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Saturday, February 18, 2012
HOUSE REPUBLICANS TO OBAMA: NUKE CUT PLAN IS ‘DANGEROUS’
Anonymously contributed:
HOUSE REPUBLICANS TO OBAMA: NUKE CUT PLAN IS ‘DANGEROUS’
Amazing. The most important post on this blog in many months, and people are so tied up in "I hate Knapp," "I was screwed in retirement, "Knapp is killing the weapons program," "What will happen to poor little me," that no one chooses to comment. I have to say that if I were a top LANL or LLNL manager, I would definitely fire any member of the staff who was so short-sighted about US national security and who didn't have a clue where he fit into the process. This is your career, folks!! Did you sign up to serve your country or to collect a paycheck and a pension?? If you no longer care, get the hell gone and let those who still do try to fix the problems and get on with the job. If no purpose is more important than your own personal one, you deserve to be laid off or fired. Your pointing out that in your opinion management is no better is irrelevant. You can't excuse your bad behavior by pointing to others' bad behavior. Suck it up or get out. "Land of the free and home of the brave." Sheesh, you whining people disgust me.
This topic was commented upon a bit in a previous topic. The Administration is putting out some trial balloons. That the House Majority has a negative reaction, especially to the lowest stockpile range, isn't a surprise. We'll let the policy wonks chew on it for awhile.
I do think that this is a very important post and probably the most important too. But I think that we have the wrong people running the laboratory. I care about having a job because I need to eat. However, I also believe in integrity and I see NO integrity at the laboratory. I believe in what I am doing but I need an organization that runs on integrity and not greed. All the manager care about is getting their big $$$. "Your pointing out that in your opinion management is no better is irrelevant." When management has lost its integrity and runs an important part of out country it is extreme important and necessary to point this out. Running a successful program requires greatness, integrity and transparency to achieve. Something we do not have in DOE complex as a whole. Let's get it back.
You truly disgust me. The real point of the blog has always been about national security. Turning the labs over to corporate control, having congress bash the labs, preventing work from being done, and making working conditions so bad that the best people will never want to work at the labs have all hurt national security and the ability to do our mission. A corporation by law is not loyal or even concerned about the best interests of the United States but is loyal to the stock holders and profits.
"Did you sign up to serve your country or to collect a paycheck and a pension?"
Again our mission is now to make a profit for a corporation not to serve our country.
February 19, 2012 9:42 PM it is time to wake up and see what is going on. I am also sick your ass-kissing whining, history has judged sycophants very harshly
Watch the actions of Greg Mello (LASG) carefully. Now that he's been successful at getting LANL's CMRR killed off for being to expensive, he'll move to using legal maneuvers to have CMR shut down for being "too old and decrepit".
The nation's nuclear weapons infrastructure is being successfully destroyed by the far-left, anti-nuke crowd and Obama is helping them in their efforts!
The sky did not start falling just this week, and most of the budget news (including CMRR) had been leaked months ago. The reconsideration of the Nuclear Posture Review (or whatever it is being called this year) was also leaked by the Administration. That is how politics works -- or doesn't work. It would be much more helpful to understand how this particular bit of political news has more impact than other times. It appears that LANL "got out in front of their headlights" and made a bad bet based on an uncertain future funding. No matter the outcome of the debate on the makeup of the strategic nuclear deterrent, the damage of the bad bet is already having an impact.
It looks like LLNL was mostly missed on this round. Next time, it may be NIF that gets whacked.
It looks like LLNL was mostly missed on this round. Next time, it may be NIF that gets whacked.
February 20, 2012 12:14 PM
NIF is not important to national security. What is really scary is the Obama administration's proposing major unilateral reductions in the US nuclear arsenal, claiming that "current" world threats (i.e., terrorism) do not require very many weapons, while simultaneously taking irreversible steps to ensure that when (not if) the country once more needs a respectable, diverse stockpile, it will have lost (essentially permanently) the capability to rebuild it. No infrastructure, no knowledgeable scientists and engineers. And the worst part is, they are getting away with it!!
