Willing to Die

A documentary filmmaker who has stared down drug runners at the U.S. southern border said he has never experienced as tense a situation as he did at the Nevada Cliven Bundy ranch showdown between Bureau of Land Management officers and those standing with the rancher.

“I’ve never experienced anything like this,” said Dennis Michael Lynch. “I’ve looked at cartel in the face — this was different.”

He told Fox News host Megyn Kelly that every person standing with the Bundys was committed.

“These people were willing to die on Saturday,” Lynch said. “I heard it in their voices; I saw it in their eyes.”

A Message From Shiree Bundy Cox

“Sorry this is long but applicable here. By SHIREE BUNDY COX:

I have had people ask me to explain my dad’s stance on this BLM fight. Here it is in as simple of terms as I can explain it. There is so much to it, but here it s in a nut shell. My great grandpa bought the rights to the Bunkerville allotment back in 1887 around there. Then he sold them to my grandpa who then turned them over to my dad in 1972. These men bought and paid for their rights to the range and also built waters, fences and roads to assure the servival of their cattle, all with their own money, not with tax dollars. These rights to the land use is called preemptive rights.

Some where down the line, to keep the cows from over grazing, came the bureau of land management. They were supposed to assist the ranchers in the management of their ranges while the ranchers paid a yearly allotment which was to be use to pay the BLM wages and to help with repaires and improvements of the ranches. My dad did pay his grazing fees for years to the BLM until they were no longer using his fees to help him and to improve. Instead they began using these money’s against the ranchers. They bought all the rest of the ranchers in the area out with they’re own grazing fees. When they offered to buy my dad out for a penence he said no thanks and then fired them because they weren’t doing their job.

He quit paying the BLM but, tried giving his grazing fees to the county, which they turned down. So my dad just went on running his ranch and making his own improvements with his own equipment and his own money, not taxes. In essence the BLM was managing my dad out of business. Well when buying him out didn’t work, they used the indangered species card. You’ve already heard about the desert tortis. Well that didn’t work either, so then began the threats and the court orders, which my dad has proven to be unlawful for all these years. Now their desperate. It’s come down to buying the brand inspector off and threatening the County Sheriff. Everything their doing at this point is illegal and totally against the constitution of the United States of America.

Now you may be saying,” how sad, but what does this have to do with me?” Well, I’ll tell you. They will get rid of Cliven Bundy, the last man standing on the Bunkerville allotment and then they will close all the roads so no one can ever go on it again. Next, it’s Utah’s turn. Mark my words, Utah is next.

Then there’s the issue of the cattle that are at this moment being stolen. See even if dad hasn’t paid them, those cattle do belong to him. Regardless where they are they are my fathers property. His herd has been part of that range for over a hundred years, long before the BLM even exsisted. Now the Feds think they can just come in and remove them and sell them without a legal brand inspection or without my dad’s signature on it. They think they can take them over two boarders, which is illegal, ask any trucker. Then they plan to take them to the Richfeild Aucion and sell them. All with our tax money. They have paid off the contract cowboys and the auction owner as well as the Nevada brand inspector with our tax dollars. See how slick they are?
Well, this is it in a nut shell. Thanks”

Open Letter of Clive Bundy's Neighbor

In an open letter, Bundy’s neighbor, Kena Lytle Gloeckner, explained why ranchers are supporting Bundy. Her letter, which has been posted on numerous blogs, said:

There have been a lot of people criticizing Clive Bundy because he did not pay his grazing fees for 20 years. The public is also probably wondering why so many other cowboys are supporting Mr. Bundy even though they paid their fees and Clive did not. What you people probably do not realize is that on every rancher’s grazing permit it says the following: “You are authorized to make grazing use of the lands, under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management and covered by this grazing permit, upon your acceptance of the terms and conditions of this grazing permit and payment of grazing fees when due.” The “mandatory” terms and conditions go on to list the allotment, the number and kind of livestock to be grazed, when the permit begins and ends, the number of active or suspended AUMs (animal units per month), etc. The terms and conditions also list specific requirements such as where salt or mineral supplements can be located, maximum allowable use of forage levels (40% of annual growth), etc., and include a lot more stringent policies that must be adhered to. Every rancher must sign this “contract” agreeing to abide by the TERMS AND CONDITIONS before he or she can make payment.

