Bundy Standoff Ends?

You probably know that we avoided this topic on the site, pretty much. The reason for this is that it seemed big and important and potentially dangerous, but also very fact-specific -- and I didn't want to make a big deal about a major (possibly dangerous) controversy without knowing what the actual facts were.*

I still don't know the facts. I know that Bundy claims an easement (a legal right to use land that runs with the land), but I have no idea what grounds he has for claiming this, so I have no way to say if his claim is strong or weak or even just made-up.

My sympathies were with the citizens and against the government, but this seemed to be too dangerous a thing to go by pure sympathies and gut-instincts.

Powerline says the standoff has been ended.

ABCNews goes further than that, claiming Bundy has "won" what he called a government "Range War" against cattlemen.

A Nevada cattle rancher appears to have won his week-long battle with the federal government over a controversial cattle roundup that had led to the arrest of several protesters.

Cliven Bundy went head to head with the Bureau of Land Management over the removal of hundreds of his cattle from federal land, where the government said they were grazing illegally.

Bundy claims his herd of roughly 900 cattle have grazed on the land along the riverbed near Bunkerville, 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas, since 1870 and threatened a "range war" against the BLM on the Bundy Ranch website after one of his sons was arrested while protesting the removal of the cattle.

Harry Reid, who we should always remember has grown unaccountably rich as a public servant, is somehow again involved in a strange case involving Nevada land.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said little as federal agents seized and then released cattle last week from the Bundy ranch, but there is little doubt that the highly charged episode was threatening to become a political headache for the Nevada Democrat.

The Bureau of Land Management is headed by former longtime Reid aide Neil Kornze, who was confirmed by the Senate as BLM director on Tuesday, just as federal authorities descended on the cattle ranch outside Mesquite, Nev.

...

Speculation spiked in recent days over Mr. Reid’s connection to the BLM episode...

Well, Harry Reid is always very connected when it comes to rumors about people not paying their taxes.

* Very often, in making political decisions without really knowing much about the facts about a case, I (as do most people) let my basic ideological and philosophical leanings decide the matter.

In this situation, with guns assembled on both sides, it seemed wrong (to me) to do that.

posted by Ace at 04:06 PM

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