Zoning Hearing Ruling

Politicians!  All of them are concerned for their phony baloney jobs...  Heaven forbid they make a decision that some may find objectionable...  especially the animal rights activists!

The outcome of the zoning hearing is that nothing is going to be done.  At least, not yet.  My gut tells me that if anything is done, it will be to the benefit of the donkey sanctuary down below.  We received a courtesy copy of a letter which was sent to the donkey property.  The letter says,

"Be it resolved that _____________, a request for a conditional use approval to allow a nonprofit animal facility on Lot 1-B....  BE DEFERRED TO THE HEARING SCHEDULED FOR MAY 14, 2013."

Findings:

1. This request is for a conditional use approval to allow a nonprofit animal facility.
2. Testimony at the March 12, 2013 hearing indicated outstanding issues with the property including, however, not limited to:
1. Accumulation of animal waste on the property.
2. Offensive odors emanating from the site.
3. Parking in the right-of-way creating  an undue traffic hazard.
4. Elevated noise levels in association with the proposed use.
3. Deferral of this matter will allow the applicant the opportunity to attend the May 14, 2013 hearing and to address any deficiencies in the application for the proposed use.

In other words, they are being given an additional 2 months to clean up the property.  Never mind that they've already had a full 6 months plus some!

Everything is about their rights...  the animals....  what about my rights as a property owner?  What about my rights as one who pays thousands of dollars in property taxes and in mortgage payments?  Why should my property be devalued so that donkeys can live in an unacceptable situation (less than 3 acres of land with 20+ donkeys on it) and shit can be tossed over the fences onto my property & our easement?

I'm mad as hell!

Time to replace some elected officials.  

Sigh...

Back in 2008, our neighbor directly below our home was Steve M,  his wife, and his brother.  For their faults, they were decent neighbors.  When the family broke up, the house was sold to a couple, Dorothea & Andrew, who came to New Mexico from the west coast.  They too seemed to be good neighbors...  that is, up until they decided that they were going to establish a donkey rescue on less than 3 acres of land.  Sigh....

Spring of 2009, we saw them taking their donkeys for a walk and thought...  isn't that cute.  They had 2 donkeys that looked like twins.  We enjoyed seeing them.

Then, not too long after, they added a 3rd donkey.  Still, all was OK as the animals were being kept down below in the paddock which had formerly been occupied by Yvonne's horse, Capitan.  (Yvonne owned the property prior to Steve.) After the addition of the 3rd donkey, things start to get a bit fuzzy with regard to timeline. And, like people with kids, they soon discovered that 3's a crowd and they added a 4th.

Somewhere during this time, they brought in 21 donkeys!  WTF????

Rob & I went down below to their place and expressed our concerns re: 21 donkeys and the noise they make.  Andrew assured us that "it's only temporary...  when these are gone, no more..." yadda yadda yadda.  We believed him.  We noticed tho' that the donkeys never left.  By this time, one of them started braying very loudly.  He sounded like the dive klaxon on a Navy submarine. It was very, very loud, especially at 3:00 AM.  Sigh....

Back down to the neighbor's house...  express said concerns....  receive reassurances....  yadda yadda yadda....

Months later, there's still about 20 donkeys there and they're expanding the corrals, which was needed. However, the animals are still there....  they ain't leaving...  they're still braying all hours of the day & night, altho' it seems that the noisiest one is quieter.  In fact, at one point in time, I counted 25 or 26 donkeys in the corral. Too many animals...  not enough space.

However, a new problem reared its ugly head...  They are now keeping 4 large donkeys in their backyard.  The donkeys are eating the trees and pushing on the fence. The donkeys have eaten my Leyland Cypress, which I planted for a windbreak.  They've eaten my sage  bushes.  They've cleaned a 3' wide swath of land all the way down to bare earth.  I'm not pleased.

Donkey Eating My Shrubs

Three of the Four 

Then, there was the smell.  The donkeys in the backyard are much closer to our bedroom window (within 50') and when it rains, it stinks.  No longer the fresh smell of rain.

More conversation....  more assurances....  Sigh....

In 2012, things came to a head, much like an annoying pimple.  The neighbors down below told Rob & I at their yard sale that they were applying for tax exempt status and intended to run a rescue out of their home.  My first thought was, "ain't no way in hell."  By this time, even tho' the lower corrals were clean, the neighbors had taken to throwing the shit manure over the fences.  We have manure on the easements, manure on my property, manure... manure... manure...  I tried to help them out by removing a bit of it....  many wheelbarrows full...  didn't make a dent.  Way too much manure...

I really don't like to make trouble for others, but enough is enough is enough....  I can't go on, I can't go on no more now....  enough is enough is enough....

Oops....  sorry about that....

Phone calls were made looking for help...  Sigh....

Unbeknownst to me, some neighbors over on Log Cabin Ln were having the own issues with the lower corrals being in their front yards.  It seems, when they unload a trailer full of donkeys, those residents have no in & out capability.  The trailer blocks the road.  It is, after all, a one car lane that is a private road.  A road which is being used without permission.

