Free Republic

Have you ever heard "what if Texas were its own country" or "what if California", etc.... Here we go. If Alaska were it's own country, because of its size and land mass it would rank 33rd among all of the world's nations. If Texas were it's own country, because of its size and land mass it would rank 40th among all of the world's nations. If California were it's own country, because of its size and land mass it would rank 59th among all of the world's nations. But what of the BLM - the Bureau of Land Management, an...

Western lands activists are urging Donald Trump to test the limits of executive power by revoking millions of acres that President Obama set aside as national monuments, setting up a landmark legal battle over one of the nation’s most frequently used environmental protections. Such a step would be historic. No president has undesignated a national monument created by his predecessor, and it’s unclear whether he has the authority to do so. But Obama administration critics say now is the time to try to establish a precedent. They say Mr. Obama has wildly abused presidential power in using the 1906 Antiquities...

Representative Jason Chaffetz, the Republican from Utah, has introduced a Bill that would take the law enforcement capacity on public lands from the Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service. This is a major win for US citizens if it does in fact pass. Many have been harassed and even lost their land to the Federal Government in land grabs and other abuses enforced by the BLM.

Anyone else confused by the dual use of the acronym “BLM”? One minute it refers to the #BLM group, intimidating and harassing citizens minding their own business at a mall or shopping district near you. The next, we’re talking about the U.S. government’s Bureau of Land Management harassing and intimidating citizens minding their own business on their own property. Oh! Now I get it! Not all terrorists are the same.Some are dangerous:And some are not:Some fires are started by terrorists:Controlled range burn – unauthorized by BLMBecause if you accidently harm federal land, that’s a felony.And some fires are started by...

  Bundy Boots the BLM – Is This a Significant Moment? By Staff Report - April 14, 2014 Nevada Rancher: 'The Citizens Of America' Got My Cattle Back ... After a tense standoff with the Bureau of Land Management, the Nevada Rancher at the center of the disagreement proclaimed that "the citizens of America" got his cattle back. Rancher Cliven Bundy reached a deal with the BLM Saturday allowing the cattle that had been removed from the BLM land to be released back onto the federal lands. But Bundy is still on the hook for the fees he owes...

Bundy Ranch Standoff: Meet the BLM thug who tackled a 57-year old woman. (See my post entitled, “Margaret Bundy Houston Tells Town Board of Being Tackled by BLM: Feds Take Cattle Watering System.”) His name is Michael Roop. Roop is a State Staff Ranger for BLM, Oregon and to put it mildly, on the internet, this punk with a gun, badge, pepper spray and a K-9 is trending.

Hopefully your Saturday night and Palm Sunday morning activities have given you enough perspective to join me for a brief recap of the attempted federal land grab at the Bundy Ranch and the showdown at the NV Corral. You’ve undoubtedly heard the story by now of how the Bureau of Land Management attempted to evict Clive Bundy and his cows from the family’s centennial ranch (two second argument: tortoise trumps cows; because we said so). And now they’ve backed down, with an agreement that results in the slaughter of Bundy’s cows, for which he will receive half the proceeds. That’s,...

The Talk Shows April 13th, 2014 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): — Reps. Sander Levin, D-Mich., and Charles Boustany, R-La.; Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Panel discussion on the anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Reps. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Elijah Cummings, D-Md.THIS WEEK (ABC): Samantha Power, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; Gov. Devil Patrick, D-Mass.; Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Reps. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., and Greg Walden, R-Ore.

Federal land managers say "escalating tensions" led them to release all 400 or so head of cattle rounded up on public land in southern Nevada from a rancher who has refused to recognize their authority. "Based on information about conditions on the ground and in consultation with law enforcement, we have made a decision to conclude the cattle gather because of our serious concerns about the safety of employees and members of the public," Kornze said in a statement. Hundreds of states' rights protesters, including militia members, showed up at corrals outside Mesquite to demand the animals' return to rancher...

The Bureau of Land Management vowed Saturday that it would continue its legal fight to remove illegal cattle from a rural Nevada range after ending a tense weeklong standoff with a rancher and his supporters. "After 20 years and multiple court orders to remove the trespass cattle, [rancher Cliven] Bundy owes the American taxpayers in excess of $1 million. The BLM will continue to work to resolve the matter administratively and judicially," a statement from the bureau said. "We ask that all parties in the area remain peaceful and law-abiding as the Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service...

