Out-of-state groups ride in to stand with Nevada rancher in battle with feds over grazing rights

(Bailey) You can say anything to the Government, like go to hell and they'll claim it's a threat.

Cliven Bundy said his family's herd has always grazed on public land. (Courtesy Bundy Ranch)

Groups from as far away as New Hampshire are riding out to Nevada to join the cattle rancher whose standoff with the federal government is growing tenser by the day.
The groups said they were going to the ranch, some 80 miles north of Las Vegas to stand with Cliven Bundy, who property is surrounded by federal agents. Bundy's herd, which once numbered nearly 1,000, is being thinned out by private contractors under the watch of dozens of armed federal agents in SUVs and helicopters, the government says, he has refused for two decades to pay fees to allow the cattle to graze on federal lands.

“Our mission here is to protect the protestors and the American citizens from the violence that the federal government is dishing out.”- Jim Landy, West Mountain Rangers

“Our mission here is to protect the protestors and the American citizens from the violence that the federal government is dishing out,” Jim Landy, a member of the West Mountain Rangers, who made the journey from Montana to Nevada, told Fox News Channel. “People here are scared.”
Bundy's family called for support this week after some incidents of violence between the family and protestors with law-enforcement. Bundy’s son was shot with a stun gun on Wednesday and his sister, Margaret Houston was pushed to the ground in incidents caught on video. The protests began to grow last week, after agents from the federal Bureau of Land Management shut off access to a large swath of federal land to round up Bundy’s cattle.
Landy said groups were going to the scene to try to help keep the peace.
“The Bundy family is expecting to be shot if they try to round up their own cattle,” he said. “We are here to make sure they are not harmed. The American people are afraid of their Federal Government.”
Members of a Utah militia arrived at the ranch Wednesday, and other militias from Texas, New Hampshire and Florida are reportedly set to arrive in the coming days.
The fight involves a 600,000-acre area under BLM control called Gold Butte, near the Utah border. The vast and rugged land is the habitat of the protected desert tortoise, and the land has been off-limits for cattle since 1998. Five years before that, when grazing was legal, Bundy stopped paying federal fees for the right.
“For more than two decades, cattle have been grazed illegally on public lands in northeast Clark County,” the BLM said in a statement. “BLM and (the National Park Service) have made repeated attempts to resolve this matter administratively and judicially. Impoundment of cattle illegally grazing on public lands is an option of last resort.”
Bundy, 67, who has been a rancher all his life, told FoxNews.com last week he believes the federal agency is trying to push him to the breaking point and likened his situation to the 1993 disaster in Waco, Texas, in which federal and state law enforcement agencies laid siege to a compound of religious fanatics calling themselves Branch Davidians, a move that resulted in the deaths of 76.
Bundy, a descendant of Mormons who settled in Bunkerville more than 140 years ago, claims an inherent right to graze the area and casts the conflict as a states' rights issue. At a news conference Friday on his ranch, he said the federal government is wrong to deny his cattle access to the grazing land they've always used. He said he barely recognized the land during an airplane flyover earlier in the day.
"I flew down along the river here, and I'd seen a little herd of cows," he told a gathering of supporters. "Baby cows. They was grazing on their meadow and they was really quite happy.
"I then flew up the river here up to Flat Top Mason, and all of a sudden, there's an army up there. A compound. Probably close to a hundred vehicles and gates all around and vehicles with armed soldiers in them.
"Then I'm wondering where I am. I'm not in Afghanistan. I think I'm in Nevada. But I'm not sure right now," he said to applause and defiant shouts.
Federal officials said that  BLM enforcement agents were dispatched in response to statements Bundy made which they perceived as threats.
“When threats are made that could jeopardize the safety of the American people, the contractors and our personnel; we have the responsibility to provide law enforcement to account for their safety,” National Park Service spokeswoman Christie Vanover said to reporters Sunday.
The land issue allegedly began after Bundy stopped paying grazing fees in 1993. He said he didn't have to because his Mormon ancestors worked the land since the 1880s, giving him rights to the land.

Journalists’ guide to Islam called cave-in to political correctness

Founding dean of the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University Lawrence Pintak (inset) recently co-edited an e-book meant to be a field guide for journalists when reporting on Islamic issues.

