Gloom and doom

CAMEL TOE!!!!!!

A black conservative lets 'em have it

The Post-Racial Echo Chamber of Ignorance,
by Kevin Jackson

Welcome to the echo chamber of ignorance of the Left’s post-racial America. Black Liberals thought that electing a black president would make them happier than a Michael Vick pound pup, but instead most are now madder than Whoopi Goldberg’s blind date.
Read the rest of this excellent rant here at the Black Sphere

Thanks to Bill

For all my White Trash friends out there

Just in case you were wondering where to live after you attain your GED.
Coming up next week - States with the best Food Stamp allowances.

Can you legally marry your cousin?
Note: All states allow the marriage of second cousins.

Alabama: First cousins, yes.

Alaska: First cousins, yes.

Arizona: First cousins, yes, only if they are over a certain age or cannot bear children. Half cousins, yes.

Arkansas: No

California: First cousins, yes.

Colorado: First cousins, yes.

Connecticut: First cousins, yes.

Delaware: No

District of Columbia: First cousins, yes.

Florida: First cousins, yes.

Georgia: First cousins, yes.

Hawaii: First cousins, yes.

Idaho: No

Illinois: First cousins, yes, only if they are over a certain age or cannot bear children.

Indiana: First cousins once removed, yes, only if they are over a certain age or cannot bear children.

Iowa: No

Kansas: Half cousins, yes.

Kentucky: No

Louisiana: Marriage between first cousins is not allowed.

Maine: First cousins, yes, only if they are over a certain age or cannot bear children, or if they get genetic counseling.

Maryland: First cousins, yes.

Massachusetts: First cousins, yes.

Michigan: No

Minnesota: No, unless aboriginal culture of the couple permits cousin marriages.

Mississippi: Adopted cousins, yes.

Missouri: No

Montana: Half cousins, yes.

Nebraska: Half cousins, yes.

Nevada: Half cousins, yes.

New Hampshire: No

New Jersey: First cousins, yes.

New Mexico: First cousins, yes.

New York: First cousins, yes.

North Carolina: First cousins, yes. Double first cousins are not allowed to get married.

North Dakota: No

Ohio: No

Oklahoma: Half cousins, yes.

Oregon: Adopted cousins, yes.

Pennsylvania: No

Rhode Island: First cousins, yes.

South Carolina: First cousins, yes.

South Dakota: No

Tennessee: First cousins, yes.

Texas: No.

Utah: First cousins, yes, only if they are over a certain age or cannot bear children.

Vermont: First cousins, yes.

Virginia: First cousins, yes.

Washington: No

West Virginia: Adopted cousins, yes.

Wisconsin: First cousins once removed, yes, only if they are over a certain age or cannot bear children.

Wyoming: No

http://marriage.about.com/cs/marriagelicenses/a/cousin.htm

Bacon. Mmmmm, bacon.....

