![\"Hammond](\"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Hammond-family.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe Hammond Family <\/strong><\/h1>\n\u00a0<\/h1>\nNo Property Rights! No Freedom! No Future!<\/strong><\/h1>\nThe Story of the Quintessential American Family<\/strong><\/h1>\nand\u00a0the\u00a0Spirit\u00a0that Built the American West,\u00a0 <\/strong><\/h1>\nand\u00a0How the Government is Trying to Break that Spirit.<\/strong><\/h1>\n <\/p>\n
\u00a0Many Protest Decision to send Hammonds back to Jail<\/strong><\/h1>\n\u00a0<\/strong><\/h1>\n\u00a0<\/h1>\n
By Scott Rohter<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dateline: January, 2016 – Burns, Oregon<\/strong><\/p>\nNormally peaceful Malheur National Wildlife Refuge<\/a> near Burns Oregon became the scene of a heated standoff between\u00a0ranchers and property rights advocates on the one hand, and federal law enforcement officials\u00a0and the Bureau of Land Management on the other hand. At the center of the conflict is a\u00a0seventy-three year old Oregon Rancher named Dwight Hammond and his\u00a0forty-six year old son Steven who were recently re-sentenced\u00a0in what can only be described as double jeopardy to serve five more years in a Federal Penitentiary on trumped up charges of arson.<\/p>\nIn 2001 Dwight and Steven Hammond of Burns, Oregon were doing just what many grass seed farmers, ranchers,\u00a0and cattlemen throughout the western United States\u00a0do. They were burning their grass field\u00a0in the fall\u00a0in order to control invasive and undesirable weeds like Canada thistle and tansy ragwort which is poisonous to cattle as well as the local juniper which\u00a0thrives in eastern Oregon, but diverts a lot of ground water away from the production of grass hay. According to the Hammonds their fire got out of control and spread to adjacent federal land which they were leasing from the BLM. It burned a total of about 130 acres of\u00a0 public grass\u00a0 land. There was nothing on the land but grass\u00a0so the\u00a0damage caused by the\u00a0fire was\u00a0insignificant. In fact it was\u00a0actually beneficial.<\/p>\n
The practice of starting grass fires in order to control invasive or noxious weeds ensures the health and safety of\u00a0grazing animals. The practice of burning off water sucking\u00a0plants\u00a0like Juniper helps to increase the average yield per acre of grass which the cattle feed on.\u00a0 It is the normal, standard method of managing rangeland in all western states. There is nothing unusual about it… On top of this, lighting small grass fires helps to lessen the damage caused by large scale wildfires when they occur. What is unusual\u00a0about the Hammonds is the way that federal prosecutors working\u00a0in the\u00a0Obama Administration decided to single them out for a campaign of intimidation and punishment. The Hammonds own\u00a0six thousand acres located about 50 miles south of Burns, Oregon. Their ranch is right in the middle of\u00a0what the government calls the\u00a0Steens Mountain Wilderness Area<\/a>.\u00a0 Not only does the government want their land, but it is\u00a0some of the\u00a0last privately held land in the entire Wilderness Area. The Hammonds\u00a0have been running cows on their land for many years\u00a0in\u00a0an area which the Federal Government\u00a0has now designated as\u00a0a “cow free” zone.<\/p>\nIt was very unusual that the Department of Justice decided to prosecute the Hammonds on federal arson charges\u00a0since it was\u00a0just not a deliberate action but rather an unfortunate accident\u00a0that the controlled burn\u00a0they started got out of control and spread to adjacent\u00a0land they lease from the government.\u00a0\u00a0When\u00a0their criminal case was reopened two years\u00a0after they were released from jail\u00a0and they were re-sentenced to serve additional\u00a0time behind bars this was way more than just unusual.. It was a violation of the Fifth Amendment which states that no person shall “be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy<\/em>.” Controlled\u00a0grass fires\u00a0occasionally get out of control. It even happens\u00a0when the government starts them,\u00a0but no\u00a0one\u00a0ever gets prosecuted for it…\u00a0that is not until the Hammonds. They were not just criminally prosecuted for it once. They were\u00a0punished\u00a0for it twice…\u00a0 That should send a chill up and down your spine if you actually have one.<\/p>\nIn 2012\u00a0Dwight and Steven Hammond were convicted of arson\u00a0for\u00a0a 2001 incident\u00a0after a two week long\u00a0jury trial in Pendleton, Oregon. Based upon\u00a0some\u00a0questionable testimony\u00a0from a minor with emotional problems Steven\u00a0Hammond was\u00a0also convicted of a separate incident in 2006. Both of these incidents were unintentional accidents\u00a0which resulted in\u00a0no property damage and no injuries to anyone. The only thing that burned was the grass\u00a0which the Hammonds had grazing rights to so there was no reason to\u00a0put them in jail for either incident, but that didn’t matter. To jail they went and they served their time and after that they were released. However in addition to their jail sentences they were also ordered by the court to pay four hundred thousand dollars in fines. Dwight Hammond\u00a0spent three months in jail and his son Steven served\u00a0one year\u00a0on two counts of arson, both\u00a0in a Federal Penitentiary. They were both released and that should have been the end of the matter, but it wasn’t…<\/p>\n
The additional crime for which Steven Hammond had to serve a longer sentence than his father\u00a0was over a controlled back burn which\u00a0he started\u00a0in 2006 when when a\u00a0nearby wild fire\u00a0was\u00a0threatening to destroy\u00a0the family’s\u00a0house as well as their winter grass\u00a0for their\u00a0herd. The government claimed that he set\u00a0those\u00a0fires without a permit when\u00a0all\u00a0such burning was prohibited because of the wild fire. The only\u00a0people who were authorized to set\u00a0back fires at the time were the firefighters who were battling\u00a0the blaze that was threatening the Hammond\u00a0house. The government claimed that Steven\u00a0 didn’t set\u00a0the back fires\u00a0to protect his house but rather to cover up the fact that he had shot three deer without a tag and out of season.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0accusation of poaching is so ridiculous that it doesn’t even deserve the respect of an answer. You don’t start a fire\u00a0to cover up the fact that you\u00a0just\u00a0shot a deer out of season.\u00a0 If you wanted to cover up your crime you\u00a0would put the meat\u00a0in the freezer\u00a0and bury\u00a0the rest of the evidence in the ground… and when you have 6000 acres its not too hard to find a place to dispose of the evidence, but that’s not what the government claimed. They claimed Steven started a fire to cover up the fat that he had shot the deer out of season.\u00a0\u00a0 I can tell you this much… If there was a wildfire threatening my house\u00a0 and I knew that the government didn’t want me living in it… I wouldn’t be out hunting\u00a0deer.\u00a0 I would be protecting my house any way that I could and\u00a0I wouldn\u2019t bother asking\u00a0the government\u2019s permission in order to do it. I would just do\u00a0it and so would anyone else in their right mind.<\/p>\n
![\"Hammond](\"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Hammond-Dwight-300x169.jpg\")
<\/a>Dwight Hammond<\/p><\/div>\n
After the Hammonds served their\u00a0sentences for arson\u00a0they were released from jail, but \u00a0then something\u00a0\u00a0else unusual happened. Two years\u00a0later Federal prosecutors working\u00a0in the Obama Administration decided to re-open their case\u00a0claiming that they hadn’t served enough time and they found some judge who was willing to over rule the original trial judge and\u00a0re-sentence them to five more years behind bars under a seldom used clause in the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act.\u00a0According to\u00a0the 5th Amendment that amounts to double jeopardy.<\/p>\n
Dwight Hammond is\u00a073 years old…\u00a0His additional jail sentence\u00a0means that he will probably\u00a0spend the rest of his life\u00a0in prison. He is an old man\u00a0who doesn’t pose\u00a0a threat to anybody. So why is the government doing this to him?<\/p>\n
This \u00a0is\u00a0\u00a0a map of the Steens Mountain Wilderness Area.<\/a> Hover over it and click it\u00a0to enlarge the map. The Hammond ranch is located just east of Frenchglen and south of the little town of Diamond. The entire Wilderness area is designated in yellow.\u00a0All the\u00a0private land is designated in white… The\u00a0whole area is outlined\u00a0by a red line which means that it is rich in natural resources, particularly gold and uranium<\/a>.\u00a0The green dotted line\u00a0means that it contains gold. \u00a0This is not just a coincidence.<\/p>\nAssistant U.S. Attorneys Frank Papagni Jr., AnneMarie Sgarlata and Kelly Zusman are the prosecutors who were in charge of re-opening the Hammond case. What is\u00a0unusual\u00a0is the way that the government has\u00a0gone after the Hammonds not once, but twice\u00a0even violating their constitutional rights against double jeopardy to do so. They\u00a0were\u00a0tried, convicted,\u00a0and sentenced, and\u00a0they served their time. Then two years later they were\u00a0brought back into a courtroom\u00a0and re-sentenced for a second time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a letter from the Department of Justice <\/a>dated October 7, 2015 the government states that, \u201cThese sentences are intended to be long enough to deter those like the Hammonds who disregard the law\u2026\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>In other words the government\u00a0is determined to make an example out of this 73 year old man and his son, but why? Look at the map\u00a0<\/a>. This part of southeastern Oregon is not just a place to watch birds.. It has vast natural resources and it has the potential to produce vast amounts of wealth for anyone who owns it. The government wants to own it… all of it.<\/p>\nLet’s\u00a0assume for\u00a0the moment that all of the misfortune that is happening to the Hammond\u00a0Family is\u00a0happening to them because they own some of the last private land in the Wilderness Area and that it doesn’t have anything to do with the resources that lie under their land. The Government is trying to drive them out just because they want\u00a0to incorporate their\u00a0six thousand acre ranch\u00a0into the Steens Mountain wilderness area, and they are doing it simply because they can. There is still no reason\u00a0that either of the Hammonds\u00a0should have had to spent\u00a0a single\u00a0day in jail nor surrender themselves\u00a0a second time to\u00a0Federal authorities\u00a0or\u00a0spend one more day more less five more years of their lives behind bars.<\/p>\n
All over America federal prosecutors are planning to release thousands of\u00a0actual criminals who are in jail on real<\/strong> drug charges<\/strong> because of Black lives matter\u00a0and the President’s\u00a0criminal justice reforms. I guess\u00a0a couple of\u00a0White ranchers in\u00a0eastern Oregon don\u2019t qualify for clemency or leniency in his Justice Department since they didn\u2019t rape anyone or shoot anyone while they were high on meth and robbing their local Seven Eleven. White lives don’t matter to America’s first Black President.<\/p>\nNow if you’ll excuse my pun I would like to tell you what really burns me up about the Federal arson charges against\u00a0Dwight and Steven Hammond\u00a0of Burns, Oregon. Recently I\u00a0took a\u00a0trip\u00a0from Eugene\u00a0to Bend and I had a chance to drive over the Cascade Mountains… I hadn’t seen this part\u00a0of the Cascades\u00a0for nearly twenty years. What I saw left me saddened and speechless. The entire mountain range for miles around has been burned to the ground in\u00a0all directions. Everywhere you look there is nothing but devastation.\u00a0There isn’t a living tree as far\u00a0as the eye can see.\u00a0 100,000 acres of prime forest land were totally destroyed and none of the valuable timber\u00a0was ever harvested. I want to know which government official\u00a0working\u00a0for\u00a0the Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management\u00a0spent a single day in jail or paid a fine or\u00a0lost their job\u00a0as a result of\u00a0the damage they were responsible for which occurred under their watch. The B and B Complex Fires<\/a>\u00a0left\u00a0a huge swath of the Cascade Mountains\u00a0completely lifeless for\u00a0generations and no government official served time or paid a damn dime, but\u00a0Dwight and Steven Hammond\u00a0have been compelled\u00a0to serve time not just once but twice and forced to pay $400,000 dollars in fines and legal fees for an accidental fire that caused no\u00a0property damage and burned just a mere 130 acres of\u00a0grass.<\/p>\nBased on\u00a0an article that appeared in the Tri-State Livestock News\u00a0<\/a> in October\u00a02015 it is clear that the Hammond Ranch is\u00a0standing in the way of certain things that the federal government wants to do in Harney County. The Hammonds own some\u00a0of the last private\u00a0land\u00a0in the 100,000 acre “cow free zone”\u00a0which is part of\u00a0an\u00a0even bigger area… the 170,000 acre Steens Mountain Wilderness Area.\u00a0This wilderness area\u00a0was created as a compromise worked out between\u00a0Oregon Congressman Greg Walden and President Bill Clinton under the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Act. It was supposed to prevent much of Harney County from becoming a National Park.“The Hammonds\u00a0are some of the last holdouts in the area”,<\/em> said Erin Maupin a former government official who used to work for the BLM. (see October 2015 article from Tri-State Livestock News at the end of this story found under Corroborating Source Material<\/strong>)<\/p>\n![\"Interim](\"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Billy-Williams-Interim-U.S.-Attorney-for-Oregon.jpg\")
