Welfare Cheat Has a Sad, Threatens Violence

I am referring to Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who is doing his level best to create a violent confrontation with federal authorities after refusing to obey the regulations, and pay the rent, required for maintaining a grazing permit:

Wielding signs and slogans, several hundred demonstrators rallied Monday to support beleaguered Nevada cattle rancher Cliven Bundy after authorities began to seize his cattle from federal land.

Protesters had responded to an alert that promised: "Range war begins at the Bundy ranch at 9:30 a.m. We're going to get the job done!"

Federal officials say Bundy is illegally running cattle in the 600,000-acre Gold Butte area, habitat of the federally protected desert tortoise. A federal judge ruled last year that if Bundy did not remove his cattle, they could be seized by the Bureau of Land Management. That seizure began Saturday.

Bundy and his supporters remain unbowed.

"We have hundreds of people here standing behind us," said Bundy's daughter Bailey Logue, 22, during a telephone interview Monday from the family ranch, as a rooster crowed in the background. "We're letting these federal people know that the Bundy family is not the only ones who care what happens to this land."

Bundy, 68, has refused to pay BLM grazing fees since 1993, arguing in court filings that his Mormon ancestors worked the land long before the BLM was formed, giving him rights that predate federal involvement. His back fees exceed $300,000, he says. The government puts the tab above $1 million.

Federal authorities have closed off the Gold Butte area and are rounding up what they call "trespass cattle," many of which belong to Bundy. By Monday, 134 cattle had been impounded, according to the BLM website.

"Cattle have been in trespass on public lands in southern Nevada for more than two decades. This is unfair to the thousands of other ranchers who graze livestock in compliance with federal laws and regulations throughout the West," the BLM said on its website.

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For years Bundy has insisted that his cattle aren't going anywhere. He acknowledges that he keeps firearms at his ranch, 90 minutes north of Las Vegas, and has vowed to do "whatever it takes" to defend his animals from seizure.

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Kirsten Cannon, a spokeswoman for the BLM in southern Nevada, said Bundy "owes the BLM and American taxpayers more than $1 million in grazing fees and trespass fines."

"He has been running more than 900 cattle while he only has the authority to graze 150," she said Monday. "He has also made a number of inflammatory statements, saying that he will do what he needs to do to protect his livestock. When such threats are made, the federal government has the responsibility to protect public safety."

So in addition to regular federal subsidies available to farmers, he's also been squatting on federal land, and destroying it through overgrazing, and somehow he's become a hero for the militia movement, because ……… Freedumb!!!