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Home Front: WoT
New Rural Sales Pitch: Work Outside D.C.'s Fallout Zone
2006-12-26
WaPo. Salt's on the table.
Winchester and its neighbors along Interstate 81 in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley have much to recommend themselves to potential employers, including a low cost of living, access to a major highway and views of the nearby Blue Ridge Mountains.

More recently, though, the area has been successfully trumpeting another attribute: It is just outside the "blast zone."
Conflating "fallout" and "blast" zones. Sheesh. Alec's not too bright.
In a little-noticed migration with implications for both greater Washington and the valley, several federal agencies, including the FBI, are relocating operations to the I-81 corridor. Helping drive the shift is the government's emphasis on security in a post-Sept. 11 world, which turns Winchester's location 75 miles from Washington into a geographic ideal. It is far enough from the capital to escape the fallout of a nuclear explosion -- a distance often estimated at 50 miles -- but still close enough so that employees can get to the District relatively easily when they need to.

"There's a certain distance they need to be out from the strike zone -- and Winchester is outside of that," said Jim Deskins, economic redevelopment chief for the 26,000-person city.
Posted by:.com

#8  Feds expecting Dubya-GOP and US NPE to glow-in-the-dark??? ANOTHER OUTSTANDING REASON FOR "REGIME CHANGE", which of course means in WASHINGTON DC, NOT THE PRO-TERROR, ANTI-US ROGUES. Since no defense is 1000% perfect, "minimizing" risks > somehow comes to mean TO BE AFRAID OF WAR = TAKING WAR TO THE ENEMY/"OVER THERE". WAR 2006 > can wage as long as PC WE DON'T DESTROY ANYTHING OR INVADE ANYONE, DON'T POLLUTE THE ENVIRO, DON'T HURT OUR ENEMY'S FEELINGS, GIVE THEM ALL OUR $$$, etc. The burden is on the USA AND ONLY USA to prove that when Radicalists-Terrorists point their AK47's + RPG's at us, just becuz they shoot at us doesn't mean they intended to hurt or kill us, ergo we are at fault for shooting back + starting a combat fracas which we have to pay for.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2006-12-26 22:33  

#7  There goes the yearly Apple Blossom Festival.
Posted by: Asymmetrical T   2006-12-26 20:40  

#6  An even wider dispersal of US government offices is far, far overdue. Remember the anthrax attacks? Congress shut down even though no one there was made ill. They had no other place to convene, a real no-brainer status quo.
In attention, attention needs to be paid for make the US society as a whole more resilient in case of a pandemic or an NBC attack. Katrina disclosed many vulnerabilities which need to be addressed.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2006-12-26 19:32  

#5  Problem is: it would kill lobbyists.

Problem? WTF sorta "problem"? [/sarcasm]

Regulating campaign spending and eliminating lobbyists remain the two most critical reforms of American government if we ever wish to become a two party system once again.
Posted by: Zenster   2006-12-26 15:40  

#4  DC will be deserted before that if we dont secure the borders against entry of WMD and terrorists - they get lost in the noice of the huge number of illegal aliens and large volume of drug smuggling.
Posted by: Oldspook   2006-12-26 13:14  

#3  Anybody been to the FBI's massive fortress-like facility on the west side of the Appalachians? It's pretty cool. Maybe a glimpse into the future of hardened and dispersed civilian facilities. Will DC be deserted 50 years from now?
Posted by: fmr mil contractor   2006-12-26 12:06  

#2  ...My Ladyfriend is from Winchester (her dad is still a prominent physician there) and she suspects that the good people of Winchester might have something to say about this before it is all over. It is still a fairly small city, and distinctly wary of outsiders.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski   2006-12-26 11:29  

#1  Should be decentralizing the government anyways.

Interior to Denver (nearer to all those federal lands out west).

SEC to NY (NYSE nearby, etc).

You could split up the DoD:
Airforce to Colorado Springs
Army to Ft Hood
Navy to Norfolk
Marines to San Diego
DoD itself: somhwere in the center-south of the US (Dallas?)

NSA, CIA, etc - all should have either the HQ or a large sub-HQ out of the DC area.

etc.


Put the agencies AWAY from DC, and nearer to what they manage.

Problem is: it would kill lobbyists.

I say : GOOD!
Posted by: OldSpook   2006-12-26 10:51  

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