VALLEY FALLS, N.Y. (AP) — Wildlife officials in New York may ban captive boar hunts as they try to curb a growing feral hog population before it gets as bad as it is in Southern states, where roaming droves have devastated crops and wildlife habitat with their rooting, wallowing and voracious foraging.
Feral swine are breeding in three counties in central New York, according to a federal study done last year with funding from New York's Invasive Species Council. The wild population statewide is likely in the hundreds , said Gordon Batcheller, head of the state Department of Environmental Conservation's Bureau of Wildlife.
That's small compared with Texas, where biologists estimate the feral hog population at around 2 million, but Batcheller said any number is bad because they're certain to multiply. Damage becomes more noticeable when the population reaches the thousands and the hogs stake out home territories rather than wandering widely.
Eurasian wild boars have become popular on private hunting ranches throughout the U.S. in recent years as an addition to deer and elk. Ranch owners deny they're the source of the free-roaming pigs, but Patrick Rusz, director of wildlife programs for the Michigan Wildlife Conservancy, said the animals started showing up in the wild soon after hunting preserves began importing them. Their distribution is clustered near preserves, he added.
"We're not talking about Porky Pig getting loose from the farm," Rusz said. "These are Russian wild boars. Those animals are Houdini-like escape artists and they breed readily in the wild. We've had domestic pigs for centuries and never had a feral hog problem until the game ranches started bringing these in."
Wild pigs are intelligent and adaptable, eating almost anything and able to live in a wide range of habitats. They dig up cropland and lawns. They damage ecosystems by rooting and digging for food and devouring roots, stems, leaves, fruit, nuts, bark, bird eggs, mice, snakes and fawns. They compete with native wildlife for food such as acorns, carry diseases that can be transferred to wildlife, and destroy wetlands with their wallowing.
Feral swine multiply rapidly, with sows producing several litters a year of four to six piglets, so as with any invasive species, it's crucial to mount aggressive eradication efforts before the population is widely established, Batcheller said. They're also wily and secretive, and become even more so when people try to shoot or trap them.
New York trapped and removed 44 feral swine in Cortland and Onondaga counties in 2008 and 2009, but that effort ended when the state's budget got tight. Now authorities are working to build public awareness of the problem and encourage people to report sightings, as well as urging hunters with small-game licenses to shoot them, any time of year.
"Stopping escapes is the biggest and most important issue we're challenged with," Batcheller said. "It might require legislation so we can shut down the source of these animals before they get on the landscape."
A number of states have banned the captive wild boar hunts as a first step in controlling the wild population, including Michigan, with a population of boars estimated at 2,000 to 7,000. But ranch operators have lobbied the Michigan legislature to overturn the state's ban. While politicians argue, Rusz says the ban has been postponed and won't be fully in place for perhaps four years.
"That's a travesty," he said. "We need an aggressive, common-sense approach.
"Delays are just working in favor of the hogs."
Other northern states concerned with the spread of feral pigs include Maryland, Ohio, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Oregon and Pennsylvania. The animals are well-established in Southern states.
The boars are seen as a scourge for livestock, too. USDA wildlife biologist Justin Gansowski traps feral swine in New York and tests them for diseases that can be transmitted to domestic livestock. Several have tested positive for pseudorabies, a viral disease that's not fatal to humans but can sicken dogs, cats, goats and cattle.
Another problem comes when preserve operators don't take adequate precautions to keep hogs from escaping, said Dave Vanderzee, owner of Easton View Outfitters, a game-hunting and breeding ranch about 20 miles northwest of Albany in Valley Falls. He keeps his Eurasian wild boars behind an 8-foot-tall wire mesh fence encircling about a quarter-acre, with the bottom of the fence buried to prevent burrowing out.
"As an operator, you don't want to lose your livestock," Vanderzee said. They're too valuable."
While deer are hunted from September through January, when they have nice racks of antlers, boar provide an exciting hunt and tasty meat year round, making them popular with hunters and valuable to preserve operators, he said.
"With the cold winters and deep snowpack in the Northeast, I don't think New York is going to have quite the problem people think it will have with feral hogs," Vanderzee said. "But let's not find out. We should nip it in the bud."
Rusz said no fence is foolproof, and the only sensible solution is to ban captive boar breeding and hunting, just as it's illegal to propagate other exotic invasive species.
In Michigan, the Wildlife Conservancy is training volunteers to operate wild hog traps and working with landowners to ferret out and eliminate pockets of wild hogs.
"Biologists will tell you, once they get established, they're going to come to a neighborhood near you," Rusz said. "The hogs will find you. That's the situation we're in."
- Yahoo News

muslim porn

Picture stolen from Theospark

You gotta admit she's pretty cute for a goat.

Hmmm, I wonder what he was selling?

Let's see, 25 years with 9 fucking kids and from a family with 13 brothers and sisters.

Looks to me like a link just got taken out of that familys' welfare chain.

