County to Send Anti-Federal Message by Horseback!

[elleng]

Source: nyt/ap

ELKO, Nev. — A rural Nevada county will send a message the old-fashioned way to Washington about what it calls federal overreach on public lands: by horseback.

Elko County Commissioner Grant Gerber said riders will begin the 2,800-mile ride at Point Reyes, California, around Sept. 26 and reach the U.S. Capitol about 20 days later.

Multiple riders covering 5 miles each at a time will carry the commissioners' resolution touching on various issues including livestock grazing, water rights and wild horses.

The theme of the Cowboy Express ride is "regulation without representation is tyranny," he said, and commissioners hope its outcome will be an increase in local voices on public land decisions.

"It's extremely serious, but we're trying to make it fun as we go," Gerber told the Elko Daily Free Press (http://bit.ly/Wr5ypi ).

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2014/09/06/us/ap-us-range-showdown-protest.html?&hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=WireFeed&module=pocket-region&region=pocket-region&WT.nav=pocket-region&_r=0

[uppityperson]

1. "regulation without representation". I wonder if they vote.

[elleng]

2. Right, and/or if their votes are counted.

[freshwest]

13. The insane clown posse always gets their votes counted while they seek to deny saner people's votes.

[elleng]

14. Right, like DC,

among others.

[Historic NY]

3. They are going to look like idiots if a fire breaks out...

after BLM shut it down.



He said he organized the ride in response to the federal Bureau of Land Management's decision to temporarily close some areas of the Argenta grazing allotment in Humboldt and Lander counties because of severe drought.

Bureau officials have said federal regulations require them to take such actions if grazing poses likely damage to rangelands during a drought.

[freshwest]

12. Yup, saving the environment is oppression of the grifting profiteers!

This is just PR for their push to give the land to corporations and the super wealthy. Then no one but them will have any say so, not native americans, not anyone.

They can get rich now, mine it, frack it, grind it up and turn it all into a wasteland. Because that is the Libertarian verison of 'freedom.' For them, not for anyone else.

Horrible 'regulators' are the ones denying them stealing the last of the Commons and ruining the ecosytem for future generations.

Oh, yeah, I see this coming, don't know how anyone can't take a look at the meaning behind this hyped up march for 'Liberty.'

[alarimer]

4. Those public lands belong to EVERYONE, not just you, you dumb jerk.

And they should not be managed as the exclusive property of idiots. You want to graze your cattle, fine. But the government needs to charge market rates, not the pennies they usually do. And it should really depend on what the habitat can take. If there are rare species or whatever in that, you're out of luck, Bubba. Damage your own property all you want, but this land is a public trust.

Conservatives love drinking at the public trough, but claim they are "sovereign" or self-made. What a crock.

And another thing, how much do you want to bet that if there is a fire, they will be the first ones calling for the forest service to bring in their smoke jumpers?

[enough]

8. Great point. They do seem to think that "public" means their own PERSONAL right to

use it any way they want, no restrictions, no responsibilities.

[Hoppy]

23. The gub'mint needs to charge market rates for oil and mines, not just grazing.

[DRoseDARs]

5. This, after we *just* got the Tesla Gigafactory.

Of course, this is from one of the bumblefuck parts of the state, but still...

[Nay]

6. Um, these are FEDERAL lands, you assholes, which means they belong

to us all, not just the the jerks who want to overuse them for their own purposes (grazing, water, etc.). Maybe the rest of us just don't think you have total right to it to the exclusion of, oh, about 300 million other Americans, and we have elected representatives to represent OUR opinion on how the lands should be used (or not used). Imagine that. You aren't the only Americans whose opinions are being taken into account!

[JI7]

7. HAHAHHAHAHAHAH

[classof56]

9. So...do you think they'll use any federally funded and maintained roadways or services on the way?

Just wonderin'...

[meow2u3]

10. The teabaggers' idea of tyranny

is when someone else other than themselves is in charge. Whether or not they're actually ruling with an iron fist is irrelevant.

They also think tyranny is when they're told that they have to share and that can't have all the power and property to themselves.

