Batman Begins

2005-12-01

2005-12-01
_Dice_
Dice Report: 81,227 job ads

2005-12-01 03:45PST (06:45EST) (11:45GMT)
Mimi Hall _Yahoo!_
USA and Canada seeking cheap, fast way to determine identities of those crossing the border
USA Today
Science Daily
"Faced with growing opposition to a proposal requiring people to show passports or other similar IDs, the Bush administration will propose new forms of identification next spring, Homeland Security spokesman Jarrod Agen said...   British Columbia premier Gordon Campbell... and Washington governor Christine Gregoire are asking President Bush to develop a border-crossing card.   The passport plan, proposed in April, is part of a post-2001/09/11 effort to tighten security along the nation's vast borders.   It would require U.S. citizens to show passports or similar IDs instead of just driver's licenses or birth certificates when re-entering the country from Canada, Mexico, Panama, Bermuda and the Caribbean.   And it would require Canadians, who can now enter with driver's licenses, to show a passport to enter the USA.   Businesses, the tourism industry and politicians have warned that the requirement would stifle cross-border travel and hurt the economy.   They say passports or comparable documents are too expensive and would discourage travel.   1 in 5 Americans has a current passport.   The typical cost to obtain one is $97...   up to 15M tourists visit the Niagara Falls area each year...   the 2001/09/11 Commission recommended a secure ID for the borders...   Driver's licenses don't prove nationality, he said, and there are hundreds of variations, which make it hard for agents to recognize fakes.   [So, what they want is to require not just a national ID kkkard, but a North America ID kkkard.]"

2005-12-01 05:30PDT (08:30EDT) (13:30GMT)
Subri Raman & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 289,629 in the week ending November 26, a decrease of 78,976 from the previous week.   There were 320,690 initial claims in the comparable week in 2004.   The advance unadjusted insured un-employment rate was 1.8% during the week ending November 19, a decrease of 0.2 percentage point from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 2,324,262, a decrease of 235,164 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 1.8% and the volume was 2,331,862."
graphs

2005-12-01 08:04PST (11:04EST) (16:04GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
US incomes up more than spending in October
"Personal incomes increased 0.4% in October, as expected, after a 1.7% gain in September...   Nominal spending increased 0.2% in October...   Real (inflation-adjusted) spending increased 0.1% in October, the first increase in three months.   Real spending had declined 0.4% in September.   Real consumer spending 'is now on track for the weakest quarterly performance since the 1991 recession.', said Sherry Cooper, chief economist for BMO Nesbitt Burns.   But Goldman Sachs chief economist Bill Dudley said he expects consumer spending to bounce back in the final 2 months of the quarter.   Consumer prices rose 0.1% in October after soaring 0.9% in September.   Prices have risen 3.3% in the past year, compared with a 3.7% rate in September.   The core personal consumption expenditure price index increased 0.1% in October, bringing the year-over-year increase down to 1.8% from 2% in September.   It's the smallest year-over-year gain since 2004 February.   Fed officials have said they want core inflation to remain between 1% and 2%...   Incomes from wages and salaries increased 0.6% in October, the biggest gain in three months.   Proprietors' income fell 0.2% after soaring 4.8% in September.   Income from assets rose 0.6%, including a 1% rise in income from dividends."
BEA release

2005-12-01
_Allentown PA Patriot-News_
Border Limits: Have immigrants apply in their own countries for admission to the USA

2005-12-01
Kirsten Brock _Oregon Daily Emerald_
Bush Immigration Proposal Doesn't Cut It
"I was hoping President Bush had finally seen the kind of threat that open borders pose...   The president's proposal... stops short of any meaningful reform...   It does call for tighter security by increasing border guards, building fences and setting up cameras.   However, Bush's proposal has one major flaw: It grants worker visas to illegal immigrants already in the country, which will be renewable for up to 6 years.   How is this going to make our country safer?   Rewarding criminals with legal status not only encourages illegal immigration, but also threatens national security.   Perhaps the worst part of President Bush's bill is what's missing.   The bill does nothing about illegal aliens already in the country.   While increasing security is a step, we must remove the incentives for crossing the border...   The problem is the Mexican government has no nationwide registry of criminals...   There is no background check performed, no finger-prints taken and there is no data-base of matriculas consulares, which enables illegal aliens to simultaneously hold several cards — even under different names.   This makes it difficult for the Oregon consulate to verify the applicant's identity and criminal history.   Most disturbing is the fact that many states, including Oregon, accept these cards as a valid form of ID...   Because of the matricula consular ID cards, terrorists could easily enter the country and settle in America without having to be processed by the government, which would enable them to travel around the country virtually undetected...   illegal aliens are not citizens, nor are they law-abiding.   By being here, they have already broken the law and need to be deported."

2005-12-01
Dan Scheinman _Electronic Manufacturing Services Now_
Cisco continues to pour investment into India rather than USA
"Cisco Systems announced enormous strategic developments in India - including a US$1.1G investment in the country over the next 3 years and an agreement with the Indian government to support its National E-Governance Plan."

2005-12-01
Norman Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring e-News-Letter_
It's the economy
"the number of Computer Science foreign students is down 32.5%, almost identical to the drop in domestic students...   And it was specific to CS.   The second-largest drop was far milder, 14.9% in the social sciences.   Again, the point is that the field which took the biggest hit economically was CS."

2005-12-02

2005-12-02
John Hostettler & Lamar Smith _Washington Times_
Illegal Aliens Hurt Americans
"When there are many willing workers, employers cut wages...   A report by the Center for Immigration Studies concludes that 'immigration may reduce the wages of the average native in a low-skilled occupation by... $1,915 per year.'   Illegal immigrants come here to find jobs.   You cannot blame them when a typical Mexican worker, for example, earns one-tenth as much as their American counterpart and when American businesses are willing to hire them.   One study estimates that illegal immigrants displace 730K American workers every year.   Contrary to the assertion that Americans will not take low-skilled jobs, Americans in fact do these jobs every day.   Americans mow lawns, wait tables and work in virtually all other low-skilled job categories.   A report by the Center for Immigration Studies shows that more citizens than non-citizens are employed in construction and maintenance, which are thought of as having mostly immigrant laborers.   Some claim that illegal immigrants are doing jobs that Americans will not do.   But when an illegal immigrant finds a job here, that does not mean that no American will take the job.   In fact, 79% of all service workers are native-born, as are 68% of all workers in jobs requiring no more than a high-school education.   Illegal immigrants make up only 17% of workers in building cleaning and maintenance occupations, 14% of private household workers, 13% of accommodation industry workers, 13% of food manufacturing industry workers, 12% of the workers in construction and extraction occupations, 11% of workers in food preparation and serving occupations and 8% of workers in production occupations.   We must put citizens and legal immigrants first.   Americans need these jobs: 17M adult citizens do not have a high-school degree; 1.3M are unemployed; and 6.8M have given up looking for jobs.   The percentage of 16- to 19-year-olds holding jobs in the United States is now at its lowest point since 1948.   American workers in building cleaning and maintenance have an 11% unemployment rate, as do 13% of [American workers] in construction and 9% of those in food preparation.   Despite these facts, many U.S. law-makers and interest groups want to enact another foreign-worker program.   The Borjas study concludes that proposals that increase the supply of low-skilled workers will only drive down wages further for Americans.   Past experience shows that a foreign-worker program is an invitation to fraud.   Individuals would set up bogus 'businesses' to petition for temporary-worker visas for friends, relatives or any other illegal immigrant willing to pay.   Even terrorists could set up these fronts.   Under the 1986 immigration law, up to two-thirds of the applications for Special Agricultural Worker status were fraudulent, and most were approved...   Virtually all studies show that competition from cheap foreign labor displaces American workers, including legal immigrants, or depresses their wages.   Rather than legalize illegal immigrants, we should enforce the laws on the books.   That will reduce illegal immigration, increase wages and make these low-skilled jobs more attractive to American workers.   The result of a large illegal-immigrant work-force is that the poorest Americans must compete with those illegal immigrants for jobs.   Illegal immigrants deprive American citizens and legal immigrants of the same American dream.   That is wrong and regrettable."

