Willie Nelson

Sheryl Crow, Viggo Mortensen and Ginger Kathrens Speak Out to
Save The American Mustang in Kleinert’s New Film. Filmmaker calls to
protect legendary American wild horses in the West.

Washington, DC (March 10, 2010)—International award-winning filmmaker, James Kleinert, screens his latest star-studded film, Disappointment Valley … A Modern Day Western, featuring Sheryl Crow, Viggo Mortensen and Darryl Hannah, on Wednesday, March 24 in Washington DC. Kleinert’s documentary examines the politics behind the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) controversial policies on public lands while questioning the fate of America’s wild horses and burros.

The screening begins at 6:00pm at Busboys and Poets, 14th and V, Washington, DC. The film will be followed by a Q&A with Kleinert and Emmy-Award Winning filmmaker and wild horse advocate, Ginger Kathrens, who also appears in the film. The screening will be followed by the “March for Mustangs” rally on March 25th in Lafayette Park from 1:00pm- 3:00pm to stop the destruction of America’s wild horse and burro herds. Actress Wendie Malick will join speakers Kathrens, Kleinert and more for a 1:30pm press conference.

“Wild horses are living things who have a right to coexist in what is a vast landscape, which is the American west.”- Viggo Mortensen, Actor/Advocate

Disappointment Valley centers around dramatic footage of heart-wrenching wild horse roundups and interviews with Jim Baca, (former Director of the Bureau of Land Management), Michael Blake, (Writer, Dances With Wolves), Sheryl Crow, Viggo Mortensen, Daryl Hannah, Congressmen Raul M. Grijalva, American Indian Actor and advocate Raoul Trijullo, energy consultant Randy Udall, scientific experts, animal rights and environmental activists. Probing deeply into the issue, the documentary examines the effects of the 2004 legislation that cleared the way for the removal and slaughter of America’s wild horses.

“The BLM is not just trying to destroy wild horse herds, they’re really challenging the system of democracy in the US and this is a very, very dangerous path they’ve gone down” –Ginger Kathrens, filmmaker of the popular PBS Cloud: Wild Stallion of the Rockies programs and Director of The Cloud Foundation.

Disappointment Valley documents the struggle of the legendary mustangs who have long symbolized freedom, individualism and the wild spirit in America. However, greed and corruption take center stage, exposing deceit within the BLM.  The film delves into the current impacts on western public lands by oil, gas, mining and corporate cattle grazing.

“I hope this film will not only educate viewers about the disturbing, massive removals of our wild horses but inspire change to protect these precious animals in the West,” explains Kleinert. A former World Cup competitor in freestyle skiing aerials, and a top action, environmental and Native American filmmaker, Kleinert’s short film Wild Horse Spirit was pivotal in the 2007 Emmy award-winning PBS series Natural Hero’s.

“As remarkable as a distant sight of wild horses can be, it remains the tip of a glorious iceberg. The actual lives of wild horses reveal to humanity the privilege of having a life on the planet earth and how vital it is to respect the privilege.”- Michael Blake, Author Dances with Wolves and Twelve the King.

James Kleinert works closely with the Spirit Riders Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit. The Spirit Riders Foundation produces multimedia state of the art audio-visual programming to educate, enlighten, entertain and to create positive understanding, hope and action among people and cultures. These materials are designed to foster harmony and understanding by empowering the human spirit, mind and body.

Reservations for the screening are recommended but not required, please contact: Elizabeth Slagsvol at BSlagsvol@mac.com or Makendra Silverman, Makendra@TheCloudFoundation.org, 719-351-8187
Venue capacity: 80 people

Disappointment Valley Trailer & Information

James Kleinert, filmmaker Moving Cloud Productions

PSA by Moving Cloud Productions on mustangs in danger

Spirit Riders Foundation

American Herds – “What’s Left?”

