The following is from Representative Chaffetz’  public Twitter account. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Most residents of the US have never seen the arid border that is constantly under discussion due to its lack of security. This photo essay helps demonstrate more clearly the situation Border Patrol and Sheriffs in the area have to deal with daily.
Image 1: A visit to the Eloy ICE Detention Center. Of the 1493 inmates over 900 are classified as OTM (Other Than Mexican).  Images 2,3,4: Border ‘fences’ near Yuma.

Images 5,6: Agents use ATV’s to patrol the rugged sand dune area. Note the lack of shielding for the agents. During the visit 9 Romanians were caught trying to enter the US illegally.
Images 7,8: At the remote San Luis 1 station 16-20,000 passengers per day cross into the US. Agents use dogs and behavior profiling in their search for illegal contraband.

Image: 9 Why doesn’t the TSA use dogs and behavior profiling as effectively as the Border Patrol? Image 10: Another stretch of border ‘fence’. Images 11,12: A US elementary school just North of the border has 60 minor children who walk across the border each day to and from school. No paperwork. No questions asked.

Images 13,14: Just two of the vehicles stopped during the congressmen’s visit with hidden marijuana and meth.

You can read more about the trip at the SLC Tribune.

The men in this Jeep cleverly set up tracks on both sides of the fence from Mexico into Arizona. Unfortunately, they didn’t quite figure the angle of the track and the length of the Jeep.
Oops.
Those in the Jeep escaped back into Mexico where they will surely try again another day.

Border security had been an ongoing concern, especially for Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer who has been continually at odds at the Obama administration’s handling of the serious issue. Gov Brewer stated that “there should be anger, too. Righteous anger – at the kind of evil that causes sorrow this deep, and at the federal failure and political stalemate that has left our border unsecured and our Border Patrol in harm’s way.”

The shooting took place just 5 miles from the Mexican border in a heavily-used corridor for drug smuggling where the officers were patrolling on horseback and sent to investigate a tripped ground sensor. The sensors detect movement in areas frequented by border-crossers.

A 20-mile wide search for Ivie’s killer is now in progress with law enforcement using helicopters and horses to cover the zone although it is likely that the suspects fled back into Mexico after the shooting.

Nicholas Ivie is the first Agent to have been fatally shot since the infamous Brian Terry shooting at the end of 2010.

The injured agent went into surgery today for non-life-threatening injuries to the ankle and buttocks and is expected to recover.

Yes, she really is that stupid. No, Nancy, this doesn’t have a damn thing to do with the latest manufactured nonsense from the Democrats about voter suppression. This is about the fact that there is a mother and father out there that wants to know the truth about what happened to their son. But hey, I guess we can give you a pass on the finer points here, since the Obama Administration in general can’t seem to remember that border patrol agent’s name in the first place.

His name is Brian Terry, and he was killed with weapons that Attorney General Eric Holder authorized to be sent across the border, and handed to drug cartels in Mexico. It’s one name, and it’s been repeated countless times in the past 18 months. We all know you’re all a little mentally inept there in the White House, but really? Well, maybe you should get a pass on that as well, since even your own mouthpieces in the press can’t get the story straight.

I guess we can take at least a little solace in the fact that AG Holder was finally cornered on his little blame game. Yes, he finally did acknowledge under oath that “Fast and Furious” was not the same as “Wide Receiver”, but given the history of this administration so far, don’t expect that is the end of the “Blame Bush” meme on this case.

Now, if we expect the Obama Administration to be honest about this case, we’re just as delusional as they are. Perhaps the most disturbing fact in all of this is the apathy surrounding the situation. While it should be, it is not being compared with Watergate. We should be listening to men like Fred Thompson, and more importantly, acting. No, “Fast and Furious” is not a distraction. Yes, the Romney campaign should be focusing primarily on the economy, however some time should be dedicated to this case. It is not just about getting closure for Brian Terry’s family. It is about an administration that has overstepped the bounds, and placed our border patrol personnel in jeopardy. It is about a pervasive arrogance that has consumed not only this administration, but also the political left in this country in general.

