Free Republic

When the new West is won, will there be cowboys? In light of what her neighbors are up to, Double O Ranch owner Vicki Olson isn’t so sure. “I guess the point that I keep hammering at is that if they succeed, that means all of us third- and fourth-generation ranchers are gone,” Olson said. She is the average Montana rancher, 56 going on 70, working a spread gouged from the pebbly soil by her grandparents 100 years ago. Her neighbor, the nonprofit American Prairie Foundation, is methodically acquiring ranches and crafting a 3.5-million-acre wildlife reserve out of private property...

BUTTE — Former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his wife have purchased a 940-acre ranch on the Big Hole River in Montana’s Madison County, his spokesman confirmed Thursday. “Mrs. (Joyce) Rumsfeld was born in Montana, she has relatives in the state and the Rumsfelds have always thought very well of the state,” spokesman Keith Urbahn told The Montana Standard Thursday. “They plan to spend some time out there to enjoy it.” The property south of Twin Bridges includes hayfields, wetlands and river frontage. Urbahn said the Rumsfelds have no plans to develop the property. “He enjoys outdoor sports, and...

"A creepy string of calf mutilations in southern Colorado has a rancher and law enforcement investigators mystified. Four calves have been found dead in a pasture just north of the New Mexico state line in recent weeks. The dead calves had their skins peeled back and organs cleared from the rib cage. One calf had its tongue removed. But rancher Manuel Sanchez has found no signs of human attackers, such as footprints or ATV tracks. And there are no signs of an animal attack by a coyote or mountain lion . Usually predators leave pools or blood or drag marks...

DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — A California desert cabin that became cult leader Charles Manson's last hideout has been gutted by fire. Death Valley National Park spokesman Terry Baldino said Thursday that the isolated cabin was discovered burned on Tuesday. He says it's not known if it was an accident or a deliberate act. The cabin was last seen intact Friday and may have burned over the weekend.

The Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance (FARFA) is leading the fight to save family farms and individuals from expensive and unnecessary government regulation. Help us protect our food supply and our liberties! The National Animal Identification System ("NAIS") poses a serious threat to all farmers, ranchers, livestock owners, and companion-animal owners, whether they are organic or conventional, small or large, involved with animals for business or for pleasure. If it is made mandatory, every person with even one horse, cow, chicken, pig, goat, sheep, or virtually any other livestock animal on their premises will be required to register their homes...

"My country has let me down." That's the assessment of an Arizona rancher who was sued by six illegal immigrants he detained on his property and turned over to the Border Patrol in 2004. On Tuesday an eight-member federal jury in Tucson threw out the claim brought by the six illegal aliens that Roger Barnett violated their civil rights when he detained them at gunpoint on his ranch nearly five years ago. The panel also ruled against the plaintiffs' claims of battery and false imprisonment. But the jury did find Barnett liable on four claims of assault and four claims...

The Mustang Ranch and $850 billion bail-out: Back in 1990, the Government seized the Mustang Ranch brothel in Nevada for tax evasion and, as required by law, tried to run it. They failed and it closed. Now, we are trusting the economy of our country and 850+ Billion Dollars to a pack of nit-wits who couldn't make money running a whore house and selling booze. Now if that don't make you nervous, what does???

In a speech this afternoon in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Senator Barack Obama made a groundbreaking announcement: I have long been an advocate of the less fortunate among us, of those who life has handed a crooked deck, the short end of the stick, an unfair deal. There are no Americans for who this is more true than the populations of our feedlots and industrial farms. It is time to end the exploitation of farmed animals on American soil. It is time to give up hamburgers as we have given up slave-holding. It is time for us to end our dependence on...

If you are concerned about the growing intrusiveness of regulators into our private lives, then you may want to read about Robin Countryman-Velk and her Kiddin’ Korral Animal and Activities project in the Napa, California, area. Kiddin’ Korral is part of a 1,400-acre dude ranch that is owned and operated by some 1,400 owners (the acreage is not divided). The owners have an association with a board of directors that oversees the operations. The owners can use the place any time they want—it has 100 cabins, 200 campsites, a couple of large pools and, for the last two years, the...

