OREGON STANDOFF:  LaVoy Killer Shield Law Stalled, Not Guilty Pleas From Chained Defendants,  Lawyers Tour Protest Site

"He didn't even carry a gun the entire time"

Lisa Bundy talks about her husband Ammon, charged in the Oregon protest.

It was one month ago today (January 26th) that LaVoy Finicum was shot and killed.

The proposal to allow a judge to withhold the name of the Oregon State Police officer who killed LaVoy Finicum during the FBI led operation last month is stalled in Oregon's State Senate.

"Oregon Live" reports that its likely the bill won't clear the Senate before its current session ends.

"It's a complicated issue, and there's not a lot of time" is the quote published from Senate President Pro Tem Diane Rosenbaum (D-Portland).

While the bill now stuck in the Senate Rules Committee only includes a 90 day ban, its reported opposition to the bill has built up from 'civil liberties and advocates and media groups".

Black Lives Matter in Portland had come out in opposition to the bill when it was in the House.

It appears that grassroots Democrats are putting pressure on their legislators who dominate Oregon's legislature causing some second thoughts about  the 90 day ban.

The investigation into LaVoy Finicum's killing is being conducted by a team from Deschutes County, Oregon (Bend, Oregon area) and was reported last month to be taking four to six weeks to complete.

On Wednesday, ten defendants appeared in a federal courtroom in Portland, shackled in chains.

Defendant David Fry quoted by "OregonLive" as saying;  "Its weird-innocent until proven guilty-shackled up."

Federal prosecutors told District Judge Anna Brown they plan a 'superseding indictment' from a grand jury by early April to put all 25 defendants under a single indictment, instead of separate ones,

They also spoke of a second superseding indictment in 90 days (more people to be charged?).

Judge Brown was quoted by "OregonLive' as being upset saying she wants a quick trial and wants the prosecutors to bring the charges sooner.

Ammon Bundy and the other nine defendants all pled 'not guilty' to the charges against them.

Ammon Bundy's wife Lisa joined defense lawyers at the protest site yesterday, but was denied admission by federal authorities.    She told "The Voice of Idaho" in a video posted last night it was agreed earlier that she would be allowed in to pick up belongings of her family and those of LaVoy Finicum.

The defense lawyers are being allowed to tour the wildlife refuge buildings under FBI supervision.

Lisa Bundy said this about the protest her husband led and is charged for:

 "It all started because we cared about our friends, the Hammonds, and you know we didn't use the lethal force.  My husband didn't even carry a gun the entire time.........He didn't even have a gun and they're saying that you know he's being charged with lethal force or whatever kind of force, carrying a gun and I'm like he didn't even carry a gun the entire time...."

So there you have it, the leader of the 'armed militia' protest in Oregon, the leader of the 'militants' at the wildlife refuge didn't even carry a gun the entire time.

It was Ammon Bundy who said something to the media early on in the protest making a comparison of his actions to those of Rosa Parks in Alabama in 1955?

OREGON STANDOFF: CRUZ, TRUMP, NEVADA,OREGON

Nevada Assemblywoman  Michele Fiore, who went in to witness the end of the protest at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and defends those arrested there as part of the Coalition of Western States. is an upfront supporter of Senator Ted Cruz for the GOP presidential nominaton.

"The Guardian" from the United Kingdom  has published  a story noting Assemblywoman Fiore is part of the Cruz leadership team in Nevada.   They quote her as saying: "Ted Cruz is the only candidate talking about giving lands back to the state where they belong."

Also on Cruz's Nevada leadership team, Assemblyman John Moore, who said that he believed LaVoy Finicum was 'murdered' in an FBI led operation last month.   Moore told "The Guardian" how he feels about the Bundy family and the federal prosecution of them over the Oregon protest and the standoff at Cliven Bundy's Nevada ranch in 2014.   

"I know Cliven, Ammon and Ryan.  To me, this is purely political prosecution.    The federal government....has an agenda, and they're using the Bundys as another way to get more land."

Ted Cruz called for the protest to end after it began last month, but Nevada Assemblyman John Wheeler spoke for the campaign and told "The Guardian".

"Ted Cruz is a law and order guy.  You follow the law.  If you don't like the law, you have the power to change it .   The one thing Oregon and Bunkerville did is bring it to the front and get the conversation started."

"The Guardian" also quotes Donald Trump as opposing the transfer of federal land to state control.

Trump is quoted this way.

"I don't like the idea (of local control of federal land) because I want to keep the lands great, and you don't know what the state is going to do."