2005-12-02
_Yahoo!_
Ford May Close 5 North American Plants
"The Wall Street Journal reported that the nation's second biggest auto-maker is likely to close assembly plants in St. Louis, MO; Atlanta, GA; and St. Paul, MN under the plan that is still evolving and is subject to change...   an engine-parts plant in Windsor, Ontario, and a truck-assembly plant in Cuautitlan, Mexico, are also slated for closure.   Together, the plants employ about 7,500 workers, or 6% of Ford's North American work force."

2005-12-02 06:16PST (09:16EST) (14:16GMT)
Greg Robb _MarketWatch_
Greenspan urged balancing federal government budget
"'In the end, the consequences for the U.S. economy of doing nothing could be severe.', Greenspan warned in a speech prepared for delivery to the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's policy forum on the federal budget outlook Friday...   For all of 2005 fiscal year, the deficit was $318.5G, about 2.6% of gross domestic product.   For the 2006 year, which began in October, the White House is estimating a deficit of $390G, about 3% of projected GDP."
transcript or prepared text of video-taped speech

2005-12-02
Paul Craig Roberts _V Dare_
Don't Confuse the Job Market Hype with the Facts
"21K of those jobs were government jobs supported by [tax-victims].   There were only 194K new jobs in the private sector.   Of those new jobs, 37K are in construction and only 11K are in manufacturing.   The bulk of the new jobs -- 144K -- are in domestic services.   Wholesale and retail trade account for 20K.   Food services and drinking places (waitresses and bartenders) account for 38K.   Health care and social assistance account for 27K.   Professional and business services account for 29K.   Financial activities gained 13K jobs.   Transportation and warehousing gained 8K jobs.   Very few of these jobs result in tradable services that can be exported or help to close the growing gap in the US balance of trade."
more employment data & graphs

2005-12-02
Edwin S. Rubenstein _V Dare_
November's Job Numbers: Good for Immigrants, Bad for the Rest of US (graph)
"non-farm employers added 215K workers according to the government's report on business pay-rolls [the establishment survey]...   [The] survey of households reported a 52K job decline from October.   More important, from our perspective, is the composition of that decline: Non-Hispanic employment fell by 183K; Hispanic employment rose by 131K...   the overall Hispanic un-employment rate rose to 6.0% in November from 5.8% the prior month.   The black un-employment rate increased even more -- to 10.6% from October's 9.1%.   The white un-employment rate fell slightly, to 4.3% from 4.4%.   The big difference, of course, was that Hispanics poured into the labor force (their labor force participation rate went up) while Blacks and whites retreated (their's went down.)...   Since the start of the Bush Administration in 2001 January Hispanic employment has risen by 2.9M, or 17.8%, while non-Hispanic employment increased by 1.9M, or 1.6%."
more employment data & graphs

2005-12-02
Frosty Wooldridge _American Daily_
Titanic and the United States of America
"like the Titanic, this nation smashed into a piece of legislation in 1965 that was never asked for or approved by the American public.   Our 'Captain' Lyndon Baines Johnson along with helmsman senator Teddy Kennedy drove America into an 'ice-berg' of massive, unrestricted immigration that opened up the flood gates with the 'Immigration Reform Act'.   At first, the flow of 1M immigrants annually wasn't noticed.   We offered benevolence.   Our country stood large on the opportunity landscape.   There was plenty of room and resources...   Today in the United States, 70M immigrants later and pouring in at 2.3M annually -- both legal and illegal -- our nation shudders from San Francisco to New York and from Chicago to Miami.   We rose from 200M to nearly 300M in 3 decades.   What was once a benefit to our country is now a full-scale over-population and societal crisis.   From stem to stern, our English language is under assault and our schools are drowning in ethnic violence, drugs and gang warfare.   In California, Texas, Florida and Arizona, our hospitals suffer bankruptcies from non-paid services for 350K annual 'anchor babies'.   10M illegal immigrants displace... America's working poor [from jobs] and depress wages for many others at a cost of $133G annually in lost jobs.   Leprosy, tuberculosis, Chagas Disease, hepatitis and other diseases 'pour' into our country within the bodies of illegal immigrants who avoid health screening before coming on board the United States...   On the environmental front, our nation explodes toward an added 200M people that will reach 500M past the mid century...   They already don't have enough water...   Air pollution poisons what we breathe and massive sprawl devours our once lauded spaciousness.   Species extinction accelerates as we add numbers.   Much like the Titanic, our standard of living drops and our quality of life sinks with the influx of unrestricted immigration.   Soon, we too, will become like the countries of Bangladesh, India and [Red China].   On the employment front, our leaders are out-sourcing and off-shoring our jobs to Third World countries while they import the Third World into our country.   Our Congress created H-1B and L-1 visas that have displaced 1M high tech American workers in the past decade.   America's middle class is being driven into the un-employment lines.   Our schools are becoming dysfunctional towers of Babel with over 140 languages...   the more we import millions of Third World immigrants, the more we manifest identical problems...   Our leaders are standing in the wheelhouse totally insulated and isolated from those of us who shovel the coal, build houses, repair cars, teach our kids, drive school busses and plow roads."

2005-12-02
_Cincinnati Enquirer_
Cincinnati Enquirer 80 stock index down 0.14%
"The Enquirer 80 Index of local interest stocks fell 0.41 points, or 0.14%, to close Friday at 290.   32 issues were up, 41 were down and seven were unchanged.   Leading gainers were E.W. Scripps, up 71 cents to $47.01; Viacom, up 68 cents to $34.50; Omnicare, up 61 cents to $58.48; Atricure, up 61 cents to $13.20; International Paper, up 60 cents to $33.46.   Biggest laggers were Cummins, down $1.26 to $90.06; Toyota Motor, down 94 cents to $97.82; First Franklin, down 75 cents to $15.75; Ashland, down 58 cents to $57.25; General Motors, down 53 cents to $22.08."
 

2005-12-03

2005-12-02 16:24PST (2005-12-02 19:24EST) (2005-12-03 00:24GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
Fears of inflation pressure prove unfounded
"unit labor costs, thought to be rising at a dangerous 4.1% year-over-year clip through the first half of the year, are really rising about 2%.   And with productivity rising at more than 3% in the past year, firms can easily pay the extra labor costs without raising prices or cutting into profit margins...   Instead of wages and salaries rising by $80.3G in the second quarter, the new data show a gain of just $42.4G.   Government statisticians are getting head-aches trying to figure out the new patterns of compensation of high-paid individuals, who are getting more of their pay in the form of stock options and bonuses...   Far from being a boost to inflationary pressures, income growth has fallen behind.   In the past 12 months, real per-capita disposable incomes are down 0.1%.   At the same time, corporate profits are up 16.5%."