Oh yeah, killed on Martin Luther King Blvd - imagine that.

Suddenly, Michelle Bachmann has Bill Clintons' endorsement

CharlieGodammit

I know it's been awhile since I mentioned CharlieGodammit and I've gotten several emails wondering if the rascal is still alive, so here's a few ramblings about him.

Every time CGD comes in from the back yard, he gets a doggie treat. Motherfucker loves his DTs. He charges through the kitchen and dining room, runs a counter clockwise circle in the living room and trots back to the kitchen where me or Lisa is getting him a DT out of the box. He then backs up about 2 feet without taking his eyes off us and sits right on his horse blanket. Same spot, every fucking time.

It took me a few minutes to figure out why the exact same spot every time, but then I realized that that was where I taught him to sit, rewarding him with DTs.  I know, what a silly fucker, huh?

He's been doing good. Healthy, happy and loving life. Him and Lisa get along famously, as a matter of fact we can't figure out who he's jealous of when we get affectionate and he forces his way in between us.
I don't have as much time or energy to get out and seriously rough-house with him lately, besides it's the middle of summer here in Stanislaus county and fucking hot although it's been a fairly mild summer so far, temps in the high 90s. But yeah, he's got a lot of energy lately and when he decides to ambush me, he bites fucking hard even though he's just playing. When he starts that shit, it's time to go to the dog park and let him play with all his doggie bros and burn off that rowdiness.
But I think he's finally reached his full growth, about 28 inches at the shoulder and about 120 pounds. And the funny thing is, the older he gets (he's about 3 now, near as I can tell), the more he acts like a dog and less like the wolf in him. He's calmed down considerably and is actually a pretty gentle wolfdog unless he gets excited, then he just forgets his own size and strength. And he hasn't gotten out to go fight the coyotes down at the creek in quite some time.
Motherfucker's at my feet right now demolishing a $7.00 rawhide bone as I'm typing this. That chew toy was as long as my forearm and almost as thick as my wrist and he'll have it completely devoured before I put him out for the night.

So yeah, he's doing good. I appreciate y'all asking about him and I'll try to post more about him.

And then they fucked them.......

KHAR, Pakistan – The Pakistani Taliban said Saturday they are holding around 30 Pakistani boys who were abducted three days ago after being lured across the border into Afghanistan.
The group's spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan said the boys were kidnapped because they belong to a tribe opposed to the militants. He said the Taliban will decide the boys' fate and set conditions for a possible release.
Pakistani officials have said the boys, who are between 12 and 15 years old, were seized on Thursday in Afghanistan's Kunar province after crossing over from their villages in the Bajur border region. They were allegedly lured by a man who invited them to play in a river.
- Fox News

I'd have given him the boot, too.

Green Day rocker Billie Joe Armstrong has complained that he was booted from a Southwest Airlines flight in Oakland, California, because of the way he wore his pants.
Armstrong, 39, said on the website Twitter on Thursday, "Just got kicked off a Southwest flight because my pants sagged too low!..."
The flight was going from Oakland, California, to the Los Angeles suburb of Burbank, said Brad Hawkins, a spokesman for Southwest Airlines.
Cindy Qiu, an associate producer at Bay area television station ABC7/KGO-TV, was on the flight and described the incident on her company's website.
She said that Armstrong, when he was initially approached by a flight attendant and told to hike up his pants, said "Don't you have better things to do than worry about that?"
He then tried to take his seat but was asked to leave the plane, Qiu said on the ABC7 website.

You can only be pushed so far before you push back

LONDON (AP) — Far-right protesters have clashed with London police during a demonstration held despite a ban on marches in six parts of Britain's capital.
Home Secretary Theresa May imposed the 30-day ban late last month over fears of unrest at a march planned by the English Defense League on Saturday.
But hundreds of members went ahead with a so-called "static demonstration" in the Tower Hamlets area.
Some threw bottles and scuffled with police officers surrounding them to keep control.
The English Defense League insists it is a peaceful organization opposing Islamist extremism. But its past protests have often resulted in violence.
Police have been on high alert since a wave of looting and street violence shook London and other major cities in early August.