As Texas officials sort evidence that could lead to new criminal charges against polygamous sect leader Warren S. Jeffs, charges against him in another state are shrinking. Just two of five cases originally brought against the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints leader in Arizona are still in play, and a significant portion of those two cases have been dismissed. Now, a judge has set a July 11 hearing on whether the remaining charges, based on Jeffs' alleged role conducting marriages for underage girls, came out of a tainted grand jury proceeding. Defense attorney Michael Piccarreta argues...

Drought closes world's biggest cattle ranch in Australia By Nick Squires in Sydney Last Updated: 2:25PM BST 10/06/2008 The world's largest cattle ranch has been forced to sell off its livestock and mothball operations because of the severe drought gripping much of Australia. Drovers muster cattle at Anna Creek Station, South Australia. CHRIS MCLENNAN Anna Creek station, which is bigger than Israel, encompasses 9,267 square miles of scrub, sand dunes and savannah in the Outback of South Australia. It is normally capable of supporting 16,000 cattle but the "Big Dry" – the worst drought in a century – has exhausted...

Officials said they have detained a British man after he flew near President Bush’s Crawford ranch, later taking him to Austin for a mental evaluation. McLennan County sheriff’s deputies were called by the U.S. Secret Service on Friday evening to a pasture five to seven miles from the president’s ranch about a possibly intoxicated pilot, Chief Deputy Randy Plemons said. Bush was not at the ranch when the incident happened. At the time of the call, a heavy thunderstorm was passing through the Crawford area, but Plemons said he wasn’t sure what factors caused the pilot to land in the...

GRAHAM, Texas – For Ian Anderson, a few seconds on the back of a startled cow on Wednesday summed up three days of a special gathering for U.S. veterans dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder. "We'd never ridden a cow before," said the fresh-faced 27-year-old from Spokane, Wash., who was shot five times in combat in Iraq. "So I rode a cow. And it was fun." And that was one of the key points of Project Odyssey, a fledgling program organized by the Wounded Warrior Project in association with the Department of Veterans Affairs and other veterans organizations. Twenty-one vets from...

Smithfield — A judge has told a Johnston County farmer that he cannot open his farm to Muslim families planning to slaughter lambs as part of an annual religious celebration. The judge issued a 10-day injunction Friday, meaning that about 250 Muslim families in Wake County will have to make other arrangements for slaughtering lambs they bought in advance of the three-day Festival of the Sacrifice, which begins on Wednesday. Kenneth and Eddie Rowe have tangled before with the state over the mass slaughter of lambs on their 300-acre farm. They said they have been conducting the slaughtering in their...

There are no new pictures of the President or First Lady today, since they are spending some time together at Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, Texas, but we know full well that there are no 'vacations' for this President, and that he is hard at work protecting America from danger.So.......since there are no new photos, I'm posting several of my favorite ranch pictures just for fun, and will give my report on my husband's and my personal encounter with the President last week, and will post the photos taken from our very own camera.Enjoy your trip to Sanity Island on...

PALOMINAS — Unimpressed by President George W. Bush’s pledge to send 6,000 National Guard troops to the border and a Senate bill that would construct 370 miles of new border fencing, the Minuteman Project began building its own barrier Saturday at a local ranch. By early afternoon, volunteers had planted posts and strung five tiers of barbed wire along an approximately 750-foot-long stretch of Jack and John Ladd’s property in Palominas. It was the first step in an ongoing project the civilian border watch group hopes will eventually be taken over by the federal government. Minuteman Project founder Chris Simcox...

Jackson's ranch closed after staff go unpaid By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles (Filed: 11/03/2006) Michael Jackson has been ordered to shut down his fantasy-themed Neverland Valley Ranch and fined nearly £100,000 for failing to pay his employees or maintain proper insurance. California officials closed the sprawling estate in the Santa Ynez valley, Santa Barbara, and barred workers from the property after discovering that the singer had allowed the compensation policy protecting employees to lapse in January. Michael Jackson failed to pay his employees Jackson, 47, who has spent much of his time in Bahrain since he was acquitted last...

