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CNN Live Today
Pentagon Proposes 150 Base Closings; 'Mr. Moviefone'
Aired May 13, 2005 - 10:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Here's what happening "Now in the News." We're expecting to hear from the Pentagon at any minute on the list of proposed U.S. military installation closings. CNN has received an advanced copy of the list. 150 of the proposed targeted facilities include 33 major bases. The recommendations will be sent to a commission. That panel could make changes before sending the list on to President Bush.
New England's first execution in 45 years brought out protesters. Early this morning, the state of Connecticut put serial killer Michael Ross to death. Ross had no final words and never opened his eyes as he was given the lethal injection. He was sentenced to death for killing four women in the 1980s.
And high profile attorney Mark Geragos is scheduled to take the stand when Michael Jackson's trial resumes in the next hour. Geragos was Jackson's attorney when he was arrested on child molestation charges a year and a half ago. He left the case last year at Jackson's request. Geragos was representing Scott Peterson at the time. Jackson said he wanted the undivided attention of his attorney.
For communities around the country, this is the moment they have been waiting for, or possibly dreading. The Pentagon will be announcing any minute now which military bases are recommended for closing. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says the list will not be as long as previously feared.
Let's get the latest from our senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre. Jamie, why is the list shorter than originally thought?
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, actually, Daryn, it's not shorter, but it does have less impact. When they measure this for base closings, they're talking about the capacity at each base, and what they've -- because they are bringing 70,000 U.S. troops home from Europe and because they're moving a lot of people from leased facilities onto government-owned bases. The impact on a lot of these bases is not as great. Nevertheless, the list does contain some recommendations for some major bases to be closed, and you can bet that people in those areas, and members of Congress, are going to feel the impact.
Among the big ones, the submarine base in Groton, Connecticut, at New London, home 16 attack submarines, a long and storied history as a naval facility. That's on the list for closure. As we move down that map, we can also take a look at Fort Monroe, Virginia. That's the head of the U.S. Training and Doctrine Command. Now, obviously they're still going to have a training and doctrine command, just not at Ft. Monroe.
Another big base, as we move further down south -- further over to the west, Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota, home of the B-1 bomber. The B-1 bomber's been retooled and given a new mission in recent years and it will probably move -- those bombers will move to another base as part of the consolidation. Again, the whole idea here is to save money. Also, Ft. McPherson, Georgia, another base, a major base that's on the list to be closed. Now again,
Now, again, these are recommendations that will go to the Base Closure Commission, which will hear testimony on these bases, plus all the other 150 or so facilities that are going to be announced here in just a moment. A lot of these are defense finance and accounting facilities. There are things like reserve centers.
KAGAN: Jamie, let me jump in here...
MCINTYRE: And we're seeing the officials coming now.
KAGAN: Yes, coming in and coming up to the podium. We want to catch every bit of it, so let's listen in.
MICHAEL WYNNE, DEPUTY UNDERSECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR ACQUISITION, TECHNOLOGY AND LOGISTICS: I'm Mike Wynne, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics. Deputy Undersecretary Phil Grone, here with me at the podium. Representatives from each of the joint cross- service group leaders are here. Leaders from the military departments are here. And Vice Admiral Chanik of the Joint Chiefs are also here with me today.
Today's announcement is a very important component of the military transformation that President Bush asked us to conduct in 2001. This has been done to satisfy the law codified by the Congress and was well-informed by the global posture review that's been under way for a few years.
Those of you in this room have the state-by-state listing of each installation affected by either closure, realignment or expansion that involves a change in military or civilian personnel.
For anyone else who is interested, this information will be available as soon as we conclude here, or at 11 a.m., on the Internet, at www.defenselink.mil/brac.
Since our time is limited, I'm going to take just a few minutes to give an overview of the report, explain how the process worked, briefly describe what you can expect to find in the report, and then wrap up with the next steps in the process.
I will not be going into the rationale for individual installations, but I do hope that you all will take the time to read the report, which has detail.
Affected communities will be offered support and assistance through the Office of Economic Adjustment following the completion of the process. The president has reinforced our commitment with an executive order relating to Defense economic adjustment.
OK, let's go to the first slide.
