Daschle Offers To Help Keep Ellsworth Open

[suegeo]

http://www.keloland.com/News/NewsDetail4514.cfm?ID=22,39692

Former Democratic Senator Tom Daschle says he helped keep Ellsworth Air Force Base off the closure list ten years ago...

...Daschle used Ellsworth as an example of his clout in Washington. But Republican John Thune campaigned on his close ties to the White House, saying he could better keep Ellsworth open.

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Maybe there will be some dirt cheap real estate in Rapid City in the next few years. I always thought R.C. would be a good place to retire to, it's so pretty out there. But the fascists kind of stink up the place.

[CarbonDate]

1. Tom Daschle really is a good man.

This proves it. Really, he's a better man than me; I'd be like, "Hey, you all made your bed."

[existentialist]

2. challenge to all of us

C'est la vie.

Fact is, we all must face this and similar challenges if we are to do anything worthwhile. As former President Clinton said recently, that despite the lies to launch it, and despite its flimsy (to put it mildly) legal and diplomatic pretext for it, and despite the incompetence, ignorance, arrogance, corruption, and mendacity in the pursuit of it, we should hope for success of our war efforts in Iraq.

What to do?

Indeed, we'd be far safer if there is a successful peace in Iraq.

The issue is how to get there, and the incompetence, ignorance, arrogance, corruption and mendacity of the present administration's present Iraq war is a more promising target at this point (because these features are clearly counterproductive) than merely attacking the dishonestly in getting us into the present war.

(This does not mean that Bush and cronies, particularly Cheney have not committed any impeachable offenses, or that such should not be pursued--but that cannot be the highest priority at present.)

[alrightjim]

3. Hi suegeo

You should probably not bother retiring across the border in Wyoming if you are offended by fascism. Even worse there. A housing boom going big time around the air base at the moment, new schools opening, big grassy expanses already plotted and improved, paved road in place, just waiting for houses to spring up. The city has just incorporated the entire section called Rapid Valley, gobbled it right up. This base closure is a stunning reversal of city fortune. What happens now is a landlord will take a house which would went for 500 bucks any other neighboring town and charge 750 bucks because he rents it to three or four air force guys and so real estate prices jump up. Buying this house with these prospective renters jacks the value which jacks up the assessment which jacks up the taxes.

My mother and sister were in a fast food place and overheard two officers complaining about all the pressure and all of the confusion and how hard they are being pushed to get their units packed up and ready to move. Ellsworth is closing! Thune was used and abused by this administration (I never post "this president" as he is in charge of nothing. He just signs what they tell him to, says what they tell him to)but the tactics being applied by both parties to retain Ellsworth are typical. They are just lies. Closing Ellsworth is certainly a kick in the economic privates for Rapid City, sure, but it is no threat to the nation's security. Moving those B1s to air bases in Texas or anywhere else is just moving them, not mustering them out, and hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars are redirected to more pressing military priorities hopefully, like getting body armour to the boys on the ground in Iraq, although it will more than likely just be redirected into the coffers of folks like Halliburton.

Misrepresenting the base closure as a blow to our nation's defense is an indication of how weak the forces are opposing base closure. When presenting the case for closure, the militray will be able to blow holes in their excuses for keeping it open. Bush needed Thune to get rid of Daschle. He now no longer needs Thune (the silence from the White House is deafening), and if anything, this base closure threat has thrown Thune in bed with Johnson, which taints Johnson, not Thune, as Thune is already as ethically compromised as a scheming political animal can be.

If you are a young eager GOP supporter with a wife and kids and ailing parents with property, and an eye on making yourself a bigshot in the small pond of Rapid City, this could spell real disaster for you. You've built yourself up a nice little real estate package, charging rent up the wazoo, you've done everything in your power to increase the value of your property, you mean to sell it, make big money. Lo, your parents pas away and leave you a number of additional properties, just what you have been waiting for these many years, and then the base closes. You fnd that you can't sell or rent your properties. The taxes are killing you because reassessment in property value is always slow to take, the state has no income tax, they are loath to give anything back to the taxpaying property owner. your wife urges you to rent these places for 300, 200, whatever, just so we can pay the taxes. there is talk of economic relief on the horizon, of corporations being wooed to relocate, of thousands of new jobs possible if you can just hold out.

But you can't. Little of it pans out and the tax burden has you on your knees. One day there is a fire...You are a South Dakota hick, you think insurance fraud will work, only you screw up seven ways to Sunday and the big insurance companies back east have already anticipated this hapening in Rapid City, so you get caught, and you get arrested, and this sends a clear message there better be no more "acts of God" on these insurance companies nickel.

So, yeah, suegeo, there will be property to be had, cheap. Whole sections of Rapid will have maybe one family or two to a block. Boarded windows and neglected yards will not be far off. Civic blight.

That is when you move in and set up shop, kick back on your retirement and enjoy the hills and the quiet neighborhoods. See you then.

Jimmy

[existentialist]

4. alrightjim

You know Jim, you ARE alright.

Your analysis is good; not air tight and inevitable, but just pretty solid, and your writing style reminds me of the late (great) Hunter S. Thompson.

I much enjoyed reading this post.

[alrightjim]

5. Hunter S. Thompson...he a writer?

Just kidding, Wicasa. I have heard of him, but I never got around to reading whatever he wrote. I call myself alrightjim because I had this friend in Hull, England would open every email to me with: alright, mate...

He's a cool guy. Just a gruff hardline progressive. Very articulate writer. I called him on the phone once, got his answering machine. Couldn't understand a damn word! They have some seriously thick accents, especially streetwise guys like him. People think Indians got accents, but these guys, good grief.

Yeah, wicasa, I was just rambling on, thinking out loud basically with that post. I cheer when i think that base is closing, and then I stop and say, wait a minute, you jerk, think of the hardship on so many families, think of the businesses and jobs lost. Stop being such a cynical punk.

Whatever happens, wicasa, I am determined to enjoy the good, and acknowledge the bad.

Jimmy

PS It is time to check out some Thompson from the local library, methinks.

[existentialist]

6. Hunter S. Thompson

If you're studying politics (as opposed to the sad state of our culture more generally) the best of Hunter s. Thompson is probably Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 which he wrote when he was political affairs editor for Rolling Stone magazine.

[alrightjim]

7. Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail

I think I have read that book, my friend. But with the ignorant eye of the unwashed rube, as I didn't even recall the author. Maybe I have read a lot of his other books, too...egads, I think I am a hick, wicasa, and next thing you'll be telling me is the Beverly Hillbillies wasn't reality TV.

Jimmy