Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy takes on the U.S. government again

Decked out in a buffalo-hide hat, bolo tie and Western boots, Nevada rancher and states' rights rabble-rouser Cliven Bundy stood near the Capitol building Tuesday, addressing a throng of supporters and one lone counter-protester (more on him later). Hey, if Mr. Smith can go to Washington, then, by golly, Mr. Bundy can go to Carson City — to air out his plain-spoken concerns on how the federal government's britches have just gotten too big, with a reach so suffocating it threatens to smother the constitutional health of this Western state. And so here he was, this stubborn 69-year-old cowboy, whose armed standoff last year with the Bureau of Land Management over grazing rights on federally administered public lands almost led to violence. But this time Bundy's supporters left their guns at home. The rancher led a busload of blue-collar followers from Las Vegas to swarm a hearing to discuss legislation calling for Washington to release its stranglehold on 85% of the land in this arid state and allow local residents greater access to fish, hike and hunt there. And in Bundy's case, run his cattle free of charge there. "For too long, we've allowed the federal government to run over us like we're nothing," he told supporters. "Well, we're not gonna be nothing no more." At issue is Nevada's AB 408, introduced by Republican state Assemblywoman Michele Fiore. It's the latest of a slew of anti-Uncle Sam bills put forth across the West that have caught the attention of land and water advocacy groups. "Bill 408 goes farther than even the most extreme bill we've seen so far — and we're tracking 37 like bills in 11 Western states," said Jessica Goad, a spokeswoman for the Center for Western Priorities, a nonpartisan think tank. Similar state legislation elsewhere has called for studies of state-controlled lands and even demanded the BLM relinquish all management to the state. Nevada's goes even further, insisting Washington "has no say in any land and water rights discussion," Goad said. Nevada's oversight Legislative Counsel Bureau, which provides legal advice and research for lawmakers, has labeled the bill unconstitutional. Goad said Bundy and his sovereign-citizen movement represented "an extremist take on the rights of the federal government in America"...more