I’ve only barely scratched the surface here with this little round-up of information and clips this week. It probably isn’t the last time I’ll say anything about this, but in the meantime, I strongly suggest that you educate yourselves, and read Katie Pavlich’s book below.

Attorney General Eric Holder

Katie Pavlich, News Editor for Townhall, released today that contempt charges will be brought against Eric Holder on June 20th.  Pavlich has been covering the Fast and Furious scandal and has written a book about this egregious episode in government ineptitude.

Fast and Furious was a botched “gunwalking” operation headed by the ATF that allowed thousands of guns to cross into Mexico in the hopes of capturing key drug cartel kingpins in the ongoing narcotics war.  It is a conflict that has already claimed over 30,000 lives since it began in 2006.  What makes Fast and Furious horrific is the fact that the guns used in the operation were responsible for the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.   Holder was given the option to have a contempt charge tossed if he complied with the October 2011 Congressional Subpoena.  He did not.  Here is Chairman Darrell Issa’s statement compliments of Katie Pavlich and Townhall.com:

 

For over a year and a half, the House Oversight Committee, with Senator Chuck Grassley, has conducted a joint investigation of reckless conduct in Operation Fast and Furious. With the support of House leadership, the Republican Conference, and even some Democratic Members who have expressed concern to the White House over the Justice Department’s failure to cooperate, this investigation has yielded significant results. The Attorney General has acknowledged that the operation was fundamentally flawed and he has committed to take steps to ensure that it does not occur again. Evidence found in applications for wiretaps shows that although senior officials were given information about reckless tactics, they still signed affirmations that they had reviewed the investigation and determined that electronic surveillance of phones was necessary.

Despite what the investigation has uncovered through whistleblowers and documents the Justice Department had tried to hide, the Committee’s work is not yet complete.  Attorney General Holder has failed to meet his legal obligations pursuant to the October 12 subpoena.  House leaders reiterated this failure in a May 18, 2012, letter. Specifically, the Justice Department has refused to turn over critical documents on the grounds that they show internal Department deliberations and were created after February 4, 2011 – the date Justice issued a false denial to Congress.  Contempt will focus on the failure to provide these post February 4th documents.

The Obama Administration has not asserted Executive Privilege or any other valid privilege over these materials and it is unacceptable that the Department of Justice refuses to produce them.  These documents pertain to Operation Fast and Furious, the claims of whistleblowers, and why it took the Department nearly a year to retract false denials of reckless tactics.  The Justice Department’s actions have obstructed the investigation. Congress has an obligation to investigate unanswered questions about attempts to smear whistleblowers, failures by Justice Department officials to be truthful and candid with the congressional investigation, and the reasons for the significant delay in acknowledging reckless conduct in Operation Fast and Furious.

While the Justice Department can still stop the process of contempt, this will only occur through the delivery of the post February 4, 2011, documents related to Operation Fast and Furious and whistleblower accusations subpoenaed by the Committee.  If the Attorney General decides to produce these subpoenaed documents, I am confident we can reach agreement on other materials and render the process of contempt unnecessary.”

 

Kenneth Melson, Chief Director of BATFE (Wikipedia Image)

Western Journalism is reporting on a recently surfaced e-mail that shows Kenneth Melson and other officials at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives did indeed know about the operation despite continued denials of that knowledge.

The e-mail from January 2011 shows Director Kenneth Melson and chief council Steve Rubenstein discussing the operation

Melson found out about a web site posting referring to AR-15 rifles “walked” across the border to drug cartels and asked Rubenstein for advice as to how he should handle the situation.

According to the report, Rubenstein responded that public disclosure could endanger agents and that if the person divulging the information was an employee the person would be liable for disciplinary action under the code of conduct rules of the department.

Melson responded that he would refer the matter to Internal Affairs for investigation. The Obama Administration, including then director Melson, have denied any knowledge of this operation.

“Fast and Furious was not the first federal investigation in which “bad people are allowed to continue to do bad things in the name of going after bad people.”