A Nevada cattle rancher appears to have won his week-long battle with the federal government over a controversial cattle roundup that had led to the arrest of several protesters. Cliven Bundy went head to head with the Bureau of Land Management over the removal of hundreds of his cattle from federal land, where the government said they were grazing illegally. Bundy claims his herd of roughly 900 cattle have grazed on the land along the riverbed near Bunkerville, 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas, since 1870 and threatened a "range war" against the BLM on the Bundy Ranch website after...

Let me obliterate a bit of confusion here: the Obama administration attempted to go to war with a rancher in Nevada. Let me amplify a little bit of truth: They tucked tail and have returned home. And let me add a bit of clarity: they had no choice! As the nation began to become familiar with the plight of the family of Cliven Bundy, many of us harkened back to another standoff in which the Federal government attempted to bully it's outcome: Waco, Texas and the Branch Davidian massacre. It is telling that in the Nevada case the feds pulled...

UPDATE: Armed Bundy family leaders meet with BLM officers Posted: Apr 12, 2014 3:06 PM EDT Updated: Apr 12, 2014 4:05 PM EDT By Caroline Bleakley, Senior Online Editor - LAS VEGAS --  Armed Bundy family leaders are meeting with BLM officers to discuss what will become of the cattle that the feds removed from BLM land, over the past week.Tensions are running high and I-15 is closed in both directions, about seven miles south of Mesquite, because protesters have blocked the freeway, according to Nevada Highway Patrol.The protesters have gathered in support of rancher Cliven Bundy, who has been locked...

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration says it will defend a 2001 rule imposed by President Bill Clinton that blocked road construction and other development on tens of million acres of remote national forests. The administration's decision was contained in court papers filed Thursday in a case in Wyoming that could help settle the fate of remote federal forests. The administration is siding with environmentalists in the case.

A land conservancy from Oak Glen spent years amassing $45 million in private donations and negotiating the purchase of more than a half-million unspoiled acres in the California desert so it could be turned over to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for protection. Now, the BLM is considering applications for wind turbines and solar-energy arrays on thousands of those acres. The proposals on the donated Mojave Desert parcels have riled residents, visitors and members of The Wildlands Conservancy, which orchestrated the land deals involving a broad scattering of parcels in eastern San Bernardino County. “It’s a violation of trust,...

GRANTS PASS — The U.S. Bureau of Land Management plans to decommission up to 20 miles of roads and about the same amount of trails this year along the Hellgate recreation section of the Rogue River. The work would be done as part of the Rogue River Corridor Restoration Project that begins at White Horse Park where the Applegate River pours into the Rogue. The project reaches downstream some 20 river miles to the mouth of Grave Creek in the Rogue National Wild and Scenic River Corridor. "The main intent is decommissioning roads and trails within the river corridor, all...

Colorado’s Ken Salazar is facing his first major backlash as Secretary of the Interior. A national civil rights group says Salazar is “going Hollywood on us” and caving into actor Robert Redford’s demands that American oil and gas leases in Utah be cancelled. He is also being accused of going counter to the spirit of economic stimulus by cancelling the leases. Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) says higher energy prices will result from the decision to scrap the leases of 77 parcels of land for oil and gas drilling in Utah’s Redrock country. The group believes low-income families feel the...

SALT LAKE CITY – In a high-profile reversal of the Bush administration, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Wednesday the government is scrapping the lease of 77 parcels of federal land for oil and gas drilling in Utah's redrock country. "In the last weeks in office, the Bush administration rushed ahead to sell oil and gas leases near some of our nation's most precious landscapes in Utah," Salazar said from Washington in a teleconference call with reporters. He ordered the Bureau of Land Management, which is part of the Interior Department, to not cash checks from winning bidders for parcels at...

Obama Interior Nominee to Consider New Ban on Oil Interior Secretary-designate Sen. Ken Salazar D-Colo., right, shares a laugh with Sen. Mark Udall D-Colo. on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009, during Salazar's confirmation hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)(CNSNews.com) - President-elect Barack Obama’s secretary of the interior nominee, Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), said he will consider restoring parts of an expired federal ban on offshore oil drilling, but told CNSNews.com that he has “no idea” how much of the drilling restrictions should be reimposed. Salazar spoke to CNSNews.com outside his...