This slide really represents the team, if you will -- the top tier team that organized the BRAC process throughout the two-plus years of its existence.
Base realignment and closure was a process that literally involved people across the nation and the leadership at every level.
Take particular note of the seven cross-service groups which, unlike any previous background, were empowered to make recommendations for the secretary's consideration.
Now, let's go to the slide comparing this round of BRAC recommendations to past rounds of BRAC.
As you can see, we are recommending the closure of 33 of the 318 major military installations in the United States, and the realigning of 29 more. We also are recommending the closure or realignment of another 775 smaller military locations.
As indicated yesterday, the total projected net present value savings of these actions over a 20-year period is just under $49 billion. If the savings resulting from global reposturing are included in our process, the total net savings is just under $65 billion.
The annual recurring savings, as you can see on the chart, is larger than each of the previous rounds of base realignment.
Now, let's go to some of the charts that show some of the bases that make up those numbers.
First, we have the major bases that we are recommending for closure. And I won't go through each one of them.
Next we have the major bases we are recommending for realignment.
And finally we have the list of installations where we are recommending actions that will gain more than 400 military or civilian personnel.
Now, let's go back a little bit to the process of how we got to these recommendations.
I'm sure you noticed yesterday that Secretary Rumsfeld, General Myers and the service chiefs all had the same theme of jointness. That's because jointness is key to creating military value that was our goal. And these joint service groups were key to making this jointness a reality into this process. They each were chaired by a senior executive or flag officer with representation from each of the military services, from the joint staff and from the relevant defense agencies involved. What I'd like to do now is give you a little bit of detail in the process. And to do that I would like to invite up to the podium the head of the Medical Joint Cross-Service Group, Lieutenant General Peach Taylor, as well as the vice chief of staff of the United States Army in a minute.
Thank you.
LIEUTENANT GENERAL GEORGE PEACH TAYLOR JR., SURGEON GENERAL, U.S. AIR FORCE: Good morning.
I am Lieutenant General George Peach Taylor Jr., the Air Force surgeon general. I've been the chairman of the Medical Joint Cross- Service Group.
For the past two years my group has been working recommendations to the secretary for changes to the military health care system.
The scope of our work included all of the military clinics, hospitals, medical centers, all of the military health care training platforms and the military biomedical research activities.
I was very privileged to have on my team the Navy surgeon general, the deputy surgeon general of the Army, the chief medical officer for the Marine Corps, the Joint Staff surgeon and the chief financial officer from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs.
The talents of the entire military and civilian staff who spent thousands of hours working this project were, frankly, unbelievable.
I've been a flight surgeon in the armed forces for 25 years. I've dedicated my professional life to the men and women of the armed forces.
Our goal was to mold a 21st-century military medical infrastructure for a 21st-century military.
We know that there are over 9 million military beneficiaries counting on us. At the same time, we know we have men and women in harm's way a long way from home. In every step of the process, we kept our focus on meeting their needs, while sustaining and enhancing the department's expeditionary medical capability.
Our group applied these principles to the eight BRAC criteria described by the secretary yesterday. Overseen by the General Accounting Office and the DOD inspector general, we gathered certified data from the field to assess capacity and create a quantitatively derived measure to inform our assessment of the military value of the entire military medical and dental infrastructure in the United States.
Based on an analysis of this data, we looked for opportunities to eliminate unnecessary infrastructure while creating a better, more effective and more efficient military health care system for our nation. Our recommendations call for an investment of $2.4 billion in medical activities that will result in over $5 billion in reduced spending over the next 20 years and...
KAGAN: We've been listening into the announcement from the Pentagon. A lot of people around the country watching this to see if the military base in their community might be closed, realigned, or perhaps -- there's some on this list, ten, and they look like they might gain from these changes.
Our senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre has been listening in. Jamie, any big surprises from the list you've been able to look at?
MCINTYRE: Well, not really. I mean, think the surprise is that the impact in a lot of areas is somewhat limited. Again, because we're seeing a move by the Pentagon to move out of a lot of leased office spaces onto bases. For instance, just south of here, at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, there's a sprawling military base that has a lot of excess capacity. You might have thought it would have been targeted for a closure or a downsizing. But instead, what the Pentagon has done, is decided to move a lot of workers in other facilities onto that base, where they own the property. So you're seeing the impact less in that way.