CARACAS, Venezuela – Cindy Sheehan, the peace activist who just announced that she is weighing a run for Senate, plans to protest again outside President Bush's Texas ranch, Venezuela's president said yesterday with Sheehan by his side. Hugo Chavez, his arm around Sheehan's shoulders, told a group of activists that Sheehan had told him that during Holy Week, in April, "she is going to put up her tent again in front of Mr. Danger's ranch." "She invited me to put up a tent. Maybe I'll put up my tent also," Chavez said, to applause from activists invited to his weekly...

Few Attend Dueling Rallies at Bush Ranch Saturday November 26, 2005 10:31 PM By ANGELA K. BROWN Associated Press Writer CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) - A repeat of last summer's dueling rallies against the war and in support of President Bush drew much small crowds to Crawford on a cool, rainy Saturday. About a dozen Bush supporters stood downtown with signs, one reading: ``Real America won't wimp out.'' Throughout the morning, shoppers and a few tourists leaving souvenir stores stopped in the tent to voice their support for the president. Closer to the Bush ranch, where the president celebrated Thanksgiving with...

CRAWFORD, Texas - More than a dozen war protesters returned to a roadside near President Bush's ranch before dawn Wednesday, defying two new local bans on roadside camping and parking. About an hour after the group pitched tents and huddled in sleeping bags and blankets, a McLennan County sheriff's deputy arrived and warned the group to leave or face arrest. Protester and former U.S. diplomat Ann Wright told the deputy that most of the group would stay because they believed the bans restrict their free-speech rights. The deputy said the group would have two more warnings before he started making...

WACO, Texas — Three war protesters on Monday filed a federal lawsuit against McLennan County, claiming two new ordinances banning roadside parking and camping infringe on their right to protest near President Bush's Crawford ranch. --snip---

CRAWFORD, Texas - The fallen soldier's mother who drew thousands to her 26-day war protest near President Bush's Crawford ranch this summer plans to return for Thanksgiving next week, despite new county ordinances banning roadside camping. Cindy Sheehan, of Vacaville, Calif., and at least a dozen supporters are prepared to be arrested as they return to the makeshift campsite along the road leading to Bush's ranch, where he is expected to spend the holiday. "It's significant that we do not let up on this administration," said Hadi Jawad, co-founder of the Crawford Peace House, which supported the protesters during their...

BISBEE - More than 50 people Wednesday night ignored the steady rain in their candlelight vigil that was held at Grassy Park to support Cindy Sheehan. Sheehan is a mother who lost a son in Iraq, and she has been camped out near President George Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch in hopes she will get to speak to him again. Valerie Stephens, one of the organizers of the vigil, said it was held to support Sheehan. "We need to make people aware of this incredibly brave person, a grieving mother who has finally managed to focus interest on what is happening...

Today President Bush met with his team of economic advisors at his Crawford, Texas ranch to discuss the strength of our economy and a Fall agenda for continued economic growth that includes talks on Social Security and overhauling the nation's tax code. The White House released a fact sheet outlining its specific strengths here. Following the meeting, the President spoke with the press regarding the economy, Social Security, and Iran. Enjoy your trip to Sanity Island and the Daily Dose!!

A determined mother of a fallen US soldier who has pledged to hold a roadside peace protest near President George Bush's Texas ranch until he talks to her, said yesterday she met with the president shortly after her son died. Cindy Sheehan, 48, of Vacaville, California, said she was among several relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq who were invited to meet with Mr Bush in June last year at Fort Lewis near Seattle. She said the meeting occurred two months after her son, Casey, was killed in Iraq. Since then, she said, various government and independent commission reports have...

