Jan 4^th

The big news today is another “occupy” only this time it isn’t occupy Wall Street. The occupation is of some Government buildings, closed for the season, in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, a good many miles from anywhere else in eastern Oregon. This occupation has an interesting history. It begins with a couple of ranchers, Dwight and Steven Hammond, in eastern Oregon, who set a fire to some federal forest land in order to build a fire break for their own property and to reduce the growth of noxious weeds which also threatened to spread. It seems they were caught, convicted and served out their relatively light sentences. (Their local reputation was one of being helpful to the community where they lived.) A federal judge decided that those previous sentences were too light under federal guidelines and re-sentenced these men to considerably more jail time. Both men agreed to serve this additional time. The unfairness of adding additional time after a sentence has been served is as obvious as it is absurd.

Enter the Bundy boys, Ryan and Ammon. These sons of Cliven Bundy decided that this was an invitation for anti-government militia action. (You may remember the Bundys threatening to shoot any federal agents that came on their property in Nevada expecting payment for the grazing fees they owed for letting their cows graze on public land.) Militia action is always called for when individuals are kept from exercising their right to appropriate public land for their own use. Woody Guthrie’s lyric was “This land is your land, this land is my land…” The militia boys seem to have left out “this land is your land” part of the lyric.

The Hammonds, whom these militia types claim to be defending, have said they want nothing to do with them. The local sheriff has said that the Bundys and their fellow militia men have simply taken advantage of the Hammond’s misfortune to generate some anti-government propaganda. Even the Bundy boy’s father Cliven Bundy has claimed that this wasn’t his idea and that he didn’t know how it would come out. A website, “Intellicall,” which seems devoted to supporting anti-government rhetoric, claimed that carloads of FBI agents armed to the teeth were converging on the area to do battle. No other news agency confirmed that. Intellicall seems more interested in creating heat than in creating light.

The leading Republican Presidential contenders haven’t had much to say about this either. Senator Paul claimed in Nevada that if elected he would turn over all federal land to the states. Won’t it be fun to visit Yellowstone after it has been administered by the political appointees from the Wyoming state capitol? Governor Kasich, on the other hand, said that the Bundy boys should find a home in a federal penitentiary. For a change Donald Trump had nothing to say…so far. Even Fox News has not enlightened us with their opinions. Tucker Carlson this morning was still tilting at those unhappy about the Virginia battle flag.

One of the Bundy boys has said recently, trying to tone down the rhetoric used by the group just the day before, said that they didn’t want to kill anyone. Sure they didn’t and that was why all of them brought guns along.