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. 

Palin Gives Christine Flowers a Sad

I'll just link to the piece at the Post Star. I wasn't that familiar with her, but looking at some of her work online gives me a good idea where she's coming from. Way out in right field.

But now, with her embrace of a man who ridiculed the POW who made her possible, I’m forced to question my judgment, and her motives. And that makes me sad beyond belief. 

Strangely enough, her sadness makes me happy. What a bastard I am. When I'm happy I write to the editor, though.

     I'd like to thank the Post Star for running the commentary by Christine Flowers. Also big thanks to the German people for the word schadenfreude. Finding it hard to conceive of someone who passed the bar believing in Sarah Palin for 8 years led me think it was a parody. Since a web search convinced me it was not satirical, there are a few points I disagree with. The overall essence of liberals' disagreement with John McCain and Palin is one of them.

     

     "Liberals won't forgive (McCain) for running against the first black president." Not to pick nits, but it was Willard Romney who did that. McCain gets kudos from us libs for choosing Palin and imploding his campaign by raising valid questions about his judgment. If those of us on the left have a problem with him, it's that he seems ready to deploy U.S. forces against anyone at any time. As for his former running-mate, her endorsement of Donald Trump was a hallucinatory word stew that Dr. Seuss could only have dreamed of concocting. I enjoyed it huuuugely!

     

     I wouldn't expect Flowers to realize this, but Trump is the natural by-product of what the Republican Party has become. Did anyone have a problem with his birther theories back in the day? He's the result of the steady diet of rightwing, extremist folderol being fed to the GOP base. She states, "I'm forced to question my judgment, and her motives. And that makes me sad beyond belief."

     Well, sadder but wiser, I hope.

Sarah Palin Standing Up for Battered Women and Victims of PTSD

No, I'm kidding.

How else can you reconcile her decision at Wednesday’s rally to take her son’s recent arrest on domestic violence charges and blame it, effectively, on Obama. She cited her son’s post-traumatic stress disorder from military service — no small matter, of course — and then implied that Obama’s handling of America’s veterans and the way they are cared for led her son to, according to a police report, punch his girlfriend in the face, kick her in the knee and threaten suicide with an AR-15 rifle.

She made no comment about the woman, who police say hid under a bed in the Palin home crying. She made no reference to the many soldiers who suffer PTSD and don’t commit violent assaults. She made no reference to the fact that, despite this country’s pitiful treatment of veterans and their mental health, she is a millionaire entertainer who could undoubtedly afford to get her son the best treatment available.

Mother of the year. Forever.

Here's a nice editorial by Brandon Friedman that discusses Palin's comments.

The suffering is primarily internal. This is why veterans who live with PTSD are far more likely to harm themselves than they are to hurt others.

Area Miscreants

This is from the department of arming up makes you safer in your castle.

A New York City man who was arrested last week for a December knifepoint home invasion at a Glens Falls home has been charged with selling cocaine.

Coke dealer? Home invasion? Maybe the gun fetishists have a point about being armed.

 No injuries were reported, and police said the incident appeared drug-related.

Then again, maybe not. Maybe not being a competing drug dealer or someone who stiffed a drug dealer or whatever the whole story here is, is a good way to not have a nut with a gun break into your house.

BTW, I'd like to once again thank the governor for the SAFE Act. If this was Texas, both of these ne'er-do-wells would likely have had guns. Thanks Andrew! 

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.

 

How Can He Lose Now?

Don't miss Sarah's full speech here.

How ‘bout the rest of us? Right wingin’, bitter clingin’, proud clingers of our guns, our god, and our religions, and our Constitution. 

And Cicero wept.

Greens For Donald?

Well, maybe not. It seems that even The Donald is not gonzo enough.

(O)ne of Trump's Iowa precinct captains has disowned his candidate's anti-Muslim comments on the grounds that 9/11 is an inside job and Muslims are thus not to blame