Press Release from the Cloud Foundation
Artist Laura Leigh with the captured Calico Horses - Photo by Elyse Gardner
Reno, NV (June 21, 2010)—Cindy MacDonald, research expert and American Herds blogger has filed a request for investigation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) this afternoon to prevent the transport, adoption, and/or sale of non-excess Calico wild horses currently being held in BLM processing facilities. MacDonald is requesting an investigation into the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for attempting to dispose of the Calico wild horses prior to confirming that the recent removal operations left approximately 600-900 wild horses on the range as required by law.
From December 28, 2009 to February 7, 2010, BLM reported they removed 1922 wild horses from the Calico Complex in NW Nevada during the fatal winter roundup.
MacDonald contends that, “the BLM may have removed far too many Calico horses in a massive roundup last winter and failed to return, by BLM definition, ‘non-excess’ horses.” The BLM is required to leave at least 572 wild horses on the Calico range, the low level of their arbitrarily set “appropriate management level” (AML). Only horses above that level can be considered excess. Returning the horses would save at least $3 million dollars over the next ten years alone.
Early this month, wildlife ecologist Craig Downer carried out a flyover of the Calico Complex in a fixed-wing aircraft. Downer was able to find only 31 wild horses but noted 350 privately-owned cattle grazing on the Herd Management Areas (HMAs). Downer noted that “there was a reasonable spring green-up of the landscape and the open treeless character of the terrain permitted a high degree of horse detection”. An additional ground survey by Robert Bauer resulted in finding only 9 mustangs in Nevada’s Calico Complex region.
“Two recent independent observers report the Calico herds are gone,” states MacDonald, adding “there’s a vast difference between less than 50 and 600-900 wild horses. The public needs to be sure the BLM followed the law before those horses are shipped out.”
MacDonald points out that BLM is plagued with failures to properly count free-roaming wild horses and burros even though the agency attempts to develop new protocol to remedy these errors.
“While the BLM’s numbers rarely add up, the Calico fiasco is an extreme example of this from start to finish,” states MacDonald.
Responding to public comments during last Monday’s BLM Denver workshop, the BLM announced Friday they will partner with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for an aerial census of NW Nevada and SE Oregon. The BLM refuses to bring along The Cloud Foundation’s ‘Herd-Watch’ project director, Laura Leigh, on their census flights—continuing to demonstrate their closed-door protocol. The Foundation supports transparency and wants advocates involved in counting horses.
The BLM’s policy for massive removals through roundups, followed with stockpiling mustangs in government-contracted holding pens and mid-east pastures is not sustainable and is costing American taxpayers some $40 million per year.
“In this day and age of government budget crises, to waste the lives of these mustangs at a cost of millions of dollars to the American taxpayers is unconscionable,” statesGinger Kathrens, Director of The Cloud Foundation and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker. “We call on BLM to show an act of good faith. We ask they put an immediate moratorium on all roundups is until we can partner together to sort this all out.”
Related articles by Zemanta
- BLM, USFWS counting wild horses in NV, OR (thecloudfoundation.wordpress.com)
- Fallon Updates (thecloudfoundation.wordpress.com)
Categories: Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Good Luck cindy, I hope this works, this was devestating news when I read it yesterday, all the older stallions —gelded; BLM business as usual.
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Waiting with baited breath to see how the BLM gets out of this one!
$40 million a year for this??
Marge
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http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/index.php/news-events-a-media/news/resources/216-whbact
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Have they been following this Public Hearing mandate???
“Sec. 9. In administering this Act, the Secretary may use or contract for the use of helicopters or, for the purpose of transporting captured animals, motor vehicles. Such use shall be undertaken only after a public hearing and under the direct supervision of the Secretary or of a duly authorized official or employee of the Department. The provisions of subsection (a) of the Act of September 8, 1959 (73 Stat. 470; 18 U.S.C. 47(a)) shall not be applicable to such use. Such use shall be in accordance with humane procedures prescribed by the Secretary.”