Once again I find myself quoting the duck in the AFLAC commercial- HUH???????????

What a bunch of double-talking nonsense. This reminds me of an episode of the television series “MASH”, when Frank Burns comes out with a typical moronic statement of “it’s nice to be nice to the nice”. Issa must be a big fan of the character of that series because he certainly mimics the Burns character. Issa has also declined to join in the chorus of Republicans calling for Holder’s resignation or firing because his committee had not “reached all the conclusions that are appropriate in this investigation.”. Well isn’t that just special? They have been “looking into” this for a year and have found nothing that comes to the level of resignation or firing? I certainly have found enough justification in my perusal of this matter to put Barack Obama, Eric Holder, and Kenneth Melson in prison for life.

Issa continued with a statement that makes we wonder how the family of Agent Terry feels knowing that the man in charge of investigating their loved one’s death thinks of him as “collateral damage”. I am not related, but I find this statement reprehensible.

“It is about a failure that seems to be pervasive within Justice that investigations play fast and loose with the expectations of what is right or wrong when it comes to what I am going to call collateral damage.”

I wrote Rep. Issa and Sen. Grassley back in June asking if they would really do what is needed or if they would make a joke out of this procedure. Unfortunately, Issa has done as I expected and made a mockery, once again, of Congressional hearings into anything. This has been a dog and pony show from the beginning, as I expected it to be. Here is the letter I wrote:

Sen. Grassley, Rep. Issa, June 3, 2011

I am writing about the controversy over the BAFTE and “Project Gunrunner”. I have discovered quite a lot about this operation in my research. I have read about the illegal activities and the deaths involved, including that of Border patrol Agent Brian Terry on December 10, 2010 in a remote area near Nogales, Arizona. I don’t know how much information you have on this so I will let you know what I know and hope that, as the members of Congress investigating this matter, you have more information than I have. The gun dealers involved in this reported the suspected straw purchases to the BAFTE, as required by federal law, and were told to let them walk so the guns could be traced to crimes in Mexico. The guns were never traced and this was only discovered because one of the guns that resulted in the death of Agent Terry was left at the scene of the shootout with the border patrol agents.

Hillary Clinton runs all over the world decrying the “gun show loophole” and claiming that guns bought at gun shows and dealers like the ones in Arizona are the cause of the violence in Mexico. We all know that this is a huge lie to impose their brand of Marxist tyranny upon We the People of the United States of America. I believe the number she claims is 90% of the guns used in crimes come from gun dealers in the United States. You and I know, as does Hillary, that this is an absolute lie but she spouts it anyway.
According to Darren Gil, the agency’s attaché in Mexico City, he was not informed of this operation nor was anyone in the Mexican government. Mr. Gil was forced to resign and claims that the authority for this operation came from the BATFE director and the Justice Department, headed by Eric Holder. When Mr. Gil found out about an unusually high number of guns captured by Mexican authorities being traced back to Phoenix, he asked for information. He told CBS in an interview that the meetings in which he challenged his superiors about the operation turned into shouting matches and he was instructed to continue to keep his Mexican counterparts in the dark about the operation.

BATFE agent John Dodson was also attempting to use the “whistleblower” statutes to reveal this illegal operation but was thwarted by a lack of response from superiors who refused to answer e-mails and telephone calls. Agent Dodson told CBS that his superiors told him that “if they were going to make omelets that they had to break some eggs”. It is a shame that one of those “eggs” that had to be broken was Brian Terry. All the time this was going on the administration was using the violence in Mexico as an excuse to attempt to subvert the 2nd Amendment and restrict law abiding citizens from owning firearms, in violation of the Constitution.

Barak Obama and Eric Holder both claim to be ignorant of this operation but are they not responsible for the actions of the bureaucrats that they appoint to office? I believe they not only knew about this operation but also either conceived it or approved it. This action rises to the level of conspiracy to violate numerous laws, violations that would land me a very long prison sentence if I committed them. Am I to assume that it is permissible for the President of the United States, the Attorney General of the United States, and the Director of the BATFE to enter into a conspiracy to violate firearms laws and the Constitution? If I am bound by these laws certainly the top law enforcement officer of the nation and his boss, the president, should be subject to these same laws.

