GHEI: ATF’s latest gun grab

The Obama administration is making it easier for bureaucrats to take away guns without offering the accused any realistic due process. In a final rule published last week, the Justice Department granted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) authority to “seize and administratively forfeit property involved in controlled-substance abuses.” That means government can grab firearms and other property from someone who has never been convicted or even charged with any crime.

It’s a dangerous extension of the civil-forfeiture doctrine, a surreal legal fiction in which the seized property — not a person — is put on trial. This allows prosecutors to dispense with pesky constitutional rights, which conveniently don’t apply to inanimate objects. In this looking-glass world, the owner is effectively guilty until proved innocent and has the burden of proving otherwise. Anyone falsely accused will never see his property again unless he succeeds in an expensive uphill legal battle.

Such seizures are common in drug cases, which sometimes can ensnare people who have done nothing wrong. James Lieto found out about civil forfeiture the hard way when the FBI seized $392,000 from his business because the money was being carried by an armored-car firm he

TARP surprise

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/tarp-surprise-cq-roll-call-washington-post-and-atf--receive-taxpayer-bailout-funds-105724263.html

Lol Ok I understand the newspaper subscription.
Lets face it the OFS (Office of Financial Stability) probably had a lot of spare time on their hands. Let face it they knew where the TARP money was going before they ever got it, straight to the top, of the elite banks.
And you didn't think the buddy system worked lol.
The ATF expenditure seems to say all by itself, that the OFS was a tad worried about how America felt about being screwed by their own government and wanted to stay on top of developments that might be forth coming because of that reaction.




For instance, an “interagency agreement” provided two separate payments, one of $243,740, another of $63,248, for detailees from the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (though why the Office of Financial Stability required ATF services is unclear, but one can assume a certain expertise in financial flows).