Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Navy Surrenders to New England Congress

Democrat, Republican, what difference does it make?

There is only ONE PARTY now, and that is the WAR PARTY!!

And New England's congress-creeps JUST PROVED IT!!!


Yeah, TO HELL with the COUNTRY and its DEFICITS, huh?

Just gonna PUMP the WAR MACHINE because THEY ARE ALL BENEFITING FROM IT! Can't we have OTHER JOBS rather than WAR JOBS?

I
guess not.

"Lawmakers' influence felt in destroyer decision; Critics call reversal a make-work program" by Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | August 20, 2008

WASHINGTON - The US Navy has told Congress its Zumwalt-class destroyer can't shoot down ballistic missiles.

It also can't adequately perform another core mission - hunting submarines, the Navy said.

And at a cost of as much as $5 billion per ship, it's way too expensive, according to Pentagon budget specialists. So on July 22 the Navy quietly alerted Congress it would build only the two Zumwalt-class ships already paid for, and within days said it would instead build eight warships of an earlier-model with a proven track record.

But this week, under intense pressure from New England lawmakers concerned about jobs at Bath Iron Works in Maine and Waltham-based Raytheon Co., the Pentagon changed its mind. Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England told lawmakers on Monday the Defense Department will stick to its plan of purchasing a third Zumwalt-class destroyer in 2009 and consider further purchases.

With ALL the NEGLECTED NEEDS of this nation -- homeless vets, health care, infrastructure, foreclosures, energy and food costs, etc -- the DAMN CONGRESS is going to toss BILLIONS into a ship that DOESN'T WORK and what the Navy DOESN'T WANT!!

And New Englanders like to come on with their sickening sanctimony about how much better they are then the rest of the nation. I've about had it with that, too, and I've been immersed in it my entire life.

Yesterday, while New England lawmakers, Bath Iron Works, and Raytheon executives celebrated the decision, many longtime Pentagon watchers were shaking their heads.

Oh, I'LL BET THEY DID!!!!

The decision to keep production of the Zumwalt class alive for at least another year - at a predicted cost of $2.5 billion - is a case study in how troubled weapon systems almost always survive if they have powerful lawmakers on their side, according to defense analysts.

Time to tar, feather, swing. WHERE ARE YOU, America?

Winslow Wheeler, a former Republican congressional aide who has become a vocal critic of the defense budget process. "This shows the depths to which Congress has sunk. It has become bipartisan to see the defense budget as a jobs programs. They see it as key to their own political survival. So the nation is to pay for overpriced, ineffective weapons because it helps a politician stay in office."

And it FEEDS the WAR PROFITEERS and USRAEL!!!!!

Btw, those are NOT the kind of jobs I want here. Aren't there better jobs when we spend more on military than the world combined?

According to Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute, an Arlington, Va., think tank, the project would be headed toward extinction if not for powerful New England politicians.

Indeed, the decision to cancel the Zumwalt program last month ignited a political firestorm. Within hours, a letter signed by both senators from Massachusetts, Maine, and Rhode Island threatened to cut off other shipbuilding funds unless the Pentagon reevaluated its decision.

That's what is known as EXTORTION!!!

Yup, gonna SHUT DOWN the SHIPBUILDING if they don't get their way?

And they have the nerve to criticize Bush on the war?

That is more like something a "TERRORIST" would do!

You PROUD of your "congresscreeps," New England?

As long as the militarized police state saves your sorry ass, right -- even if it destroys us all?

The president of the Maine shipyard, which employs 5,000 workers, flew to Washington to plot strategy with lawmakers. Locked in a tight Senate race, Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, and Representative Thomas Allen, a Democrat whose district includes Bath, competed to be the strongest defender of the state's shipbuilding industry.

Yup, if it is you or me, we take an ass-raping while the fuckers down there diddle (and even when they do something -- like housing -- it is for corporate, not us); however, when WAR LOOTERS COME a'calling, look at them SWING INTO ACTION!

When the hell you getting the troops out of Iraq, and why has it taken so long, assholes?

Others with a stake also launched a counteroffensive. Usually tight-lipped executives at Raytheon, which employs about 2,000 workers on the project in Tewksbury, Andover, and Portsmouth, R.I., contacted reporters offering interviews about the program's importance in maintaining American naval superiority.

Yeah, let's WASTE BILLIONS building a SHIP that DOESN'T WORK so we can maintain our "superiority!"

These guys out to be strung up on general principles alone, the fucking hogging war profiteers!!!

Same for the MSM, which DID AS TOLD and REPORTED AS SUCH!!!

At the same time, the Metal Trades Department of the American Federation of Labor urged Congress to "fully fund the third Zumwalt class destroyer."

So even "lefty" labor is sucking on the war teet, huh?

Raytheon maintains that the radar systems and next-generation design are well-suited to meet the variety of threats against the ship. The company also disputes the Navy's contention that the Zumwalt destroyer costs too much.

But they will pad the bill with cost over-runs anyway!

Daniel L. Smith, vice president of Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems, told the Globe yesterday the Zumwalt program is "delivering unmatched, affordable technology to field and modernize the fleet across all aspects of naval warfare."

--more--"

If you read the rest, you will find even the great "liberal" Ted Kennedy is for this deal.

Sig Heil, AmeriKa!