I ask you to do your duty as the members of Congress investigating this matter to file charges and order the arrest of Barak Obama, Eric Holder, and the Director of the BATFE Kenneth Melson for murder in the death of Agent Terry, conspiracy to violate firearms laws, conspiracy to cover up this illegal action, and treason for conspiracy to intentionally violate the provisions of the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America. As a law abiding citizen of the United States, I cannot stand by and allow the very highest officers in this nation to flagrantly violate the law, and neither can you.

The continued obfuscation and cover-up of this operation is a matter of grave concern to all people who wish to live in a free Republic. If these men are allowed to escape justice for their actions what does that say about the rule of law in our land? What does it say to people like me who obey the law and do our best to make this country great? If this goes unpunished does it mean that I can do as I wish and ignore any law that is inconvenient to me? That seems to be what Obama, Holder, Melson, and others have done, ignore the very law they swore to uphold. What kind of example does that set for others if they are above the law and are allowed to do as they please because they are better than I?

I guess my question to you is will you do what is called for by law or will you sit around and wring your hands and do nothing? Will you do your duty as officers of the federal government to uphold the law and the Constitution or will you sit back and hold hearings that gain no information, and let this slide so as to not make waves? Do you have the courage to stand on law and order or will you turn a blind eye to evil and corruption? The whole nation is looking for elected officials who will stand by their oath of office and represent the Constitution and We the People of the United States of America, a quality that seems to be in very short supply these days. Will you be the ones we are looking for to show true leadership and integrity or will you be another cog in the wheel of that corruption? I know members of Congress aren’t very good at answering letters but I would very much appreciate an answer to this one. I think the American people deserve an answer to the questions I have posed here. Are you truly servants of the people?

I am sending this letter to Sen. Charles Grassley, Sen. Tom Coburn, Sen. Jim Inhofe, Sen. Harry Reid, Sen. Mitch McConnell, Rep. Dan Boren, Rep. John Boehner, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, and Rep. Darrell Issa.

I submit this in the name of the Most Holy Trinity, in faith, with the responsibility given to me by Almighty God to honor His work and not let it die from neglect.
In God We Trust,
Bob Russell
Claremore, Ok.

Isn’t this what we have come to expect from Congress? Isn’t this the normal hand wringing that ends in no action? Isn’t this the usual result of Republican “investigations” by any committee of Congress? The Constitution and the laws based upon it are ignored time and again by members of our government. They do as they wish and ignore the pleas of We the People to act in accordance with the laws of the land. I included the letter I wrote to Darrell Issa and Charles Grassley in this article to let people know that this result of the “investigation” was anticipated, and feared, from the outset. I also included the names of those in Congress that received copies of my letter. To date the only response I have received is from Sen. Coburn.

We the People are not being represented in Washington D. C., by either party. They are so busy playing fast and loose with the truth, with justice, and with the Constitution, that I fear nothing will ever be done to clean up the swamp of corruption that is our federal government. All of them are real good at running to the closest television camera or microphone to bleat out their “outrage” at what has happened, but none of them actually do anything to solve the problems. As I mentioned in a recent article, the Democrat and Republican Parties are two wings of the same bird, and have been giving We the People the bird for much too long.

The game plan in the federal government, and lately in the State of Oklahoma government, is to talk tough but do nothing. Teddy Roosevelt said, “walk softly but carry a big stick”. Today the motto of elected people is to “talk big but do nothing”. Neither party has any desire to clean up the evil of government. They are more interested in ruling than governing. We the People are merely pawns in their game of power and have no meaning to either political party other than as subjects. While the members of Congress, bureaucrats, and various presidential administrations sit on their thrones and postulate, our nation and our freedom go down the sewer.

