Replying to a message of Ross Sauer to Bob Ackley:

 RS>>> Well, Michael Goldfarb, a blogger at the Weekly Standard
 RS>>> simply made up a story, about Senator Ben Nelson losing a
 RS>>> military base in his state, unless he supported Obama's
 RS>>> health care bill.

 BA>> There is precisely one active military installation in the
 BA>> state of Nebraska, Offutt AFB.  Note that the base has
 BA>> been significantly downsized over the past decade or so -
 BA>> one can now see vacant parking spaces on it (it usedta was
 BA>> that 75% of the parking spaces on the base were reserved
 BA>> for 25% of the vehicles using them).  The base hospital at
 BA>> Offutt was closed in 2004 and replaced by a clinic, and
 BA>> that clinic is slowly being downsized - one has to make an
 BA>> appointment to be seen at the former walk-in Urgent Care
 BA>> Center (which usedtawas the hospital's Emergency Room);
 BA>> there are very few AF physicians there now, nearly all are
 BA>> civilians or contractors.

 BA>> Note that the University of Nebraska Medical Center is
 BA>> building a brand spanking new 25 inpatient bed hospital
 BA>> about one mile north of the former AF hospital. 
 BA>> Specifically for patients who were formerly seen at the AF
 BA>> facility (the next nearest hospital, not run by the UNMC,
 BA>> is about seven miles from the base and has been getting AF
 BA>> patients since 2004).

 RS> The thing is, this Goldfarb blogger made up the closing that
 RS> base entirely story totally out of whole cloth, and even
 RS> after the White House, Senator Nelson and the Pentagon said
 RS> it isn't true, Limbaugh and Beck still ran with it,
 RS> announcing the story as true.

 RS> The president can't unilaterally close a base entirely, it
 RS> has to be through a committee at the Pentagon.

He cannot *officially* close a base.  He can, however, move all
of its functions and units someplace else, leaving a small caretaker
operation there.  With Offutt that's unlikely, if for no other reason
than most of the dependent housing on the base has been completely
replaced within the past five years or so.  But Offutt *has* been
significantly downsized over the past ten years.

As an aside to the preceding, the last time I wandered down 'General's
Row' on the base (there usedtawas 21 flag rank officers stationed there)
I noted that non-generals are now occupying some of the houses there,
including at least one civilian (occupants of the houses are named on a
small sign at the curb in front of the house; it usedta was all "General
and Mrs. Smith," "Major General and Mrs. Jones," "Rear
Admiral and Mrs.
Johnson," etc., now there's at least one "Mr. & Mrs.
Smith").  I didn't
know that DoD civilians were authorized to live in base housing inside the
US ... I wonder if they're reporting the rent they aren't paying as income...
(the IRS considers such things as free rent to be income).

For the past couple of years base security has been handled by private
rent-a-cops, not AF Security Police.  I also recently discovered that
the 'back gate' to the base has been closed for years.  The gate and
gate house is still there, but the base cyclone fence has been extended
across the road.  The 'Base Lake' recreation area is across the road from
that 'back gate', and it's now a trip of several miles to go around the base
lake to get to that area (which is a former sand pit).

 RS> This process is subject to pressure from the House and
 RS> Senate, that's why every time there is a round of un-needed
 RS> base closings, the congressmen and senators in that area
 RS> raise heck.

 RS> I saw this first hand when the SAC base in the UP closed.
 RS> You'd think that closing that base would have destroyed the
 RS> country, the way the local politicians were throwing fits.

They want the local area jobs and the money spent by the base and
by the people stationed there.  Other than that they'd just as soon
the base be someplace else - anyplace else.

Periodically the local police harrass the GIs at Offutt over not having
their vehicles licensed in Sarpy or Douglas counties (the two counties
nearest to Offutt; Offutt is *in* Sarpy County and Douglas County adjoining
Sarpy's northern edge is effectively the city of Omaha).  Nebraska state
law requires one to register/license one's vehicle in the county within 30
days of moving in, whether your plates have expired or not.  The taxes and
fees in those two counties are so high that many residents license their cars
elsewhere; GIs have the option of certifying their non-residence in the county
and getting non-resident tags for a flat fee of $15.00 (which may have gone
up in the last 25 or more years).  When I was still on active duty the Sarpy

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