Comments on: Policy Glimpse Inside Obama’s Pentagon?

By: Clyde

Clyde — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 13:03:52 +0000

To work for the DoD is to be disgurntled, if you’ve got a brain in your head, which is why I don’t work commercail anymore-outsourcing and Wall Street.
However, Delany is right-defense contracting creates too few jobs, plus, it’s dead end.
If you make parathion, farmers buy it to protect their crops from insects, make more food, more to truck, sell, more money for parathion.
If you make VX, it just sits in bunkers unitl it starts leaking all over, and then we spend even more money to destroy it than we spent trying to make it. So, how does VX return anything of value?
If we could transform VX or GB inro parathion, that’s be nice-but we don’t have good record just doing the simple stuff with it.
And yeah, bulidng Muscle Shoals and Rocky Mountain Arzenal provided jobs, but not nearly as many per dollar as parathion.
And maybe that’s the whole problem with DoD acquistions and overhaul-it’s all sort of looked at as a welfare operation to begin with.
Why put a facility here? Because this area needs jobs-but, why didn’t they have any jobs, to begin with???
I refused to take the Defense Acquisition Course-it starts out with in depth lesson and arithmetic!!! Yup! “What does the “+” mean? Can you add all these number?“
And the object of defense contractorsz is NOT to “save lives” or “serve”, it’s to make money-all the money they can, every chance they get, because they don’t know about tomorrow.
so, it’s a case of stupid and barracuda!
Franky, I don’t know what you do about it.

By: Big Mike

Big Mike — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 00:56:55 +0000

No word on CSAR-X? Or the supertanker?

By: Ron Garant

Ron Garant — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 20:40:06 +0000

There re many more jobs that are meaningful that can be created with the inordinate funding required to sustain the V-22.

By: anthony

anthony — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 19:56:40 +0000

WE have to make a start somwhere.There are states that dont even have all the stuff like in Irak.How many jobs could we as a group make just by building homes in La.lots so their families can get together.Lets hope what ever Obama does works a little it will if we the people give him our full support as we did on election.I tell you The USA is getting more together and that is what we need not one complaining this that there will allways be a person that complains worsetrying to pin other people to join him but it doesnt work that way in a free democracy.We are in tough times and by going to war deeper will not help!And in all or most post about everyone out there wants to go back home saying we did our job.We have to help the vets also so there is work lots of work..

By: R Dunn

R Dunn — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:17:32 +0000

I am not clear about Mr. Delany but I would surmise he may be a government service employee.
Or perhaps a disgruntled DOD contractor employee.
I also work for a small DOD contractor company and can attest to the statement about poorly written TO’s or PWS and then the DOD government employee state those not written are implied tasks. HELLO!

By: James Whitcraft

James Whitcraft — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:32:53 +0000

Until government changes the spend it or lose it approach to budgeting we will never gain efficiencies. Agencies need to delete obscure pet projects and funnel funds to those needed to win the long war on terror. Allowing agencies to re-align funds in the POM without fear of losing funds offered for re-alignments would be huge.

By: George Elliott

George Elliott — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 07:50:05 +0000

Funds spent on military-industrial contracts represent the worst use of our resources — certainly in terms of useful labor return for the dollar. Unfortunately, our history is replete with wars being the one example of massive unheeded expenditures bringing us out of depressions. Examples are: Civil War ended the depression of 1857, and of course, WW2 ended the Great Depression of 1929.

A more useful move would be this proposal.

2–05-09

To President Obama and to our Congressional leaders!

We urge you to act on this proposal to control the current Tsunami of a national economic & social crisis.

Warren Buffett be urged to form and chair an economic team of savvy multi-billionaires (1) to raise at least $100 B in private capital for strategic investments in American companies operating in the US (2) to monitor, critique and provide direction to the Congressional and Administration efforts in the trillion $ plus Bail-out and recovery effort.

Warren Buffett has earned the respect of many Americans and of world leaders. By appealing to his patriotism and to the severity of the national crisis, such a joint urgent request by the leaders of our government may be the only major effective move to restore faith in the future by our people and to insure a resurgence of their confidence in the rescue efforts.

Like fighting a wildfire, it must be done NOW to prevent dire consequences to our nation and to the world..

We’ve read that to stem the panic of 1907, President Teddy Roosevelt, in addition to Federal moves, urged John Pierpont Morgan to take similar action to that proposed above — it worked.