This announcement by Issa is more proof that those in charge in Washington D. C. have no regard for those who put them there. Members of Congress, bureaucrats, and members of presidential administrations are omnipotent and beyond being held responsible for what they do. The dog and pony shows will go on until We the People revolt and make major changes in government. As long as we continue to elect people based on party affiliation we will continue to see the same results.

George Washington warned us about political parties in his farewell address. The political party has become an entity unto itself, with self-preservation being the mind-set of both parties. Unless we remove the Republican Party as the party we look to for truth, justice, and the American way, we are doomed. The Democrat Party has been completely taken over by the Marxists and Communists, and those who were run out of that party are now in charge of the Republican Party. We the People have no voice in Washington, and won’t unless we unite against the “ruling class” that controls both political parties.

We are losing our freedom because too many are willing to compromise that freedom and vote for “anyone but Obama” as the latest in the trend of voter cowardice and the herd mentality. Choosing the “lesser of two evils” will never be the answer to the dangers faced by the United States of America. The only way for our way of life, our liberty, to survive is to have the courage to stand for our guiding principles and stop giving in to the fear mongering attitude of voting for whoever the Republican establishment gives us to vote for. As long as they know we have no other options nothing will change. Until the voters stand up and vote for the one “who has no chance to win” we will continue to see our freedom sold to the highest bidder.

The announcement by Issa is one more example of “good old boy” politics. They are a fraternity, all of them, and We the People are the nerds who cannot be trusted with a voice in the future of our nation. I can only imagine how disappointed our founding fathers would be in what our nation has become.

I submit this in the name of the Most Holy Trinity, in faith, with the responsibility given to me by Almighty God to honor His work and not let it die from neglect.

Bob Russell
Claremore, Oklahoma
December 6, 2011

Let’s try to figure out how these people set up this “demonstration on an exploding turkey” shall we?

1 – Make sure you have the fryer over 3/4 full of hot oil so it spills over the edge and catches fire. Check.

2 – Make sure the turkey is completely frozen beforehand, as we all have had the experience of seeing what happens when frozen foods meet hot oil, such as french fries, chicken wings, fish etc. Ka-Whoosh! Big fire!

3 – Let’s make sure we have a fireman in a fire-suit covered from head to toe, with an oxygen mask, boots, gloves, the whole nine yards to show the public how responsible our government is in protecting their actor’s well-being. This also makes for very dramatic theater to get the dummies attention, because they must be dummies refusing to read the instructions and tossing frozen turkeys into a 375 degree fryer loaded with hot oil.

4 – This excellent usage of taxpayer dollars will allow Napolitano and company at the DHS to demand a few billion more tax dollars for next year’s big government expansion of turkey fryer police and federal regulators protecting America from exploding turkeys,and dummies houses being burned down by ignorant morons too stupid or lazy to read the instructions that come with every turkey fryer sold in the U.S.A.

Has America become such a dumbed-down nanny-state that we now need Janet Napolitano and the Department of Homeland Security teaching us how to deep fry a turkey on Thanksgiving? Maybe this all came about because they do not have enough work to do today, seeing as to how they just declared that ICE and Border agents will no longer be permitted to search for and detain for deportation, illegal immigrants in America, therefore freeing them up to make commercials about the dangers of exploding turkeys? This is what you get when a government goes wild, asking for 250,000 more employees, and then makes up rules that prevents them from doing the jobs they were hired to do in the first place! Here is a hat tip for Ms. Napolitano, free of charge: Either do your job and detain and deport illegal immigrants who are breaking the law when entering America, or get out of our government! Clear enough?

2012 just can’t get here fast enough!

On Monday, officials held a news conference announcing the supposed breakup of a Mexican drug cartel smuggling ring in Phoenix, Az. in which they proudly displayed hundreds of pounds of drugs and numerous guns they had seized during the Oct 13th bust. A mere five hours later, law enforcement officials clocked a car going 50 mph in a 15 mph school zone about 50 miles south of Phoenix, and a high-speed chase ensued when the car’s driver refused to pull over at the request of police. After reaching speeds of over 100 mph, and an attempt by the driver to run over a police officer trying to lay down stop sticks to end the chase, the driver crashed the car and jumped into a canal, where they captured him. The driver of the car was none other than the above-mentioned Mr. Morales, whom was arrested in the major drug smuggling bust just two weeks prior. How Mr. Morales ended up back on the streets of America just two weeks after being arrested in a major drug cartel bust is a very real example of the DHS’ failure to do their job and protect the citizens of America.