March for Mustangs- March 25th, DC Rally:

News Story on Calico, rising death toll & skewed numbers from George Knapp (KLAS- Las Vegas)

BLM Daily Reports from Calico Roundup/Fallon Holding

Humane Observer blog

“A Cruel Waste” – explanatory youtube video

Rebuttal to Salazar’s plan in LA Times

The Cloud Foundation position paper on Salazar plan—Oct. 2009

Good Morning America at Calico

New York Times “Horses Die in Roundup”

After campaigning for Obama, Sheryl Crow at odds over his administration’s wild-horse plan (Associated Press)

Mestengo. Mustang. Misfit. America’s Disappearing Wild Horses- A History

Frequently Asked Questions on Wild Horses

Stampede to Oblivion: An Investigate Report from Las Vegas Now

Photos, video and interviews available from:
The Cloud Foundation
news@thecloudfoundation.org
719-633-3842

Media Contacts:
Makendra Silverman
Makendra@TheCloudFoundation.org
Tel: 719-351-8187

Anne Novak
Anne@TheCloudFoundation.org
Tel: 415-531-8454

Patty Ann Smith and Craig Smith collaborated to give us a great video for “Lend A Hand To The Farmers.” I find it a real pleasure to feature artists who make it a point to deliver an honest point of view on real situations.

Just plain wrong information can come from anywhere. Even someone who teaches at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas and is a senior scholar at the Levy Economics Institute may say something silly like:

“To put things crudely, there are two ways to get the increase in total spending that we call “economic growth.” One way is for government to spend. The other is for banks to lend. Leaving aside short-term adjustments like increased net exports or financial innovation, that’s basically all there is. Governments and banks are the two entities with the power to create something from nothing. If total spending power is to grow, one or the other of these two great financial motors–public deficits or private loans–has to be in action.”
- JAMES K. GALBRAITH

It seems to me that this just does not make sense.

There is only one way to get an increase in total spending that is sustainable, that is you must increase net production of “stuff”, such as agricultural “stuff”, food.

• Neither public or private debt can increase wealth.
• Wealth can only be harvested, mined or manufactured.

I cannot believe that governments and banks can create something from nothing. I do not believe in free lunches, in my experience someone always pays.

I do believe we will be hearing and reading more and more things that do not make sense. It will become even more important to take care of the essential elements of our lives.

If we are not paying our farmers, and the evidence is that we are not judging from their massive rate of bankruptcy and foreclosure, then we destroy our oldest proven financial motor.

Patty Ann Smith and Craig Smith know this much and have lent their talents to spreading the message.

Why don’t you help “Lend A Hand To The Farmers,” too?

* * * * Artist’s Statement * * * * *

Craig and I lived in rural upstate New York for several years. It is our home state,  and we have many wonderful memories of our local farmers as friends and neighbors and also from county fairs and 4H events.

We gained the richness of their lives and work. It was a happy time then. However, unfortunately, those times have changed.

A nation that does not have an abundance of small family farmers ~ is an impoverished nation in body, mind, and spirit.

And, that is where we’re at right now.

Today, for every family farmer who is being torn apart by financial devastation, it tears apart the farmer, his family, and eventually the country.

Like a hurricane or tornado, this is each farmer’s devastating private storm.

Here are a few lines from Dougie MacLeans song Solid Ground that warm my heart and say something pretty profound:

Where is the honest fool
The open soul the simple smile
Who’ll be warm and true
for the passing stranger
who may rest a while
My fathers may have said these things
and now I  know
Yes didn’t they know
The joy a shared friendship brings
And now I know
yes didn’t they know
Now we stand on solid ground
we stand on solid ground
on solid ground
It ís the land that is our wisdom
It ís the land that shines us true
It ís the land that feeds our children
It ís the land
you cannot own the land
the land owns you
It ís the land
you cannot own the land
the land owns you

Many family farmers are teachers of the natural world, and we need them more than ever, now.

I find it unacceptable that the family farmers that have been feeding us all along are becoming some of the homeless and hungry among us.

For Willie Nelson and all his Good Works!

Willie, what a pleasure it is to be even a small part of being able to help save the family farmers of this land.

We know that the health of our country is at stake in more ways than one, and that we need to continue to support what ís right and in harmony with the Universal Truths.