<\/a>Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon, Billy Williams<\/p><\/div>\n
So then who\u00a0are the real villains in\u00a0the story of the Hammond\u00a0family of Harney County.\u00a0\u00a0It certainly isn’t the Hammonds.\u00a0They were just trying to live their lives the way they had always lived them… like free men and women on the open range in\u00a0eastern Oregon. The real villains\u00a0in this story are the three Assistant U.S. Attorneys, Frank Papagni Jr., AnneMarie Sgarlata, and Kelly Zusman of Portland Oregon who have been trying to make a name for themselves\u00a0in the Obama Justice Department and the new U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon, Billy Williams who was recently appointed by Loretta Lynch <\/a>who was recently appointed herself by Barack Obama to replace the\u00a0departing Eric Holder.<\/p>\nIt goes back to the man in the White House who shouldn’t\u00a0be\u00a0in the White House\u00a0because he is not a Natural Born Citizen.\u00a0His father was not an American Citizen at the time\u00a0that Barack Obama\u00a0was born which makes him constitutionally ineligible to be President. Whether he was born in Honolulu or Nairobi, Kenya it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference. He is not constitutionally\u00a0eligible to be President based on the fact that his father was not an American citizen. Obama should be impeached. His two terms in the White House have done far worse things to our country than\u00a0Bill Clinton ever did in the Oval Orifice..\u00a0<\/p>\n
The only thing keeping\u00a0Obama from being impeached is the color of his skin and the scarcity of enough backbone amongst Republicans in\u00a0Congress to do the right thing.\u00a0The four U.S. Attorneys who re-opened the case against the Dwight and Steven Hammond were just trying to impress their boss,\u00a0and move up in the pecking order at the\u00a0Department of\u00a0 Injustice. District Attorney Billy Williams\u00a0was just following orders from\u00a0his boss, Loretta Lynch\u00a0who was just following orders from her boss, Barack Obama\u00a0when they decided to re-open the Hammond case and overturn the original sentences of the trial court judge. The corruption starts at the top with Barack Obama.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Assistant U.S. Attorneys who requested\u00a0extra jail time for the Hammonds and the Federal Judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals who revoked the trial\u00a0judge’s original\u00a0sentences and imposed additional time under the Anti Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996<\/a>\u00a0 <\/em>should all be impeached.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They are just as\u00a0crazy as a\u00a0Circuit Judge in\u00a0Jackson County\u00a0who sentenced a\u00a0man to prison for\u00a0collecting rain water without a\u00a0permit.<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Bundy](\"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Bundy-Ammon.jpg\")
<\/a>Ammon Bundy<\/p><\/div>\n
It seems like most of our appointed and elected\u00a0officials are so satiated with power that they have lost\u00a0their\u00a0sense of proportionality. Maybe they have lost their minds. When the plight of the Hammonds became\u00a0publicized Ammon and Ryan Bundy who previously had their own run in with the BLM over their family’s grazing\u00a0rights decided to come to their rescue. They came to Oregon\u00a0to focus national media attention on the plight of the Hammond’s. Ammon recorded several interviews on local media and he and his brother began posting on social media.<\/p>\n
Protestors from around the country led by the Ammon Bundy eventually decided to occupy a Federal building and\u00a0dare the Feds to remove them. While most Americans\u00a0understand that there is something\u00a0\u00a0 wrong with\u00a0our Federal Government, most of us are hoping to change it peacefully without a confrontation through the political process. We all know that when you put your hand in a wasp nest you should expect to get stung. You are the one that is going to get hurt,\u00a0not the wasps. There is an election coming up in less than a year and we\u00a0would like\u00a0to change things in the election.<\/p>\n
Burns, Oregon may not have been the\u00a0right place\u00a0or the\u00a0right time to draw\u00a0a proverbial line in the sand. It was not the Alamo and we are not fighting\u00a0a foreign enemy. We are fighting our own government and while there is still a peaceful way to address our grievances most of us hope\u00a0to do\u00a0it peacefully through the political process. I believe that is what our Founding Fathers would have suggested…\u00a0<\/p>\n
There is nothing wrong with\u00a0trying to get the\u00a0Hammond\u2019s\u00a0out of jail. There is\u00a0nothing wrong with\u00a0the Bundy\u00a0Family’s\u00a0genuine willingness to help them, but their tactic of occupying\u00a0a Federal\u00a0building has drawn\u00a0mixed feelings. Perhaps we need to pray for\u00a0more wisdom to\u00a0understand how to fight this insidious enemy\u00a0we are up against. We also need to pray for the protestors led by Ammon Bundy that they remain safe… They are courageous men and women who are standing up for all\u00a0of us\u00a0against\u00a0the excessive and unconstitutional overreach\u00a0of big Government. We are all very lucky that Ammon Bundy is brave enough to put his neck\u00a0on the line for us. The residents of Harney County should feel a deep debt of gratitude to him and his brother. I’m not sure the battle for our constitutional rights is going to be\u00a0won or lost out in the middle of Harney County. It is\u00a0going to\u00a0be won or lost in the halls of Congress and in the White House and at the ballot box in 2016. So let’s do it with the ballot box,\u00a0not the bullet box.<\/p>\n
Half of the land in Oregon is controlled by the Federal Government. If you live in Oregon and you would like to see the\u00a0control of\u00a0public land\u00a0turned over\u00a0to State and local government please sign this petition here at http:\/\/www.ipetitions.com\/petition\/oregons-federally-administered-lands\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\nTHIS IS A LINK TO A NATIONAL PETITION TO RETURN CONTROL OF ALL FEDERAL LAND ADMINISTERED BY THE BLM TO THE STATES AND COUNTIES RESPECTIVELY OR TO THE PEOPLE. PLEASE SIGN IT AND SHARE IT. YOUR NAME WILL NOT BE PLACED ON A MAILING LIST. http:\/\/www.ipetitions.com\/petition\/congressional-petition-regarding-federal-lands<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
https:\/\/youtu.be\/MZaZ1ZchtRo https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bx4ocLdWE90<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
https:\/\/youtu.be\/9WSFs4QTfPg https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WaO6XGdWuUg<\/p>\n
Corroborating Source Material<\/strong><\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-or\/pr\/eastern-oregon-ranchers-convicted-arson-resentenced-five-years-prison<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-or\/pr\/billy-j-williams-appointed-serve-us-attorney<\/a><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/B%26B_Complex_Fires<\/a><\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/leisure\/2012\/08\/16\/man-jailed-for-collecting-rainwater-in-illegal-reservoirs-on-his-property\/<\/a><\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.mailtribune.com\/article\/20130416\/NEWS\/304160331<\/a><\/p>\n
No Property Rights! No Freedom! No Future!<\/strong><\/h1>\nThe Story of the Quintessential American Family<\/strong><\/h1>\nand\u00a0the\u00a0Spirit\u00a0that Built the American West,\u00a0 <\/strong><\/h1>\nand\u00a0How the Government is Trying to Break that Spirit.<\/strong><\/h1>\n <\/p>\n
\u00a0Many Protest Decision to send Hammonds back to Jail<\/strong><\/h1>\n\u00a0<\/strong><\/h1>\n\u00a0<\/h1>\n
By Scott Rohter<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dateline: January, 2016 – Burns, Oregon<\/strong><\/p>\nNormally peaceful Malheur National Wildlife Refuge<\/a> near Burns Oregon became the scene of a heated standoff between\u00a0ranchers and property rights advocates on the one hand, and federal law enforcement officials\u00a0and the Bureau of Land Management on the other hand. At the center of the conflict is a\u00a0seventy-three year old Oregon Rancher named Dwight Hammond and his\u00a0forty-six year old son Steven who were recently re-sentenced\u00a0in what can only be described as double jeopardy to serve five more years in a Federal Penitentiary on trumped up charges of arson.<\/p>\nIn 2001 Dwight and Steven Hammond of Burns, Oregon were doing just what many grass seed farmers, ranchers,\u00a0and cattlemen throughout the western United States\u00a0do. They were burning their grass field\u00a0in the fall\u00a0in order to control invasive and undesirable weeds like Canada thistle and tansy ragwort which is poisonous to cattle as well as the local juniper which\u00a0thrives in eastern Oregon, but diverts a lot of ground water away from the production of grass hay. According to the Hammonds their fire got out of control and spread to adjacent federal land which they were leasing from the BLM. It burned a total of about 130 acres of\u00a0 public grass\u00a0 land. There was nothing on the land but grass\u00a0so the\u00a0damage caused by the\u00a0fire was\u00a0insignificant. In fact it was\u00a0actually beneficial.<\/p>\n
The practice of starting grass fires in order to control invasive or noxious weeds ensures the health and safety of\u00a0grazing animals. The practice of burning off water sucking\u00a0plants\u00a0like Juniper helps to increase the average yield per acre of grass which the cattle feed on.\u00a0 It is the normal, standard method of managing rangeland in all western states. There is nothing unusual about it… On top of this, lighting small grass fires helps to lessen the damage caused by large scale wildfires when they occur. What is unusual\u00a0about the Hammonds is the way that federal prosecutors working\u00a0in the\u00a0Obama Administration decided to single them out for a campaign of intimidation and punishment. The Hammonds own\u00a0six thousand acres located about 50 miles south of Burns, Oregon. Their ranch is right in the middle of\u00a0what the government calls the\u00a0Steens Mountain Wilderness Area<\/a>.\u00a0 Not only does the government want their land, but it is\u00a0some of the\u00a0last privately held land in the entire Wilderness Area. The Hammonds\u00a0have been running cows on their land for many years\u00a0in\u00a0an area which the Federal Government\u00a0has now designated as\u00a0a “cow free” zone.<\/p>\nIt was very unusual that the Department of Justice decided to prosecute the Hammonds on federal arson charges\u00a0since it was\u00a0just not a deliberate action but rather an unfortunate accident\u00a0that the controlled burn\u00a0they started got out of control and spread to adjacent\u00a0land they lease from the government.\u00a0\u00a0When\u00a0their criminal case was reopened two years\u00a0after they were released from jail\u00a0and they were re-sentenced to serve additional\u00a0time behind bars this was way more than just unusual.. It was a violation of the Fifth Amendment which states that no person shall “be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy<\/em>.” Controlled\u00a0grass fires\u00a0occasionally get out of control. It even happens\u00a0when the government starts them,\u00a0but no\u00a0one\u00a0ever gets prosecuted for it…\u00a0that is not until the Hammonds. They were not just criminally prosecuted for it once. They were\u00a0punished\u00a0for it twice…\u00a0 That should send a chill up and down your spine if you actually have one.<\/p>\nIn 2012\u00a0Dwight and Steven Hammond were convicted of arson\u00a0for\u00a0a 2001 incident\u00a0after a two week long\u00a0jury trial in Pendleton, Oregon. Based upon\u00a0some\u00a0questionable testimony\u00a0from a minor with emotional problems Steven\u00a0Hammond was\u00a0also convicted of a separate incident in 2006. Both of these incidents were unintentional accidents\u00a0which resulted in\u00a0no property damage and no injuries to anyone. The only thing that burned was the grass\u00a0which the Hammonds had grazing rights to so there was no reason to\u00a0put them in jail for either incident, but that didn’t matter. To jail they went and they served their time and after that they were released. However in addition to their jail sentences they were also ordered by the court to pay four hundred thousand dollars in fines. Dwight Hammond\u00a0spent three months in jail and his son Steven served\u00a0one year\u00a0on two counts of arson, both\u00a0in a Federal Penitentiary. They were both released and that should have been the end of the matter, but it wasn’t…<\/p>\n
