A week or so ago I saw a fairly innocuous article about Bobby Hill, one of the owners of a ranch named Culebra Peak. The article was obviously written from his point of view (he owns the Hill Ranch on Hwy 67 West in Glen Rose) and talked about people paying 100 dollars to come on the property and, presumably, elk hunt, since that's what hsi Colorado ranch offers.

The mountain, which rises above the town of San Luis, just north of the New Mexico border, is the only fourteener in North America that lies entirely on private land. It sits in the middle of the 77,000-acre Cielo Vista Ranch. Anyone who wants to climb it must make a reservation, show up at the ranch gate promptly at 6 a.m. and present a check for $100, payable to the Texas millionaire who owns the place....

But there's actually been a court case (more than one) about who gets to go onto that property, and, according to a fairly recent judge ruling, it isn't just those who line up at the gate and pay 100 bucks. Apparently the ranch used to be called the Taylor Ranch and some Costilla County residents wanted to have, and got, legal access to the mountain for purposes of firewood gathering and timber cutting. From Alamosa News July 25, 2008

While this month brought a victory for some Costilla County residents seeking access to La Sierra, formerly known as the Taylor Ranch, other residents are still fighting their way through the court system in an attempt to gain access to the mountain.

Land Rights Council Inc. President Shirley Romero-Otero said more than 300 individuals from El Rito (also known as San Francisco) won a long-awaited court ruling this month to gain access to the mountain for purposes of grazing, firewood gathering and timber cutting.

The Land Rights Council just received that list of newly accessed residents on Thursday. “We are very happy for them because they have been waiting for a long time,” Romero-Otero said.

Judge Gaspar Perricone, assigned to La Sierra legal issues, granted El Rito residents access during a status hearing earlier this month. The approximately 319 El Rito individuals who won that right will receive “la llave” to La Sierra entrance points at the next key distribution date. “That allows them to enter the mountain from any one of the gates and graze, gather firewood or timber,” Romero-Otero explained.

Also graze their livestock. I expect they won't be paying $100 to get in. Here's more timeline. And here's an article, with audio, from NPR about the Colorado hispanics who were and are figihting for the right to access Taylor Ranch.

And from 1997, a NYTimes article with more background.

It is the hottest environmental dispute in the Rockies today. Logging trucks have been blockaded six times in the last year, resulting in 54 arrests, largely of environmentalists allied with the Hispanic farmers.

Logging companies are cutting about one-third of the trees on Mr. Taylor's high-altitude estate, the watershed for the southeastern portion of the San Luis Valley. In the Rockies, commercial logging is rare, largely because low rainfall, high altitudes and cold weather slow the growth of trees.

The timber operation on Mr. Taylor's property is the largest in the state. Down in the valley, farmers say that deforestation is eroding hillsides and clogging with sediment their ''acequia'' irrigation system, a century-old network of hand-dug ditches. In a valley where the average annual rainfall ranges from 4 to 9 inches, a healthy acequia means the difference between a productive farm and a sagebrush desert.

I had seen this article before in the LATIMEs, and remember reading about how  the Reagans were shocked by what John McCain did to his poor crippled wife. But I missed that he actually was deceptive about his adultery.

In his 2002 memoir, "Worth the Fighting For," McCain wrote that he had separated from Carol before he began dating Hensley.

"I spent as much time with Cindy in Washington and Arizona as our jobs would allow," McCain wrote. "I was separated from Carol, but our divorce would not become final until February of 1980."

An examination of court documents tells a different story. McCain did not sue his wife for divorce until Feb. 19, 1980, and he wrote in his court petition that he and his wife had "cohabited" until Jan. 7 of that year -- or for the first nine months of his relationship with Hensley.

Although McCain suggested in his autobiography that months passed between his divorce and remarriage, the divorce was granted April 2, 1980, and he wed Hensley in a private ceremony five weeks later. McCain obtained an Arizona marriage license on March 6, 1980, while still legally married to his first wife.

Um. Doesn't that travel towards BIGAMY???? I mean, SURELY you would have to be divorced before you could apply for a license to get married again. Not to mention that McCain obviously wants to obscure the dates all of this happened so he looks like he was still with his wife, even though he was NOT, he was shacking up with the Side.

Yeah. Open that baby up in broad daylight.. iN COURT. It's ridic that a citizen can't find out about IF or WHY he or she is on a watch list. I didn't think this was Stasi.

The couple filed the suit specifically against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice, National Counter Terrorism Center, Terrorist Screening Center, Transportation Security Administration, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the civil suit.

The 28-page suit outline difficulties the couple have encountered while traveling since January 2002.

“For reasons that they do not fully understand, and that no one with the United States government will explain, they are stopped at airports and border crossings; they are singled out and embarrassed in front of fellow airline passengers; their belongings are searched; and they are detained for several hours at a time — and the government will not tell them why. Their experiences, however, indicate that they are being retaliated against because of their religious activities and their Muslim faith,” the lawsuit states.

These lists are not online or available for public access, Foerster said.

“The problem is people end up on these watch lists. They don’t know why they’ve been put on it and they can’t figure out how to get off them, because the government won’t respond,” Foerster said.

Before the God-Off the other day, Rick Warren was being interviewed by ABC News.

TAPPER: Would you have compunctions about voting for someone who had cheated on his wife?

WARREN: Absolutely I would. Absolutely I would. Because if you can’t keep your faith to your most sacred vow – “’til death do us part” -- how in the world can I trust you to lead my family? My government? My nation?...Absolutely I would. I think people first need to ask forgiveness and then earn trust back over time Can trust be re-earned? Absolutely but it takes time.

The context was about John Edwards, but surely Warren holds the same standard for John McCain. Or do religious people wink about cheaters if the candidate is a Republican.

By the late 70's McCain had engaged in adulterous behaviors, as chronicled in the book "The Nightingale's Song" by Robert Timberg. Timberg wrote:

"Off duty, usually on routine cross-country flights to Yuma and El Centro, John started carousing and running around with women. To make matters worse, some of the women with whom he was linked by rumor were subordinates. At the time the rumors were so widespread that, true or not, they became part of McCain's persona, impossible not to take note of."

In 1979 John McCain met Cindy Lou Hensley at a military reception in Hawaii. [1] Cindy was a millionaire and very attractive. McCain was eighteen years older than the wealthy Hensley, but that didn't stop him from developing an adulterous relationship with her. [2]

McCain says of their first meeting, "She was lovely, intelligent and charming, 18 years my junior but poised and confident. I monopolized her attention the entire time, taking care to prevent anyone else from intruding on our conversation. When it came time to leave the party, I persuaded her to join me for drinks at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. By the evening's end, I was in love."

Knowing that Cindy's father had extensive business and political contacts [3], McCain decided to abandon his first wife and marry Cindy. McCain divorced Carol in April 1980 and immediately married Cindy the next month, May 17th. With the Hensley fortune and connections, McCain ran for Congress in 1982. He craved power and has been on a course to secure ultimate control ever since.

A man that cannot be faithful to a loving, self-sacrificing wife cannot be trusted to be faithful to the American people. Bill Clinton taught us that.  This week the New York Times reported that during his previous Presidential run in 2000, McCain may have had an inappropriate relationship with the young and lovely lobbyist, Vicki Iseman. The public, not knowing McCain's history of adultery, responded to the NY Times as if they had to be making the story up.  NOW what do you think?