According to the "OregonLive" website, Trump is the only Republican candidate for president who opposes federal land being returned to state control.  The blog  notes that Trump made his comments to "Field and Stream" magazine last month and added some more comments from Trump in opposition to state control of federal land:  "I  mean, are they going to sell it if they get into a little bit of trouble?  And I don't think it's something that should be sold.  We have to be great stewards of the land."

"The Guardian" spoke with Cliven Bundy's wife, Carol.   She said regarding Cruz's recent statement:

"I wasn't convinced too much.  What he said is good..but I want a little more.  I want to know how he is going to do it. "

She also told "The Guardian"

"Nobody wants to take a stand on this, and I think that's sad."

Perhaps Ted Cruz and his upfront supporters like Glenn Beck, who used his microphone to defend the life of Terri Schiavo, could be a little more upfront about the jailing of the Hammonds and other issues related the federal abuse of land in the West.

Perhaps Beck could stop at the jail in Portland to visit Ammon Bundy and the other prisoners and perhaps Ted Cruz could go to Harney County, Oregon and visit the Hammond family members and maybe visit the federal prison in California to see Steven and Dwight Hammond.

The little step of producing a television spot criticizing federal control of land did help Cruz win votes in the rural areas of Nevada last night with a first place finish in Elko and Lincoln counties.

There are more farmer and rancher states of the West in play in the weeks ahead like Idaho on March 8th and Arizona and Utah on March 22nd, even Oregon has a mail in primary on May 17th.   Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Washington and northern California also play into this issue as well.

Cruz needs to notch up his concern and focus on matters like releasing the Hammond's from their unjust imprisonment.

As for Mr. Trump, his views seem very disappointing indeed and reduce any confidence I  have in him to make things better in this country.

OREGON STANDOFF: The 'witch hunt for Sheriff Glenn Palmer

                               "Are you participating in the protest"
 
                                  Assistant who worked for me on the 2-way radio as I worked arranging
                                  coverage of an "Operation Rescue" blockade of an abortion clinic

                                  "I felt uncomfortable knowing that I had to relay vital and confidential
                                   information to someone who may not be trustworthy"

                                   911 dispatcher in Grant County, Oregon speaks about radio traffic with
                                   Sheriff Glenn Palmer on Janaury 26, 2016 when LaVoy Finicum was
                                   killed south of a roadblock set up in the county


There have been complaints aimed at Grant County, Oregon Sheriff Glenn Palmer after Palmer expressed sympathy for the views of those who protested in Oregon over the return to jail of the Hammond's and federal land policies in general.

When the protest began in January, Sheriff Palmer declined to go the wildlife refuge where the protest took place, but had meetings in his county with some people involved.  Palmer told the media that the release of Dwight and Steven Hammond from prison might help resolve the situation.

On January 26th when LaVoy Fincium was killed and others arrested including protest leaders they were headed for a public meeting in Grant County.   There leader Ammon Bundy and others planned to speak to the people of Grant County about what they could do to deal with federal land policies in their area.   The "OregonLive" website reported that Sheriff Palmer planned to speak there, too.

When word of the roadblock came out, Sheriff Palmer and the Grant County DA Jim Carpenter headed there but after Palmer called the 911 center and mentioned he had a passenger, the center dispatcher actually radioed their fear of a 'militiaman' being with Palmer to the state police at the roadblock..

Sheriff Palmer's activities have aroused not only suspicions and murmurs of gossip, but official complaints about his conduct from the 911 call center director Valerie Luttrell and John Day, Oregon Police Chief Richard Gray, among others.   Luttrell wrote of Palmer being considered a 'security leak' by local law enforcement, state police and the FBI.

Now the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training has asked the state's Department of Justice to investigate Palmer in a process that could lead to him losing his police certification.

Meanwhile efforts are underway to oppose Palmer for re-election as county sheriff.

Palmer has established a reputation as a 'Constitutional Sheriff' supportive of  local control including refusal to be part of a 'joint law enforcement agreement' with the federal government involving land they control in the county.

The sheriff also called the FBI led operation last month that killed LaVoy Finicum an "ambush".
That led to the Oregon State Sheriff's Association issuing a statement in opposition to him.

It all adds up to an atmosphere of suspicion and fear that's leading to who knows what for the Sheriff Glenn Palmer.

I experienced this kind of mentality when I worked in the mainstream media as a news supervisor handling weekend news coverage.   As Operation Rescue planned a blockade at a local abortion clinic, I started to show up at the legal protests in front of the clinic.   I befriended the leader and even went to his home and talked with him about calling me when the blockade began.

