Does Northrop Bob Grumman McDonnell Believe in Global Warming?

[davidswanson]

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell believes in saving money and does not believe in global warming. So why did he just gave $14 million of our money to a corporation that claims it can fix global warming?

McDonnell on fiscal responsibility:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=u-zYpNWmdN0

McDonnell on global warming:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=bZd40NrjJrU

McDonnell does not like spending too much money to create jobs, but just spent $14 million to create somewhere between zero and perhaps 150 jobs. McDonnell gave this "incentive package" to weapons maker Northrop Grumman to move its headquarters to Virginia, where it almost certainly wanted to move it anyway. But Northrop Grumman got DC, Maryland, and Virginia into a shameful bidding war, which DC was winning until a coalition of small businesses, watchdog groups, and peace activists put a stop to it. Virginians failed to speak up, and so had $14 million stolen from them for a move of 300 jobs from California, with some or most of the jobs coming with a special bonus: the person from California who already holds the job.

But this is not about numbers. This is about the glory of having a big player in the blood-soaked war machine officially headquartered in Virginia (even if it still efficiently builds little pieces of each weapon in as many congressional districts around the country as possible).

Only, Northrop Grumman itself wants to wash the blood off. It's put up a website claiming a much broader mission than building the machinery of death. In fact, check out this claim:

"What if we could forecast the weather? Not days before, but months before. What if we could monitor and reverse the effects of global warming on our planet? What if we could predict natural disasters -- earthquakes before they struck, tornadoes before they touched down, hurricane impact before the eye reached land? We'd save thousands of human lives every year. That's what we're working on."

Now, I don't know if they're really working on that or not. And I don't know how they propose to reverse the effects of global warming. It sounds more like directing people which way to flee. But the guy who just gave them $14 million to work on this doesn't believe global warming exists. His attorney general is hounding professors for claiming it does.

Do we laugh?

Do we cry?

Do we demand our money back?

Or do we demand that our $14 million actually be spent reversing the effects of global warming?

[Overseas]

1. K&R. Very strange. //nt

[LibDemAlways]

2. For many years the industrial part of the military-industrial

complex was firmly rooted in Southern California. The pentagon toadies loved to come west to be wined and dined by the heads of Northrop, Grumman, McDonnell, Douglas, TRW, Hughes, Rockwell and the rest. My dad was a So. Cal. aerospace engineer back then and part of his "job" was to take the generals to the LA Playboy Club. These days the CEOs of the vastly conglomerated aerospace companies all want to be in close proximity to the pentagon. The military brass apparently doesn't want to travel as far to cash in on the bribes. The politicians are all too happy to accommodate. And there will no doubt be some jobs for the locals. Northrop will gladly pay to relocate the CEO and his henchmen. The lowly clerks and others who do the grunt work at headquarters in So. Cal will no doubt be given their walking papers. No way is Northrop going to pay to move them and their families across the country. One thing for sure about corporations these days. They're cheap as hell and have absolutely no loyalty for the slaves who work for them.

[TZ]

3. Say what you want but they do employ

a lot of people. There are a lot of defense contractors in this area Maryland Virginia and DC.. And I know more than a few people who work for them. Call me bad names if you wish, but I think increasing jobs in this economy is a GOOD thing. And I'm not about to critique my friends who work for them. In fact I think its distasteful for people to say that someone should stay unemployed (and possibly lose their house) rather than work for someone who is politically correct. But then this is DU where reality doesn't matter.

[davidswanson]

5. not so much what i want as the facts

investment in other industries produces more jobs
even tax cuts produces more jobs
military spending is the worst thing to do with public money even just in an economic sense, and is destroying our economy

[Hippo_Tron]

6. They employ a lot of people because the government spends a lot of money on the military

I'm certainly not saying your friends should quit their jobs, but just as many if not more jobs could be created if the government allocated its resources elsewhere.

[lynne]

4. As a Virginian who was laid off from my 20 yr. job in January - I really don't care what he thinks -

- and I don't even care what Northrop thinks. I don't even care what they do. I'm just glad they're coming as we need the JOBS. Yes, they got perks from Virginia. MD and DC was offering perks, too, it's nothing new. The other side of the coin is that its projected that Northrop will pay a minimum of $30 million in taxes the next 10 years which more than offsets the financial perks.

Try hard as you can but I don't see any way to paint this as a bad thing. I'm glad we'll have some job growth around here as its desperately needed.