the thought process — or lack thereof — behind one congressman’s decision to vote in favor of making payments of $1.25 billion to a large group of people. Each person in the group claimed to be a black farmer discriminated against by the USDA but, not surprisingly, many turned out to be con artists backed by hungry class-action lawyers.

Unlike Tea Party rock star U.S. Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), the subject of my first post who later apologized for casting a vote in favor of the funding, U.S. Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo.) appears unapologetic in standing behind his vote.

In response to a recent inquiry from constituent Greg Cable, the freshman Republican from Missouri’s 7th Congressional District sent a 432-word reply via email to “explain” his vote in favor of funding Pigford II payouts.

Disappointed with Long’s response and a firm believer in the saying, “Sunshine is the best disinfectant,” the Ozark, Mo., father of four and grandfather of just as many shared it with the folks at BigGovernment.com. Finally, Editor-in-Chief Mike Flynn shared it with me.

Noteworthy in Congressman Long’s reply was the following statement he made about voting against the amendment proposed by U.S. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) that would have prohibited Pigford II funding:

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Bob McCarty

FBI Official to Federal Judge: OKC Bombing Videotapes ‘Might Have Been Misfiled, Impossible to Know Where’

by Bob McCarty

In a response filed yesterday to a federal judge’s order May 11, an FBI official offered no denials about the existence of video images captured by more than 20 surveillance cameras operating prior to 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995, in the vicinity of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. Instead, he explained that officials at the bureau merely cannot find the tapes and raised the possibility that they “might have been misfiled and thus could be located somewhere other than in the OKBOMB file (though it would be impossible to know where).”


The order, issued by Judge Clark Waddoup in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, Central Division, stemmed from the bureau’s failure to comply with a three-year-old Freedom of Information Act request submitted by Salt Lake City lawyer Jesse Trentadue, a man on a quest for answers related to the Oklahoma City Bombing and the death of his brother, Kenneth Trentadue, who died under suspicious circumstances several months later while in custody at the U.S. Bureau of Prisons Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City.

Judge Waddoups’ order was both clear and concise. The items to which the FBI was to respond by June 30, 2011, and how the bureau responded (shown in italics after each item) appear below:

1. Affirm whether the six government officials from the FBI and CIA who had submitted affidavits in this case had misrepresented information or provided incomplete or otherwise misleading information to the Court. In response to this item, the only thing Judge Waddoups received as an affidavit from David M. Hardy, section chief of the FBI’s Record/Information Dissemination Section of the Records Management Divsion in Winchester, Va. The CIA submitted nothing.

2. Advise whether the I-Drive and S-Drive, data storage areas on the FBI computer system, were searched for the videotapes and other documents sought by my FOIA request and, if not, why not. In response, the FBI told the judge the I-Drive no longer exists and that FBI officials have no reason to believe that S-Drive would contain anything.

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Bob McCarty

Animal Rights Activism Fuels USDA Rabbit Chase

by Bob McCarty

Humane Society Lawyers Fight Culture of Cruelty, Government Bureaucracy

Soon after reading the words above, which appeared as the headline of an article published in November 2007 on the University of Virginia School of Law website, I discovered something ironic about Sarah L. Conant.

According to HumaneWatch, Conant is a 2006 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law in Charlottesville.

According to a 2006 article published on the law school website, Conant’s favorite law school experience was founding the Virginia Animal Law Society, a nonprofit student organization affiliated with the radical animal rights organization, Animal Legal Defense Fund.

According to the same article, her post-graduation plans included serving as a Litigation Fellow for The Humane Society of the United States, Animal Protection Litigation Section, in Washington, D.C.

Now, let’s return to the headline of the 2007 article mentioned atop this post and expose the irony.

Today, Conant is an animal rights activist lawyer-turned government bureaucrat who, as a USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service employee with a very long title — Chief, Animal Health and Welfare Enforcement Branch, Investigative and Enforcement Services — is threatening John and Judy Dollarhite with fines of up to $3.9 million in fines for the “crime” of selling more than $500 worth of bunnies during a single calendar year without a USDA license. In short, Conant is now the government bureaucrat against whom she once claimed to fight.

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