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Shirly, Good question that I wonder about too. This is my take – I have been involved for years in city, state and national public hearings and advisory boards, Council and Legislative sessions. What BLM does at the advisory board is not like any I have EVER witnessed (I have not seen this last one yet). You cannot call 3 minute snipits from the public with no exhange part of a public hearing – that is more like a city council hearing on a final vote just to get ones position on record, after its been there a few times before under debate, AFTER the workshops and advisory boards, etc.
Now I do not know if there is another forum of “public hearings” that BLM is part of?
It may be that they feel they have accomplished this mission if all they do is read section 8? Nothing would surprise me. You can find their Charter on the web somewhere too (sorry can’t give a link, but was easy to find) – it clearly indicates to me that they are NOT fullfilling their Charter at these Advisory Board meetings. Maybe others here will enlighten us some more.
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Thank you Cindy MacDonald!! Great news and ammo! This feels so good, knowing you have made this move! Brilliant! God bless you!
Thanks RT, Laura, Ginger, everyone connected on the front lines, and those also, holding up the rears! This news certainly helped dry my recent tears…..
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Cindy certainly is the person to “go get” the BLM on their numbers game! The Calico borders should be staked out and flown to make sure outside horses don’t get “driven” in.
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The BLM is holding all the cards.
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The photo, above, is really nice.
As for the BLM, they are holding all the cards.
There is need for checks and balances. Independent census.
We need to keep headin’ this “dogie” to Washington, D.C.
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Yes, we have to do the major work in DC, Courts and with the President, if that is ever to be possible. But we need to keep up work in the field and get our own numbers together and get to the herds and see them before they get hit by BLM. In Memory of the freedom lost and for the future of our wild herds, make your commitment bigger and stronger now, put all your heart into this as we are now about to get shoved out of the way entirely by BLM at gather sites.
We need transparency and cooperation. Otherwise we must stop BLM/DOI and take the wild ones from the US Government. mar
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That was my first thought as well..we need to have people in that area monitoring the calico range for suspicious activity..the southern border where there is a large herd to be gathered and the northern border of the “mega Plex”…brands need to be checked on any and all horses counted on the Calico.
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I don’t think anyone in the WORLD knows more about this subject than Cindy. She is amazing!
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That is a beautiful picture.
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The BLM is proceeding according to their own warped “philosophy”. Whatever “scientific” evidence they find will be manipulated to suit their purposes. I wish Cindi success in the suit, but I’ve lost all faith in the U.S. government. They’re operating in ways I never could have imagined. Once more – BLM = Fascism.
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Here’s another nice picture, same fillies I think.
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Beautiful photo! How did you tame the wild fillies? Are they just naturally curious?
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Yes, they are very sweet and if you have the patience they will come to check you out. They are very forgiving yet sensitive. Our wild horses are amazing creatures. mar
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My first foaling season, I was amazed at the babies’ first reaction to a human – it was immediate distrust, probably ‘racial memory’ from 25,000 years ago when humans hunted Horses.
But, within a few hours, nearly every foal I helped deliver thought that people were just the coolest, in that beautifully exuberant way Little People have of looking at the world.
Which makes all the Bullsh*t Equines are subjected to that much worse. Even a Wild One will offer a truce to a human, if only for a moment.
We are bound to them, for those who will make the effort.
One of my foals & her mom were sent back home shortly after she was born; fifteen years later, my foal made it back here. I visited her because I needed to see how she had turned out all grown up.
When I saw her as I was walking to her paddock, we made eye contact & I called her name.
She called back to me.
SHE CALLED BACK TO ME.
I was one of the first humans she saw. I tended to her & her ma for about a week. It never occurred to me that she’d remember me; she was just an infant when she left.
If that isn’t a bond, I don’t know what is.
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WOW! Powerful action. I’m not optimistic, but…any port in a storm. I have little faith that any Federal Agency is going to rein in another agency.
The issue that keeps baffling me is that the BLM is the land based equivalent of sister agency, the MMS and also has a documented history of malfesience and incompetence/corruption. Why doesn’t the press jump on these creeps. For that matter, why isn’t the press jumping on DOI in general? Slaughterczar had 18 months to clean up his organization and DID NOTHING BUT ROTATE EXTRACTION INDUSTRY TROLLS BACK INTO THE DOI!!!!!!!
