If timing is everything, the BundyBunch just got a swift cow kick by a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling against a Nevada Ranching family:
Siding with the government in a decades-old battle over grazing rights, a federal appeals court overturned a lower-court ruling in favor of a Nevada rancher and strongly admonished a judge in Reno for abusing his power and exhibiting personal bias against U.S. land managers.
… [The] 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the late Wayne Hage of Tonopah and his family were guilty of trespassing cattle on federal land illegally without a grazing permit and should be subject to fines.
source
Ow.
The case was handed back down to the District Court by the Appeals Court. Citing the strong and well known bias of the lower court judge which had decided the case, the judge has been precluded from hearing any future case.
Yesterday evening , Ammon Bundy, leader of the BundyBunch which has now held a vacant federal wildlife refuge sanctuary “hostage” for 19 days, held a meeting to urge local ranchers to tear up their BLM permits and sign a statement refusing to pay the already heavily subsidized grazing fees on BLM lands. Not one rancher of the ten or so that attended agreed, some citing it might actually harm them.
"I personally don't think this can happen this fast," said rancher Buck Taylor of Diamond. "If I just stood up and signed a piece of paper Saturday that would put my family, my ranch in jeopardy."
"You're asking us to give up everything for this rebel cause," said another rancher, Scott Franklin, who lives north of Burns. source
The BundyBunch’s repeated failures in Harney County seem to add an edge of frustration and annoyance to the militant insurrectionists’ verbiage as Harney County residents, Piute Tribe representatives, protesters at the site and around the state and county repeatedly insist they leave.
The signing ceremony … [i]s "a once in a lifetime opportunity," Ammon Bundy said. The next time such an opportunity arises, he said: "It'll be war."
"The opportunity is now. The place is Harney County. And you are the people," he said. source
Bundy claims two ranchers, one in New Mexico and another elsewhere in Oregon, have already taken the pledge. The BundyBunch will be holding a signing “ceremony” on Saturday at the refuge.
Last night’s meeting was held at Crystal Crane Hot Springs, a private tourism business near the small town of Crane, northeast of Burns. Prior to the meeting, the business posted on their website an explanation that they were just trying to let the two sides get together. The explanation was taken down later.
No one from any other “side” was there to speak. The meeting, from all accounts, appeared to be nothing more than a propaganda meeting to support the group’s peculiar constitutional interpretations (led by Montanan Ryan Payne) leading up to the request of local ranchers to tear up their grazing permits. There were about 30 in attendance, including what appears to be a half dozen from the BundyBunch, a purported eight to ten ranchers, press, a few observers, and, I would assume, some FBI undercover agents.
Many people have voiced their very strong opposition to the business allowing the BundyBunch to promote their nonsense and insurrection using their facility and the business’ Facebook page, once the bastion of healthy springs and cute little cabins, is now covered with, well, just about everything.
EDIT: I am adding this long after the fact for those that read this later. Here is an explanation of the case: lawprofessors.typepad.com/...