Log Cabin Lane - Homes on Right, Donkeys on Left

This video shows the problem with regard to blocking the small lane.  The video belongs to the ELS and the "embed" code came from their public, FaceBook page.


Now, it's 2013.  Some of the manure has been removed (Thank God!) but there are still large quantities of it everywhere, including around an active propane tank.  The neighbors have applied for a zoning variance and we attended the hearing, voicing our opposition.  We are now waiting to see what happens.  Truly enough is enough...

The neighbors have gotten ugly with some of those who oppose them receiving very nasty phone calls in the middle of the night.

No one should have to live like this....

I find myself torn...

As US citizens, we are supposed to be guaranteed a trial by a jury of our peers.  The gov't is supposed to arrest us, if at all possible.  It is not supposed to assassinate us.  Yet, the current administration has used drones to kill US citizens abroad. They've assassinated them as they were driving down the road, blowing them to smithereens...

Yes, it is true that SOME of those assassinated were traitors and had committed crimes against the state. They were bad people.  However, they were still citizens and, when they were killed, they were not shooting at anyone...  they posed NO IMMEDIATE THREAT.

I find myself torn...  And, in this case, as bad as SOME of these people were, I have to agree with the ACLU in that their civil rights, as guaranteed by the Constitution with regard to due process, were trampled by the current administration.   But, what else is new.  This administration has trampled upon our freedoms and rights since its first day in office, but this is sanctioned murder under the guise of patriotism...  of a fight against "terrorists".  And now it has been sanctioned, skeptically, by a Federal judge, Colleen McMahon (US District Judge, Southern District of New York).

In her 75-page ruling issued on Wednesday, January 2, one can hear her skepticism and the frustration in her written words, which declares the US Justice Department does not have a legal obligation to explain the rationale behind killing Americans with targeted drone strikes.  Judge McMahon wrote in her finding that the Obama administration was in the right by rejecting Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and The New York Times for materials pertaining to the use of unmanned aerial vehicles to execute, to assassinate, to murder three US citizens abroad in late 2011.

"I can find no way around the thicket of laws and precedents that effectively allow the executive branch of our government to proclaim as perfectly lawful certain actions that seem on their face incompatible with our Constitution and laws while keeping the reasons for their conclusion a secret," she wrote. 

Having read the decision (linked above), there is NOTHING in it that prevents the killing of US Citizens on US soil... ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!  Make no mistake, this is an extremely dangerous precedent.

 “The Alice-in-Wonderland nature of this pronouncement is not lost on me,” Judge McMahon wrote, adding that she was operating in a legal environment that amounted to “a veritable Catch-22.”

Earlier, I stated that only "SOME" of the people killed in drone strikes were bad.  I stand by that statement as also killed in drone strikes were innocent bystanders and the son of al-Awlaki. It's unknown whether Awlaki's son, who was born in Colorado, was a terrorist or not.  He had no choice in his parentage and was executed strictly because of his parentage, as was his teenage friend who was visiting him. This was a 16 yr old kid, a kid who hadn't seen his father in 2 years...  A kid who snuck out of the house to try and find his father...  his dad.  I think Tom Junod, Esquire Magazine, covers the story of the kid the best and I find the quote below poignant.

"He was a boy who hadn't seen his father in two years, since his father had gone into hiding. He was a boy who knew his father was on an American kill list and who snuck out of his family's home in the early morning hours of September 4, 2011, to try to find him. He was a boy who was still searching for his father when his father was killed, and who, on the night he himself was killed, was saying goodbye to the second cousin with whom he'd lived while on his search, and the friends he'd made. He was a boy among boys, then; a boy among boys eating dinner by an open fire along the side of a road when an American drone came out of the sky and fired the missiles that killed them all."

What really, really bothers me about all this is that it appears we no longer live in the United States, a nation founded on personal freedom and the right to LIFE, LIBERTY, and the pursuit of happiness.  Instead, we have become a nation where the President of the United States has the last word in deciding who lives and who dies.  A President who has been quoted as saying that the decision to put Anwar al-Awlaki on the kill list — and then to kill him — was "an easy one".  Taking the life of another should NEVER be an "easy" decision.

Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, 1996-2012

Al-Awlaki's son, Abdulrahman, was a natural born United States citizen. He was NEVER on the "kill list".  He was NOT a member of Al-Qaeda.  He did NOT renounce his citizenship.  He was a 16 year old MINOR, a child by ALL LEGAL definitions.  His crime?  NONE except for being born of a father gone bad. So, why was the boy killed 2 weeks after his father?  That's right, he was NOT killed in the same drone strike which killed his father.  He was killed 2 weeks later.  

Where is the outrage?  

One has to wonder, especially after the Obama administration has threatened a journalist, Bob Woodward, who will be the next United States citizen to be targeted for assassination?  Will it be Bob Woodward because of his temerity to state that sequestration was Obama's idea and that Obama has "moved the goalposts"?  Or, will it be another United States citizen who has the temerity to defy Obama's efforts at gun grabbing?  Who refuses to pay increased taxes?  Who speaks out against this evil and abusive tyrant posing as a President?

Who will be next???