Mello and his ilk will not be content with closing CMR. Next on their list is PF-4. That will be the end of any US capability to make pits.
I have to say that if I were a top LANL or LLNL manager, I would definitely fire any member of the staff who was so short-sighted about US national security and who didn't have a clue where he fit into the process.
February 19, 2012 9:42 PM
Then you would have to fire Brett Knapp, because you just described him to the "tee".....dude!
Mello and his ilk will not be content with closing CMR. Next on their list is PF-4. That will be the end of any US capability to make pits.
February 20, 2012 12:53 PM
Another LANS Senior Manager blaming Greg Mello for losing CMMR. I told you guys, LANS sold-out, they stated they could handle it with existing facilities and infrastructure. Hello!!
No matter how hard the spin it will be tough to make the blame stick somewhere besides Charlie.
February 20, 2012 5:21 PM
With the $200M existing shortfall, $300M lost on CMRR, and I hear another $200 loss on the weapons program, that's a total $ 0.70B. You just don't hold a bake-sale to make that kind of money. McMillan has a lot to explain tomorrow at his All-hands. Rest assured that he will count "his plan" on 5-fingers starting with 1. Mommy!
No matter how hard the spin it will be tough to make the blame stick somewhere besides Charlie.
February 20, 2012 5:21 PM
With the $200M existing shortfall, $300M lost on CMRR, and I hear another $200M loss on the weapons program, that's a total $ 0.70B. You just don't hold a bake-sale to make that kind of money. McMillan has a lot to explain tomorrow at his All-hands. Rest assured that he will count "his plan" on 5-fingers starting with 1. Mommy!
Another LANS Senior Manager blaming Greg Mello for losing CMMR. I told you guys, LANS sold-out, they stated they could handle it with existing facilities and infrastructure. Hello!!
February 20, 2012 1:57 PM
Go back and actually read my post. I said CMR, not CMRR. Has anyone ever told you that you have a mature world-view? I hope not!
"With the $200M existing shortfall, $300M lost on CMRR, and I hear another $200M loss on the weapons program, that's a total $ 0.70B. You just don't hold a bake-sale to make that kind of money. McMillan has a lot to explain tomorrow at his All-hands. Rest assured that he will count "his plan" on 5-fingers starting with 1. Mommy!
February 20, 2012 6:13 PM"
Here are some rumors are that there will be some kind of incentive but not much. That will get rid some people but not enough since we already did this one before not so long ago. Some contractors will be let go as is always the case but a RIF will use the exact same plan as before so it should be faster. Someone said a number like 700 but others have said up to 1500 or even 20% of the work force and it will be across the bored since that avoids legal issues. Does anyone know if this is true. If I remember from the LLNL RIF certain "hot skills" personal where exempt from both the incentive and RIF. Are they going to do that again?
Does anyone know if this is true. If I remember from the LLNL RIF certain "hot skills" personal where exempt from both the incentive and RIF. Are they going to do that again?
February 20, 2012 7:49 PM
We don't have long to wait. One of those "hot skills" are the Cognizant System Engineers (CSEs), which is a fancy title for Facility Wet Nurses (FWNs). LANS/LLNS values folks baby sitting their facilities, not our Nation's nuclear weapons.
Director McMillan has been a big disappointment, to say the least. It appears that he did little to defend LANL or to stop the budgetary damage that is now being piled upon the lab. His loyalties appear to lie elsewhere.
When you add up all the cuts that have recently been announced for LANL it adds up to a huge percentage of the workforce that will soon be laid off. Charlie McMillan has basically destroyed the place with his incompetence!
And for this he makes about $2 million per year? What a joke! It will be interesting to see if he can force himself to be honest with the staff during Tuesday's All-Hands meeting. I doubt it.
Charlie McMillan has basically destroyed the place with his incompetence!
And for this he makes about $2 million per year? What a joke! It will be interesting to see if he can force himself to be honest with the staff during Tuesday's All-Hands meeting. I doubt it.