Yeah, the system worked.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — NATO and Afghan forces have killed a former Guantanamo detainee who returned to Afghanistan to become a key al-Qaida ally, international officials said Saturday.

The militant's death was a reminder of the risks of trying to end a controversial detention system without letting loose people who will launch attacks on Americans.

Saber Lal Melma, who was released from Guantanamo in 2007, had been organizing attacks in eastern Kunar province and funding insurgent operations, NATO spokesman Capt. Justin Brockhoff said.

A NATO statement described Melma as a "key affiliate of the al-Qaida network" who was in contact with senior al-Qaida members in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Another former detainee who joined the al-Qaida franchise in Yemen was killed in a recent U.S. airstrike there.

*****

We can't blame this one on the Obamessiah, but we can damned sure blame the "PC" attitude that's infested our politics and military leadership since the Vietnam war.
If our so-called leaders had the same mindset that we had up to Vietnam, if our politicians would back the fuck off and let the military do the thinking, this shit would've never happened.
Why? Because the motherfucker probably wouldn't have been arrested to begin with, and if he had, he'd still be in Gitmo.

Open up! It's the APPLE cops!

San Francisco (CNN) -- Police officials said they helped Apple investigators, who searched a man's home here recently.
They were reportedly looking for a prototype of the next iPhone that an Apple employee left in a bar in San Francisco's Mission neighborhood, according to CNET.  Apple had contacted the police claiming the prototype is invaluable, the report says.
Four San Francisco Police officers escorted Apple investigators to a home in the city's Bernal Heights neighborhood, the statement said. The two Apple employees searched the home while the officers waited outside, police said. They did not find the item there and declined to file a police report, according to the statement.
An Apple spokesman declined to comment.

A city police official declined to comment to CNN and referred reporters to the news release. Earlier this week, officials said they had no record of an investigation.

*****

What the fuck is this? APPLE has the right to search a private citizens' home with the cops blessing? And when they were done, they declined to file a police report? So they just waltzed into the cop shop and told the law that they needed to search this guys' house, no complaint but they just wanted to have a look around?
Come to my house and try that shit, motherfuckers.

Party time!!!

- Irish

Cocksucker......

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Damn, they stole their chairs?

EL PASO, Texas -- Border Patrol officials are investigating an incursion by Mexican federal police into the United State on Thursday morning.

U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Doug Mosier said armed officers with Mexico's Secretaria de Seguridad Publica federal police were in the incursion, which took place in El Paso, near the Border Patrol's Ysleta station.
The Mexican government, Border Patrol and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department are investigating the incident. U.S. authorities responded to the incident.

A woman contacted the station early Thursday, saying her son, husband and friends were hunting on the Rio Grande levy on the U.S. side when men on the Mexico side fired shots, narrowly missing them. She said more men on the Mexico side drove up with automatic weapons and into to U.S. side. She said the armed men fired weapons and stole hunters' chairs and drove back into Mexico.

Mosier said Border Patrol agents and Texas Parks and Wildlife officers were sent to the area immediately.
"Upon approach, our agents observed those subjects (Mexican officers) who committed the incursion return back to Mexico," Mosier said.
Mosier said that at no point of the initial investigation were there any allegations of shots being fired at subjects on the U.S. side of the border, nor is there any information to suggest that any personal items were stolen from the U.S. side of the international boundary.
"We remain in constant and direct contact with our partners in the government of Mexico as the investigation unfolds."

 

Why Republican men are so happy

- Rob

Our "Federal Family"?

Here's an email I got from Deb over at Debbie Does Drivel (www.debbiedoesdrivel.com) today.

