By David Swanson
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?