The overall excess infrastructure in the U.S. military is estimated at 20 to 25 percent. But the -- this round of base closings, which is likely to be the last one for a long time, is really aimed at only reducing that excess capacity by about 10 percent, at the most. And that's, again, partly because they're bringing troops home from Europe and they're finding places for them, and they're trying to be more efficient in how they use the space at home.
Now, when we see these bases that are up on the map here, around the country that are targeted for closing, that doesn't mean necessarily that the people at those bases are going to be going away. They may -- some of them may be moving, essentially, to other areas, where their airplanes -- they may be moving to other areas. The submarine base, for instance, in Connecticut, those submarines aren't going away. They'll be moving to other submarine bases.
So part of the devil here really is in the details, because when you see -- on a lot of the bases, it says realign. Some of them say gain next to them, which means that something is going to be moving to that facility and they'll actually be getting more capacity there. So for the individual governments around the country who are watching this very carefully and probably logging onto the Internet right now to get all the fine details, they're going to be trying to calculate what it means to them and their community.
And the other point that the Pentagon is trying to make is that just because a base is closed doesn't necessarily mean a really economic impact. There have been a lot of communities around the country who have been able to take base closings and turn it to their advantage, sometimes generating even more jobs with private development than the military provided there. So the Pentagon is also committed to try to assist all the communities affected, to try to redevelop the properties that they're going to turn back over.
KAGAN: All right, and an important point, if people are interested, they can just go to CNN.com. We do have the full list of base closings, realignments and gains on that site. Jamie, thank you for working what's early hours for you.
MCINTYRE: You're quite welcome.
KAGAN: We appreciate it.
Much more on the base closings, also a lot of other news taking place. We will do that after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
KAGAN: It is game on for Will Ferrell and Robert Duvall in the new comedy "Kicking and Screaming." Take a look. But will the duo leave you rolling in the aisles at the box office? Mr. Moviefone is with us next.
CNN LIVE TODAY is back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILL FERRELL, ACTOR: We got to pummel these guys. We've got to pummel them at all costs, dominate and hammer them. I want to you play dirty if you have to, but don't get caught.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: That comedic actor is Will Ferrell, in over his head as a youth league soccer coach. And you can probably guess where this storyline is going. The movie is called "Kicking and Screaming," and it pretty much says it all. I think it's the coach that ends up kicking and screaming. Perhaps some youngsters will drag you kicking and screaming to the theater this weekend to see it. Film review Russ Leatherman, Mr. Moviefone.
Did you bring your kids?
RUSS LEATHERMAN, "MR. MOVIEFONE": I did. And I have to tell you, everybody liked this movie. Will Ferrell, he's just funny guy.
KAGAN: He is.
LEATHERMAN: I mean, on "Saturday Night Live," he was terrific, and now he's a huge movie star, I mean, one of the top 10 in the world, and he's very funny in this movie. It is "Kicking and Screaming." He plays a soccer coach whose son has been fired by Robert Duvall, his father, by the way, who trades his own grandson to...
KAGAN: Look at Mike Ditka.
LEATHERMAN: Mike Ditka is in this movie. And by the way, he steals the movie. He plays himself. He plays the obnoxious neighbor who really hates Robert Duvall and is spraying leaves into his yard and does everything he can to annoy him. Finds out that Will's coaching his son's team, and then decides to be his assistant coach. I thought it was funny. I thought it was charming. He's funnier than the movie probably is good. I mean, I wouldn't say it's a great movie, but it's definitely good for some laughs. You can take the kids. Everybody can go and have a great time. I like this movie. I'm in.
KAGAN: OK, very good. I'm Glad to hear your kids liked it as well.
Jane Fonda, J.Lo coming out in "Monster-In-Law." This has gotten a lot of hype. Is it any good?
LEATHERMAN: Well, Daryn, and don't come after me, OK, because I know you're going to say, oh, you hate the romantic comedy.
KAGAN: You do.
LEATHERMAN: I do this one, that's for sure. And let me tell you why, because we've seen it a million times before.
KAGAN: Who cares? Doesn't matter.