A "how-to" guide published by a prominent journalism school to help reporters covering Islam-related issues is under fire from critics who say it sacrifices the First Amendment to political correctness.
"Islam for Journalists,” an online guide from Washington State University, says coverage of the Muslim world can be fair, yet inoffensive without compromising journalistic principles. Yet it pointedly condemns publication of images of Muhammed, an act which is forbidden by the Koran, and seems to equate it with violence carried out in the name of Islam.  
Click here to read "Islam for Journalists"
“Across the Muslim world extremists are wielding their swords with grisly effect, but the pen…can be just as lethal,” Lawrence Pintak, dean of the school's Edward R. Murrow College of Communication, wrote in the introduction to the guide.
“Many Muslim journalists simply couldn’t understand why Western news organizations would republish the offensive images just because [of a legal right]. Journalism is not supposed to be a weapon [it is meant] to inform, not inflame,” Pintak wrote.
The guide has been endorsed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a group with ties to extremists in the Middle East.

“...But Security is often an excuse for censorship.”- Jutte Klausen, Brandeis University

In 2005, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published two editorial cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet, calling the effort an attempt to contribute to the debate about criticism of Islam and self-censorship. Predictably, Muslim groups in Denmark complained and protests took place around the world, including violent demonstrations in some Muslim countries.
Jutte Klausen, a professor at Brandeis University, wrote the book “The Cartoons that Shook the World” about the events, only to see the offending images cut by publisher Yale University.
“My book was censored,” Klausen told FoxNews.com. “The issue was that nobody really understood what the cartoons meant. It was a different dilemma for the media at the time when they were published. No one was prepared for an international media landscape and how something like this could have different meanings for different people.
“After that it became a matter of security,” she added. “But security is often an excuse for censorship.”
Pintak, who did not return requests for comment, vehemently defends his support of press freedom in the guide, even as he seemingly making the case for censorship.
“A commitment to press freedom is in my blood,” he wrote before adding, “Journalism is not supposed to be a weapon.”
The author also seemingly panders to the Muslim faith, explaining in the guide that Muhammad is off-limits because “although he is not divine, he is considered ‘the Perfect Man.’”
“By imitating him, “Muslims hope to acquire his interior attitude—perfect surrender to God," he added, as if such a deep knowledge of a particular religion is required of journalists.
Pintak did not immediately return a request for comment. But some experts supported his position.
“It is true to a degree. There does need to be some sense of moderation,” Kevin Smith, ethics chair for the Society of Professional Journalists, told FoxNews.com. “I do agree that sometimes the way we may cover a story is to create harm, but sometimes there is help in the harm.”
“We understand that sometimes we have to create harm, but it’s based in the intentions of bringing an issue to light," he added. "The real key in ethics is to ask how much can be minimized.”

Rush on Colbert Pick: 'CBS Declared War on Heartland of America'

       Rush Limbaugh did not join the line of people congratulating Stephen Colbert on being tabbed to replace David Letterman as host of "The Late Show" after he retires next year.
On his radio program Thursday, Limbaugh said that by choosing the 49-year-old Colbert,
"CBS has just declared war on the heartland of America."

Limbaugh said that with a Colbert-hosted Late Show "no longer is comedy going to be a covert assault on traditional American values, conservatism. Now it's just wide out in the open. What this hire means is a redefinition of what is funny, and a redefinition of what is comedy." Limbaugh called the hiring of Colbert, who made his mark satirizing political conservatives on "The Colbert Report" on cable television's Comedy Central channel, blatantly counters the values traditional America has sought in their television programming.

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"They're blowing up the 11:30 format under the guise that the world is changing and people don't want the kind of comedy that [Johnny] Carson gave us, or even Letterman," Limbaugh said. "They don't want that anymore. It's the media planting a flag here. Maybe not the media's last stand, but it's definitely a declaration."

Limbaugh added that by hiring Colbert, CBS showed no interest in selecting a host that appealed to both sides of the political aisle.

"They hired a partisan, so-called comedian, to run a comedy show," Limbaugh said. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uYDGGInfykA

