The Base is Back and You’re Gonna Be In Trouble
Hey now, hey now, the base is back.
Good news for the economy, overall. Sure, we’ll probably end up spending about $200 million to keep it, but the benefits generated through federal payroll expenditures alone should more than make up it for it pretty quickly. Frankly, this whole round of base closings strikes me as a lose-lose proposition when you look at the relatively small amount of money we’re supposed to save (compared to our government’s out-of-control spending) over the large number of years it will take to achieve that savings. But, given our state and local governments’ propensity to turn good opportunities into boondoggles the fact that the project will be federalized likely means that the local economic benefits will be real, no matter how screwed up the actual implementation might be.
I’m a little concerned about the “federal city” aspect of the proposal, although military bases are already exactly that. The idea of a “LIttle DC” being right in the heart of New Orleans is troubling, especially if it is going to be an outpost for what I reluctantly term “the new Gestapo.” Homeland Security is a joke — on us. Secret watch-lists. No-fly lists. Secret tribunals. Suspension of habeus corpus. Citizens stripped arbitrarily of their constitutional rights.
Perhaps my concern springs from the worry that I will finally matriculate from being a member of a minority that exists in a grey area of the law in which freedoms, rights, and responsibilities aren’t taken for granted to a member of a majority that exists in a grey area of federal lawlessness; a lawlessness in which freedoms, rights, and responsibilities are no longer something we care about, so long as we are comfortable. As someone struggling to exist in a group on the fringe of respectable society (despite our significant contributions to it) — a fringe I am placed in without choice and which I and others are struggling to escape — it’s my hope that good and decent people will put a halt to the process of moving the entire population of our country into a similarly precarious situation.
That said, huge props to Landrieu, Vitter, Blanco, etc. on what can certainly be counted as an economic victory.
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Federal city is a design name, not a legal concept, just like Mid City. So don’t worry about that part.
I share your concern about Homeland Security, generally, but not having HS jobs here won’t change the overall situation.
I think Landrieu, Blanco & the Mayor won big. I was surprised that Vitter was missing in action and has been quoted as giving credit to Landrieu & Blanco.
I also wondered where Jindal was in all this - one operation (150 jobs) in his district was lost - the Slidell Computing Center. It sounded like a pretty cool high tech operation - testing software/hardware combinations for military applications.