Category Archives: Governance

Prospects Dim for Marine One Upgrade

February 23, 2009 at 11:55 pm

(Source: WashingtonPost.com)

The prospects for building a new fleet of high-tech presidential helicopters darkened yesterday, after the new commander in chief called the costly Bush administration effort an example of military procurement “gone amok” and said he thinks the existing White House helicopter fleet “seems perfectly adequate.”Marine One in Chicago.jpg

President Obama’s remarks at the opening of a meeting with lawmakers on fiscal responsibility did not rule out finishing the program, now expected to cost more than $11.2 billion, or nearly twice the original estimate. He joked that he has not had a helicopter before, so perhaps “I’ve been deprived and I — I didn’t know it.”

But Obama’s disclosure that he had asked Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to conduct a “thorough review of the helicopter situation” amounted to a shot across the bow of large defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin, the helicopter’s manufacturer. In recent years, contractors have experienced multiple cost overruns — totaling $300 billion on the 95 largest military programs, according to the Government Accountability Office — without incurring substantial penalty.

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Obama’s Auto Industry Task Force Drives Imports Like Everyone Else

February 23, 2009 at 1:35 pm

(Source: Jalopnik.com) 

Of the 10 members of President Obama‘s Auto Industry task force, only two are known to own American cars, two don’t own a car, and at least one has a French car in the family.

The majority of the task force, tasked with saving the auto industry, drives Hondas, Mazdas or Volvos. Many of the Honda vehicles are actually built in the US and both Mazda and Volvo are, technically, owned by Ford. Despite the rather bland choices, there are two revelations we couldn’t help but appreciate as car fans:

1. Our Vice President owns a 1967 Corvette, which he probably puts few miles on given his love of Amtrak.

2. Diana Farrell, the deputy National Economic Council director, is currently without a car but her husband has a 1985 Peugeot 505 S, which we take to mean a Peugeot 505 Turbo S and not the crappy gas/diesel 505 S. If it’s the S Turbo we’re talking about a crazy gearhead. If it’s an S we’re talking about someone who doesn’t want to part with an old car. Or maybe it is a base S with an SR20DET swap (we look for hope where we can find it).

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