Comments on: The Troubled Waters Of "Deepwater"

Congressman: The Country Is Less Safe Than Before $24 Billion Refurbishment

[thoughtrules]

Boy is 60 Minutes off on this one. I'm usually just itching to see corporate fat-cats caught with their hands in the jar; I was troubled by this story as any progressive American should be, but made curious by Admiral Allen's refusal to be interviewed unedited, I smelled a rat. My impression is the admiral and most of the "firemen on boats" who serve int he Coast Guard are exceedingly honorable people. Hence my interest.

Here is my general conclusion on this awful and very ameture-ish bit of news-journalism -- 60 minutes either let themselves be used by politicos on what amounts to a very minor and fixable issue (and it pains me as a progressive to say the users in this case are Dems); it is also my guess they were ALSO manipulated by commercial competitors of these contractors (Lockheed and Northrup) who are scheming themselves to get the contracts opened up to bid again. (Look at the stuff on-line and in the public record and it seems clear that this Congressman Gene Taylor guy positioning himself as some kind of hero is doing EXACTLY that. He just happens to have in his Mississippi district a shipyard that would likely benefit in the hundreds of million in orders if the Bollinger shipyard in Louisiana is discredited on the small littoral ships business --which the Navy is teeing up right now. (Did anyone look into this at CBS...my God, I mean it's been 12 hours since the story and I already got this info.)

[thoughtrules]

Boy is 60 Minutes off on this one. I'm usually just itching to see corporate fat-cats caught with their hands in the jar; I was troubled by this story as any progressive American should be, but made curious by Admiral Allen's refusal to be interviewed unedited, I smelled a rat. My impression is the admiral and most of the "firemen on boats" who serve int he Coast Guard are exceedingly honorable people. Hence my interest.

Here is my general conclusion on this awful and very ameture-ish bit of news-journalism -- 60 minutes either let themselves be used by politicos on what amounts to a very minor and fixable issue (and it pains me as a progressive to say the users in this case are Dems); it is also my guess they were ALSO manipulated by commercial competitors of these contractors (Lockheed and Northrup) who are scheming themselves to get the contracts opened up to bid again. (Look at the stuff on-line and in the public record and it seems clear that this Congressman Gene Taylor guy positioning himself as some kind of hero is doing EXACTLY that. He just happens to have in his Mississippi district a shipyard that would likely benefit in the hundreds of million in orders if the Bollinger shipyard in Louisiana is discredited on the small littoral ships business --which the Navy is teeing up right now. (Did anyone look into this at CBS...my God, I mean it's been 12 hours since the story and I already got this info.)

[cbse3]

WHY no unedited interview, 60 miniutes. We want the full story and not just a selective slice of of your slant.
Who was the marine engineer in charge of making the design changes on the 8 lengthings? Normally in business, changes get approved by the customer,in this case the Coast Guard. So , who in the CG approved the design changes? And why weren't these changes put thru extensive testing and sea trials with Boat 1 before proceeding with the next 7 boats

[toldyouso21]

Okay. At some point we have to note an administration so rife with corruption, so intertwined with corporations so replete with zero accountability, that even the most die hard GOP fan among us must acknowledge this dog won't hunt, won't even bark--just pisses and cr@ps on everywhere it is allowed to hike up its leg.

There is soooo much corruption and lying and overruns in costs and stealing--that surely we all know the trickle down theory. Yes, I blame this on Bush and Co. In any corporation the onus of a culture of corruption is pretty cut and dried. Incompetence, greed, corruption and dishonesty at the top--then it seeps into the very pores and fabric of an organization. Ladies and Gentlemen, that culture is the present administration and the programs for privatizing government work they put into place--the orgainization is almost every government job from mail delivery to contractors for HS and the war and the biggest loser as usual--the American tax payer.

[tomtomasters]

The problem was the material used for the Hulls. Steel/Aluminum verses Composite. What type of composite material? The article didn't say. Maybe fiberglass? And how is that heavier? Most boats are made of it, and surf boards, making it lighter in weight and less expensive.

I would like the Coast Guard to give those vessels to my company. ACET/SugarCityCane. We can use them on Bakers Island to help build our Ethanol Company.

