OPINION/COMMENTARY

This a great article, with many links, by Robert Bidinotto. Check out his website here or his blog here.

The environmentalists' war on our national security

Our military men and women are fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan, and defending our interests in other trouble spots around the world. But while politicians of both parties posture about "supporting our troops" and guaranteeing them the best in training and assistance, they've also released a torrent of environmental laws that greens now direct toward eroding our soldiers' safety and preparedness. Rather than focus on training, our military personnel must now worry about complying with the endless requirements of statutes such as the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Clean Air Act, and many others.

As a result, in Arizona the Air Force must move or cancel its practice bombing runs if antelope are spotted within 5 kilometers of a target area. In Idaho, low-level combat flying missions are prohibited because the noise might disrupt the mating of elk. Navy ships assigned to support bombers flying over Afghanistan were forced to cancel a missile-firing exercise off the California coast, for concern about nearby seals...

You will also be well served by reading Bidinotto's Earth to California: thank environmentalism for your wildfires.

This is a wonderful picture/essay by Brad Ullrich. Brad is the land use editor for Off-Road.com.

Trails Really in My Backyard

Recent events in the U.S. Senate by obstructionist Senators, including one of my own, Senator Bingaman, can easily bring the catastrophe that is facing southern California to the rest of the western United States. Under enormous pressure from the public the Senators yesterday finally agreed to an amendment to the president's Healthy Forests Legislation, designating 50% of the tree cutting is to be in urban interface areas, but it is probably too little too late. Decades of mismanagement have made the western United States into a giant tinderbox, proven by the current situation in California and recent events in Arizona, Colorado, Montana and Oregon.

Senators such as Bingaman of New Mexico, Boxer of California and quite a few others, mainly on the Democrat side of the aisle, are serving to perpetuate public lands mismanagement that started several decades ago, but really gained momentum under the Clinton/Gore administration, an administration that was firmly in the pocket of the radical environmental groups. These Senators, and quite a few Representatives, are, in my opinion, also "owned" by the same environmental lobby. And I say owned for a very specific reason, legislators that act in the manner that they do would have to be acting under the direction of that extreme lobby. And if they are not acting under their direction they are so afraid of the extreme environmentalists that they may as well be acting under their direction...