Mr. President. If you want to show Americans that you are doing something about the oil blowout in the Gulf, you can start with your own house. FIRE SALAZAR, ABBEY, BACCA…clean house from top to bottom and get an environmentally friendly secretary.
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Denise, read this article about William K. Black
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04032009/profile.html
Follow up with Wikipedia search of Consumer Reinvestment Act of 1977 – the whole history to date of revisions.
And Look up Michael Bromwich and his most recent employer on Wikipedia. You will find his specialty is anti corruption, “moral” government and his reputation is as a “house cleaner”. Follow that up with a scan to the bottom of the MMS history also on Wikipedia.
Same for recent appointee to the bank mess (can’t remember his name right now) another no none sense, anti corruption “house cleaner”.
Just occured to me, we must CHALLENGE the entry on Wikipedia about Bureau of Land Management, the whole history including their contractors and Public Lands grazing COSTS!!!! As it stands now its just a puff peice from BLM and does not even address grazing facts and costs.
And we should have an entry of just the 1971 FRWH&B legislation history – no more of this BLM answer – “that history is not available” BS. It is NOT even listed on the entry for Velma Bronn Johnson aka Wild Horse Annie – they call it “Wild Horse Annie act” with no link. There is a footnote, but not to any actual documents. How do legislative documents go missing?
However, does include this: “Nevada passed a bill that made mustang roundups by planes and cars illegal on private property…” So how have they justified their activity on private property? A legislative revision?
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“We now know what happens when you destroy regulation. You get the biggest financial calamity of anybody under the age of 80.” William k. Black mar
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Depends on which press. TV media and most main stream newspapers are owned by the coroporations we are fighting against. MSNBC reported on the Nazi marches in Phoenix amist the Immigration protesters. NEVER made local news that I could find, so unless you were downtown and outside when they marched, no one here know about it.
Yes, we need to get the word out about BLM. I’ve join the blogs on Huffington Post for a start, will tread into rougher deeper waters soon. I find I can get a “teaser” amount of information on at least one blog almost everyday.
I see further down something on Rolling Stone. Little known – Playboy broke the Pentagon Papers story.
Its all out there under the surface like a nasty rash. “Scratch,. scratch, scratch!”
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Wild Horses = Threat to energy development and independence = Threat to national security. Wrap ANYTHING in “threat to national security” and the vast majority of paranoid U.S. citizens will buy it.
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I am 100% with you on that: wrap anything in “threat to national security” and it’s toast. Mass hysteria sells pork.
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Ain’t it the truth?! mar
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Wrap anything in gas prices may go up and the american people will agree to plunder gulfs and pillage lands. We wouldn’t want to have to change our lifestyles. Why should we? We’re Americans, we’re special. (sorry, very cynical tonite after hearing the Judge who owned stock in TransOcean has overruled the President’s 6 month moratorium on deep water drilling as oil still gushes by the millions of gallons into our Gulf).
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I’d say your cynism perfectly matches the situation.
My Plyannia has left the stage, I thought temporarily, but she seems to be out partying somewhere without me!
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p.s. …….GO GET ‘EM CINDY!!!!!!!!!
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I have found a superb article at Rolling Stone that appears to be going in the “jump on DOI” direction that I so desperately want to see:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/111965
There is some very good information that I haven’t seen one media outlet cover to this point.
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Just heard on the radio the courts shot down Obama’s 6 month moratorium on oil drilling in the gulf — they said it targeted wells that had completed all their safety paperwork, etc., (I guess they felt the moratorium request wasn’t selective enough maybe).
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Yes, I am reading about that now, if this doesn’t show the direction the country is going in, what does? even if Obama DI declare a moratorium on roundups, some judge somewhere might overrule him on that 1 too.
The reason there’s so much press on the Gulf is that it’s affecting a lot of people, the wildlife is secondary,
wild horses, very minor issue except to those who care about them.
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sorry, should read: DID declare
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If foreign troops were invading the gulf and destroying the fishing vessels, tour vessels, restaurants and wildlife, Obama could call a
STATE OF EMERGENCY
COULD HE NOT? Would that be up to the opining of some federal judge who is appointed for life?
