12/9/2007
The New Mexican performed an important public service discouraging demagoguery in its Nov. 28 editorial "Chávez demagogues LANL; Udall wants new role for it." It took Marty Chávez (who dropped out of the Senate race Friday) to task for his unsupported claim that Tom Udall is "endangering national security" because of his vote for House cuts to nuclear weapons programs. Far more serious is that sitting members of the New Mexican congressional delegation, Sen. Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson, are making unsupported claims about the House cuts.
In Domenici's response to your editorial, he states "LANL spends only about
60 percent of its federal budget on nuclear weapons work." Instead, in the just-past fiscal year the lab spent 70.4 percent of its budget on core nuclear weapons research and production programs, with some of the remainder supporting those programs. Domenici says the House cuts cleanup at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Instead, the House met the administration's cleanup request for all Department of Energy nuclear weapons sites. Domenici says the House cuts 25 percent of LANL's Fiscal Year 2008 budget. The true benchmark is how LANL's budget is cut relative to last year's funding, not to this year's wish list (much of which was for construction of expanded plutonium facilities). That comparison results in around a 15 percent cut to the lab's annual $2.1 billion budget.
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Full story here.
29 comments:
Hey! An Editorial!
From the Santa Fe New Mexican...
Nevermind, I don't need to read it.
Excellent analysis of why LANL is in the situation it's in today. The world has changed. The priorities have changed. The needs have changed. The rhetoric from our politicians has not. Domenici and his hand-picked replacement—Wilson, are viewed as dinosaurs by their colleagues, as are many who work at LANL and refuse see beyond the nuclear dollar that has funded their generous salaries and benefits for so long. Nothing lasts forever however, a lesson the horse and buggy crowd never seems to learn.
Sen. Domenici has performed back-flips in order to keep the funding level's at an all time high at LANL. It's time to live in the "now" world, he is a lame duck, no more power and no more respect. His outdated ideas are a thing of the past, if LANL does not adjust to the wishes of the new Congress we will become a Pit only facility. You guy's can moan and groan all you want, but if you pay attention to the direction that is becoming extremely clear (by both Congress and the Director) that this Lab will: Down-size, mission change, and less involvement in neclear weapons.
This blog has reached it's limit on useful information, most of the recents posts are not worth reading, I fear that end is near...
It's not the grammer, it's the content.....
Grammar, silly!
11:01 am: Care to explain how 100% focus on pit production is "less involvement in nuclear weapons"?
with Chavez out Udall must be a shoo-in for the Dem nomination, Now all we need to do is keep Domenici's stoogette Wilson out of office.
> .. and less involvement in neclear weapons.
You misspelled, "nucular", Bubba!
And what's with all those apostrophe's at the end of plural's? You practicing to be a green grocer?
Anonymous 12/9/07 11:33 AM said...
"This blog has reached it's limit on useful information, most of the recents posts are not worth reading."
Then, why are you reading it and commenting?
He's just trying to do his part, 2:19, and succeeding.
-Gus
Then why do all of the other DOE National Laboratories try to solicit MORE weapons funding?
What Los Alamos needs to reduce is the other work, which causes most of our safety problems, costs us in terms of poor infrastrcuture, and taxes the living SHIT out of our programs to survive.
Tell that to Mikey....
This blog sounds like a bunch of cry-babies....that are just not happy to be working here....why on earth stay?
This blog has value, it is just that people do nothing than whine. Perhaps it is time to take action.
Congress is still working on a budget. Perhaps if we unite and show that our political support is critical when they run for election, or we can sit with our hands in our pockets.
It will be interesting to hear what the candidates to replace Pete have as a vision for the Laboratory? I hope they have something because Mike and LANS have Ma Rae or whatever...
Say what, 4:57 PM. That's a pretty audacious statement you're making.
You think we should take on *more* nuclear weapons work and reduce the other types of projects? And we should do this because these other projects are the source of the exponential rise in our costs and safety problems at LANL?
You are either an idiot or a pesky little blog troll. Given some of the clueless staff at LANL, I can't completely rule out the former.
Chavez's exit from the Senate race seems to have happened suddenly. I suspect he received phone calls from powerful members of his party urging him to drop out.
Could the poor polling results of Mr. Bill in Iowa and New Hampshire mean that Richardson is about to leave the Pres race and make a run for the US Senate?
The blog seems to have become an outlet for the stessed out folkes about to lose their jobs, maybe it can serve as a pressure reducer...(read the comments in the last few days?)
Just think after Dec. 20th, most of the posters that continue to fill this blog with their mis-information, may be gone.
It's a shame to see LANL going downhill, but I can't help but notice that the staff is following the same path...just look at the postings.
Wilson, Chavez....??
What, the A, B, C ,D, & F students are gone?
I see that Wilson and Chanvez have demonstrated on point - lack of leadersghip or vision
I do not really care anymore - the chinese spy was let go because of protocol?
Incompetent
6:33PM speaking of misinformation: you are well aware that there are internet connections outside Los Alamos?
"...a pesky little blog troll. "
I've seen the lawn gnomes, but
what does a little blog troll look like? Someone post some pictures :)
A blog troll.
"This blog has reached it's limit on useful information, most of the recents posts are not worth reading, I fear that end is near..." 12/9/07 11:33 AM
--So said the dinosaur
Chavez is a hypocrite. As mayor of Albuquerque, he undercut workers at every turn. Now he pretends to care about Lab workers at risk of being RIFed? What a panderer. What a wolf in sheep’s clothing. What a lying SOB! Indeed, what a wonderful Domenici successor he would have been! Focused on one thing and only one thing…getting us more money. What else is there? Our kind of guy…too bad he dropped out. Too bad, so sad.
10:17 pm: OK, so Marty is gone, so it doesn't really matter that your post had no facts, just rants and allegations. Want to rectify that anyway? (Nah - what am I thinking?)
10:54 am: "The world has changed. The priorities have changed. The needs have changed."
What are you smoking? "Changed" from what to what? From when??Could you be more specific? Please?
--So said the dinosaur
12/9/07 10:04 PM
In the future sentient squids will
say "So said the human"
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