LEATHERMAN: I care, and everybody else who pays 10 bucks cares.
KAGAN: That's not true. The women like to see the same story over and over again.
LEATHERMAN: By the way, this might be a TV show, Daryn. We should try to work this thing out. But here's the deal, she plays an average girl. She's a dog walker. She meets this doctor, falls in love. They want get to married, but Jane Fonda, who is the mother-in- law right there is actually the monster-in-law.
I felt worse for Jane Fonda. She hasn't been in a movie for 15 years. She's a brilliant actress, just a terrific lady, and I don't understand why she chose this as her comeback. It's a one-note movie. It's mean. It's sort of not nice.
You know how we had "War of the Roses," which was a movie where everyone sort of did bad stuff to each other, but it was sort of funny and worked in the movie?
KAGAN: Not here.
LEATHERMAN: I don't think it works here, and I think -- and we have seen it 100 million times before, and if you want to spend 10 bucks to watch two people fight for an hour and a half, then maybe it's your cup of tea. But I say if you're going to go to see a movie this weekend and you want your money well spent, you got to go see "Kicking and Screaming," because that's the movie of the week as well.
KAGAN: Hey, I hear in "Monster-In-Law," Wanda Sykes has some funny lines.
LEATHERMAN: She does, but again, Daryn, it's just one-liners, she gets one-liners, rarely more than two sentences at a time, and you just feel like they're throwing her in there for comic relief. So I didn't even like her too much in this movie, sadly.
KAGAN: All right, well it's clear on that. So "Kicking and Screaming," Will Ferrell, the one to see.
LEATHERMAN: Absolutely.
KAGAN: Very good. Mr. Moviefone, Russ Leatherman, thank you, Russ.
LEATHERMAN: Have a great weekend, Daryn.
KAGAN: It is a big weekend here for people watching what the Pentagon has to say, a major announcement this morning, military base closings all around the country. How could it affect a community near you? That's coming up.
Plus...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The guy is driving me down to the place to buy the detox drink in a government vehicle.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: Bending the rules, a high school student goes have undercover to expose just how far some military recruiters will go to get a person to enlist.
The second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY begins after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 13, 2005 - 10:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Here's what happening "Now in the News." We're expecting to hear from the Pentagon at any minute on the list of proposed U.S. military installation closings. CNN has received an advanced copy of the list. 150 of the proposed targeted facilities include 33 major bases. The recommendations will be sent to a commission. That panel could make changes before sending the list on to President Bush.
New England's first execution in 45 years brought out protesters. Early this morning, the state of Connecticut put serial killer Michael Ross to death. Ross had no final words and never opened his eyes as he was given the lethal injection. He was sentenced to death for killing four women in the 1980s.
And high profile attorney Mark Geragos is scheduled to take the stand when Michael Jackson's trial resumes in the next hour. Geragos was Jackson's attorney when he was arrested on child molestation charges a year and a half ago. He left the case last year at Jackson's request. Geragos was representing Scott Peterson at the time. Jackson said he wanted the undivided attention of his attorney.
For communities around the country, this is the moment they have been waiting for, or possibly dreading. The Pentagon will be announcing any minute now which military bases are recommended for closing. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says the list will not be as long as previously feared.
Let's get the latest from our senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre. Jamie, why is the list shorter than originally thought?
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, actually, Daryn, it's not shorter, but it does have less impact. When they measure this for base closings, they're talking about the capacity at each base, and what they've -- because they are bringing 70,000 U.S. troops home from Europe and because they're moving a lot of people from leased facilities onto government-owned bases. The impact on a lot of these bases is not as great. Nevertheless, the list does contain some recommendations for some major bases to be closed, and you can bet that people in those areas, and members of Congress, are going to feel the impact.
Among the big ones, the submarine base in Groton, Connecticut, at New London, home 16 attack submarines, a long and storied history as a naval facility. That's on the list for closure. As we move down that map, we can also take a look at Fort Monroe, Virginia. That's the head of the U.S. Training and Doctrine Command. Now, obviously they're still going to have a training and doctrine command, just not at Ft. Monroe.
