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Reminds me, of our own Federal Government putting the Buffalo to extinction, to starve out the Indians(Free People)
Government will find, or manufacture a way,to get exactly what they want. Damn the little people in their way.
feedlots instead of grazing on pasture as the law requires,” stated Mark Kastel, Cornucopia’s senior farm policy
analyst. Cornucopia also found that Aurora was procuring cattle from a non-certified organic source in apparent
violation of the law. “Our sources tell us that the USDA’s investigators found many other violations when conducting
their probe of Aurora.”
There are cows in Colorado? My grandmother use to live in Henderson, outside of Denver. I saw Horses and hogs, but a cow was rare to see.
Go to a bar-b-q place in Colorado and it is all pork. No beef brisket.
Another batch of strong storms will plague north-central Oregon and southern Washington this evening. Here, warm temperatures have created a very unstable environment. To make matters worse, a disturbance high in the atmosphere is sweeping across the same area to trigger strong-to-severe thunderstorms capable of producing large hail and damaging winds.
On Tuesday, Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon, whose district encompasses the county where the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is located, took to the floor of the House this week to give the back story that led to the occupation and protest that is currently underway.
Now, I am not defending armed takeovers. I do not think that is appropriate. I think the time has come for those to consider that they have made their case in the public about what is happening in the West, and perhaps it is time for them to realize they have made their case and to go home. I want to talk about what happened with the Hammonds. I want to put in perspective what happens almost every year in my district. That is these enormous wildfires.
The Miller Homestead Wildfire in 2012 burned 160,000 acres, mostly in this county, if not all; 250 square miles, a quarter of the size of the State of Rhode Island. That was just in 2012.
The Barry Point Fire that year, in Lake County, next door, burned 93,000 acres. Last summer alone, we burned 799,974 acres across Oregon; that is both forest and high desert. In 2012, 3.4 million acres burned in Oregon. There was another fire in Malheur County. The Long Draw Fire, in 2012, burned 557,000 acres, five times the size of Rhode Island. So 93,000 acres, 557,000 acres, 160,000 acres, all burning. The Hammonds are in prison tonight for setting a backfire that they admit to, that burned 139 acres, and they will sit in prison, time served and time going forward, 5 years, under a law that I would argue was never intended to mete out that kind of punishment, and I will get to that in a moment.
When Secretary Babbitt, the Interior Secretary at the time, came before the House Resources Committee, of which I was a member, I said: Mr. Secretary, your own resource advisory committees in the area just reported that
there was no need for additional protection on Steens Mountain, and yet, you and the President are threatening to create this national monument. Why do you waste the time of the citizens to go through a process to determine if additional protections are needed and then ignore what they came up with?
To Bruce Babbitt’s credit, he agreed when I told him: I think you would be surprised about what the local ranchers and citizens of Harney County would be willing to do if you give them a chance. To his credit, he said: All right, I will give them that chance. And he did.
We went to work on legislation. It took a full year. I worked with the Hammonds. I worked with Stacy Davies, I worked with all kinds of folks, put a staffer on it full-time, multiple staffs, and we worked with the environmental community and others. And we created the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Act, model legislation, never been done before, because I said: We don’t have to live by past laws, we write laws.
So we wrote a new law to create a cooperative spirit of management in Harney County. The Hammonds were part of that discussion. We saved a running camp, Harlan Priority Runs. We protected inholder. We tried to do all the right things and create the kind of partnership and cooperation that the Federal Government and the citizens should have.
Fast forward on that particular law. Not long after that became law, and it was heralded as this monumental law of great significance and new era in cooperation and spirit of cooperation, some of those involved on the other side and some of the agencies decided to reinterpret it. The first thing they tried to do is shut down this kids’ running camp because they said: Well, too many, maybe more than 20, run down this canyon and back up, as they had for many, many years. They wanted to shut it down. So we had to fight them back and said: No, the law says historical standards.
Then the bureaucrats, because we said: You should have your historical access to your private property, if you are up on Steens Mountain, you should maintain that access like you have always had it. Do you know what the bureaucrats said? They began to solicit from the inholders in this area: How many times did you go up there last year? You see, they wanted to put a noose around the neck of those who were inside. That was a total violation of what we intended, and we had to back them off.
See, the bureaucracy wants to interpret the laws we write in ways they want, and in this case they were wrong, not once, but twice. Then, a couple of years ago, I learned that, despite the fact we created the first cow-free wilderness in the United States under this law, and said clearly in this law that it would be the responsibility of the government to put up fencing to keep the cows out, as part of the agreement, the Bureau of Land Management said: No, we are not going to follow that law. And they told the ranchers they had to build the fence.
