by Marti Oakley, PPJ

Reports are coming in from across the country, mostly from the 14 Western States where cattle ranching is a way of life, of water being diverted to other areas or regions and natural waterways being altered to allow the collection of water to be sold on the commodities markets depriving cattle ranchers of the much needed water for their herds.

While many a cattleman (not all) in the west are cheering the unlawful herding and slaughter of wild horses and burros believing that ending the existence of these animals would somehow increase their access to below fair market value grazing permits, a wholly separate plan was being put in place by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).  Now, don’t get too excited.  You’ll probably still get some really, really cheap grazing permits….you just won’t be able to afford the water necessary for your herds without selling off a couple of your kids or grandkids.  And no guarantees are made as to the quality of water you will have access to.

BLM, in collusion with municipalities, multi-national corporations and other stakeholders have been systematically laying claim to any and all water supplies: even what is contained in underground aquifers.  What this means to you is this:  Even if water appears on your land naturally, having come from a river, stream or aquifer now owned by these corporate stakeholders, you are committing theft.  They own the water and all rights to it.  The fact that it shows up on your land and always has is now a moot point.

If the corporations who now claim to own the water can prove that it originated from a spring or stream, river or aquifer they have title to, can stop the flow of that water to your land so you can’t steal it from them.  This would be cheating them out of their profits under NAFTA/CAFTA regulations which put the rights of the investor above that of the individual or nation/state.

Read the rest at this link.

Hat Tip: National Expositor

from Wyoming Tribune Eagle

Find out why Wyoming loves firearms through stories from our governor, a 16-year-old girl, Laramie County’s deputy district attorney and the Cheyenne Regulators club.

By Michael Van Cassell

Dave Faas pulls the weathered and worn long rifle out of a case and walks to the back of the small studio.

The gun’s stock is repaired with brass screws and still shoots after 115 years.

His friend Bill Capozella, dressed in a cowboy getup, with a six-shooter on his hip, asks him if it’s a ’97.

“How many you got now?” Capozella asks.

“Ninety-sevens? Seventeen, I think,” Faas responds.

“He started collecting those things,” Capozella says.

“This is a ’92 Winchester,” the gray-haired Faas corrects his friend.

“His wife said we can use them for the fence around his grave when we bury him,” says Rusty Woodward, a retired Marine sergeant. “There’s enough of them to do it.”

Faas, Capozella and Woodward are members of the Cheyenne Regulators, a group that holds cowboy shooting

competitions at a range west of town.

They love guns.

And so does Wyoming.

There aren’t any studies on the exact number of guns in the state, which would probably be impossible anyway because many believe it’s no one’s business.

But the North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics conducted a survey in 2002 that said Wyoming led the country in respondents who said they kept firearms in and around their home at 63 percent.

When asked, Wyomingites will say guns are a rite of passage, part of their heritage, recreational, tools or a means of protection.

Even our Democratic governor has a gun or two.

Gov. Dave Freudenthal, wearing a light-colored suit and tie, sits in his residence holding an 1894 patented Winchester rifle. He isn’t sure when it was built, but he inherited it from his father.

“It was an old gun, frankly, when I remember seeing it as a boy,” he said.

It has what Freudenthal described as old farmer/rancher repairs, much like the one Faas owns. He called it a good utility gun.

“There aren’t any sort of heroic stories about it,” he said. “It’s a utilitarian weapon, used as really just another piece of equipment.”

Now all it does is sit above a fireplace to be on display.

Growing up on a ranch in Thermopolis, Freudenthal was exposed to firearms at an early age. He received his first gun, a Stevens .22-caliber single-shot, when he was in grade school.

“(My father) was determined that you were going to learn to shoot on a one-shot model so that you didn’t follow that sort of TV model where they’re just throwing out a lot of lead,” he said. “The idea was you’ve got to aim.”

There wasn’t much recreational shooting, as it was considered a waste of money and ammunition.

The governor owns a few shotguns, an assortment of .22-caliber rifles and a recent gift from his family – a .454-caliber Casull handgun, made by Freedom Arms in Wyoming and engraved with his name and term as governor.

“Nancy had to fill out the questionnaire the other night from the Marshal’s Service wanting to know how many guns and of what nature in the house, and I said ‘none of their business,’” Freudenthal said. “So we didn’t tell them.”

Freudenthal said buying a son or daughter their first gun is an important step.

“It’s an activity around which you do things with your kids,” he said.

He said it is a right to own and bear a firearm, but that isn’t the first part of the discussion.

“The first part about it was, if you’re going to use this, here’s how you do it,” he said. “You’re going to do this right. Here’s how you handle the ammunition.”

Freudenthal said there is concern the younger generation isn’t hunting as much.

“Our license numbers are not holding the way we’d like them to for us to maintain the revenue anymore,” he said.