Vacationing Bush Poised to Set a Record With Long Sojourn at Ranch, President on His Way to Surpassing Reagan's Total By Jim VandeHei and Peter Baker Washington Post Staff Writers Wednesday, August 3, 2005; A04 WACO, Tex., Aug. 2 -- President Bush is getting the kind of break most Americans can only dream of -- nearly five weeks away from the office, loaded with vacation time. The president departed Tuesday for his longest stretch yet away from the White House, arriving at his Crawford ranch in the evening for a stretch of clearing brush, visiting with family and friends, and...

This morning, President Bush made a call from the Roosevelt Room to the crew of the Space Shuttle, Discovery, and let them know how proud Americans are of them, and thanking them for being ‘risk takers.’ Commander Collins informed the President that they flew over Texas today and told him how beautiful it was.Later in the morning, the President attended the signing ceremony for CAFTA, making remarks in the East Room of the White House, accompanied by Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, foreign dignitaries, legislators and administration officials. He later departed the White House for his month long working ‘vacation’...

Judy Brown Regional Editor REEDSVILLE - Boer goats, bred for meat, hardly resemble dairy goats, says Christine Kocourek of Floppy Ear Farm. Ms. Kocourek and her husband, Keith Schroeder, who own a 10-acre farm in Manitowoc County, are securing more land for an expanding meat goat business built around Boers. The animals grow quickly to 80 pounds, and then are butchered at up to 10 months old. Unlike their dairy goat relatives, Boer goats are solid meat animals with bucks weighing 200 to 300 pounds. "They gain weight real fast compared to dairy goats," Ms. Kocourek said. She said Boers...

Tejon Ranch and its conservation partner, The Trust for Public Land, have figured out which 100,000 acres of the ranch's 270,000 acres will be carved out into a preserve. If the deal goes through, some of Tejon's majestic peaks and canyons in the Tehachapi Mountains could forever be saved from development. A step is being taken in that direction today, though an actual deal is much further away. The majority of the land is in the southeastern portion of the Tehachapis. There's also a swath next to Interstate 5 intended to connect the future preserve with the Wind Wolves Preserve...

In the face of pressure from farmers, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Board has removed payment caps and deductibles for livestock producers whose cattle are killed by wolves. The DNR Board on April 27 approved a rule that removes the proposed $250 deductible and the $15,000 payment cap for livestock losses due to wolf depredation. At a series of public meetings around the state in mid-February, livestock producers and hunting dog owners opposed the proposed payment limits. The board also approved eligibility criteria that requires producers to have only one calf killed to receive depredation compensation. The Wisconsin Farm...

SANTA MARIA, Calif. (Reuters) - The judge in the Michael Jackson molestation trial on Thursday barred prosecutors from calling an expert on domestic violence they hoped would explain the apparently erratic behavior of the accuser's mother for jurors. Judge Rodney Melville also said he would allow evidence showing that Jackson's then-13-year-old accuser and younger brother had masturbated while looking at the pop star's pornography, potentially bolstering defense claims that the boys had run wild at Neverland. Both rulings were setbacks for the prosecution, which is in the final stages of presenting its case to the jury of eight women and...

A former American government packing plant veterinarian says the United States government is hiding cases of mad cow disease. American Records Are Not Credible, Former Plant Veterinarian Says Dr. Lester Friedlander said Wednesday that colleagues with the United States Department of Agriculture have told him of cases that the USDA has chosen not to announce. Friedlander, who has been invited to speak to Parliament's agriculture committee next week on proposed changes to Canadian inspection legislation, refused to give details. He said the USDA employees are close to retirement and risk losing their pensions. He has previously spoken out, however, about...

News-Press articles can't be posted, so here's the link: http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050319/NEWS01/503190523/1075

Cattlemen challenge border closing under NAFTA Last Updated Wed, 16 Mar 2005 15:27:21 EST CBC News PICTURE BUTTE, ALTA. - Some Canadian cattle farmers took their arguments to reopen the U.S. border to NAFTA on Wednesday, saying the closure is a trade and investment dispute, not a response to the health threat of mad cow disease. INDEPTH: Mad Cow Disease The Canadian Cattlemen for Fair Trade is claiming damages under Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement. They say the actions of the U.S. government have given an unfair advantage to its own investors. The lobby group says...

