We have met the enemy, and he is U.S.

Walt Kelly's "Pogo" had it right, back in the '70s, when he said, "We have met the enemy and he is us."

Updating it a bit, "We have met the enemy, and he is U.S."

When Barack Obama declared he intended to "fundamentally transform the United States of America," I doubt that many – or perhaps any – Americans realized what that really meant.

Well, he's in his second term, and Americans have been finding out: Essentially, the government would henceforth be against the people.

We've seen our rights being shaved away, but it's most clearly evident in the grim reality of the current massive invasion and confiscation of private property in Nevada by military and armed police.

Some likened it to Tiananmen Square – government might and military against citizens. That's exactly what's been happening to 67-year-old Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, his family, his ranch and his cattle.

In China, it was military tanks intimidating and killing civilians.

In Clark County, Nev., the Bureau of Land Management, or BLM, used more than 200 heavily armed federal troops, attack dogs, tasers, helicopters, military vehicles and fully armed snipers to threaten, intimidate and threaten to shoot and kill the owners of a cattle ranch all the while confiscating their cattle.

At one point, several members of the family were stopped on a nearby public highway while one of Mr. Bundy's sons, Dave, was taking video of the cattle roundup.

Loudspeakers warned him to stop. Eleven BLM vehicles converged on them, each with at least two armed agents. In addition, four snipers had their guns trained on them.

A police dog was turned on Dave and he was jammed to the ground; then he was tased and his camera confiscated. Ultimately, he was arrested.

Cliven Bundy attempted to call local authorities for help but was told to hang up the phone or he'd be arrested.

In another incident, family members were attempting to see if any of the confiscated cattle had been killed when agents surrounded them, tasers and dogs were used again and Cliven's sister, a cancer survivor, was thrown to the ground by a BLM ranger.

The Bundy family has been has been ranching that land since 1887 when their great-grandfather bought the rights to the allotment. It has been in the family since, with water and other rights bought and paid for as well as road and fencing they paid for. These land rights are called preemptive rights and over the years Cliven Bundy paid grazing fees, as did other ranchers.

There was never any problem until it became clear the BLM was using its power to force out other ranchers.

There were 54 ranches in Clark County.

Now there's just one left: the Bundy ranch

Mr. Bundy has refused to pay the BLM for rights to use land, which they're trying to take from him.

He says they're using the fee issue to drive him out, and he doesn't believe the federal government has the right to land that belongs to the state of Nevada. He says he'll pay the fees to Clark County but not to the feds.

It's been a court battle for 20 years, finally coming to a head last week as armed troops moved in.

It's a classic case of a tyrannical government using its power against average citizens.

If you think it only happens somewhere else and not in the United States, think again.

Remember little Elian Gonzales facing the guns of heavily armed U.S. militia and forced to be returned to Castro's Cuba.

Remember Waco and the Branch Davidian Compound, attacked by the military and burned to the ground, killing 76 men, women and children.

Remember Randy Weaver and Ruby Ridge and the unarmed woman holding a baby who was shot and killed by a U.S. sharpshooter.

Those are the most egregious, but certainly not the only cases of Americans being attacked and abused by our own government and military and out-of-control bureaucracies.

As word spread about what was being done to the Bundy family, freedom-loving Americans from Nevada and other states began to rally to support them.

At the same time, media reports, which first were limited to area newspapers, began to spread on the Internet.

It wasn't a joke. Adding fuel to the fire, Tom Collins, a Clark County commissioner, said anyone from Utah who plans to go to Nevada to support the Bundy family "better have funeral plans."

According to Drin Bushman, a commissioner from Piute County, Utah, Collins also told him that anyone from Utah planning to support Bundy against the feds, should "turn your asses around and mind your own f---ing business."

No matter how you look at it, those are fightin' words.

Hundreds of local militia and average people showed up to support the family and confront the military.

And then suddenly, Saturday morning, the BLM called off the troops, claiming they were concerned about "safety."

What they omitted from their backtracking story is the fact that a report on Friday on Infowars.com and then other sites showed that Nevada Sen. Harry Reid and his son, Rory, are instrumental in a massive land purchase at bargain prices by a Chinese Energy company so it can build a $5-billion solar plant in Southern Nevada.

Also omitted from media coverage is that environmental groups threatened to sue the feds, claiming that cattle kill endangered desert tortoises.

The China issue is there.

The threat of a lawsuit is true; that cattle kill the tortoises is not.

The feds may have backed off a bit, but the threat continues.

Tyranny is limitless, and this administration supports it all the way.

Not a word from Washington about this, but through it all Cliven Bundy is a hero for liberty.

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