Panel Dooms Otis ANG

[PuraVidaDreamin]

http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/otisclose26.htm


August 26, 2005

BRAC panel votes to close Otis

Staff and wire reports
HARTFORD, Conn. - The federal Base Closure and Realignment Commission voted unanimously Friday to shut down the Otis Air National Guard base.
In reaction, Governor Mitt Romney said he is already exploring a lawsuit about whether a governor's assent is required before the Pentagon can close a National Guard unit. He already has spoken with Attorney General Tom Reilly about following Pennsylvania's example of challenging the closure.

"Whether we will join the Pennsylvania suit or start a suit of our own is what we will explore in the coming weeks," Romney said outside the base gates this afternoon. "The fight isn't over. We'll continue our fight to reverse this. Obviously, our chances get thinner with the decision of the BRAC commission."

Romney, Sen's. Edward Kennedy and John Kerry, D-Mass., and Congressman William Delahunt,D-Quincy, all criticized the independent commission's focus on military strategy rather than its assigned task of eliminating excess infrastructure. "We just don't see how it fits the criteria set up by Congress," Sen. Kerry said about what he called the commission's "ad hoc shuffleboard military strategy. That vote taken, there are fewer avenues available to us. It's not a happy picture."

Sen. Kennedy

[TaleWgnDg]

1. Uuummmmm, I am agreeing with Romney? wha?

.
Uuummmmm, I am agreeing with Romney? wha? Say it isn't so!

Reilly, our astute and bright Attorney General, should pick up on this immediately and file a complaint in federal court in Boston or (if legally possible) join the lawsuit already pending in federal court in Pennsylvania. A federal judge in Pennsylvania today (Friday, August 26, 2005) ruled that the Department of Defense (DoD) recommendation to shut-down an Air National Guard unit in Pennsylvania was unconstitutional under our federal constitution and that such DoD recommendation is invalid unless it gets prior assent from the governor of Pennsylvania which it did not.

Yeah. Romney should pursue this about Otis' Massachusetts Air National Guard. OF COURSE HE SHOULD. As should Reilly when requested to do so. And if Romney doesn't want to pursue this legal tactic then Reilly should get very noisy and make hay out of it, political hay that is. After all, Reilly is running for governor in 2006.

Go get 'im, Tom!

prnewswire.com published a letter authored by Pennsylvania Governor Rendell to the Chairman of BRAC as a result of the Pennsylvania federal court order of August 26, 2005:

August 26, 2005

The Honorable Anthony J. Principi
Chairman
2005 Defense Base Closure Realignment Commission
2521 S. Clark Street
Suite 600
Arlington, VA 22202

Dear Chairman Principi:

At approximately 1:30 p.m. today, the Honorable John R. Padova, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, issued a 54 page Opinion and Order in the case of Rendell, et al. v. Rumsfeld, Civil Action No. 05-CV-3563.

In his Order, Judge Padova dismissed Defendant's Motion to Dismiss the action and granted the Plaintiffs' Motion for Summary Judgment. Judge Padova's Order further provides: Secretary Rumsfeld, by designating the 111th Fighter Wing of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard without first obtaining the approval of Governor Rendell, has violated 32 U.S.C. s 104(c). The portion of the BRAC DoD Report that recommends deactivation of the 111th Fighter Wing of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard is null and void (emphasis added).

Given Judge Padova's ruling, it was improper for the Commission to vote on that portion of the DoD recommendations dealing with the 111th. Clearly, the Commission could not consider a recommendation that, as a matter of law, was declared null and void by the Court. Accordingly, I respectfully request that the Commission acknowledge its inability to consider the 111th recommendation and rescind its decision today with respect to the 111th, its aircraft, and associated equipment.

Sincerely yours,
Edward G. Rendell
Governor

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/08-26-2005/0004095028&EDATE=
(any emphasis added in the above letter has been removed)

_________________________

edited to add: In determining the federal court challenges, AG Reilly should research Delahunt's legal suggestion (last paragraph) regarding BRAC's legal authority as granted by congress.

.

[merbex]

2. It is a weird feeling when I agree with Romney

I can't think when that last happened

I think this is the first time

[rob10000]

3. Why not just close BARNES?

I can't understand why they just can't close Barnes and leave Otis alone?

What sense does it make to re-assign Barnes's planes, and give them F-15's from Otis? You disrupt BOTH units if you do that???

[TaleWgnDg]

4. I cannot understand the wide-open gap the closing of

.
I cannot understand the rationality of a wide-open gap the closing of Otis Air National Guard (plus the Coast Guard at that base) places the entire northeast corridor in light of our national security needs! But then on second thought, George Walker Bush has been sucking dry the northeast since he took office. Do you suppose he has an ulterior motive? LMAO . . . no subtlety there whatsoever on his behalf.

Yeah, it's the realignment (across the board) of the "goods" from the blue states particularly the northeast to the red states particularly Texas. Those neo-cons in Texas no longer want to consider themselves as "second-best." So much for . . . a chip on your shoulder since the Civil War, huh?

Or was it that Georgie developed a chip on his shoulder because he felt he never "fit in" with his mother and father's old New England Brahmin surroundings? Thus, the empty 10-gallon hat and cowboy syndrome?
.

[Name removed]

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