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Contempt of Congress

Republicans renew fight against ObamaCare as Sebelius resigns

Republicans responded to news of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' resignation from the Obama administration on Thursday with fresh calls to repeal the president's health care law. 
Sebelius leaves the administration after the tumultuous launch of the Affordable Care Act exchanges last fall. Despite calls for her ouster from Republicans at the time, she stayed on until the enrollment period ended at the end of March. 
A White House official said President Obama will formally make the announcement on Friday, and nominate White House budget office director Sylvia Matthews Burwell to replace the outgoing secretary. The Senate would have to confirm Burwell to the position. 
Republicans quickly made clear that Sebelius' departure will not temper their criticisms of ObamaCare.
"Virtually everyone who has come into contact with this law has had new reason to worry about what it means for the government to control their health care," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a statement. "Secretary Sebelius may be leaving, but the problems with this law and the impact it’s having on our constituents aren’t. ObamaCare has to go, too." 
Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Orrin Hatch said Sebelius "had one of the toughest jobs in Washington" because she had to implement the law, which he said is "flawed" and continues to fall short.
"While we haven’t always agreed, Secretary Sebelius did the best she could during the tumultuous and volatile rollout of the law," Hatch, R-Utah, said in a statement.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Sebelius' resignation will not fix problems with ObamaCare.
 "The next HHS Secretary will inherit a mess -- Americans facing rising costs, families losing their doctors, and an economy weighed down by intrusive regulations, "Priebus said in a statement. "No matter who is in charge of HHS, ObamaCare will continue to be a disaster and will continue to hurt hardworking Americans."  
The administration touted the surge in enrollment in the last few weeks, with Sebelius saying Thursday that 7.5 million American have now signed up for coverage under the law. 
But the technical difficulties surrounding the launch, as well as ongoing concerns about the implementation of the law, hung over her. She leaves just one week after the enrollment period ended, and as a tough midterm election cycle expected to focus heavily on ObamaCare begins.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi praised Sebelius' leadership during the rollout, saying she had "been forceful, effective, and essential."
"Her legacy will be found in the 7.5 million Americans signed up on the marketplaces so far, the 3.1 million people covered on their parents' plans, and the millions more gaining coverage through the expansion of Medicaid," Pelosi, D-Calif., said.
The White House official said Sebelius notified Obama of her decision to leave in early March.
"At that time, Secretary Sebelius told the president that she felt confident in the trajectory for enrollment and implementation of the Affordable Care Act, and that she believed that once open enrollment ended it would be the right time to transition the department to new leadership," the official said, adding the president "is deeply grateful for her service."
West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin praised the nomination of Burwell, a fellow West Virginia native, in a statement Thursday.
"I am confident that her leadership will ensure that we enact commonsense fixes to the Affordable Care Act to help improve the lives of millions of Americans," Manchin said.
Rep. Steve Daines, R-Mont., who is running to fill the seat vacated by Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, said in a statement that Sebelius' resignation "has been a long time coming—but it’s too little, too late."
"While Secretary Sebelius' resignation is a good start, it's not enough—we need to repeal ObamaCare before further harm comes to Montana families, and replace it with Montana-driven reforms that put the patient and their doctor—not government bureaucrats—in charge of health care decisions," Daines said.   
Sebelius, having served five years with the president, was among the longest-serving Cabinet secretaries in the administration. 
But Sebelius' relationship with the White House frayed during last fall's rollout of the insurance exchanges that are at the center of the sweeping overhaul. The president and his top advisers said they were frustrated by what they considered to be a lack of information from HHS over the extent of the website troubles.
The White House sent management expert Jeffrey Zients to oversee a rescue operation that turned things around by the end of November. 
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Cliven Bundy

  The standoff is still going on at the Bundy Ranch in Clark County, Nevada.  The Bureau of Land Management is still trying to round up Cliven Bundy’s cattle and exclude him from land his family has grazed on for 150 years.
Bundy is the last rancher in Clark County.
Finally some Republicans are coming to his aid.
From the SacBee:
 A Republican U.S. senator added his voice Wednesday to critics of a federal cattle roundup fought by a Nevada rancher who claims longstanding grazing rights on remote public rangeland about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas
Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada said he told new U.S. Bureau of Land Management chief Neil Kornze in Washington, D.C., that law-abiding Nevadans shouldn't be penalized by an "overreaching" agency.
Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval pointed earlier to what he called "an atmosphere of intimidation," resulting from the roundup and said he believed constitutional rights were being trampled.
Heller said he heard from local officials, residents and the Nevada Cattlemen's Association and remained "extremely concerned about the size of this closure and disruptions with access to roads, water and electrical infrastructure."
This is a story about a powerful government that is out of control.
As mentioned in a blog earlier on Tea Party Nation, the Federal Government own 81% of the land in Nevada.  Why does the Federal Government need that much land?
The answer is, it doesn’t.
The Federal Government should be forced to put most of that land up for sale to American citizens. 
Meanwhile Americans continue to protest the government, which is trying to keep the protests in a so-called “First Amendment Zone.”
That is the problem with this government.
It believes Americans only have the rights it chooses to grant them.