The Pentagon released the list of proposed base closures yesterday, and for a lot of people in New Mexico, the sky is now falling. Clovis, on the Texas border, is set to lose its air base. This represents a direct loss of 20% of the city's jobs. According to some estimates, Clovis will be the hardest-hit community, per capita, in the country. We're doing everything we can to prevent the closure, but we don't know if we'll succeed.

I wholeheartedly support the goal of closing excess bases, but in our system, politicians have a duty to protect the government spending that comes to their communities. Bases are the most coveted type of government pork, because they provide so many jobs and so much money.

What do the communities with the bases targeted for closure have to look forward to? Well, environmental ruin, for one thing. It seems that closed bases are so expensive to clean up that it takes decades to convert them into something useful.