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:

“DOJ’s Drug Enforcement Administration, which already has the largest U.S. drug enforcement presence in Mexico with 11 offices in that country, is placing 16 new DEA positions in Southwest border field operations specifically to target Mexican trafficking and associated violence.”

“The DEA is also deploying four new mobile enforcement teams to specifically target Mexican methamphetamine trafficking, both along the border and in U.S. cities impacted by the cartels.”

“DOJ’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is increasing its efforts by adding 37 new employees in three new offices, using $10 million in Recovery Act funds and redeploying 100 personnel to the Southwest border in the next 45 days to fortify its Project Gunrunner which is aimed at disrupting arms trafficking between the United States and Mexico.”

“ATF is doubling its presence in Mexico itself, from five to nine personnel working with the Mexicans, specifically to facilitate gun-tracing activity which targets the illegal weapons and their sources in the United States.”

After watching this video, the reasons behind Ogden’s resignation after working for Attorney General Eric Holder for less than a year, appear seem clear: He wanted to reduce his chances of becoming the “fall guy” for the Obama Administration after news of this doomed-from-the-start gun-running operation became public. Nineteen months later, the “cat” that is Project Gunrunner is out of the proverbial bag:

Sen. Chuck Grassley: Guns in ATF sting tied to agent’s death (USA TODAY, 2/01/2011);

U.S. urged dealer to continue gun sales despite concerns, inquiry finds (Los Angeles Times, 4/15/2011);

Gun program deserves inquiry (San Antonio.com, 6/16/2011);

Acting ATF Director to Resign Over Sting (NewsMax.com, 6/20/2011);

Another scandal that could take Obama down (World Net Daily, 7/9/2011); and

Issa, ATF Agent Warn of ATF Cover-up (NewsMax.com, 7/11/2011).

Is there any room under the bus?

Yes, Debbie Wasserman Schultz is not bright enough to catch the “illegal” part in the phrase “illegal immigrant.” Apparently the question, “what part of illegal don’t you get,” is one she doesn’t get.

Naked Emperor has the video of Wasserman Schultz from May 26 of this year.

Transcript:

I think the president was clearly articulating that his position — Democrats position — is that we need comprehensive immigration reform. We have 12 million undocumented immigrants in this country that are part of the backbone of our economy. And that, that is not only a reality but a necessity. And that it would be harmful if some — you know, the Republican solutions that I’ve seen in the last few years is that we should just pack them all up and ship them back to their own countries, and in fact it should be a crime and we should arrest them all. I mean that was in legislation that Jim Sensenbrenner advanced a couple of years ago.

So, Wasserman Schultz’ position is that we have no economy without illegal immigrants and she doesn’t understand that illegal immigrants are actually already criminals for breaking tour immigration and employment laws in the first place. Further she contends that Jim Sensenbrenner and the Republicans suggested that illegals should be all rounded up and deported.

Lies in every respect.

As to the Sensenbrenner bill she is referring to, I’ll guess that it was H.R. 4437, Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005. This bill passed the House in 2005 but was stalled in the Senate.

Contrary to Wasserman Schultz’ lies, however, the bill did not require the government to “pack them all up and ship them back to their own countries.” The bill had no provision for all illegals to be rounded up and shipped home. In fact, no Republican sponsored and passed bill has ever proposed this.

Sensenbrenner’s bill did require illegals picked up in the regular process of criminal investigations to be sent home once their illegal status was determined, granted. But there was no wholesale requirement to round up all illegal aliens and ship them home. This claim is simple demagoguery. It’s an outright lie.

But, Schultz has never been anything but a total stranger to the truth, that’s for sure.

I have to say, the last two DNC Chairs have really been examples of the worst the Democrats have to offer and is proof that they really don’t see politics as an adult’s game. Previous to this nut as DNC chair the Dems had Howard “Yeeeogh” Dean as their chair. Both Dean and Schultz are vicious attack dogs that use lies and calumny to sell their DNC product. These screaming mimis are as far from the model of our statesmanlike founders as can be imagined. This is not how our founders saw the official face of politics at all.

(H/T The Blaze)

After listening to the audio from our interview several times I must say I find it indistinguishable.  You can listen to the You Tube below and decide for yourself.

You Tube: Darrell Issa interview

The Washington Post is reporting that the words ‘act of war’ were used in a previous interview conducted with California talk show host Rick Roberts a few weeks ago.  Either way over 2500 weapons were inexcusably allowed to walk, two Border Agents are dead, the DOJ is stonewalling Issa’s subpoena requests, and the Congressman should be applauded for his efforts to find out who made the decision behind Projects ‘Gun Runner’ and ‘Fast and Furious’.

In another development CBSnews.com is reporting that “virtually all the top ATF managers in Phoenix involved in the controversial “Fast and Furious” operation have been reassigned and replaced”, an “unprecedented” move according to one insider.

Could it be Issa was correct when he compared this to Iran-Contra and said, “When a government agency makes a mistake they stall, delay and cover up“?  Stay tuned. There is more to come and I don’t believe we have heard the last on this from our neighbors south of the border.

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What is a sane immigration policy you ask?