And he sees an increasing divide in attitudes about guns between urban and rural communities.

He cited his son attending school in Iowa, where his biochemistry classmates had different reactions when he told them he was going back to Wyoming to hunt.

“I think they were generally perplexed about it,” Freudenthal said. “Some of it is there’s a hostility toward firearms, but a lot of it is people don’t understand them. And they see them misused so much on TV and in shows that they don’t see them for what they are.”

Wyomingites’ frame of reference for evaluating a handgun is different from someone in an urban area, he said.

“If you’re in western Michigan, you don’t feel a lot different about guns than we do,” he said. “If you’re in Detroit, you probably don’t feel a lot different than they do in Chicago and New York, where they don’t see a firearm as sort of a recreational or family activity. It’s seen in a different light.”

Payton Blackwell

Payton Blackwell turns 16 years old today.

She has been a hunter for half of her life.

Born in Cheyenne, Blackwell is a captain of Cheyenne’s Central High cheerleading squad.

Blackwell started bird hunting at age 8 with her father and grandfather.

“I love taking the dogs with us,” she said. “I thought that was so much fun.”

There’s an adrenaline rush, she said.

At the age of 12, she decided she wanted to hunt big game. In her first year, she took a deer and an antelope. In her third year hunting, she took an elk, two deer and two antelope.

The girls she attended school with didn’t hunt. They thought it was weird, she said.

But that has changed.

Some of her friends’ parents aren’t into hunting. But the girls go over to Blackwell’s house east of town and shoot .22-caliber rifles in the backyard.

“Now all my friends want to go with me,” she said.

Blackwell’s knowledge of hunter safety began around 6 or 7 years old.

Using a BB gun, her parents taught her how to handle a firearm. She then attended hunter safety and learned more.

Safety is constantly on her mind because she was taught the basics at such a young age. Now it’s more of a habit.

Her first gun was a 20-gauge Ruger shotgun. She now uses a .243-caliber Ruger rifle.

And her family shares guns for hunting.

Blackwell said it’s a good way to bond with her parents, who have busy work schedules.

“That’s kind of our time of the year the four of us all go out and do that together,” she said.

It’s an activity she sees herself doing for the rest of her life. And if she has children, she’ll teach them.

“It teaches you responsibility and ethics and keeps you outside instead of inside playing video games,” she said.

Regulators

Capozella, Faas and Woodward all came to Wyoming at different times in their lives. All three are retired military men.

Faas and Capozella began to develop an interest in guns early in life while hunting with family members. Woodward said it was when he joined the Marines that his appreciation started.

Capozella’s father taught him how to hunt while growing up in Ohio, shooting squirrels, rabbits and pheasants. Once he joined the Air Force, he got into deer, antelope, ducks and geese.

As a boy, Faas hunted squirrels on the banks of the Mississippi River in Wisconsin and deer.

While the three have extensive gun collections, they don’t consider themselves gun collectors.

“Every gun I have, I shoot, and if you’re a collector, you buy a gun that is of high value and you don’t do anything but take care of it and keep it clean,” Capozella said. “And you don’t shoot it.”

Buying guns, however, is a sound investment for them.

“Guns do not lose value,” Capozella said.

And family members, like Freudenthal’s father, often hand down firearms generation to generation.

“Almost any of the historic families here will tell you they have some guns that came from the ranch or came across when the family came to Wyoming,” Faas said.

“I don’t think you can go to a ranch around here without somebody having an heirloom,” Capozella said.

Faas suggested the pioneer stock and ranching culture of Wyoming could contribute to why firearms are so popular here.

“They had to take care of themselves,” Capozella said.

“There wasn’t a sheriff down the street,” Faas said. “Sometimes justice was done by whoever was available.”

Becket Hinckley

Laramie County deputy district attorney Becket Hinckley carries a small LCP .380-caliber Ruger in the small of his back.

“I love it,” he said.

As a former Wyoming state representative, Hinckley said he promoted lax legislation on guns.

Hinckley, a Republican, pushed for a dual concealed weapon carry law that would allow residents to have a permit for reciprocity with other states but the ability to carry in state without regulation.

Hinckley said the 27 words of the Second Amendment mean something to him.

“The thought of somebody, the government or a bureaucrat or something, could say that I cannot have the right to protect myself, it’s just intellectually impossible for me to understand,” he said.

A copy of the U.S. Constitution, pro-firearm slogans and even a signed poster from Hunter S. Thompson’s campaign for sheriff in Aspen hang on his walls. Thompson often derided the Republican Party but was openly supportive of firearms.

Hinckley grew up in the northern part of the state. His paternal grandfather and father exposed him to firearms at an early age. By 5 or 6, he had his first pistol, and by 7, he had a .22-caliber bolt-action rifle his grandfather built for him.

