Nevada range war: Western states move to take over federal land
The fight over Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s cows grazing illegally on federal land is a symbol of a much larger issue: control of land in western states, where the federal government is dominant.
Like a mustang tied to a fence post, many westerners for years have resisted Uncle Sam’s control of land they say more properly belongs to states or counties – or to nobody at all except the ranchers, miners, and loggers who work the land for its natural resources.
The tussle over Cliven Bundy’s 400 cows – grazing on federal land, although he refuses to pay the required fees now amounting to more than $1 million – sharpens this debate, which has featured state legislators, county officials, environmentalists, and federal judges (all of whom have ruled against Mr. Bundy).
In Salt Lake City Friday, representatives from Utah, Idaho, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming, Oregon, and Washington met for a “Legislative Summit on the Transfer of Public Lands.” SOURCE
The controversy brought on by the Bureau of Land Management against Cliven Bundy has stirred a lot of emotions for many American Patriots.
While I fear that Mr. Bundy may indeed be breaking the law as it is written and as it was adjudicated. I also know in my heart that not ALL laws are right and just.
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
While this may not be a true Tenth Amendment issue, I do believe that it IS a States Rights issue, and it is my belief that the STATES have to be the governing source of the people while the Federal government takes a seriously limited role.
Let’s face facts; the Federal government has become far too big, far too invasive and has a tendency to want to *run our lives* for us, in nearly every way. That is NOT what the Founding Fathers had in mind regarding the purpose of the Federal government and as to what its duty to We, The People really is.
The Purpose of the U.S. Government per the Constitution as it is intended:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America”.
I don’t know about you, but in my mind’s eye I see a very definitive explanation of what the U.S. government is supposed to do for this nation and our people and I see an explicit definition OF those duties.
Yes, the United States has grown over the years and times have changed, but the intent of the Constitution is still right and just, it remains a nearly perfect document, written by men that were visionaries far ahead of their time.
The true intent of the Founders is obvious; the Federal government is intended to take a very limited role in the governance of individual states. In other words, Washington needs to pull their nose out of OUR business, do the job they were intended to do and relegate themselves to a *background* presence, one that is not dictatorial, pervasive or invasive.
It is time for the American people to stand and take this nation back.
If that can’t be done, if the Continental United State can’t become truly UNITED, then it’s time for Western States, Texas and the Old South to break away and be their own nations, allied to each other for the good of all, the defense of our new states and/or Republics and to allow We, The People to once again live free, out from under the thumb of some anti-American, Socialist Muslim Kenyan that has no business being in office to begin with!
Put that on your *Domestic Terrorist List* Obama!
In the spirit of our Founders, I am NOT afraid to speak my mind, speak the truth, to stand for freedom and to fight for this nation as a whole, or to form a NEW nation if left with no other choice.
If that makes me a Domestic Terrorist then I will wear that name as a Badge of Honor.
P.S. A belated Happy Easter to one and all, I was not on the blog and had limited access to Facebook and email!
Fred, regardless of the revisionist history taught our kids in the government schools today and for a generation, or two, or even three, the last so-called Civil War in America was about STATES RIGHTS!
When you compare the real history of the 1800′s against current events, you will be amazed at how we are tracking right along with America of the eighteen hundreds as they slogged toward war with each other.
It’s coming. I only hope I can acquit myself as ably as my Confederate ancestors did.
See you at the barricades!
JDL
Yes Fred it very well lead to an awakening….
Well said Fred
Now, according to Harry Reid, you are a domestic terrorist.
http://m.reviewjournal.com/politics/reid-calls-bundy-supporters-domestic-terrorists
Yes I am!
According to the Washington Post, the Federal Government owns 87% of the land in Nevada. I haven’t seen in the Constitution where the Federal Government is suppose to be a land baron.
What we now have in the United States and has been like this since the Civil War is the tail wagging the dog. The Federal (Central) Government was suppose to be the glue that bound all the states together into a Union not the iron fist that keeps them in subjection. What I’m going to say may piss some people off but think about it for a minute. Is Vladimir Putin doing anything that Abraham Lincoln didn’t do? Lincoln sent in armies to keep the Union together. Putin is sending in armies to put his Union back together. If Western States started breaking away and succeeding, do you think the Federal Government would idly stand by and allow it to happen? Troops would be sent in, leaders arrested for treason and sedition, Martial Law declared, and the rebellion would be put down at all costs. We just witnessed armed troops in Nevada go against a rancher. It doesn’t matter if the uniform said US Army or BLM, they were armed troops when all that needed to be done was put a lien against his property. Also, don’t forget what happened at Waco where a tank was sent in to end that siege.
This whole story has a lot more to do than grazing rights for Bundy. I have believed that from the beginning. No logging permits which as allowed our Forrest’s to become diseased, fires to become a threat, our fishing, coal industry practically eliminated. Farming in central califonia shut down.The bottom line, many of us have had enough.
It is about States Rights. It is about individual rights. It is time for push back in order to take our country back.
Two of the stipulations to Nevada becoming a state were: all unclaimed public land would remain under the control of the federal government for all time ; and that citizens gave up all rights, etc., to said lands also forever. Those public lands never belonged to Nevada at any time. They came to the United States as part of the treaty of Guadalupe in 1848 which ended the Mexican American war. Bundy is legally in the wrong.
There is another stipulation: the paramount allegiance clause which acknowledges the supremacy of the US government over the states and that its citizens gave up any right to secede. (This was probably stipulated because of the ongoing Civil War.)
I go back and forth with this whole situation. How does one talk about states rights when the State constitution is so clear about the matter of land and allegiance? At what point does the federal government become so overwhelmingly anti citizen that it leaves its citizens with no other recourse than possibly armed resistance?
I know Lincoln maneuvered to get Nevada into the Union because he needed their votes to pass the 13th Amendment and he bypassed congress in the process. Today we have a president who rules by decree and bypasses congress whenever he can. We are on our way to becoming a New Age feudal society, serfs and peasants working for the overlord. We are descending into a dark age intellectually and morally. Our government has become a voracious self replicating beast demanding more and more.
You are so right, Fred. It is intrusive and invasive and it needs to stop being so. But that would mean giving up power. And that is unlikely to happen as things are now.
What frightens me is the next election. If the democrats retain control, then what will happen? Shades of 1860?
Glad to hear your opinion. You hit it out of the park today Fred. I read this post twice before I could comment. We need to clean up our elections, because the process is corrupted. Programmable voting machines, UN supervision, French vote counting? C’mon people. We as citizens need to get more involved and quickly. If we don’t control immigration, we are done for. Fred, I know how you feel about the tea party. If the spirit of the movement can’t figure out the viable candidates, we,as a nation are done for. I pray for results regarding the nine states questioning the feds over who should own what and why. I pray daily for the restoration of our constitutional republic.
What? This on Drudge short time ago.
Sen. Jim Inhofe said, “You’ve got a bunch of people there trying to take the law into their own hands and they shouldn’t be doing that. And the Bureau of Land Management is not government-owned, it’s publicly owned. There’s a big difference there. I blame both sides.”
Who are they?