http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jun/28/house-eric-holder-contempt-vote-fast-furious-probe/

If he has nothing to hide, why not just hand over the documents?

I don't understand what's going on there... fill me in?

because he and the president do have something to hide...



their involvement.

I don't think they were involved in any meaningful sense. I can't at all believe Obama was, and even Holder's direct involvement seems pretty far-fetched. But Holder did pretty clearly lie to Congress about when he first knew about Fast & Furious, and that may be what they're trying to hide. That, and probably some very embarrassing internal conversations about how to handle the political ramifications of the massive fuck up.

Ok, in 2009 the DoJ led by Holder starts an operation called Fast & Furious, a gun tracking program. They sell hundreds of guns to Mexican cartels, and then promptly lost all of them. A couple hundred people are killed with these weapons including a border guard. People of course are upset, but there isn't any media coverage really. The DoJ puts out a memo saying they knew nothing about it, there is a little media outrage, not much. Holder comes out 9 months later saying the first memo was wrong, and says he knew about the operation. 

Holder is called in front of a congressional committee to talk about it. He refuses to give out some of the documents, and they decide to hold him in contempt of congress. 

Highlights of this whole ordeal are: 

Holder playing the race card
Obama using executive privilege to cover it up 
Democrats defending the use of executive priviledge 
Pelosi being Pelosi 

Edit: Here is a nifty video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vgil5gKBwWE&feature=youtu.be

This seems like a good place to post this hilarious exchange:

Congress also decided to hit him with a Civil Contempt vote too, along with the original Contempt of Congress

Madcow is an idiot, the only way to know when she is lying, is when she opens her mouth.

differences between wide reciever and Fast and Furious:

(1) First and foremost, operation Wide Receiver did not result in the death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent or an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer. Fast and Furious did. The guns that ultimately killed Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and ICE officer Jamie Zapata were traced back to straw purchasers related to Fast and Furious. Zapata’s family filed a wrongful death suit against the U.S. Justice Department last week. Further, officials have confirmed that the guns from Fast and Furious have already killed hundreds of Mexican citizens and Holder has said on the record that they will likely kill many more. The total number of confirmed deaths so far from Wide Receiver: Zero.

(2) Second, Wide Receiver, though flawed, was more of a gun-tracing operation than a gun-walking program. Gun-tracing involves putting specific safeguards in place to track firearms, such as RFID chips perhaps with video or aerial surveillance. Gun-walking is what happened in Fast and Furious, where ATF agents sold thousands of guns without a reliable way to recover them, apparently just hoping for the best.

Some of the guns from Wide Receiver were implamented with RFID chips and were actively tracked electronically. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in Phoenix also implemented aerial surveillance tactics in an attempt to follow the weapons.

However, problems reportedly arose due to poorly implanted RFID chips which were forced into the guns, bending the antennas and decreasing their effectiveness. Cartels and straw purchasers also eventually came up with creative ways to shake tracking maneuvers and overhead surveillance, such as driving in loops for hours until surveillance planes had to refuel.

Those in charge of Fast and Furious took no similar steps to strengthen their chances of recovering walked guns other than recording the serial numbers before watching them disappear in the hands of Mexican drug cartels.

In fact, ATF agents involved in Fast and Furious have previously testified that they were ordered to stand down and not track the weapons even when interdiction was possible and instead “took notes” and let the guns walk across the Mexico border. Watch some of ATF whistleblower John Dodson’s Congressional testimony

(3) Third, one must take into account the size and scope of the operations.

Speaking to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month, Holder said that “three hundred guns” were allowed to “walk” (although note the difference between “tracing” and “walking” above) in Wide Receiver. While there is no evidence that suggests otherwise, the figure is dwarfed by the approximately 2000 firearms that walked in Fast and Furious. Roughly 1,400 guns were lost and about 700 have been recovered in Mexico and at crime scenes like the sites of Terry and Zapata’s murders.

(4) Perhaps the most convincing piece of evidence proving the two operations are separate from each other is the fact that Wide Receiver was shut down in 2007 shortly after it was clear the program was a failure. This was before Obama was even in office and nearly two years before Fast and Furious began.

Fast and Furious wasn’t shut down until late 2010 after the deaths of hundreds of Mexicans, a border agent and an ICE officer.

(5) Finally, unlike Fast and Furious, officials involved in Wide Receiver were reportedly in close contact with Mexican authorities during the operation, though how involved Mexican officials were is not entirely known.

What is known is that Mexican authorities were kept completely in the dark during Fast and Furious, according to the Mexican ambassador to the U.S. Mexico. He announced on June 1, 2012,  that Mexico would be launching its own probe into Fast and Furious.

It should be perfectly clear that both the Bush and Obama administration conducted two separate, flawed operations. One, however, was a much deadlier and larger operation.

If there is evidence of wrongdoing, or false testimony related to operation Wide Receiver, those responsible should be held accountable. But the argument that Fast and Furious is all about “politics” and should just be swept under the rug because the previous administration also carried out a similar program is irresponsible.

A contempt resolution will be considered by the full House of Representatives this week. If lawmakers decide to hold the attorney general in contempt, it will be a first in U.S. history for a sitting attorney general.

To be fair, it isn't lying if you are genuinely that stupid.

They don't want to release the info because it would compromise the identity of their secret agents currently placed in the cartel.