Well it starts with a simple and straight forward process for immigrating here, procuring a work visa, obtaining residency and finally becoming a citizen. What we have now is a highly political and difficult to navigate hodge-podge of ever changing rules that are meant to help fulfill some type of social engineering ideal. Currently it takes a lot of time, money, connections and luck to make it through, and that’s if you’re from a “preferred nation”. When I say time, I mean decades! If you’re from a country like Mexico with high demand to immigrate, you’re looking at a wait of over 130 years. No wonder people take their chances making a run for the border. This idea of “take your spot in the immigration line and you’ll get there someday” is a mirage. If someone told you the line at the DMV was 130 years long and others randomly get to jump in front of you, what are the odds that you’ll just drive without a license?

We used to have a simple path to citizenship that gave people who had endured so much to come here a long term stake in this nation. They wanted it to be excellent because they felt like it was now their home too. And generationally immigrant’s kids tend to be more upwardly mobile than their parents were. They also are more educated, speak English as a first language and culturally are as American as apple pie.

We need to get rid of the whole per nation quota system.

Instead we should have a far more open and quick system akin to the spirit of Ellis Island. We should offer lots of migrant work visas for lower skilled workers and Green Cards for the premier workers and investors. We make it clear what is expected of those seeking citizenship and provide a clear path to that goal. If you work hard, are productive, are not a criminal or terrorist, and remain a good standing guest in America for a certain number of years, you can be a citizen.

By doing this it also helps us secure our borders against the people who are a threat. With the volume of the good intentioned shifting from the “back door” to the “front door”, it makes it much easier to focus on the nefarious still trying to gain entrance illegally. We need to have secure borders, but they need to be secured against those wishing to do us harm, not those who wish to contribute to America and make a better life.

We can either turn the problem of illegal immigration into the prosperity boom of legal immigration or go deaf yelling slogans of a centuries old fear.

Sign on the other side of American Rancher X’s fence

The day ended without incident, and the next day began the same. We were heading to another key trafficking area, and were going to go right up to the border. Two of our team, non-journalist, non-militia civilians, wanted to engage in a little for-the-camera horseplay, and piss on Mexico. Despite knowing better, I told them it was okay, and that I’d take the shot. I had begun to think that I was taking things too seriously the day before, and should lighten up.

Getting closer to the border, we continued our regular task of finding, tracking, mapping, and decoding what we were discovering to be a vast network of illegal immigrant trails. Many of the trails were strewn with every type of human debris imaginable, some of it layered so thick it was clear that the layers were years in the making.

We tracked the trails toward a hill, and remounted our vehicle to overtake it. Cresting it, we made our way forward down one of the typical dirt roads through this ranch land, and about a mile later found ourselves finally smack up against the border for the first time. How did we know? About ten feet in front of us was a rambling, rusted fence with a gate featuring a small hand-painted sign that read, “Mexico.”

We got out and horsed around. Grizz and Reloader did their comedy routine, and I shot the comedy video. We all took more photos around the sign. The whole 15 minutes wasn’t too terribly silly, but it certainly wasn’t up to operational standards, especially security-wise. Fuck it, we were on simple ranch land in motherfucking Arizona, USA. We mounted back up and followed the dirt road, parallel to the ramshackle fence, east over a hill. Cresting it and rolling down, we noticed our second vehicle hadn’t followed over. Nailer, its driver, suddenly appeared at the top, waving his arms. Something was wrong. We doubled back.

Reloader, back to camera, Grizz, having climbed American Rancher X’s gate into Mexico

Nailer had disappeared from the top but we saw him stopped about halfway down the hill, looking up, waiting for us. When we reached him, he sidled up and pointed further down to where Black Flag and Havoc were being confronted by a man on a horse, gesticulating with his cowboy hat.

“That’s the fuckin’ rancher. He wants us to get off his ranch. He says we’re gonna get him killed.”

“Yeah?” I responded to Nailer.

“Yeah.”

I looked at the trio again. Black Flag was nodding and heading back toward his vehicle.

“He says we’re in the middle of some bad shit here.”

“Yeah? I wanna go to talk to this fuckin’ guy.” I grabbed a pen and a little notebook and jumped out of the Jeep. As I closed the 30 meters between us, I caught the rancher’s attention. He stiffened back on his horse, pulled his hat off his head, closed it to his heart, and then swept it out to his right until his arm was at a full 90 degrees. That arm suddenly appeared to be ordering me out as I closed the last few steps and he first spoke to me, “I’m sorry, but I have to ask you to leave, because they’re watching us right now, and they will kill me.”

Keep in mind, all of us were toting very serious combat rifles and pistols.

“Well, first of all,” I started as I stopped, “This is your land, so we’ll just go if you want us gone, you don’t have to give us an explanation.” I stuck my hand up to shake his. “But my name’s Pat Dollard, and I’m a journalist, and I’m tryin’ to figure out just what the fuck’s going on down here,” I said, as we shook and he introduced himself, “X.”

“I’m just tryin’ to get the truth, because I don’t think anybody’s down here, really getting it, or down here at all.”

