Florida
Fly-by More Show Biz than Science
The
Governor fared no better in the Green
Mountain Daily online, where J. V. Walt
wrote:
my goodness, Governor Shumlin's little
Florida junket was a complete waste of time and the GBIC's money, wasn't it?
The best he can hope for is that this event will be quickly forgotten. It
certainly won't change anyone's mind, and it displayed one of Shummy's less
endearing political quirks -- his inability to appear plausibly concerned with
the opinions of people who disagree with him.
None
of those opposed to basing the F-35 in Vermont were even invited on the trip,
even though those opponents include lawyers, engineers, legislators, and a
retired Air Force colonel who was a Pentagon planner for years. That's Rosanne Greco, chair of the
South Burlington city council that has twice voted (by 4-1 and 4-0) to oppose
basing an advanced war machine in a residential neighborhood in Vermont's most densely
populated area.
Burlington
Mayor Miro Weinberger went on the Florida trip and commented
that "there is a good deal of conflicting information out there," without
giving any indication of what he'd been doing to resolve those conflicts, or
sort out opinion from information.
Weinberger has been reflexively but not knowledgeably supporting of the
warplane. The Burlington City
Council appears divided and has so far taken a position of needing more
information.
Winooski
Mayor Playing Hamlet-of-the-F-35
That's
the same position taken by the Winooski City Council, whose mayor Michael
O'Brien was the only official who travelled to Florida without having
previously taken a position of public support for the F-35. Winooski is in the airport flight path
and O'Brien says he still hasn't made up his mind, although Green Mountain Daily reported
his geeky side in play at Eglin AFB:
Winooski Mayor and amateur audiologist Mike
O'Brien, the only F-35 agnostic on the trip, performed a scienterrific evaluation
of the noise with his iPad. Which unfortunately showed the F-35 blasting 114
decibels to the F-16's 101. (Decibels are
logarithmic units, so a difference of 13 dB is quite substantial.) And then he
proceeded to make excuses: the F-35 may have seemed louder because it flew
closer to him.
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