Hey Ken -
Have you heard about Gibson guitars, the raid on their facility by our "Federal Family" (WTF? Now they're our "family"? ) for using wood from India that was not finished by Indian labor per some Indian whacked out Indian law, and then told by the Obama administration in writing that if Gibson agreed to use Madagascar labor rather than US labor, their problems would "go away"?

CHRIS DANIEL: Mr. Juszkiewicz, did an agent of the US government suggest to you that your problems would go away if you used Madagascar labor instead of American labor?

HENRY JUSZKIEWICZ (Gibson guitar CEO): They actually wrote that in a pleading.

CHRIS DANIEL: Excuse me?

HENRY JUSKIEWICZ: They actually wrote that it a pleading.

CHRIS DANIEL: That your problems would go away if you used Madagascar labor instead of our labor?

HENRY JUSKIEWICZ: Yes. They said that explicitly.

Wall Street Journal article

Washington Times with above interview

I can't write about this stuff on my blog. It just makes me want to move to Switzerland to live on an alp in a yurt. I know you can do it justice and get the right readers to get PO'd. I'd just get a bunch of tweens texting me that gee tars are kewl.  

Jesus H. Christ.

Deb

*****

Is it just me or does it sound like somebody is using the color of authority to push jobs overseas?
My first thought was "why in the fuck would the feds do that?" and then I remembered the Obamesssiahs' trip to India to promote jobs there.
Fuck Obama
Fuck Holder
Fuck the feds

Straight-up White Trash, God bless 'em

Hey, Brian down in Florida has some kind of competition or bar bet or something going on and could use a little Knuckledraggin help.
Hit the link below if you would and if you like the picture, click on the little hitch-hiking thumb.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150355484110132&set=a.10150355484085132.408460.115156990131&type=1&ref=nf
Fuck, I'll help anybody get a free beer as long as I ain't buying.

THHO

                       

"I am a Right Wing TeaBaggin’ Terrorist Racist, and any references I make to the current president can only be racially motivated * Read the rest here*"

Stolen from http://theferalirishman.blogspot.com/ 

"The timing was coincidental"? Yeah, right.

House Speaker John Boehner has asked President Obama to postpone his planned jobs speech by a day, after the White House announced Wednesday that it was scheduling the address for the same night as a GOP 2012 primary debate in California.
The two-hour debate, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, was supposed to start at 8 p.m. on Sept. 7. In Obama's letter to congressional leaders Wednesday, the president requested to speak before a joint session of Congress at the very same time.
The president, though, needs permission from congressional leaders in order to deliver the address. While House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi welcomed the president, Boehner said in a letter late Wednesday afternoon that he would like the president to pick a different time. He did not mention the debate. Since the House does not come into session until Sept. 7, with votes scheduled that evening, Boehner expressed concern about the time it would take to conduct the security sweep in time for a presidential speech.
"It is my recommendation that your address be held on the following evening, when we can ensure there will be no parliamentary or logistical impediments that might detract from your remarks," Boehner wrote.
Boehner's spokesman added in a statement that the White House ignored protocol by not first requesting a date from the speaker's office.
"It's unfortunate the White House ignored decades -- if not centuries -- of the protocol of working out a mutually agreeable date and time before making any public announcement," Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said.
A senior House Democratic aide called Boehner's office "childish" for asking the president to reschedule.
"The childish behavior coming out of the speaker's office today is truly historic," the aide said. "It is unprecedented to reject the date that a president wants to address a joint session of the Congress."
The White House had insisted the timing was coincidental. Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters there were many scheduling "considerations" and suggested the president has no interest in detracting from the debate viewership.
For the rest of the article, go here

$100,000? Pocket change.....