Peace to All
Patty and Craig Smith

…Or Business As Usual?

President Obama can choose to personify change, the deep historic change the People of the United States voted for and the People of the World hoped for.

1517- Spain begins black plantation slavery (slave trade).
1619 – Slaves arrive in Jamestown.
1787 – U.S. Constitution defines and establishes legal slavery.
1850 – The Fugitive Slave Act, returns escaped slaves to their owners, even if found in non-slave states.
1857 – The Dred Scott Supreme Court decision has the effect of legalizing slavery in all the states.
1861-1865 – The American Civil War.
1863 – The Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves in the Confederate states in rebellion (but not in Kentucky and Delaware).
1860’s – The 13th, 14th, and 15th “Reconstruction Amendments.”
1877 – Reconstruction officially ends in the South, allowing anti-negro laws to re-emerge in force. Jim Crow laws and the KKK arise as well.
1896 – The Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court case allows segregated schools.
1925 – KKK members number well over 1,000,000 in the US. A parade of 50,000 members marched in Washington, D.C.
1947 – Jackie Robinson breaks the color barrier in Major League Baseball.
1948 – Armed Forces integrated.
1954 – Brown v. Board of Education declares school segregation illegal.
1961 – Barack Obama born.
1963 – March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom; “I Have a Dream” speech.
1964 – The Civil Rights Act is signed into law by President Johnson.
1965 – The Voting Rights Act is signed into law.
1967 – Thurgood Marshall becomes the first African-American Supreme Court Justice.
1968 – Martin Luther King assassinated.
2008 – Barack Obama becomes the first African-American President.

President Obama seems positioned for true greatness.

On the other hand, President Obama can choose to become merely the latest of America’s warrior presidents that include

• Washington
• Madison
• Jackson
• Lincoln
• T. Roosevelt
• Wilson
• F. Roosevelt
• Truman
• Johnson
• Nixon
• Reagan
• GHW Bush
• Clinton
• GW Bush

If President Obama is to personify the deep change the People of the United States voted for and the People of the World hoped for, then it seems the People of the United States and the People of the World need to relentlessly remind him of his promises and continuously pressure him to do the right thing.

After WW II the United States waged wars for unchallengeable global dominance throughout a period when the United States had and still has no enemies.

Is President Obama ready to stop this madness?

Seymour Melman wrote “In the Grip of a Permanent War Economy” (CounterPunch, March 15, 2003) in which he said:

“at the start of the twenty-first century, every major aspect of American life is being shaped by our Permanent War Economy.”

Melman then examined the horrific toll to the United States:

1. a de-industrialized nation, the result of decades of shifting production overseas leaving unions and communities “decimated;”
2. government financing and promoting “every kind of war industry and foreign investing by US firms;” war priorities take precedence over essential homeland needs;
3. America’s “Permanent War Economy….has endured since the end of World War II….Since then the US has been at war – somewhere – every year, in Korea, Nicaragua, Vietnam, the Balkans, Afghanistan – all this to the accompaniment of shorter military forays in Africa, Chile, Grenada, Panama,” and increasingly at home against its own people;
4. “how to make war” takes precedence over everything leaving no “public space….on how to improve the quality of our lives;”
5. “Shortages of (affordable) housing have caused a swelling of the homeless population in every major city (because) State and city governments across the country have become trained to bend to the needs of the military….;” the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH) currently estimates over 21,000 are on city streets nightly, and during winter months it’s dangerous;
6. the result is a nation of growing millions of poor, disadvantaged, uneducated, and “disconnected from society’s mainstream, restless and unhappy, frustrated, angry, and sad;”

Seymour Melman stressed that:

“Further evasion is out of order. We must come to grips with America’s State Capitalism and its Permanent War Economy.” Re-industrialization is essential “to restore jobs and production competence – industry by industry.”

“Failing that, there is no hope for any constructive exit,” for the nation or its people.

Stop the “Humanitarian” War fraud.