George Elliott

P.S. In recent interviews of leading economists, such as Paul Krugman, Nobel laureate in economics, there was considerable apprehension that the current steps as administered may NOT help, but may do considerable harm. Elizabeth Warren, a respected Harvard law professor, appointed by Congress to provide oversight on the recovery effort, has expressed her frustration on the difficulties of assessing what the results are of the billions already expended.

By: Boy President be GONE

Boy President be GONE — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 06:59:57 +0000

The first two weeks of OBAMANATION should give the Military NO COMFORT…THE marxist idiot is trying his best to destroy the country he took an oath to protect. THE campaign LIES are coming home to roost. “On the job training” for someone who has never had a REAL JOB…Can you say JIMMY CARTER times TEN? KEEP your heads down troops and keep your magazines full…DXR

By: GT1USMC

GT1USMC — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 06:41:33 +0000

Start throwing money at Defense contractors and we will surely have overly complicated systems that cost 7–10 times what they should cost. Do we (the Marines) need a $125,000 jeep? Simple systems with strong support services will get military service members where they need to be. MORE people to get the job done is what is needed.

By: splintair

splintair — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 04:31:19 +0000

Well put, Master Chief.

By: Civilain Corp

Civilain Corp — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 04:18:43 +0000

President Obamas staff has been sending me in some mailers for the last few months. They have instructed me to make a video on what I think will help the economy. They also instructed me to recruit the jobless and job providers to meet ergularly to discuss how to deal with this problem. I did the video, but have not really sat down in my free time recruiting or spamming online. I do a lot of terrorism research so stuff like that is more of a e-mailer campaign, rather than a community meeting. It costs money to do this. My main thoughts have been expressed and I will drop my video friday. Some of my ideas are being used, some are not. The person who wrote me today told me that there are still going to be revisions even after the bill is finalized and signed off by the president. So don’t fret, we are strategizing and restrategizing constantly. I sent my video to a few trusted contacts to let them know I am not all reports and cut and pasted articles. I am a human just like the rest of us, and we have to have compassionf ro all of the homeless and jobless now. Plans have to be made for the lower class to get back into jobs that will benifit society. I think the tax cuts on the cars and home buyers is a failing ailment. That is for only who buys. Those who don’t buy, won’t benifit. we have to look at the grassroots . the small business owner is who needs the money to keep the lower and middle class working.

By: deadbe4arrival

deadbe4arrival — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 04:18:06 +0000

The biggest mistake is 4 terrorism to do another massive attack against America. Barry Obama will make the entire budget totally unrestricted. Money and resources as well as tactics will be unrestricted. The enemy of America don’t care for Obama anymore than they cared about the Bush Dynasty. Obama worked Foreign Affairs before he became The President.

By: TJ Bear

TJ Bear — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 04:10:51 +0000

Old Ben also said:

“When you assemble a number of men
to have the advantage of their joint
wisdom, you inevitably assemble with
those men all their prejudices, their
passions, their errors of opinion, their
local interests and their selfish views.”

After replenishing the Army and Marines,
we need to build more Naval Ships. Sea Control and Freedom of the Seas is more expensive without a Navy than with. And of course, lest I forget we need to update the Air Tanker!

OBTW: Government is unable to solve our current economic crisis. But who can? American’s.

By: Master Chief

Master Chief — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:08:22 +0000

To all of the liberals who are thinking of writing anything in her about getting out of the Middle East, STOP! Our soldiers over there are there because of what happened on Sept. 11. Some people tend to forget that, and get on their high horse about how we need to leave those poor people alone. Obama is trying to reinforce that idea, and get the troops out, just to please the people at home. They are over there knowing what would happen, but they wanted to defend this great country. There is an old saying,“history repeats itself.” We are in the same situation as we were in ‘Nam. We left because the tree-huggin’, tofu-fartin’ fairies were pissed off. We just need to ride this one out to the very end, and the end is where Bin Laden gives himself up. that may take a while, but in the end, any other country will think twice before messin’ with the USA!!