Steven Seagal is being threatened with a lawsuit over his part in a police raid that was taped for his A&E reality show, TMZ reported.
The actor, who has served as a reserve deputy sheriff since the mid-'80s, was part of a team that arrived at Jesus Sanchez Llovera's Arizona house in March with a tank and armed in full riot gear, Llovera alleges in his legal documents.
Llovera claims that the raid, carried out by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department, was "unfounded" because they believed Llovera was raising roosters for illegal cockfighting. But he says the roosters are only "for show."
Llovera -- who served both Seagal and Sheriff Joe Arpaio with an official notice of claim, the first step toward a lawsuit -- says his 11-month-old puppy was shot and killed during the raid and that police also killed more than 100 of his roosters.
Additionally, he says the police rammed the tank into a gate on his property and that his home suffered "substantial damage."
Llovera is seeking $100,000 in damages and wants a "formal written apology" from Seagal to his children for the death of their puppy, "a beloved family pet."
According to TMZ, the entire incident was recorded for Seagal's reality show, Steven Seagal Lawman.
A&E declined comment when contacted by The Hollywood Reporter. Seagal and the Maricopa County authorities have yet to comment.

*****

I've always thought Seagal was a fucking pussy and a blowhard and the fact that he wouldn't show up without a tank and SWAT team just proves it.
And why in the fuck would they use a SWAT team and a tank (a fucking TANK) to raid for some fighting cocks?
Don't get me wrong - I don't believe for a minute the birds were just for show, that many cocks screams cock fighter, but still, a fucking tank?

Little Bobbys' daddy

One day a fourth-grade teacher asked the children what their fathers did for a living.

All the typical answers came up - fireman, mechanic, businessman, salesman...and so forth..
However, little Bobby was being uncharacteristically quiet, so when the teacher prodded him about his father, he replied, "My father's an exotic dancer in a gay cabaret and takes off all his clothes to music in front of other men and they put money in his underwear. Sometimes, if the offer is really good, he will go home with some guy and stay with him all night for money."
The teacher, obviously shaken by this statement, hurriedly set the other children to work on some exercises and took little Bobby aside to ask him, "Is that really true about your father?"
"No," the boy said, "He works for the Democratic National Committee and helped to get Obama elected, but it's too embarrassing to say that in front of the other kids."
- Texas Fred

Prosecutorial Discretion

Just a teaser for you but it's an article well worth reading if your way of thinking runs with mine.

If there are so many laws and so many crimes happening that prosecutors have to triage which incidents to move on and which ones to look the other way, then that points to more serious underlying problems (too many laws?). Whatever the supposed justification for the practice, I don’t see how empowering some ”top cop” to look the other way solves anything. I mean you could have, hypothetically, a perfect set of laws and a perfect police force, but if the D.A. gets to pick and choose, and he isn’t perfect, then none of the other stuff matters.

Read the rest here at Restore The Constitution

Remember gubmint cheese? Now it's gubmint prunes.

D.C. Purchases $29 Million Dollars Worth Of California Prunes

It's part of a federal program that helps protect U.S. farmers who grow highly nutritional products from lower-priced foreign imports.
The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack on Tuesday announced the purchase of 25 tons of the fruit. The purchase is more than double the $11.7 million of fruit the government purchased last year.
The prunes, which are made from dried French D'Agen plums, will be shipped to food banks and nutrition programs across the country.
California grows 99 percent of the U.S. supply.
- via Lisa

*****

Well, shit me silly. Moochelle starts hyping up healthy eating and while taking a break from her vacations tells her ol' man to go buy a shitload (pun intended) of prunes but don't go a penny over 30 mil so we can give them away. What a great idea!
Kinda sorta reminds me of when I was in Amsterdam (never mind what for) about 30 years ago and my connection tour guide pointed out a warehouse where thousands of paintings were stored that the liberal Dutch government had bought from local artists because they weren't good enough for the art market.

Bacon. Mmmmm, bacon.....