February 20, 2012 9:46 PM
Could this be the end of the Livermore dynasty at LANL? I hope so. By the way, I like LLNL, but man did they send us some crappy leaders. Honesty is not in any Senior LLNS/LANS vocabulary, especially those from Bechtel.
I'm getting sick of McMillan demonstrating he can count. Watch today how he counts the numbers in his layoff plan in today's All-hands. I assume he does this so can remember where he left off. To say that McMillan is a disappointment is an understatement.
It will be sad to watch how Charlie tries to point blame to others about these multiple looses. Just as it was sad to see him take sole credit for saving the Lab from last summer's fire, as he did again on the back cover of the LANS annual report that headlined the web page recently.
The biggest threat to our (Los Alamos) nukes was sending Anastasio, MacMillan, and Knapp to screw them up. Livermore has a reputation of screwing things up and they have lived up to that reputation. The weapons they haven't screwed up (W80 and W78) they send back home for their boys back at Livermore to really screw-up. Now this Nuke Plan is: "Dangerous".
as he did again on the back cover of the LANS annual report that headlined the web page recently.
February 21, 2012 4:38 AM
I almost barfed when I saw this publication. There were 8 by 10 glossies of McMillan and Pattiz for all us to hang at home or in our offices. These guys have a "high opinion" of the themselves. Thank God they didn't put Knapp's picture in it. Here is LANS and the LISC trying to save $200M with Knapp leading efforts to cut down on paper and they send us this thing, what an absolute waste of money!
MIT CMcM, obviously, has been DIR for how long? WoW, you can count. Ok, my turn. It makes more sense that Mike (and others) saw this coming and needed someone like CMcM to take the fall. Chew on that one for a while......
OK, 6:20 AM, do you recall Mike's all-hands meeting after the classified data was found in the drug raid at the trailer park? HE accepted responsibility, and did it again in front of Congress. And WHO did Jessica Quintana work for? Was it Charlie?? Mike wasn't perfect, but he did have the character to hold the office.
Heather Wilson, the GOP candidate for the Senate, was on KOB this morning. She said that LANL can expect to lose about ** 1000 ** positions due to the unwise cuts directed at this lab by Obama!
We'll see if Director McMillan can be honest with the staff about what's coming at his All-Hands meeting today. A reduction by 1000 employees would equal about 12% of the workforce and would devastate both Los Alamos County and the Espanola Valley.
Among many sad notes about this avoidable situation, LANL once again finds itself on the front page of POGO. Last time the Lab had such headlines it was just "one more event away" from being shut down.
We'll see if Director McMillan can be honest with the staff about what's coming at his All-Hands meeting today.
February 21, 2012 8:46 AM
How can he? He has no idea, nor does anyone else. The President's budget PROPOSAL is just that. Congress hasn't passed a budget in almost three years. What makes anyone think this purely political "budget" that is designed solely to appeal to the liberal Democratic base, will actually have a snowball's chance of passing?
"Mike wasn't perfect, but he did have the character to hold the office."
Truth is that Mike really wasn't all that good at the Washington game, he just looks like a Grand Master in comparison to Charlie. The budget is all about knowing how to interact in DC and LANL doesn't have anyone right now that has a clue how to play.
Never fear, Charlie will cave and sign "the letter" is spite of having his lab decimated. Parney will do the same. That's all those two jokers are in place for --signing the annual "letter". Bought and paid for, the ethics of the US nuclear enterprise!
A bit of perspective from Global Security Newswire....
-------- Despite the current vociferous GOP objections to new cuts, it has been Republican presidents over the last 20 years who have authorized the highest reductions to the U.S. nuclear stockpile, the Associated Press reported on Sunday.
"Republican presidents seem to have a thing for 50 percent nuclear reductions," said Hans Kristensen, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Nuclear Information Project.
President George H.W. Bush approved cutting the number of fielded and stored nuclear weapons from 22,217 to 13,708. His administration also saw the quantity of fielded long-range nuclear weapons reduced from 12,300 to 7,114, Kristensen stated.
