GOP stars steer clear of Nevada ranch fight

The Hill ^ | 04/17/2014 | Timothy Cama

[SeekAndFind]

GOP presidential hopefuls are largely steering clear of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s fight with the federal government.

The showdown, which left armed militia members and feds staring each other down last week, has captivated talk radio and cable news shows, turning Bundy into a conservative cause célèbre.

Yet Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and 2008 presidential candidate, are the only big-name Republicans to have spoken out on the dispute so far. Tea Party favorite Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has been silent, and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) have also not commented on Bundy, who has been fighting the federal government in and out of court for more than 20 years over his refusal to pay cattle grazing fees.

All three offices did not respond to calls for this story.

GOP strategists suggested that Bundy’s case is too risky for most candidates eyeing the presidency, particularly given the possibility of armed conflict with federal police.

“The Republican Party’s very sympathetic to Cliven Bundy’s property rights, states’ rights argument,” said strategist Ford O’Connell, who worked on John McCain’s 2008 campaign. “But many Republicans also prize the rule of law above all else. Right or wrong, Bundy had his day in court and lost.”

Matt Mackowiak, who has worked on various Capitol Hill campaigns and as a congressional press secretary, agreed that candidates have good reason to be cautious in the Bundy dispute.

“If you don’t know the person, and you haven’t followed the situation closely, all you do is you look at the situation and see risk,” Mackowiak, who contributes to The Hill's Pundits Blog, said.

Still, Bundy’s arguments and the battle on his ranch feed into a strain of the GOP worried about what it sees as a growing incursion

[trisham]

“The Republican Party’s very sympathetic to Cliven Bundy’s property rights, states’ rights argument,” said strategist Ford O’Connell, who worked on John McCain’s 2008 campaign. “But many Republicans also prize the rule of law above all else. Right or wrong, Bundy had his day in court and lost.”

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Ignorant swine.

[Bob Mc]

"I think it is pretty clear that from a strict Constitutional standpoint, the BLM had no constitutional authority to charge grazing fees on land within the boundaries of Nevada."

The BLM has no authority of any kind to confiscate private property! They have no authority to enforce law! But they do it anyway. BLM is an organized crime racket.

[Finny]

If you don’t regulate the fisheries there will be no more fish.

You are very gullible.

[Finny]

Add to it -- regulating fisheries is one thing. Commercial and sports fisheries never had a problem with, say, a size limit (critter has to have reached a certain size) or a season limit. That is regulating fisheries. Using the EPA and manipulated fish counts to regulate them them OUT OF EXISTENCE is another thing entirely.

The latter is what is happening, and people are gullible enough to think that without said "regulation," those fisheries would have been gone long ago, by golly! Thank goodness for the government because those greedy, stupid, self-destructive blue collar oaf fishermen would have killed off their own livelihood and destroy their resource that had been providing a livelihood that had been feeding their families for generations, but the GOVERNMENT is so much smarter than they are that they protect them -- and us -- from themselves.

Understand: The Federal government is systematically making OUTLAWS of Americans who act to feed, clothe, and provide energy for fellow Americans as they had done for going on 200 years, and as humans have done for about the past 2,000 years. The Federal government has convinced YOU and others that without the Federal "grown up" in charge, why, environmental catastrophe would result! -- Yet it is all a sad, stupid, sorry lie.

The Federal government is making outlaws of food and energy producers in America. On the cattle range in question with the Bundy Ranch -- those turtles have adapted to a lot worse environmental catastrophe than a bunch of cattle over the millions of years they've existed on this old earth, and fish species have done the same. Don't you WONDER what impact about a quadruple number of Federally protected mammals such as seals, otters, etc., have on fish counts?

The fish are out there. So are the Feds, armed to the teeth. Controlling food and energy production is necessary for tyranny.

WAKE THE HELL UP.

[DaxtonBrown]

The killer page I’m working on is BribeJeopardy, links up the entire Reid world of corruption. It will floor you. Will release Mondy, ton of work. Fortunately I’ve done the research, just fill in the blank.

