Defense Contractors Report Strong Earnings

By Christian Plumb 41 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. defense contractors reported strong quarterly earnings on Thursday as the
Pentagon put billions into high tech military equipment and services.

Earnings soared 76 percent at Northrop Grumman Corp., 30 percent at Raytheon Co. and 22 percent at Goodrich . All three aerospace and defense companies beat analysts earnings forecasts, and they raised their earnings outlooks for the rest of the year.

After the news, shares of aircraft part maker Goodrich rose 6.4 percent, while Northrop Grumman stock was up 1.6 percent and Raytheon's shares were 1.9 percent higher.

"Everybody's coming in like gangbusters," said Paul Nisbet, an analyst with independent research firm JSA Research. "They were all well above expectations, and there is certainly every indication of increased guidance for the year on all three."
...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=580&e=5&u=/nm/20050428/bs_nm/arms_earns_dc

How could someone write this article without screaming or crying?

War is a racket.

"How could someone write this article without screaming or crying?

Because they have no soul.

It's sad.

R..i..g..h..t. With the third largest monthy expenditures of any previous American war, no one expected this?

who didn't know that...each time more money is approved for the war in Iraq...Defense contractors jerk off...!

That's suppose to be news? We all know where our tax dollars are going.

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron."

Now, thought experiment: imagine Dubya saying the same.

I know, I couldn't either.

Eisenhower also said:

"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."

would be nice to see some Democrat repeat these words on the hill. :(

"War is a racket."

...And Eating Mass Quantities Of Our Tax Dollars

As the Neo-con cult of satan worshippers drool over their
piles of gold, the blood of innocents
runs like a raging river over this world.

BHN