Frida Ghitis, a political analyst and a regular columnist for the Miami Herald and World Politics Review wrote:

“…war is sometimes justified to stop even worse atrocities. That’s the humanitarian rationale.”

It seems civilian casualties of “Humanitarian” War can be justified by claiming that they were a necessary step in preventing far greater future civilian casualties. It all appears to be only a simple matter of accounting.

Suffering and death is justified as a necessary collective sacrifice for a greater benefit, regardless of whether or not the victims involved agree to being sacrificed.

Here is the basis to the math behind “Humanitarian” War:

• Costs are the atrocities committed as a direct consequence of “Humanitarian” War
• Benefits are the atrocities prevented by “Humanitarian” War

However, 2 questions immediately come to mind:

1. How are atrocities to be measured?
2. How are we going to measure atrocities that never happened?

which requires much more of President Obama:

• Does President Obama know the future?
• Does President Obama know the objective value of individual humans’ sufferings and deaths?
• Does President Obama know some people’s lives are less valuable than others?

One would think that anyone capable of all of this could first usher in a historic era of global peace and prosperity.

Help President Obama be the President we all voted for.

Find a way to remind him of the historic president he can be.

A small effort by you can:

• help bring our troops home
• save countless lives
• forestall untold needless suffering

Please make the effort.

Public Opposes Salazar’s Request for Millions to Move Mustangs East
Americans want to keep their wild horses in the West

Colorado Springs, CO (March 1, 2010)—The Cloud Foundation and members of the public are calling on their Senators to oppose the dubious Salazar Plan— to move captured wild horses East. On March 3rd Secretary Ken Salazar is expected to testify before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to request $42 million to implement phase one of what many are calling the “SalaZoo Plan”, a call for moving thousands of mustangs (mares and neutered stallions) to taxpayer purchased lands in the Midwest and East.

With Salazar’s plan, announced last October, only a few “treasured” wild horse and burro herds may be left in the West. The Secretary, a former Colorado U.S. Senator and will attempt to convince Senators that the West is out of room for wild horses and they must be moved East for their own good. The Cloud Foundation contends that the Salazar Plan this is cruel, unnecessary, and enormously costly to taxpayers and wild herds alike.

There are now more wild horses in expensive government holding than there are on 29 million acres of public lands and less than a quarter of wild herds are managed at genetically viable levels. Advocates continue making clear demands for the return of wild horses to the over 24 -58 million acres of public lands where legally designated wild horse herds have been zeroed out since passage of the Wild Horse and Burro Act in 1971. When Congress unanimously passed the Act, it stated that our wild herds were to be managed as “an integral part of the natural system of the public lands.”

“How about putting the mustangs back out on the lands where BLM zeroed them out?” asks Eric Wright, Nevada resident and wild horse photographer. “BLM can’t even explain what happened to 24 -58 million acres where wild horses were to be managed. Just last fall they completely zeroed out 12 herds outside of Ely, Nevada—lands where mustangs have roamed for centuries. Now the land is suddenly ‘inappropriate for wild horses’ but still appropriate for some thousands of head of cattle.”

After a 2006 town hall meeting in Greeley Colorado, then U.S. Senate candidate Salazar, told Barbara Flores, a longtime wild horse advocate, that wild horses don’t belong on public lands. Clearly, his opinion remains unchanged. The Secretary’s plan to move thousands of mustangs East onto private lands purchased on the taxpayer’s dime and to continue the massive roundups would spell the end of America’s celebrated Western Herds on the public’s land.

“The Secretary’s plan is fiscal insanity and just the opposite of what Congress intended when it passed the Wild Horse and Burro Act,” stated Ginger Kathrens, filmmaker of the Cloud series and executive director of The Cloud Foundation. “Whether you like wild horses and burros or not, every taxpayer should be up arms over this. And the SalaZoo plan is a potential health disaster for western wild horses shipped east. Did the Secretary ever think about trimming the feet every six weeks of thousands of wild horses now on grassy pastures? Or the risks of humidity and non-native forage? What about rain rot, colic, founder, or the other illnesses and conditions wild horses would need to overcome in the East?”