[Jane Long]

[Lisbon1940]

The Canadian fishing industry introduced new net technology in the 1980s that has effectively wiped out the population of Atlantic cod. Large areas of Newfoundland remain depressed as a result.

[ponygirl]

Don't forget water rights. That's really what triggered Bundy to tear up his contract. The condition for him to get a new contract was give up water rights and agree to graze no more than 150 head of cattle, and no grazing in the spring. He knew a crooked deal when he saw it. The water alone would have killed him. Now the BLM is trying to move to take over the Red River on the border of OK/TX. They want the water. And that land is PRIVATELY owned.

My family owns property in Washington state that is on a major waterway. We've suspected all along that they were going to try to seize it because of the proximity to the river. Now I'm certain of it.

[ponygirl]

I have been spending hours and hours researching this also. My family is also telling me to let it go, but I can't. I'm too pissed off.

Now go look at what the .gov drones have done over on the Bundy Ranch Standoff wikipedia page and tell me that does not represent an entire staff of people putting up the Reid talking points. No mention of Harry Reid there. No mention of the appointment Kronze as the BLM head, which basically positions Reid as the potentate of the entire state of Nevada and possibly even the entire West. No mention of solar deals, barely a mention of tortoises or the abuse of and unnecessary slaughter of the cattle. That page represents your tax dollars at work to spin this their way. I noticed that they're now redirecting the page from "Bundy Ranch Standoff" to just "Bundy Standoff," meaning, they don't want to imply that it's his ranch.

[ponygirl]

They wanted to use the Gold Butte land as an environmental mitigation. They wouldn't put panels or windmills on it; this was a swap for the Dry Lake land. They would build elsewhere, and claim the Gold Butte area as pristine conservation wilderness because they're going to set up miles and miles of pavement and glass panels somewhere else. This is what the CFBD and other enviro-nutless-job organizations require, and they are the ones who got this ball rolling when they filed a lawsuit against the BLM.

And as a guy on Pete Santilli's show said today, they'd put a trail through Gold Butte, tell the people it was "their" land, and then fine you $500 if you dare step off the trail.

[lapsus calami]

 

Nope - haven't forgotten at all, just failed to list it. I have friends in Nevada that had a throwdown with the feds in court and as it turned out the reason a grab was made for their ranch was water for Las Vegas. The same tactics were used on them as was on the Bundys - BLM stormtroopers with body armor and automatic weapons showed up and stole their livestock, menaced the family and so forth. They fought tooth and nail in court - which was no doubt a surprise to the feds since they thought they would win by attrition - and won their case. Kept the ranch, all the sub-surface rights and landed a large monetary settlement. But I learned last week at a meeting that they had lost the money on appeal, which was no surprise to me really. The government appealed a case to themselves, so what other result could you expect. Under normal circumstances, like how America was in the not-so distant past, I would be relieved at their good fortune, but with the rampant government lawlessness we have these days, all bets are off. I fear that if this D.C./Nevada axis rolls right over the Bundys and gets away with it, they will no doubt be emboldened to re-visit their past failed conquests with a vengeance.

 

[diogenes ghost]

While there are myriad reasons to detest the Gov't actions in the last weeks, my research has been trying to understand the background.

The decades long fight by the Hage family against BLM/USFS/NGOs and their court win is eye opening. A long video interview with Wayne Hage before his death outlines many of the offenses against him, along with a short primer on Western water/land rights, which are totally different from Eastern states.

You may have seen Wayne Hage Jr on the recent Fox News special "Enemies of the State"...great stuff.

Stephen Pratt is a constitutional scholar whose lectures before the Western Sheriff's meeting is a three part Youtube video series that will teach you much, it sure opened my eyes.

Stay pissed off, it gives you the impetus to learn more, and knowledge is power.

But I implore you to learn WHY things are happening, the how is not nearly as important. Learning the why will keep you pissed off, even when the Bundy thing is over. Staying pissed off may keep you from getting pissed on.