Another big base, as we move further down south -- further over to the west, Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota, home of the B-1 bomber. The B-1 bomber's been retooled and given a new mission in recent years and it will probably move -- those bombers will move to another base as part of the consolidation. Again, the whole idea here is to save money. Also, Ft. McPherson, Georgia, another base, a major base that's on the list to be closed. Now again,
Now, again, these are recommendations that will go to the Base Closure Commission, which will hear testimony on these bases, plus all the other 150 or so facilities that are going to be announced here in just a moment. A lot of these are defense finance and accounting facilities. There are things like reserve centers.
KAGAN: Jamie, let me jump in here...
MCINTYRE: And we're seeing the officials coming now.
KAGAN: Yes, coming in and coming up to the podium. We want to catch every bit of it, so let's listen in.
MICHAEL WYNNE, DEPUTY UNDERSECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR ACQUISITION, TECHNOLOGY AND LOGISTICS: I'm Mike Wynne, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics. Deputy Undersecretary Phil Grone, here with me at the podium. Representatives from each of the joint cross- service group leaders are here. Leaders from the military departments are here. And Vice Admiral Chanik of the Joint Chiefs are also here with me today.
Today's announcement is a very important component of the military transformation that President Bush asked us to conduct in 2001. This has been done to satisfy the law codified by the Congress and was well-informed by the global posture review that's been under way for a few years.
Those of you in this room have the state-by-state listing of each installation affected by either closure, realignment or expansion that involves a change in military or civilian personnel.
For anyone else who is interested, this information will be available as soon as we conclude here, or at 11 a.m., on the Internet, at www.defenselink.mil/brac.
Since our time is limited, I'm going to take just a few minutes to give an overview of the report, explain how the process worked, briefly describe what you can expect to find in the report, and then wrap up with the next steps in the process.
I will not be going into the rationale for individual installations, but I do hope that you all will take the time to read the report, which has detail.
Affected communities will be offered support and assistance through the Office of Economic Adjustment following the completion of the process. The president has reinforced our commitment with an executive order relating to Defense economic adjustment.
OK, let's go to the first slide.
This slide really represents the team, if you will -- the top tier team that organized the BRAC process throughout the two-plus years of its existence.
Base realignment and closure was a process that literally involved people across the nation and the leadership at every level.
Take particular note of the seven cross-service groups which, unlike any previous background, were empowered to make recommendations for the secretary's consideration.
Now, let's go to the slide comparing this round of BRAC recommendations to past rounds of BRAC.
As you can see, we are recommending the closure of 33 of the 318 major military installations in the United States, and the realigning of 29 more. We also are recommending the closure or realignment of another 775 smaller military locations.
As indicated yesterday, the total projected net present value savings of these actions over a 20-year period is just under $49 billion. If the savings resulting from global reposturing are included in our process, the total net savings is just under $65 billion.
The annual recurring savings, as you can see on the chart, is larger than each of the previous rounds of base realignment.
Now, let's go to some of the charts that show some of the bases that make up those numbers.
First, we have the major bases that we are recommending for closure. And I won't go through each one of them.
Next we have the major bases we are recommending for realignment.
And finally we have the list of installations where we are recommending actions that will gain more than 400 military or civilian personnel.
Now, let's go back a little bit to the process of how we got to these recommendations.
I'm sure you noticed yesterday that Secretary Rumsfeld, General Myers and the service chiefs all had the same theme of jointness. That's because jointness is key to creating military value that was our goal. And these joint service groups were key to making this jointness a reality into this process. They each were chaired by a senior executive or flag officer with representation from each of the military services, from the joint staff and from the relevant defense agencies involved. What I'd like to do now is give you a little bit of detail in the process. And to do that I would like to invite up to the podium the head of the Medical Joint Cross-Service Group, Lieutenant General Peach Taylor, as well as the vice chief of staff of the United States Army in a minute.
Thank you.
LIEUTENANT GENERAL GEORGE PEACH TAYLOR JR., SURGEON GENERAL, U.S. AIR FORCE: Good morning.
I am Lieutenant General George Peach Taylor Jr., the Air Force surgeon general. I've been the chairman of the Medical Joint Cross- Service Group.
For the past two years my group has been working recommendations to the secretary for changes to the military health care system.
