'Wait, that was racist?', Wild West edition

I for one am outraged that the 2012 presidential election did not hinge on a parochial land-use dispute that was settled by the courts 14 years earlier.

 

What is wrong with the federal government owning land?

 

Everything THE GUVVMINT does is evull, especially when it's run by a M.N.

 

Also worth noting: "They didn’t have nothing to do" is a double negative that essentially means they did, in fact, have something to do.

 

They're only a few verbal blow jobs away from getting a motel room.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/jon-stewart-escalates-feud-sean-hannity

 

Because the GOP NEVER paints its political opponents with a broad brush when someone liberal says something stupid.

I eagerly await the likes of Hannity, Rush, et al, to start parsing liberal politicians with the same nuance you're begging for here.

 

The fourth Thursday in April is also Take Your Racist Rancher to Work Day.

 

Yep, just a big, coffee drinking, Yankees loving pretzel exceptionally good at missing the point.

As to your digression, BLM policy is fairly settled. The federal government owns the land, and keeps it open for public use, that also includes ranching.

Those ranchers, while not always perfectly content, are happy they can still run cows on federal land in exchange for a heavily subsidized, per cow fee.

While some alternatives exist, the most likely is a single person or corporate entity buying the land, making it private property and ranchers would lose access to that land for grazing.

When faced that outcome, the ranchers grumble but they'll still pay the fee.

But Bundy doesn't want to even do that. He still wants to run his cattle and not pay for it. Bundy has said in interviews he doesn't even open mail from the federal government, and while I wonder what happened in 1993 that made him quit paying? My best guess is that he has never paid but instead the property was being paid for by a parent, or an older sibling who died.

But that's just a guess as no one has reported that. Challenge: Someone find out.

 

Bundy responds:

Bundy appeared on Alex Jones’s radio show to say that he hopes The New York Times will retract the quotations at issue. “The other picture is, when they was back in the South, they were in the front of their porch as a family unit, and they had chickens and gardens to take care of, and their men were out working,” Bundy said in his attempt at damage control. “I didn’t say ‘picking cotton,’ but they were out working. It seemed to me like their family unit and happiness was greater there than it is here in the city in a government subsidy home.”

But, oops, cue the video showing the NYT quote was EXACTLY what he said:

 

You gotta go with "taken out of context" in these times. "Misquoted" is too easy to disprove. At least "taken out of context" can convince your band of idiots that you're right.

 

Bundy stopped paying in 1993 because the BLM restricted use of the land because it said the grazing was harming the environment the desert tortoises there lived in.

Notice "restricted," not "banned."

Bundy refused to comply and stopped paying the fee he had been paying.

The BLM then revoked his permit.

He never applied for another one, but kept grazing his cattle there.

 

Also worth noting: He didn't even try to walk back comments that black people were better off as slaves. In fact, he reiterated it.