Quotes

"Fascism and communism both promise "social welfare," "social justice," and "fairness" to justify authoritarian means and extensive arbitrary and discretionary governmental powers." - F. A. Hayek"

"Life is a Bungling process and in no way educational." in James M. Cain

Jean Giraudoux who first said, “Only the mediocre are always at their best.”

If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law. Sir Winston Churchill

"summum ius summa iniuria" ("More laws, more injustice.") Cicero

As Christopher Hitchens once put it, “The essence of tyranny is not iron law; it is capricious law.”

"Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." Ronald Reagan

"Law is where you buy it." Raymond Chandler

"Why did God make so many damn fools and Democrats?" Clarence Day

"If I feel like feeding squirrels to the nuts, this is the place for it." - Cluny Brown

"Oh, pshaw! When yu' can't have what you choose, yu' just choose what you have." Owen Wister "The Virginian"

Oscar Wilde said about the death scene in Little Nell, you would have to have a heart of stone not to laugh.

Thomas More's definition of government as "a conspiracy of rich men procuring their own commodities under the name and title of a commonwealth.” ~ Winston S. Churchill, A History of the English Speaking Peoples

“Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.” ~ Jonathon Swift

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Why is there an ATF? They are a redundant bunch of screw-ups

Remember Waco and ?Ruby Ridge? 

The ATF — Nice Work if You Can Get It

September 28, 2017  David Holberg

The oxymoron that is government accountability

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives sure knows how to live it up! According to a New York Times article, employees of the ATF teamed up with the warehouse of a private tobacco company for the ostensible purpose of fighting cigarette smuggling. But, in short order, the arrangement turned into a slush fund.
On its face, the arrangement made some sense:
The A.T.F. tried setting up front companies to infiltrate smuggling rings, but with limited success. Gangs and cartels were too smart to deal with companies that appeared out of thin air. [Veteran ATF agent Thomas] Lesnak had a solution: Rather than pose as a real company, go into business with an existing one.
So, in 2006 Lesnak convinced Jason Carpenter, a small, Alabama-based tobacco distributor, to open a warehouse in Bristol, Virginia, and sell cigarettes to smugglers.  The ATF had no authority to do this, something that the higher-ups in the Bureau would admit after the scheme was exposed. The warehouse did make it easier to catch smugglers. It also made it easier for ATF agents to fund whatever they wanted:
For seven years, [ATF] agents…followed an unwritten policy: If you needed to buy something for one of your cases, do not bother asking Washington. Talk to agents in Bristol, Va., who controlled a multimillion-dollar account unrestricted by Congress or the bureaucracy.
Need a flashy BMW for an undercover operation? Call Bristol.
A vending machine with a hidden camera? Bristol.
Travel expenses? Take this credit card. It’s on Bristol.

-go to link-

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