The additional crime for which Steven Hammond had to serve a longer sentence than his father\u00a0was over a controlled back burn which\u00a0he started\u00a0in 2006 when when a\u00a0nearby wild fire\u00a0was\u00a0threatening to destroy\u00a0the family’s\u00a0house as well as their winter grass\u00a0for their\u00a0herd. The government claimed that he set\u00a0those\u00a0fires without a permit when\u00a0all\u00a0such burning was prohibited because of the wild fire. The only\u00a0people who were authorized to set\u00a0back fires at the time were the firefighters who were battling\u00a0the blaze that was threatening the Hammond\u00a0house. The government claimed that Steven\u00a0 didn’t set\u00a0the back fires\u00a0to protect his house but rather to cover up the fact that he had shot three deer without a tag and out of season.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0accusation of poaching is so ridiculous that it doesn’t even deserve the respect of an answer. You don’t start a fire\u00a0to cover up the fact that you\u00a0just\u00a0shot a deer out of season.\u00a0 If you wanted to cover up your crime you\u00a0would put the meat\u00a0in the freezer\u00a0and bury\u00a0the rest of the evidence in the ground… and when you have 6000 acres its not too hard to find a place to dispose of the evidence, but that’s not what the government claimed. They claimed Steven started a fire to cover up the fat that he had shot the deer out of season.\u00a0\u00a0 I can tell you this much… If there was a wildfire threatening my house\u00a0 and I knew that the government didn’t want me living in it… I wouldn’t be out hunting\u00a0deer.\u00a0 I would be protecting my house any way that I could and\u00a0I wouldn\u2019t bother asking\u00a0the government\u2019s permission in order to do it. I would just do\u00a0it and so would anyone else in their right mind.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Dwight Hammond<\/p><\/div>\n
After the Hammonds served their\u00a0sentences for arson\u00a0they were released from jail, but \u00a0then something\u00a0\u00a0else unusual happened. Two years\u00a0later Federal prosecutors working\u00a0in the Obama Administration decided to re-open their case\u00a0claiming that they hadn’t served enough time and they found some judge who was willing to over rule the original trial judge and\u00a0re-sentence them to five more years behind bars under a seldom used clause in the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act.\u00a0According to\u00a0the 5th Amendment that amounts to double jeopardy.<\/p>\n
Dwight Hammond is\u00a073 years old…\u00a0His additional jail sentence\u00a0means that he will probably\u00a0spend the rest of his life\u00a0in prison. He is an old man\u00a0who doesn’t pose\u00a0a threat to anybody. So why is the government doing this to him?<\/p>\n
This \u00a0is\u00a0\u00a0a map of the Steens Mountain Wilderness Area.<\/a> Hover over it and click it\u00a0to enlarge the map. The Hammond ranch is located just east of Frenchglen and south of the little town of Diamond. The entire Wilderness area is designated in yellow.\u00a0All the\u00a0private land is designated in white… The\u00a0whole area is outlined\u00a0by a red line which means that it is rich in natural resources, particularly gold and uranium<\/a>.\u00a0The green dotted line\u00a0means that it contains gold. \u00a0This is not just a coincidence.<\/p>\nAssistant U.S. Attorneys Frank Papagni Jr., AnneMarie Sgarlata and Kelly Zusman are the prosecutors who were in charge of re-opening the Hammond case. What is\u00a0unusual\u00a0is the way that the government has\u00a0gone after the Hammonds not once, but twice\u00a0even violating their constitutional rights against double jeopardy to do so. They\u00a0were\u00a0tried, convicted,\u00a0and sentenced, and\u00a0they served their time. Then two years later they were\u00a0brought back into a courtroom\u00a0and re-sentenced for a second time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a letter from the Department of Justice <\/a>dated October 7, 2015 the government states that, \u201cThese sentences are intended to be long enough to deter those like the Hammonds who disregard the law\u2026\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>In other words the government\u00a0is determined to make an example out of this 73 year old man and his son, but why? Look at the map\u00a0<\/a>. This part of southeastern Oregon is not just a place to watch birds.. It has vast natural resources and it has the potential to produce vast amounts of wealth for anyone who owns it. The government wants to own it… all of it.<\/p>\nLet’s\u00a0assume for\u00a0the moment that all of the misfortune that is happening to the Hammond\u00a0Family is\u00a0happening to them because they own some of the last private land in the Wilderness Area and that it doesn’t have anything to do with the resources that lie under their land. The Government is trying to drive them out just because they want\u00a0to incorporate their\u00a0six thousand acre ranch\u00a0into the Steens Mountain wilderness area, and they are doing it simply because they can. There is still no reason\u00a0that either of the Hammonds\u00a0should have had to spent\u00a0a single\u00a0day in jail nor surrender themselves\u00a0a second time to\u00a0Federal authorities\u00a0or\u00a0spend one more day more less five more years of their lives behind bars.<\/p>\n
All over America federal prosecutors are planning to release thousands of\u00a0actual criminals who are in jail on real<\/strong> drug charges<\/strong> because of Black lives matter\u00a0and the President’s\u00a0criminal justice reforms. I guess\u00a0a couple of\u00a0White ranchers in\u00a0eastern Oregon don\u2019t qualify for clemency or leniency in his Justice Department since they didn\u2019t rape anyone or shoot anyone while they were high on meth and robbing their local Seven Eleven. White lives don’t matter to America’s first Black President.<\/p>\nNow if you’ll excuse my pun I would like to tell you what really burns me up about the Federal arson charges against\u00a0Dwight and Steven Hammond\u00a0of Burns, Oregon. Recently I\u00a0took a\u00a0trip\u00a0from Eugene\u00a0to Bend and I had a chance to drive over the Cascade Mountains… I hadn’t seen this part\u00a0of the Cascades\u00a0for nearly twenty years. What I saw left me saddened and speechless. The entire mountain range for miles around has been burned to the ground in\u00a0all directions. Everywhere you look there is nothing but devastation.\u00a0There isn’t a living tree as far\u00a0as the eye can see.\u00a0 100,000 acres of prime forest land were totally destroyed and none of the valuable timber\u00a0was ever harvested. I want to know which government official\u00a0working\u00a0for\u00a0the Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management\u00a0spent a single day in jail or paid a fine or\u00a0lost their job\u00a0as a result of\u00a0the damage they were responsible for which occurred under their watch. The B and B Complex Fires<\/a>\u00a0left\u00a0a huge swath of the Cascade Mountains\u00a0completely lifeless for\u00a0generations and no government official served time or paid a damn dime, but\u00a0Dwight and Steven Hammond\u00a0have been compelled\u00a0to serve time not just once but twice and forced to pay $400,000 dollars in fines and legal fees for an accidental fire that caused no\u00a0property damage and burned just a mere 130 acres of\u00a0grass.<\/p>\nBased on\u00a0an article that appeared in the Tri-State Livestock News\u00a0<\/a> in October\u00a02015 it is clear that the Hammond Ranch is\u00a0standing in the way of certain things that the federal government wants to do in Harney County. The Hammonds own some\u00a0of the last private\u00a0land\u00a0in the 100,000 acre “cow free zone”\u00a0which is part of\u00a0an\u00a0even bigger area… the 170,000 acre Steens Mountain Wilderness Area.\u00a0This wilderness area\u00a0was created as a compromise worked out between\u00a0Oregon Congressman Greg Walden and President Bill Clinton under the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Act. It was supposed to prevent much of Harney County from becoming a National Park.“The Hammonds\u00a0are some of the last holdouts in the area”,<\/em> said Erin Maupin a former government official who used to work for the BLM. (see October 2015 article from Tri-State Livestock News at the end of this story found under Corroborating Source Material<\/strong>)<\/p>\n<\/a>Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon, Billy Williams<\/p><\/div>\n
So then who\u00a0are the real villains in\u00a0the story of the Hammond\u00a0family of Harney County.\u00a0\u00a0It certainly isn’t the Hammonds.\u00a0They were just trying to live their lives the way they had always lived them… like free men and women on the open range in\u00a0eastern Oregon. The real villains\u00a0in this story are the three Assistant U.S. Attorneys, Frank Papagni Jr., AnneMarie Sgarlata, and Kelly Zusman of Portland Oregon who have been trying to make a name for themselves\u00a0in the Obama Justice Department and the new U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon, Billy Williams who was recently appointed by Loretta Lynch <\/a>who was recently appointed herself by Barack Obama to replace the\u00a0departing Eric Holder.<\/p>\nIt goes back to the man in the White House who shouldn’t\u00a0be\u00a0in the White House\u00a0because he is not a Natural Born Citizen.\u00a0His father was not an American Citizen at the time\u00a0that Barack Obama\u00a0was born which makes him constitutionally ineligible to be President. Whether he was born in Honolulu or Nairobi, Kenya it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference. He is not constitutionally\u00a0eligible to be President based on the fact that his father was not an American citizen. Obama should be impeached. His two terms in the White House have done far worse things to our country than\u00a0Bill Clinton ever did in the Oval Orifice..\u00a0<\/p>\n
The only thing keeping\u00a0Obama from being impeached is the color of his skin and the scarcity of enough backbone amongst Republicans in\u00a0Congress to do the right thing.\u00a0The four U.S. Attorneys who re-opened the case against the Dwight and Steven Hammond were just trying to impress their boss,\u00a0and move up in the pecking order at the\u00a0Department of\u00a0 Injustice. District Attorney Billy Williams\u00a0was just following orders from\u00a0his boss, Loretta Lynch\u00a0who was just following orders from her boss, Barack Obama\u00a0when they decided to re-open the Hammond case and overturn the original sentences of the trial court judge. The corruption starts at the top with Barack Obama.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Assistant U.S. Attorneys who requested\u00a0extra jail time for the Hammonds and the Federal Judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals who revoked the trial\u00a0judge’s original\u00a0sentences and imposed additional time under the Anti Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996<\/a>\u00a0 <\/em>should all be impeached.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They are just as\u00a0crazy as a\u00a0Circuit Judge in\u00a0Jackson County\u00a0who sentenced a\u00a0man to prison for\u00a0collecting rain water without a\u00a0permit.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Ammon Bundy<\/p><\/div>\n
It seems like most of our appointed and elected\u00a0officials are so satiated with power that they have lost\u00a0their\u00a0sense of proportionality. Maybe they have lost their minds. When the plight of the Hammonds became\u00a0publicized Ammon and Ryan Bundy who previously had their own run in with the BLM over their family’s grazing\u00a0rights decided to come to their rescue. They came to Oregon\u00a0to focus national media attention on the plight of the Hammond’s. Ammon recorded several interviews on local media and he and his brother began posting on social media.<\/p>\n
Protestors from around the country led by the Ammon Bundy eventually decided to occupy a Federal building and\u00a0dare the Feds to remove them. While most Americans\u00a0understand that there is something\u00a0\u00a0 wrong with\u00a0our Federal Government, most of us are hoping to change it peacefully without a confrontation through the political process. We all know that when you put your hand in a wasp nest you should expect to get stung. You are the one that is going to get hurt,\u00a0not the wasps. There is an election coming up in less than a year and we\u00a0would like\u00a0to change things in the election.<\/p>\n