FARTING and belching livestock will no longer be a threat to the ozone layer -- thanks to a new vaccine that prevents their potent 'pffts' and 'burps!' "Anyone who has ever been on a farm before knows just how toxic farmhouse fumes can be," says atmospheric researcher Jarrah Rolland, "but now we know it's more than just the smell we need to worry about." Scientists at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, CSIRO, blame farm animals for one-fifth of all global emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide. These two volatile substances are...

Today: March 07, 2005 at 17:50:38 PST Idaho Rancher Slays Wolf Under New Rule By JOHN MILLER ASSOCIATED PRESS BOISE, Idaho (AP) - A rancher in remote central Idaho shot a wolf he said was harassing his cattle - the first time one of the federally protected predators has been killed under new guidelines that took effect Feb. 2. The rancher shot the female gray wolf on private property late Sunday. He watched it and another larger wolf chasing his cattle, the rancher told officials. The other wolf escaped. Under the new rule that affects Idaho and Montana, people can...

US Judge Won't Reopen U.S. Border to All Canada Beef Mon March 7, 2005 10:19 AM GMT-05:00 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal judge has denied a request from U.S. meatpackers to open the U.S. border to all beef from Canada, dealing another blow to reopening trade that has been interrupted since May 2003, when Canada discovered its first case of mad cow disease. "On the fourth of March there was an order denying the plaintiff's motion for preliminary injunction," said the clerk's office at the U.S. District Court in Washington. The American Meat Institute had sought a preliminary injunction against...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - One of the largest land conservation deals in California history became final Friday when the state and two private groups closed escrow on a $95 million agreement to preserve the nearly pristine stretch of coastal rangeland that surrounds Hearst Castle. Nearly all the 82,000-acre Hearst Ranch about 200 miles north of Los Angeles will remain undeveloped, while 13 miles of coastline that has been privately held for generations will transfer to the state for public access, according to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office. "The landscape and the coastline will remain pristine," said Nita Vail, executive director of...

GRANTS PASS, Ore. - A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the Bush administration violated the Endangered Species Act when it relaxed protections on many of the nation's gray wolves. The decision by U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones in Portland rescinds a rule change that allowed ranchers to shoot wolves on sight if they were attacking livestock, said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group. In April 2003, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service divided the wolves' range into three areas and reclassified the Eastern and Western populations as threatened instead of endangered. The Eastern segment...

Nogales International After seven years, a Santa Cruz County rancher has won a judgment of $600,000 for alleged libelous and false statements posted on the internet by an environmental activism group. On Friday, Jan. 21, a Tucson jury found the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group based in Tucson, guilty of making "false, unfair, libelous and defamatory statements" against Jim Chilton, a Southern Arizona Rancher. Chilton owns the Montana Allotment, which extends west of Nogales from the U.S./Mexico border, along the Buenos Aires Refuge around the hamlet of Oro Blanco and ghost town of Ruby and into Pima...

  Washington, D.C. (Jan. 26, 2005) – A Pima County jury has awarded Arizona rancher Jim Chilton $600,000 in a libel suit against the Tucson-based environmental group, Center for Biological Diversity.  On Jan. 21, jurors in Pima County Superior Court voted 9-1 that the Center made “false, unfair, libelous and defamatory statements” regarding Chilton's management of his Forest Service grazing allotment.   Chilton, a fifth generation producer and member of the Public Lands Council (PLC) and National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA), claimed the Center made false statements about him in a news advisory, and that the Center posted defaming photographs of his operation on its web site.  The photos of Chilton’s...

Tucson's Center for Biological Diversity must pay rancher and banker Jim Chilton $600,000 because the environmental group defamed him with a press release and photos posted on its Web site, a jury decided Friday. In a 9-1 verdict, jurors in Pima County Superior Court awarded Chilton $100,000 for the harm done to his reputation and Arivaca cattle company. The jury tacked on an additional $500,000 in punitive damages meant to punish the center and deter others from committing libel. Chilton, whose wife, Sue, is chairwoman of the Arizona Game and Fish Commission, sued the center over material that alleged he...