Already over 34,000 wild horse are warehoused by the BLM at a cost of over $3.3 million per month. According to American Herds an estimated 15,000 or fewer wild horses and burros remain in the wild. BLM admits they have no accurate census. The remaining half of their $67.5 million budget goes directly to removing thousands more wild horses in expensive helicopter roundups by private contractors, one of whom was convicted of using aircraft to hunt wild horse horses, aiding and abetting. Those horses were sent to slaughter in Texas. “This contractor has continued to receive millions of taxpayer dollars even though he violated the very law the BLM is mandated to uphold,” commented Julianne French, an Arizona wild horse and burro advocate. “The management of this program is so broken, it’s hard to know where to clean house first. And Salazar’s plan just compounds the problem.”

The public disagrees with the Salazar Plan. “It seems a real stretch that captured, neutered mustangs would be an ecotourism draw the East,” remarked advocate Marian Jo Souder of Ohio. “I’d sure rather see mustangs and burros in their natural western ranges, not in eastern holding fields.” Already over 22,000 wild horses are kept in holding pastures in Kansas and Oklahoma. The only difference between BLM’s current “long-term holding” and Salazar’s “preserves” according to DOI Undersecretary Sylvia Baca is that the public would be allowed to view these captured horses. Her comments were made at the December, 2009 BLM National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board Meeting in Reno, Nevada.

The Salazar plan only highlights the enormous disconnect between the public and the so-called Rogue BLM agency. One advocate in Oklahoma remarked, “As far as the Salazar plan, my great grandmother was full-blooded Cherokee who walked the trail of tears.  I don’t see Salazar’s ‘preserves’ as much different from the reservations my family members were forced to move to.”

In the recent million dollar-plus, 40-day Calico Roundup, over 1900 mustangs were pushed by helicopters from their stark and beautiful mountain stronghold in NW Nevada. At least 64 mustangs have died in this winter roundup with that number climbing daily and over 35 late term abortions have been reported in the Fallon, Nevada holding pens. BLM stopped the roundup early when they admitted they had significantly over-counted the wild horses left on the range. Meanwhile thousands of privately-owned cattle still graze those same wild horse herd areas bringing in revenues to the BLM of around $40,000 per year – less than what it cost to hold the Fallon horses for four days.  Annually American taxpayers lose $123 million running the taxpayer subsidized grazing program, referred to as “welfare ranching”. The grazing fee is currently the lowest allowed by law—$1.35 per cow/calf pair per month. A grazing fee hike of 600% would be required to pay for just the costs of administration of the program. Outnumbered 100:1 by cattle on public lands, wild horses and burros represent less than 0.5% of hooved animals on our public lands.

Americans from across the nation will gather in Washington DC on March 25th (March for Mustangs) to protest Salazar’s plan for the removal and destruction of America’s Western wild herds. Advocates want a truly sustainable plan to protect wild horses and burros in the West.

“It is time to reveal the BLM wild horse and burro program for what it is— a deceitful and inhumane waste of taxpayer money. What other program aims to destroy what it is charged to protect with such willful disregard to the public they serve?” asks Ginger Kathrens.

American Herds – “What’s Left?”

March for Mustangs- March 25th, DC Rally:

News Story on Calico, rising death toll & skewed numbers from George Knapp (KLAS- Las Vegas)

BLM Daily Reports from Calico Roundup/Fallon Holding

Humane Observer blog

“A Cruel Waste” – explanatory youtube video

Rebuttal to Salazar’s plan in LA Times

The Cloud Foundation position paper on Salazar plan—Oct. 2009

Good Morning America at Calico

New York Times “Horses Die in Roundup”

Feds Deny Gas Pipeline Related to Wild Horse Roundup

After campaigning for Obama, Sheryl Crow at odds over his administration’s wild-horse plan (Associated Press)

