The End of the Bundy Gang with Bonus Law and Order

Apparently the four holdouts at the Malheur Refuge are due to surrender today if they can get God and Franklin Graham to escort them out or something.

Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore, a high-profile supporter of the Bundy family, said she and Christian evangelist Franklin Graham are traveling to the refuge. Fiore's trip to Oregon is in apparent response to a call from Ammon Bundy, who asked elected officials from across the West to come to the aid of the occupiers.

So, God was busy, I guess. Why Franklin Graham? Why start asking sensible questions now? But, the really sweet news out of this is that Daddy Bundy has been arrested. Finally. 

Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher who touched off one armed showdown with federal authorities and applauded another started in Oregon by his sons, was arrested late Wednesday at Portland International Airport and faces federal charges related to the 2014 standoff at his ranch.

Can you die from an overdose of schadenfreude?  I would probably test that if they found a good reason to arrest Michele Fiore as well. 

Fiore, a high-profile supporter of the Bundy family, represents their district in Clark County, Nevada. She spoke out in support of Cliven Bundy, Ammon Bundy's father, during a 2014 standoff with federal rangers at the elder Bundy's ranch near Bunkerville, Nev., over unpaid cattle grazing fees. Ammon Bundy also participated in the Nevada standoff.

Remaining occupiers livestream as FBI surrounds refugeA friend of occupier David Fry live streams on YouTube through an open phone line with the occupiers as authorities make what appeared to be a final push to end the 40-day old occupation. Michele Fiore, a Nevada legislator, also joins the conversation after flying to Oregon to help the occupiers.

She was among hundreds of Bundy supporters who attended a barbecue near the ranch celebrating after federal authorities retreated.

"When in the heck do we send our federal government with arms to collect a bill?" she said in an April 2014 interview with MSNBC from the barbecue.

She later said, "Lien the cows. Lien the property. Don't come here with guns and don't expect the American people to fire back."

Ain't she sweet?

Round 'em all up!

The Winding Down of the Bundy Gang

Still a few deadenders left in the Malheur Refuge.

The last holdouts in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge standoff say they now want pardons for everyone involved before they'll leave the headquarters where they're holed up behind police roadblocks.

"Before we leave, every single one of the people involved in this operation should be pardoned," occupier David Fry said in a feed posted to YouTube just before noon Friday.

Can't imagine what would make these four holdouts think they have such a strong hand that they can make these demands. Wanted to put this link up because of the video showing the inside of the refuge. It makes me feel good because I'm not a great housekeeper myself. I feel at home with clutter but not quite as at home with as these folks.

UPDATE: Want to add this Post Star link because I have few comments and I want to highlight another commenter's opinion.

I've watched this video numerous times over the past couple days, and am still not convinced this was justified. The police officer that was almost hit actually left his position of safety in the parked police vehicle and jumped out at the car. Why? Did he fire at the vehicle then? Finicum comes out with hands extended. Its hard to say why his hands go down, he could have been asked to show if he had a gun and was lifting his jacket. But what I think happened is he was shot by one officer, both his hands lower to the same spot. And he starts wobbling on his feet. then the 2nd officer comes from behind and shoots him at point blank range with what appears to be a rifle. I'd add, if he had missed, the bullet would've gone directly at the other officers at the scene. Where's the hands up, don't shoot outrage now. Until I see a video with audio to know what directions the officers were yelling at him, I'm not convinced he was intending to try and shoot anyone.

There's no convincing some people. 

Masada or No Masada

There are still some holdouts in the Malheur refuge. These might be the deadenders Rummy was referring to. I'm willing to accept that there may be some legitimate grievances that people in the Western states have with the US government. I pride myself on being open-minded. This was a clusterfuck from the start, though. The fact that there are people like David Fry and Colonel Green Beret Joseph Stetson with records sealed by Ron Reagan supporting the movement doesn't give them much credence.

 David Fry, an Ohioan who is among the remaining armed occupants of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, said he is prepared to die during the siege.

"I'll pass on and move on to the next life. I don't know (how it will end), but I'm willing to go that far,'' Fry told The Plain Dealer in a brief phone interview Wednesday.

"Obviously they are murdering people at this point. They've been doing it for a long time now, and you guys are watching it.''

And maybe we'll still be talking about your epic final days 2000 years from now. 

Decades after Jesus’ death, Zealots engineered a revolt against Rome. The uprising was brutally stamped out and ended with Jerusalem’s destruction in 70 AD. Survivors fled to Masada, a fortress built by Herod near the Dead Sea. Today, the excavated remains of Masada have become a national symbol for all Israelis.

But, probably not.

