Gunwalker

What Holder and administration apologists expect us to believe about Gunwalker - National gun rights | Examiner.com:

This from David Codrea, "Gun Rights Examiner", October 17, 2011:

If we are to believe Attorney General Eric Holder, he knew nothing about “Project Gunwalker” while it was being implemented, and did not first hear of it until a few weeks before Darrell Issa asked him about it in a May House Committee on Oversight and Government reform hearing.

If we are to believe him, any briefings he received did not discuss gunwalking. Plus he never read reports from senior staff.

If we are to believe administration apologists, not only is this so, but gunwalking was confined to the Phoenix office and the operations were conducted from the bottom, while senior ATF and DOJ managers were blissfully kept in the dark.

And Issa is on “a witch hunt.” So there.

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If I understand this correctly, this is in reference to the BATF program which we have previously known as "Operation Fast And Furious" ... the federal policy which (a) required Arizona firearms dealers to sell guns to people who were obviously "straw purchasers"; and (b) attempted (but failed) to track the transfers of those guns to drug cartels in Mexico.

... and need we add (c) this program not only failed miserably in all of its vaguely defined goals, but ultimately led to the deaths of U.S. Border Patrol Agents, who were murdered by these same uncontrolled guns?

If you are not already outraged by the ill-defined and poorly executed policy, perhaps you will join me in being outraged by the all-too-obvious cover-up which the U.S. Justice Department has chosen as the 'best use' of the funding which we so generously provide them by our tax dollars.

I am far too furious about this situation to comment with any degree of civility, but somehow I am reminded of the December 7,l 1941, cover-up of the U.S. Navy's failure to perceive the threat of a Japanese Sneak Attack ... which (you may recall) led to the American entry into World War II.

The lack of leadership is similar, and I predict that the lack of accountability will also be similar. A couple of high-level administrators will be dismissed from government service, but the house-clearing will not reach the appropriate levels of accountability: in WWII, the Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox; and today, to the 82nd Attorney General of the United States, Eric Holder.

Heads should roll on this. But although Holder should suffer the same punishment as the innocents in the U.S. Border Patrol, he will not.

AND FOR THIS ONE ...accountability should go all the way to the President.

Soft Target

Well, he has done it again.

That intrepid Sniper-Novel-Writer Stephen Hunter has written another "Bob the Nailer" book, except it apparently stars the new hero, Ray Cruz.

Having read all of Robert B. Parker's "Spenser" books, I often wondered how he could keep a Korean War Veteran believable 40 years after the prime of his protagonist. Parker solved it by adding a couple of new primary characters ... including Jesse Stone (all of which video rights, incidentally, were quickly purchased by the TV star, Tom Selleck).

Hunter hasn't yet found a purchaser for his Bob the Nailer movie rights (with the possible, but failed, exception of his 2007 movie "Shooter", staring Mark Wahlberg).

Still, Hunter has committed to at least 3 new books since the completion of his last BTN trilogy, and the second seems to be "Soft Target":

The new book is due to be released December 6, 2011, and of course I've already pre-purchased it from Amazon.dom. I get a good price by pre-purchasing books by my favorite authors (I also, at the same time, pre-purchased Vince Flynn's newest book, due out in February of 2012).)

Hunter hasn't written a 'bad" book in the current century. I didn't like a few of his earlier efforts, although I changed my mind about one of his early books upon rereading it 20 years after publication. But since he hit upon the "Sniper" theme, he has done a fairly consistent job of writing; I only disliked one of his "Bob The Nairler" books, and that one featured his (Bob's) father's adventures in Cuba.

Many (most?) of Hunter's Sniper books are .. pretty far out there. But it's like watching movie cartoons; if you are not willing to suspend disbelief, you have no business watching the cartoons, or reading the books, because you are doomed to dissatisfaction. If Goofy can fly when he winds up to pitch a baseball, then Bob the Nailer can (for example) ride a motorcycle like nobody's business and hit what he aims at no matter how near or far the target is.

When Bob misses a crucial shot, the frnachise will fail. Hence (to complete the circle) the introduction of Ray Cruz.

Here's the pre-review from Down Range TV.

Soft Target a new thriller by Stephen Hunter coming in December | Outdoor Channel: Posted October 14, 2011

From Down Range TV

Stephen Hunter, the “father” of Bob Lee Swagger and a regular on our shows Shooting Gallery and Gun Stories, is back with another book. In Dead Zero, we were introduced to Marine Sergeant Ray Cruz. The now retired Marine returns in Soft Target which will be released in early December.

The following is the book description posted on the publisher’s web site:

Black Friday America’s largest shopping mall Suburban Minneapolis 3:00 P.M.

Ten thousand people jam the aisles, the corridors, the elevators, and the escalators of America, the Mall—a giant Rubik’s Cube of a structure with its own amusement park located in the spacious center atrium. Of those people, nine thousand nine hundred and eighty-eight have come to shop. The other twelve have come to kill.

Stephen Hunter’s hyper-drive, eighth-gear new thriller, Soft Target, chronicles the day when the unthinkable happens: twelve gunmen open fire in the mall corridors, driving the pack before them. Those on the upper floors take cover or get out any way they can; but within a few minutes the gunmen have herded more than a thousand hostages into the amusement park.

Go ahead and buy it. Sure, you may be disappointed; but what if you aren't?