2005-12-02 23:26PST (2005-12-03 02:26EST) (2005-12-03 07:26GMT)
Miryam Wiley _Metro West Daily News_
Madam president, what about the illegal immigrants?
"I got concerned about President Bush's ideas on immigration this week because he proposed that people will work for three years and then go home. Who is he kidding?... As I write, the people are walking through the Mexican border, and they are getting near us. I don't know them, you don't know them. Lots are friendly, some may not be. Some of us may think we can be forever like this, us and them, but that is an illusion, and we all know that. U.S. representative Tom Tancredo, R-CO, is right when he says we need tighter borders... The debt he was referring to was the usual $10K fee charged by 'businesses' that have recently been the target of government investigations in Brazil and are allegedly doing trafficking or smuggling of people into this country. Many make debts against their family homes or those of relatives."

2005-12-03 09:01PST (12:01EST) (17:01GMT)
Jasmina Kelemen _MarketWatch_
Stock markets closed the week mixed
"The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which jumped more than 100 points Thursday, ended down 35.06 points Friday at 10,877.51.   For the week, the bench-mark index fell 0.5%.   The S&P 500 Index posted a weekly loss of 0.3%.   But the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.5% for the week.   Since the market rallied off its October lows, the Dow has gained 6.5%, the Nasdaq has climbed 10.8% and the S&P 500 has risen 6.6%."

2005-12-03
_US State Department_
Quisling US Trade Representative Applaids G7 Statement on Trade Talks
"Portman's statement, released at the end of meetings of Group of Seven (G7) finance ministers in London, also welcomed a declaration from the group that looks toward increasing spending on aid for trade for the world's poorest countries to $4G annually...   The United States submitted an agriculture proposal October 10 to substantially reduce domestic support payments to farmers and tariffs as a means to break the stalemate in the talks...   'We call for... making significant progress on services, including financial services, as liberalization in financial services is linked to increased growth; and on intellectual property rights consistent with our development objectives.'...   [Quisling] Portman said the United States will continue to push for [changes] in market access in agriculture, manufacturing and services [in order to flood the USA with cheap foreign workers and thus depress the American standard of living]..."

2005-12-03
Sarah Anderson _Global Politician_
US Immigration policy on the Table at the WTO: India wants to increase the flood of guest-workers to undermine American science, tech, health-care and other professionals
"there has also been a battle brewing between developing countries and the U.S. government over immigration.   Led by India, several countries are demanding expansion of U.S. visa programs for temporary professional workers.   How did immigration wind up on the table at the WTO? Under the global trade body's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), governments can regulate the supply of services performed by foreigners.   The technical term for this type of service trade is Mode 4.   Thus far, the types of visas being discussed are those for executives and highly skilled professionals [to enter] the United States.   Some developing countries are pushing for the Mode 4 talks to cover less-skilled workers as well.   The wrangling over visas is just one more example of the WTO's mission creep.   Global trade rules are no longer aimed merely at eliminating tariffs on goods that cross borders.   The ultimate goal of GATS, for example, is to lift barriers to all manner of services by curbing national and local government controls on the entry of global banks, insurance companies, and other service providers into each country's markets.   Other WTO rules limit government efforts to offer affordable generic medicines or to protect native plants and traditional handicrafts from being patented for profit by global businesses.   And any domestic law, including public interest regulations, can be challenged under WTO rules as 'an unfair barrier to trade'...   the White House has thus far committed only to maintaining its current level of H-1B professional visas --65K [basic limit plus 20K for those with advanced degrees and an unlimited number for those employed by governments, non-profit organizations and colleges & universities].   To no one's surprise, Washington is also holding steady on the L-1 program, which grants an unlimited number of visas for professionals transferring from one division to another within the same company...   Powerful U.S. corporate lobbyists have sided with developing country governments in favor of expanded Mode 4 access.   On the other hand, many progressives here and abroad, including WTO critics and migrant rights groups, have come down on the same side as anti-immigrant groups and some congressional Republicans...   Congress, where many lawmakers in both parties feel that trade negotiators have no business meddling in immigration policy.   The Constitution gives Congress the power to 'establish a uniform rule of naturalization'.   The Supreme Court has interpreted this language to mean that Congress has the exclusive power to formulate policies pertaining to immigration...   When Rob Portman was confirmed as the new U.S. trade representative, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, James Sensenbrenner, along with John Conyers, the highest-ranking Democrat on the committee, pressured Portman to reconfirm the administration's commitment not to negotiate immigration provisions that would require changes to U.S. law.   To date, no response from Portman has been made public...   A bill introduced by Colorado Republican Thomas Tancredo would have prevented the trade representative from using any funds (including for staff time) to negotiate improved access for foreign business personnel...   Many IT workers argue that continued use of H-1B visas is motivated not by labor shortages but by employers' desires for cheaper, more vulnerable foreign workers.   The AFL-CIO contends that employers have abused the H-1B program to displace U.S. workers and exploit guest-workers.   The labor confederation has been sharply critical of the lack of government oversight to verify whether claims of labor shortages are legitimate and to ensure that employers pay guest-workers prevailing wages and benefits."

2005-12-03
Peter Romanenko _Waco Tribune_
Immigration story is largely ignored
"Each and every year the American people are kept in the dark like a bunch of mushrooms.   The news media continually fail to report news that matters.   Recently, U.S. senators Arlen Specter and Edward Kennedy succeeded in inserting language into the Senate budget bill that would sell over 368K American jobs a year to a combination of immigrants, foreign guest-workers and their families.   The government grants permanent residency to approximately 1M immigrants each year.   The proposal had failed to pass on its own merits, so a behind-the-scenes maneuver was employed.   The media failed to report this legislation...   The lobbyists got their way again, influencing the support of Texas senators Kay Bailey Huchison and John Cornyn, who voted for the bill.   The budget bill passed by a 52-47 vote.   According to the lobbyists for multinational employers, 368K American jobs had to be filled by immigrants and their families because there are not 368K qualified American workers who could fill them.   The bill also provides permanent residency for the families of those imported laborers...   The cost of these jobs is a mere $500 per visa [less than half what it costs to process the paper-work].   What will it take to get the journalists, editors and station managers to do their jobs – report the news?"
 

2005-12-04

2005-12-03 18:32PST (2005-12-03 21:32EST) (2005-12-04 02:32GMT)
Paul Streitz _Magic City Morning Star_
Arbeiten daß die Amerikaner Wuenschen Nicht and the Big Lie Technique
"George Bush has become the master of the Big Lie in his defense of his immigration plan for the United States.   The Big Lie technique in propaganda is to commandingly state a complete falsehood from an authoritative and reputedly reliable source.   Here is the Big Lie in George Bush's recent speech in El Paso, TX on 2005 November 29, 'People ought to be given a tamper-proof work card, come here and do jobs Americans won't do...'
 
The Big Lie technique was first advocated by Adolf Hitler in _Mein Kampf_...   George Bush and the corporate barons behind the Open Borders strategy of unlimited immigration know that the American public wants to believe that the President of the United States will not deliberately lie to them.   Therefore, they give some credence to the lie even though they know that Americans are receiving lower wages, immigration is massive and many people they know were un-employed [replaced] by immigrants.   They know that roofers, carpenters, care-takers that they know had good jobs at high wages have been replaced by illegal immigrants.   Yet, there is a residual of hope that the President might not be lying to them.   But he is...
 
[Bush] became the front man for a group of Texas millionaires that needed a front man to convince voters to support a bond issue to build a baseball stadium.   George worked tirelessly at the task and the bond issue passed.   Since then, he has mastered the art of the Big Lie as President.
 
