Posted on 03/31/2004 10:20:07 PM PST by kattracks
Edited on 07/12/2004 4:14:22 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
*Rolling my eyes*
If they were paying federal taxes might feel sorry for them.
Isn't it about time to get rid of this nuisance?
Not necessarily...
Not really. The Vieques bombing range closure was overwhelmingly popular in Puerto Rico. All but universal, across the political spectrum (which in PR means from left to far left). And the entitlement culture that is shocked, shocked! that this means the support base must close, is just as universal on the island.
As far as reusing the housing units on the base, as the story suggests, rotsa ruck. Even 10 years ago they were ill-maintained and decrepit; the Clinton DOD didn't spend a dime on the place, and Bush came in intending to shut the useless money-sink down, so he didn't either. Clinton's nincompoop SecDef Cohen had moved the US Army South and parts(?) of the Southern Command Special Operations Command to Rosey Roads after exiting Panama. They turned down generous offers of basing in Central and South America, but they didn't spend anything on the units they moved to Puerto Rico -- even the costs of the move had to come out of Operations and Maintenance money, but Clinton didn't want special ops operating anyway.
As far as tourism, or using the airfield as an airport, drive the road between Rosey and San Juan and get back to me on that. Between the poor road conditions, the hurtling, brakeless trucks, and the police shakedowns, it's not just a drive, it's an adventure.
Note that all the plans revolve around exploiting the crumbling infrastructure the Navy left behind... not actually building something.
The Puerto Ricans got what they asked for. Now they don't like it. Such a pity.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Not necessarily...
I said:
Not really.
Proof, my littoral friend, that all great minds do indeed run on the same channel.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Never leave the enemy something that can be used against us.
Bingo
Puerto Rico is a US Territory, whose residents are US Citizens by act of Congress (said distinction from Citizenship by Right of Birth - we can talk about this at some other point if you'd like. But more importantly...
PUERTO RICO IS NOT THE ENEMY!!!
Tell that to the Puerto Ricans who have fought and died in all of America's Wars since WWI. Tell it to the active duty members currently in Iraq who are from Puerto Rico. Tell it to my face, if you dare.
I am born and MADE in the USA, of Puerto Rican parents who are also PROUD AMERICAN PATRIOTS! I FIRMLY believe in Theodore Roosevelt's Axiom "There is no room for Hyphenated-Americans"... but that does not mean that I turn the other cheek when confronting ignorance &/or stupidity, especially when it is directed at the land of my parents. To do so would be to forsake my parents, which is the same to me as to forsake my country. I would die first.
You, sir, condemn yourself with this statement, and demonstrate clearly how little you know about some of your fellow citizens, how much less of a distinction you make between those who are conservative and patriotic, and those who are not. Let me make this clear to you; there are Puerto Ricans and Americans of Puerto Rican ancestry across the entire spectrum of political thought... both here at home and down on the island. In short, they're pretty much like most other parts of America.
How do you come to lump the entire island into one (easy to digest and simple for you...) "enemy camp"? What right do you pretend to command that led you to believe I - or any other American of PR Ancestry - would stay silent in the face of your abuse?
You ought to be ashamed of yourself.
CGVet58
Here's what I said:
Never leave the enemy something that can be used against us.
Let me clarify it. Those Puerto Ricans who fought so hard to get us out of Vieques I count as the enemy. Just as I count democrats and environmentalists and gays as the enemy. They are dedicated to weakening my country and destroying my way of life. I hold nothing but contempt for them.
On the flip side I do recognize that there are some Puerto Ricans who are American Patriots. Some of them have a clue about just how great a blessing their citizenship is. I hold these as friends and brothers.
I apologize for not being clearer in my original post. In the heat of the discussion I felt it would be understood exactly who I meant. I'll try to be more specific in future similar posts.
I am still, however, in favor of destroying everything on the base, shipping the materials back to wherever they came from and returning the empty land to the local government. I feel the same about any base closing under duress outside the 50 states.
apology accepted. A couple of things below.
