[I][B]
“January 23, 2013[/B]: Today, Liberty Maritime Corporation and several other Liberty companies filed a civil action in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York against the U.S. Maritime Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation alleging violations of law in the administration of the Maritime Security Program …” “MARAD has failed in its responsibility to distinguish between actual U.S. citizen companies and entities masquerading as U.S. citizens for the purpose of conveying the benefits of MSP to foreign companies.”[/I]
Gee, but their checks came from an American bank, isn’t that good enough?
I hope Liberty wins big time and takes the whole damned nest of liars, crooks, and thieves at MARAD down in a stinking heap.
of course the same Liberty Maritime totally FUCKED their longtime MEBA-D1 mariners with taking AMO’s FUCKING SCUMBAG THIEVING BULLSHIT LOWBALL UNDERCUTTING BACKSTABBING offer and now are reflagging half their fleet. Some committment to the US Flag there!
ALL THE FUCKING BASTARDS ARE AS CROOKED AND CORRUPT AS THE DAY IS LONG!
ah fuck. now I’m all worked up and pissed off and being offshore can’t pour myself a Scotch! FUCK!
What Philip Shapiro really wants to do is end the MSP program because this lawsuit will do just that. With the ending of the MSP program we can watch the death of the US Merchant Marine.
Notice how Marad was extra careful not to accept a bid for the SL-7 operating contract from Maersk Line this last go-around? Granted, MLL is the “US” arm of AP Moeller but it’s still all one big blue Danish love fest. (Ask me how I know).
Now why doesn’t MSC have to play by the same rules? There are blue boiler suits all over their contract fleet.
You all know this battle was already fought in the 90’s and the decision was that Maersk could form a US operating company which qualified as far as the US citizenship requirements went. There is already court precedence to support this and Liberty does not have the muscle to change a damned thing.
Now do I like NOL, Maersk, BBC, Reederi, Wallenius et all full and open access to the MSP? Not at all, but there are no true US corporations willing to step up to the plate and invest in the ships? The foreign lines have the right ships already in their fleets to switch to the US flag. Should MSP demand US build to participate? It would be nice but then again somebody should tell MarAd to lose all the foreign built RRF ships? Won’t happen!
Tell you what I would like is for the fucking AMO to not get each and every one of these ships that come to the MSP but that ain’t gonna happen either.
Crap, I deleted my post when I meant to fix, anyway, my original comment was that Maersk Line Ltd, is not 100% true-blue Yank and much of the money makes its way to Copenhagen. To reply to CC yes, I am aware there have been challenges in court which MLL prevailed in but Marad is treading lightly these days and did not and will not likely entertain future operating bids from them. So MLL lost the SL-7s and Keystone and OSI gained (so did MEBA). The offgoing AMO guys broke a few gage glasses on the way out the door. And so it goes.
Now, how to encourage US corporations to invest? I’d suggest cutting the horrific waste and offering more and better subsidies to said companies as other countries do now. That can be done by eliminating much of the RRF fleet. We are losing valuable ship building skills as the Chinese and Koreans Wal-mart us into the stone age. It’s pretty sad to watch.
If I’ve spoken out of turn feel free to bitchslap…or poke.