John Cornyn (R) TX. wants to "end" "Fast/Furious"-type operations...

[SteveM]

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-cornyn-furious-20111018,0,6241022.story

Senator John Cornyn, (R) Texas, wants to stop federal operations like "Fast and Furious" from happening again. To do this, he is introducing rider legislation...

"Cornyn is trying to attach his bill to a spending package making its way through the Senate that includes annual funding for the Department of Justice."
______________________

Curiously, this may be of political benefit to President Obama. He could promise to support the legislation and extract himself from the hot water of these evidently multi-agency gun "tracking" scandals in exchange for dropping of any probes of Justice Department officials -- including A.G. Holder. This would benefit the GOP which has yet to indicate it wishes to probe the "gun walker"-type operations conducted under George W. Bush some four years earlier.

Both "sides" could be satisfied because these operations are preeminently foreign policy concerns; very few in the Beltway and MSM want to go there. And both sides know that such operations can resume after a sufficiently decent interval.

[bbgrunt]

1. ugh. more "deals" to save political hides rather than to do what is right.

[spin]

3. Important people rarely get charged or go to jail ...

It's good to be rich and powerful in the United States.

[spin]

2. There is a possibility that we are just seeing the tip of an iceberg ...

and it may be far better for the investigators to avoid approaching too close as they investigate. If so, the trick might be to find a means of appearing to have resolved the problem.

Iran Contra involved only the Republican administration under Reagan, this scandal might make both the Obama and the Bush administration look bad.

Our country has a long history of questionable operations in foreign nations which is why many nations really do not view us as the good guys in white hats.

[SteveM]

4. In my opinion, MSM won't talk straight about 4 topics:

(1) War on Drug
(2) Gun control
(3) U.S. invasion of foreign countries
(4) Who really runs U.S.

[spin]

5. In this forum we argue about issues involving the Second Amendment ...

and we usually agree that owing firearms involves great responsibility.

But in reality, the First Amendment and freedom of the press is far more important to preserving the freedoms we enjoy than the the right to keep and bear arms. Journalists should be the watchdogs of our society and should be willing to ferret out and reveal corruption and illegal activities in our nation. If they ignore the truth in order to push an agenda, they fail their responsibility. The first duty of a free press is to preserve freedom by honest reporting and by having the guts to investigate those in power and uncover their abuses of power.

Unfortunately, the main stream media appears to be owned by the same corporations that own our politicians. A reporter will find himself in an unemployment line if he does not follow the guidelines set by his editors and they also have limits and guidelines to adhere to.

I would imagine that our founding fathers are rolling over in their graves.

Perhaps the Internet will save our nation. Unfortunately it will probably become tightly regulated and because of laws such as the Patriot Act, anyone who exposes anything that endangers the establishment will be quickly stifled and their voice silenced.

[Katya Mullethov]

7. Liberty means responsibility.

That is why most men dread it.

[Callisto32]

9. Interesting list.

I would like to characterize them a little differently.

(1) How the government has decided it owns and controls your body.
(2) How the government has decided that only its agents should probably be allowed to have the best tools available to protect all those bodies they own.
(3) How the government has decided that it gets to control all those bodies around the world, no matter their geographical location.
(4) Who the people are who apparently own ALL our bodies, and therefore everything else.

[Lurks Often]

6. The amendment passed unanimously in the Senate

and it will certainly pass the House.

And I don't see the investigation being dropped. The only question now is when Fast & Furious blows up on the administration.

Edited because my original post was vague

[Kennah]

8. 99 to 0. Close enough. Wonder who was out sick today?

[SteveM]

10. I tend to lean in your direction. I floated the possibility of "dropping the issue"...

because it presents the opportunity for both "parties" to step back from yet another "guns/drugs/hostages" investigation which might result in more political volatility. I recall the "contras-drugs" deal cut by the feds and L.A. drug dealers, widely credited for spreading the "crack epidemic."

"In 1996 Gary Webb wrote a series of articles published in the San Jose Mercury News, which investigated Nicaraguans linked to the CIA-backed Contras who had smuggled cocaine into the U.S. which was then distributed as crack cocaine into Los Angeles and funneled profits to the Contras. The CIA was aware of the cocaine transactions and the large shipments of drugs into the U.S. by the Contra personnel and directly aided drug dealers to raise money for the Contras.

In 1996 CIA Director John M. Deutch went to Los Angeles to attempt to refute the allegations raised by the Gary Webb articles, and was famously confronted by former Los Angeles Police Department officer Michael Ruppert, who testified that he had witnessed it occurring.<8>"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_drug_trafficking

This was shut down immediately by MSM when the L.A. Times, WaPo and the N.Y. Times ran simultaneous same-day editorials condemning the stories written by reporter Gary Webb (Pulitzer winner, IIRC). Webb later "died" from a "suicide."

Given the margins you report, it seems there is nothing to impede an investigation into this multi-agency gun-trafficking scheme. MSM is severely weakened in terms of influence since the days of Webb and crack cocaine, and at least some of the main players of the media are still pursuing the matter.