We are a new company that will grow SugarCane on the Equator on 1-2 acre size Aquatic-Rafts hydroponically. We will need the Coast Guard to be our Security patrols in the region. The Island is South of Hawaii on the Equator. It will be safe duty, no hurricanes, typhoons, or cyclones. Use our Ethanol to run your Air Conditioning.

Since we are new, I hope to get the vessels from the Coast Guard with a payment plan so they can recoop their investment. But I need to build the rafts first and begin selling the SugarCane juice for Ethanol production.

Hope you shipmates will hear my SOS so I can save you and you can save me! What do you say?

Dominic Jermano/ CEO Charcoal Ethanol Organization & Chairman of Energy Oceanography at ACET: Aquatic Charcoal Ethanol Technicorp/ SugarCityCane

http://www.sugarcitycane.com
A McHales Navy Enterprise. smiling

[rehtnug12]

It's funny how one sided the story was and at the end the results that the Coast Guard has made with the failures of the project were only mentioned. Lets see how well they could do at replacing a multi-million dollar fleet of aircraft and vessels that are fully integrated and interchangeable. Not to mention that the CG is the least funded and smallest branch of the military and continually does more with less. I'd be curious to see a follow up in six months to catch up on what progress Admn Allen has made, I believe we will be impressed.

[interested7]

I can't believe the pervasiveness of incompetence at every level in this country. However I just have one (actually two) questions for you....Why not interview the Coast Guard representative in an unedited interview? Do you suspect we (your viewers) are also too incompetent to listen to unfiltered and unedited information? I would have been very interested in such an interview.

[hungry1968]

This is the problem with sub-contracting every job away from the military and into the private sector's hands. The Bush administration has been trying to "downsize" the federal government, but if you can pay the military $100 million for something, why would you give $200 million to the private sector to do the same job? Yes, that does make the federal government smaller, but it's a hell of a price to pay, to give such a gift to the defense contracting industry.

Oh well - what do I know. I'm just a middle class American citizen. My opinion doesn't matter.

[bellal-2009]

OMG, I can't believe this story. Good god, this stuff is madness. Could they waste any more of our money if they tried.

[coastie166]

I'm not surprised that this was a pretty useless segment on Deep water. It really didn't tell the public much of anything. If these guys had done their research they would have found out that the marriage of the coast guard and ancient assets was nothing new. In the 60's I served on a WW2 era ship that was finally decommissioned in the 90's.

The Coast Guard has always been the step child when it comes to budgets and it always will be. We had helicopters whose doors would fall off on regular intervals, in the 60's we had cutters whose flight decks would crack. Lately our hjelicopters were underpowered. Think of this, how would you like to pilot an aircraft in which one of the things you automatically did was search for a place to crash land in case you lost power in your engines.

Trust me, this will go on for a long time more before it gets better.

[kcioca]

If this seems so crazy, maybe they should research the harassment and abuse that goes on in the coast guard. It gets covered up, and women get treated poorly. I know cause I was assaulted by my direct supervisor, after refusing to have *** with him! Team Coast Guard.....YEAH... RIGHT

[down-ndirty]

"So the question is, is 60 Minutes that inept, or is the US Civil Service that dangerous?"
Posted by USN_Ret at 07:27 PM : May 20, 2007

So how many military acquisitions have you worked on, Chief?

The Civil Servant only controls the money; the military determines what they want, writes the spec, and approves final delivery. In addition, there are numerous "progress meetings" and "milestones" that have to be met along the way. The military "customer" attends these meetings and either approves or disapproves the milestones. When these "milestones" are met "progress payments" are made to the contractor. When they are not met, there are no payments, unless, of course, there is corruption.

Corruption seems to prevail in military acquisitions, mainly because the people involved are not fully accountable for the funds. It doesn't come out of their pockets and they seldom, if ever, have to pay it back when things go wrong.

[down-ndirty]

"Maybe a closer look will find that diane fienstien's hubby's company had something to do with the latest debacle.
Report all the news. Think I'll contact mediamatters." Posted by janem4 at 08:49 AM : May 20, 2007
--------------

Well, jane, we know you don't like feistein, but why don't you post some FACTS to back up your spineless accusations?

Do you KNOW that Feinstein's "hubby" had anyting to do with this?

Do you KNOW that Cheney isn't getting kickbacks from the Halliburton debacle in Iraq?

Do you KNOW *** you are talking about?