'Guest-workers' who never go home, 'expedited removal' that excludes Mexicans and a 'comprehensive strategy' that gives permanent residence to millions of illegals are just more little Big Lies.   Each one doesn't have a grain of truth, but told with utter sincerity...
 
the first reaction to hearing the Big Lie is to say, 'Well that's not true, let me tell you why...'   That is exactly what the Big Liar expects.   You are then started off on a truth finding mission that only wastes time, effort and energy.   No matter many how many facts are presented, the Big Liar simply repeats the Big Lie again.   Further, the Big Lie is useful because it gives ammunition to those who want to believe the Big Liar and [know] nothing about the issue.   There are some that have not studied the issue and do not know the subject well enough to understand that a lie is being told...
 
In the new world of Open Borders we find that the country that put a man on the moon, developed atomic power and invented the internet and computer cannot get along without thousands of computer programmers coming into the country every year.   'A critical shortage of computer programmers and engineers', is the Big Lie of the H-1B visa racket.   There is soon a chorus of Big Liars.
 
Christopher Shay in a defense of his vote for CAFTA repeated the Big Lie in a letter to those objecting to his vote.   He was encouraged because he had an authoritative source to point to that said the same thing and then the confidence of numbers.
 
'We both can't be lying.'   Another Big Lie.   Of course you both can be lying and both are lying.   When encountering the Big Lie absolute candor is what is needed.   'I know you are lying to me.   I know you are supported by business interests that want to import cheap labor.   This is a lie and you are a liar.'...   [The] Big Liar... does not expect everyone to believe him, but to influence the naïve and the uninformed."
-30-

2005-12-04
_Black News_
Black Engineers Ask What Happened to the Job Market: If the demand for engineers is as great as U.S. employers say it is, then why are some American engineers finding it hard to get a job?
"in an exclusive investigative report titled 'Who Needs Black Engineers?'   NSBE Magazine has been published since 1986 by the National Society of Black Engineers.   'This article raises important issues about the adequacy of our technical work force data for policy decisions.', says Debra S. Knopman, vice president and director of Infrastructure, Safety, and Environment of the RAND Corporation, one of the sources cited in the article by NSBE Magazine.   'As the RAND report highlights, these issues include the need for current data on: job market conditions in various occupational categories, disciplines, and career stages; the movement from academe to industry, which hires almost 40% of the U.S. scientific, technical, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) doctoral graduates; the nature of STEM career paths; and the size and characteristics of the global STEM work force.'   IEEE-USA's Employment & Career Services Committee chair, Jean Eason, says, 'I recognize the need to address the serious concerns raised in this article about high-tech un-employment.   Economic globalization, employers' reliance on part-time and temporary workers including temporary foreign workers as well as out-sourcing and off-shoring, have hit engineers hard, most especially minorities.'...   'This article is about beginning to bridge the Reality Gap', Addison continues, 'by telling our readers what's really going on in the American work-place.'"
NSBE

2005-12-04 11:07PST (14:07EST) (19:07GMT)
_Forbes_ [I recommending disabling scripts for this...jgo]
World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz says trade barriers are indefensible
"Wolfowitz spoke a week ahead of the opening in Hong Kong of the World Trade Organization meeting, which will take up the thorny agricultural protectionism issue...   The World Trade Organization is to hold a ministerial conference in Hong Kong Dec 13-18 in a bid to breathe new life into the Doha Round of trade negotiations, which have foundered largely on the issue of farm subsidies in rich countries.   British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown called Friday for the abolition of all European Union farm subsidies and the alignment of agricultural customs duties with other EU economic sectors."

2005-12-04
Raphael Minder, Richard McGregor, Victor Mallet & Edward Alden _Financial Times_
Asian nations work behind the scenes
"In the 12 years since ministers completed the Uruguay round of world trade negotiations, the most important change in global commerce has arguably been [Red China's] emergence as a manufacturing power and its inclusion in the World Trade Organisation (WTO).   Yet as ministers prepare to travel to Hong Kong next week to try to keep on track the Doha multi-lateral trade talks – billed as a development round – [Red China] and most of its east Asian neighbours have been remarkably quiet in the negotiations.   Instead, the round's fate probably hinges on whether the European Union, the US, Brazil and India can resolve their differences, especially over Europe's controversial offer to grant more market access to farm products...   Japan, South Korea and the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) have also kept a low profile...   Rob Portman, the US trade representative, told reporters that the [Red Chinese] had a responsibility to play a more significant role in the negotiations, pointing out that they were 'huge beneficiaries' of the [so-called] open trading system."
MC6 key phase for completing Doha Round negotiations
"John Tsang, chairman of the Sixth Ministerial Conference (MC6) of World Trade Organization (WTO)..."

2005-12-04 04:30PST (07:30EST) (12:30GMT)
Ann McFeatters _Ocala Star-Banner_
Get ready for a messy, inconclusive immigration battle
"With estimates of illegal immigrants in the United States ranging from 8M to 11M [some estimates exceed 20M], Republican pollster Frank Luntz says Americans are boiling with anger.   Americans want President Bush to stop talking about his proposal for a guest-worker program, Luntz says.   'They're furious.   They're agitated about the cost of it - on schools, roads, hospitals.'   Most Americans want immigrants to speak English and are frustrated that, in their own country, they can't understand many of the people they see every day.   Worried about increasing violence in the smuggling of immigrants across their borders, the Democratic governors of Arizona and New Mexico have declared state emergencies in order to get federal money for tougher enforcement...   In Ohio, for example, where more and more undocumented workers are flocking, there are fewer jobs for them.   And in Pennsylvania, legal immigrants are the fastest-growing element of new voters.   Bush's trip out West this past week was aimed at calming the furor that has erupted in his own party over his plan to let those already in the country illegally stay for 6 years as guest-workers...   Bush, who wants more open trade with Mexico and Canada, ratcheted up his rhetoric to say that there has to be an enforcement program to crack down on illegal immigrants and keep them from crossing the Mexican and Canadian borders into the United States [before opening the flood-gates wider for guest-workers and permanent residents].   Some of us thought, in the post 9/11 world, that enforcement had already been tightened.   We were wrong...   Businesses want access to large number of workers who will work cheaply.   There are those who have proposed ending the long-established practice of giving automatic citizenship to children born to illegal immigrants living in the United States [and, in turn, to their families]...   the Minuteman Project... chapters want to organize border patrols consisting of volunteers who also tell authorities about businesses that employ suspected illegal immigrants."

2005-12-04 07:14PST (10:14EST) (15:14GMT)
Andrew Walker _BBC_
Trade talks high-light differences
"Six of the world's leading trade ministers have met in Geneva in an attempt to push forward WTO negotiations...   The meeting on Friday and Saturday was the latest in efforts to prepare for a big conference of all the World Trade Organisation's member countries in Hong Kong in less than two weeks' time...   the United States, the European Union, Brazil, India, Japan and Australia - acknowledged that they are still far apart on the central areas.   On agriculture and trade in industrial goods, the current obstacles concern cutting import tariffs; on services, it's about how much to change regulation to make it easier for foreign providers...   If trade barriers are lowered for all countries, the advantage conferred by preferential deals is eroded...   If there is to be a deal, governments will have to bite the bullet and offer to do things that will expose at least some of their workers, farmers and businesses to more competition."

