Ah yes, the "transparent" administration (Page 2)

I'm not citing this single time as evidence of his lack of transparency.  This is just yet another example of a long chain of a lack of transparency.

The HC bill that was not posted for all to read in the time he promised.

The Obama DOJ has blocked a number of lawsuits citing "state secrets"

Despite making statements that they were going to protect whistleblowers the Obama admin has the worst record in history in prosecuting the said whistleblowers.

The White House visitors log (which Obama said would be public) was not.  When pressed they said they would release the names of future visitors but not past.  They also said they reserved the right to remove some names form the list.

The recovery.gov website that was supposed to track every penny of the stimulus project shows next to no detail about where or how the money is spent.

I could go on and on and on... but just do some research yourself.  There's plenty to find.

(Again, did past presidents do some of these things?  Sure, maybe.  But they were not the ones boasting about "transparency")

I think that's incredibly hilarious.  For the record, I don't really support any of them.

Ya, totally agree. The thing about Obama is his pledge to be different for two years... and when it really counts, on soft ball stuff like the above, he chooses to not come through. I mean sure, he is not going to win every battle, and some realities come with the office that did not come with the campaign.... but just such soft ball stuff and he does not even take a swing.

I remember the omnibus bill sen to Obama after the stimulus. It was full of pork as if they did not get enough in the stimulus. People were already screaming about it and Candidate Obama said he was going to change that too... veto pork... I thought my God your guys really laid a soft one across the plate for you there.... and what happened... he signed it, promised to do better next time, but that really needed to pass. That was in his first year.

At least with other politicians we know what we are getting, but no other candidate in history promised so much and delivered so little.

This succinctly explains why I'm voting for anyone but Obama.  With Romney (or Paul or whoever else) we may or may not get what we see.  But we have see what the last 4 years of Obama has brought us and in my opinion we'd be stupid to keep that going.

Nope GHW Bush only 1 as well.  Then again he was a one term pres too.

That's great.  But, in this situation, considering the circumstances, does that fact make you feel better or worse about our President?

You know he got fewer BJ in the oval office than anyone else in the last ten years right... you know he has wasted 2 trillion less than the last guy... you realize he started one less war than the last 8 years right... you realize he embezzled less than the last CEO right...

Oh well heck... as long as he has done it less than the last guy that did it the most... no harm no foul.

Here's an interesting article from Fortune..

http://features.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2012/06/27/fast-and-furious-truth/?hpt=hp_t2

"But five law-enforcement agents directly involved in Fast and Furious tell Fortune that the ATF had no such tactic. They insist they never purposefully allowed guns to be illegally trafficked. Just the opposite: They say they seized weapons whenever they could but were hamstrung by prosecutors and weak laws, which stymied them at every turn."

Ah, the old "it's not true because we said it's not true" tactic.  Really?  Does the ATF or DOJ have ANY credibility left on this topic?  We're supposed to just take their word for it?

If this is the case then Holder should release the documents and clear his and the ATF's name.

That's kind of my thought.  If it's all on the up and up then open up the docs.

I think at this point the "cover up" has become the story.  Kind of like watergate.  The break-in in and of itself wasn't a huge deal, but the White House cover-up toppled a president.  
President Obama (and Holder) likely had zero knowledge of this program, but probably got worried about it looking bad politically and did something stupid that they're now trying to cover up.  I obviously have no idea, but just a guess.

I also think the media is showing their true colors a little bit here.  For many months there was virtually zero news coverage other than the right wing, crazies over at Fox News.  Now that the story has gone Nuclear (in a bad way) the mainstream media is jumping in to try and investigate the story.  They may genuinely uncover that its not as big of a deal as it appears, but I just think its too little too late at this point. (politically speaking)

I don't know.

I don't have a "conspiracy" bone in my body....and I've worked for over 2 decades with Local, State, and Federal Law Enforcement officials.

Do I think mistakes were made in this investigation?  Yep.

Do I think they were made maliciously?  Nope.

Do I think that the mistakes, malicious or not, are being covered up?  I don't know.....that's another judgement call.  I don't have enough information.  

I do know that sometimes good intentions in an investigation go horribly wrong.  When that happens, there is the instinct to protect good people who had good intentions, no matter how bad it turned out.  You can make your own judgement call on whether that is right or wrong.....you are allowed.  I will only say that many who like to make those judgements have never been involved in decisions that affect lives on so many levels.  Again, that doesn't mean they are not entitled to pass judgement, we all are.

My experience over half my lifetime tells me that almost without fail there is nothing sinister going on here.  It's the nature of the game....sometimes it gets really messed up trying to figure out right from wrong, and what direction to take to get to a point where you are clear about who the bad guys are.  The peril is in being fingered as the bad guy when you were trying to do the right thing.  It happens.

I will defend Law Enforcement Officials when presented with conflicting stories....because I have worked with so many dedicated and professional members over the years.  Really dedicated people.

I'm no fan of Obama....but in fairness.....if this were not an election year, you wouldn't have heard of "fast and furious".  It's just the nature of the business.

Fire away. 

Just saw on the news that it looks like some wire taps are coming out.

http://www.rollcall.com/news/darrell_issa_puts_details_of_secret_wiretap_applications_in_congressional-215828-1.html

The wiretap affidavit details that agents were well aware that large sums of money were being used to purchase a large number of firearms, many of which were flowing across the border,” the letter says.

The application included details such as how many guns specific suspects had purchased via straw purchasers and how many of those guns had been recovered in Mexico.

It also described how ATF officials watched guns bought by suspected straw purchasers but then ended their surveillance without interdicting the guns.

In at least one instance, the guns were recovered at a police stop at the U.S.-Mexico border the next day.

The application included financial details for four suspected straw purchasers showing they had purchased $373,000 worth of guns in cash but reported almost no income for the previous year, the letter says.

“Although ATF was aware of these facts, no one was arrested, and ATF failed to even approach the straw purchasers. Upon learning these details through its review of this wiretap affidavit, senior Justice Department officials had a duty to stop this operation. Further, failure to do so was a violation of Justice Department policy,” the letter says.

Here are some snippets from the Forbes article in relation to your bolded statement.

Yeah, that does seem like its saying the same thing, but in the article I linked it of course sounds a lot more sinister like they're just sitting back playing cards versus arresting the bad guys.

Yeah, I wouldn't argue with that since I also agree with most of your response.  

Unfortunately, our experience is that alot of people ARE stupid, and want heads to roll without knowing the risks that we know.  It's always a judgement call.....sometimes it goes good, sometimes it goes bad.  Mostly, we get that too.

It's a "funny" circle.....we work with information that most people don't have access to, and then answer to those same people when it goes sideways.  It's weird.  It is what it is.