In the early 90s, the BLM went on a frenzy and drastically cut almost every rancher’s permit because of this desert tortoise issue, even though all of us ranchers knew that cow and desert tortoise had co-existed for a hundred+ years. As an example, a family friend had his permit cut by 90%. For those of you who are non-ranchers, that would be equated to getting your paycheck cut 90%. In 1976 there were approximately 52 ranching permittees in this area of Nevada. Presently, there are 3. Most of these people lost their livelihoods because of the actions of the BLM. Clive Bundy was one of these people who received extremely unfair and unreasonable TERMS AND CONDITIONS. Keep in mind that Mr. Bundy was required to sign this contract before he was allowed to pay. Had Clive signed on the dotted line, he would have, in essence, signed his very livelihood away. And so Mr. Bundy took a stand, not only for himself, but for all of us. He refused to be destroyed by a tyrannical federal entity and to have his American liberties and freedoms taken away. Also keep in mind that all ranchers financially paid dearly for the forage rights those permits allow – – not rights to the land, but rights to use the forage that grows on that land. Many of these AUMS are water based, meaning that the rancher also has a vested right (state owned, not federal) to the waters that adjoin the lands and allow the livestock to drink. These water rights were also purchased at a great price.

If a rancher cannot show beneficial use of the water (he must have the appropriate number of livestock that drinks and uses that water), then he loses that water right. Usually water rights and forage rights go hand in hand. Contrary to what the BLM is telling you, they NEVER compensate a rancher for the AUMs they take away. Most times, they tell ranchers that their AUMS are “suspended,” but not removed. Unfortunately, my family has thousands of “suspended” AUMs that will probably never be returned. And so, even though these ranchers throughout the course of a hundred years invested thousands(and perhaps millions) of dollars and sacrificed along the way to obtain these rights through purchase from others, at a whim the government can take everything away with the stroke of a pen. This is the very thing that Clive Bundy single-handed took a stand against. Thank you, Clive, from a rancher who considers you a hero.

The Simplistic Life of Simple Women

Women who say, "men aren't interested in anything but sex" are those who have nothing else to offer.

Insurance Companies That Lobbied for PPACA

According to a study by “The Center for Public Policy”, a non-partisan public interest think tank in Washington D.C., it is estimated that a record $120 million was spent lobbying for health reform.  In addition to direct lobbying, some of the top firms also rewarded members of Congress with campaign contributions through political action committees and individual lobbyist donations.  The largest of these firms, Patton Boggs LLP, contributed more than $55,000 almost exclusively to Democrats.

Patton Boggs represents Bristol-Myers Squibb, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the nation and the eighth largest corporation in the United States.  The other top firms that participated (along with a list of the companies they represent) are as follows:

Capitol Hill Strategies:

Amgen—the nation’s largest biotechnology firm
BIO—a multi-million dollar biotechnology firm
Merck—the largest pharmaceutical company in the world
Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America [PHARMA] – a trade group representing pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies

Grover Park Group:

Blue Cross—a federation of 39 health insurance organizations
Pfizer—a pharmaceutical company, ranking number one in sales in the world
Duberstein Group:

Novartis—a pharmaceutical company ranking number one in revenues and three in sales
Sanofi-Aventis—a pharmaceutical company that ranks number four in sales worldwide

Mehlman, Vogel, Castagnetti:

Humana—the fourth largest health insurance company in the United States
Abbott Laboratories—a multi-billion dollar pharmaceuticals healthcare company
General Electric—multi-billion dollar corporation dealing in many health related sectors

Elmendorf strategies:

UnitedHealth Group—the nation’s largest health insurance company

Heather Podesta & Partners:

