Inadequately Trained Troops !!Roger Hedgecock speaks out on the Sierra Club

January 30, 2003 | Myself

[fight_truth_decay]

During the EIB third hour, Roger Hedgecock, sitting in for Rush, spoke with Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA), Chariman of the Armed Services Committee, about environmental regulations that hinder training of marine forces at Camp Pendleton in California. Marines practicing amphibious assaults land on the beach, then pile onto a bus for the next phase of exercises so they don't harm the endangered California gnatcatcher, a small songbird.

Roger quoted Rep. Joel Hefley, R-Colo., chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on readiness, who plans to begin hearings next month on how endangered species issues have impaired military training."We want to train people the way they're going to fight," Hefley said. "You don't land there and get on a bus and drive to where you're going to shoot.

Roger went on to say environmentalist groups are endangering the lives of our Marines, as their final training takes place off Camp Pendleton before leaving for Iraq. This training is the most important a Marine can receive when preparing for combat when moving from sea to land in preparation for combat. This is the time most casualties occur!

Groups like the Sierra Club are giving more importance to the life of the gnatcatcher considered an endangered bird then our own Marines. Millions of these endangered birds are found in Mexico, with Camp Pendleton being a northern-most home for their habitat.

A Sierra Club card toting ex-military call-in suggested other areas off California to conduct these "life saving" maneuvers. All are areas protecting seals or even more protected birds, Roger replied.

The Air Force electronically tags gulf sturgeon to make sure they are not around when live ordnance is detonated over the Gulf of Mexico. The Marine Corps dispersed nests away from training operations to increase the population of red-cockaded woodpeckers in eastern North Carolina.

On the Pentagon's wish list are several provisions to lessen the burden of having to protect endangered species' "critical habitat" for survival, and broader exemptions from having to meet Clean Air Act standards during wartime and other national emergencies.

"They don't need the exemptions which they seek," said Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., who has been a frequent critic of military attempts to bypass federal environmental laws. "They are not only irresponsible but they seek to evade normal, proper environmental supervision."

More conservative leadership of House and Senate environmental panels has raised expectations at the Defense Department that Congress will grant the military more exemptions from environmental laws.

"We are more hopeful. We hope it works in our favor but we're not going to take anything for granted," Pentagon spokesman Glenn Flood said Tuesday. "Our expectations are high. That's not to say our work is going to be easy." (Or is it already too late!)

Note:Roger Hedgecock was once a card carrying Sierra Club member. He is no longer a member.

[fight_truth_decay]

Would you agree with the strong use of the word "traitorous" in the analogy of this situation in regard to groups like the Sierra Club?

Are the questionable "endangered" gnatcatchers more important than the "endangered" United States Marine? NO!!!

Sources:

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20030114_2130.html

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/weekend_sites/golfone/content/jan_30_2003.guest.html

[PhiKapMom]

Thank you for posting this. I was in my car when I heard the Congressman and then couldn't find anything on the Net that told the story of what was happening to our Military training.

I find the environmental movement beneath my contempt and the RATs right with them since they are marching in lockstep.

Good news is that Senator Inhofe (R-OK), a member of the Senate Armed Services, is the new head of the Senate Environmental Committee. This explains why the Sierra Club went through the ceiling when he was named along with some other Environmental groups.

Would you agree with the strong use of the word "traitorous" in the analogy of this situation in regard to groups like the Sierra Club?

Absolutely I count them as traitors when they put animals ahead of our men and women in the military. When I heard about the Marines landing on the beach in an excercise and then having to be bused around some bird habitat to go on with their training I was livid!

[chiller]

I heard most of the hour and was appalled at Roger's description of the behavior of some of these city/enviroweenies. Simply unbelievable.

There are those who would like to eliminate training flights because a mallard might accidentally fly into the path of a training jet.

Proof, imho that liberal/socialist/communists have found a home in the environmental lobby.

[fight_truth_decay]

I as well heard it on the EIB, but Roger being a guest host offered no Hedgecock text information; so just followed his sources to find what I could of the story.

[PhiKapMom]

I am so glad you did! I was stunned to hear what the Congressman was saying and the longer he talked the madder I got!

I couldn't believe that Air Force pilots get in trouble for running into a mallard duck like they are aiming for them.

This movement has crossed the line IMO and this needs widespread dissemination. Wish Hedgecock would wrote an op ed on this or the Congressman.

