I really did think it was too bad to check, despite posts about it at PJM, Weasel Zippers, and Free Republic. But I checked. You’ll find complete PDF and text versions of the final stimulus bill right here. Scroll down to page 16 (of 407!) in the PDF version and behold: “For an additional amount for ‘State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance,’ $40,000,000, for competitive grants to provide assistance and equipment to local law enforcement along the Southern border and in High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas to combat criminal narcotics activity stemming from the Southern border, of which $10,000,000 shall be transferred to ‘Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Salaries and Expenses’ for the ATF Project Gunrunner.” And to think, you guys say the stimulus didn’t produce anything. It produced guns for Mexican drug cartels, didn’t it? Says Ben Domenech, in a stroke of perfect black humor: “Shovel ready.” …
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/07/07/too-bad-to-check-project-gunrunner-was-funded-by-the-stimulus/
…The original Southwest Border Violence Reduction Act of 2009 was sponsored by Representative Ciro Rodriguez (D-TX). Courtesy of Big Government, here is some video of Rep. Rodriguez dealing with unhappy constituents shortly before the 2010 midterm elections… Clearly the truth is very important to this man, so I'm sure he'll be happy to tell us what he knew about Operation Gunrunner, and when he knew it. Rodriguez’ co-sponsors were Representatives Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Eliot Engel (D-NY), Silvestre Reyes (D-TX), and Harry Teague (D-NM). We need to know who pushed this Gunrunner funding into the Obama stimulus, and then the President must be made to formally admit – under oath if necessary – either he knew about Project Gunrunner all along… or he had absolutely no idea what was contained in the trillion-dollar stimulus package he boasted of passing without a single Republican vote.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=44717
The source reporting Special Agent in Charge of ATF's Tampa Field Division Virginia O'Brien "ran a gun-running investigation that was walking guns to Honduras using the techniques and tactics identical to Fast and Furious" contacted these correspondents again this evening with this follow-up report: “O'Brien is in full meltdown. She ordered supervisors from around the Division to report immediately to division offices and to plan on working through the entire weekend on the coverup. Her partner in the bungle was ASAC Scott McCampbell. At one point the case was ready to be wrapped up with arrests and remain relatively efficient but O'Brien and McCampbell decided on their own to keep it going to ‘get more’ against the advise [sic] of their field employees and the walked guns numbers got out of control. OB is terrified that her intentional concealing of her walked guns is going to do her in since she disregarded orders to report to DOJ and Congress. Nearly the same culprits above her are on the hook for this. Chait knew about it so did Hoover and Melson. The new player is DAD East Julie Torres. She took O'Brien's old DAD job when OB went to Tampa and has given OB carte blanche to do whatever she wants with little oversight. Reportedly the shredders are buzzing.”
An End to F Troop?: The unfolding scandal over a gunrunning investigation allegedly botched by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives could do what years of criticism of the long-beleaguered agency never quite accomplished – result in its demise. That, at least, is the view of some former ATF employees and advocates on both sides of the gun control debate who have watched the agency struggle to contain the damage from an operation intended to trace the traffic of illegal guns to Mexico that has reignited the harsh criticism often directed at the ATF in the past… Now, with ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson hobbled by the scandal over Operation Fast and Furious and by indications he’s at odds with senior Justice Department officials, many are saying a breakup of the storied agency could just be a matter of time. “I think something like that is likely to happen,” said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. “Unless they take some action to give it a director, it’s inevitable it’s going to have to get to that stage. It cannot continue the way it’s going now. … Right now, ATF is so weak it’s amazing.” Christopher Cox, legislative director for the NRA, the agency’s longtime nemesis, also said arguments for shuttering or breaking up ATF are building… (Note the source – Politico is what I view as a Progressive medium. Some list members will recall my outline for the break-up of F Troop. While not conceding the constitutionality of the major gun laws it enforces, two of them have a tax nexus that would justify returning the registration and licensing functions to Treasury. And I’m sure FBI would have no complaints about taking over explosives investigation – ending the jurisdictional squabbling that has gotten national attention more than once.)
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/58532.html