Grizz, in Mexico, saluting something

“No, no they aren’t.”

X looked relatively young and healthy to me, 43 maybe, but he was tense, and he looked beleaguered. Tired, brittle, coiled even. Thin, leathery skin, hat and arms banded with sweat, average height, imperfect and stained teeth, old Lee jeans and a faded white cowboy shirt.

Grizz, a very religious medical marijuana dealer, suddenly interjected with some shit about the truth and God, and I cut him off fast before he stained me with his syrup. I understood his emotionalism given X’s introduction, but I needed this rancher to respect and trust me.

“I’d like to get your story, and get it up on one of Andrew Breitbart’s websites. Andrew runs the sites Big Government and ….”

“I know who he is,” he interrupted with a tight nod.

“So, are you telling me fucking cartel guys are looking at us right now?”

“Yeah. And they see you, and they don’t know what the fuck you’re here for, but they presume you’re here to steal their money and their drugs. And if you do, after they’ve seen me talking to you, I’m dead. And maybe they just don’t want to wait that long, and they drop us both right now.”

X was country, but at the same time, sharp as a New Orleans street hustler, and a tough little fucker, I could just tell. You’ve seen enough shit, and been around enough men who deal with it, and you get a read for them, fast.

“No shit.”

“No shit.”

“With binos, on us, right now?”

“Yeah.”

“Where in the fuck are they?”

Nodding to a different hill with each mentioned location, “Right there, right there, and right there.”

I immediately imagined Grizz’s chest exploding as he pissed on Mexico. And I was just as immediately disturbed at how close our situation here on the border, right here at home in the USA, really was to the sniper hell of Ramadi, according to X.

“Look,” he said, leaning forward on his horse, “here’s how it works.” And we were off to the races…

A top story on March 30 is that Arizona rancher Robert Krentz was apparently gunned down by an illegal immigrant. Krentz’s family has maintained a ranch in southern Arizona since 1907, and he was known as a compassionate man who gave water and medical care to illegal immigrants crossing his land from Mexico.

Krentz was found shot to death, slumped over his vehicle on his ranch. Police dogs tracked the shooter to the Mexican border 15 miles away, indicating that the shooter was almost certainly someone in this country illegally from Mexico.

The murder of this good man casts in stark relief the outrageous failure of President Barack Obama and Secretary Janet “the system worked” Napolitano to deal with the enormous problem America faces as a result of illegal immigrants. Perhaps if they weren’t so busy taking over the economy (which the Constitution forbids them from doing), they’d actually secure the border (which the Constitution requires them to do).

This outrage occurred just as the Obama administration plans on pivoting to the immigration issue, at the perfect time to try to create a wedge issue to scare Hispanics into voting Democrat in 2010 in order to mitigate the massive losses in Congress that Democrats are sure to suffer after more than a year of ramming through a far-left agenda with extreme partisanship.

Immigration is definitely a problem that needs to be addressed. There are approximately 12 million foreigners in this country illegally, creating serious problems for a whole host of issues, from education, to healthcare, to employment, to law enforcement.

And this issue must be addressed in a humane and compassionate manner. Most illegal immigrants don’t want to break the law. They’re just desperate to find work to provide for themselves and their families, and they know that America is a land of opportunity. So they break our laws to get here and stay here because they’re focused on making a better life for their families.

In tackling immigration, we need to always remember that most of these people don’t want to harm Americans; they just want to help themselves and their loved ones. And they’re desperate to do so.

But the United States is a prosperous land of opportunity only because we live by the rule of law. We’re a country that respects property rights and business contracts, and that encourages free markets and private businesses (at least until President Obama took office).

We’re also a country where lawbreaking is punished, and where violent criminals are held to account. Foreigners who murder innocent Americans in cold blood should receive the ultimate punishment, as a clear statement that such crimes shall be met with swift and sure justice in the United States.

Ronald Reagan once said, “A nation that cannot control its own borders is not a nation.” The Constitution tasks the federal government with controlling our borders, to maintain an effective immigration policy and to protect the property, rights, and lives of American citizens.

The tragic murder of Robert Krentz shows just how abysmally the federal government has failed us all in this regard. Secretary Napolitano needs to admit that the system did not work. And President Obama had better drop the hyper-partisanship to address immigration in a way that meets Republican demands to uphold the rule of law and not reward illegal behavior.

This is not the time for far-left pandering or promises of amnesty in the galling hopes of political gain. Nor is this the time for cramming through a law instead of beginning a long, slow, deliberate conversation with the opposition party and the American people. This is the time for addressing a serious problem for this country, a problem that quite clearly entails a deadly threat to our citizens.

Ken Blackwell and Ken Klukowski are the authors of the forthcoming book The Blueprint: Obama’s Plan to Subvert the Constitution and Build an Imperial Presidency, on sale April 27.

The city combines old-fashioned Mexican charm with a modern edge. In a city where the sun is always shining, it’s the perfect place to get away for a bit of relaxation or stimulation.

If you’re looking for trendy boutique hotels, an exploding culinary scene, or visiting the local ACORN to get your underage prostitutes smuggled across the Mexican border, you’re in the right place.

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