You haven't seen politics until they talk base closings

The military base closing program is kind of interesting, and one thing is certain. Even though most people probably would agree the commission is fair, at least for the most part, once the recommendations come out every senator and rep for the area containing the closed base is on the warpath trying to keep it open. They all act like that one base, even if its an airbase in South Dakota, is absolutely vital to national security. From what I have read so far, most of the recommendations make sense. Seeing Groton, Connecticut on there surprised me a little bit, being that it was literally once a vital base, housing the us atlantic sub fleet (a good chunk of it plus lots of support stuff).

I like the way the commission works. They come out with a list, they agree that no more than 20% of what is on the list can be changed, and once the changes are made to the list the entire list is voted on with one vote (they don't vote for each affected base).

One scary part so far though is the miliary tends to grossly underestimate the cost to cleanup comtamination on many of these bases (the military didn't always practice being environmentally safe) so some that closed the last time are still waiting to be cleaned up (some as part of the superfund program) because they are not appropriating that much money to clean them up.

So stay tuned for some good ol fashioned politics.