In addition, then-President Bush in 1991 also took the unilateral step of removing all deployed ground-launched U.S. nuclear weapons from South Korea and Europe and withdrawing all nuclear warheads from U.S. battleships.
When President George W. Bush ended his tenure as commander in chief in early 2009, there were only 1,968 fielded U.S. nuclear weapons, according to Kristensen. The full arsenal had dropped from 10,526 to 5,273 warheads.
Turner (R-Ohio) on Friday said he was greatly worried by the idea of more severe reductions to the nation's nuclear stockpile.
"Never before has a president done something like this. Yes, presidents since Truman have updated the nation's nuclear war plan. But I cannot find a precedent for a president to tell the national security team, that regardless of the nuclear-weapons modernization programs of China, Russia, Pakistan, North Korea and others, the U.S. should plan to reduce to as low as 300 nuclear weapons," Turner said.
Turner's opinion was echoed by other GOP lawmakers.
"A 300 number would (mean) the Chinese would have more than we have," Senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said. "I mean, this is a number where anybody that wanted to could build up to that number and be a peer with the United States. The whole point of nuclear deterrent is to have so much and so great a capability that nobody ever messes with you."
However, if the United States did reduce its launch-ready to arsenal to 300 warheads, it would still have in reserve hundreds and potentially thousands more nuclear weapons than China, which is thought to possess a total stockpile of 300 deployed and reserve warheads (Robert Burns, Associated Press/Arizona Daily Star, Feb. 19).
A tiny dose of reality might help. Uncle Pete was able to bring home the bacon due to his seniority. Wilson has the right ideas, but no one should hold out much hope that a VERY junior senator from NM can be in any position to help in the near term. Maybe in 2020. BTW, bad form to have a release of the EXACT numbers targeted in the RIF in this manner. Makes it look like a political candidate had the information before you gave it to your employees. Rookie mistake.
Republican Heather Wilson might be a junior Senator if elected, but the SENIOR Senator Jeff Bingamin didn't seem to do much good at protecting LANL jobs and neither did his other little liberal buddie, Tom Udall.
These two Democratic Senators have not been much help at keeping Northern New Mexico's economy going. They've been AWOL.
Look on the bright side. Now LANS can order 800 fewer pairs of this shoes that grip, and 800 fewer people who hate Knapp's guts will be walking the halls waiting to take their next important training. In the parlance of Bechtel Program Management, it's a win-win situation.
Congressman Ben Ray Lujan (D) is a very liberal, wimpish politician who has pushed in the past to have LANL concentrate on becoming an "Environmental Research Park". No wonder LANL is now facing a drastic loss of 10% of the regular staff!
With liberal Democrats like this guy and both Jeff Bingamin (D) and Tom Udall (D) plus a far-left President Obama, you can expect Los Alamos to continue to hemorrhage good paying jobs for some time to come.
At least Governor Martinez (R) has been willing to book a ticket to Washington DC and go fight for LANL jobs next week. She needs to be applauded for taking some initiative. The rest of our NM liberal Democratic political establishment is pretty much worthless!
The Los Alamos real estate market is getting ready to go into a deep freeze. Might as well pull up that "For Sale" sign in front of your yard if you have one.
Almost no homes will sell for may years forward after LANS has completed their 10% layoffs of the regular staff, with the very real fear of more layoffs likely to follow.
With a 10% reduction in the long-term regular staff, I would expect to see a lot of foreclosures on homes during the next few years. Being a company town, if you lose your job you're also likely to lose your home, too.
At least Governor Martinez (R) has been willing to book a ticket to Washington DC and go fight for LANL jobs next week. She needs to be applauded for taking some initiative. The rest of our NM liberal Democratic political establishment is pretty much worthless!
February 24, 2012 8:44 AM
I'm too impressed with this late minute "antic" by Martinez. It's too late, the pooch got screwed already and she's 5-months in gestation.
38 comments:
Kind of like giving Barney Fife his 1 bullet. Hope the delivery system is up to snuff.