I networked with my Democrat colleague from Oregon, Mr. DeFazio, who was part of writing this law. I said: Peter, you remember that, right? He said: Yeah, I didn’t like it, but that was the case. BLM still wouldn’t listen. So we continued to push it and they argued back.
Well, it turns out there had been a second rancher who brought this to my attention who they were telling had to do the same thing, build a fence, when the government was supposed to under the law I wrote. The arrogance of the agency was such that they said: We don’t agree with you.
Now, there aren’t many times, Mr. Speaker, in this job when you can say I know what the intent of the law was, but in this case I could because I wrote the law, I knew the intent.
Oh, that wasn’t good enough. No, no, no. No, no, no. The arrogance of these agency people was such that we had to go to the archives and drag out the boxes from 2000, 1999-2000, when we wrote this law, from the hearings that had all the records for the hearings and the floor discussions to talk about the intent. And our retired Member, George Miller, actually we used some of his information where he said the government would provide the fencing. They were still reluctant to follow it. So I put language in the appropriations bill that restated the Federal law.
Do you understand how frustrated I am at this? Can you imagine how the people on the ground feel?
Can you imagine? If you are not there, you can’t. If you are not there, you can’t.
You ridicule them. The Portland Oregonian is running a thing, what do you send? Meals for militia. Let’s have fun with this.
On Tuesday, Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon, whose district encompasses the county where the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is located, took to the floor of the House this week to give the back story that led to the occupation and protest that is currently underway.
Now, I am not defending armed takeovers. I do not think that is appropriate. I think the time has come for those to consider that they have made their case in the public about what is happening in the West, and perhaps it is time for them to realize they have made their case and to go home. I want to talk about what happened with the Hammonds. I want to put in perspective what happens almost every year in my district. That is these enormous wildfires.
The Miller Homestead Wildfire in 2012 burned 160,000 acres, mostly in this county, if not all; 250 square miles, a quarter of the size of the State of Rhode Island. That was just in 2012.
The Barry Point Fire that year, in Lake County, next door, burned 93,000 acres. Last summer alone, we burned 799,974 acres across Oregon; that is both forest and high desert. In 2012, 3.4 million acres burned in Oregon. There was another fire in Malheur County. The Long Draw Fire, in 2012, burned 557,000 acres, five times the size of Rhode Island. So 93,000 acres, 557,000 acres, 160,000 acres, all burning. The Hammonds are in prison tonight for setting a backfire that they admit to, that burned 139 acres, and they will sit in prison, time served and time going forward, 5 years, under a law that I would argue was never intended to mete out that kind of punishment, and I will get to that in a moment.
When Secretary Babbitt, the Interior Secretary at the time, came before the House Resources Committee, of which I was a member, I said: Mr. Secretary, your own resource advisory committees in the area just reported that
there was no need for additional protection on Steens Mountain, and yet, you and the President are threatening to create this national monument. Why do you waste the time of the citizens to go through a process to determine if additional protections are needed and then ignore what they came up with?
To Bruce Babbitt’s credit, he agreed when I told him: I think you would be surprised about what the local ranchers and citizens of Harney County would be willing to do if you give them a chance. To his credit, he said: All right, I will give them that chance. And he did.
We went to work on legislation. It took a full year. I worked with the Hammonds. I worked with Stacy Davies, I worked with all kinds of folks, put a staffer on it full-time, multiple staffs, and we worked with the environmental community and others. And we created the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Act, model legislation, never been done before, because I said: We don’t have to live by past laws, we write laws.
So we wrote a new law to create a cooperative spirit of management in Harney County. The Hammonds were part of that discussion. We saved a running camp, Harlan Priority Runs. We protected inholder. We tried to do all the right things and create the kind of partnership and cooperation that the Federal Government and the citizens should have.
Fast forward on that particular law. Not long after that became law, and it was heralded as this monumental law of great significance and new era in cooperation and spirit of cooperation, some of those involved on the other side and some of the agencies decided to reinterpret it. The first thing they tried to do is shut down this kids’ running camp because they said: Well, too many, maybe more than 20, run down this canyon and back up, as they had for many, many years. They wanted to shut it down. So we had to fight them back and said: No, the law says historical standards.
Then the bureaucrats, because we said: You should have your historical access to your private property, if you are up on Steens Mountain, you should maintain that access like you have always had it. Do you know what the bureaucrats said? They began to solicit from the inholders in this area: How many times did you go up there last year? You see, they wanted to put a noose around the neck of those who were inside. That was a total violation of what we intended, and we had to back them off.
