Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson was reassigned following investigations into “Fast and Furious”, a law enforcement operation aimed at major gun-trafficking networks on the Southwest border.
B. Todd Jones, the top federal prosecutor in Minnesota, has now assumed command of the government's firearms enforcement agency (ATF). He did so under the same terms as his predecessor, Kenneth Melson, and three interim directors before him. Jones is the fifth "acting director" of the ATF since 2006, when Congress required that permanent directors be confirmed by the Senate.
Since that time, the Bush and Obama administrations have not won approval of nominees because they were opposed by lawmakers and the gun rights lobby. I find it quite ridiculous that Congress expects perfection from an agency that has not had a “permanent” director in 5 years. Maybe this incident wouldn’t have happened had Congress appointed a “permanent” director. Notice the guns didn’t start “walking” across the U.S. border into Mexico till 2006 (you can read more about this inmy previous article) the same year Congress required that “permanent” directors be approved by the Senate.
Congress needs to stop blanket filibustering every ATF director appointment and confirm someone. (Beginning of my sarcastic rant.) Oh what was I thinking they can’t do that. They might upset the NRA who has spent $5,986,000 in total lobbying expenditures since 2009, according to OpenSecrets.org. The NRA opposed Obama’s nominee Andrew Traver back in 2010 and guess what Congress didn’t confirm him. The NRA not only opposed Traver's nomination, but called for President Obama to withdraw the nomination altogether.
In 1978, the NRA was ready when the Carter administration proposed a rule requiring quarterly reports on gun sales from licensed firearms dealers. NRA opposition produced 350,000 letters and comments. One letter was addressed to the Gestapo, while another included a tea bag to invoke the Boston Tea Party. Oh this must be when the Tea Party really started. After all it is a well-known fact that tea and guns just go together like peanut butter and jelly. Congress killed the rule and also prohibited ATF from "consolidating or centralizing" gun dealer records in a computer database, which the agency wanted to do to analyze gun traces for trafficking patterns. Congress also cut $4.2 million from the ATF budget, the amount needed to fund a computer system. This is like the smartest thing ever Congress knows that to truly protect the American people we need to ban a centralized computer system so guns (which are US citizens in case you didn’t know) can exercise their right to travel around the world without having to be traced by the US government.
The National Rifle Association endorsed candidates in about two-thirds of congressional races in the midterm elections. Often, the choice not to endorse was pragmatic -- either both candidates had top NRA ratings or both had poor ratings. Of those endorsed, 80 percent won, according to The Washington Post's analysis. The NRA is a powerful force in politics with annual revenue of about $250 million, the group has for four decades been the strongest force shaping the nation's gun laws. The NRA in the past two decades has spent more than $100 million on political activities in the United States, according to documents and interviews, including $22 million on lobbying and nearly $75 million on campaigns.
Just don’t you forget Elected Officials are not in Congress to represent the American people no matter what that darn Constitution says or the fact that the lower house is called the House of Representatives. They are there to protect and serve only those who can afford a lobbyist, a right which you (the average working class American) are not afforded. There is nothing you can do about it but be richer explained far better in the words of the ever so wise Herman Cain: “if you don't have a job and you are not rich, blame yourself!" This marks the end of my sarcastic rant. But, seriously what the h*ll is wrong with Congress?
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