A Fresh Look at the Bundy Fiasco in Oregon

[crrcboatz]

This article is a nice approach to the whole thing. This should get the ball rolling for Monday morning.

http://www.triplepundit.com/2016/02/real-agenda-behind-oregon-takeover/

 

[CHenry]

Whats a Feisco?

 

[TedKennedy]

Whats a Feisco?

It's a cooked up dish that tastes different than it looks. Smells kind of fishy.

 

[53convert]

that is an interesting read. Well worth the time

 

[Dale00]

We are too lazy to click on links always give us something like....

The two men’s history of illegal activities has apparently been screened by supportive community sentiment for years, but they don’t emerge as particularly sympathetic characters in the public record.

The immediate sequence of events leading up to the Malheur takeover was the re-sentencing of the Hammond ranchers, who were previously given light sentences for two arson charges related to brush fires on federal land in 2001 and 2006. In their 2012 trial, the judge ignored the fact that the charges carry a mandatory five-year minimum sentence. The father and son were accordingly re-sentenced last fall and agreed to turn themselves in to complete their time, which they did earlier this month.

Five years may seem extremely burdensome for setting two relatively small brush fires, considering that burning out brush and other debris is a common land management practice.

However, in a press release last fall, the U.S. Attorney prosecuting the case noted that the Hammonds had rejected an opportunity to plea-bargain for lesser sentences. He also noted that the Hammonds were well aware of their responsibility work with federal officers on land management, and that their failure to do so in these two instances endangered firefighters, a group of hunters, and even one of their own relatives, who was 13 years old at the time.

The two convictions also tell only part of the story of the Hammonds’ activities. The website Wildfire Today has compiled a timeline dating back to 1994 for charges that include illegally attempting to build a fence on federal property, intimidating federal officials and interfering with other lawful users in addition to other instances of fire-setting. According to Wildfire Today, public pressure and threats against local Bureau of Land Management (BLM) officials were instrumental in having these other charges reduced or dropped. The arson charges that finally did stick were just two among multiple instances that were openly admitted by the Hammonds, or witnessed by other parties.

Many more details about the Hammonds’ behavior emerges in a 2014 BLM document refusing to renew the ranchers’ grazing permits. The agency’s formal decision cites their two convictions as sufficient reason for not renewing the permits, and it also goes much farther. The BLM document cites a series of alleged arson episodes linked to the Hammonds in precise, blow-by-blow detail. It paints a picture of a reckless approach to land management that endangered human life on multiple occasions.

That’s the nut of the first Bundy miscalculation. He intended to showcase the Hammonds as victims of a federal agency run amok, but in doing so he has turned a spotlight on the family’s history of abusing their privilege as holders of federal grazing permits.

 

[crrcboatz]

CHenry, I believe fiasco is something that ends in failure.

 

[twoguns?]

CHenry, I believe fiasco is something that ends in failure.

Re: A Fresh Look at the Bundy Feisco in Oregon...smells feishy...;/