[broadcaster75201]

11. The TeaBags remind me of the "Reagan Smash" scene from Family Guy n/t

nt

[LiberalFighter]

15. Of course they don't bother reading the Northwest Ordinance that created their state.

[EEO]

16. These people are such takers.

[tomm2thumbs]

17. 'antique messenger... antique message'

so appropriate -- I'm surprised actually that they didn't choose smoke signals wearing caveman garb

[baldguy]

18. Sort of like that evil, socialist, govt-funded program called the Pony Express?

[Brother Buzz]

20. The Pony Express was a governmentt funded program?

[elleng]

21. No, Pony Express was NOT government funded.

The Pony Express was a mail service delivering messages, newspapers, mail, and small packages from St. Joseph, Missouri, across the Great Plains, over the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada to Sacramento, California, by horseback, using a series of relay stations. During its 18 months of operation, it reduced the time for messages to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to about 10 days.[1] From April 3, 1860, to October 1861, it became the West's most direct means of east–west communication before the telegraph was established and was vital for tying the new state of California with the rest of the country.

The Pony Express was a mail-delivery system of the Leavenworth and Pike's Peak Express Company of 1859, which in 1860 became the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company. This firm was founded by William H. Russell, Alexander Majors, and William B. Waddell all of whom were notable in the freighting business.[2] . . .

During its brief time in operation, the Pony Express delivered approximately 35,000 letters between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California.[60] Although the Pony Express proved that the central/northern mail route was viable, Russell, Majors and Waddell did not get the contract to deliver mail over the route. The contract was instead awarded to Jeremy Dehut in March 1861, who had taken over the southern Congressionally favored Butterfield Overland Mail Stage Line. The so-called 'Stagecoach King', Ben Holladay, acquired the Russell, Majors and Waddell stations for his stagecoaches.

Shortly after the contract was awarded, the start of the American Civil War caused the stage line to cease operation. From March 1861, the Pony Express ran mail only between Salt Lake City and Sacramento. The Pony Express announced its closure on October 26, 1861, two days after the transcontinental telegraph reached Salt Lake City and connected Omaha, Nebraska and Sacramento, California. Other telegraph lines connected points along the line and other cities on the east and west coasts.[61]

The Pony Express grossed $90,000 and lost $200,000.[62]

In 1866, after the American Civil War was over, Holladay sold the Pony Express assets along with the remnants of the Butterfield Stage to Wells Fargo for $1.5 million.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pony_Express

[Brother Buzz]

25. Actually, it looks like they did get some government funding, albeit illegally obtained

Financial Problems

Financially, the venture did not pay off. Congress never got around to paying Russell, Majors & Waddell for services rendered during the Utah War. The firm had been surviving on loans made against its government debts since 1858, but the company was essentially bankrupt even when it launched the Central Overland California & Pike's Peak Express Company. (The C.O.C.&P.P. was also known to its employees as "Clean Out Of Cash and Poor Pay&quot . Russell counted on winning the overland mail contract, but Congress adjourned in June 1860 without taking any action. In desperation, Russell secured new loans using government Indian Trust Funds he did not own. The story became public in December 1860 and Russell was arrested. He eventually beat the charges, but the scandal spelled the end of the trail for Russell, Majors & Waddell.

http://officialponyexpress.org/pony-express-history.html

[secondvariety]

19. I hope

they stay of the Interstate I helped pay for. Bunch of freeloaders.

[Hoppy]

24. Duplicate post.

[Plucketeer]

26. Their delivery method

is as backwards as they are.

[HoosierCowboy]

27. Bundy Lite

They have it in their head that the land their cattle graze on actually belongs to them. They forgot all the conditions they agreed to when they rented BLM land.

Climate change is denuding the land that their cattle graze on, and they are spending big money on feed to make up for it. They're going broke and they blame the BLM for not allowing them to put massive numbers of stock on land that probably shouldn't even be grazed at all.
One realist but it this way, "Thirty years ago it was a living, now it's a hobby"

Still you can't help but feel sorry for the old cowboys at the end of the trail...

[Earth_First]

28. Where do these dolts find all the TIME to stage these events?!

You know, with all the "GET A JOB, DEADBEAT!" rhetoric...

[Paladin]

29. Right-wing yokel stunt, nothing more.

"And the horse you rode in on," Teabaggers......

[Orsino]

30. You think that's retro?

They sent their antifederalist message to the US Senate via John Ensign and Dean Heller.

[LynnTTT]

31. Why not leave from Elko?

Why are they leaving from Pt Reyes? I've been to Elko. Most of those folks leave Elko once a year, to buy Christmas presents down in Salt Lake City or Reno. I doubt too many ranchers in the area go very often to Pt. Reyes, which is beautiful, but down in that nasty socialist California. Maybe they think the feds should allow drilling down in that beautiful FEDERAL seashore park.

[Jackpine Radical]

32. Good for them.

They wanna live in the 19th century, let 'em have their horses.