Monday, April 4, 2011

Issa Subpoenas the ATF

Darrell Issa has subpoenaed the ATF (arguably America's most corrupt government agency) for several documents related to the Gunwalker scandal. If you're not up to speed on this, the big picture is that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (abbreviated ATF) helped send thousands of rifles to Mexican drug cartels. If you want to dig in and find the details, check out the timeline from David Codrea (part one and part two). Some big media types have not given them proper recognition, but Codrea and Vanderboegh are the bloggers who broke this story. They were first to get in touch with the field-level ATF agents who blew the whistle on this deliberate act of government malfeasance.

Now, I view the ATF as a unconstitutional sack of garbage that gets its jollies by ruining the lives of peaceable American citizens under the color of law. It only survives because Congress (and by extension, the voters) allow it to leech off of American taxpayers like a bloodsucking parasite. Having said that, there are ATF agents that have earned our gratitude by coming forward and speaking out about this scandal (John Dodson and Darren Gil). And we ought to thank them. Even so, they still belong to an agency that ought not to exist.

Anyway, you may or may not share my views on the ATF, you should still care about the Gunwalker scandal, because the deliberate transfer of these rifles to hardened Mexican druglords is costing precious human lives. When you send firearms to druglords, they use them to kill people. Most of the dead we don't know about, because they are Mexicans. The government down there has lost control of large regions of their country to the drug cartels. They can't do much about a few more dead Mexicans, assuming they care about it (I'm sure some officials do, and some don't).

So, you and I and all the other taxpayers unwittingly helped pay the ATF guys lots of money to ensure that the drug gangs would have the means to kill these people.

"But there isn't anything I can do! I have to pay taxes!" I hear you say.

That is why you have a U.S. Representative and two U.S. Senators. Call those clowns (okay, so not all of them are clowns) and tell them you demand justice for Brian Terry, Jaime Zapata, and all the unknown and uncounted dead Mexicans that have been or will be killed by these firearms. Tell them that you want open Congressional investigative hearings on this. That phrase may not mean much to you, but it has the people responsible for this atrocity shaking in their jackboots. To a politician, open Congressional investigative hearings means stuff just got real. The guys who are trying to cover up this scandal are doing their best to avoid open Congressional investigative hearings. Are we going to let them get away with it?

Tennessee Senators:

Senator Lamar Alexander (R- TN)                   202-224-4944
Senator Bob Corker (R- TN)                           202-224-3344 

Tennessee Representatives:

Representative Phil Roe (R - 01):                    202-225-6356
Representative John J. Duncan, Jr. (R - 02)      202-225-5435
Representative Chuck Fleischmann (R - 03)     202-225-3271
Representative Scott DesJarlais (R - 04)          202-225-6831
Representative Jim Cooper (D - 05)                 202-225-4311
Representative Diane Black (R - 06)                202-225-4231
Representative Marsha Blackburn (R - 07)       202-225-2811
Representative Stephen Fincher (R - 08)         202-225-4714
Representative Steve Cohen (D - 09)               202-225-3265

Thanks to Contacting the Congress for the phone numbers. If you aren't a citizen of Tennessee, go there to find your reps' contact info.

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