Yes, I heard about the New York Times’ allegations of racism against Cliven Bundy. First, may I just point out who is making the allegations and that the comments were ‘overheard’ by a single journalist. I find believing anything the New York Times has to say suspect. However, having said that, if it is true that Bundy made racist remarks and that they were not taken out of context, that is inexcusable.
But this was never about Bundy. It is about the overreach of the BLM, EPA and federal government. It is about the states getting their lands back out West. It is about the militarization of federal agencies. Each of us should be thinking: what if that were my land, my home, my family? I don’t think there is a one of us out there that can’t be smeared over something in our past and the Left is quite willing to keep digging until they find just the right sordid morsel to discredit you. It’s what they do.
There was one reporter and one photographer at the press briefing and this is what the NYT said Bundy put forth:
He said he would continue holding a daily news conference; on Saturday, it drew one reporter and one photographer, so Mr. Bundy used the time to officiate at what was in effect a town meeting with supporters, discussing, in a long, loping discourse, the prevalence of abortion, the abuses of welfare and his views on race.
“I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro,” he said. Mr. Bundy recalled driving past a public-housing project in North Las Vegas, “and in front of that government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids — and there is always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch — they didn’t have nothing to do. They didn’t have nothing for their kids to do. They didn’t have nothing for their young girls to do.
“And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?” he asked. “They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”
A spokesman for Mr. Paul, informed of Mr. Bundy’s remarks, said the senator was not available for immediate comment. Chandler Smith, a spokesman for Mr. Heller, said that the senator “completely disagrees with Mr. Bundy’s appalling and racist statements, and condemns them in the most strenuous way.”
If this is an accurate quote (and I mean ‘if’), then it is cringe worthy. But it in no way takes from what we are all fighting for here. It will be used against Conservatives and the movement for freedom, but you know what? It won’t stop us.
Allen West had this to say on arming federal agencies:
The rate at which this administration is arming federal agencies is quite alarming. Case in point–the recent standoff against Cliven Bundy in Nevada. In recent years, armed federal government agents have stormed against citizens in Ruby Ridge, Miami (the Elian Gonzalez case), and Waco, Texas (the Branch Davidians). Each of these assaults occurred under a Democrat presidential administration. Enabled by lies and deceit, could it be that liberal progressive socialism only works by fear, intimidation, and coercion? Or is Obama more afraid of the American people than our enemies abroad?
I find it humorous that liberal progressives accuse their opponents of being fascists, but the liberals are actually the most intolerant and oppressive when it comes to free speech, expression, and petition of redress of grievances by the American citizenry.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) now have armed agents. The Department of Justice is heavily partisan — and that assertion has nothing to do with racism. I support our law enforcement agencies having the proper resources and equipment to fulfill their mission of keeping us safe from criminals and enemies who have penetrated our sovereign borders. However, we do not need to become a “police state” where our government agencies start to resemble special operation strike troops of the U.S. mlitary.
West is absolutely right here – this police state crap needs to end. Are you kidding me? 200 armed to the teeth federal agents swoop in on one elderly rancher to make an example of him. But because the Left says they can label him a racist, that makes it okay and vindicates the BLM. What horse crap.
Although I’ve heard numerous pundits and talking heads today who were quick to distance themselves from Bundy, label him a racist and tap dance on the fact that patriots who were there to support him made an error in judgement, I haven’t heard anyone out there screaming the obvious except for Dana Loesche. She has been right on this from the beginning:
A few things. First, to take the quote at face value it’s odd and sounds offensive. You’re talking about government overreach and you go into this story? Secondly, I hope no one is surprised that an old man rancher isn’t media trained to express himself perfectly. He seems to be decrying what big government has done to the black family — which big government has negatively affected not just the black family, but all families regardless of ethnicity — so perhaps he included that in his remarks against big government? I’m just trying to figure out how he even got to the point of discussing it and yes, it’s justified to have a healthy suspicion of the New York Times. I’d be more inclined to believe that the left’s outrage is genuine had it been consistent (to say nothing of Harry Reid). Notice how the NYT immediately went to the politicians involved. If Bundy is a racist, that is awful, but what exactly does that have to do with the BLM? I’ve been saying for weeks that this isn’t about one rancher. It’s about government overreach. It’s about a paramilitarized bureaucratic entity responding to collect a bill in dispute due to arguments over state ownership and open range laws. It’s about a bureaucratic entity bypassing state and local laws — which I discussed with Judge Andrew Napolitano on my program — in court procedures and law enforcement.
Does Cliven Bundy’s remark make Tommy Henderson, Raymond Yowell, Kenni Patton, and other ranchers in Nevada and north Texas racists then because they also have issues with the BLM? So dissent with the BLM is racist like dissent with Obamacare is racist? Again, this isn’t about one person, but the left would love for it to be so. It’s easier to kill a spider by cutting off the head.
Don’t you see what is happening here? If the Left can discredit Bundy, then it makes it okay to go in and do what they want with the land — violence and all. And if the Feds do it there, they will keep on doing it, until eventually each of us will feel their boots on our necks. It will be personal and it will be brutish. They’ve just seized a ranch in New Mexico, taken a home from a couple in Colorado, demanded a pond be removed on private land in Wyoming and the BLM/EPA monster has in its sites 90,000 acres along the Red River on the border of Texas and Oklahoma. Just where does it all end? Instead of fleeing the Bundy situation, Conservatives better double down against the BLM and their fascist Agenda 21 mandate.
Stop letting the Progressive Left dictate the narrative out there. Stop believing them every time they yell ‘racist!’ or some other smear that is handy and kitsch. Stop falling for their Alinsky-style tactics. Just stop it already – Americans have a Constitutional right to their property and their freedoms. None of this has ever been about one man — it’s about one Constitution.
Update:
Here is the video – he did say those comments, but I’ll let you decide the context for yourselves. His comments kick in at about the 17 minute mark and are brief. Listen in particular to his comments just before the ones in question. I believe it is a smear. I don’t agree with everything he believes, but I think it is reprehensible that the NYT would twist his words this way:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8idiBsXShSc
Able Danger Field McConnell said Negro in Spanish meaning Black.