Free Republic

ENVER — Ken Ivory, a Republican state representative from Utah, has been roaming the West with an alluring pitch to cattle ranchers, farmers and conservatives upset with how Washington controls the wide-open public spaces out here: This land is your land, he says, and not the federal government’s. Mr. Ivory, a bespectacled business lawyer from suburban Salt Lake City, does not fit the profile of a sun-scoured sagebrush rebel. But he is part of a growing Republican-led movement pushing the federal government to hand over to the states millions of acres of Western public lands — as well as their...

We've been following the story of the persecution of the Hammond family in Oregon from a position of trying to identify the real motive and real agenda behind the MSM headlines. Previously we outlined the full back story to the origin of the Hammond family problems. Later we shared how the motive of the Oregon U.S. Attorney, Amanda Marshall (Obama appointee) was brutally obvious. The discoveries continue... To aid the Hammond family Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his family appealed to Harney county Sheriff David Ward. Sheriff David Ward formerly worked for the Federal Bureau of Land Management and appears...

The double standard in the media’s treatment of Ammon Bundy and his gang at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is shameful, but the case of the Dann sisters underlines even further the disparity in how non-white activists are treated. Carrie and Mary Dann, two elderly Shoshone women who have defied seizure of their land, have been repeatedly roughed up and harassed by federal officials and mobs of white ranchers for refusing to cede their claim to land that was illegally stolen from them 30 years ago. n 1863, the U.S. government signed the Ruby Valley Treaty with the Western Shoshone...

BURNS--Ammon Bundy and his band of militants appeared ready to settle in for the long haul Saturday when a rifle-toting "security detail" broke the relative lull that had fallen over their weeklong standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. The morning began with a notable change in scenery. The ornate sign that used to greet visitors with "Welcome To Your National Wildlife Refuge" now advertised the "Harney County Resource Center" in white block letters over a blue background...... Members of the Pacific Patriots Network, a consortium of groups from Oregon, Washington and Idaho, emerged from their cars and trucks carrying...

You should have sympathy for the Hammond family. You should have sympathy for Steven and Dwight Hammond because they are, by all accounts, decent and generous community members attempting to survive as ranchers in the face of a massive federal bureaucracy violating their rights. Here's everything you need to know about the Hammond family and why they're now at the center of a national firestorm.

KrisAnne Hall is an attorney and former prosecutor, fired after teaching the Constitution to TEA Party groups- she would not sacrifice liberty for a paycheck. She is a disabled veteran of the US Army, a Russian linguist, a mother, a pastor's wife and a patriot. Please find the time to listen to her, understand what she is saying and absorb her passion for liberty.

Four days into their occupation, the anti-government activists who took over a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon hinted on Tuesday that their days there might be numbered. [snip]

Ammon Bundy(R), leader of a group of armed anti-government protesters speaks to the media as other members look on at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Oregon January 4, 2016.

BURNS, Ore. — Ammon Bundy's goal is to reverse transactions that moved control of lands from ranchers to the federal government. What's unclear: Exactly how he intends to do that as he occupies for the third day the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge south of Burns in southeastern Oregon with a self-styled militia group of supporters. An Oregon sheriff on Monday called the effort an "armed occupation" and told the group to go home.

With hashtags from #YallQaeda to #VanillaISIS, Twitter users are having a ball skewering the homegrown militia that took over a federal building in Oregon Saturday.... Twitter didn't stop at #YallQaeda, though. User Brian Powers posted a pic of a potbellied man in camo holding a rifle, along with the hashtag #mealteam6. Poking fun at both 1990s rapper Vanilla Ice and the Oregon militia's overwhelming whiteness, Steven English tweeted at one of the group's leaders, Ammon Bundy, saying, "#vanillaisis leader @Ammon_Bundy wants to start his own #cowliphate."...

The desire of their hearts. I guess you have to cut the left some slack. When the San Bernardino shootings happened, they were so excited at the prospect of a white gunman. Imagine how crestfallen they must have been when the assailants turned out not only to be Middle Eastern Muslims but ISIS sympathizers too. Not only did the shootings not really help to sell gun control, they actually affirmed the notion of Islamic terrorism as a threat on U.S. soil. Nothing is worse than murder that plays into right-wing narratives. So boy howdy, are they excited about this militia...