Burns, Oregon may not have been the\u00a0right place\u00a0or the\u00a0right time to draw\u00a0a proverbial line in the sand. It was not the Alamo and we are not fighting\u00a0a foreign enemy. We are fighting our own government and while there is still a peaceful way to address our grievances most of us hope\u00a0to do\u00a0it peacefully through the political process. I believe that is what our Founding Fathers would have suggested…\u00a0<\/p>\n
There is nothing wrong with\u00a0trying to get the\u00a0Hammond\u2019s\u00a0out of jail. There is\u00a0nothing wrong with\u00a0the Bundy\u00a0Family’s\u00a0genuine willingness to help them, but their tactic of occupying\u00a0a Federal\u00a0building has drawn\u00a0mixed feelings. Perhaps we need to pray for\u00a0more wisdom to\u00a0understand how to fight this insidious enemy\u00a0we are up against. We also need to pray for the protestors led by Ammon Bundy that they remain safe… They are courageous men and women who are standing up for all\u00a0of us\u00a0against\u00a0the excessive and unconstitutional overreach\u00a0of big Government. We are all very lucky that Ammon Bundy is brave enough to put his neck\u00a0on the line for us. The residents of Harney County should feel a deep debt of gratitude to him and his brother. I’m not sure the battle for our constitutional rights is going to be\u00a0won or lost out in the middle of Harney County. It is\u00a0going to\u00a0be won or lost in the halls of Congress and in the White House and at the ballot box in 2016. So let’s do it with the ballot box,\u00a0not the bullet box.<\/p>\n
Half of the land in Oregon is controlled by the Federal Government. If you live in Oregon and you would like to see the\u00a0control of\u00a0public land\u00a0turned over\u00a0to State and local government please sign this petition here at http:\/\/www.ipetitions.com\/petition\/oregons-federally-administered-lands\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\nTHIS IS A LINK TO A NATIONAL PETITION TO RETURN CONTROL OF ALL FEDERAL LAND ADMINISTERED BY THE BLM TO THE STATES AND COUNTIES RESPECTIVELY OR TO THE PEOPLE. PLEASE SIGN IT AND SHARE IT. YOUR NAME WILL NOT BE PLACED ON A MAILING LIST. http:\/\/www.ipetitions.com\/petition\/congressional-petition-regarding-federal-lands<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
https:\/\/youtu.be\/MZaZ1ZchtRo https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bx4ocLdWE90<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
https:\/\/youtu.be\/9WSFs4QTfPg https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WaO6XGdWuUg<\/p>\n
Corroborating Source Material<\/strong><\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-or\/pr\/eastern-oregon-ranchers-convicted-arson-resentenced-five-years-prison<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-or\/pr\/billy-j-williams-appointed-serve-us-attorney<\/a><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/B%26B_Complex_Fires<\/a><\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/leisure\/2012\/08\/16\/man-jailed-for-collecting-rainwater-in-illegal-reservoirs-on-his-property\/<\/a><\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.mailtribune.com\/article\/20130416\/NEWS\/304160331<\/a><\/p>\n
and\u00a0the\u00a0Spirit\u00a0that Built the American West,\u00a0 <\/strong><\/h1>\nand\u00a0How the Government is Trying to Break that Spirit.<\/strong><\/h1>\n <\/p>\n
\u00a0Many Protest Decision to send Hammonds back to Jail<\/strong><\/h1>\n\u00a0<\/strong><\/h1>\n\u00a0<\/h1>\n
By Scott Rohter<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dateline: January, 2016 – Burns, Oregon<\/strong><\/p>\nNormally peaceful Malheur National Wildlife Refuge<\/a> near Burns Oregon became the scene of a heated standoff between\u00a0ranchers and property rights advocates on the one hand, and federal law enforcement officials\u00a0and the Bureau of Land Management on the other hand. At the center of the conflict is a\u00a0seventy-three year old Oregon Rancher named Dwight Hammond and his\u00a0forty-six year old son Steven who were recently re-sentenced\u00a0in what can only be described as double jeopardy to serve five more years in a Federal Penitentiary on trumped up charges of arson.<\/p>\nIn 2001 Dwight and Steven Hammond of Burns, Oregon were doing just what many grass seed farmers, ranchers,\u00a0and cattlemen throughout the western United States\u00a0do. They were burning their grass field\u00a0in the fall\u00a0in order to control invasive and undesirable weeds like Canada thistle and tansy ragwort which is poisonous to cattle as well as the local juniper which\u00a0thrives in eastern Oregon, but diverts a lot of ground water away from the production of grass hay. According to the Hammonds their fire got out of control and spread to adjacent federal land which they were leasing from the BLM. It burned a total of about 130 acres of\u00a0 public grass\u00a0 land. There was nothing on the land but grass\u00a0so the\u00a0damage caused by the\u00a0fire was\u00a0insignificant. In fact it was\u00a0actually beneficial.<\/p>\n
The practice of starting grass fires in order to control invasive or noxious weeds ensures the health and safety of\u00a0grazing animals. The practice of burning off water sucking\u00a0plants\u00a0like Juniper helps to increase the average yield per acre of grass which the cattle feed on.\u00a0 It is the normal, standard method of managing rangeland in all western states. There is nothing unusual about it… On top of this, lighting small grass fires helps to lessen the damage caused by large scale wildfires when they occur. What is unusual\u00a0about the Hammonds is the way that federal prosecutors working\u00a0in the\u00a0Obama Administration decided to single them out for a campaign of intimidation and punishment. The Hammonds own\u00a0six thousand acres located about 50 miles south of Burns, Oregon. Their ranch is right in the middle of\u00a0what the government calls the\u00a0Steens Mountain Wilderness Area<\/a>.\u00a0 Not only does the government want their land, but it is\u00a0some of the\u00a0last privately held land in the entire Wilderness Area. The Hammonds\u00a0have been running cows on their land for many years\u00a0in\u00a0an area which the Federal Government\u00a0has now designated as\u00a0a “cow free” zone.<\/p>\nIt was very unusual that the Department of Justice decided to prosecute the Hammonds on federal arson charges\u00a0since it was\u00a0just not a deliberate action but rather an unfortunate accident\u00a0that the controlled burn\u00a0they started got out of control and spread to adjacent\u00a0land they lease from the government.\u00a0\u00a0When\u00a0their criminal case was reopened two years\u00a0after they were released from jail\u00a0and they were re-sentenced to serve additional\u00a0time behind bars this was way more than just unusual.. It was a violation of the Fifth Amendment which states that no person shall “be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy<\/em>.” Controlled\u00a0grass fires\u00a0occasionally get out of control. It even happens\u00a0when the government starts them,\u00a0but no\u00a0one\u00a0ever gets prosecuted for it…\u00a0that is not until the Hammonds. They were not just criminally prosecuted for it once. They were\u00a0punished\u00a0for it twice…\u00a0 That should send a chill up and down your spine if you actually have one.<\/p>\nIn 2012\u00a0Dwight and Steven Hammond were convicted of arson\u00a0for\u00a0a 2001 incident\u00a0after a two week long\u00a0jury trial in Pendleton, Oregon. Based upon\u00a0some\u00a0questionable testimony\u00a0from a minor with emotional problems Steven\u00a0Hammond was\u00a0also convicted of a separate incident in 2006. Both of these incidents were unintentional accidents\u00a0which resulted in\u00a0no property damage and no injuries to anyone. The only thing that burned was the grass\u00a0which the Hammonds had grazing rights to so there was no reason to\u00a0put them in jail for either incident, but that didn’t matter. To jail they went and they served their time and after that they were released. However in addition to their jail sentences they were also ordered by the court to pay four hundred thousand dollars in fines. Dwight Hammond\u00a0spent three months in jail and his son Steven served\u00a0one year\u00a0on two counts of arson, both\u00a0in a Federal Penitentiary. They were both released and that should have been the end of the matter, but it wasn’t…<\/p>\n
The additional crime for which Steven Hammond had to serve a longer sentence than his father\u00a0was over a controlled back burn which\u00a0he started\u00a0in 2006 when when a\u00a0nearby wild fire\u00a0was\u00a0threatening to destroy\u00a0the family’s\u00a0house as well as their winter grass\u00a0for their\u00a0herd. The government claimed that he set\u00a0those\u00a0fires without a permit when\u00a0all\u00a0such burning was prohibited because of the wild fire. The only\u00a0people who were authorized to set\u00a0back fires at the time were the firefighters who were battling\u00a0the blaze that was threatening the Hammond\u00a0house. The government claimed that Steven\u00a0 didn’t set\u00a0the back fires\u00a0to protect his house but rather to cover up the fact that he had shot three deer without a tag and out of season.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0accusation of poaching is so ridiculous that it doesn’t even deserve the respect of an answer. You don’t start a fire\u00a0to cover up the fact that you\u00a0just\u00a0shot a deer out of season.\u00a0 If you wanted to cover up your crime you\u00a0would put the meat\u00a0in the freezer\u00a0and bury\u00a0the rest of the evidence in the ground… and when you have 6000 acres its not too hard to find a place to dispose of the evidence, but that’s not what the government claimed. They claimed Steven started a fire to cover up the fat that he had shot the deer out of season.\u00a0\u00a0 I can tell you this much… If there was a wildfire threatening my house\u00a0 and I knew that the government didn’t want me living in it… I wouldn’t be out hunting\u00a0deer.\u00a0 I would be protecting my house any way that I could and\u00a0I wouldn\u2019t bother asking\u00a0the government\u2019s permission in order to do it. I would just do\u00a0it and so would anyone else in their right mind.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Dwight Hammond<\/p><\/div>\n
After the Hammonds served their\u00a0sentences for arson\u00a0they were released from jail, but \u00a0then something\u00a0\u00a0else unusual happened. Two years\u00a0later Federal prosecutors working\u00a0in the Obama Administration decided to re-open their case\u00a0claiming that they hadn’t served enough time and they found some judge who was willing to over rule the original trial judge and\u00a0re-sentence them to five more years behind bars under a seldom used clause in the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act.\u00a0According to\u00a0the 5th Amendment that amounts to double jeopardy.<\/p>\n
Dwight Hammond is\u00a073 years old…\u00a0His additional jail sentence\u00a0means that he will probably\u00a0spend the rest of his life\u00a0in prison. He is an old man\u00a0who doesn’t pose\u00a0a threat to anybody. So why is the government doing this to him?<\/p>\n
This \u00a0is\u00a0\u00a0a map of the Steens Mountain Wilderness Area.<\/a> Hover over it and click it\u00a0to enlarge the map. The Hammond ranch is located just east of Frenchglen and south of the little town of Diamond. The entire Wilderness area is designated in yellow.\u00a0All the\u00a0private land is designated in white… The\u00a0whole area is outlined\u00a0by a red line which means that it is rich in natural resources, particularly gold and uranium<\/a>.\u00a0The green dotted line\u00a0means that it contains gold. \u00a0This is not just a coincidence.<\/p>\nAssistant U.S. Attorneys Frank Papagni Jr., AnneMarie Sgarlata and Kelly Zusman are the prosecutors who were in charge of re-opening the Hammond case. What is\u00a0unusual\u00a0is the way that the government has\u00a0gone after the Hammonds not once, but twice\u00a0even violating their constitutional rights against double jeopardy to do so. They\u00a0were\u00a0tried, convicted,\u00a0and sentenced, and\u00a0they served their time. Then two years later they were\u00a0brought back into a courtroom\u00a0and re-sentenced for a second time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a letter from the Department of Justice <\/a>dated October 7, 2015 the government states that, \u201cThese sentences are intended to be long enough to deter those like the Hammonds who disregard the law\u2026\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>In other words the government\u00a0is determined to make an example out of this 73 year old man and his son, but why? Look at the map\u00a0<\/a>. This part of southeastern Oregon is not just a place to watch birds.. It has vast natural resources and it has the potential to produce vast amounts of wealth for anyone who owns it. The government wants to own it… all of it.<\/p>\nLet’s\u00a0assume for\u00a0the moment that all of the misfortune that is happening to the Hammond\u00a0Family is\u00a0happening to them because they own some of the last private land in the Wilderness Area and that it doesn’t have anything to do with the resources that lie under their land. The Government is trying to drive them out just because they want\u00a0to incorporate their\u00a0six thousand acre ranch\u00a0into the Steens Mountain wilderness area, and they are doing it simply because they can. There is still no reason\u00a0that either of the Hammonds\u00a0should have had to spent\u00a0a single\u00a0day in jail nor surrender themselves\u00a0a second time to\u00a0Federal authorities\u00a0or\u00a0spend one more day more less five more years of their lives behind bars.<\/p>\n