Mr. Morales had been arrested in a home tied to the drug cartel in the Oct. 13th bust in which numerous guns were found, yet prosecutors somehow claim they didn’t have enough evidence to convict him at the time, so they released him to the border patrol. It is the responsibility of ICE and DHS to prosecute him for felony reentry into the U.S. as Mr. Morales had already been deported at least once before. DHS then refused to prosecute him and turned him loose, where he was caught again in the high-speed police pursuit where Mr. Morales also tried to kill a police officer by running him over.

Released by DHS, illegal immigrant caught in U.S. with carload of drugs two weeks later.

The Department of Homeland Security‘s refusal to prosecute Morales for felony illegal reentry into the U.S put police officer’s and citizen’s lives in danger by letting him back on the streets. And this ludicrous example of the DHS’ criminality in refusing to enforce our laws does not end there. Just two weeks after DHS let this criminal back on the streets, he is caught running from the police… in a car loaded with 80 pounds of heroin and another 8 pounds of methamphetamine! The number of lives that would be ruined by the amount of drugs that DHS allowed [Mr. Morales] back onto the streets to peddle represents a very serious problem, if not an outright act of treason against American citizens.

One of the officers on the front line of this battle, Pinal County, Az, Sheriff Paul Babeu held a news conference in which he explained just what is going on down there. “Here we strike a body blow on the Sinaloa cartel, (and) they’re still operating in a robust fashion,” he said. “They can regenerate immediately.” He went on to add that there are no consequences for their illegal criminal actions. Thanks to DHS, people like Morales just keep on being released to further endanger American’s lives and well-being through their refusal to prosecute these criminals, as evidenced by this latest episode of the Obama administration’s appointed DHS chief, Janet Napolitano’s failure and refusal to uphold and enforce the law.Meanwhile, Napolitano continues to deny law enforcement officials the ability to identify and arrest illegal immigrants across America, as evidenced in the DHS/ DOJ/Obama mandated lawsuits against Arizona, Alabama and now South Carolina‘s state laws designed to protect their citizens from the likes of career criminals and illegal immigrant/invader Mr. Morales and the Sinaloa drug cartel.

While DHS, ICE and assorted law enforcement officials were quick to hold major press conferences to announce the recent arrest of 76 suspected dope smugglers, the seizure of 61,000 pounds of pot, 160 pounds of heroin, 210 pounds of cocaine, $760,000 dollars in cash and 108 weapons including assault rifles and shotguns in the dismantling of this drug ring that brought some $33 million worth of drugs a month into the western desert states for nationwide distribution, we also see that they let many of these criminals go free to regenerate the drug smuggling operation in a short two weeks. This is what happens in a country where the President is seen to be acting like a Socialistic dictator in bypassing Congress to enact laws by executive fiat, as Obama has done concerning illegal immigration laws recently. This problem is being magnified tenfold by the politically correct cowards of the U.S. Congress, whom refuse to use their duly enacted powers to bring the president to heel according to Constitutional law. How many American’s lives and families have to be destroyed by these Mexican drug cartels and the thousands of pounds of drugs they are distributing throughout America, before our elected officials will take a stand and demand that those breaking the law through the executive fiat-mandated DHS policies be thrown out of our government and brought up on charges?

Will the Obama-appointed DHS Chief, Janet Napolitano call a national press conference to announce how her new department rules mandated that ICE officials let Mr. Morales back on the streets to continue his drug-running operation in the U.S.? Don’t hold your breath. All we hear out of the DHS nowadays, is how our Southern border is more secure today than ever before.  What a joke.
2012 just can’t get here fast enough!