2005-12-04
Angie Wagner _Arizona Daily Sun_
Millions of illegal aliens are difficult to ignore, but the US government somehow manages to do so
Palm Springs Desert Sun
Florida Today
"a guest-worker program, Briggs said, guarantees wages will never go up, and there is no way American citizens can compete with guest-workers."

2005-12-04
Susan Taylor Martin _St. Petersburg Times_
The culture is Turkish, but they're living in Germany
"Turks have long lived in Germany.   But their lack of assimilation may ultimately thwart their homeland's EU plans...   nearly 3M people of Turkish origin living in Germany.   Although more than a third were born here, many still consider themselves more Turkish than German.   And, for better or worse, many cling to symbols and customs of their Muslim homeland...   Although Turkey's EU membership is at least 10 years distant, many Europeans already worry that they will be flooded with poor, unskilled Muslims, including some with extreme views.   Germany's new chancellor, Angela Merkel, has said that inviting Turkey to join 'was a mistake'.   Up to 75% of Germans agree...   A half-century after they began arriving as "temporary" guest-workers, Turks have permanently settled in Berlin and other big cities.   Most are law-abiding, thousands have their own businesses and some have risen to prominent positions in government.   Yet fewer than a third of German Turks hold German citizenship.   Even well-educated Turks are pressed for work; the jobless rate for those of Turkish origin is at least 40% compared to 11% for the country as a whole...   This is the area known as Little Istanbul.   Twenty minutes from the Brandenburg Gate, as many people speak Turkish as German."

2005-12-04
Linda A. Johnson _Wichita Eagle_
Drug-makers rolling in huge profits, but dejected that they're not even higher
Intelligencer
"Pharmaceutical companies cut costs, besieged by generics, legal wrangling and stagnant development.   Merck & Co.'s announcement this week that it is slashing its work force by 11% and closing several plants is as much a reflection of pharmaceutical industry belt-tightening as of Merck's financial and Vioxx-related legal woes...   The 5 largest U.S. drug companies -- Pfizer Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Wyeth -- earned $29.5G in 2004 on sales of $160G.   Analysts estimate they will earn more than $37G this year as revenues rise to $162.4G.   Gross profit margins -- revenues minus the cost of producing goods -- also are still in the range of 70% to 80%, many times the 10% margins in some other industries.   Job cuts are one way of keeping margins high, and they are up 150% from the first 11 months of last year.   That amounts to almost 25K pink slips so far for the industry in 2005, according to John Challenger, chief executive of employment firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, who predicted 'we're going to continue to see increasing lay-offs'.   Generic drugs, which now account for 53% of U.S. prescriptions, contribute to these pressures.   Next year, drugs with $28G in annual sales lose patent protection, according to health information company IMS Health...   Pfizer, the world's biggest drug company, in April said it plans to cut $4G in costs partly by closing 23 of its 93 factories.   That's despite Pfizer's having one of the highest operating profits of any company, 38% in the third quarter, Butler noted."

2005-12-04
Louis Aguilar _Detroit News_
Economic funk won't end in 2005: Michigan will see 6th straight year of job losses
"Over the past 2 years, about 308,900 jobs have vanished in Michigan and another 9,600 may disappear in 2006, the U-M economists said.   State manufacturers have shed 25% of their workers since 2001, and 28K more jobs will be gone by 2007...   Auto industry lay-offs throughout the nation may eventually total more than 100K in 2005, said Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a Chicago-based firm that tracks work force reductions...   The private non-manufacturing sector, which will lose 5,400 jobs this year, will add 4,400 jobs in 2006, the U-M economists said.   Service sector jobs will grow next year, and the trade, transportation and utilities sector will turn around by mid-2006, they said."

2005-12-04
Anne Fisher _Fortune_
Happy holidays; you're fired
"'I found out 2 days before Thanksgiving that I'm going to have let 25% of my staff (7 people) go before year-end.'...   The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that, in 7 of the past 9 years, employers laid off more people in the final three months of the year than at any other time.   This is mostly intended to give the year-end balance sheet a boost by cutting costs (including eliminating bonuses for employees who will no longer be around to collect them)...   U.S. companies have dumped more than 3.5M managers in the past several years, and most of them are now classified by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as 'long-term un-employed' (out of work for 6 months or longer).   Supposedly, people with lots of management experience are 'too expensive'.   Meanwhile the people at the top (CEOs et al.) keep paying themselves millions...   'In terms of helpful advice to a manager told to lay-off his people, how about push back - instead of body language to pretend you're not a drone - how about [don't be] a drone.'...   'If the manager really wants to do something useful, he should resign in protest at having to work for a company that thinks laying off employees during the holiday season is a charitable idea.'"

2005-12-04
Isabel P. Ball _American Ball_
Closing the borders tightly is the need of the hour
"As we know, people have [a] varying sense of perception to discern impending catastrophe, from some signs, like what I foresaw [as] the effect of uncontrolled border.   But lacking the psychic power to situate an occurrence, as opinion makers, we could only express our apprehensions in the power of words and logic to influence minds.   Unfortunate where those lost lives in the 9/11, and personally, though not as catastrophic, my loss was an opportunity for career growth and income irrecoverably stymied...   But President Bush's timely action of instituting the Homeland Security Agency has thwarted such attacks, simultaneously [we have] made the border a bit [more] tightly watched now with the voluntary participation of the minuteman.   If protests from the liberals and humanitarians have been loud against closing the borders, these days it is more cacophonous.   The Mexicans, in particular, including Mr. Vicente Fox, Mexico's president, has been very critical of the current wave of anti-illegal immigration against the Mexicans into America.   Closing the borders would mean economic hardship for Mexico, from where bulk of the illegal [immigration] emanates, and of their corrupt leaders benefiting greatly from transmittals sent from America by the illegal citizens of Mexico.   The truth is that with or without the threat of terrorism, America is well-advised to take the immediate action of closing the border, to allow [an] orderly fashion of immigration entry into the mainland.   Though America, like a machine, in constant need for fuel to run and produce, America's need for workers is reaching the point of satiation, and to continue to import workers the illegal way, would bring a different brand of problem, that is, overly taxing...   social services.   That, at the present, is already causing lopsiding in terms of medical services, [and] unwanted increase in population, with illegal immigrants estimated to be in the 15M mark.   Illegal immigrants have little or nil contribution to the economy, as the bulk of the money is transmitted to the mother country to help the family.   Equally important is that fact that illegal immigration brings in terrorists, drugs, gangs, and other criminals into the country.   Time is now for politicians to stop using immigration as political winning card, as has been done in the past.   Enough of the across-the-board, political and whimsical legitimization of illegal immigrants as Ronald Reagan so did in the 1980s, when he legalized en masse the more than a million illegal aliens in the country."

2005-12-04
_Financial Express of India_
We need to re-evaluate our value proposition "If we look back 10-12 years, we can see that it all started with the concept of body shopping, purely because cheap labour was available here..."