All over America federal prosecutors are planning to release thousands of\u00a0actual criminals who are in jail on real<\/strong> drug charges<\/strong> because of Black lives matter\u00a0and the President’s\u00a0criminal justice reforms. I guess\u00a0a couple of\u00a0White ranchers in\u00a0eastern Oregon don\u2019t qualify for clemency or leniency in his Justice Department since they didn\u2019t rape anyone or shoot anyone while they were high on meth and robbing their local Seven Eleven. White lives don’t matter to America’s first Black President.<\/p>\nNow if you’ll excuse my pun I would like to tell you what really burns me up about the Federal arson charges against\u00a0Dwight and Steven Hammond\u00a0of Burns, Oregon. Recently I\u00a0took a\u00a0trip\u00a0from Eugene\u00a0to Bend and I had a chance to drive over the Cascade Mountains… I hadn’t seen this part\u00a0of the Cascades\u00a0for nearly twenty years. What I saw left me saddened and speechless. The entire mountain range for miles around has been burned to the ground in\u00a0all directions. Everywhere you look there is nothing but devastation.\u00a0There isn’t a living tree as far\u00a0as the eye can see.\u00a0 100,000 acres of prime forest land were totally destroyed and none of the valuable timber\u00a0was ever harvested. I want to know which government official\u00a0working\u00a0for\u00a0the Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management\u00a0spent a single day in jail or paid a fine or\u00a0lost their job\u00a0as a result of\u00a0the damage they were responsible for which occurred under their watch. The B and B Complex Fires<\/a>\u00a0left\u00a0a huge swath of the Cascade Mountains\u00a0completely lifeless for\u00a0generations and no government official served time or paid a damn dime, but\u00a0Dwight and Steven Hammond\u00a0have been compelled\u00a0to serve time not just once but twice and forced to pay $400,000 dollars in fines and legal fees for an accidental fire that caused no\u00a0property damage and burned just a mere 130 acres of\u00a0grass.<\/p>\nBased on\u00a0an article that appeared in the Tri-State Livestock News\u00a0<\/a> in October\u00a02015 it is clear that the Hammond Ranch is\u00a0standing in the way of certain things that the federal government wants to do in Harney County. The Hammonds own some\u00a0of the last private\u00a0land\u00a0in the 100,000 acre “cow free zone”\u00a0which is part of\u00a0an\u00a0even bigger area… the 170,000 acre Steens Mountain Wilderness Area.\u00a0This wilderness area\u00a0was created as a compromise worked out between\u00a0Oregon Congressman Greg Walden and President Bill Clinton under the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Act. It was supposed to prevent much of Harney County from becoming a National Park.“The Hammonds\u00a0are some of the last holdouts in the area”,<\/em> said Erin Maupin a former government official who used to work for the BLM. (see October 2015 article from Tri-State Livestock News at the end of this story found under Corroborating Source Material<\/strong>)<\/p>\n<\/a>Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon, Billy Williams<\/p><\/div>\n
So then who\u00a0are the real villains in\u00a0the story of the Hammond\u00a0family of Harney County.\u00a0\u00a0It certainly isn’t the Hammonds.\u00a0They were just trying to live their lives the way they had always lived them… like free men and women on the open range in\u00a0eastern Oregon. The real villains\u00a0in this story are the three Assistant U.S. Attorneys, Frank Papagni Jr., AnneMarie Sgarlata, and Kelly Zusman of Portland Oregon who have been trying to make a name for themselves\u00a0in the Obama Justice Department and the new U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon, Billy Williams who was recently appointed by Loretta Lynch <\/a>who was recently appointed herself by Barack Obama to replace the\u00a0departing Eric Holder.<\/p>\nIt goes back to the man in the White House who shouldn’t\u00a0be\u00a0in the White House\u00a0because he is not a Natural Born Citizen.\u00a0His father was not an American Citizen at the time\u00a0that Barack Obama\u00a0was born which makes him constitutionally ineligible to be President. Whether he was born in Honolulu or Nairobi, Kenya it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference. He is not constitutionally\u00a0eligible to be President based on the fact that his father was not an American citizen. Obama should be impeached. His two terms in the White House have done far worse things to our country than\u00a0Bill Clinton ever did in the Oval Orifice..\u00a0<\/p>\n
The only thing keeping\u00a0Obama from being impeached is the color of his skin and the scarcity of enough backbone amongst Republicans in\u00a0Congress to do the right thing.\u00a0The four U.S. Attorneys who re-opened the case against the Dwight and Steven Hammond were just trying to impress their boss,\u00a0and move up in the pecking order at the\u00a0Department of\u00a0 Injustice. District Attorney Billy Williams\u00a0was just following orders from\u00a0his boss, Loretta Lynch\u00a0who was just following orders from her boss, Barack Obama\u00a0when they decided to re-open the Hammond case and overturn the original sentences of the trial court judge. The corruption starts at the top with Barack Obama.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Assistant U.S. Attorneys who requested\u00a0extra jail time for the Hammonds and the Federal Judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals who revoked the trial\u00a0judge’s original\u00a0sentences and imposed additional time under the Anti Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996<\/a>\u00a0 <\/em>should all be impeached.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They are just as\u00a0crazy as a\u00a0Circuit Judge in\u00a0Jackson County\u00a0who sentenced a\u00a0man to prison for\u00a0collecting rain water without a\u00a0permit.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Ammon Bundy<\/p><\/div>\n
It seems like most of our appointed and elected\u00a0officials are so satiated with power that they have lost\u00a0their\u00a0sense of proportionality. Maybe they have lost their minds. When the plight of the Hammonds became\u00a0publicized Ammon and Ryan Bundy who previously had their own run in with the BLM over their family’s grazing\u00a0rights decided to come to their rescue. They came to Oregon\u00a0to focus national media attention on the plight of the Hammond’s. Ammon recorded several interviews on local media and he and his brother began posting on social media.<\/p>\n
Protestors from around the country led by the Ammon Bundy eventually decided to occupy a Federal building and\u00a0dare the Feds to remove them. While most Americans\u00a0understand that there is something\u00a0\u00a0 wrong with\u00a0our Federal Government, most of us are hoping to change it peacefully without a confrontation through the political process. We all know that when you put your hand in a wasp nest you should expect to get stung. You are the one that is going to get hurt,\u00a0not the wasps. There is an election coming up in less than a year and we\u00a0would like\u00a0to change things in the election.<\/p>\n
Burns, Oregon may not have been the\u00a0right place\u00a0or the\u00a0right time to draw\u00a0a proverbial line in the sand. It was not the Alamo and we are not fighting\u00a0a foreign enemy. We are fighting our own government and while there is still a peaceful way to address our grievances most of us hope\u00a0to do\u00a0it peacefully through the political process. I believe that is what our Founding Fathers would have suggested…\u00a0<\/p>\n
There is nothing wrong with\u00a0trying to get the\u00a0Hammond\u2019s\u00a0out of jail. There is\u00a0nothing wrong with\u00a0the Bundy\u00a0Family’s\u00a0genuine willingness to help them, but their tactic of occupying\u00a0a Federal\u00a0building has drawn\u00a0mixed feelings. Perhaps we need to pray for\u00a0more wisdom to\u00a0understand how to fight this insidious enemy\u00a0we are up against. We also need to pray for the protestors led by Ammon Bundy that they remain safe… They are courageous men and women who are standing up for all\u00a0of us\u00a0against\u00a0the excessive and unconstitutional overreach\u00a0of big Government. We are all very lucky that Ammon Bundy is brave enough to put his neck\u00a0on the line for us. The residents of Harney County should feel a deep debt of gratitude to him and his brother. I’m not sure the battle for our constitutional rights is going to be\u00a0won or lost out in the middle of Harney County. It is\u00a0going to\u00a0be won or lost in the halls of Congress and in the White House and at the ballot box in 2016. So let’s do it with the ballot box,\u00a0not the bullet box.<\/p>\n
Half of the land in Oregon is controlled by the Federal Government. If you live in Oregon and you would like to see the\u00a0control of\u00a0public land\u00a0turned over\u00a0to State and local government please sign this petition here at http:\/\/www.ipetitions.com\/petition\/oregons-federally-administered-lands\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\nTHIS IS A LINK TO A NATIONAL PETITION TO RETURN CONTROL OF ALL FEDERAL LAND ADMINISTERED BY THE BLM TO THE STATES AND COUNTIES RESPECTIVELY OR TO THE PEOPLE. PLEASE SIGN IT AND SHARE IT. YOUR NAME WILL NOT BE PLACED ON A MAILING LIST. http:\/\/www.ipetitions.com\/petition\/congressional-petition-regarding-federal-lands<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
https:\/\/youtu.be\/MZaZ1ZchtRo https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bx4ocLdWE90<\/p>\n
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https:\/\/youtu.be\/9WSFs4QTfPg https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WaO6XGdWuUg<\/p>\n
Corroborating Source Material<\/strong><\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-or\/pr\/eastern-oregon-ranchers-convicted-arson-resentenced-five-years-prison<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-or\/pr\/billy-j-williams-appointed-serve-us-attorney<\/a><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/B%26B_Complex_Fires<\/a><\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/leisure\/2012\/08\/16\/man-jailed-for-collecting-rainwater-in-illegal-reservoirs-on-his-property\/<\/a><\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.mailtribune.com\/article\/20130416\/NEWS\/304160331<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u00a0Many Protest Decision to send Hammonds back to Jail<\/strong><\/h1>\n\u00a0<\/strong><\/h1>\n\u00a0<\/h1>\n
By Scott Rohter<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dateline: January, 2016 – Burns, Oregon<\/strong><\/p>\nNormally peaceful Malheur National Wildlife Refuge<\/a> near Burns Oregon became the scene of a heated standoff between\u00a0ranchers and property rights advocates on the one hand, and federal law enforcement officials\u00a0and the Bureau of Land Management on the other hand. At the center of the conflict is a\u00a0seventy-three year old Oregon Rancher named Dwight Hammond and his\u00a0forty-six year old son Steven who were recently re-sentenced\u00a0in what can only be described as double jeopardy to serve five more years in a Federal Penitentiary on trumped up charges of arson.<\/p>\nIn 2001 Dwight and Steven Hammond of Burns, Oregon were doing just what many grass seed farmers, ranchers,\u00a0and cattlemen throughout the western United States\u00a0do. They were burning their grass field\u00a0in the fall\u00a0in order to control invasive and undesirable weeds like Canada thistle and tansy ragwort which is poisonous to cattle as well as the local juniper which\u00a0thrives in eastern Oregon, but diverts a lot of ground water away from the production of grass hay. According to the Hammonds their fire got out of control and spread to adjacent federal land which they were leasing from the BLM. It burned a total of about 130 acres of\u00a0 public grass\u00a0 land. There was nothing on the land but grass\u00a0so the\u00a0damage caused by the\u00a0fire was\u00a0insignificant. In fact it was\u00a0actually beneficial.<\/p>\n
