gov improving their skills at euthanizing bovine herds.

http://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsgs ... htype=Next


..."Further to yesterday's story of the small " First Amendment Area" established by the Bureau of Land Management in Nevada, the rancher's family now claim that the feds have begun killing his cattle:

"There's only one reason they have a backhoe and a dump truck up there and that is because they're cleaning up their mess from killing our animals," Ammon Bundy said.

The ranchers say this is calving season and mother cows are being separated from their babies.

"They haven't been able to feed their calves and that means the calves are starving to death," Ammon Bundy said.

The BLM has denied killing any cattle intentionally, only saying that there may be some cases where a cow would need to be euthanized.

I'm all for government agents improving their skills at euthanizing bovine herds. It means they'll be really good at it by the time they move on to us."...

We live in interesting times.

[youtube][/youtube]

Maybe next time the guy should pay his grazing rights payment and not let it grow to a $100,000 debt. The Nevada Cattlemen's Association is not supporting him. He's a deadbeat.

Yes Virginia, the ACLU does have it's good days.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/nevad ... -spotlight

..."Some First Amendent supporters say the “free speech zones” like the ones the BLM set up — and later dismantled after public outrage — are intended to stifle rather than encourage debate. The federal land agency said that all other areas in the 1,200-square-mile Gold Butte closure area were off-limits to people for stating their opinions.

Regardless of the purpose, advocates say such zones are an inappropriate infringement of free speech.

“I think to have an unelected bunch of BLM bureaucrats determining where American citizens can exercise their right to free speech is an abomination,” said Janine Hansen, a member of Nevada’s Independent American Party and a candidate for Congress.

“It’s a continuation of the violation of our basic Constitutional rights by bureaucrats who are not accountable to any elected official,” she said.

Samantha Harris, director of policy research for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, worked with the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada and University of Nevada, Reno students to implement a more expansive free speech policy at the campus several years ago.

The creation of small free speech zones turns large swaths of public property into censorship zones, she said.

Tod Story, executive director of the ACLU of Nevada, said the organization opposes the idea of First Amendment zones.

As long as people are exercising their rights peacefully, there should be no geographical limitations, he said.

“We don’t like the idea of people being cordoned off or corralled and told where they can and cannot"...

If the BLM was willing to just take Bundy to court for not paying his range fees why did they choose to round up his cows instead and have the DHS and some subcontractors in full combat rigs (Black Water snipers?) along for the ride instead? This seems to me like a field exercise by the BLM, DHS, and other agencies to gauge the resolve and the amount of resistance of specific groups of people.

It's also remarkable to me how much support Bundy managed to gain from fellow ranchers from across the west. I find it commendable that so many came to his aid and I have to wonder how many of these individuals have or will face similar confrontations with the Federal Gubment.

Then there's the matter of the environment and protecting a certain species of desert tortoise...

Good to see the govt back off and go through regular channels. If Bundy is granted the right to use Fed lands it looks like a lot of other people would have the same right and could ask for their property back that was confiscated years, decades or hundreds of years ago.

Will we see more state's rights vs. fed arguments?

It's all about the land, Harry Reid wants it for his Chinese solar farm business.


It ain't over.

There have been a lot of people criticizing Clive Bundy because he did not pay his grazing fees for 20 years. The public is also probably wondering why so many other cowboys are supporting Mr. Bundy even though they paid their fees and Clive did not. What you people probably do not realize is that on every rancher's grazing permit it says the following: "You are auth...orized to make grazing use of the lands, under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management and covered by this grazing permit, upon your acceptance of the terms and conditions of this grazing permit and payment of grazing fees when due." The "mandatory" terms and conditions go on to list the allotment, the number and kind of livestock to be grazed, when the permit begins and ends, the number of active or suspended AUMs (animal units per month), etc. The terms and conditions also list specific requirements such as where salt or mineral supplements can be located, maximum allowable use of forage levels (40% of annual growth), etc., and include a lot more stringent policies that must be adhered to. Every rancher must sign this "contract" agreeing to abide by the TERMS AND CONDITIONS before he or she can make payment. In the early 90s, the BLM went on a frenzy and drastically cut almost every rancher's permit because of this desert tortoise issue, even though all of us ranchers knew that cow and desert tortoise had co-existed for a hundred+ years. As an example, a family friend had his permit cut by 90%. For those of you who are non ranchers, that would be equated to getting your paycheck cut 90%. In 1976 there were approximately 52 ranching permittees in this area of Nevada. Presently, there are 3. Most of these people lost their livelihoods because of the actions of the BLM. Clive Bundy was one of these people who received extremely unfair and unreasonable TERMS AND CONDITIONS. Keep in mind that Mr. Bundy was required to sign this contract before he was allowed to pay. Had Clive signed on the dotted line, he would have, in essence, signed his very livelihood away. And so Mr. Bundy took a stand, not only for himself, but for all of us. He refused to be destroyed by a tyrannical federal entity and to have his American liberties and freedoms taken away. Also keep in mind that all ranchers financially paid dearly for the forage rights those permits allow - - not rights to the land, but rights to use the forage that grows on that land. Many of these AUMS are water based, meaning that the rancher also has a vested right (state owned, not federal) to the waters that adjoin the lands and allow the livestock to drink. These water rights were also purchased at a great price. If a rancher cannot show beneficial use of the water (he must have the appropriate number of livestock that drinks and uses that water), then he loses that water right. Usually water rights and forage rights go hand in hand. Contrary to what the BLM is telling you, they NEVER compensate a rancher for the AUMs they take away. Most times, they tell ranchers that their AUMS are "suspended," but not removed. Unfortunately, my family has thousands of "suspended" AUMs that will probably never be returned. And so, even though these ranchers throughout the course of a hundred years invested thousands(and perhaps millions) of dollars and sacrificed along the way to obtain these rights through purchase from others, at a whim the government can take everything away with the stroke of a pen. This is the very thing that Clive Bundy single-handedly took a stand against. Thank you, Clive, from a rancher who considers you a hero.

-Kena Lytle Gloeckner

I don't know this person but he seems to garner some respect from the right.

https://www.facebook.com/walter.olson.1 ... eam_ref=10

"Several people have asked whether I'm planning to write about the Nevada ranch standoff. I have no such plans, but my friend and former colleague Ted Frank, one of the smartest legal minds I know, has this caution which I wanted to pass on:
"I hate to see how many on my side who are upset at Obama's violation of the Rule of Law cheer the Bundys' criminal contempt of a court order. "...

This episode showed that if you have enough armed friends show up you can safely ignore any law you don't like.