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Monthly Archives: July 2013

The Ruination of Our Public Lands due to Corruption at the BLM: Time to get rid of such a corrupt government agency

old_collapsed_strutures_mohave_desert1Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.  — John Adams

Horse Advocates state clearly, from fact, that there is no need for the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Wild Horse Herd Roundups, a sub-agency of the Department of the Interior (DOI).  Many also think there is no longer a need for such a contempt oriented government agency as the BLM, and the most litigated and non-functional, incompetent agency in American history.

The unnecessary roundups cost taxpayers millions if not billions of dollars yearly.  Yet this reality, this “thing” our government refers to as “acceptable abuse” or “acceptable expenditure” after their non-fact based and false documentation toward reasoning for the roundups, and everything connected with it, can and should be considered nothing more than mis-use of taxpayer money and criminal in nature.

The fact, or truth is the horse roundups remain contrary to it’s program that established the endeavors of such a useless need, contrary to management principles, contrary to science, contrary to Congressionally passed law and policy, remain and certainly abusive to the horses .  And yet. . .

The Bureau of Land Management Incompetence = Criminal

Awkwardly, BLM and DOI operate contrary to any values that prescribe decency, morals, non-abusive behavior, and law.  Within the matter of the Wild Horse Herd Roundups and their holding facility management guidelines and principles, one can become disgusted with the BLM and DOI.

The treatment of animals, when simply observed, is wrong and on many different levels.  Taxpayers continue to pay for this mismanaged operation of abusive Wild Horse Herd Roundups, abusive storage of these same Wild Horses, and the BLM simply tells taxpayers to go to hell. . .  Yes, arrogantly, the old “. . . everybody is wrong but us attitude. . .”  And as we all acknowledge, this unreasonable of all paradigms becomes quite costly, both monetarily and life threatening.

One example of many:  The payment process to those who do the helicopter roundups, in one government contract person’s opinion and after perusing several BLM contracts with private contractors, states, “It is an abomination.  They essentially pay contractors unearned money, with no proper parameters or checks and balance systems toward quality of work or restrictions on abuse of the horses.  Way too many items left out of contract to actually adhere to government contract guidelines. . .”

Facts abound not only about and toward the most litigated and costly government agency in America’s history, but the BLM was investigated in the early 1990’s in regard to severe criminal activity throughout this agency.  By the way, those investigated have become those in upper management, supervisors, and other levels of responsibility. Mysteriously, with 2,000+ felony arrest warrants compiled, and several hundred misdemeanor arrest warrants signed and ready to serve, the warrants discontinued the night before, with no reason other than orders given from higher up.

There does exist volumes of information, accumulative, about questionable contracts, conflict of interest issues, contractor hiring practices, roundup methodology and violation of both policy and law, and wasted taxpayer money – both criminal and due to: BLM incompetence; sever animal abuse toward horses and outright killing them without proper explanation or (saddly) due to mistreatment of the horses; Federal Court cases won that demonstrate and show repeated Constitutional violations by BLM staff, management, and law enforcement; Federal Court cases that show BLM incompetent in their decision making (billions of dollars lost with this one); harassing of American’s by BLM staff and law enforcement; blatantly ignoring Court Orders and on many occasions; employee misconduct and even theft and other criminal activities and situations; conflict of interest between Director’s of the BLM and DOI, as well as top and mid management personnel; and the list goes on!

Many American’s wonder why this agency exists

Every bit of information mentioned above, noteworthy evidence against the BLM and DOI employees, is indeed backed by witnesses, certification of fact, scientific reports which are often arrogantly ignored, data, photos, and videos of all this obvious questionable conduct that indeed is both costly to the taxpayer and could be considered criminal in nature.

Then, ironically, something happens to all of this precise information collected.  All of it becomes eligible to fit into whatever extreme characterization is most politically expedient at the moment for BLM or DOI employee management or Directors, or media people in the agency to spew to the Public-At-Large.

Advocates have been blamed for “. . . the sky is falling complex. . .” and “. . . the facts Advocates portray as real driven by their emotions only. . .” or recently, “. . . the NAS Report” (Scientists find BLM incompetent and using bad science for decision making) portrayed as “being nothing more than propaganda done by Horse Advocates.”

The problem is this, the NAS is a government organization, and sub-hired private contractors–Independent Research Scientists, to research and assimilate the report over a two year time period.  The NAS was contracted by the BLM/DOI to find out what the problem was with their inefficient and ineffective methodology.

BLM Employee Incompetence Abundant

Yes, we can conclude very easily that longevity within a career ambition should be made of much sterner stuff.  We can also conclude that distributing false information, propaganda, lies, and innuendo coming from our American taxpayer based public/government employees are wrong.

After all, it is taxpayer property and the BLM and DOI consistently abuse, steal, or label taxpayer and American property as insignificant entity, which costs the taxpayer often millions of dollars yearly within itself, and by just plain old bad reasoning by government employees.  I also speak of the continuous expenditures for situations and items unnecessary to do or have, and give a “zero” return to the taxpayer.

Yes, the Wild Horse Herd Roundups are only a small item, yet costly in the billions to taxpayers — and unneeded; especially when considering the non-payment or special interest and politically driven next-to-nothing payments for our Public Lands usage, especially by foreign corporations or mining — and fees often not paid at all, amounting to billions upon billions of dollars.

What’s Going On?

This is really the heart of what the Horse Advocacy is about.  The rule of law is dependent upon a government that is willing to abide by the law.  Disrespect for the rule of law begins when the government believes itself and its corporate sponsors to be above the law.

But need we discuss, or write here, about the laws and policies being ignored, and even changed at times, to arrange nature into a political paradigm.  I think not right now, as research by the reader of this article, when accomplished, is much more memorable.

The only situation provided here, since this should be of concern for every American, is to actually accomplish the research and discover these vast amount of situations the BLM and DOI disregard, favoring corporations and political agendas instead!

This has to do with all American’s and not only our quality of life, but the quality of life for us and our families, for our animals, our nation’s wildlife, and our overall existence toward not becoming corporate pawns, and paying our tax money only to support corporations!

HORSE ADVOCATES

More generally, the question of whether Horse Advocates do their job?  Yes, it is good and brings out not only honest perspective, but forces irresponsible government agencies, as the BLM and DOI to keep responding to the public.  When accomplished consistently, and the same old excuses, toward their innocence when indeed the innocent, horses in this case, are being abused, and even tortured and killed at times, then the truth becomes quite obvious over time.

It has simply become a matter of survival for the Wild Horses, and Horse Advocates are the people who defend these animals, who remain defenseless without Advocates.

We can, as humans, expect no less from any man or woman, and to do what is right — and in this case what is right is defending our Wild Horse Herds from malicious and dishonest people!  — John Cox, Horse Advocate