Amazing. The most important post on this blog in many months, and people are so tied up in "I hate Knapp," "I was screwed in retirement, "Knapp is killing the weapons program," "What will happen to poor little me," that no one chooses to comment. I have to say that if I were a top LANL or LLNL manager, I would definitely fire any member of the staff who was so short-sighted about US national security and who didn't have a clue where he fit into the process. This is your career, folks!! Did you sign up to serve your country or to collect a paycheck and a pension?? If you no longer care, get the hell gone and let those who still do try to fix the problems and get on with the job. If no purpose is more important than your own personal one, you deserve to be laid off or fired. Your pointing out that in your opinion management is no better is irrelevant. You can't excuse your bad behavior by pointing to others' bad behavior. Suck it up or get out. "Land of the free and home of the brave." Sheesh, you whining people disgust me.
This topic was commented upon a bit in a previous topic. The Administration is putting out some trial balloons. That the House Majority has a negative reaction, especially to the lowest stockpile range, isn't a surprise. We'll let the policy wonks chew on it for awhile.
I do think that this is a very important post and probably the most important too. But I think that we have the wrong people running the laboratory. I care about having a job because I need to eat. However, I also believe in integrity and I see NO integrity at the laboratory. I believe in what I am doing but I need an organization that runs on integrity and not greed. All the manager care about is getting their big $$$.
"Your pointing out that in your opinion management is no better is irrelevant."
When management has lost its integrity and runs an important part of out country it is extreme important and necessary to point this out. Running a successful program requires greatness, integrity and transparency to achieve. Something we do not have in DOE complex as a whole.
Let's get it back.
"Sheesh, you whining people disgust me.
February 19, 2012 9:42 PM"
You truly disgust me. The real point of the blog has always been about national security. Turning the labs over to corporate control, having congress bash the labs, preventing work from being done, and making working conditions so bad that the best people will never want to work at the labs have all hurt national security and the ability to do our mission.
A corporation by law is not loyal or even concerned about the best interests of the United States but is loyal to the stock holders and profits.
"Did you sign up to serve your country or to collect a paycheck and a pension?"
Again our mission is now to make a profit for a corporation not to serve our country.
February 19, 2012 9:42 PM it is time to wake up and see what is going on. I am also sick your ass-kissing whining, history has
judged sycophants very harshly
Watch the actions of Greg Mello (LASG) carefully. Now that he's been successful at getting LANL's CMRR killed off for being to expensive, he'll move to using legal maneuvers to have CMR shut down for being "too old and decrepit".
The nation's nuclear weapons infrastructure is being successfully destroyed by the far-left, anti-nuke crowd and Obama is helping them in their efforts!
The sky did not start falling just this week, and most of the budget news (including CMRR) had been leaked months ago. The reconsideration of the Nuclear Posture Review (or whatever it is being called this year) was also leaked by the Administration. That is how politics works -- or doesn't work.
It would be much more helpful to understand how this particular bit of political news has more impact than other times. It appears that LANL "got out in front of their headlights" and made a bad bet based on an uncertain future funding.
No matter the outcome of the debate on the makeup of the strategic nuclear deterrent, the damage of the bad bet is already having an impact.
It looks like LLNL was mostly missed on this round. Next time, it may be NIF that gets whacked.
It looks like LLNL was mostly missed on this round. Next time, it may be NIF that gets whacked.
February 20, 2012 12:14 PM
NIF is not important to national security. What is really scary is the Obama administration's proposing major unilateral reductions in the US nuclear arsenal, claiming that "current" world threats (i.e., terrorism) do not require very many weapons, while simultaneously taking irreversible steps to ensure that when (not if) the country once more needs a respectable, diverse stockpile, it will have lost (essentially permanently) the capability to rebuild it. No infrastructure, no knowledgeable scientists and engineers. And the worst part is, they are getting away with it!!
Mello and his ilk will not be content with closing CMR. Next on their list is PF-4. That will be the end of any US capability to make pits.