Contact mediamatters?? Is that a threat? DO IT! I'd be curious to know what they have to say.

OBTW: Corruption isn't a "liberal only" vice; to wit: Randy Cunningham, et al. LOL!!

[whec80]

Fortunately or unfortunately depending on your perspective, the Coast Guard has a relatively strong chain of command. So if the Commandant says that this ship is going to sail, it's going to be accepted and it's going to sail and all will be well with the world. No contracting officer is going to say "no".

It's that same strong chain of command that allows the Coast Guard to quickly do good things in the face of disasters like Katrina.

I'm unimpressed with the piece because I don't think it got to the bottom of the problem of Deepwater.

I would love to see the Coast Guard get some relatively newer decommissioned Navy vessels to expand the fleet. The amount of money being spent for Deepwater could do an excellent rehab and refit.

[grafxstar]

Lockheed - Martin has been are building stuff for the government for a long time. They have their hands in all kinds of projects from space craft to communications gear.

It is about time they got a new imagine, including a new company logo and sign that I would love to build for them for the bargain basement price of $2.7 billion, using the latest state of the art bubble gum, twine, duct tape and cardboard. Of course the current corp. tag-line would be changed to reflect the time. From "We never forget who we work for" to "Bend over America, We are right behind you"

[pkplatte]

May I remind you that when huricane Katrina hit there was one and only one agency that responded without stopping to hear the "official" order to go. They responded in the true sense and saved many lives when the rest of our dumb goverment sat with thier thumbs up thier a**es. The Coast Gaurd is an active work agency, I believe that if this problem actually exist it is because of someone up on the hill. Not someone in the Coast Gaurd, that is if this actually is real.
You suck as a news agency and I'm tired of having you as just another lying mouth for Cheney and his cronies.

[grafxstar]

Lockheed - Martin has been are building stuff for the government for a long time. They have their hands in all kinds of projects from space craft to communications gear.

It is about time they got a new imagine, including a new company logo and sign that I would love to build for them for the bargain basement price of $2.7 billion, using the latest state of the art bubble gum, twine, duct tape and cardboard. Of course the current corp. tag-line would be changed to reflect the time. From "We never forget who we work for" to "Bend over America, We are right behind you"

[proud2serve1]

It would be idiotic for the Coast Guard to agree to an interview where editing is under full control of 60 minutes. Just look what clip they showed from the C-SPAN hearings. The CG agreed to a 1 hour live interview which 60 minutes wanted no parts of. Why? Because they would have to stand and fight like a man. Not sneak around and edit the clip to support their story. Was their mistakes made? Hell yes.....and big ones. But lets remember what these two companies have brought us (Stealth Fighter, AEGIS, F22, F35, Aircraft carriers, etc., etc.). It's never easy to invent, engineer, or for that matter build things on a scale this large. Mistakes happen, and these mistakes were huge. We have thousands of Americans (hell yes Americans) working on this program and I'm confident they will get this program back on it's feet.

[steved998]

Interesting. It would be nice to get the whole story. After the hatchet job 60 Minutes did on Realtors last week, it was no surprise to here that 60 minutes declined a live unedited interview with the Coast Gaurd Commendant. With the Realtors, the questions was asked about justification of a 6% rate. The Realtor being interviewed began by saying "It's hard to explain, but..." THE REST, after the But, WAS EDITED OUT. I also heard that the President of the National Association of Realtors had offered to appear and answer questions. 60 Minutes refused. I guess it might have gotten in the way of the preconceived conclusions that 60 Minutes wanted. I guess a live unedited interview with the Coast Guard representative would have done the same.

[usn_ret]

60 Miuntes as usual, missed the culprit.
In defense acquisition a Uniformed Military Officer has absolutely no money to spend. So the Commendant, the Program Manager, the Project Engineer, zero dollars to spend. The person with the Money, the person who actually approves the payment of a contract is a Civil Servant. Take note that 60 Minutes and Congress talked to Uniformed Officers and Contractors, not a single Civil Servant was even mentioned. The question that will make a difference, but no news (propoganda) outlet will ask, "Who was the Execuitve Director of this project?" That is the Civil Servant with the money, that is how contracts are paid. This is the same situation as occured at Walter Reed and 60 Minutes didn't ask about any Civil Servants then either. So the question is, is 60 Minutes that inept, or is the US Civil Service that dangerous?