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Warning: Wikipedia Watch:
United States
Further information: Insurrection Act and National Emergencies Act
In the United States, there are several methods for government response to emergency situations. A state governor or local mayor may declare a state of emergency within his or her jurisdiction. This is common at the state level in response to natural disasters.
The president of the United States, as head of the executive branch, has the authority to declare a federal state of emergency. The only emergency provisions in the U.S. Constitution are:[20] “The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.”[21] and an exemption from the privilege of a grand jury hearing for cases arising in the military when in service in a time of “public danger”.
Habeas corpus was suspended on April 27, 1861 during the American Civil War by Abraham Lincoln in parts of Maryland and some midwestern states, including southern Indiana. He did so in response to demands by generals to set up military courts to rein in “copperheads”, those in the Union who supported the Confederate cause. Lambdin P. Milligan and four others were accused of planning to steal Union weapons and invade Union prisoner-of-war camps, and were sentenced to hang by a military court in 1864. However, their execution was not set until May 1865, so they were able to argue the case after the Civil War. It was decided in the Supreme Court case Ex Parte Milligan 71 US 2 1866 that the suspension was unconstitutional because civilian courts were still operating, and the Constitution only provided for suspension of habeas corpus if these courts are actually forced closed.
On December 16, 1950, during the Korean War, President Truman issued Presidential Proclamation No. 2914,[22] declaring a state of national emergency[23]. The Supreme Court ruling in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer established in 1952 during this emergency that presidents may not act contrary to Acts of Congress during an emergency.
During the Watergate scandal which erupted in the 1970s after president Richard Nixon allowed illegal actions, Congress investigated the extent of the President’s powers and belatedly realized that the U.S. had been in a continuous state of emergency since 1950. As a result, in 1976 the National Emergencies Act set a limit of two years on emergency declarations unless the president explicitly extends them, and requiring the president to specify in advance which legal provisions will be invoked. The Act terminated the emergency of 1950 on September 14, 1978[24]; however, even in the 21st century, the federal courts have upheld harsh penalties (including deportation) for crimes that occurred during the state of national emergency from 1950 to 1978, where the penalties were escalated because of the existence of that emergency.[22]
The 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act allows freezing of assets, limiting of trade, and confiscation of property during a declared emergency.
A federal emergency declaration allows the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to exercise its power to deal with emergency situations; federal assistance also becomes available to areas that are declared to be in a state of emergency. For FEMA, emergency declarations are different from the more common disaster declarations done for hurricanes and floods. Typically, a state of emergency empowers the executive to name coordinating officials to deal with the emergency and to override normal administrative processes regarding the passage of administrative rules.
The United States is formally in an ongoing limited state of emergency declared by several Presidents for several reasons. A state of emergency began on January 24, 1995 with the signing of Executive Order 12947 by President Bill Clinton. In accordance with the National Emergencies Act, the executive order’s actual effect was not a declaration of a general emergency, but a limited embargo on trade with “Terrorists Who Threaten To Disrupt the Middle East Peace Process”.[25] This “national emergency” was expanded in 1998 to include additional targets such as Osama bin Laden,[26] and has been continued to at least 2008 by order of President George W. Bush.[27] There are a number of other ongoing national emergencies of this type, referenced at [1] and [2], regarding for instance diamond trade with Sierra Leone. Especially noteworthy are the ongoing states of emergency declared on November 14, 1979 regarding the Iran Hostage Crisis.[28], that declared on March 15, 1995 with respect to Iran,[29] and that declared on September 14, 2001 through Bush’s Proclamation 7463, regarding the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.[30]
President Barack Obama extended George Bush’s Declaration of Emergency regarding terrorism on September 10, 2009 [31] and later declared a National Emergency on October 24, 2009 for the 2009 Swine Flu pandemic, aiming to increase abilities for hospitals and medical centers to handle “swine flu” cases, responding to CDC reports stating that swine flu has become widespread in 46 of 50 U.S. states.
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What is the actuall benefit from Federal State of Emergency?
Excellent Wiki watch. I’m not familliar with fedral “limitations” when it comes to State of Emergencies. But, somehow, through all of this I thought that had already occured?
