New reason to keep Ellington's F-16s - Task force says London attacks show the need for combat aircraft to protect the area***....The terrorist attacks in London showed the importance of keeping fighter jets at Ellington Field to protect the area's petrochemical plants — and its people, local and federal leaders said Thursday.
"Homeland security starts at home, and Houston can't afford to be left unprotected," said U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land.
The Pentagon recommended in May that all F-16 jets of the Air National Guard's 147th Fighter Wing, based at Ellington, be retired as part of a plan to consolidate military assets and cut costs.
But DeLay, Houston Mayor Bill White, Harris County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia and other members of the Ellington Field Task Force say the combat aircraft are needed to protect residents, as well as the Johnson Space Center, the Port of Houston and the vast petrochemical complex along the Houston Ship Channel.
They met at Ellington on Thursday with James Hansen, a member of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, in an effort to convince him that the fighters are needed here. The meeting had been scheduled before the terrorist attacks on the London transit system Thursday morning.
In addition to this area's critical role in the nation's oil supply, the FBI has identified nine other facilities, including the Texas Medical Center, as possible terrorist targets.
The task force will make its case again at a commission hearing Monday in San Antonio.
The commission, which will make its final recommendations to President Bush on Sept. 8, has held several other hearings as communities across the nation try to save military bases and other facilities that the Defense Department recommended cutting.............***
I like Tom DeLay a lot. But he needs to BE a leader on this issue. I'm not calling for his removal--I'm calling for him to step up and make noise on an issue that he knows is hurting his state, border control, instead of sending federal dollars where they ought not to go, Texas cities. Your calling him a whipping boy is distraction from the fact that he's asking for more federal intrusion when the feds need to do THEIR jobs and stay the hell out of local policing. Block grants are paid for with someone's tax dollars. Those tax dollars need to be left in the localities where they were lifted if they're going to be spent on local policing.
And btw, I'm not about to suck up to Tom DeLay because he likes all the Texas pork you cite. You do a fine job of smooching his rectum all by yourself.