America will not dismantle, destroy or otherwise render unusable any facility in Puerto Rico because to do so would be an enormously cheap and trivial thing to do.
We live in an age where we have provided for the defense of Europe while their governments both "provide" their own defensive support on the cheap (taking advantage of our presence and commitment these past 4 decades...) and smugly thumb their noses at We, their supposed "inferiors". Have we up and departed, thereafter dismantling the facilities we use there? No. Likewise, to a lesser extent, South Korea. Or look back at our greatest struggle, the Civil War; was not Abraham Lincoln - God Bless his Soul - right for taking the path in victory of "... malice toward none, and charity for all..."?
Are We, the greatest, most Free and most powerful nation on Earth, now going to meanly beat a departure from a base that can and will be replaced elsewhere? No. And even if we were to decide to do such a thing, would we then make precedent by snittily treating some of our fellow citizens in such a manner? No. WE the People of the United States of America are simply better than that.
Let's look at other serious current events in our country. The current Gay Marriage thing which started in Massachusetts represents a more serious Constitutional threat to our fabric then does the feckless sway of a leftist campaign in a territory that results in our displacement of a key military training range. Said displacement, by the way, already having the consequence of alarming the people of that territory to the error of their current (democrat governor and local senate) government. What do you propose we do about this abomination being spawned in the land of Ted-chappaquidick-Kennedy? What measures or dismantlings should we take there? Answer: None; and we don't because - despite their infuriating lunacy - the people of Mass are AMERICAN CITIZENS!
There will be consequences in PR - most obvious is the current whining from the folks (who believe in entitlements, in the "wrongness" of the Navy departure, etc...) who the local and liberal media down there (yes, John O, Puerto Rico has the same bullshit media bias problem that we here in the "upper 48" have... what a coincidence, eh? Imagine that, PR has similar problems like we do here in America... wait a minute... newsflash... Puerto Rico is PART OF AMERICA!!!!) play up, much as the Blathers of the world - in their own manipulations of "giving the people what they should think about" - do up here.
But what of other consequences, like maybe, the residents of PR... you know, the ones that - to borrow your turn of the phrase, "... are American Patriots..."; "... have a clue..." - share Conservative values and stand against against All Things Collective (as you and I do), now getting up and Doing Something About It? I don't know, something like voting the current democrat government out of office??? By way of note, the current government in PR is ridden in scandal, and the previous Republican Governor - Pedro Rosello - has tossed his hat back in the ring. Signs (and my hopes...) point to renewed vigor in the Conservative movement in Puerto Rico. And that, my friend, is a good thing. For us, and for Puerto Rico.
Conservative values which you and I and millions of other Americans hold dear do not grow in a vacuum, nor do they appear overnight. More likely, it is the result of a growing number of Good Men and Women deciding they've had enough, and thence going out, working and voting for change. It's the American Way.
One last thing. I reiterate that I do accept your apology... and simply and profoundly because you love our country as I do, makes us brothers. In short, you are a Freeper, as am I. I'm going to share a "miracle" with you... there are Freepers in Puerto Rico, too!!! A small number, from the looks of it, but growing. When you get past the cultural differences, the language differences, the slower pace in the Caribbean, or the appearance that the Conservative movement in PR seems to lag behind the rest of the country, remember two things: remember that when Bill Buckley started the National Review, the whole world seemed so "liberal" that he must have felt like John the Baptist in the Wilderness. And remember that Puerto Ricans may be different... but it does not make them "the other".
CGVet58
Adios pendejos. Give thanks to your communist pals, and to your own stupidity. Maybe cuba will open a base in your island.
Wait until the wonderfully socialist EPA gets involved. I'm tired of my substantial tax dollars going to nonsense.
Puerto Rico wanted this base, let them take care of it and not ask for aid. Now the base is their problem.
Everyone should download this Cato Institute study and see the waste of our tax dollars: http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-515es.html
It's long(68 pages), but well worth it.
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