Posted on 04/11/2014 10:01:17 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
BUNKERVILLE — The militiamen rolled in to draw a line in the dirt.
About 70 miles northeast of Las Vegas, they set up camp on a sun-baked patch of land next to a bend in the Virgin River, keeping supplies — like rucksacks and sleeping bags — in neat piles under the roof of an abandoned shack.
Gruff and largely unshaven, dressed in camouflage fatigues and cut-off shirts, the men kept their intentions quiet, telling news reporters the reason they pulled their trucks into this rural desert town — on one of the hottest days of the year — is simple enough: “We’re here to camp,” said one man who would not share his name.
But they were really here to protect one of their own from the perceived enemies: a band of federal agents recently dispatched to the scrub desert to seize the cattle of embattled rancher Cliven Bundy.
“They’re here to protect Cliven’s family and home,” said Lynn Brown, one of Bundy’s daughters.
A 68-year-old Nevada native, Bundy has long been at the center of a battle with the Bureau of Land Management, the federal agency controlling the 150 miles of desert where the rancher’s cattle have roamed for decades. A renegade when it comes to any sort of government control, Bundy — the father of 14 children — has refused to pay BLM a dime of required grazing fees for his 900 cattle, a tab that has since reached $300,000. Bundy has fought the fee, he says, because his Mormon ancestors set up shop on the land long before the BLM formed.
The problem? The land where Bundy’s cattle graze is federally owned, and the BLM now says the livestock aren’t supposed to be there. Federal agents this week cordoned off sections of land and sparked...
(Excerpt) Read more at lasvegassun.com ...
I feel that the feds are dying to escalate this to bloodshed.
Jimbo, bedn listening to this if interested:
Nationwide conference call in progress regarding Bundy Ranch
1-559-726-1300 access code is 276125#
“been” gawd I hate tablets!
I’m praying that there is no violence.
Got a bad feeling about all this.
Out of curiosity, is the bit about Bundy not paying the land fees correct?
If it is should he be killed for it? That's a hell of a tax penalty.
Of course they would be unshaven, "Gruff"?, you would have to ask the twit who wrote this what that means.
Gruff! Gruff! Gruff gruff gruff!
It say 900 cattle on desert land. What is the carrying capacity of such land. Ranchers have a right to run cattle on public lands for a fee (usually fairly low which it says he is not paying), but they don’t have a right to destroy the land with over grazing. It sounds like he is just plain against. Of course, with 14 children, he may not have the money.
This is from Bundy’s daughter on their webpage. She explains how it came to this. Lots of misspellings and other errors, but the point gets across:
http://standwiththebundys.wordpress.com/2014/04/11/a-message-from-shiree-bundy-cox/
No, he shouldn’t, obviously. However, that’s the first I’ve heard of it. I didn’t know if it was intended to be a hatchet job, or if it was legit. If legit, there is grounds for at least *some* LEO involvement (though nothing like this). If the law says you can’t graze cattle there unless a fee is paid, then that’s the law until it gets struck down.
Out of curiosity, is the bit about Bundy not paying the land fees correct?
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Sort of. His family has had defacto possession and use of this land for over 130 years. At some point they did pay fees which were imposed later. Originally the fees were funneled back as assistance, and that stopped. Standard federal breach of contract, because they can. Anyway, Bundy at some point started years worth of legal proceedings and in the interim offered the payments to other state and county entities which refused the payments. One by one all of the area ranchers have been driven out or given up over increased strictures and fees. Bundy is the last one in the area still in operation.
Bundy has a case, albeit an antiquated one. Forty or fifty years ago he might have prevailed, but we were a nation of laws then.
Farmers have been grazing their cattle on government land since the inception of this nation. What the hell is wrong with the BLM here?
So the guy has 900 head of cattle. If he came by them legally, so what? Like those cattle are going to hurt anything that doesn’t exist ten miles on down the road, on the 99.999% of the federal land where not cattle are grazing.
This is just the federal government throwing it’s weight around just to show it can.
I side with Bundy on this.
The Bloat Management team can go suck eggs. It’s just one more agency that needs to be EPAed right along with that agency.
Man I wish Republicans in Washington could scrape up two whole balls between them sometime in the next century.
A writer friend of mine tipped me to this article and the author, “Daxton Brown” (he researched and wrote a book about Harry Reid’s corruption)
“Harry Reid’s Connection to Bundy Ranch Siege”
http://www.futurnamics.com/reid_bundyranch.php
Explains a lot.
“Gruff”?, you would have to ask the twit who wrote this what that means.
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I think it means: “Ewww! Not a polished and perfumed swaying metrosexual!”
> I feel that the feds are dying to escalate this to bloodshed.
The People’s limits are being tested by Der Fuehrer right now to see how much of our rights we will give up. I predict he will keep pressing buttons (stealing cattle, having agents unlawfully arrest and assault possibly even kill “dissidents”, seize land, etc) until he gets The People to snap and pull out their weapons and fire on and kill some his agents who he will sacrifice willingly to get massive media exposure and make them look like right wing gun nuts. The Left will go nuts and he will try to push through federal gun grabbing legislation while he laughs giddily at his own “genius” from the WH.
That’s all I was asking. Kind of odd that he would try to pay a state entity for the use of federal land. Had the FedGov kept this in the courts (biased as they are) at least it would maintain the semblance of legitimacy. If what you say is correct, then the feds have decided that they’re not getting their way fast enough to suit them, and have decided to force the issue. In that case, I’m surprised that a) they haven’t already launched their assault, and b) the various private-citizen groups there haven’t told the feddies more explicitly that it’s time for them to go home.
they totally are. i hope imperial fedgov gets smacked down hard.
Much as I’d like to side with this guy, and as much as I hate the Fedzillla bullies, he’s frankly a bit of a nutter. He says he would pay the country to graze but not the Feds because they don’t own the land. It’s one thing to say you don’t think the Feds should own most of the state. It’s another thing to say they don’t, refuse to pay grazing royalties, ignore court orders, and bet the family farm (literally) than nobody will enforce them.
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