2005-12-04
Uttara Choudhury _DNA India_
Kiran Bedi inspired Sona Shah to keep fighting
 

2005-12-05

2005-12-05 07:58PST (10:58EST) (15:58GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
ISM says services sector is weakened: Employment index up
"The ISM non-manufacturing index fell to 58.5% in November from 60% in October, the private group said...   The new orders index rose to 59.5% from 58.2%, while the prices paid index fell to 74.2% from 78%...   The employment index rose to 57.0% from 52.9%...   On Thursday, the ISM said its manufacturing index slipped trivially to 58.1% in November from 59.1% in October."
ISM non-manufacturing
ISM manufacturing

2005-12-05 11:09PST (14:09EST) (19:09GMT)
Deb Riechmann _My Mother Lode_
Bush Defends Workers' Pensions: Encourages employers to invest sufficiently to cover obligations
abc
Las Vegas Sun
Houston Chronicle
Chicago Sun-Times
"President Bush called on American businesses on Monday to live up to their pension promises, saying too many companies are not putting away enough money to protect the retirement benefits of their workers.   'My message to corporate America is you need to fulfill your promises.', Bush said.   'When you say to a worker, '''This is what they're going get when they retire.''', you better put enough money in the account to make sure the worker gets that what you said.'"

2005-12-05
Ken Thomas _AP_/_Yahoo!_
IIHS top 10 safest cars
"The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety announced a new designation, the Top Safety Pick award, based on the performance of vehicles in their crash tests...   Winners of the institute's gold award included the Ford Five Hundred and Mercury Montego with optional side air bags; the Saab 9-3; the Subaru Legacy; and the Honda Civic 4-door.   The Five Hundred and Montego are corporate twins and were considered by the institute to be the same car, for award purposes...   The silver award went to the Audi A6, Audi A3 and Audi A4; the Chevrolet Malibu with optional side air bags; and the Volkswagen Jetta and Passat..."

2005-12-05 05:20PST (08:20EST) (13:20GMT)
Shailendra Bhatnagar _Reuters_
Intel to invest $1G in venture capital in India
"It has already invested $700G in [India] over the past decade and provided venture funding worth more than $100M to 40 firms such as computer trainer NIIT Ltd. and telecomms software firm Sasken Communication Technologies Ltd...   [Craig] Barrett, on his seventh visit to India, said $800M would be invested over the next 5 years to expand research and development at Bangalore in addition to marketing, education and community programmes.   The Bangalore centre, opened in 1998, has 2,800 employees.   Intel is among a long list of firms that have set up huge out-sourcing operations in India, which have become the driving force of a $17.2G software services industry...   Some firms it backed, such as [Indian propaganda engine for off-shoring] Rediff.com, have gone public."

2005-12-05
Phyllis Schlafly _Town Hall_
Congress clobbers US citizens with guest-worker visa programs
Human Events
"'Why is it taking you 5 years to get through college?', I asked a student attending one of my campus lectures.   'Because I changed my major from computer science to accounting after I discovered there are almost no jobs available for computer majors.'
 
Of course there are plenty computer jobs, but not for Americans because big business would rather hire foreigners.   It's all a matter of money; corporations use their financial clout to get Congress to import foreigners who will work for half the salary Americans used to be paid for computer work.   It's called the H-1B racket, and it's very profitable for the big corporations.
 
This system is not the free market; it's politicians and corporations conniving to do an end run around our immigration laws in order to keep wages artificially low.   The latest piece of chicanery is buried in the 817-page Deficit Reduction Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 2005, S1932, now going through Congress.   Without any hearings, senator Arlen Specter, R-PA, got the Judiciary Committee to insert language that will raise the annual cap on H-1B visas from the current 65K to 95K, re-issue unused immigrant work visas or green cards up to a maximum of 90K, and exempt the H-1Bers' family members from the cap on employment-based immigration.   This is estimated to increase permanent immigration into the United States by more than 350K immigrants a year.  Senator Robert Byrd, D-WV, tried to protect U.S. jobs by deleting Specter's amendment, but the Senate rejected Byrd's motion on November 3.
 
This latest attack on U.S. workers comes on the heels of another back-room deal last Fall.   Congress exempted from the annual H-1B visa cap 20K foreign students who get master's or doctorate degrees from U.S. universities.   Then, because of what was claimed to be a mistake, the Homeland Security Department approved 10K more visa applications for high-tech and specialty workers than Congress authorized.   Nobody was fired over the mistake, and only senator Charles Grassley, R-IA, lamented, 'It discourages me to hear that Congress' limit may have been ignored.'
 
The [rationalization] for inviting H-1B foreigners to take American jobs is an alleged labor shortage, but we never had any shortage in computer technicians, and employers are not required to look for U.S. citizens anyway.   The labor-shortage claim is ridiculous because there are more than 100K un-employed high-tech American workers, and some estimate the figure at 200K.   In addition, there are several hundred thousand who are under-employed or working lesser jobs outside of their field.   After the dot-com bust a few years ago, tens of thousands of computer workers and engineers left Silicon Valley and took any job they could get, of course at a fraction the pay they had been receiving.   At the same time, at least 463K H-1B workers are employed in the United States, and some estimate [more than] twice that number.   H-1Bers who are hired by universities and other 'exempt' institutions are not in the count.
 
During the third quarter of last year, high tech companies in the United States laid off workers in record numbers, but they didn't lay off H-1B workers.   The best research on the economics of H-1B workers has been done by Professor Norman Matloff of the University of California Davis.   See Eagle Forum links for more on that.
 
Business executives continue the pretense that American information technology workers aren't available.   In a speech to the National Governors Association on February 26, Bill Gates said that India and [Red China] 'have 6 times as many graduates majoring in engineering' as the United States.   The reason for this is obvious to bright college students who have discovered that Gates prefers to hire foreign computer graduates.   M$ is adding 4,400 employees this year, but more than half of that employment growth is outside the United States.   M$ has opened a research center in Bangalore, India, where it expects to hire thousands of computer science graduates of universities in India at a fraction the cost of U.S. university graduates.   M$ is also on track to out-source more than 1K jobs a year to [Red China].   According to a former M$ vice president, M$ promised [Red China] in 2003 that it would step up the level of its out-sourcing to [Red China] from $33M to $55M worth a year, and [Red China] is complaining that the pace isn't fast enough.
 
It's bad news for America's future if corporations learn to rely on foreigners for all their computer work.   Americans, not foreigners, are the source of the technical innovations we need to stay ahead in the fast-moving computer industry.   Of the 56 awards given by the Association for Computing Machinery for software and hardware innovation, only one recipient is an immigrant.   We are told that Congress is working on immigration reform and border security.   Instead, Congress is selling out American workers to please their corporate contributors."
-30-

2005-12-05 12:36PST (15:36EST) (20:36GMT)
Nicolas Mokhoff _EE Times_
Semiconductor Industry Association says USA must manufacture to stay on top
"the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) is calling for the United States to take drastic action to maintain technological superiority in a murkier long-term future.   Responding to a rising chorus of studies suggesting the U.S. risks losing its leadership in technology and innovation, SIA president George Scalise said in a briefing here today the U.S. needed to maintain a strong manufacturing base to remain competitive...   'It is vital to manufacture semiconductors -- and other innovation-intensive products -- in the United States.', Scalise said.   Scalise said that manufacturing is a crucial part of the larger ecosystem that includes corporate and university research and development, the semiconductor equipment and materials industry, fabless companies, and integrated device manufacturers...   'It's a new world.   With other countries, such as [Red China], attracting fabs building with all sort of incentives, we are ham-strung here in the U.S.A. by our federal policies that don't seem to reflect reality.', said Scalise.   'We need to change the name of the game in order to attract industry back to the U.S.A.'...   In fact, there are also national security implications that result from a migration of manufacturing to off-shore locations, according to Scalise.   The Defense Science Board Task Force on High Performance Microchip Supply's recent report details a number of concerns and recommends that the Secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security prepare a special briefing for the National Security Advisor on this concern."

