It’s Friday, June 22nd, 2012….and here’s The Gouge!

Leading off the last Gouge of the week, Conn Carroll, writing at the Morning Examiner, believes the Operation Fast & Furious stand-off may be providing America a glimpse of things to come:

Obama vs Issa previews Obama’s second term

On February 4th, 2011 the Obama Justice Department sent a letter to Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, denying that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms had been facilitating the sale of guns to Mexican drug cartels through the Fast and Furious program. Ten months later, the Obama DOJ admitted that letter was false.

On May 3, 2011, Attorney General Eric Holder testified before Congress that he “probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks.” Confronted with emails showing that this testimony was false, Holder claimed he misspoke saying, “I should probably have said a couple of months.”

Then on June 12, Holder testified before Congress that then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey, had been briefed about gunwalking in Operation Wide Receiver in 2008. But yesterday, the Department of Justice issued another letter to Grassley, again admitting that Holder’s testimony was false. This time they claimed that Holder “inadvertently” made that claim about Mukasey to the Committee.

To put it generously, Attorney General Eric Holder does not have a sterling track record when it comes to telling the truth.

Which is why House Government Reform and Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., had every right to vote out a contempt of Congress citation against Holder yesterday, after Holder refused to turn over documents related to DOJ’s Fast and Furious deliberations. President Obama’s decision to claim the documents are covered by executive privilege only elevates issue and makes it a larger distraction for the White House.

Obama’s decision to invoke executive privilege does not mean he is admitting he was personally involved in Fast and Furious. The Supreme Court has recognized a lighter form of executive privilege called “deliberative process” which protects communications between executive branch officials. But invoking executive privilege is not a get out of jail free card either. Assuming the House follows through with a contempt vote next week, Issa would then be able to sue Holder in federal court to produce the documents. At that point Holder would then assert executive privilege as a defense.

This case is nowhere near being resolved. And we will not be much closer to a resolution by November of this year. The only way we ever will get to a point where a court would order an Obama administration to turn over the documents, is if Obama gets a second term. About that same time, the courts will also be deciding whether or not Obama’s “recess” appointments to the National Labor Relations Board are unconstitutional. Court challenges are sure to follow on Obama’s No Child Left Behind waivers and just about everything the Environmental Protection Agency does.

In the face of a conservative Congress, Obama has rejected compromise and instead insisted on testing the boundaries of executive power. Unless Democrats win control of the House this November, these battles will only increase in 2013. As the Fast and Furious investigation shows, a second Obama term would consist of little other than long drawn out court battles between the Executive Branch and Congress.

Do Americans really think that is a recipe for economic growth?

As these next three video clips detail, when it comes to Operation Fast & Furious (or anything else for that matter!), this Administration doesn’t know whether it’s coming or going:

Several questions come to mind; first, does Jay Carney think anyone’s buying his bullsh*t?  Second, if Fast & Furious was a low level operation, why on earth is The Obamao playing coy with the emails?  Next, if Holder had no knowledge of the operation prior to May of last year, how could he have terminated it back in December of 2010?

And finally, as Newsbusters.org, details, where’s NBC specifically, and the MSM in general, been as this story has unfolded over the last 18 months?  Apparently, out to a very long lunch:

NBC’s ‘Today’ Continues Blackout on Fast and Furious Controversy

NBC’s Today kept up its complete omission of the Fast and Furious gun-running controversy on Wednesday, even as a House committee prepared to vote later in the day on whether to find Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. CBS This Morning stood among the Big Three morning newscasts in devoting a full report to the issue. ABC’s Good Morning America gave only a 20-second news brief on the controversy.

Overall, NBC has punted on the story since December 2010, when the scandal first emerged. NBC Nightly News had its own blackout on Fast and Furious until June 12, 2012, when correspondent Kelly O’Donnell finally mentioned “Congress’s investigation of a failed operation that sent U.S. guns into Mexico” during a 30-second news brief. The issue hasn’t been mentioned since on the evening newscast.

CBS This Morning anchor Erica Hill introduced correspondent Nancy Cordes’s report by noting how “a House committee is due to vote today on finding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. Holder has refused the Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s demand for documents from the controversial ‘Fast and Furious’ gun-running operation.” Cordes highlighted during the segment that “Holder says there’s no evidence of a cover-up; that he’s already provided 7,600 pages worth of documents; that this is, essentially, a Republican fishing expedition.”

On Good Morning America, news anchor Josh Elliott gave his sole news brief on Fast and Furious six minutes into the 7 am Eastern hour:

JOSH ELLIOTT: Meanwhile here at home, Attorney General Eric Holder could be charged with contempt of Congress today. A House committee is demanding more documents about the government’s Fast and Furious program, a failed sting operation that allowed weapons to get into the hands of Mexican gangs. Holder calls the committee’s threat to hold him in contempt pure politics.

The bottom line in all this?

From start to finish.

Meanwhile, NBC‘s not only been ignoring what doesn’t play well for their President, they’ve been unapologetically engaging in patently prevaricative propaganda against his eventual opponent:

Peacock pride: NBC ignores ‘Wawagate’ furor

Three days after one of its highest-profile news anchors played manipulated video that made Mitt Romney appear out of touch with everyday voters, NBC officials seem content to let the controversy die down without an apology or explanation.

Other than issuing a terse, one-sentence statement late Tuesday afternoon, NBC has virtually ignored what the blogosphere dubbed “Wawagate.” The carefully-edited segment, aired on Monday’s edition of “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” spliced together a Romney speech, making it appear that he was expressing genuine amazement at a convenience store’s use of technology to take sandwich orders. In reality, he was facetiously comparing the tech-savvy private sector to the clumsy government bureaucracy.