By: Tenn Slim

Tenn Slim — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 14:31:46 +0000

ALL
Step one, Close Gitmo, see the Headlines in todays news.
Step two. Get out of Iraq, now. See the Headlines in todays news. Gen Petraeous, Joint Chiefs are getting their marching orders.
So far, just the past 24 hours, shows exactly who is in charge.
We have a CINC. We can and should support him, but we have the duty to guide, influence and ultimately, live with his decisions that effect our lives.
We also, have the duty, to make sure our own lives, fortunes and honor are intact, at the end of the day.
As Old Ben Franklin said, We must hang togther or we will surely hang separately.
end

By: r brenzel sr

r brenzel sr — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 05:25:27 +0000

The pessimist may be right about the “leftist” agenda. The bet has to be that the campaign rheteric was just that and/or they now are in charge. It’s “their” thing. Everybody wants a. to keep their congress and b. get a second term. They know the coat tails carried many Representative in. Lousy happenings and decisions can disconnect the tail. Keep hoping and hoping that the worst wont happen…

By: Tenn Slim

Tenn Slim — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 14:21:09 +0000

ALL
One quick comment. The aspirations, knowledgeable comments re Procurement, Acquisitions etc. are fine to read and digest.
The reality is this. The Obama Nationals, IE The Leftist acivists, Code Pink and like groups will control the Nomination process, ensuring their folks get into the 2nd and 3rd tier levels of appointed positions within the DOD, the Various congressional staffs, resulting in the implementation of their agendas. Which is, empty the DOD and the Military, usefulness as a protective force fo the USA. The ultimate goal, of course, is the demise of the USA Capitalistic system.
My Opine.
Watch the speed, the messages, the conferences on the budget processes, come out immediately after the Inauguration. Step one, Close GITMO. This and then the Demise of the DOD, as we know it will be the next step.
Semper Fi
end

By: BOOMER

BOOMER — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:37:09 +0000

Mr Hughes I agree 100%, I love my job — especialy when I stop junk from getting through to our troops or I can convince them to listen to rcommendations from warfighters. I know where you are coming from. as a retired Navy man I was constantly trying to get someone who cared to listen about our complaints trying to perform work on ships at sea and not being able to isolate port from stbd systems to stay somewhat operational because the builders convinced the Navy they could save money doing away with all the system 2 valve isolations, bypasses and cross overs. it was pure hell, the newer the ship the harder it was to maintain and repair. Now with all this litoral combat vessel stuff they still wont listen and everything they build is still too big and expensive. during a briefing we explained that what is really needed is to bring back a modernized PT boat that could be outfitted with MK46 torpedos using surface tubes launchers, and a towed array system and sono bouys as used by helicopters for shallow water ASW ops, take it a step farther and cross breed it with a cobra hellicopters weapons system and it would be an effective platform for specops support and anti trafficking ops. But it was too realistic and not costly enough to be taken seriously, not a grand enough scale for the media I suppose. But I keep trying as I’m sure you do every day.

By: R Hughes

R Hughes — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 19:53:34 +0000

Another really bad item hindering getting equipment to the troops is that there is a total disconnect between the ideas that are generated and the soldiers input and the whole budget process. Many small proposals exist where even 100k could make a difference, but try to find somebody somewhere that is interested, let alone somebody that has funding for some of these small ideas. Another problem is the prevailing attitude that contractors can always do it cheaper and better, especially with the new management fads aiding them. I have seen so many projects flounder because realistic long term cost estimates for making procurement decisions mean nothing, because in three years, another program officer will take over. Its always, I took over a mess, it was working when I left, and it was the follow on manager that killed it. I love my career working in engineering for the Navy, but my heart has been broken by the sailors ultimately left holding the bag instead of something useful.

By: BOOMER

BOOMER — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 19:36:55 +0000

it is very true that military engineering experts no longer exist, we now havw young kids managing ammo that have never fired a weapon before, kids trying to bring forth star trek technology that have never been in the field before, people in charge of designing ships that never sailed on one before other than for a carnival cruise. there are no more experts, they were all allowed to retire due to budget cuts and no one trained to take their place. I know because I work for the Govt as a quality inspector and cant believe some of the stupidity that goes on and when you try to correct them they pout and refuse to make any changes just to prove it can be made to work their way ( at least for a while ). Current tactics suck — I put in for transfer back to the states and ended my extension so I could retire after hearing that we were liberators and not conquerors, where the heck was he when all the fighting in the streets was going on (in the rear with the gear), we need to focus on unconventional warfare, effective knock down weapons, but when we do have to go in with force then the old way is better and cheaper, good old fashioned non discriminating carpet bombing till nothing is left standing or unburned. if you dont want to be the victim of collateral damage you shouldnt be there living with the enemy.