2005-12-05
Anthony N. Iannarelli _Bergen Record_
The Assault on the American Worker
"there are more people around than good-paying jobs.   Now that companies freely cross borders where workers are willing to accept 'dollar a day' wages, with neither benefits nor pensions, it is no wonder we're in this situation.   The assault on the American worker does not end there: With President Bush's proposal to allow additional guest-workers (those workers willing to accept the lowest of wages), companies can stay put and still get the benefit of the anti-middle class agenda."

2005-12-05
Craig R. Barrett _Business Week_
Science grads, where are you? Under-employed
"the brilliance of their work makes my own PhD dissertation look dim in comparison...   For the past 3 decades, about one-third of U.S. bachelor's degrees have been granted in science and engineering.   Asian nations far out-strip that figure, with [Red China] at 59% in 2001, South Korea at 46% in 2000, and Japan at 66% in 2001.   Of those degrees, the number awarded in engineering also varied greatly: In [Red China] engineering accounted for 65% of all science and engineering degrees; in South Korea for 58%; and in Japan for 29%.   In the U.S. that figure is less than 5%.   How did we get here? [By not hiring and retaining past science grads.]...   [Intel invests only] about $100M a year in education programs."
Gene Nelson, PhD responded:
"Researchers at Duke University found that about 225,925 engineers graduate from American universities annually, [more than] 3 times the number -- 70K -- typically cited by the National Academies and the media.   The academies include the NAS, NAE, the IOM, and the NRC."
"Frank" wrote:
"[Craig Barrett] cares sooooooooooooooo much about US technical workers, he sends $1B+ to India to grow 'em more and cheaper over there!..."
"Tom" wrote:
"Corporate America prefers to reward investors more than employees, prefers to cut costs to maintain stock price rather than invest in its own R&D efforts, prefers to out-source and off-shore rather than employ Americans.   This generation of college students, and the ones behind them, have seen how their parents have been treated."
"rationale" wrote:
"It's interesting to see this message revived from time to time by an assortment of corporate heads...   I see firsthand the reasons for the "decline" in US engineer production.   Simply put, it isn't the most attractive career choice for bright U.S. students.   There are other professions (banking, law, medicine, even sales) that hold forth the promise of greater rewards, both financially and socially, for the bright, ambitious students.   The day that engineering can offer the status and pay of these other careers, you will see an enormous jump in U.S. engineering grads...   When you grow up in the U.S., the examples of wealth and status that you see are generally not engineers."
"kingfiggle" wrote:
"I find it humorous at best to see an Intel chairman urging American students into the sciences the same day that Intel announces it is going to invest more money in India next year ($800M) than it has in the past 10 years combined ($700M) and 8 times the amount they invest in American schools every year."

2005-12-05
Mac Johnson _Human Events_
Illegal Alien Invasion Deadlier than War in Iraq
"When your first acts in America are to illegally sneak in, lie about your status, obtain fraudulent identification, deceive public services and solicit an itinerant job in the underground economy, people have a right to ask what sort of neighbor you might become.   The illegal alien's life of deceit and struggle would seem to appeal only to those very desperate to leave their homelands.   And the failed societies which inspire such desperation in their poor tend to be much more violent than the United States...   If records on the homicide associated with illegal immigration exist, the obscurity in which they are shrouded is inviolate...   The BJS spokesman was not very polite at all, but was knowledgeable.   He explained that no one kept track of illegal alien murders and that the closest thing to such a record would be the applications to the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program of the Federal Government (SCAAP).   This program is designed to stop border states from organizing against illegal immigration by reimbursing them millions of dollars in costs associated with imprisoning any illegal aliens convicted of either one felony or two misdemeanors.  Since the records of the program simply trigger the transfer of huge sums of Federal tax money, they are not very informative or accessible...   Vermont, wonderfully isolated as always, told me about the illegal aliens in its prison system—all 49 of them.   The answer from Florida was excellent and very thorough, but the data simply do not exist.   No one knows the cost in lives of illegal immigration...   While the murder rate among illegal aliens in America is unknown, we do have fair estimates of how many illegal migrants are here, and what countries they came from.   The murder rates in most of these countries are known and published by the United Nations...   Put more plainly, I assumed that 3,871,912 Mexicans in America kill at the same rate as 3,871,912 Mexicans in Mexico, then did the same for 336,717 Salvadorans, 77K Brazilians, 226,886 Chinese and 39 other categories of illegal alien -- as totaled in a Census Bureau estimate of the illegal alien population in 2000.   The report's total figure was that 8.7M illegal aliens are in our country.   It should be noted that this estimate would be considered low by many sources.   But I tried to be as conservative as possible with all figures.   My estimate is therefore low, I believe...   Using the above method, I estimated that illegal aliens kill 1,480 people in America every year...   If the illegal population in America is skewed toward young males, as most believe, the murder total is actually much higher.   Comparing the age structure of the population of illegal aliens that applied for amnesty during the Reagan administration (according a GAO report) to the current age structure of the population of Mexico (according to the US Census Bureau), I found that people aged 22 to 45 years old were over-represented in the amnesty pool.   Adjusting the murder rate using FBI homicide perpetrator age-cohort information for the United States..., the total is more likely to be 1,806 murders per year...   Thus, [based on different estimates of sex ratios among illegal immigrants] I made 3 calculations, based on the population being 50% male (1,806 murders), 60% male (2,076 murders), or 75% male (2,510 murders)...   illegal aliens kill between 1,806 and 2,510 people in the United States each year...   In that same 32 months, there have possibly been between 4,800 and 6,700 deaths in the invasion of the United States by illegal aliens, a corrupt endeavor tolerated in a frivolous pursuit of cheap labor.   Given that 16,528 murders were committed in the entire United States in 2004, this estimate -- if correct -- would mean that illegal aliens (3% of the population in the Census Bureau Estimate used in this analysis) commit between 11% and 15% of all the murders in the United States each year.   The murder rate for the illegal alien population in this model, 20 to 29 homicides per year per 100K persons, would thus be 400% to 500% the rate of the combined native-born and legal immigrant populations."

2005-12-05
Ken Koening _Fort Wayne Journal Gazette_
President's trade policies are a recipe for un-employment
"The... Freedom to Farm act has resulted in the death of the small family farm in America and promoted corporate large-scale farming with its use of pesticides and chemicals -- also, large-scale confined hog and cattle operations with their use of various 'medicinal' injections and feed additives to keep the animals 'healthy' and the associated animal waste smell and disposal problems.   We are seeing the ongoing dismantling of the once-great American production capability and facilities that were once considered the envy of the world and that provided secure employment for millions of Americans.   In fact, in the 1950s, a typical high school graduate could get a factory job (in the Fort Wayne area) that paid enough so that his wife could remain in their modest home to care for and raise their family.   That, of course, changed radically after another Republican, President Nixon, took the country off the silver standard, which had the effect of opening the floodgates of government borrowing and ongoing devaluation of the currency (erroneously labeled inflation) that continues to this day.   The result, of course, has been a debt-driven economy that has enslaved the working people of this country.   They may have nice homes to live in and lots of 'possessions' but they can't really enjoy either because they have to worry constantly about making those monthly payments.   And now that large corporations can use out-sourcing as a weapon to demand concessions from their workers, the once-prosperous middle class of this country, is slowly being destroyed.   It is being exacerbated by the fact that no new good-paying jobs are being created in this country.   And illegal aliens are taking the poor-paying ones."