Bored with marmalade, fed-up with chocolate spread?
Then have a big breakfast all in one go by spreading your morning toast with bacon jam.
The new barbecue-type preserve is made with smoked bacon, red onion, coffee, ­balsamic vinegar, garlic, spice – and whisky.
The first batch of more than 200 jars - costing £3.75 for 200g - sold out quickly at the grocery in Walthamstow, East London, where it was launched. Store co-owner Chris O’Connor, who developed the jam, said: “We’ve always sold homemade jam and crispy bacon so we thought we’d put the two together.”
His business partner James Brundle said: “It’s great on toast, with cheese, as a sauce, dip or cooking ingredient. We really think it will take off... it’s just getting people to try it.”
The jam will go on sale across London next month and, if it’s a hit, will be launched UK-wide.
- For more information on bacon jam contact chris@eat17.co.uk

Thanks to Steve for the tip.

Good. Take Holder and that punk Obama with you.

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Acting Director Kenneth Melson is being moved out of the top job at the bureau, ATF special agents in charge announced during an internal conference call today. He will transfer to the Justice Department and assume the position of senior advisor on forensic science, Office of Legal Programs.
(Scroll down to read Melson's letter.)
The DOJ announced Melson will be replaced by the U.S. Attorney for Minnesota, Todd Jones.
"As a seasoned prosecutor and former military judge advocate, U.S. Attorney Jones is a demonstrated leader who brings a wealth of experience to this position," said Attorney General Eric Holder.
Also, U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke has submitted his resignation to President Obama, effective immediately. In an email sent to his staff Tuesday, Burke says his long tenure in public office has been intensely gratifying and intensely demanding.

Read Burke's resignation letter

Burke was interviewed by Congressional investigators behind closed doors on Aug. 18.
Sources tell CBS News that the Assistant U.S. Attorney in Phoenix, Emory Hurley, who worked under Burke and helped oversee the controversial case is also expected to be transferred out of the Criminal Division into the Civil Division. Justice Department officials provided no immediate comment or confirmation of that move.
The flurry of personnel shifts come as the Inspector General continues investigating the so-called gunwalker scandal at the Justice Department and theATF.

ATF promotes "Fast and Furious" supervisors

ATF denies promotions of controversial figures

The gunwalking scandal centered on an ATF program that allowed thousands of high-caliber weapons to knowingly be sold to so-called "straw buyers" who are suspected as middlemen for criminals. Those weapons, according to the Justice Dept., have been tied to at least 12 violent crimes in the United States, and an unknown number of violent crimes in Mexico.
Dubbed operation "Fast and Furious," the plan was designed to gather intelligence on gun sales, but ATF agents have told CBS News and members of Congress that they were routinely ordered to back off and allow weapons to "walk" when sold.
Previously, ATF Phoenix Special Agent in Charge Bill Newell was reassigned to headquarters, and two Assistant Special Agents in Charge under Fast and Furious, George Gillett and Jim Needles, were also moved to other positions.

Read Melson's memo below:
At noon today, I announced that I was leaving ATF for a position in the Office of Legal Policy at the Department of Justice. That position focuses on the development of forensic science policy and allows me to continue decades of work in that area.
I want to take this opportunity to thank you for allowing me the honor of serving as your Acting Director for the past 28 months. I take with me many fond memories of my time here at ATF and will remain forever humbled to have worked with such a group of dedicated professionals.
I am confident that the men and women who serve the Bureau are, individually, and more importantly, collectively very capable of overcoming the many challenges that are frequently placed in your way.
My one wish would be that the American people truly understood how dedicated and committed you are to the important mission of ATF and to the protection of the American people.
The list of those whose assistance was critical during my tenure is lengthy. I would simply like to thank each of you for your good counsel and support, your leadership, and, most importantly, your friendship --from all those I met in the field to the leadership team here in Headquarters.
My last request of you is to give your fullest support to the new Acting Director.
I look forward to hearing nothing but good news and great accomplishments from ATF. God Speed.Ken Melson

Just sayin'

Oh yeah, he's cool.