Benefits – Financial aid of course. Military support, but without arms (Katrina and political conventions – which they did at the RNC – opps). The military cannot act with arms within our borders (so that a military coup cannot occur – a rule that Bush did attempt to circumvent in 2005 – 2007 to expand Blackwater and give them federal military status within our borders, incuded private fire fighting brigades – Congress shot that down), that is what the States individual National Guards are for (learning all this with AZ border mess going on).
I think if foreign troops were invading he would go to Congress and quickly get a State of War declared, as would each State being invaded. Another scary thing somewhere in the last few years – The Commander and Chief may, under the Patriot Act, take local police and fire command.
Something else discussed in AZ – as long as Mexico is waring against the drug cartels we cannot send armed military other than the National Guard – Mexico is therefore set up as a “non invading” country. I further am not clear what presence or function a federal military would be limited to under those conditions other than “unarmed”. And make no mistake these cartels are on our soil in true military formation with all the best military armaments and technologies (and we are worried about the folks working in factories, landscaping and fast food, for example? Distraction!).
I got all this from local news and from working in the fire dpeartment (hope I am not sharing any vital secrets – kidding! I was not in a position to have that kind of knowledge in the first place, or we may all need to be shot now).
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The Deepwater Horizon oil rig is registered in the Marshall Islands and subject to their codes adn inspections, which I understand are cursory at best. This is just like the dangerous tankers, cargo carriers, etc. we allow into our waters and ports.
The Coast Guard is tasked with conducting inspections to verfiy the vessels meet U.S. standards, but, again, these inspections are often cursory. They pretty much accept the paperwork submitted by the agent of the country of registration.
I think Congress is holding a hearing on this whole registration issue Thursday. Here’s an article from the Chicago Trib:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/la-na-oil-inspection-20100615,0,51847.story
P.S. – If you read the article, pay special attention to the role of the captain. Oil rigs are considered “ocean-going vessels” under maritime law. Any vessel can have only one captain, otherwise there’s chaos. Crew members don’t get to vote to overrule a captain’s orders. That’s called mutiny.
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Linda, I had read a couple of similar articles already – I skimmed this one. I beleive all the Marshalls and Coast Guard are inspecting for is “sea worthyness”, NOT oil drilling apparatus or operations of oil drilling? There is some little cross over to any hazards that could sink a ship or cause it to be unseaworthy, but those are the ones that supposedly seem ignored. A recent documentary on National Geographic about the people who go after beached or sinking vessels (talk about exciting and dangerous work!) talked about that as an environmental “insurance” consideration only. Anyone know more?
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Roxy, I thinke you’re right on the “seaworthiness” inspections (this thing must have met some kind of standards, since it was built in SOUTH KOREA and had to get to the Gulf somehow). The good ol’ MMS had juristiction below the waterline, so that explains the “cooperative effort” between the captain and the drilling rep. I’m originally from New England, and I don’t think any of the captains I’ve met would put up with this arrangement. But, as we all know, people will do distasteful and dispicable things for money.
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OMG, is that true? If the President cannot declare a lousy 6 month moratorium after the worst environmental disaster in our history, which may end all life in the Gulf, we are really in trouble. There is no reason the court should have ruled this way. The moratorium is reasonable. Wow. I am just dumbfounded just how _______ ed we are.
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There is hope in that —
a) Private enterprise is “pushing back.”
b) If the MMS had done its proper job, it would have realized there were insufficient safety methods in place.
c) so,
d) The chickens have come home to roost where they should: MMS
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quote from page 2 of that Rolling Stone article:
“The oil companies were running MMS during those years,” Bobby Maxwell, a former top auditor with the agency, told Rolling Stone last year. “Whatever they wanted, they got. Nothing was being enforced across the board at MMS.”
What the wild horses need desperately is their very own “Bobby Maxwell”, an inside connection willing to spill the beans on all the corruption in the BLM. To all reading, we need to look in every nook and cranny for him…..he is out there, we just need to find him. Should anyone find him or have a notion they might have found him, be sure to let Rolling Stone’s writer know. We can and should envision a series of high profile expose’ articles focused on all the ugly sides of the DOI following this one. Hold that thought….
