Posted by Tina
Alaska’s Governor, Sean Parnell, announced that finally, following Congressional hearings into the matter, a special counsel will investigate an armed raid in the town of Chicken, Alaska. The raid was conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency:
The agency sent a heavily armed team eight strong over possible violations of the Clean Water Act, an act the miners said amounted to intimidation. Residents questioned the need for armed agents to participate in what amounted to a water safety check, as well as the public safety threat the action posed.
Things have definitely changed in America. It all seems to go back to that sense of entitlement…the elitist of the EPA think they are entitled to act as law enforcement officers rather than servants to the people. See EPA agency video here.
As Post Scripts has noted before, the EPA isn’t the only federal agency that is now armed and dangerous:
The U.S. Department of Education
The Bureau of Land Management (200 uniformed law enforcement rangers and 70 special agents)
The U.S. Department of the Interior
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service (with an armed uniformed division of 1.000)
The National Park Service (made up of NPS protection park rangers and U.S. Park Police officers that operate independently)
The Environmental Protection Agency (200 special agents)
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (224 special agents)
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
That’s right, NOAA — the folks who forecast the weather, monitor the atmosphere and keep tabs on the oceans and waterways — has its own law enforcement division. It has a budget of $65 million and consists of 191 employees, including 96 special agents and 28 enforcement officers who carry weapons.
I wonder if words like liberty or freedom ever cross the minds of the agents? Are they so wrapped up in playing cop that they have forgotten they are dealing with free citizens? I’m not as concerned with the weapons as I am with the attitudes and weak evidence behind the raids. Gibson Guitar, for instance, had filed his US paperwork (As they always had) and had the approval of the country from which the wood was purchased. A woman in Florida had simply failed to fill out paperwork correctly for some coral she had purchased. These are not violent crimes and don’t warrant the need for armed raids. A simple inquiry would have been sufficient to start.
It will be interesting to see what the special counsel uncovers in his investigation.
Armed incursion for a clean water check??????
Another example of the EPA getting too big for its britches.
Will look forward to the results from the AK Special Prosecutor!
Another story in the news this morning is an update to a story we posted some time ago. It involves a Nevada rancher who’s been battling with the government for twenty years:
The government is taking this man’s cattle. It will cost taxpayers $3,000,000 to impound them. The son has been arrested for taking pictures on a state road that had been blocked off to accommodate the government taking. Bundy was also taken into custody:
No word about a court order or warrant. No information was provided about how the government acquired this land given Bundy’s claim that it’s been in his family for “centuries”.
The Bundy’s troubles stand as a warning to all Americans:
Nevada’s Governor, Brian Sandoval (R.), expressed concerns “First Amendment Areas,” designated locations set up by the BLM where citizens can protest.
I take that to mean that BLM has given Enviro wacko protesters the right to stand on a designated area of the land to harass this family.
Anyone who’s stepped foot in Nevada knows that the amount of land available for the so-called endangered tortoise is more than adequate. The radical enviro’s are insane; they need to be shoved back into their small minded little holes.
With their record of winning against the Feds I’ll put my money on the good people of Nevada to win this property rights attack too.
Part of my family lived in Elko during the “Shovel Brigade Rebellion,” that took place in July 2000.
Shovel Brigade Celebrates Independence Day by Opposing Federal Land Closures:
“The events in Jarbidge Canyon on Independence Day, 2000 were intended to symbolize the resistance of Americans to government efforts to lock them out of their public lands. Although most of the brigadiers were from the western states, especially Idaho, Nevada, and Montana, there were shovelers from all across America and at least one from Canada. I personally worked alongside a commercial fisherman from Rhode Island and a computer technician from Georgia. The states represented included New Jersey, So. Carolina, Florida, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah, California, Wyoming, Washington, Oregon, Colorado and others. Close to 1000 attended the road opening although they did not all assemble in one place at one time. Some worked in the Canyon on Monday, some on Tuesday and some on both days. There were probably 500-600 present for the moving of the Liberty Rock.
On July 4th a message was sent to the USFS. It was very clear but it would have been louder if more had attended. Time will tell if the message was received in good faith.
A message was also sent to Americans who have not heard or responded to the call to resist the restrictions the federal government has placed on our use and access of public and private lands. Citizens in the West have been voicing their opposition to these policies for years. The fact that so many traveled from all over the country to join the brigade is evidence that the message is beginning to be heard. The press coverage of the grassroots uprising in Jarbidge was the most extensive ever for an event of this kind which is usually ignored by the national press.
