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.
They have resurrected the word “militia” to separate them from people like Occupy who also oppose the government. Miltia are the bad people. Occupy are the good people.
There wasn’t anything “legal” in that document. Most of the stuff were exaggerations, hyperbole, and easily justified actions by the crown. And it wasn’t even supported by most of the people! A DOI is an act of treason and rebellion, not a court document.
But we look at it like it was perfectly legit only because they won. Thank goodness they did.
They just got tired of a level of government that imposed on what they believed their rights were, just like this guy has.
Whether he paid his dues is not relevant here. What is relevant is that we are witnessing another militaristic crushing of a harmless family.
There are certainly zillions of ways to get the family to comply. Bringing in hundreds of armed agents, tanks, and helicopters is not one of them. Shutting down free speech is not one of them. Tasing innocent bystanders who pose no threat is not one of them. Although it hasn’t happened yet... shooting innocent people dead is not one of them.
It is the overkilling of harmless Americans that we’re done taking. They’ve brought it on themselves. If you haven’t seen it it’s b/c you watch CBS. Only.
...just sayin’... i’d like it
It’s simple, really. A lawless government will bring out those who want to protect their constitutional rights one way or the other.
I would like to quit paying taxes except for the military and the few items the Federal gov’t was given the right by the people to oversee. We gave the gov’t their rights, not the other way around.
BTTT for the most effective thing that could happen to ALL those gubmint Bozos.\Visit to their homes......Peaceful that is..
“Would like to see home addresses of these agents and their bosses posted.”
http://www.oathkeepers.net/forum/showthread.php?t=39318
I question that. I don’t think these militia movements give a crap about the media or what it says.
Yes absolutely peaceful. Just like the agents are being peaceful at the ranch.
Would encourage accountability, no?
The money statement is this:
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.
To me, I now think I know what has been going on. At first I thought, this guy deserves this because he stopped paying his BLM grazing rights money in 1993.
But now we see a rancher, who had 900 head of cattle being forced by the government to cut his herd to 150, which would put most ranchers of this size operations OUT OF BUSINESS for a friggin' turtle.
I hope you and other conservatives can take another look at this, seriously. I thought Bundy was wrong (not to pay his grazing fees) but now I see beyond that and had an epiphany. THAT is what this is all about. A turtle.
The daughter has spoken:
THE BUNDY DAUGHTER SPEAKS OUT ON GOVERNMENT TERRORISM AGAINST HER FAMILY! (Nevada Rancher)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3143026/posts
Not meaning to be a wet blanket....but I’ll believe 5000 when I see 5000.
If 5000 armed militiamen showed up, they’d call out the National Guard.
“The family had cattle grazing on the land before the BLM took it.”
The BLM didn’t take it. It already belonged to the U.S.
No, the Bundy ranch was composed of 150 acres which they owned and more acreage that they grazed on. This is a common configuration out West. The US government has owned the land since Nevada became a state.
The US government gets to make the rules on how to use US Government land. The date of when the administrative / management arm was created is irrelevant. BLM does not own the land the US Government does.
“But now we see a rancher, who had 900 head of cattle being forced by the government to cut his herd to 150, which would put most ranchers of this size operations OUT OF BUSINESS for a friggin’ turtle.”
I disagree. It is the long established pattern of the BLM to invent such things as supposed endangerment to a critter in order to steal land from private citizens.
The turtle was never anything other than a tool.
No, I don't. And I have been saying that for a long time.
The problem now is that a real confrontation is very late in coming. Giving the thugs and their masters in DC a sense that the strength of will of the people just isn't there, i.e. resistance is merely bluffing. The result being that the Feds will not back down from a confrontation, which may have been the result had this happened a long time ago, as it should have.
I’m saying he is a squatter because the land belongs to the US Government and he did not pay his grazing fees.
Hey Gritty, remember Klamath Falls and all the rest of this kind of stuff? PING!!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.