“He loved guns,” Hinckley said. “He loved their simplicity, he loved their beauty. So I grew up around a lot of firearms, and it started at an early age. They weren’t this big demon.”

During the summer, there was Little League at night. But during the day, his parents, both attorneys, would be gone to work. He and his friends would take their firearms and ammunition out to shoot rabbits.

“And my parents were completely OK because my dad taught me at an early age that if you’re going to put one of those things in the chamber, the business round, you better make sure what you’re pointing at you’re going to shoot and kill it, and it better not be a human,” he said.

Hinckley said he’s not a guy who goes out with every extra penny of his savings to buy a cache of firearms.

He works with police and said they do a great job, but they are not there at all hours.

The gun he carries on him is for protection, he said. To him, it’s a tool.

“I would rather trust my life and my family’s life to me and my ability to protect them and then call the police later or maybe at the same time,” he said.

The idea of life without guns is incomprehensible for Hinckley.

“When somebody says for a Wyoming guy who’s a gun guy who just believes he wants to protect his family or friends or whatever that we’re going to restrict, that really, really offends the sensibilities of Wyomingites,” he said.

Four candidates for governor fielded questions at American Legion Post 6 on Thursday.

by Bill McCarthy, WyoTribEagle

CHEYENNE — Government, especially at the federal level, took a whipping Thursday as four candidates for Wyoming governor extolled their conservative credentials.

Republican candidates Rita Meyer, Matt Mead, and Ron Micheli and Libertarian Mike Wheeler fielded questions prepared in advance by forum sponsors and from the audience.

The conservative Wyoming Patriot Alliance sponsored the forum at Cheyenne American Legion Post 6.

“I will return, and I say return, Wyoming to fiscal and social conservative values because we have strayed,” said Meyer, the current state auditor.

“We are not a colony. We have state’s rights,” said Matt Mead, a former U.S. attorney.

“I believe that government is not the answer. Government is the problem,” said Micheli.

The former legislator and director of the state department of agriculture was alluding to a famous statement by the late President Ronald Reagan.

“The one thing we have is our liberty,” said Wheeler, the Libertarian candidate.

And government, particularly on the federal level, is trampling on that liberty and diminishing state’s rights, the 46-year-old Casper businessman said.

Many of the people in the audience had been at a Tea Party protest at the state Capitol on Thursday afternoon.

And the issues addressed by the candidates were the same as those protested.

All the candidates spoke against health-care reform.

They all said Wyoming should join the lawsuit that some states have filed against the federal government over new health-care legislation.

The next governor needs to be forceful in “pushing back” on federal encroachment on states’ rights in areas such as potential federal restrictions on greenhouse-gas emissions and mandates on education.

And all agreed illegal immigration needs to stop.

Wheeler said he grew up on a ranch in southern Colorado and has experience with people with “a little water on their backs.” They take jobs from “red-blooded Americans” and do not spend here but “send money to Chihuahua, Mexico, to buy tacos.”

He believes people who migrate into the country should be picked up and sent back.

Micheli said that state government is growing too large and that a process of “zero-based budgeting,” where every expense in every agency is reassessed every two years, is needed.

Meyer said restrictions on greenhouse gas or carbon emissions would “be devastating to Wyoming.”

The state needs to do all it can to fight those, and if implemented make sure Wyoming has a seat at the table to protect its energy-based economy.

Mead said Wyoming needs to be part of the lawsuit against the health-care reform legislation.

“You can’t sit by and think somebody else is going to take care of it,” he said.

Republican candidate Colin Simpson was absent.

No Democrats have come forward to replace Gov. Dave Freudenthal, who has declined to challenge term limits for a third term.

The primary election is Aug. 17 and the general election is Nov. 2.

Aaron’s Note, since I actually live in Wyoming: The Libertarian candidate doesn’t seem interested in winning or even making a show, since his comments will hang him.  Making what most would consider blatantly racist statements like his, especially in a state that has little problem with illegal immigration, is just stupid.  He’s torpedoed an already shaky campaign and will be lucky if he can even make the ballot at this point. Colin Simpson didn’t show because his campaign rides entirely on his name (his father and grandfather are well-known in business and political circles here) – think of his last name as “Hatch” and you Utahns will get the idea.

by Anthony Bouchard, Examiner

Recently WSSA President made fraudulent and misleading statements about involvement with the Wyoming Firearms Freedom Act and WyGO / Wyoming Gun Owners.

