I've not been following news much lately, but just started learning about this fellow's statements. Well, it's a sensitive issue for me, since I'm a black man, and I certainly don't appreciate the quotes I've heard this guy saying. I am sure, absolutely sure, that *all* black people who live in his area are not merely sitting around with nothing to do. That's just plain ignorant and racist to say. The people who are working are probably the people he doesn't see sitting around on the porch or what have you. I can assure you, nobody was happier under slavery. At least government dependence can be scaled back and people can educate themselves and actively participate in the freedom their forefathers earned. But as slaves, slaves under abuse and slow death--much harder to accomplish things, though a few exceptional people did do so. These folks who may be dependent on handouts aren't slaves to the government so much as slaves to their own mentality. It is their choice to rely on a handout (with varying degrees of choice, such as those who didn't earn enough to save at all, much less for retirement or folks who are infirmed and the like). It's pride in one's own value that makes a person refuse to accept handouts and work with their own hands, to the extent possible for each one.

Either way, so....SWAT teams? Over a tax bill? Is this what I'm hearing? What possible reason could there be for SWAT teams to pay a visit over a tax issue? Was this someone who was known for aggression/unprovoked violence against law enforcement? I can't see the logic there. Even if say he's known to own firearms and there's some legitimate cause for concern about that, just send a squad car or two, and if they start a gunfight, then the consequences are on them.

I think if the guy is a racist--and yeah, he probably is, if my reading comprehension is still correct here--that's not really my business, so long as he doesn't create any problems for me. If this is just a media ad hominem attack to distract from the issue, well, obviously it's working on plenty of folks, right?

I think if we'd started in a society where race wasn't an issue, that'd make all this easier, wouldn't it? But because it was an issue and the government made laws to separate people by race, some of the legislative efforts to undo that ended up creating reverse racism and then making it difficult for everyone to have an equal playing field. So now it's like, oh, you're a racist if you don't agree with certain laws. I guess I'm just thinking of the stuff I heard recently on TV about repealing Affirmative Action, for example. The thing is, in a truly equal and free society, no group, including blacks, should be given preferential treatment of any kind. There are plenty of poor whites who probably can't afford college, either, but if there was a program to help poor whites in the same way there have been programs for blacks, I'm sure people would be crying racism. A national association for the advancement of white people would be viewed in the same light as the KKK. Well, you can't have it both ways. It's racist to uphold one group above another, period. It's just that the horrors of history and some of the still stark realities of the present make the issue difficult for a lot of people to understand. I don't mean to digress from the point of this thread, though. I just felt a need to express that, and I've not been on here much lately.

I don't think Bundy claims to be the most articulate orator, he's a Mormon cattle rancher that had 14 kids, worked his entire life to support and raise his kids, teaching them the value of work and pride in individual accomplishment.

I've watched the entire discussion, and I have no idea why he went off on that tangent, but he did and much of what he had to say and his intent was not racist and was correct. Government bureaucracy has ensnared and trapped a part of our population into a slavery of the mind and spirit through the programs and systems they've used as bait. So many of that group have become victims and slaves of a life style that robs them of dignity, self worth, and motivation. There is no 'help' given to people in that life and circumstance, only nothing of value and many, many problems for themselves and society.

And I don't care if he is a racist - his story and the events in Nevada have absolutely nothing to do with racism. It has to do with an out of control government showing up on and around his property and family with 200 some federal agents with assault rifles and sniper teams over a civil issue that damn near lead to a lot of bloodshed.

This gal gets it. Somebody send her an invite to the Gulch.

Cliven, Cliven, Cliven, why did you have to open your mouth and step in it? What on earth did these comments have to do with the government over-reaction? If he meant to question whether some blacks have been sold a bill of goods by the government and exchanged slavery for servitude of a different kind on the public dole, then he may have a small point. Today those on the dole do not have to pick cotton for the master, but the price for their subsistence is support and votes for the nanny state. All of this is irrelevant though and does not exonerate the federal government for its actions. It will, of course, be used to discredit and distract from the main issue. Ignorant, in-artful comments from Cliven will be used to make much hay.
Three cheers for Kira!

Someone should have warned Bundy against taking an interview with the NY Times without a lawyer present.
He made a tactical error that could be critical.
It shouldn't be so, but the USA is full of bad laws and perverted media that would twist the truth instead of using sense that was common prior to 1970.

It remarkable how quickly people seem to distance themselves from this man. Sure, he said something stupid and may have proven himself to be a bigot. But does that really change what the government tried to do? Does him being labeled a bigot make what they government has done and plans to do in the future okay? I think we are so desperate for heroes that we forget that no one is perfect. When we are shown the imperfection we run for the hills, abandoning the cause we rallied behind.

