This is where our Great Overlords have allowed us to speak freely. We must use it wisely.
Posted on 04/10/2014 10:35:30 AM PDT by bimboeruption
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that two militia members from Montana and one from Utah have arrived at Cliven Bundy’s ranch.
“We need to be the barrier between the oppressed and the tyrants,” Ryan Payne of the West Mountain Rangers told the Review-Journal. “Expect to see a band of soldiers.”
Payne said that militias from New Hampshire, Texas and Florida are likely to join and stand with Bundy and stay at his ranch.
“They all tell me they are in the process of mobilizing as we speak,” Payne told the Review-Journal, adding that hundreds of militia members are expected.
The Review-Journal also reports that Bundy’s son, Ammon Bundy, was shot with a stun gun by law enforcement officers Wednesday and that the rancher’s sister, Margaret Houston, was pushed to the ground.
“I pulled the tasers out of him,” Cheryl Teerlink told the Review-Journal.
Lawmakers are adding their voices into the fray, criticizing the federal cattle roundup fought by Cliven Bundy who claims longstanding grazing rights on remote public rangeland about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.
Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada said he told new U.S. Bureau of Land Management chief Neil Kornze in Washington, D.C., that law-abiding Nevadans shouldn’t be penalized by an “overreaching” agency.
Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval pointed earlier to what he called “an atmosphere of intimidation,” resulting from the roundup and said he believed constitutional rights were being trampled.
Heller said he heard from local officials, residents and the Nevada Cattlemen’s Association and remained “extremely concerned about the size of this closure and disruptions with access to roads, water and electrical infrastructure.”
The federal government has shut down a scenic but windswept area about half the size of the state of Delaware to round up about 900 cattle it says are trespassing.
BLM and National Park Service officials didn’t immediately respond Wednesday to criticisms of the roundup that started Saturday and prompted the closure of the 1,200-square-mile area through May 12.
It’s seen by some as the latest battle over state and federal land rights in a state with deep roots in those disputes, including the Sagebrush Rebellion of the 1970s and ’80s. Nevada, where various federal agencies manage or control more than 80 percent of the land, is among several Western states where ranchers have challenged federal land ownership.
The current showdown pits Bundy’s claims of ancestral rights to graze his cows on open range against federal claims that the cattle are trespassing on arid and fragile habitat of the endangered desert tortoise. Bundy has said he owns about 500 branded cattle on the range and claims the other 400 targeted for roundup are his, too.
BLM and Park Service officials see threats in Bundy’s promise to “do whatever it takes” to protect his property and in his characterization that the dispute constitutes a “range war.”
U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, noted that BLM officials were enforcing federal court orders that Bundy remove his animals. The legal battle has been waged for decades.
Kornze, the new BLM chief, is familiar with the area. He’s a natural resource manager who grew up in Elko, Nev., and served previously as a senior adviser to Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Reid aide Kristen Orthman said her boss “hopes the trespassing cattle are rounded up safely so the issue can be resolved.”
Sandoval, a former state attorney general and federal district court judge, weighed in late Tuesday after several days of media coverage about blocked roads and armed federal agents fanning out around Bundy’s ranch while contractors using helicopters and vehicles herd cows into portable pens in rugged and remote areas.
“No cow justifies the atmosphere of intimidation which currently exists nor the limitation of constitutional rights that are sacred to all Nevadans,” the governor said in a statement.
Sandoval said he was most offended that armed federal officials have tried to corral people protesting the roundup into a fenced-in “First Amendment area” south of the resort city of Mesquite.
The site “tramples upon Nevadans’ fundamental rights under the U.S. Constitution” and should be dismantled, Sandoval said.
BLM spokeswoman Kirsten Cannon and Park Service spokeswoman Christie Vanover have told reporters during daily conference calls that free-speech areas were established so agents could ensure the safety of contractors, protesters, the rancher and his supporters.
