{"id":9395,"date":"2016-10-05T01:53:45","date_gmt":"2016-10-05T08:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/?p=9395"},"modified":"2017-12-09T22:35:11","modified_gmt":"2017-12-10T06:35:11","slug":"the-face-of-federal-over-reach-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/the-face-of-federal-over-reach-in-america\/","title":{"rendered":"The Face of Federal Over-reach in America"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/h1>\n

\"Ammon<\/h1>\n

The Face of Federal Over-reach in America<\/strong><\/h1>\n

By Scott Michael Rohter, October 2016 – Updated Sept. 2017<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dateline: Portland, Oregon – October 4, 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

More than anyone else in America, Ammon and Ryan Bundy are leading the fight to change the way that Congress administers public land. These two\u00a0 dedicated\u00a0men are sacrificing their lives to keep\u00a0this\u00a0subject in front of the Nation\u2019s attention.\u00a0Public land use reform became\u00a0part of the Republican Party platform in the 2016 election primarily\u00a0because of what these two men\u00a0did in Nevada and Oregon.<\/p>\n

Their\u00a0goal\u00a0is to get Congress to hold hearings on this important subject and ultimately to turn over\u00a0as much\u00a0federally administered\u00a0land as possible to State and local control where\u00a0it can be\u00a0 better managed.\u00a0Nothing has made it more clear that the federal government cannot\u00a0properly manage 700 million acres of public land than\u00a0all of the wildfires that are raging out of control this year in the West. There is an old saying that too much of anything is not good.\u00a0 When you have too much of something you take it for granted.\u00a0 The Federal government simply does not and cannot care about all of the land under\u00a0its control.\u00a0\u00a0If they did there would have been hundreds of drones flying aerial surveillance over every square mile of public land\u00a0starting in June and lasting\u00a0until the end of the fire season. They\u00a0would have been equipped with special infrared cameras\u00a0and air sampling\u00a0devices in order to detect the presence of fire\u00a0or smoke in the air so that they could\u00a0stamp out\u00a0these fires as soon as they began.\u00a0 After they got started there should have been a fleet of\u00a0specially\u00a0equipped airplanes ready to drop large amounts of water at a moments notice, but instead\u00a0our government is either too cheap or it is more worried about the danger of\u00a0water caused erosion. One thing I can\u00a0assure you of is that there will be plenty of erosion this winter after these forests are burned to the ground.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The goal of Ammon and Ryan Bundy is to get Congress to hold hearings and ultimately to turn over\u00a0as much\u00a0federally administered\u00a0land as possible to State and local control where\u00a0it can be\u00a0 better managed. That\u00a0would\u00a0also go a long way to providing the\u00a0stable source of funding\u00a0that many counties in Western States need\u00a0so they don’t have to keep\u00a0going before Congress every year to ask for more money to fund local\u00a0government services like schools, police, and fire protection.<\/p>\n

Ammon and Ryan Bundy have already spent over\u00a0fifteen months of their lives behind bars and the last month has been spent in solitary confinement for their role in bringing this subject to the Nation’s attention. This is\u00a0in spite of the fact that an Oregon jury has found them NOT GUILTY of all charges\u00a0including those of\u00a0conspiracy to impede federal officials, as well as carrying\u00a0personal firearms onto a federal facility. That verdict came as a\u00a0total surprise to federal prosecutors who have spent millions of dollars over the last several years trying to obtain some kind of a conviction against\u00a0the Bundy Family\u00a0but have only wound up with mud on their faces. However if\u00a0federal prosecutors\u00a0get their way in a Nevada courtroom the Bundys\u00a0will spend a lot more than just\u00a0fifteen months behind bars. This however assumes that they will be convicted in\u00a0a second trial which will be held in Las Vegas\u00a0sometime later\u00a0this year.\u00a0 With\u00a0a hung jury in the first\u00a0trial in Nevada the date of the second trial\u00a0will be postponed even further..\u00a0 The\u00a0jurors who listen to all of the evidence (even though much of it is not admitted) do not believe that the Bundy family and their supporters are the danger to the whole country\u00a0that the government says they are. This\u00a0trial in Nevada unlike the one in Oregon stems from\u00a0the standoff with the BLM that occurred at the Bundy ranch in Bunkerville in 2014 when the BLM impounded their cattle.<\/p>\n