The practice of starting grass fires in order to control invasive or noxious weeds ensures the health and safety of\u00a0grazing animals. The practice of burning off water sucking\u00a0plants\u00a0like Juniper helps to increase the average yield per acre of grass which the cattle feed on.\u00a0 It is the normal, standard method of managing rangeland in all western states. There is nothing unusual about it… On top of this, lighting small grass fires helps to lessen the damage caused by large scale wildfires when they occur. What is unusual\u00a0about the Hammonds is the way that federal prosecutors working\u00a0in the\u00a0Obama Administration decided to single them out for a campaign of intimidation and punishment. The Hammonds own\u00a0six thousand acres located about 50 miles south of Burns, Oregon. Their ranch is right in the middle of\u00a0what the government calls the\u00a0Steens Mountain Wilderness Area<\/a>.\u00a0 Not only does the government want their land, but it is\u00a0some of the\u00a0last privately held land in the entire Wilderness Area. The Hammonds\u00a0have been running cows on their land for many years\u00a0in\u00a0an area which the Federal Government\u00a0has now designated as\u00a0a “cow free” zone.<\/p>\nIt was very unusual that the Department of Justice decided to prosecute the Hammonds on federal arson charges\u00a0since it was\u00a0just not a deliberate action but rather an unfortunate accident\u00a0that the controlled burn\u00a0they started got out of control and spread to adjacent\u00a0land they lease from the government.\u00a0\u00a0When\u00a0their criminal case was reopened two years\u00a0after they were released from jail\u00a0and they were re-sentenced to serve additional\u00a0time behind bars this was way more than just unusual.. It was a violation of the Fifth Amendment which states that no person shall “be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy<\/em>.” Controlled\u00a0grass fires\u00a0occasionally get out of control. It even happens\u00a0when the government starts them,\u00a0but no\u00a0one\u00a0ever gets prosecuted for it…\u00a0that is not until the Hammonds. They were not just criminally prosecuted for it once. They were\u00a0punished\u00a0for it twice…\u00a0 That should send a chill up and down your spine if you actually have one.<\/p>\nIn 2012\u00a0Dwight and Steven Hammond were convicted of arson\u00a0for\u00a0a 2001 incident\u00a0after a two week long\u00a0jury trial in Pendleton, Oregon. Based upon\u00a0some\u00a0questionable testimony\u00a0from a minor with emotional problems Steven\u00a0Hammond was\u00a0also convicted of a separate incident in 2006. Both of these incidents were unintentional accidents\u00a0which resulted in\u00a0no property damage and no injuries to anyone. The only thing that burned was the grass\u00a0which the Hammonds had grazing rights to so there was no reason to\u00a0put them in jail for either incident, but that didn’t matter. To jail they went and they served their time and after that they were released. However in addition to their jail sentences they were also ordered by the court to pay four hundred thousand dollars in fines. Dwight Hammond\u00a0spent three months in jail and his son Steven served\u00a0one year\u00a0on two counts of arson, both\u00a0in a Federal Penitentiary. They were both released and that should have been the end of the matter, but it wasn’t…<\/p>\n
The additional crime for which Steven Hammond had to serve a longer sentence than his father\u00a0was over a controlled back burn which\u00a0he started\u00a0in 2006 when when a\u00a0nearby wild fire\u00a0was\u00a0threatening to destroy\u00a0the family’s\u00a0house as well as their winter grass\u00a0for their\u00a0herd. The government claimed that he set\u00a0those\u00a0fires without a permit when\u00a0all\u00a0such burning was prohibited because of the wild fire. The only\u00a0people who were authorized to set\u00a0back fires at the time were the firefighters who were battling\u00a0the blaze that was threatening the Hammond\u00a0house. The government claimed that Steven\u00a0 didn’t set\u00a0the back fires\u00a0to protect his house but rather to cover up the fact that he had shot three deer without a tag and out of season.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0accusation of poaching is so ridiculous that it doesn’t even deserve the respect of an answer. You don’t start a fire\u00a0to cover up the fact that you\u00a0just\u00a0shot a deer out of season.\u00a0 If you wanted to cover up your crime you\u00a0would put the meat\u00a0in the freezer\u00a0and bury\u00a0the rest of the evidence in the ground… and when you have 6000 acres its not too hard to find a place to dispose of the evidence, but that’s not what the government claimed. They claimed Steven started a fire to cover up the fat that he had shot the deer out of season.\u00a0\u00a0 I can tell you this much… If there was a wildfire threatening my house\u00a0 and I knew that the government didn’t want me living in it… I wouldn’t be out hunting\u00a0deer.\u00a0 I would be protecting my house any way that I could and\u00a0I wouldn\u2019t bother asking\u00a0the government\u2019s permission in order to do it. I would just do\u00a0it and so would anyone else in their right mind.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Dwight Hammond<\/p><\/div>\n
After the Hammonds served their\u00a0sentences for arson\u00a0they were released from jail, but \u00a0then something\u00a0\u00a0else unusual happened. Two years\u00a0later Federal prosecutors working\u00a0in the Obama Administration decided to re-open their case\u00a0claiming that they hadn’t served enough time and they found some judge who was willing to over rule the original trial judge and\u00a0re-sentence them to five more years behind bars under a seldom used clause in the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act.\u00a0According to\u00a0the 5th Amendment that amounts to double jeopardy.<\/p>\n
Dwight Hammond is\u00a073 years old…\u00a0His additional jail sentence\u00a0means that he will probably\u00a0spend the rest of his life\u00a0in prison. He is an old man\u00a0who doesn’t pose\u00a0a threat to anybody. So why is the government doing this to him?<\/p>\n
This \u00a0is\u00a0\u00a0a map of the Steens Mountain Wilderness Area.<\/a> Hover over it and click it\u00a0to enlarge the map. The Hammond ranch is located just east of Frenchglen and south of the little town of Diamond. The entire Wilderness area is designated in yellow.\u00a0All the\u00a0private land is designated in white… The\u00a0whole area is outlined\u00a0by a red line which means that it is rich in natural resources, particularly gold and uranium<\/a>.\u00a0The green dotted line\u00a0means that it contains gold. \u00a0This is not just a coincidence.<\/p>\nAssistant U.S. Attorneys Frank Papagni Jr., AnneMarie Sgarlata and Kelly Zusman are the prosecutors who were in charge of re-opening the Hammond case. What is\u00a0unusual\u00a0is the way that the government has\u00a0gone after the Hammonds not once, but twice\u00a0even violating their constitutional rights against double jeopardy to do so. They\u00a0were\u00a0tried, convicted,\u00a0and sentenced, and\u00a0they served their time. Then two years later they were\u00a0brought back into a courtroom\u00a0and re-sentenced for a second time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a letter from the Department of Justice <\/a>dated October 7, 2015 the government states that, \u201cThese sentences are intended to be long enough to deter those like the Hammonds who disregard the law\u2026\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>In other words the government\u00a0is determined to make an example out of this 73 year old man and his son, but why? Look at the map\u00a0<\/a>. This part of southeastern Oregon is not just a place to watch birds.. It has vast natural resources and it has the potential to produce vast amounts of wealth for anyone who owns it. The government wants to own it… all of it.<\/p>\nLet’s\u00a0assume for\u00a0the moment that all of the misfortune that is happening to the Hammond\u00a0Family is\u00a0happening to them because they own some of the last private land in the Wilderness Area and that it doesn’t have anything to do with the resources that lie under their land. The Government is trying to drive them out just because they want\u00a0to incorporate their\u00a0six thousand acre ranch\u00a0into the Steens Mountain wilderness area, and they are doing it simply because they can. There is still no reason\u00a0that either of the Hammonds\u00a0should have had to spent\u00a0a single\u00a0day in jail nor surrender themselves\u00a0a second time to\u00a0Federal authorities\u00a0or\u00a0spend one more day more less five more years of their lives behind bars.<\/p>\n
All over America federal prosecutors are planning to release thousands of\u00a0actual criminals who are in jail on real<\/strong> drug charges<\/strong> because of Black lives matter\u00a0and the President’s\u00a0criminal justice reforms. I guess\u00a0a couple of\u00a0White ranchers in\u00a0eastern Oregon don\u2019t qualify for clemency or leniency in his Justice Department since they didn\u2019t rape anyone or shoot anyone while they were high on meth and robbing their local Seven Eleven. White lives don’t matter to America’s first Black President.<\/p>\nNow if you’ll excuse my pun I would like to tell you what really burns me up about the Federal arson charges against\u00a0Dwight and Steven Hammond\u00a0of Burns, Oregon. Recently I\u00a0took a\u00a0trip\u00a0from Eugene\u00a0to Bend and I had a chance to drive over the Cascade Mountains… I hadn’t seen this part\u00a0of the Cascades\u00a0for nearly twenty years. What I saw left me saddened and speechless. The entire mountain range for miles around has been burned to the ground in\u00a0all directions. Everywhere you look there is nothing but devastation.\u00a0There isn’t a living tree as far\u00a0as the eye can see.\u00a0 100,000 acres of prime forest land were totally destroyed and none of the valuable timber\u00a0was ever harvested. I want to know which government official\u00a0working\u00a0for\u00a0the Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management\u00a0spent a single day in jail or paid a fine or\u00a0lost their job\u00a0as a result of\u00a0the damage they were responsible for which occurred under their watch. The B and B Complex Fires<\/a>\u00a0left\u00a0a huge swath of the Cascade Mountains\u00a0completely lifeless for\u00a0generations and no government official served time or paid a damn dime, but\u00a0Dwight and Steven Hammond\u00a0have been compelled\u00a0to serve time not just once but twice and forced to pay $400,000 dollars in fines and legal fees for an accidental fire that caused no\u00a0property damage and burned just a mere 130 acres of\u00a0grass.<\/p>\nBased on\u00a0an article that appeared in the Tri-State Livestock News\u00a0<\/a> in October\u00a02015 it is clear that the Hammond Ranch is\u00a0standing in the way of certain things that the federal government wants to do in Harney County. The Hammonds own some\u00a0of the last private\u00a0land\u00a0in the 100,000 acre “cow free zone”\u00a0which is part of\u00a0an\u00a0even bigger area… the 170,000 acre Steens Mountain Wilderness Area.\u00a0This wilderness area\u00a0was created as a compromise worked out between\u00a0Oregon Congressman Greg Walden and President Bill Clinton under the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Act. It was supposed to prevent much of Harney County from becoming a National Park.“The Hammonds\u00a0are some of the last holdouts in the area”,<\/em> said Erin Maupin a former government official who used to work for the BLM. (see October 2015 article from Tri-State Livestock News at the end of this story found under Corroborating Source Material<\/strong>)<\/p>\n<\/a>Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon, Billy Williams<\/p><\/div>\n
So then who\u00a0are the real villains in\u00a0the story of the Hammond\u00a0family of Harney County.\u00a0\u00a0It certainly isn’t the Hammonds.\u00a0They were just trying to live their lives the way they had always lived them… like free men and women on the open range in\u00a0eastern Oregon. The real villains\u00a0in this story are the three Assistant U.S. Attorneys, Frank Papagni Jr., AnneMarie Sgarlata, and Kelly Zusman of Portland Oregon who have been trying to make a name for themselves\u00a0in the Obama Justice Department and the new U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon, Billy Williams who was recently appointed by Loretta Lynch <\/a>who was recently appointed herself by Barack Obama to replace the\u00a0departing Eric Holder.<\/p>\nIt goes back to the man in the White House who shouldn’t\u00a0be\u00a0in the White House\u00a0because he is not a Natural Born Citizen.\u00a0His father was not an American Citizen at the time\u00a0that Barack Obama\u00a0was born which makes him constitutionally ineligible to be President. Whether he was born in Honolulu or Nairobi, Kenya it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference. He is not constitutionally\u00a0eligible to be President based on the fact that his father was not an American citizen. Obama should be impeached. His two terms in the White House have done far worse things to our country than\u00a0Bill Clinton ever did in the Oval Orifice..\u00a0<\/p>\n