Cigna—the nation’s fifth largest health insurance company
Eli Lilly—a multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical company that ranks tenth in sales

Of the over 17,000 lobbyists in Washington D.C., The Center for Public Integrity ranks Patton Boggs as numero uno.  In terms of healthcare reform, they are followed by Alston and Bird, who represent Aetna, the nation’s third largest health insurer.  Coming in at number three is Foley Hoag, who also represents Pfizer as well as Eli Lilly, Amgen and Merck.  Tied for fourth place are Podesta Group and Capitol partners.  Dutko Worldwide rounds out the top five and they also lobbied for UnitedHealth, PhRMA, and medical device firm Medtronic Inc.

Of those lobbying firms’ big name clients, Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America alone spent $26.1 million lobbying for Obamacare in 2009, making it the single most expensive lobbying effort in history.  During the week leading up to the vote on the legislation, PhRMA launched a multi-million dollar ad blitz in 43 districts of potential swing Democrats to help secure passage.  And in this election cycle, PhRMA has contributed $30,300 to Dem’s compared to $13,000 to Repub’s.  Overall, PhRMA has spent well over $100 million on ad campaigns promoting health care reform legislation.  According to his bio, PhRMA’s outgoing CEO Billy Tauzin ”was a key player in 2009 healthcare reform negotiations that produced pharmaceutical industry support for White House and Senate efforts. Reportedly, proposals for Medicare Part D cost reductions and permitting drug importation from Canada were dropped in favor of $80 billion in other savings.” He helped write the bill.

The largest health insurance providers in the nation are UnitedHealth Group, WellPoint, Aetna, Humana and Cigna.   Ever since the healthcare debate began over a year ago, shares of Cigna, UnitedHealth Group and WellPoint have been up an average of 120%. Upon passage of the bill, health insurer’s stocks soared with Aetna hitting a 52 week high.  The share price of Cigna surged 375% compared to 46% for the stock market overall (as measured by the S&P 500) since November 2008.   It should be noted that Aetna has been a major supporter and campaign contributor to the campaigns of Max Baucus (D-MT) of the Senate Finance Committee who received $56,250 in donations and Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) who received $110,000.   Todd M. Schoenberger, Managing Editor of  “Taipan’s Tipping Point Alert” wrote recently that “One day following a vote in favor of healthcare reform legislation, stocks turned higher led by the healthcare sector. Despite the concern of many Wall Street analysts, any negative sentiment surrounding the healthcare sector about higher taxes and pressure on bottom lines quickly subsided as everything from managed care to medical device stocks traded higher with heavy volume.”

Hospital shares also surged. The day after the House passed the bill, shares of Health Management Associates, Tenet Healthcare and Community Health Systems all jumped 11%, 9%, and 6% respectively.

It should be clear by now that the major players in the healthcare industry overwhelmingly lobbied in support of Obamacare and have and will continue to reap vast rewards.  So then you may ask who exactly is this great villain the Democrats have dubbed as the evil “health insurance industry”?  The name that consistently comes up is America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP).  “America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) is a national political advocacy and trade association with about 1,300 member companies that sell health insurance coverage to more than 200 million Americans and is thereby funded by the premiums they pay.” AHIP representatives attended meetings at the White House and Congress and were instrumental in negotiating language in the bill.

This was an insurance company bill.

Black Leaders on the 2nd Amendment

As a life-long democrat, I can say this: It was the Democratic Party that was bent on maintaining slavery. It was the brand-spankin' new GOP who opposed slavery. They were pejoratively called, "Dixie-crats", not to say that all democrats supported slavery. View this and see what some black leaders say about the 2nd Amendment. Be assured, these folks are not just whistlin' Dixie--they may actually be informed, unlike most in my party:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RABZq5IoaQ

Are You Available?

Check out the meanings of a ring, fan, flowers, trinkets, etc. in our early history. I'll bet you did not know this. I know I did not. Maury Co., TN newspapers, provided by my cousin, Turner Matthews.