The Limits of Tolerance

I'm sorry to see that Robert Finicum lost his life to his beliefs.

Finicum "took off" in the pickup with the remaining passengers. He said Payne and Cox described encountering a police roadblock about a mile north on the highway and apparently tried to get around it, becoming stuck in the snow.

"When he exited the vehicle, the rear wheels were still spinning," McConnell said. "He charged at law enforcement" and was shot.

My sorrow is mitigated by the joy I feel over the arrests of a number of the Bundy Seditionists.  

And here is a link to the new leader of the pack. 

Jason Patrick, a former roofer from Georgia, finds himself the leader of the remaining occupiers at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

He said Wednesday that he isn't sure how the occupation, now in its 26^th day, will end, but still hopes for a peaceful resolution.

May I suggest you come out with your hands up and no weapons?

Police have cut off the refuge headquarters, 30 miles southeast of Burns. Roadblocks near the bird sanctuary's entrance stop traffic going in, but police have encouraged anyone at the refuge to leave.

Roughly six miles away, police set up a secondary roadblock, threatening to arrest anyone but landowners who try to go past.

It's not as easy as some may believe to take on a tyrannical government. 

Do you have a Black Hawk helicopter? Do you have armored vehicles? I saw somewhere a guy suggesting that the effort was going to be like the Viet Cong. See, there the problem is that you need the people on your side. Did the Bundy Gang ever have that? No. 

Good News Tuesday

Not sure which is number one good news. I'll go with two of the miscreants from the Center for Medical Progress getting hit by a whoopsie doodle verdict which I didn't know could happen. Then, I'm not a lawyer.

A Texas grand jury investigating allegations of misconduct against Planned Parenthood after the release of covertly-shot videos about the use of fetal tissue from abortions has instead indicted two antiabortion activists who made the videos, authorities said Monday.

David Daleiden, 26, director of the Irvine-based nonprofit Center for Medical Progress, was indicted by the grand jury on a felony charge of tampering with a governmental record and a misdemeanor count related to purchasing human organs, Harris County Dist. Atty. Devon Anderson said in a statement.

And that's a Texas grand jury. 

In other really great news, Zephyr Teachout is going to be running to replace the odious Chris Gibson in the district below me. I wish she had moved to my district, but I believe that in Mike Derrick we have a good candidate as well. God willing, not a blue dog. And yes, the GOP has already started with the carpetbagger bullshit.

Teachout moved to the district 10 months ago, to a home in Dutchess County, where she had beaten Cuomo by 17 points. That was weeks after incumbent Rep. Chris Gibson (R-N.Y.) announced his early retirement, and Democrats immediately started scouting local talent. 

And there's good news from Oregon. Someone has been arrested. Some fine folks are being attracted to the Burns area to join up with the Bundy Gang. 

A 54-year-old Woodburn man who said he wanted to be the Bundys' personal guard has been arrested after saying he wanted to kill federal agents.

Authorities responded to Hines Market on U.S. 20 late Monday morning on a report of an armed man who was saying he wanted to join the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupiers and "help with killing federal agents," according to a post on the Harney County Sheriff's Office's Facebook page.

Don't miss the video. He's a colonel and a Green Beret and his records were sealed by Ronald Reagan. Probably worked with Ollie North when he was in Central America. I really believe they should have tased him. These Oregon cops are way too laidback. 

Ammon Bundy:Constitutional Scholar

Or not.

A bedrock claim of the small group led by Arizona businessman Ammon Bundy is that the Constitution limits federal ownership of land. As a result, they say, the federal government is violating Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17 by illegally holding about 76 percent of Harney County.

But scholars say Bundy and his followers are misreading the Constitution.

"You have to read the entire document and not just the clauses and provisions that you think support your case," said Elizabeth Wydra, chief counsel of the nonprofit Constitutional Accountability Center, which monitors legal application of the Constitution.

I've encountered other constitutional scholars in comment threads. It's hard to believe how many are around. Unfortunately, I am not one. I do believe that all land as it was acquired (stolen from Native Americans) became property of the US government. 

Bundy told an FBI negotiator Thursday that his group already is examining land records to identify previous owners. But which records they're researching isn't clear.

Officials at the Harney County Assessor's Office, which tracks property ownership, and the Clerk's Office, which keeps the record of deeds, say no one in recent weeks has approached them to examine the records.

Be careful what you don't wish for.

The wildlife refuge, with headquarters about 30 miles southeast of Burns, is a symbol of Bundy's overarching demand. He wants the land turned over to the county.

But Harney County isn't interested in becoming the refuge's landlord.

"If they gave it to us, where would the money come from to operate that?" said Steve Grasty, Harney County judge, a non-judicial position that operates the same as chair of the county commission.

