Vermont Progressives Aiming to Shoot Down F-35 Stealth Bomber

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/william-boardman/52232/vermont-progressives-aiming-to-shoot-down-f-35-stealth-bomber

Vermont Democrats remain solid military boondoggle boosters.

Vermont Progressives Aiming to Shoot Down F-35 Stealth Bomber
by William Boardman | October 22, 2013 - 7:30am

The latest high-ranking Vermont Democrat to push for prime military pork in her state is Burlington city attorney Eileen Blackwood, who released a slippery legal memo October 17th that is as cleverly political as it is narrowly legal, leading to widespread, obtuse media coverage along the lines of Vermont Public Radio's simply false headline: "City Report: Burlington Can't Block F-35."

Blackwood's "preliminary analysis" was a memo "responding to some of the legal concerns raised" in the course of three years' "public discussion of the Air Force's consideration of basing the F-35 jets at the Burlington International Airport (BIA)." Blackwood, a Democrat, said her legal memo was requested by Burlington mayor Miro Weinberger (the Democrat who appointed her) and "several City Councilors," unnamed.

Blackwood's 14-page legal memo comes to no such sweeping conclusion, as reported by public radio, WPTZ-TV, the Burlington Free Press, VTDIGGER, and other Vermont media. News reports made the memo sound comprehensive and conclusive when it is very limited and inconclusive. Blackwood has delivered the best case she can for the views of her boss, Mayor Weinberger, just as other attorneys in similar but more serious circumstances offered legal support to presidents who wanted to torture people or assassinate them with drones.

Blackwood argues that the city's position is legal. She doesn't claim that it's right. Her page of "conclusions" is hedged with conditional language - things are "likely," "would likely mean," "would not seem to allow," "would likely be withdrawn," "appears," "seems likely," or "does not appear to apply," a style all very lawyerly. The memo, as she says, "is not intended to serve as a final statement of the City's legal position on any specific issue."