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Done, Doc

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E-mail to Melson

Mr. Melson, in the event that your staff really may have banned access to the CleanupATF website from your government computer, I am sending you the post directly. You really should listen to people other than Steve Rubenstein. He talks way too fast and way too much!

Retired and Loving It


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I had my doubts about this site when it went up. Oh, the idea was good, and the intentions were honorable, but I was worried that the site would be abused. Although some posts occasionally go beyond the pale with personal attacks that do not advance our mission, the majority of posts and those contributing to the site are performing an important service. One of the benefits is that managers are reading this daily. They may be publicly ridiculing what we write among their fellow managers, but behind closed doors they are talking as much trash as anything written here. But more importantly to our purpose is that we get to read information from all over the country regarding the corruption embodied in those who purportedly lead us. Through that information, and through the contacts that we make here, we also disseminate more information and documentation that we, as a group, otherwise would not be able to get. ATF counsel's office routinely abuses and defies the discovery process in administrative proceedings. If you are not able and willing to lay out significant funds to keep up the fight for years, they will run you down. By getting this information out, and making the documentation available, we help defang those abuses. The contributions that we all make, current employees and retired, based on knowledge gained inside the organization, is something for which we could never pay enough. Retired and Loving It, thanks for giving a damn and showing up to try to help. I know there are a lot of fish to be caught and beer to be drunk out there, so I appreciate you taking time out to offer your input.

There is no way that we can effectively deal with all of the missions with which ATF is tasked on a day to day basis. We do not have the personnel or resources to deal with border violence, firearms trafficking, armed gangs, arsons, explosives and explosive devices, tobacco diversion, alcohol diversion and untaxed distillates, armed drug trafficking organizations (especially since our managers tell us we don't work drugs), and every task force and multi-agency workgroup that rears its head at the drop of a politically motivated dime. Focus? What focus? Let us do what we know how to do, and stop trying to plug every hole that you think has opened up, and that only for the sakes of what you perceive as being important to your career advancement. "We had terrorism envy for a while..." What douche sang that tune to a reporter? Stop flailing around in the political breeze like some soiled wind sock. Get with DOJ and either settle this inane arguing and competition with the FBI, or start shedding public light on it so someone somewhere may show competence and ability to get it fixed. Sending unarmed agents to Mexico to train and assist Mexican officials? Have you not heard what's going on in Mexico? Hey, they are not only killing but dissecting people down there. You don't think U.S. Federal agents going down there are instantly identified as soft targets? Will you really wait until one of our own is killed before you throw up your hands and shout, "I'm shocked and appalled," a la Capt. Renault? Couple our problems with self-serving, self-absorbed toadies filling the ranks or our management, and you may be sure that nothing will be done from inside. It will take external intervention if anything here is to change and we are ever to again have focus as an agency.

Is there going to be ANY discipline for Potter and Nichols using taxpayer dollars to sport Cadillacs with lights and sirens, or are they just gonna give them to the State Department and pretend it didnt happen. How many times is Potters horrible Judgement going to be ignored before he is demoted?

Ha! Walk into Potter's office and look at the framed, shadow box collection of his cred's hanging on the wall. Notice those vacant slots under the glass? Hmmm, there's one for DAD, one for AD and one for what he hopes will be his Director's credentials. But now maybe he can just fill those slots with logos from Chrysler, Cadillac and whatever else is left of GM. Whoooo-hooo! You go, Mark! Hey, who's that sneaking around back there by the curtain? That's not OIG is it? Naw, not a chance.

The rocket scientist that is responsible for this should really be fired. If this is not waste and abuse of authority, I do not know what is. Look at the public's comments for how the few idiots make the men and women of ATF look bad!

http://pajamasmedia....b-guns-part-iv/

This story speaks for itself!

Thor, what's the problem? So ATF claimed that some tin bodied, plastic pellet shooting airguns were firearms. That's nothing. Look at what ATF claims are good Federal managers. That's the big story, baby!

From what I hear, Melson is supposed to be a decent guy. From what I've read, both about him and by him, he is way overqualified for the position of ATF Director, a position which no one else wants (except for some within ATF). That being said, he was placed here to carry water for a while and just to keep the ship from crashing, so the administration could pretend for a while that the ATF problems did not exist. Melson is being a soldier and doing that with which he was charged, because he was not charged with changing or improving ATF or its management cadre. He was not charged with meting out discipline to lying, corrupt managers, establishing the same ethical standards for management as that expected of agents and other employees, or fact checking the blurbs that are handed him before he sits before Congress and spouts what he was told and believes is true. Mr. Melson actually told Congress that ATF initiated 300 cases in 120 days on the border initiative. The fact that he did not crack a smile or vomit on the table shows that he had no idea that although 300 case numbers might have been pulled, not ten of those developed into quality investigations to address border violence. Speak to those around you who went on those 120 day details. Ask them about what they did while on detail. To an agent they will tell you that they played golf, went to the beach, worked out, and did a lot of fun things. Quality work and complex investigations will not be on their lists; quality work was not available to them. A train wreck on the border is still a train wreck.