Mestengo. Mustang. Misfit. America’s Disappearing Wild Horses- A History

Frequently Asked Questions on Wild Horses

Stampede to Oblivion: An Investigate Report from Las Vegas Now

Photos, video and interviews available from:
The Cloud Foundation
news@thecloudfoundation.org
719-633-3842

Media Contacts:
Makendra Silverman
Makendra@TheCloudFoundation.org
Tel: 719-351-8187

Anne Novak
Anne@TheCloudFoundation.org
Tel: 415-531-8454

Captured Wild Mustangs Die As BLM Bars Public Observers

The Calico Wild Horse Roundup death toll exceeds 60
as public alarm grows

February 25, 2010 release— At least 62 federally-protected American wild horses have died due to the controversial Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Calico roundup in Nevada as of today. An additional 35 late term abortions have been recorded in the Fallon feedlot-style holding facility where 1869 captured mustangs are corralled at enormous taxpayer expense. Advocates are being denied access to observe horses as the death toll rises. At least one horse died during BLM “processing” operations. The public and humane observers want access to view how their tax money is being spent and to verify the horses are being treated humanely. Standard processing procedures are generally open to the public to observe without issue. Advocates question if there is something to hide.

“Moving forward with this winter roundup was a huge mistake on the part of BLM. Two years ago a February roundup in Nevada resulted in the death of 85 horses. I would hope BLM never rounds up wild horses again in the dead of winter,” says Ginger Kathrens, Director of The Cloud Foundation.

American taxpayers are paying over $10,000 a day to hold the captured Calico horses at the privately owned Broken Arrow holding facility. Processing (freeze-branding, inoculating, tagging) adds thousands more to the cost. BLM has denied repeated requests for even two humane advocate observers to be present during processing and allows public visits by reservation only for two hours each Sunday. The Cloud Foundation. and the public are seriously alarmed by the rising death toll and BLM’s complete lack of transparency and accountability. Promised vet reports have not been posted since February 1st as horses perish daily.

“The public deserves to have people who can watch and document how our tax dollars are being spent. Allowing humane advocate observers into the facility would be a good first step in restoring trust in an agency that has thumbed their nose at the American public while rounding up and destroying America’s mustang heritage,” states Ginger Kathrens.

Humane observers would not inhibit the processing or frighten horses during processing and would allow the concerned public a view of what is going on during processing of these publicly-owned horses. The BLM removed the mustangs from public lands despite a federal judge’s suggestion that the roundup be delayed and over 10,000 public comments asking the BLM to stop their winter roundup plans.

BLM has given indications that they will select “impartial” observers to watch the proceedings. “I think that the public and wild horse advocates should be able to send their own humane observers, not hand picked and selected people that will not criticize the BLM. That would be much like the skewed public Advisory Board that also fails to represent the welfare of our wild herds,” stated Julianne French, an Arizona wild horse advocate.

Wild horse and burro advocates will protest in Washington DC on March 25th. The rally “March for Mustangs” will start in Lafayette Park at 1:00pm with a press conference at 1:30pm, concluding with a march to BLM offices.

Special thanks to Mark Terrell for the photos.

Links of interest:

News Story on Calico, rising death toll & skewed numbers from George Knapp (KLAS- Las Vegas):

Humane Observer blog

Court Case: In Defense of Animals and Craig Downer v. Secretary Salazar

Good Morning America at Calico

New York Times “Horses Die in Roundup”

Ruby Pipeline: The Smoking Gun?

After campaigning for Obama, Sheryl Crow at odds over his administration’s wild-horse plan (Associated Press)

Mestengo. Mustang. Misfit.
America’s Disappearing Wild Horses- A History
Frequently Asked Questions on Wild Horses

Stampede to Oblivion: An Investigate Report from Las Vegas Now

Unified Moratorium letter and signatories

Roundup Schedule- updated January 11, 2010
Photos, video and interviews available from:
The Cloud Foundation
news@thecloudfoundation.org
719-633-3842

Media Contacts:
Makendra Silverman
Makendra@TheCloudFoundation.org
Tel: 719-351-8187

Anne Novak
Anne@TheCloudFoundation.org
Tel: 415-531-8454