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This would be my cautionary statement to BLM/DOI employees IF I had their backs -the only way off this sinking ship is to separate yourself and come forward – the aftermath of whistle blowing, or even taking a separate fork in the road, which are admittedly uncomfortable, are much less than being connected to this lot and might just land you a position in some newly formed bunch.
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Cindy, if there is ANYTHING we can do, please let us know..We are behind you 100%..Do we need to start calling the white house again and get online petitions going asking for this investigation?..I have been asking for the US attorney general for an investigation and a special prosecuter to be appointed and take apart this whold system of corruption and manipulation in the DOI and BLM..President Obama needs to get out of the “middle of the road” —the only thing there is- roadkill.
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Looks to me like this is a case of transporting across state lines ..of stolen horses..those horses “not being excess” as claimed by BLM..but are in fact the bulk of the calico horses, belonging to the Citizens of the US and held in trust (distrust) by the BLM..I think we need an injuction to go along with this request-FBI investigation won’t get there fast enough..anyone listening???
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If you have read BLMs obituary page..calico horses have already been transported out of state for adoptions..where in the hell is that DC firm of lawyers on this..this is a follow up injuction on their calico lawsuit…get going boys..craig and terry, the cloud foundation..give them a call
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Need a better lawyer.
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BLM=Bureau of Lies and Mismanagement
GGgGrrrrrr.
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Great news Cindy!! And we need a Congressional Hearing ! how the Dept. of the Interior is “managing the last of our free roaming wild horses out of existence”!!! Along with millions of $$$$$$ from the Gov’t budget. The BLM conspiracy need to get exposed; they are partnering with big developers, selling water rights to private entities on our public lands. Breaking the Law that put them in charge of PROTECTING THE WILD HORSES, IN THEIR NATURAL HABITAT, AND MANAGE THE LAND; MEANING RANGE IMPROVEMENTS, SO IT WOULD SERVE THE PRINCIPAL USERS, THE WILD HORSES!!!
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Thanks so much for this effort, Cindy MacDonald. You have my support.
We need to support Cindy in every way she needs. Yes, Why is there no appeal for Calico Horses injunction?? We must get more law working on this issue. From every direction possible.
We need to raise money and more awareness. Our wild herds are disappearing and all we hear are the hollow lies and made up numbers from BLM. mar
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Cindy McDonald – what can I say – WOW eeee!
I have “crazy” dreams of headlines, “FBI ceases BLM, 100 Federal Indictments, so far”
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If the readers here could go to that link at Rolling Stone I posted (and it’s allot to read) and see the repeated notation as to the lack of science, poor inspection, removing or ignoring scientific groups and individuals that repeatedly warned of the worst case scenario (like what we have now), not following DOI rules and regulations and flagrantly ignoring law, you’d think Tim Dickinson (journalist that wrote the article) was talking about BLM…I kid you not.
Read everything he exposes about Salazar….I love it!
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Thank you Cindy MacDonald!!!
It’s going to take the FBI to find out everything the BLM has hidden away!!
Maybe the FBI can find out where all those thousands of mustangs the BLM contractor was paid for and today are MISSING from BLM records. Be sure to inform the FBI that the contractor is paid by the horse, so we have a way to do a counting.
Something happened to those thousands of missing mustangs. Maybe the FBI can can check into the borders and find a drug/cash or gun running homeland security threat mixed in with trailers of slaughterbound mustangs- sold off by a federal employee (s)
Thank God, because they can get into their personal bank accounts and follow a money trail like bloodhounds 🙂
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I like the way you think!
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I’m reposting the Rolling Stones link here that Denise provided earlier (and substantiates R.T.s previous Article on this subject:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/111965
It is a LONG one – like reading a spy novel! Easy read, even if long. But, A MUST READ. I’m only 1/2 way through, The reason it is a must read? There is important connection to much of what we know on record about BLM. Please read the whole thing.