I have to say that if I were a top LANL or LLNL manager, I would definitely fire any member of the staff who was so short-sighted about US national security and who didn't have a clue where he fit into the process.
February 19, 2012 9:42 PM
Then you would have to fire Brett Knapp, because you just described him to the "tee".....dude!
Mello and his ilk will not be content with closing CMR. Next on their list is PF-4. That will be the end of any US capability to make pits.
February 20, 2012 12:53 PM
Another LANS Senior Manager blaming Greg Mello for losing CMMR. I told you guys, LANS sold-out, they stated they could handle it with existing facilities and infrastructure. Hello!!
No matter how hard the spin it will be tough to make the blame stick somewhere besides Charlie.
No matter how hard the spin it will be tough to make the blame stick somewhere besides Charlie.
February 20, 2012 5:21 PM
With the $200M existing shortfall, $300M lost on CMRR, and I hear another $200 loss on the weapons program, that's a total $ 0.70B. You just don't hold a bake-sale to make that kind of money. McMillan has a lot to explain tomorrow at his All-hands. Rest assured that he will count "his plan" on 5-fingers starting with 1. Mommy!
1.
No matter how hard the spin it will be tough to make the blame stick somewhere besides Charlie.
February 20, 2012 5:21 PM
With the $200M existing shortfall, $300M lost on CMRR, and I hear another $200M loss on the weapons program, that's a total $ 0.70B. You just don't hold a bake-sale to make that kind of money. McMillan has a lot to explain tomorrow at his All-hands. Rest assured that he will count "his plan" on 5-fingers starting with 1. Mommy!
Another LANS Senior Manager blaming Greg Mello for losing CMMR. I told you guys, LANS sold-out, they stated they could handle it with existing facilities and infrastructure. Hello!!
February 20, 2012 1:57 PM
Go back and actually read my post. I said CMR, not CMRR. Has anyone ever told you that you have a mature world-view? I hope not!
"With the $200M existing shortfall, $300M lost on CMRR, and I hear another $200M loss on the weapons program, that's a total $ 0.70B. You just don't hold a bake-sale to make that kind of money. McMillan has a lot to explain tomorrow at his All-hands. Rest assured that he will count "his plan" on 5-fingers starting with 1. Mommy!
February 20, 2012 6:13 PM"
Here are some rumors are that there will be some kind of incentive but not much. That will get rid some people but not enough since we already did this one
before not so long ago. Some contractors will be let go as is always the case but a RIF will use the exact same plan as before so it should be faster. Someone said a number like 700 but others have said up to 1500 or even 20% of the work force and it will be across the bored since that avoids legal issues. Does anyone know if this is true. If I remember from the LLNL RIF certain "hot skills" personal where exempt from both the incentive and RIF. Are they going to do that again?
Does anyone know if this is true. If I remember from the LLNL RIF certain "hot skills" personal where exempt from both the incentive and RIF. Are they going to do that again?
February 20, 2012 7:49 PM
We don't have long to wait. One of those "hot skills" are the Cognizant System Engineers (CSEs), which is a fancy title for Facility Wet Nurses (FWNs). LANS/LLNS values folks baby sitting their facilities, not our Nation's nuclear weapons.
Director McMillan has been a big disappointment, to say the least. It appears that he did little to defend LANL or to stop the budgetary damage that is now being piled upon the lab. His loyalties appear to lie elsewhere.
When you add up all the cuts that have recently been announced for LANL it adds up to a huge percentage of the workforce that will soon be laid off. Charlie McMillan has basically destroyed the place with his incompetence!
And for this he makes about $2 million per year? What a joke! It will be interesting to see if he can force himself to be honest with the staff during Tuesday's All-Hands meeting. I doubt it.
Charlie McMillan has basically destroyed the place with his incompetence!
And for this he makes about $2 million per year? What a joke! It will be interesting to see if he can force himself to be honest with the staff during Tuesday's All-Hands meeting. I doubt it.
February 20, 2012 9:46 PM
Could this be the end of the Livermore dynasty at LANL? I hope so. By the way, I like LLNL, but man did they send us some crappy leaders. Honesty is not in any Senior LLNS/LANS vocabulary, especially those from Bechtel.