The Independence Day shoveling was another step in the physical reopening of the Jarbidge Canyon road which used to provide citizens access to the public lands in the area and emergency egress for the residents of Jarbidge and Murphy Hot Springs.
I heard many people say that this day, July 4, 2000 was the best Independence Day celebration of their lives; that they would not have missed it for anything and that they would do it again if necessary. I feel the same. Yet I almost did not go. The FS national campaign to intimidate and discourage shovelers from attending was pretty effective. Who wanted to take the time and money to travel to a remote canyon in Nevada with the very real possibility of being arrested, fined, or imprisoned when the outcome of their effort was uncertain. Wouldn’t it be much better to stay home and be comfortable with friends and family? Nevertheless I and hundreds of other Americans made the sacrifice and were glad that we did.
We are blessed in America because patriots like the Jarbidge veterans did not stay home. What if Patrick Henry had said ” Give me Security and give me Life” and curled up on the couch? What if the Minutemen had hidden in their cellars instead of confronting the Redcoats at Lexington and Concord? The brigadiers repeatedly spoke of the revolution, the constitution and the founding fathers. They were consciously engaged in the struggle to establish and preserve Liberty in America. We were successful on Independence Day. Our voice has been heard. But it is muted because many who would have and could have did not speak out by coming to Jarbidge. The next time you have the opportunity to stand for Freedom, please do not be intimidated. Do not be lulled into complacency thinking your efforts are not needed. Do not allow yourself to be immobilized by media representations of the struggle as futile, unnecessary or foolish. Do not make the mistake of thinking that a little tyranny in some remote corner of this land will not affect your liberties.
The founding fathers knew that the revolution would never end; it would merely enter different phases. There will never be a shortage of oppressors. Their personalities change but their intent is the same. STAND UP, SPEAK OUT, JOIN THE FREEDOM BRIGADE.”
Full story here.
http://www.mtmultipleuse.org/public_access/jarbidge_shovel_brigade.htm
Even this article by Mother Jones is enlightening and even entertaining.
The Shovel Rebellion:
“A century-old dispute over federal lands has erupted in protests and violence in Elko County, Nevada. Why are folks in this isolated Western community taking the law into their own hands?”
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2001/01/shovel-rebellion
Great story Peggy. I’m surprised I was not aware of it. This is the kind of thing Bruce sessions always brought to our attention. Glad to hear those Montanans pitched in…good people.
This part really hit home for me”
Since 2000 the movement has gained a lot of momentum in many cities where the goal is to cram us all into a small area, like rats, so that the surrounding land can be left pristine and, of course, mostly unavailable to all but the elites in the FS and various designated scientists.
We in the West have good reason to be concerned since most of the federally owned or managed land is in the west and so much of it is off limits.
The attitude that citizens are enemies of the state is profoundly offensive but it sure seems to be alive and well in the federal and some state governments. Remember after the greens destroyed the logging industry they found spotted owls all over the place. Rather than working with the loggers, and keeping all of the jobs, our government allowed a radical group to completely destroy the industry. We cannot trust the government to treat ordinary citizens with respect and we cannot trust the information they put out about endangered species. The radical green agenda the people. It’s not right. People are getting wise to the game…and taking stands in various ways…hope it’s not too late.
For three years when I was a young girl my family lived in a lumber mill owned by my uncle in Honeydew, which is west of Ferndale in Humboldt county. When my sons were about the age I was when I lived there we took a family vacation so they could see the place I loved to talk about.
Gone was my uncle’s mill and most of the familiar places were gone or vacant. Chatting with locals at the general store I was warned not to venture down any roads because pot growers had replaced the lumber industry and it wasn’t safe any more.
Bumper stickers sold at the store said, “Hungry, out of work? Eat an environmentalist!
The Upper Mattole river ran between the mill and my old two room school house. While standing on the bank of the river a game warden stopped and informed us we weren’t allowed to be on the bank and we couldn’t go swimming. I used to swim and fish in that river and now we were told we couldn’t even get out of the car. The ranger was very nice and I could tell he didn’t enjoy saying what he did when he realized how shocked I was. He did say they did allow limited and restricted fishing but recommended having an attorney with us.
This country is turning into a museum where we can only look, but not touch anything.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattole_River
Peggy, that’s a sad story, but a familiar one.
Bruce indeed would have brought these stories to everyone’s attention. I still miss him.