Just to tickle your whistle to read the whole thing I copied these escerpts:
“As a senator, Salazar not only steered passage of the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act, which opened 8 million acres in the Gulf to drilling, he even criticized President Bush for not forcing oil companies to develop existing leases faster…Salazar was far less aggressive, however, when it came to making good on his promise to fix MMS. Though he criticized the actions of “a few rotten apples” at the agency, he left long-serving lackeys of the oil industry in charge…One of the Bush-era managers whom Salazar left in place was John Goll, the agency’s director for Alaska. Shortly after, the Interior secretary announced a reorganization of MMS in the wake of the Gulf disaster, Goll called a staff meeting and served cake decorated with the words “Drill, baby, drill.”… (a) tripwire was conveniently omitted in Gulf leases overseen by Oynes – a mistake that will let the oil giants pocket as much as $53 billion. Instead of being fired for this_____, however, Oynes was promoted by Bush to become associate director for offshore drilling – a position he kept under Salazar until the Gulf disaster hit…In reality, MMS had little way to assess the risk to wildlife, since a new policy instituted under Bush scrapped environmental analysis and fast-tracked permits. Declaring that oil companies themselves were “in the best position to determine the environmental effects” of drilling, the new rules pre-qualified deep-sea drillers to receive a “categorical exclusion”– an exemption from environmental review that was originally intended to prevent minor projects, like outhouses on hiking trails, from being tied up in red tape (what R.T. wrote about recently)…”
I hope Matt Damon and/or Russell Crow get lead roles in the upcoming movie! Oliver Stone will no doubt produce and direct. New “Wall Street’ movie by Stone coming out with – yes – Michael Douglas.
Could anyone read this and not wonder about the whole agency of DOI?
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Posted this Rolling Stone on Facebook. We should post this all over the net. After all Rolling Stone help change the Generals!
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I wonnder – should we hit Rolling Stone and this particulaor journalist hard with pleas to do a similar article about BLM and FRWH$B?
I think they would have to see that the MMS is just the ozz on top of the rot- they have not idea how far that rot goes! What a story!
It would have more presence if it came direclty from R.T., Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, Ginger Kathrens, etc, with all of us in the background.
I’ll write to Makendra about this if you will post on Cloud blogs, Mustang Project, etc all of them (I’m trying to stay with R.T. can’t keep up with so many bloggings or I don’t have toime to hit the news blogs.)
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I hate to say it – just finished this article – but I have to agree with a blogger somewhere – we are in the 3rd Bush Cheney term.
Dear President Obama, what are you doing? You were our only hope – you are letting us down! Bigger question – what are you going to do from this day forward? Just saying the buck stops with you (which, thank you for that) and accepting responsibility (again, thank you for that) is not enough. Action!
OK, so you did run for President on oil expansion, but not to the same tune as Palin/McCain, but now seem to have expanded your own limitations. Are you depending too much on Salazar, still disbelieving (I think we are all in shock too) the unimaginable scope of the previous administrations messing with scientific reports, and still beleiving those doctored reports, etc?
I do not want to think this is intentional on your part – but you have to prove that. I may forgive lapses in judgement and mistakes, but this? I do not want to think you are less intelligent than you appear – but, right now, you need to prove that also.
This is from the Rolling Stone article; the whole mess is from Cheney Bush overturning Bushes own fathers previous regulations:
“…President Bush had lifted an executive moratorium on offshore drilling outside the Gulf that had been implemented by his father following the Exxon Valdez…”
And, most disappointing is allowing your administration, maybe not you directly, to stoop to Cheney Bush tactics of painting dissenting scientists as quacks in the beginning of this – which, they have turned out to be right on target all along.
So, a Federal Judge has blocked your moratorium on Gulf drilling, ever heard of appeals? Which I don’t understand this judgement, you Obama created the expansion, why can’t you reduce or delete it? Also, like with health care, you are bending,in this case to the “Drill, Baby, Drill” attitude – Don’t let the likes of Sen Lamar Alexander run the show:
“…Four weeks into the BP disaster, when Salazar was questioned in a Senate hearing about the future of the president’s plan, he was happy to stand up for the industry’s desire to drill at any cost. “Isn’t it true,” asked Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Republican from Tennessee, “that as terrible as the tragedy is, that unless we want $14, $16, $18, $20-a-gallon gasoline, that it’s not realistic to think that we would actually stop drilling for oil in the Gulf?” Unbowed by the catastrophe that was still unfolding on his watch, Salazar heartily agreed, testifying that the president had directed him to “move forward” on offshore drilling…”
When in reality all this oil goes into the international pool along with everyone else’s oil, creating NO energy independence or at the pump saving what so ever – NO BENEFIT TO THE PEOPLE! Even the royalties only go to maintain the bureaucracy of DOI, a totally failed and corrupt agency to its very toes – see the Wild Horse and Burro program, duplicate land sales, and cattle grazing schemes if you have any doubts.