The scope of our work included all of the military clinics, hospitals, medical centers, all of the military health care training platforms and the military biomedical research activities.
I was very privileged to have on my team the Navy surgeon general, the deputy surgeon general of the Army, the chief medical officer for the Marine Corps, the Joint Staff surgeon and the chief financial officer from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs.
The talents of the entire military and civilian staff who spent thousands of hours working this project were, frankly, unbelievable.
I've been a flight surgeon in the armed forces for 25 years. I've dedicated my professional life to the men and women of the armed forces.
Our goal was to mold a 21st-century military medical infrastructure for a 21st-century military.
We know that there are over 9 million military beneficiaries counting on us. At the same time, we know we have men and women in harm's way a long way from home. In every step of the process, we kept our focus on meeting their needs, while sustaining and enhancing the department's expeditionary medical capability.
Our group applied these principles to the eight BRAC criteria described by the secretary yesterday. Overseen by the General Accounting Office and the DOD inspector general, we gathered certified data from the field to assess capacity and create a quantitatively derived measure to inform our assessment of the military value of the entire military medical and dental infrastructure in the United States.
Based on an analysis of this data, we looked for opportunities to eliminate unnecessary infrastructure while creating a better, more effective and more efficient military health care system for our nation. Our recommendations call for an investment of $2.4 billion in medical activities that will result in over $5 billion in reduced spending over the next 20 years and...
KAGAN: We've been listening into the announcement from the Pentagon. A lot of people around the country watching this to see if the military base in their community might be closed, realigned, or perhaps -- there's some on this list, ten, and they look like they might gain from these changes.
Our senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre has been listening in. Jamie, any big surprises from the list you've been able to look at?
MCINTYRE: Well, not really. I mean, think the surprise is that the impact in a lot of areas is somewhat limited. Again, because we're seeing a move by the Pentagon to move out of a lot of leased office spaces onto bases. For instance, just south of here, at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, there's a sprawling military base that has a lot of excess capacity. You might have thought it would have been targeted for a closure or a downsizing. But instead, what the Pentagon has done, is decided to move a lot of workers in other facilities onto that base, where they own the property. So you're seeing the impact less in that way.
The overall excess infrastructure in the U.S. military is estimated at 20 to 25 percent. But the -- this round of base closings, which is likely to be the last one for a long time, is really aimed at only reducing that excess capacity by about 10 percent, at the most. And that's, again, partly because they're bringing troops home from Europe and they're finding places for them, and they're trying to be more efficient in how they use the space at home.
Now, when we see these bases that are up on the map here, around the country that are targeted for closing, that doesn't mean necessarily that the people at those bases are going to be going away. They may -- some of them may be moving, essentially, to other areas, where their airplanes -- they may be moving to other areas. The submarine base, for instance, in Connecticut, those submarines aren't going away. They'll be moving to other submarine bases.
So part of the devil here really is in the details, because when you see -- on a lot of the bases, it says realign. Some of them say gain next to them, which means that something is going to be moving to that facility and they'll actually be getting more capacity there. So for the individual governments around the country who are watching this very carefully and probably logging onto the Internet right now to get all the fine details, they're going to be trying to calculate what it means to them and their community.
And the other point that the Pentagon is trying to make is that just because a base is closed doesn't necessarily mean a really economic impact. There have been a lot of communities around the country who have been able to take base closings and turn it to their advantage, sometimes generating even more jobs with private development than the military provided there. So the Pentagon is also committed to try to assist all the communities affected, to try to redevelop the properties that they're going to turn back over.
KAGAN: All right, and an important point, if people are interested, they can just go to CNN.com. We do have the full list of base closings, realignments and gains on that site. Jamie, thank you for working what's early hours for you.
MCINTYRE: You're quite welcome.
KAGAN: We appreciate it.
Much more on the base closings, also a lot of other news taking place. We will do that after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
KAGAN: It is game on for Will Ferrell and Robert Duvall in the new comedy "Kicking and Screaming." Take a look. But will the duo leave you rolling in the aisles at the box office? Mr. Moviefone is with us next.
