From Politico:

1. Bundy has been fighting BLM for more than 20 years. The rancher hasn't paid the BLM's grazing fees since 1993, and a federal judge first ordered him to remove his cattle from the land in 1998. In July, another judge said the BLM could remove his cattle if it was still on public land by the end of August. Bundy says he owes the government more than $300,000 in unpaid fees, but the government says he owes $1 million, plus the cost of the recent round-up. Either way, Bundy tells the Las Vegas Sun that he won't pay.

2. The Bundy family has owned its ranch since the 1870s. The ranch is only about 160 acres, which isn't enough space to sustain the hundreds of cattle that Bundy owns. He insists the disputed land around his ranch belongs to the state of Nevada, rather than the federal government, and he says the feds have no authority in the area. He told the Sun the government is trying to sabotage his plans to someday turn the ranch over to his son.

3. Bundy doesn't recognize the federal government. Speaking to conservative radio host Dana Loesch last week, he said he believes in a "sovereign state of Nevada" and abides by all state laws, but, "I don't recognize the United States government as even existing." (As The Atlantic notes, the Nevada Constitution says a citizen's first allegiance is to the federal government.)

5. BLM is in charge of 245 million acres of public land nationwide. 155 million acres of that area is available for livestock grazing in the West, and the agency has nearly 18,000 active permits and leases with ranchers in the West. BLM says its objective with public grazing is "to ensure the long-term health and productivity" of the land and environment.

6. The federal government owns more than 81 percent of all land in Nevada. BLM, alone, oversees 68 percent of the state, according to a 2010 report by the Congressional Research Service. Federal ownership of land is heavily concentrated in western states, with the government owning 47 percent of all combined land in the 11 western-most states, and only 4 percent in the rest of the country.

7. Bundy's supporters have roots in the Sagebrush Rebellion. The battle over federal land-use policy flared up in the 1970s, as a more environmentally oriented federal government began imposing regulations on its vast holdings in the West. Many ranchers accused President Jimmy Carter of using regulations to target states that didn't support him in 1976 or 1980. In a 1980 campaign stop in Utah, then-candidate Ronald Reagan said offered his support for the Sagebrush Rebellion: "Count me in as a rebel."

Another article from San Francisco Chronicle has a photo of Bundy with a pocket-sized version of the U.S. Constitution. To what purpose, one wonders? Swatting flies?

SRS