She is my new hero!! And she's right - only a liberal would try to use the race card to shoot the property rights issue in the foot... Well, they, and of course, the media for which they stand...

Interesting middle name..... :) And she's right on..it IS a distraction. I loved the ring the dinner bell part. lol

The media is a willing and in fact enthusiastic propaganda arm of liberal-progressive ideology. It should be assumed from the beginning that they will distort anything to further their pro collectivist agenda.

What a sweetie. Nice job.

Update: For what it is worth Infowars is reporting that the Bundy comments have been creatively edited... surprise!
http://www.infowars.com/unedited-video-s...

If you watch the unedited video, you get more of a sense that he is not bigoted. He is trying to say that the government is keeping them in slavery by the handouts that the government does and they are no better off than they were before. It is interesting on how the liberal media, yes, you, the New York Slimes, distorts things to get the results that they want. Yes the conservative media, what little there is, does it also but not to the same extent that you do. I agree with Ms. Davis and I believe it put it very intelligently for what it is and that is a distraction from what is being done to this great country by our politicians. Yes, both parties are complicit in the fact. I call them the Big government Party. It has 2 wings, left and right, but the all grow the leviathan that we call government but some call nanny or sugar daddy.

Cliven Bundy is not a racist! The Spanish word that he use for black, is used everyday in the more vulgar form by probably most black people. The respectful form "negro" that Bundy used was used by everyone in times when I was much younger. That word "negro", is used 15 times in Martin Luther King Jr's I Have a Dream speech, and is heard uncensored by everyone ever year on the day that we commemorates his birth. A very large percentage of the people in our nation have been assimilated by the progressive liberal's Publically Correctness Monster! Main Steam Media is out there waiting for any conservative to says one slightly wrong word so that they may turn the monster loose, shame on the conservatives for abandoning the Bundy and playing in to the hands of liberal media.

Right on! No matter what Bundy said, in this situation, he is far and away the lesser of two evils.

To my recollection, the men on horseback making that line against the BLM looked to be of several races. It is not as if he had an Aryan enclave at his ranch.

These people were willing to go up against Authority on his behalf. Perhaps they did not think of Bundy as a racist...

Jan

What Bundy said is 100% true. Unfortunately blacks have become modern day serfs to the Democratic party. They've been sold a bill of goods that promises comfort, but delivers servitude. Their lives aren't getting any better (and are actually getting worse than non-blacks) under Democratic Party control, yet they still vote for Democrats at over 90%.

But you are not allowed to talk about it. In this modern world anyone speaking about unspeakable truths is shunned.

They do this because if the problem was ever fixed, i.e. the lives of African Americans getting markedly better, the Democrats would be out of power in a heartbeat. So they yell. They scream. Any time anyone tries to address the problem they flail about like the girls at the Salem Trials. They point, they groan, they flop, they damn near froth at the mouth.

Because they know that their entire power base rests on blacks remaining serfs.

I love this woman. She is so straight forward and accurately separates the wheat from the chaff. The issue is not racial, it is freedom and liberty, irregardless of what Cliven said in the interview. The left, once again, is attempting to discredit the speaker due to choice of words, not content. She calls the left out on that point. Good for her.

As for me, I find it difficult to say "African-American" and choose "Black" most of the time, if I must choose. Condemnation for using the term "Negro" should be no more offensive than using the term "Caucasian". I doubt very few of the citizens of this nation who refer to themselves as "African-American" have ever been to Africa, much less born there. How about using the term "American" to describe us all, irregardless of our ethnicity? Sounds more reasonable to me. Of course, that would deprive the race-baiters and their supporters of ammunition to some extent, so it won't happen. At least not until the current administration and its covey of race-baiters is replaced at the reins of this nation.

If anything he provided a community service because of the danger of range fires. Consider what the issues could have been if the grass was permitted to grow and there was a fire god forbid? How many homes could have been destroyed? How much would a fire response cost? and we are not talking about a farm subsidy for NOT growing food, but how s this different? Land otherwise unused and not maintained. The racist issue? Please does not even enter the equation.

I found this in a CNN piece:
Among those who support views of limited government, there is often a "higher than average endorsement of views that could be seen as racial resentment," said Andra Gillespie, an associate professor of political science at Emory University.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/24/politics/b...

And blacks lead in liberal supported abortions.....guess thar is racist too

Former UN Ambassador Alan Keyes doesn't think Cliven Bundy's remarks are that big a deal.

http://www.wnd.com/2014/04/black-leader-...

And evidence has surfaces of deceptive editing intended as a context drop.