CNN LIVE TODAY is back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILL FERRELL, ACTOR: We got to pummel these guys. We've got to pummel them at all costs, dominate and hammer them. I want to you play dirty if you have to, but don't get caught.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: That comedic actor is Will Ferrell, in over his head as a youth league soccer coach. And you can probably guess where this storyline is going. The movie is called "Kicking and Screaming," and it pretty much says it all. I think it's the coach that ends up kicking and screaming. Perhaps some youngsters will drag you kicking and screaming to the theater this weekend to see it. Film review Russ Leatherman, Mr. Moviefone.
Did you bring your kids?
RUSS LEATHERMAN, "MR. MOVIEFONE": I did. And I have to tell you, everybody liked this movie. Will Ferrell, he's just funny guy.
KAGAN: He is.
LEATHERMAN: I mean, on "Saturday Night Live," he was terrific, and now he's a huge movie star, I mean, one of the top 10 in the world, and he's very funny in this movie. It is "Kicking and Screaming." He plays a soccer coach whose son has been fired by Robert Duvall, his father, by the way, who trades his own grandson to...
KAGAN: Look at Mike Ditka.
LEATHERMAN: Mike Ditka is in this movie. And by the way, he steals the movie. He plays himself. He plays the obnoxious neighbor who really hates Robert Duvall and is spraying leaves into his yard and does everything he can to annoy him. Finds out that Will's coaching his son's team, and then decides to be his assistant coach. I thought it was funny. I thought it was charming. He's funnier than the movie probably is good. I mean, I wouldn't say it's a great movie, but it's definitely good for some laughs. You can take the kids. Everybody can go and have a great time. I like this movie. I'm in.
KAGAN: OK, very good. I'm Glad to hear your kids liked it as well.
Jane Fonda, J.Lo coming out in "Monster-In-Law." This has gotten a lot of hype. Is it any good?
LEATHERMAN: Well, Daryn, and don't come after me, OK, because I know you're going to say, oh, you hate the romantic comedy.
KAGAN: You do.
LEATHERMAN: I do this one, that's for sure. And let me tell you why, because we've seen it a million times before.
KAGAN: Who cares? Doesn't matter.
LEATHERMAN: I care, and everybody else who pays 10 bucks cares.
KAGAN: That's not true. The women like to see the same story over and over again.
LEATHERMAN: By the way, this might be a TV show, Daryn. We should try to work this thing out. But here's the deal, she plays an average girl. She's a dog walker. She meets this doctor, falls in love. They want get to married, but Jane Fonda, who is the mother-in- law right there is actually the monster-in-law.
I felt worse for Jane Fonda. She hasn't been in a movie for 15 years. She's a brilliant actress, just a terrific lady, and I don't understand why she chose this as her comeback. It's a one-note movie. It's mean. It's sort of not nice.
You know how we had "War of the Roses," which was a movie where everyone sort of did bad stuff to each other, but it was sort of funny and worked in the movie?
KAGAN: Not here.
LEATHERMAN: I don't think it works here, and I think -- and we have seen it 100 million times before, and if you want to spend 10 bucks to watch two people fight for an hour and a half, then maybe it's your cup of tea. But I say if you're going to go to see a movie this weekend and you want your money well spent, you got to go see "Kicking and Screaming," because that's the movie of the week as well.
KAGAN: Hey, I hear in "Monster-In-Law," Wanda Sykes has some funny lines.
LEATHERMAN: She does, but again, Daryn, it's just one-liners, she gets one-liners, rarely more than two sentences at a time, and you just feel like they're throwing her in there for comic relief. So I didn't even like her too much in this movie, sadly.
KAGAN: All right, well it's clear on that. So "Kicking and Screaming," Will Ferrell, the one to see.
LEATHERMAN: Absolutely.
KAGAN: Very good. Mr. Moviefone, Russ Leatherman, thank you, Russ.
LEATHERMAN: Have a great weekend, Daryn.
KAGAN: It is a big weekend here for people watching what the Pentagon has to say, a major announcement this morning, military base closings all around the country. How could it affect a community near you? That's coming up.
Plus...
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The guy is driving me down to the place to buy the detox drink in a government vehicle.
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KAGAN: Bending the rules, a high school student goes have undercover to expose just how far some military recruiters will go to get a person to enlist.
The second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY begins after this break.
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