Navy and Bush appointee

[TwoHandedLayup]

Another sign of ignorant government at work. I was reading the CNN/Money article on the new Navy ships being halted because of cost overruns. It quotes a Delores Etter...
http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/15/news/companies/lockheed.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes

"In September, however, the Navy's acquisition chief, Delores Etter, praised Lockheed's and General Dynamics' work on the littoral combat ships and said that program would become an example of a new way of building ships affordably and quickly."

I decided to search the FEC records and found out she has donated a ton to Repubs for the past 6 years. Imagine that. Was she the best qualified? Was she the most generous?

[Kagemusha]

1. It's as bad or possibly even worse with the Coast Guard

...and FEMA.. and Homeland Security in general..

[Captain Hilts]

2. This ships are built to be expendable. 378ft. draw under 13ft of water. nt

[MADem]

3. With the exception of the career civil servants who are brushing up

against the senior reaches, those patronage jobs at the top of the food chain are totally quid pro quo. You do the Monkeyboy "Pioneer" thing, and you get a job based on your fundraising ability. Raise a SHITLOAD of money, and you're an ambassador. Raise a good chunk of money, you get a DOD job...

The only thing worse than having to work for one of these assholes is having to clean up the mess they made after they leave their cushy job....

[cloudbase]

4. I've seen

absolutely incredible amounts of money pissed away in shipyards. A lot of money was wasted in poor craftsmanship, but far and away the greater amount was due to incompetence at the project management level.