We report, you decide:

Dan Rather lost his job for deliberately falsifying the facts; we see no reason Mitchell deserves less.

Next up, And in Tales From the Darkside, just when you thought Liberals couldn’t go any lower, the Left proves you ain’t seen NUTHIN’ yet!  Submitted for your approval, the Chancellor of the University of Minnesota/Duluth offers the best idea to foment racism since the founding of the KKK:

As James Taranto notes….

The Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates sums up his view of the current state of American race relations:

Over the course of the Obama presidency I have become convinced that no single force exerts a greater pull on his presidency than white racism. Not white resentment. Not white populism. White racism. I don’t know how else to explain a health care denounced [sic] as reparations, the rather continuous disrespect, the sense that he is a Kenyan illegitimate or all of the attendant theories. I do not know how else to explain a state like West Virginia, arguably the most racist in the country, where delegates are now refusing to endorse the president.

It’s clear from the UMD ad and the Sharpton, Hill and Coates remarks that the left, or at least a substantial part of it, does not share our optimism about race relations after Obama’s election. They profess to believe, and probably do believe, that white racism remains pervasive in America. And if you are of that view, we are going to have to agree to disagree. We don’t think we have any argument that will persuade you otherwise.

But we would like to argue against pessimism on the right. Many conservatives are disheartened by the left’s increasing–and increasingly over the top–emphasis on race. They see it as an indication that things are getting worse, not better.

This column disagrees. In our view, cries of racism are becoming more intense because they are becoming less effective. Obama is in political trouble not because he is black but because he has done a poor job as president. We will hear a lot about the scourge of racism between now and November, in part because his supporters need to blame somebody other than him for his failures of leadership and in part because they hope that black fear and white guilt will help him to win re-election In the absence of the latter outcome, things ought to calm down after the election.

Two thoughts: (1).  West Virginia politicians avoiding The Obamao like the plague has nothing to do with his skin color, and everything to do with his war on coal.  (2).  While Taranto generally seeks to grant Liberals the benefit of the doubt, we don’t; these race-hustling hypocrites cry racism not because they believe it exists, but rather as a means to an end: power, pure and simple.

Does racism exist in America?  Definitely….but it’s certainly not confined to the paler elements of society.  Do some Americans oppose The Dear Misleader and his misguided policies on the basis of his father’s ethnicity?  Yeah….about the same number as humans who have walked on the Moon.

And in the Environmental Moment, courtesy of the AEI, Stephen Hayward offers up our….

Energy fact of the week: The rapid decline of coal

Recently released figures from the Department of Energy reveal this stunner: coal-fired electricity is at its lowest point since January 1973, which, as our pal Robert Bryce reported recently at National Review Online, was well before energy policy deliberately shifted to emphasize greater use of coal-fired power in the late 1970s.  (Yes, you read that right: once upon a time, the federal government wanted vastly more coal-fired power on purpose. Now Washington is trying to kill coal by any means necessary—the joys of consistent energy policy directed from Washington.) Coal used to account for nearly 50 percent of total electricity generation. Now it is down to barely one-third.

The figures below show the distribution of net electricity generation by fuel type from March 2011 and March 2012 (the last month for which data is available), showing that the share of coal fell from 42 percent a year ago to 34 percent this year, while the share produced by natural gas rose by 9 points to 30 percent. This is before most of the current and proposed EPA regulations targeting coal have taken effect, showing how fast cheap natural gas is displacing coal. Gas may well pass up coal soon as the leading electricity source. Coal prices are falling in response, but the future of American coal may well be as an export industry—if Washington will allow it. The histrionics of the Keystone pipeline are certain to be repeated with every proposed coal export terminal.

What’s important to keep in mind is the EPA and the Environazis have already declared war on natural gas.  Coal is simply the first step down a long and slippery….and VERY expensive….slope.

As for The Dear Misleader’s representations regarding renewables….

$9 Billion in ‘Stimulus’ for Solar, Wind Projects Made 910 Final Jobs — $9.8 Million Per Job

The Obama administration distributed $9 billion in economic “stimulus” funds to solar and wind projects in 2009-11 that created, as the end result, 910 “direct” jobs — annual operation and maintenance positions — meaning that it cost about $9.8 million to establish each of those long-term jobs.

At the same time, those green energy projects also created, in the end, about 4,600 “indirect” jobs – positions indirectly supported by the annual operation and maintenance jobs — which means they cost about $1.9 million each ($9 billion divided by 4,600).

Combined (910 + 4,600 = 5,510), the direct and indirect jobs cost, on average, about $1.63 million each to produce.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/9-billion-stimulus-solar-wind-projects-made-910-final-jobs-98-million-job

Now THAT’S a bargain….assuming of course one has no knowledge of either business or economics….which describes Team Tick-Tock to a ‘T’!

On the Lighter Side….

Finally, yet another sign the Apocalypse is upon us, courtesy of four juvenile delinquents in Greece, NY, and one elderly lady not willing to see them suffer the proper consequences for their actions:

Police: Bullied bus monitor won’t seek criminal charges against students

Several thoughts come to mind:

(a) Had we been a student on that bus all four of those douche pumps would have been collecting their teeth off the floor of the bus.

(b) At the risk of sounding harsh, the elderly lady’s failure to report these monsters’ behavior when it first surfaced only encouraged the subsequent escalation of their actions.  Her unwillingness to “get involved”, i.e., to judge the actions of others, is an attitude which is unfortunately endemic in American society at large, the consequences of which are all too evident.

(c) The kids in question should be expelled, and their parents forced to work as bus monitors for an entire school year.

Oh, and this is for Joe McQueen, did we forget to mention we kicked Greece-Athena’s ass in football every time we played them?!?

Enjoy the weekend.

Magoo