I'm getting sick of McMillan demonstrating he can count. Watch today how he counts the numbers in his layoff plan in today's All-hands. I assume he does this so can remember where he left off. To say that McMillan is a disappointment is an understatement.
It will be sad to watch how Charlie tries to point blame to others about these multiple looses.
Just as it was sad to see him take sole credit for saving the Lab from last summer's fire, as he did again on the back cover of the LANS annual report that headlined the web page recently.
The biggest threat to our (Los Alamos) nukes was sending Anastasio, MacMillan, and Knapp to screw them up. Livermore has a reputation of screwing things up and they have lived up to that reputation. The weapons they haven't screwed up (W80 and W78) they send back home for their boys back at Livermore to really screw-up. Now this Nuke Plan is: "Dangerous".
as he did again on the back cover of the LANS annual report that headlined the web page recently.
February 21, 2012 4:38 AM
I almost barfed when I saw this publication. There were 8 by 10 glossies of McMillan and Pattiz for all us to hang at home or in our offices. These guys have a "high opinion" of the themselves. Thank God they didn't put Knapp's picture in it. Here is LANS and the LISC trying to save $200M with Knapp leading efforts to cut down on paper and they send us this thing, what an absolute waste of money!
MIT CMcM, obviously, has been DIR for how long? WoW, you can count. Ok, my turn. It makes more sense that Mike (and others) saw this coming and needed someone like CMcM to take the fall. Chew on that one for a while......
OK, 6:20 AM, do you recall Mike's all-hands meeting after the classified data was found in the drug raid at the trailer park? HE accepted responsibility, and did it again in front of Congress.
And WHO did Jessica Quintana work for? Was it Charlie??
Mike wasn't perfect, but he did have the character to hold the office.
Heather Wilson, the GOP candidate for the Senate, was on KOB this morning. She said that LANL can expect to lose about ** 1000 ** positions due to the unwise cuts directed at this lab by Obama!
We'll see if Director McMillan can be honest with the staff about what's coming at his All-Hands meeting today. A reduction by 1000 employees would equal about 12% of the workforce and would devastate both Los Alamos County and the Espanola Valley.
Among many sad notes about this avoidable situation, LANL once again finds itself on the front page of POGO. Last time the Lab had such headlines it was just "one more event away" from being shut down.
We'll see if Director McMillan can be honest with the staff about what's coming at his All-Hands meeting today.
February 21, 2012 8:46 AM
How can he? He has no idea, nor does anyone else. The President's budget PROPOSAL is just that. Congress hasn't passed a budget in almost three years. What makes anyone think this purely political "budget" that is designed solely to appeal to the liberal Democratic base, will actually have a snowball's chance of passing?
"Mike wasn't perfect, but he did have the character to hold the office."
Truth is that Mike really wasn't all that good at the Washington game, he just looks like a Grand Master in comparison to Charlie. The budget is all about knowing how to interact in DC and LANL doesn't have anyone right now that has a clue how to play.
Never fear, Charlie will cave and sign "the letter" is spite of having his lab decimated. Parney will do the same. That's all those two jokers are in place for --signing the annual "letter". Bought and paid for, the ethics of the US nuclear enterprise!
I sure hope this is incorrectly reported.
These things haven't been exercised in 20 years.
By analogy, how old does gunpowder need to be before you wonder if the ol' blunderbus still fires? And who would you trust to say so?
Probably not something you want to discover while your daughter is being raped.
A bit of perspective from Global Security Newswire....
--------
Despite the current vociferous GOP objections to new cuts, it has been Republican presidents over the last 20 years who have authorized the highest reductions to the U.S. nuclear stockpile, the Associated Press reported on Sunday.
"Republican presidents seem to have a thing for 50 percent nuclear reductions," said Hans Kristensen, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Nuclear Information Project.
