File Under: Stray Bullets

North Carolina's own Blackwater Worldwide is in the spotlight again. Gosh darn it--what does a mercenary company have to do these days to engage in a little harmless war training? Can't the oppressive government of the City of San Diego just step aside and let the private sector work its magic?

Why in the world would a city require a public hearing for a good company like Blackwater--which simply wants to operate a war training facility in the middle of a business park? Jeez--the hoops the guvmint makes you jump through these days (from the San Diego Union-Tribune):

City Attorney Michael Aguirre filed an appeal yesterday against a federal
court ruling last month that allowed Blackwater to operate the training facility
– even though the city had not completed its permit process.
...
“If we have individuals operating war training facilities in the
middle of a business park, as proposed here, with absolutely no security
whatsoever, that dramatically and radically changes land-use patterns,” Aguirre
said.
...
On June 17, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Huff ruled in favor of Blackwater
in a lawsuit in which it alleged the city interfered with its permits for an
indoor Navy training center in Otay Mesa near Brown Field.
Huff ruled that the city did not have the right to hold public hearings on the
project, basing much of her decision on the city's internal audit of
the project. That audit upheld the company's building permits and the site's
designation as a vocational school.

Umm...did ya catch that one line above that said the city had no right to conduct a public hearing? That certainly is an interesting brand of democracy. Where did Judge Huff come from?