You have done a wonderful job of summing up what was said!

[BenR2]

Hey, let these enviro wackos make up a special unit on the front lines: Let them be the first to go in, if they don't want our boys properly trained!

[fight_truth_decay]

Had forgotten the Mallard Duck conversation. Thanks. Duck hunting by some of these Democratic "environmentalists" sport kill thousands more ducks then the few that fly into the engines of a training jet.

[Joee]

The situation is really bad. In Hawaii, the military has to fight for ever inch of training ground, and are about ready to lose a prime live fire range they have had for many years to to local idiots. So many vocal people anti military, have never served a day in their lives and have no idea of the value of good, practical experience.

[Wait4Truth]

I had heard about this story today...thank you so much for your wonderful explanation. Believing that a bird is more important than a Marine could only happen in the DemocRAT Party...the home of fanatics, America-haters and losers. I hope Senator Inhofe deals with this A.S.A.P.!

[OldFriend]

Not that long ago when my son was training recruits to drive tanks.......there was ALWAYS a warning from some environmentalist that there were certain trees that had to be protected because a woodpecker might be nesting there. I kid you not! There was constant concern that a tree might get bumped in to and then they would be reported. THIS GARBAGE MUST STOP!!!

[jonathonandjennifer]

Question: Could President Bush make an Executive Order that would over-rule all environmental restrictions on Military property having to do with "endangered species" (or any other species except mankind)? If yes, why do you suppose he hasn't?

[fight_truth_decay]

I hope someone in the media reads your comment is the only way we can get it out unless we all email the "talk/ tv and radio hosts on this subject. Roger did an excellent commentary on it today. We need to chase the Democratic "extremist" environmentalist supporters further out on the limb..!!!

[WorkingClassFilth]

"Proof, imho that liberal/socialist/communists have found a home in the environmental lobby."

Read David Horowitz's 'Radical Son' for a true eye opener.

Anyone following the path of the American New-Left knows that this has been their bread and butter for the last 30 years. After the draft and Vietnam dissolved as vehicles for the Marxist agenda, tbe Left poured itself into self-discovery movements and the 'Ecology' movement as it was known then. The founding Fathers considered property rights as a kind of 'litmus test' of freedom. Can you think of any sphere of American life more fraught with goverment regulation than property and the environment?

[OldFriend]

The problem is that there are so few families with anyone in the military no one pays attention to the insanity.

Remember the sailors on the USS Cole had no ammunition in their weapons.

Slick willie wanted to be everyone's friend and went on apology tours all over the world, this president knows it's best to be FEARED!!!

[Mudboy Slim]

Roger Hedgecock has been doing YEOMAN's Work as the Lovable Fuzzball's Guest Host these last coupla days...I barely taped him yesterday, but I musta got 2.5 hours of him today!! The Right needs to be more confident in the American Sheeple's ability to discern Right from WRONG on issues like National Security (aka Iraq), and Hedgecock's displayed a reassuring confidence in the last coupla days after Dubyuh's SOTU, IMHO. For that, I believe he deserves to be commended as well as considered fer even more responsible duty than being Rush's substitute host.

FReegards...MUD

[Mudboy Slim]

"Roger Hedgecock was once a card carrying Sierra Club member"

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Kalifornicans...MUD

[Mudboy Slim]

"Read David Horowitz's 'Radical Son' for a true eye opener."

That YOU, ma'am?!

LOL...MUD

[pfflier]

Environmentalists are using the volatile issue of endangered species to advance their utopian society. One without a military. They are doing this by hacking the training areas to death with little known species.

They are using the gnatcatcher to hamper training at Camp Pendleton, the least tern to prevent Minuteman launches at the only USAF ICBM test range at Vandenberg AFB. They are using the desert bighorn sheep and the desert box turtle to try to stop ordnance delivery at the Barry Goldwater range in Arizona and I'm sure that there are thousands more horror stories from other military bases and ranges.

It is so clear that the environmental agenda is set to disrupt the training of our military. In the case of Vandenberg's least tern, the little birdie was used to attempt to cancel MX Peacekeeper testing entirely until a lengthy environmental impact statement was prepared.