Mr. Spungin President of the Wyoming State Shooting Association (WSSA) either intentionally lied or is completely ignorant about what is really going on. Sound like a harsh statement? See for yourself…

In a rant by Mr. Spungin, he stated the following:

“With all due respect to WYGO and its handful of supporters, it, and they, do not understand the Wyoming legislative process very well. One does not come charging in out of nowhere, unleash a volley of e-mails, and expect immediate results. The process is much more subtle. WSSA understands the process very well, which is why we are able to get results. Wyoming Firearms Freedom Act had very little to do with WYGO. WSSA has been working on it since last spring. We have established long term personal relationships with many of our Senators and Representatives. These are good people who feel pretty much like we do. We never pressure them to do anything they would not really want to do anyway. We provide encouragement and support. By the time the legislature starts its session, most of the lobbying; the most effective part, has already been accomplished.”

He also stated this in an email:

…Yes, I did post that. I am president of the Wyoming State Shooting Assn. WSSA and what I said is true. We are the NRA affiliate in Wyoming… – Mark Spungin

We see behavior like this for a variety of reasons however, SPEWING LIES on this level is intolerable and the membership of WSSA should be appalled…to say the least.

What has been revealed here by Mr. Spungins rant is that he doesn’t have a clue of what happened at the last session and this proves that not only has the NRA lost its bite but little brother NRA groups like the WSSA have lost their ability to be effective at state level legislation.

THE BRUTAL TRUTH, if the WSSA was on top of things there would be no need for WyGO to exist, but as revealed by their own words they have become part of the problem. Just look at their statement and at the political arena, it’s organizations with faulty leadership that have gotten us to where we are right now…politics as usual played by the establishment, YES…that means lobby groups too.

I want to be very clear here – Mr. Spungin threw stones at the ONLY GUN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION THAT GOT SOMETHING DONE and it would be wise for members of WSSA to join organizations that really fight to protect gun rights like WyGO / Wyoming Gun Owners.

As the Director of WyGO I personally assisted with the draft of HB-95 Wyoming Firearms Freedom Act and the funny thing is I don’t remember Mr. Spungin being involved. But even more crushing is the fact that Mr. Spungin diminishes the fact that WyGO and its MEMBERS led the grassroots movement to pass this legislation.

Lastly, the following statement deserves your attention:

“Mr. Bouchard you and your organization have been beyond instrumental with HB-95 the Wyoming Firearms Freedom Act, much thanks to you and your members” – Representative Allen Jaggi

Why did Mr. Spungin/WSSA attack WyGO? You decide.

by Aaron Turpen, Examiner

Both Senators Enzi and Barrasso have talked about the Environmental Protection Agency’s energy policy and their policies that direct the Department of the Interior.  Both Senators are critical of the way that the EPA and the DOI negatively impact Wyoming’s energy.

In a letter to the EPA from both Senators as well as Representative Lummis (WY-10), the Wyoming delegation blasted the DOI’s policies (as directed by the EPA’s emissions rulings) and how they will negatively affect Wyoming energy, jobs, and production.

Back in January, you may recall, I was critical of the EPA/DOI rules and how they were to affect Wyoming.  My basic claim was that Wyoming’s Energy is Wyoming’s Energy and the EPA can go play in traffic.

Now, Senator Barrasso has appeared in Human Events where he is quoted as saying

“When the Majority [Democrats] created the Subcommittee on Oversight, it was stated that they planned and I quote ‘to use the subcommittee to explore ways to restore scientific integrity at the EPA and other federal agencies focused on the environment, and to strengthen environmental protections by once again making the regulatory process more transparent.”

What the SEnator was referring to was the report on the U.S. Senate floor which criticized the EPA’s ignorance of science when attempting to enforce environmental policies centered on carbon dioxide emissions and global warming.  Given the basis for the EPA’s findings, which were mostly cited through both NASA and the UN’s IPCC, have been under fire for falsifications of data and manipulation of science for political purposes, however, the EPA’s footing is shaky at best.

Senator Barrasso cited specific incidents of secret meetings, the hushing up of whistleblowers, and partisan politics as the rule of the day in the climate debate in Washington.  Meanwhile, the EPA seeks to enforce junk science.

Barrasso was particularly miffed that the meeting in question, in which he was a participant, was held apparently as nothing more than an attempt to placate Republicans and create the illusion of a bi-partisan finding.  Directly after the meeting, President Obama issued a White House statement that basically left policy intact without any change.

As with most politics involving the global warming question, it appears that science is only a tool to be manipulated and used towards political ends.

With questions about the data used by NASA, the IPCC, the Anglia’s CRU, and others, it would seem appropriate not to take drastic, job-killing, life-changing measures to curb something that we are still very much unsure is happening.

Given the recent legislation the governor has signed, both a declaration of Wyoming’s independence from Washington as a sovereign State and the Firearms Freedom Act that gives penalties for federal agents breakng Wyoming law, it would seem that our state is poised to tell the bureaucrats in D.C. to leave us alone.  Hopefully, this extends to our views on energy as well.