The refuge employs 17 people to handle day-to-day operations. The entire Harney County county government full-time workforce numbers 102. Grasty said operating the refuge would cost millions that the county doesn't have.

The county's options would be limited, he said, including laying off employees to free up money for refuge management, closing the refuge or selling off parcels of the refuge to raise money.

Bundy acknowledged this week when talking to an FBI agent that he didn't know what practical steps he could take to get the refuge land and buildings out of federal control.

"We could put more thought to that," he said.

That last statement would probably make a great epitaph for pretty much anyone in the Bundy Gang. 

Bundy Gang: Day ?

It's somewhere around 3 weeks. Just want to link to an editorial in The Oregonian.

Here's what's clear: Unchecked disregard for federal law and public property, combined with cunning media manipulation, rewards delusional behavior among people whose lives are otherwise spent enjoying discounted grazing rates on lands own by American taxpayers.

Here's what's really clear: It's really time to go.

A sustained tolerance for the occupation at this point won't do. Measured but aggressive actions should be taken, among them cutting off power to the refuge headquarters and engaging armed ranchers arriving to join in Finicum's signing ceremony, now set for Saturday – itself a potential civic disruption that legally warrants investigative action. Among other things, continued tolerance would likely be the encouragement Finicum and Bundy need for their standoff to metastasize among the errant across the American West, with Oregon the unwitting epicenter. A heavy-handed crackdown by law enforcement is discouraged, meanwhile, as it would likely trigger bloodshed, creating martyrs among the occupiers and dooming essential public discourse about the role of public lands and the right of all Americans to enjoy them.

Arrest these jackasses!

Also on this subject is Rex Huppke who does not so much want to arrest them. 

Dear fellow patriots:

I applaud your bold overtaking of a remote, unoccupied federal building in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. (OK, technically the "federal building" looks more like a cozy stone cabin, but that takes nothing away from the aforementioned boldness.)

Without question, your clearly defined objective of staying in the building for years to come and doing patriotic things there is right in line with the constitutional ideals envisioned by the Founding Fathers. I believe it was Thomas Jefferson who said: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of unoccupied federal wildlife refuge buildings."

Your rebellion brings to mind that great moment in American history, weeks before the Revolutionary War began in 1775, when two unemployed patriots, Abner Farnsworth and Phineas Snotgarden, formed their own militia and occupied a large rock outside Lexington, Mass., for a full five days, after which they got bored and left.

There's much more. Go. Enjoy.

 

Do Members of Vanilla ISIS Work?

This guy for instance seems to have a lot of time on his hands.

In the YouTube video, Jon Ritzheimer explained tearfully why he was going to miss Christmas with his 3- and 5-year-old daughters in Arizona to protest on behalf of ranchers in a remote corner of Oregon.

Don't worry about it Jon. I'm sure your wife has found someone else by now and your kids are calling him Daddy. I love that whole Tokyo Rose thing. You have to go and read the whole thing to get a feel for what a paranoid, neurotic, psychotic dickhead this guy is. 

From Oregon Live, what we need to know for Friday. The hostage takers were supposed to announce plans for releasing their hostages today. So far. Not so much. 

For anyone interested in doing so, here's a petition asking President Obama to please arrest these assholes and charge them with something. Anything really.

Here's Charles Pierce on the shipment of dildos to Oregon:

What is wrong with you people? Do you think people sent candy penises to Washington at Valley Forge? Do you think the Constitution was written with a dong-shaped quill pen? Do you believe Button Gwinnett was into vibrators, or Stephen Hopkins into leather? OK, you might have a point with old Ben Franklin, but that's no reason to take the fight against the tyranny of bird sanctuaries as lightly as this. They hand you freedom and you hand them a dildo? Ungrateful bastids, the lot of you.

I have no problem with the Gang being made a laughingstock, but I'd still like to seem some actual charges as well.

Bundy Gang Update

Just a few links from Oregon Live.

Here's Jon Ritzhimer having a fit over inappropriate gifts. Self-reliance isn't just an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson you know, Jon.

If I lived in Burns, I'd have to think about actually arming up myself.

Police and community members say the menacing is real and has been going on for weeks. 

There are a number of incidents at that link. It may not be the actual militia that are involved. It could just be that they draw a bad element. So, apparently on Friday they are going to let the town know when they'll stop holding it hostage.

The armed militants occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge announced Tuesday morning that they will drive into Burns at the end of the week to hold a community meeting and inform residents when they will leave.

BTW, I do think that Ammon Bundy would make a great running mate for whoever wins the Republican nomination for prez. 

Doolittle Link