I was competing against six other news organizations and my actions would guarantee my organization exclusive coverage, visuals, getting the story first ahead of my competitors.   But because people knew I was "anti-abortion" and "religious" the murmurs and suspicions in the newsroom ran high.

When it all came down on a Saturday morning and I got a photographer out of bed and on the scene first, I called into the newsroom on his radio to rearrange a reporter's schedule to be on the scene as well, I got the snarky comment over the radio asking if I was participating in the protest.

Based on my own experience,  I sense the same fear and suspicion coming down on Glenn Palmer, a  'witch hunt' if you will.  The people who preach about 'diversity','tolerance' and 'inclusion' taking actions at odds with their words.

In my case  I was on my way to losing my job 13 months later.  However, being a drunk and the consequences of that gave my employer legitimate reasons to let me go.

Glenn Palmer seems headed for a much dirtier deal I sense.

The whispers and murmurs, magnified by the media have that tinge of 'guilt by association' liberals so detested in the 1950's when people who hung out with Communists were denounced.

But also ominous is"OregonLive"  reporting in recent hours that federal proseuctors may move next month to expand the indictments over the protest at the wildlife refuge and charge additional people?

                                 

OREGON STANDOFF: FBI talks excrement, LaVoy killer shield law,Nevada indictments

"He's an undercover agent for the FBI sent here to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan"  

  Charlie Daniels-"Uneasy Rider" (1973)

"Freedom is everybody's business, your business, my business, the church's business and a man who will not use his freedom to defend his freedom does not deserve his freedom."

Dr. Carl McIntire-preacher whose radio station was shut down on "Fairness Doctrine" grounds in 1973.

Lawyers for the arrested protestors in Oregon wanted answers from federal prosecutors about the evidence they are collecting and got something this week.

The prosecutors say the FBI has found explosives, firearms and a trench containing human feces at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

For those opposed to the FBI and mistrusting of it, the planting of fake evidence is suspected.
Some would say FBI operatives-informants were in and out of the refuge during the early phase of the protest and could have planted somethng then.

The protestors of course did have firearms, but they were exercising their Second Amendment rights and only intended to use those firearms in self defense.

The record of the protest is that the only side using violence-firearms was the FBI side.

Concerning this trench of 'human feces' its important to remember that during the last phase of the protest  the final four protestors were not using the buildings fearing a Waco-style assualt on them.   They camped out in the open.    They 'did their business' outdoors.

Defense lawyers will not be allowed to see the evidence against their clients before its removed from the refuge and taken to the FBI office in Portland.

The Oregon State House voted 55-3 to pass a bill shielding the name of the Oregon State Police officer who killed LaVoy Finicum on January 26th.   The name will be withheld for 90 days,
Plans for a six month ban on release of the officer's name were considered by the Democrats pushing the bill, but backed away from when the American Civil Liberties Union balked.

The Democrats and most Republicans supported the bill with only 3 Republicans in the 'No' column.
Portland's "Black Lives Matter" used social media to condemn the legislation.

The "Black Lives Matter" group is learning a hard lesson about how dirty politics really is.
The Democrats kissed up to them but now feel the need to kiss up to law enforcement in an election year.   The Republicans have a way of betraying conservative activists, too, to play both sides of issues like illegal immigration and abortion.

The shield law goes to Oregon's State Senate on its way  to the Democrat Governor Kate Brown's expected signature.

On Wednesday, indictments from a federal grand jury in Nevada were announced over the 2014 standoff at Cliven Bundy's Nevada ranch,.  As expected, those indicted were people currently jailed in Portland.

Cliven Bundy, Ammon Bundy,Ryan Bundy, Ryan Payne and Pete Santilli were all charged.

The charge against Santilli again raises the spectre of a federal assualt on the broadcaster's First Amendment rights.   The American Civil Liberties Union is already committed to defending Santilli  over his arrest for broadcasting reports about the Malheur protest.

The last four have charges to face in Portland, but Cliven Bundy has been ordered by a judge to be moved to Nevada.  He will face charges that could put him in prison for decades and involve 3 million dollars in 'forfeitures'.

Shawna Cox, who was arrested with the others on January 26th and emerged from her vehicle to see the lifeless body of LaVoy Finicum, is suing the federal government for 'acts of the devil' against her.

She seeks 666 billion in damages,   To be exact, that's 666,666,666,666 dollars and 66 cents in damages.

Cox was handcuffed after she emerged from the vehicle driven by Finicum and comforted Victoria Sharp, who was shook up by the killing of Finicum and the shots aimed at her in the vehicle by the FBI.