The dispute between Bundy and the federal government dates to 1993, when land managers cited concern for the federally protected tortoise and capped his herd at 150 animals on a 250-square-mile rangeland allotment. Officials later revoked Bundy’s grazing rights completely.
Cannon said Bundy racked up more than $1.1 million in unpaid grazing fees over the years while disregarding several court orders to remove his animals.
Bundy estimates the unpaid fees total about $300,000. He notes that his Mormon family’s 19th century melon farm and ranch operation in surrounding areas predates creation of the BLM in 1946.
Since the cattle roundup began Saturday, there has been one arrest.
Bundy’s son, Dave Bundy, 37, was taken into custody Sunday as he watched the roundup from State Route 170. He was released Monday with bruises on his face and a citation accusing him of refusing to disperse and resisting arrest.
A court date has not been set.
His mother, Carol Bundy, alleged that her son was roughed up by BLM police.
Meanwhile, federal officials say 277 cows have been collected. Cannon said state veterinarian and brand identification officials will determine what becomes of the impounded cattle.
Nah.
I've been kicked in the teeth plenty of times on FR. Some of it I deserved; some of it I didn't.
You're rather tame by comparison. In fact, you're pretty polite.
The powers of the fed gov are enumerated. The list of what the fed gov can own, as per land, and its uses, are clearly lined out.
It is my opinion that the disclaim by Nevada means nothing. There is no Constitutionally legal use to which the fed gov can own that land, unless that land is used as specified within the restrictions upon the fed gov.
Simply getting away with an illegal act does not make it legit. And, just because it’s been a long time since the act was committed, doesn’t mean it can’t, or even shouldn’t, be remedied.
Yes, I am claiming that the deal made between Nevada and the fed gov was shenanigans.
It is indeed a dangerous situation. It’s not the hill I would pick to die on.
Me?!!? Polite!!?
How dare you, sir. Don’t you tell anyone. I got a reputation to preserve.
Anyhoo, this isn’t an issue (this land thing) I’ve ever had to argue or think deep on, so I do thank you for the roundy-rounds we’ve been having.
This is where I am also.... And where I was asking a very similar question just previously.. (btw, thanks for this discussion, it is very useful.)
“Nevada disclaimed all right to the land (and authority over it) when it became a state. It gave authority over that land to the federal government and, to my knowledge, it has not since claimed any authority over the land. Are you suggesting that Nevada did/does not have that right? (Not argumentative. Sincere question.) “
If that’s true, this just got a whole lot more serious and whole lot more dangerous.
Liberty tree....the blood of tyrants.....and patriots.
One thing though, the video capture and dissemination
of what ever happens, has been facilitated like never
before.
Interesting times my friend.
Sorry I missed your question earlier. I think I gave my opinion on it in #242.
Keep in mind, I’m no expert and there might well be a clause somewhere that I missed that renders my entire argument non operational.
Ping!
I found the following site very informative. There are comments from local residents for and against Bundy.
http://letstalknevada.com/category/gold-butte/
It’s been a productive and informative discussion. I think we accomplished quite a bit. Thank you also.
Prayers for these freedom-lovers for their courage and strength. They could be the impetus of the long-overdue civil war that is inevitable. And the impetus usually gets it the worst.
Sooo...
Pencil in another roundy-round, next month, about federal parks?
LOL - great disclaimer,... “ renders my entire argument non operational”
Well if you find one, let me know, because then I have to rethink this whole dang thing also,...
This is where our Great Overlords have allowed us to speak freely. We must use it wisely.
Could very well be.
These kinds of discussions are very important to me, because I have these types of discussions with my children and clan and tribe. In todays time, something small could ignite the powder keg; and I want all of mine to understand the deeper issues and not to get swept up into an emotional frenzy.
It is form of control that governments use emotion to overwhelm reason.
Too true.
Don’t take any part of my argument as gospel. Verify verify verify.
Our lives, in a very real sense, depend on such things these days.
Ooooh yeah!
That is an iconic photograph.
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