[Kay Soze]

Former ‘Greenpeace’ Activist Now Says Earth Healthier Than Ever
Dutch prof sees light after doing his own research
By Marc Moran
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer


(CNSNews.com) - Danish Professor Bjorn Lomborg was a former Greenpeace member who truly believed the earth was in dire condition and that humans were ruining the environment until he was challenged to check the facts for himself.

“I never doubted the environmental myths. I used to be a very concerned Greenpeace kind of leftie,” he said.

In 1987, he read an article by Economist Julian Simon who said the earth’s environment was getting healthier. “I said no, no. That’s got to be right-wing American propaganda,” he stated.

Lomborg then set out with some of his students from the University of Aarthus to debunk Simon’s contention. But it was Lomborg who was in for a surprise. “As it turned out, we were the ones getting debunked. Things are actually getting better and better on pretty much all accounts. We are actually leaving our kids a better world,” he said.

Lomborg is in the U.S., promoting his new book the Skeptical Environmentalist. At a Cooler Heads Coalition luncheon on Capitol Hill, sponsored by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), Lomborg said that since he began criticizing the green movement, he has been accused of being a “right winger” or at least a “messenger boy for the right.”

But an excerpt read from his book clearly refutes any ties to the conservative movement. On page 32, Lomborg writes that his criticism of environmentalists “does not mean I am a demonic little free market individualist. I believe there are many circumstances [upon] which environmental intervention is necessary.”

In his book, he details his transformation on environmental thinking and uses statistical information from respected research institutions to debunk what he sees as the major environmental myths of today. Lomborg, who speaks with the zeal of a convert, explained that the air in London is cleaner today than it was in 1585. He also insisted that world hunger is a rapidly declining problem, dropping in half since 1970 and projected to drop dramatically lower in the next 30 years.

He criticized the alarmism and misinformation with regard to most environmental issues and suggested that myths are designed to force immediate action. “If you feel you painted yourself into a corner, you are willing to do pretty much anything,” he asserted.

Lomborg noted that since the 1920s, the world has been told how there is only a “10 year supply of oil” left in the world. He quoted an old professor who said, “We have been running out of oil ever since I was a kid.

“It’s like going home and looking into your fridge and saying ‘whoa, you only have food for three days, you are going to die in four,’” he joked.

Lomborg explained that we continue to consume more oil while at the same time producing greater quantities of the fuel. He quoted the former head of OPEC, who once said, “The oil age is not going to come to an end because of a lack of oil, just like the stone age did not come to an end because of a lack of stone.” He believes that solar energy will emerge as a primary energy source over fossil fuels by the close of this century.

Lomborg asserted that the Kyoto global warming treaty would be an economic disaster for the world while having only minimal effects on climate change.

“The cure is more costly than the disease,” he said. According to Lomborg, even if the Kyoto Protocol were fully enacted, the world would have “simply postponed the problem [of climate change] for six years. We will basically say the temperature we would have reached in 2094, we have now postponed until 2100.”

He believes the money Kyoto would cost the world’s economy would be better spent investing in cleaner drinking water and improved sanitation for the developing world.

“We do not fix all problems. Some problems we simply say we would rather spend our resources elsewhere.”

[fight_truth_decay]

Source: University of Minnesota 2000.10.26

Tiny Gnatcatcher Poses Big Conundrum For Environmentalists, Developers

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL--A study of DNA from the threatened California gnatcatcher and the abundant Baja (Mexico) gnatcatcher has shown no differences that would place the two birds in different subspecies. Therefore, destroying the California bird's habitat through development will not threaten the species, or any subspecies, as a whole, said University of Minnesota evolutionary biologist Robert Zink, who headed the study. But, said Zink, the finding points up the risk of trying to preserve habitat based on the status of only one species. The study is published in the October issue of Conservation Biology.

The California gnatcatcher lives in what is termed "coastal sage scrub (CSS)," most of which exists in fragments isolated by freeways, building tracts and other barriers insurmountable to the small, weak-flying bird. The CSS extends into the Baja peninsula of Mexico, where the Baja gnatcatcher, which strongly resembles the California gnatcatcher, lives. Whereas only about 2,000 pairs of gnatcatchers live in southern California, hundreds of thousands are thought to live in Baja, where they are not currently threatened.

Hundreds of thousands of acres of high-priced real estate have been protected from development in California because the California gnatcatcher is on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Threatened Species list and would be wiped out if extensive building were permitted.

But it wouldn't be wiped out because it's the same as the abundant Baja bird, said Zink.

Source