CHEYENNE -- With fierce-looking horns and shaggy black hair, the yaks that live on Willis Larson's ranch look like a cross between domesticated cattle and sasquatch walking on all fours. But despite the intimidating impression that they first offer, the scraggly coated bovines are actually tamer than cattle and train easily for use as pack animals, Larson says. Yaks also produce a low-fat, flavorful meat that has begun to attract health-conscious people looking for an alternative to beef. When he talks about his yaks, Larson's voice softens and he speaks about the complexity of each animal's personality. "They're clowns, and...

After routing the opposition at the polls last year, Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez has signalled an escalation of his offensive against the country's elites with a "war" on latifundio, big rural estates that he blames for rural poverty. This is a mistake. Land reform is likely to weaken the farm sector. It has regularly failed Latin America in the past and is especially pointless in Venezuela, where nine out of 10 people live in urban areas. Land reform that gives the government the ability to expropriate land that is idle or unproductive or where owners are unable to prove legal...

Burning Manure Pile Has Neighbors Fuming 2 hours, 1 minute ago Strange News - AP MILFORD, Neb. - A large pile of composting manure burning for almost two months has neighbors upset and state officials looking for a way to put it out. Concerned about emissions, the state's Department of Environmental Quality will make its recommendation by the end of the week, said spokesman Rich Webster. David Dickinson, who owns and operates Midwest Feeding Co. near this town about 20 miles west of Lincoln, said he has tried to spread the pile out and douse it with water but the...

I have been arranging my extensive CD collection which lead me to play some of those long forgotten CD. This afternoon it was Mendelssohn "Reformation" Symphony. This might not be the best symphony of this rather underrated composer. The 5th popularity has suffered from being a "heftier" work, more intellectual, less crafted and vital than the "Italian". As if trying to encompass the reformation movement in music were possible. Still, the last movement opening is one of the most stirring moments of the repertoire, and a powerful musical image of the liberation of the spirit, no matter what religious connotation...

Manuel Rosales, the governor of the State of Zulia, Monday will enact a decree on layout and planning of idle lands in this region and will announce the creation of the Zulia's Agrarian Commission. Rosales added that the land decree would be drafted by common consent of all sectors in this state. "The land decree will be worked out and drafted according to the Constitution, the laws of the Republic and the decree enacted by President Chávez. The point is to negotiate, have a dialogue and an agreement so that we can make headway in the two subjects that, as...

The war to the death against big estates decreed by President Chávez in the Poliedro put paid to the illusions held by many who still believed that the government was going to act rationally and within the confines of the law. ... This Commission will have a “constitutional mandate” to incorporate the land it considers “idle, abandoned or underused” into “the productive process of the country,” according to the Decree on the Reorganization of the Ownership and Use of Land Suitable for Agricultural Use. The land so considered will be handed over to groups of the population and organized communities...

These past days have been rich in demonstrations that the Venezuelan state is sinking fast into some type of tribal units ruled by weapons. Sunday's papers reflected the marvelous contradictions in which we live, making Gabriel Garcia Marquez an illuminated amateur. I wanted to start with the latest on the seizure of El Charcote, that X-thousand acres ranch in Cojedes part of a group of ranches owned by British interests. I use the X as a number since the true extent of the land owned, and by whom, has become the mystery du jour. And the source of quite a...

The land-grabbing ranch expropriators in Venezuela are doing their stealing of lands in Che Guevara tee shirts! Che's not just a nostalgic relic of the past, he is the live image of the recrudescence of communism in action. The Financial Times of the U.K. is doing by far the best job of covering the descent of Venezuela into a Marxist hell. The United States media seemingly couldn't care less about the fate of a very important neighbor. Their performance so far mocks any claim to serve the public with necessary information.