In the aftermath of Ammon Bundy's group takeover of an empty government hut in the wilderness in response to the government's egregious miscarriage of justice against the Hammond family, the left has given in to its ravenous, Twilight-style bloodlust. Jonathan Chait of The New Yorker tweeted: Do we get to vote on this? Because I'm voting for #2 https://t.co/1uS3C4xmee -- Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) January 3, 2016 Montel Williams tweeted: Totally fine with a massive use of deadly force in Oregon to take out Ammon Bundy. #OregonUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/A9F90qnBaW -- Montel Williams (@Montel_Williams) January 3, 2016 All right. Let's ignore for a...

The media are focused on the “Bundy Militia” angle to the standoff in Burns Oregon, where Aamon Bundy and brothers have taken over a Malheur Wildlife Refuge Headquarters to draw attention to the plight of the Hammond family (Full Complex Back Story Here). However, a little research (HatTip NeverTooLate) into the original legal battle reveals a rather startling update. The initial, and regarded by many as overreaching, federal prosecution resulted in a federal court judge Michael Hogan assigning a 3-month sentence and 1-year sentence for Dwight Lincoln Hammond Jr (73) and his son, Steven Dwight Hammond (46) respectively. Even federal...

The media are focused on the “Bundy Militia” angle to the standoff in Burns Oregon, where Aamon Bundy and brothers have taken over a Malheur Wildlife Refuge Headquarters to draw attention to the plight of the Hammond family (Full Complex Back Story Here).However, a little research (HatTip NeverTooLate) into the original legal battle reveals a rather startling update.Hammond Family The initial, and regarded by many as overreaching, federal prosecution resulted in a federal court judge Michael Hogan assigning a 3-month sentence and 1-year sentence for Dwight Lincoln Hammond Jr (73) and his son, Steven Dwight Hammond (46) respectively.Even federal Judge...

Amid peaceful protests and the occupation of a national wildlife refuge building in Oregon, Glenn Beck said Monday that ranchers Steven and Dwight Hammond should not go to jail again but the judge who originally sentenced them should. "They received their sentence. They went and they served their sentence. They paid their due, as according to a judge," Beck said on The Glenn Beck Radio Program. "If the judge broke the law, then the judge needs to go to jail." Dwight Hammond, 73, and Steven Hammond, 46, have been charged with arson for fires they said they lit in 2001...

Ammon Bundy emerged from a small brick building at the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge shortly after 11am. He wouldn't say how many protestors were present at the site of the occupied federal complex, but fewer than 20 people were visible Sunday afternoon. The leader of the occupation spoke in cool, calm tones as he explained why and other self-described militiamen broke into and took over the complex Saturday...... Protestor LaVoy Finicum, an Arizona rancher, said they're being careful not to damage the buildings or property. He claimed the protestors accessed the buildings after they found a set...

How did an armed takeover of a federal nature reserve in Oregon come about? It dates back to when Eastern Oregon father-son ranchers, Dwight Hammond and his son Steve, were convicted of lighting fires on federal land. The Hammond Ranch story began in 1991, when Steven Hammond started a fire on his own land for noxious weed control. The fire escaped and burned an acre of BLM land that was leased by the Hammond family for cattle grazing. Then in 2001, the Hammonds started another fire on their property that ran off the Hammond land and consumed 139 acres of...

There’s a lot going on as regards the standoff in Oregon involving three of Cliven Bundy’s sons and the federal government. Jazz has already offered his opinion on the matter, and I mostly agree with him. But I’m not sure the term “armed troops” is appropriate to describe Bundy’s group because that suggests they’re in tactical gear. That doesn’t appear to be true based off what Ammon Bundy’s video posted on Facebook. Standing for the rights of men & womenBREAKING! SHARE! Standing for the rights of Men & Women. Calling all freedom loving people to come to Harney County Oregon,...

"If three years ago any person had told me that at this day, I should see such a formidable rebellion against the laws & constitutions of our own making as now appears I should have thought him a bedlamite—a fit subject for a mad house." —George Washington to Henry Knox, on the subject of Shays Rebellion, February 3, 1787 You have to give Captain Daniel Shays this: When he launched his armed sedition against lawful authority, he at least was invited in. Overnight on Saturday, in an obscure corner of the Oregon wilderness, and contrary to the law, and in...

Federal officials said on Sunday that they were monitoring the armed takeover of a remote federal wildlife refuge in the rural southeastern corner of Oregon. The occupation, which began Saturday afternoon, appeared to be led by Ammon Bundy, a rancher whose family became a symbol of anti-government sentiment in 2014, when his father inspired a standoff between local militias and federal officials seeking to confiscate cattle grazing illegally on federal land.