See, the bureaucracy wants to interpret the laws we write in ways they want, and in this case they were wrong, not once, but twice. Then, a couple of years ago, I learned that, despite the fact we created the first cow-free wilderness in the United States under this law, and said clearly in this law that it would be the responsibility of the government to put up fencing to keep the cows out, as part of the agreement, the Bureau of Land Management said: No, we are not going to follow that law. And they told the ranchers they had to build the fence.
I networked with my Democrat colleague from Oregon, Mr. DeFazio, who was part of writing this law. I said: Peter, you remember that, right? He said: Yeah, I didn’t like it, but that was the case. BLM still wouldn’t listen. So we continued to push it and they argued back.
Well, it turns out there had been a second rancher who brought this to my attention who they were telling had to do the same thing, build a fence, when the government was supposed to under the law I wrote. The arrogance of the agency was such that they said: We don’t agree with you.
Now, there aren’t many times, Mr. Speaker, in this job when you can say I know what the intent of the law was, but in this case I could because I wrote the law, I knew the intent.
Oh, that wasn’t good enough. No, no, no. No, no, no. The arrogance of these agency people was such that we had to go to the archives and drag out the boxes from 2000, 1999-2000, when we wrote this law, from the hearings that had all the records for the hearings and the floor discussions to talk about the intent. And our retired Member, George Miller, actually we used some of his information where he said the government would provide the fencing. They were still reluctant to follow it. So I put language in the appropriations bill that restated the Federal law.
Do you understand how frustrated I am at this? Can you imagine how the people on the ground feel?
Can you imagine? If you are not there, you can’t. If you are not there, you can’t.
You ridicule them. The Portland Oregonian is running a thing, what do you send? Meals for militia. Let’s have fun with this.
If you are frustrated with minimum sentencing laws, then target those laws because that is the reason that the Hammonds had to serve 5 years for the crime that the admitted to.
But the cosplaytriots didn't say a word about minimum sentencing laws, they just wanted the federal land turned over to ranchers, loggers, and miners, or to the people, or to the state, depending on what time of day they were asked.
"(Dry thunderstorms are those that produce virga.) A cloud that produces thunder, lightning, and rain are common in the western United States, but these clouds often do not have measurable ground-level precipitation. These dry thunderstorms are often culprits in creating massive wildfires as lightning ignites a dry fuel source on the ground during fire weather season (Usually in the hot summer months"
- Headline: In defense of the Oregon protesters on the floor of the House
- Text: Now, I am not defending armed takeovers.
Well, that's kinda the defining characteristic of the "protesters", Representative.
Be that as it may, is there a debate to be had on the subject of mandatory minimum sentencing? Yes, and it's way, way overdue.
But the Hammonds are not even close to an egregious case - people have been subjected to much longer sentences for much smaller crimes. I'll state the obvious: The Hammonds are only held up by the Bundys and their ilk because mandatory minimum sentences are supposed to be for those real criminals - y'know, poor, inner-city, darker skinned.
Last edited by Dane_in_LA; 03-17-2016 at 09:36 AM..
There are cows in Colorado? My grandmother use to live in Henderson, outside of Denver. I saw Horses and hogs, but a cow was rare to see.
Go to a bar-b-q place in Colorado and it is all pork. No beef brisket.
Bet these people think the pigs run around the rolling mountains of Colorado, only to discover those pigs live very short lives fed on grain and corn, called "organic green pork." Then we wonder why children and adults experience so many allergies. Much better to think their meat is roaming on 10 acres of grass, being fed "organically." I guess some people don't realize not very many cows can feed on 10 acres without supplementing the feed.......including those little pigs. Why are we feeding pigs and cows corn?
The people complaining about Bundy's cows don't understand Open Range.....this is something I certainly had to learn about and the man was raising Brahma cows, they tend to be like Longhorns.
If you are frustrated with minimum sentencing laws, then target those laws because that is the reason that the Hammonds had to serve 5 years for the crime that the admitted to.
But the cosplaytriots didn't say a word about minimum sentencing laws, they just wanted the federal land turned over to ranchers, loggers, and miners, or to the people, or to the state, depending on what time of day they were asked.
If these cows are starving and going without food on Federal land, how is the other wildlife living? Is there dead wildlife in this area?
Well, yes. That is how wildlife self-regulates in nature - breeds until the population is kept in check by resources and predators. And, of course, the competitors that man introduces.
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