The only thing keeping\u00a0Obama from being impeached is the color of his skin and the scarcity of enough backbone amongst Republicans in\u00a0Congress to do the right thing.\u00a0The four U.S. Attorneys who re-opened the case against the Dwight and Steven Hammond were just trying to impress their boss,\u00a0and move up in the pecking order at the\u00a0Department of\u00a0 Injustice. District Attorney Billy Williams\u00a0was just following orders from\u00a0his boss, Loretta Lynch\u00a0who was just following orders from her boss, Barack Obama\u00a0when they decided to re-open the Hammond case and overturn the original sentences of the trial court judge. The corruption starts at the top with Barack Obama.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Assistant U.S. Attorneys who requested\u00a0extra jail time for the Hammonds and the Federal Judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals who revoked the trial\u00a0judge’s original\u00a0sentences and imposed additional time under the Anti Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996<\/a>\u00a0 <\/em>should all be impeached.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They are just as\u00a0crazy as a\u00a0Circuit Judge in\u00a0Jackson County\u00a0who sentenced a\u00a0man to prison for\u00a0collecting rain water without a\u00a0permit.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Ammon Bundy<\/p><\/div>\n
It seems like most of our appointed and elected\u00a0officials are so satiated with power that they have lost\u00a0their\u00a0sense of proportionality. Maybe they have lost their minds. When the plight of the Hammonds became\u00a0publicized Ammon and Ryan Bundy who previously had their own run in with the BLM over their family’s grazing\u00a0rights decided to come to their rescue. They came to Oregon\u00a0to focus national media attention on the plight of the Hammond’s. Ammon recorded several interviews on local media and he and his brother began posting on social media.<\/p>\n
Protestors from around the country led by the Ammon Bundy eventually decided to occupy a Federal building and\u00a0dare the Feds to remove them. While most Americans\u00a0understand that there is something\u00a0\u00a0 wrong with\u00a0our Federal Government, most of us are hoping to change it peacefully without a confrontation through the political process. We all know that when you put your hand in a wasp nest you should expect to get stung. You are the one that is going to get hurt,\u00a0not the wasps. There is an election coming up in less than a year and we\u00a0would like\u00a0to change things in the election.<\/p>\n
Burns, Oregon may not have been the\u00a0right place\u00a0or the\u00a0right time to draw\u00a0a proverbial line in the sand. It was not the Alamo and we are not fighting\u00a0a foreign enemy. We are fighting our own government and while there is still a peaceful way to address our grievances most of us hope\u00a0to do\u00a0it peacefully through the political process. I believe that is what our Founding Fathers would have suggested…\u00a0<\/p>\n
There is nothing wrong with\u00a0trying to get the\u00a0Hammond\u2019s\u00a0out of jail. There is\u00a0nothing wrong with\u00a0the Bundy\u00a0Family’s\u00a0genuine willingness to help them, but their tactic of occupying\u00a0a Federal\u00a0building has drawn\u00a0mixed feelings. Perhaps we need to pray for\u00a0more wisdom to\u00a0understand how to fight this insidious enemy\u00a0we are up against. We also need to pray for the protestors led by Ammon Bundy that they remain safe… They are courageous men and women who are standing up for all\u00a0of us\u00a0against\u00a0the excessive and unconstitutional overreach\u00a0of big Government. We are all very lucky that Ammon Bundy is brave enough to put his neck\u00a0on the line for us. The residents of Harney County should feel a deep debt of gratitude to him and his brother. I’m not sure the battle for our constitutional rights is going to be\u00a0won or lost out in the middle of Harney County. It is\u00a0going to\u00a0be won or lost in the halls of Congress and in the White House and at the ballot box in 2016. So let’s do it with the ballot box,\u00a0not the bullet box.<\/p>\n
Half of the land in Oregon is controlled by the Federal Government. If you live in Oregon and you would like to see the\u00a0control of\u00a0public land\u00a0turned over\u00a0to State and local government please sign this petition here at http:\/\/www.ipetitions.com\/petition\/oregons-federally-administered-lands\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\nTHIS IS A LINK TO A NATIONAL PETITION TO RETURN CONTROL OF ALL FEDERAL LAND ADMINISTERED BY THE BLM TO THE STATES AND COUNTIES RESPECTIVELY OR TO THE PEOPLE. PLEASE SIGN IT AND SHARE IT. YOUR NAME WILL NOT BE PLACED ON A MAILING LIST. http:\/\/www.ipetitions.com\/petition\/congressional-petition-regarding-federal-lands<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
https:\/\/youtu.be\/MZaZ1ZchtRo https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bx4ocLdWE90<\/p>\n
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https:\/\/youtu.be\/9WSFs4QTfPg https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WaO6XGdWuUg<\/p>\n
Corroborating Source Material<\/strong><\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-or\/pr\/eastern-oregon-ranchers-convicted-arson-resentenced-five-years-prison<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-or\/pr\/billy-j-williams-appointed-serve-us-attorney<\/a><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/B%26B_Complex_Fires<\/a><\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/leisure\/2012\/08\/16\/man-jailed-for-collecting-rainwater-in-illegal-reservoirs-on-his-property\/<\/a><\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.mailtribune.com\/article\/20130416\/NEWS\/304160331<\/a><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/h1>\n
By Scott Rohter<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dateline: January, 2016 – Burns, Oregon<\/strong><\/p>\n Normally peaceful Malheur National Wildlife Refuge<\/a> near Burns Oregon became the scene of a heated standoff between\u00a0ranchers and property rights advocates on the one hand, and federal law enforcement officials\u00a0and the Bureau of Land Management on the other hand. At the center of the conflict is a\u00a0seventy-three year old Oregon Rancher named Dwight Hammond and his\u00a0forty-six year old son Steven who were recently re-sentenced\u00a0in what can only be described as double jeopardy to serve five more years in a Federal Penitentiary on trumped up charges of arson.<\/p>\n In 2001 Dwight and Steven Hammond of Burns, Oregon were doing just what many grass seed farmers, ranchers,\u00a0and cattlemen throughout the western United States\u00a0do. They were burning their grass field\u00a0in the fall\u00a0in order to control invasive and undesirable weeds like Canada thistle and tansy ragwort which is poisonous to cattle as well as the local juniper which\u00a0thrives in eastern Oregon, but diverts a lot of ground water away from the production of grass hay. According to the Hammonds their fire got out of control and spread to adjacent federal land which they were leasing from the BLM. It burned a total of about 130 acres of\u00a0 public grass\u00a0 land. There was nothing on the land but grass\u00a0so the\u00a0damage caused by the\u00a0fire was\u00a0insignificant. In fact it was\u00a0actually beneficial.<\/p>\n The practice of starting grass fires in order to control invasive or noxious weeds ensures the health and safety of\u00a0grazing animals. The practice of burning off water sucking\u00a0plants\u00a0like Juniper helps to increase the average yield per acre of grass which the cattle feed on.\u00a0 It is the normal, standard method of managing rangeland in all western states. There is nothing unusual about it… On top of this, lighting small grass fires helps to lessen the damage caused by large scale wildfires when they occur. What is unusual\u00a0about the Hammonds is the way that federal prosecutors working\u00a0in the\u00a0Obama Administration decided to single them out for a campaign of intimidation and punishment. The Hammonds own\u00a0six thousand acres located about 50 miles south of Burns, Oregon. Their ranch is right in the middle of\u00a0what the government calls the\u00a0Steens Mountain Wilderness Area<\/a>.\u00a0 Not only does the government want their land, but it is\u00a0some of the\u00a0last privately held land in the entire Wilderness Area. The Hammonds\u00a0have been running cows on their land for many years\u00a0in\u00a0an area which the Federal Government\u00a0has now designated as\u00a0a “cow free” zone.<\/p>\n It was very unusual that the Department of Justice decided to prosecute the Hammonds on federal arson charges\u00a0since it was\u00a0just not a deliberate action but rather an unfortunate accident\u00a0that the controlled burn\u00a0they started got out of control and spread to adjacent\u00a0land they lease from the government.\u00a0\u00a0When\u00a0their criminal case was reopened two years\u00a0after they were released from jail\u00a0and they were re-sentenced to serve additional\u00a0time behind bars this was way more than just unusual.. It was a violation of the Fifth Amendment which states that no person shall “be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy<\/em>.” Controlled\u00a0grass fires\u00a0occasionally get out of control. It even happens\u00a0when the government starts them,\u00a0but no\u00a0one\u00a0ever gets prosecuted for it…\u00a0that is not until the Hammonds. They were not just criminally prosecuted for it once. They were\u00a0punished\u00a0for it twice…\u00a0 That should send a chill up and down your spine if you actually have one.<\/p>\n In 2012\u00a0Dwight and Steven Hammond were convicted of arson\u00a0for\u00a0a 2001 incident\u00a0after a two week long\u00a0jury trial in Pendleton, Oregon. Based upon\u00a0some\u00a0questionable testimony\u00a0from a minor with emotional problems Steven\u00a0Hammond was\u00a0also convicted of a separate incident in 2006. Both of these incidents were unintentional accidents\u00a0which resulted in\u00a0no property damage and no injuries to anyone. The only thing that burned was the grass\u00a0which the Hammonds had grazing rights to so there was no reason to\u00a0put them in jail for either incident, but that didn’t matter. To jail they went and they served their time and after that they were released. However in addition to their jail sentences they were also ordered by the court to pay four hundred thousand dollars in fines. Dwight Hammond\u00a0spent three months in jail and his son Steven served\u00a0one year\u00a0on two counts of arson, both\u00a0in a Federal Penitentiary. They were both released and that should have been the end of the matter, but it wasn’t…<\/p>\n The additional crime for which Steven Hammond had to serve a longer sentence than his father\u00a0was over a controlled back burn which\u00a0he started\u00a0in 2006 when when a\u00a0nearby wild fire\u00a0was\u00a0threatening to destroy\u00a0the family’s\u00a0house as well as their winter grass\u00a0for their\u00a0herd. The government claimed that he set\u00a0those\u00a0fires without a permit when\u00a0all\u00a0such burning was prohibited because of the wild fire. The only\u00a0people who were authorized to set\u00a0back fires at the time were the firefighters who were battling\u00a0the blaze that was threatening the Hammond\u00a0house. The government claimed that Steven\u00a0 didn’t set\u00a0the back fires\u00a0to protect his house but rather to cover up the fact that he had shot three deer without a tag and out of season.<\/p>\n The\u00a0accusation of poaching is so ridiculous that it doesn’t even deserve the respect of an answer. You don’t start a fire\u00a0to cover up the fact that you\u00a0just\u00a0shot a deer out of season.\u00a0 If you wanted to cover up your crime you\u00a0would put the meat\u00a0in the freezer\u00a0and bury\u00a0the rest of the evidence in the ground… and when you have 6000 acres its not too hard to find a place to dispose of the evidence, but that’s not what the government claimed. They claimed Steven started a fire to cover up the fat that he had shot the deer out of season.\u00a0\u00a0 I can tell you this much… If there was a wildfire threatening my house\u00a0 and I knew that the government didn’t want me living in it… I wouldn’t be out hunting\u00a0deer.\u00a0 I would be protecting my house any way that I could and\u00a0I wouldn\u2019t bother asking\u00a0the government\u2019s permission in order to do it. I would just do\u00a0it and so would anyone else in their right mind.<\/p>\n Dwight Hammond<\/p><\/div>\n After the Hammonds served their\u00a0sentences for arson\u00a0they were released from jail, but \u00a0then something\u00a0\u00a0else unusual happened. Two years\u00a0later Federal prosecutors working\u00a0in the Obama Administration decided to re-open their case\u00a0claiming that they hadn’t served enough time and they found some judge who was willing to over rule the original trial judge and\u00a0re-sentence them to five more years behind bars under a seldom used clause in the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act.\u00a0According to\u00a0the 5th Amendment that amounts to double jeopardy.