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FYI, RT has just sent out a new post, BLM is being issued another lawsuit to stop the Twin Peaks roundup, they think this is all(and we all are) going away, little do they know; between this and what Cindy is doing, there is hope.
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Hit ’em again harder! Would love about a half dozen strong suits all at once… : )
Catoors even get paid for the heads of foals in roundups, disgusting! They took everything that moved! Feeling that Craig is probably right on the count, or very near to it. They think we will never know, and just swallow what info they feed the pubic.
Cindy, thanks again so much!! We all support you. IDA, round two, hit ’em harder!
Put our Calico horses back, at least the truthful AML of viable herds! We have to change the course of BLM, NOW!!!
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Cindy, count me in–I want to help, too.
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Cat, Hello! You have taken some absolutely fantastic footage. I remember when you first started–standing out in the snow, all by yourself, holding a protest sign. You are a TROOPER. All of you who have been out there at the holding pens prison camp have our gratitude. THANK YOU to all of you!
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Cindy; You GO GIRL!!! Good for you, and I’m glad the FBI intends on looking into it. I’m sure their going to find all kinds of dirt what they do with it is another story, but thank you and Craig for doing the footwork!
On the local news today, they said Salazar said ‘bring it on’. I hope they hang um high!
On the subject of Salazar, how come he hasn’t been thrown out of office with regards to the BP oil spill? He is responsible and should be accountable for BP filling out their own inspection forms. What about accountablility Obama? Heads should be rolling over this oil spill and Salazar should be the first one.
My take on it…
1. Fire Salazar and everyone else high up in the DOI and MM that is guilty of wrong doing and taking bribes or as they call it in D.C. ‘gifts’
2. Take this lease back from BP.
3. Send in the coast guard and take any offers from other countries with better technology than we have to clean up this mess and cap that sucker off once and for all. Sure they say their there, but their efforts have been greatly hampered by political garbage. Let um do their job!
4. Bring criminal charges against each and everyone one of those including Salazar who was bought off one way or another by BP and any other oil/gas interests.
If it were one of us, we’d be sitting in jail right now!
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Don’t forget to add..removing that federal judge who overturned the moritorium, come to find out he has extensive ties to deepwater drilling companies and should have removed himself for conflict of interest..remember most of these appointees on the federal courts are bush era judges..
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Yes, can he be recused after the fact or is there some other route? Who do we write to?
If a President appoints these crackers, can’t a President replace them? That would be a good first step for Obama to do some damage control.
Also, for this one particular judgement can’t Obama appeal like anyone else?
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The government announced immediately they will appeal..I think they will just have his ruling set aside for conflict of interest…the problem on the federal courts right now..Is that republicans are holding up appointments of new judges by this administration..so its the old anti environmental guys with good ole corporate ties..I haven’t had time to political blog to keep up with that stuff..too busy here..got an e-mail from obama organization asking me to help save the birds..sent back..I would but to busy trying to save wild horses covered with snake oil…
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That is great – thanks. I know, there is sooo much news right now, I am falling behind on my political blogs too. No sure yet if I am getting any new advocates, haven’t had anyone reply yet, yea or nea, not even to chastize me for being off topic. Hopefully they are researching. So I’ll keep at it.
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Hello everyone – we have come from behind and have taken over the lead against the pro wild horse slaughter group in just 2 days!
Keep cross posting this!
CNN poll today” Would you eat horse meat?
Looks like the SS proslaughter PR machine is up and running, however lamely.
Please take the poll to outnumber her fans that say they would eat horsemeat.
http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2010/06/22/lunchtime-poll-horse-meat/
I’m going to post this on a few other Articles to catch some that might not be reading this one – sorry if you get it a few times from me – but lets tell Sue who the Pulblic is and what they will or won’t put up with!
Thanks
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