It is a gross mischaracterization to\u00a0portray the Bundy’s\u00a0as\u00a0participants in a conspiracy. It is an even greater miscarriage of justice for\u00a0federal prosecutors\u00a0to accuse them of a conspiracy. It would be the ultimate miscarriage of justice if any jury in America ever finds them guilty of such a conspiracy. If\u00a0the Bundys or any of the other defendants who are\u00a0accused of conspiracy have to spend another day in jail it is a national disgrace.\u00a0It is just as wrong to continue to hold them without bail as it was to sentence Dwight and Stephen Hammond to spend five years in jail under The Anti Terrorist and Effective Death Penalty Act<\/em> for setting a grass fire on their land to control weeds.\u00a0 It was a simple accident that the fire burned 130 acres of grass on land they leased from the BLM, but it did not destroy a single improvement to the land or result in the loss of anything of any value.\u00a0It was not arson, and it certainly wasn’t an act of terrorism.<\/p>\n

The law can be an ass\u00a0sometimes. Most of us know that. In fact the law can be an ass a lot of times, but the\u00a0jury in Oregon in the Occupation Trial of the\u00a0Malheur National Wildlife Refuge had the final\u00a0power to acquit these good men and they did.\u00a0Later this year\u00a0another jury in\u00a0the State\u00a0of Nevada will be entrusted with the same power to either convict or acquit these fine men and\u00a0send them\u00a0home to their families.<\/p>\n

At his trial in Oregon Ammon Bundy took the witness stand to testify in his own behalf. It was not easy to watch him as he broke down several times\u00a0telling the story of how he and his family have been\u00a0harassed\u00a0and hounded over the years by the Bureau of Land Management and how they are\u00a0being unfairly prosecuted\u00a0by the Federal government for simply standing up for their property rights.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A Synopsis of Ammon Bundy’s testimony in Oregon from October 4th, 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cEvery man in my family is in a federal prison for defending our property rights\u2026 Federal agents beat up my\u00a0little brother. Others grabbed my Aunt Margaret and threw her down on the ground\u2026 They tazed me three times\u2026 BLM agents impounded and killed\u00a0my father’s cattle\u2026<\/em> \u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cOur family has\u00a0a legal right to use the land we graze our cattle on\u2026\u00a0 Those rights are deeded to my father under Nevada law and they are just as legal as the title\u00a0to\u00a0our house.\u00a0 I grew up in that house. It is the same house that\u00a0my father \u00a0grew up in\u2026 My grandfather built that house with his own two hands.. The Bundys have \u00a0lived on\u00a0this \u00a0land for five generations\u2026\u00a0 For over 138 years we have worked this land and run our cattle on this land. That is longer than the BLM has been in existence.\u00a0 Our water rights and our grazing rights are just as real as the deed to our house, and if the law\u00a0means anything then those rights have to be respected. They cannot just be taken away from us by evil men acting above the law. We own the water rights and the grazing rights just as sure as we own the land that our house is built on, and without those rights we cannot survive on the land. <\/em><\/p>\n

When I first heard about the Hammond family and the problem\u00a0they were having with the BLM my first inclination\u00a0was to ignore it and not get involved, but my father told me that the same thing was happening to\u00a0them\u00a0in Oregon that had happened to us in Nevada.\u00a0One night I couldn\u2019t\u00a0 fall asleep.\u00a0Something was speaking to my soul\u00a0and telling\u00a0me that I couldn\u2019t ignore them anymore so I began to read everything I could find\u00a0about the Hammonds. The more I learned, the more I became convinced that I had to meet them. \u201cMy father taught me\u00a0to care for others who need help.\u00a0 Its my\u00a0responsibility \u00a0as a Christian.<\/em><\/p>\n

So I drove up to Oregon and out to the Hammond Ranch.\u00a0There I met Stephen. and after showing me around the ranch hok me to meet Susie and Dwight. They are\u00a0wonderful people\u2026 the salt of the earth, but they were discouraged and\u00a0ready to give up. They were convinced that they could not win against the overwhelming power of the federal government. Several weeks later they called me and told me that their attorney had received warnings purporting to be from the Federal government and that if they didn\u2019t break off their\u00a0communication with me\u2026 that extreme pain would come to their family. They told me that they could not talk to me anymore. That is when I realized that what the Federal government was doing had to stop.\u00a0What\u00a0had happened to\u00a0my family in Nevada was now happening to another ranching family up in Oregon and something had to be done to stop it… “<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

More than anyone else in America, Ammon and Ryan Bundy are leading the fight to change the way that Congress administers public land. These two dedicated men are sacrificing their lives to keep this subject in front of the Nation\u2019s attention. Public land use reform became part of the Republican Party platform in the 2016 election primarily because of what these two men did in Nevada and Oregon…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[20,6],"tags":[701,785,723],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9395"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9395"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10339,"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9395\/revisions\/10339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}