<\/p>\n Dwight Hammond is\u00a073 years old…\u00a0His additional jail sentence\u00a0means that he will probably\u00a0spend the rest of his life\u00a0in prison. He is an old man\u00a0who doesn’t pose\u00a0a threat to anybody. So why is the government doing this to him?<\/p>\n This \u00a0is\u00a0\u00a0a map of the Steens Mountain Wilderness Area.<\/a> Hover over it and click it\u00a0to enlarge the map. The Hammond ranch is located just east of Frenchglen and south of the little town of Diamond. The entire Wilderness area is designated in yellow.\u00a0All the\u00a0private land is designated in white… The\u00a0whole area is outlined\u00a0by a red line which means that it is rich in natural resources, particularly gold and uranium<\/a>.\u00a0The green dotted line\u00a0means that it contains gold. \u00a0This is not just a coincidence.<\/p>\n Assistant U.S. Attorneys Frank Papagni Jr., AnneMarie Sgarlata and Kelly Zusman are the prosecutors who were in charge of re-opening the Hammond case. What is\u00a0unusual\u00a0is the way that the government has\u00a0gone after the Hammonds not once, but twice\u00a0even violating their constitutional rights against double jeopardy to do so. They\u00a0were\u00a0tried, convicted,\u00a0and sentenced, and\u00a0they served their time. Then two years later they were\u00a0brought back into a courtroom\u00a0and re-sentenced for a second time.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a letter from the Department of Justice <\/a>dated October 7, 2015 the government states that, \u201cThese sentences are intended to be long enough to deter those like the Hammonds who disregard the law\u2026\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>In other words the government\u00a0is determined to make an example out of this 73 year old man and his son, but why? Look at the map\u00a0<\/a>. This part of southeastern Oregon is not just a place to watch birds.. It has vast natural resources and it has the potential to produce vast amounts of wealth for anyone who owns it. The government wants to own it… all of it.<\/p>\n Let’s\u00a0assume for\u00a0the moment that all of the misfortune that is happening to the Hammond\u00a0Family is\u00a0happening to them because they own some of the last private land in the Wilderness Area and that it doesn’t have anything to do with the resources that lie under their land. The Government is trying to drive them out just because they want\u00a0to incorporate their\u00a0six thousand acre ranch\u00a0into the Steens Mountain wilderness area, and they are doing it simply because they can. There is still no reason\u00a0that either of the Hammonds\u00a0should have had to spent\u00a0a single\u00a0day in jail nor surrender themselves\u00a0a second time to\u00a0Federal authorities\u00a0or\u00a0spend one more day more less five more years of their lives behind bars.<\/p>\n All over America federal prosecutors are planning to release thousands of\u00a0actual criminals who are in jail on real<\/strong> drug charges<\/strong> because of Black lives matter\u00a0and the President’s\u00a0criminal justice reforms. I guess\u00a0a couple of\u00a0White ranchers in\u00a0eastern Oregon don\u2019t qualify for clemency or leniency in his Justice Department since they didn\u2019t rape anyone or shoot anyone while they were high on meth and robbing their local Seven Eleven. White lives don’t matter to America’s first Black President.<\/p>\n Now if you’ll excuse my pun I would like to tell you what really burns me up about the Federal arson charges against\u00a0Dwight and Steven Hammond\u00a0of Burns, Oregon. Recently I\u00a0took a\u00a0trip\u00a0from Eugene\u00a0to Bend and I had a chance to drive over the Cascade Mountains… I hadn’t seen this part\u00a0of the Cascades\u00a0for nearly twenty years. What I saw left me saddened and speechless. The entire mountain range for miles around has been burned to the ground in\u00a0all directions. Everywhere you look there is nothing but devastation.\u00a0There isn’t a living tree as far\u00a0as the eye can see.\u00a0 100,000 acres of prime forest land were totally destroyed and none of the valuable timber\u00a0was ever harvested. I want to know which government official\u00a0working\u00a0for\u00a0the Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management\u00a0spent a single day in jail or paid a fine or\u00a0lost their job\u00a0as a result of\u00a0the damage they were responsible for which occurred under their watch. The B and B Complex Fires<\/a>\u00a0left\u00a0a huge swath of the Cascade Mountains\u00a0completely lifeless for\u00a0generations and no government official served time or paid a damn dime, but\u00a0Dwight and Steven Hammond\u00a0have been compelled\u00a0to serve time not just once but twice and forced to pay $400,000 dollars in fines and legal fees for an accidental fire that caused no\u00a0property damage and burned just a mere 130 acres of\u00a0grass.<\/p>\n Based on\u00a0an article that appeared in the Tri-State Livestock News\u00a0<\/a> in October\u00a02015 it is clear that the Hammond Ranch is\u00a0standing in the way of certain things that the federal government wants to do in Harney County. The Hammonds own some\u00a0of the last private\u00a0land\u00a0in the 100,000 acre “cow free zone”\u00a0which is part of\u00a0an\u00a0even bigger area… the 170,000 acre Steens Mountain Wilderness Area.\u00a0This wilderness area\u00a0was created as a compromise worked out between\u00a0Oregon Congressman Greg Walden and President Bill Clinton under the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Act. It was supposed to prevent much of Harney County from becoming a National Park.“The Hammonds\u00a0are some of the last holdouts in the area”,<\/em> said Erin Maupin a former government official who used to work for the BLM. (see October 2015 article from Tri-State Livestock News at the end of this story found under Corroborating Source Material<\/strong>)<\/p>\n Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon, Billy Williams<\/p><\/div>\n So then who\u00a0are the real villains in\u00a0the story of the Hammond\u00a0family of Harney County.\u00a0\u00a0It certainly isn’t the Hammonds.\u00a0They were just trying to live their lives the way they had always lived them… like free men and women on the open range in\u00a0eastern Oregon. The real villains\u00a0in this story are the three Assistant U.S. Attorneys, Frank Papagni Jr., AnneMarie Sgarlata, and Kelly Zusman of Portland Oregon who have been trying to make a name for themselves\u00a0in the Obama Justice Department and the new U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon, Billy Williams who was recently appointed by Loretta Lynch <\/a>who was recently appointed herself by Barack Obama to replace the\u00a0departing Eric Holder.<\/p>\n It goes back to the man in the White House who shouldn’t\u00a0be\u00a0in the White House\u00a0because he is not a Natural Born Citizen.\u00a0His father was not an American Citizen at the time\u00a0that Barack Obama\u00a0was born which makes him constitutionally ineligible to be President. Whether he was born in Honolulu or Nairobi, Kenya it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference. He is not constitutionally\u00a0eligible to be President based on the fact that his father was not an American citizen. Obama should be impeached. His two terms in the White House have done far worse things to our country than\u00a0Bill Clinton ever did in the Oval Orifice..\u00a0<\/p>\n The only thing keeping\u00a0Obama from being impeached is the color of his skin and the scarcity of enough backbone amongst Republicans in\u00a0Congress to do the right thing.\u00a0The four U.S. Attorneys who re-opened the case against the Dwight and Steven Hammond were just trying to impress their boss,\u00a0and move up in the pecking order at the\u00a0Department of\u00a0 Injustice. District Attorney Billy Williams\u00a0was just following orders from\u00a0his boss, Loretta Lynch\u00a0who was just following orders from her boss, Barack Obama\u00a0when they decided to re-open the Hammond case and overturn the original sentences of the trial court judge. The corruption starts at the top with Barack Obama.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Assistant U.S. Attorneys who requested\u00a0extra jail time for the Hammonds and the Federal Judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals who revoked the trial\u00a0judge’s original\u00a0sentences and imposed additional time under the Anti Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996<\/a>\u00a0 <\/em>should all be impeached.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They are just as\u00a0crazy as a\u00a0Circuit Judge in\u00a0Jackson County\u00a0who sentenced a\u00a0man to prison for\u00a0collecting rain water without a\u00a0permit.<\/a><\/p>\n Ammon Bundy<\/p><\/div>\n It seems like most of our appointed and elected\u00a0officials are so satiated with power that they have lost\u00a0their\u00a0sense of proportionality. Maybe they have lost their minds. When the plight of the Hammonds became\u00a0publicized Ammon and Ryan Bundy who previously had their own run in with the BLM over their family’s grazing\u00a0rights decided to come to their rescue. They came to Oregon\u00a0to focus national media attention on the plight of the Hammond’s. Ammon recorded several interviews on local media and he and his brother began posting on social media.<\/p>\n Protestors from around the country led by the Ammon Bundy eventually decided to occupy a Federal building and\u00a0dare the Feds to remove them. While most Americans\u00a0understand that there is something\u00a0\u00a0 wrong with\u00a0our Federal Government, most of us are hoping to change it peacefully without a confrontation through the political process. We all know that when you put your hand in a wasp nest you should expect to get stung. You are the one that is going to get hurt,\u00a0not the wasps. There is an election coming up in less than a year and we\u00a0would like\u00a0to change things in the election.<\/p>\n Burns, Oregon may not have been the\u00a0right place\u00a0or the\u00a0right time to draw\u00a0a proverbial line in the sand. It was not the Alamo and we are not fighting\u00a0a foreign enemy. We are fighting our own government and while there is still a peaceful way to address our grievances most of us hope\u00a0to do\u00a0it peacefully through the political process. I believe that is what our Founding Fathers would have suggested…\u00a0<\/p>\n There is nothing wrong with\u00a0trying to get the\u00a0Hammond\u2019s\u00a0out of jail. There is\u00a0nothing wrong with\u00a0the Bundy\u00a0Family’s\u00a0genuine willingness to help them, but their tactic of occupying\u00a0a Federal\u00a0building has drawn\u00a0mixed feelings. Perhaps we need to pray for\u00a0more wisdom to\u00a0understand how to fight this insidious enemy\u00a0we are up against. We also need to pray for the protestors led by Ammon Bundy that they remain safe… They are courageous men and women who are standing up for all\u00a0of us\u00a0against\u00a0the excessive and unconstitutional overreach\u00a0of big Government. We are all very lucky that Ammon Bundy is brave enough to put his neck\u00a0on the line for us. The residents of Harney County should feel a deep debt of gratitude to him and his brother. I’m not sure the battle for our constitutional rights is going to be\u00a0won or lost out in the middle of Harney County. It is\u00a0going to\u00a0be won or lost in the halls of Congress and in the White House and at the ballot box in 2016. So let’s do it with the ballot box,\u00a0not the bullet box.<\/p>\n Half of the land in Oregon is controlled by the Federal Government. If you live in Oregon and you would like to see the\u00a0control of\u00a0public land\u00a0turned over\u00a0to State and local government please sign this petition here at http:\/\/www.ipetitions.com\/petition\/oregons-federally-administered-lands\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n THIS IS A LINK TO A NATIONAL PETITION TO RETURN CONTROL OF ALL FEDERAL LAND ADMINISTERED BY THE BLM TO THE STATES AND COUNTIES RESPECTIVELY OR TO THE PEOPLE. PLEASE SIGN IT AND SHARE IT. YOUR NAME WILL NOT BE PLACED ON A MAILING LIST. http:\/\/www.ipetitions.com\/petition\/congressional-petition-regarding-federal-lands<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n https:\/\/youtu.be\/MZaZ1ZchtRo https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bx4ocLdWE90<\/p>\n <\/p>\n https:\/\/youtu.be\/9WSFs4QTfPg https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WaO6XGdWuUg<\/p>\n Corroborating Source Material<\/strong><\/p>\n http:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-or\/pr\/eastern-oregon-ranchers-convicted-arson-resentenced-five-years-prison<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n http:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-or\/pr\/billy-j-williams-appointed-serve-us-attorney<\/a><\/p>\n https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/B%26B_Complex_Fires<\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/leisure\/2012\/08\/16\/man-jailed-for-collecting-rainwater-in-illegal-reservoirs-on-his-property\/<\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/www.mailtribune.com\/article\/20130416\/NEWS\/304160331<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>