President George H.W. Bush approved cutting the number of fielded and stored nuclear weapons from 22,217 to 13,708. His administration also saw the quantity of fielded long-range nuclear weapons reduced from 12,300 to 7,114, Kristensen stated.
In addition, then-President Bush in 1991 also took the unilateral step of removing all deployed ground-launched U.S. nuclear weapons from South Korea and Europe and withdrawing all nuclear warheads from U.S. battleships.
When President George W. Bush ended his tenure as commander in chief in early 2009, there were only 1,968 fielded U.S. nuclear weapons, according to Kristensen. The full arsenal had dropped from 10,526 to 5,273 warheads.
Turner (R-Ohio) on Friday said he was greatly worried by the idea of more severe reductions to the nation's nuclear stockpile.
"Never before has a president done something like this. Yes, presidents since Truman have updated the nation's nuclear war plan. But I cannot find a precedent for a president to tell the national security team, that regardless of the nuclear-weapons modernization programs of China, Russia, Pakistan, North Korea and others, the U.S. should plan to reduce to as low as 300 nuclear weapons," Turner said.
Turner's opinion was echoed by other GOP lawmakers.
"A 300 number would (mean) the Chinese would have more than we have," Senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said. "I mean, this is a number where anybody that wanted to could build up to that number and be a peer with the United States. The whole point of nuclear deterrent is to have so much and so great a capability that nobody ever messes with you."
However, if the United States did reduce its launch-ready to arsenal to 300 warheads, it would still have in reserve hundreds and potentially thousands more nuclear weapons than China, which is thought to possess a total stockpile of 300 deployed and reserve warheads (Robert Burns, Associated Press/Arizona Daily Star, Feb. 19).
A tiny dose of reality might help. Uncle Pete was able to bring home the bacon due to his seniority. Wilson has the right ideas, but no one should hold out much hope that a VERY junior senator from NM can be in any position to help in the near term. Maybe in 2020.
BTW, bad form to have a release of the EXACT numbers targeted in the RIF in this manner. Makes it look like a political candidate had the information before you gave it to your employees. Rookie mistake.
Republican Heather Wilson might be a junior Senator if elected, but the SENIOR Senator Jeff Bingamin didn't seem to do much good at protecting LANL jobs and neither did his other little liberal buddie, Tom Udall.
These two Democratic Senators have not been much help at keeping Northern New Mexico's economy going. They've been AWOL.
Look on the bright side. Now LANS can order 800 fewer pairs of this shoes that grip, and 800 fewer people who hate Knapp's guts will be walking the halls waiting to take their next important training. In the parlance of Bechtel Program Management, it's a win-win situation.
Congressman Ben Ray Lujan (D) is a very liberal, wimpish politician who has pushed in the past to have LANL concentrate on becoming an "Environmental Research Park". No wonder LANL is now facing a drastic loss of 10% of the regular staff!
With liberal Democrats like this guy and both Jeff Bingamin (D) and Tom Udall (D) plus a far-left President Obama, you can expect Los Alamos to continue to hemorrhage good paying jobs for some time to come.
At least Governor Martinez (R) has been willing to book a ticket to Washington DC and go fight for LANL jobs next week. She needs to be applauded for taking some initiative. The rest of our NM liberal Democratic political establishment is pretty much worthless!
The Los Alamos real estate market is getting ready to go into a deep freeze. Might as well pull up that "For Sale" sign in front of your yard if you have one.
Almost no homes will sell for may years forward after LANS has completed their 10% layoffs of the regular staff, with the very real fear of more layoffs likely to follow.
With a 10% reduction in the long-term regular staff, I would expect to see a lot of foreclosures on homes during the next few years. Being a company town, if you lose your job you're also likely to lose your home, too.
At least Governor Martinez (R) has been willing to book a ticket to Washington DC and go fight for LANL jobs next week. She needs to be applauded for taking some initiative. The rest of our NM liberal Democratic political establishment is pretty much worthless!
February 24, 2012 8:44 AM
I'm too impressed with this late minute "antic" by Martinez. It's too late, the pooch got screwed already and she's 5-months in gestation.
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