2005-12-05
Karamagi Rujumba _Toledo Blade_
Highly skilled Americans confront locked doors while flood of immigrants and guest-workers whine about costs of staying in USA

2005-12-05
Michael Smith _Med Page Today_
,a href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/Psychiatry/GeneralPsychiatry/tb/2268"> Marital Strife Can Delay Surgical Wound Healing
Fox
"Even if spouses usually get along well, the stress caused by a half-hour argument can slow healing of a surgical wound by as much as a day, researchers here reported.   If they are generally hostile, the delay in wound healing can be doubled, according to Ronald Glaser, Ph.D., and Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, Ph.D., both of Ohio State here.   One implication of the finding, reported in the December issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, is that marital stress plays an important role in recovery from surgery, Dr. Kiecolt-Glaser said...   The researchers also found differences in the production of three cytokines - interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1-beta, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha.   Both groups had increases in circulating levels of plasma IL-6 and TNF-alpha after the conflict session compared to the social support session, the researcher found.   However, the high-hostile couples had greater increases.   For example, low-hostile participants increased IL-6 production by about 65% to 70% over the 24 hours following either session, while IL-6 increases in high-hostile individuals jumped from 45% after the social session to 113% after the conflict session...   elevated levels of proinflammatory cytokines are linked to a range of diseases, including cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, arthritis, and type II diabetes."

2005-12-05
Andrew Leigh _On Line Opinion Australia_/_Australian_
Labor's greatest free trader
"As a senator for Western Australia, Australia's most export-oriented state, [Peter Cook] understood intuitively the benefits of an export-oriented culture...   The doctrine of comparative advantage was what prompted Labor governments under Whitlam, Hawke and Keating to reduce Australia's tariff rates.   Negotiating as Australia's trade minister in the Uruguay world trade talks, Peter Cook helped bring the round home, boosting living standards worldwide...   Above all, Peter Cook had a gift for never losing track of what mattered, of cutting through the arcane complexity of trade agreements to deliver a message that would reach voters ('for a politician, (if) it isn't reported in the media, you might as well not have said it', he frequently reminded me).   In an era where Labor's economic credentials are often questioned, he liked to point out that trade was one issue upon which the ALP was purer than the government.   As trade economist Jagdish Bhagwati has pointed out, free trading multi-lateralism is far preferable to the spaghetti bowl of preferential trade agreements that have emerged in recent years."

2005-12-05
Tom Adelstein _LXer_
Paper Machines and Phantom Computers: Control Data vs. IBM, Open vs. M$

2005-12-05
Charles J. Murray _Design News_
America's High-Tech Quandary Paul Sharke _Design News_
Help Wanted: So few jobs, so much time between interviews and offers
 

2005-12-06

2005-12-05 21:01PST (2005-12-06 00:01EST) (2005-12-06 05:01GMT)
Herb Greenberg _MarketWatch_
Worst CEO fo the year: Paul Eibeler of Take-Two Interactive
"[It's] hard to top last year's winner, Scott Livengood, formerly of Krispy Kreme...   Notables include Fannie Mae's ex-chief Franklin Raines and Phil Purcell, formerly of Morgan Stanley.   Heck, I can even make an argument that Livengood's temporary replacement [at] Krispy Kreme, Stephen Cooper, should be in the running.   Without a doubt, however, if he were still on the job the winner would be -- hand's down -- Phillip Bennett, who was recently ousted from the top spot at Refco.   Still, 'on the job' is one of the qualifications for Worst CEO of the Year, which means my #1 candidate, Tim Webster of American Italian Pasta, is out of the running.   He resigned Monday morning as his company continues to endure regulatory and internal probes into the company's accounting...   Eibeler is the latest in a revolving door of CEOs at the video game maker, having taken the post in January for what amounts to a second tour of duty in the company's executive suite.   He left in April of 2003 for 'medical leave', only to resurface three months later as president of Acclaim North America -- a job he held for just three months.   He rejoined Take-Two in 2004 April as president, before his elevation to CEO.   (Acclaim, meanwhile, filed for bankruptcy liquidation in 2004 August.)   Eibeler's climb to the top coincided with founder and ex-Chairman Ryan Brandt's topple by regulators to a non-executive position in the wake of accounting issues.   As of fiscal 2005's proxy, filed last May, Brandt was still the company's highest-paid executive; he now runs one of the company's high profile divisions, which itself has not done tremendously well...   the company's hot-selling game, Grand Theft Auto, was given the dreaded 'adult' rating by the video software industry's rating group.   The company has since suffered a series of set-backs on the roll-outs of newer games..."

2005-12-06 04:59PST (07:59EST) (12:59GMT)
Dan Burrows _MarketWatch_
Weekly chain-store sales fell 3.1%
abc
"Chain-store sales fell 3.1% for the week ended December 3, as consumers took a break from their holiday shopping after an 'extremely' promotional Thanksgiving week, the International Council of Shopping Centers said Tuesday.   On a year over year basis, the week's sales pace slowed by 3.5%."

2005-12-06 09:02PST (12:02EST) (17:02GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
US productivity revised upward: Unit labor compensation fell 1%
"Productivity of the U.S. non-farm business sector surged at a 4.7% annual rate in the third quarter, the fastest rate in 2 years, and revised up from the 4.1% pace estimated a month ago.   Unit labor costs - a gauge of wage-push inflationary pressures - fell at a 1% annual pace in the quarter, revised lower from a 0.5% decrease.   Unit labor costs are the costs paid to workers to produce one 'unit' of output...   Productivity has increased 3.1% in the past year, about double the 1.6% pace that prevailed from the mid-1970s through mid-1990s.   It's the best year-on-year growth in productivity since early 2004.   Since 1999, productivity has averaged 3.3% annually, while unit labor costs have risen just 1%.   Unit labor costs have increased 1.8% in the past year, following a large downward revision in second-quarter unit labor costs from a 1.8% increase to a 1.2% decline...   Instead of growing at a 4.1% pace through the second quarter, as previously thought, unit labor costs are now growing at just 1.8%, less than half the rate of inflation.   Real hourly compensation (adjusted for inflation) is up 1.2% in the past year...   Although the new figures will likely show much less inflationary pressures from labor costs, that doesn't mean the Federal Reserve will change course and end its tightening campaign."

2005-12-06
Christine Souza _California Farm Bureau_
Worker glut makes immigration reform urgent
"The Bush administration has developed a 3-part strategy that the president says would enhance homeland security through comprehensive immigration reform.   Part one of the plan is to return every illegal immigrant caught crossing the Southwest border, with no exceptions.   Second, the administration would work with Congress to reform immigration laws.   Finally, the federal government would stop people from crossing the border illegally by increasing manpower at the border, deploying new technology and constructing physical barriers to entry.   Part of the president's plan also involves working with Congress to create [yet another] guest-worker program...   In recent weeks, the House Homeland Security Committee passed HR4312, the Border Security and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2005, introduced by House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter T. King, R-NY...   [Growers can in Imperial Valley can employ 10K workers but would like a pool of at least 30K.   There are between 8M and 24M illegal aliens working in the USA.]   S1438 would require illegal immigrants to return to their home countries before applying for a new temporary guestworker visa.   S1033 would allow undocumented immigrants to remain, apply for new work visas and have the possibility of earning permanent legal status.   Hagel's 4 proposals deal with various elements of border security, including one proposal that includes [yet another] guest-worker program."

2005-12-06
Alan Elsner _Boston Globe_
Michigan representative wants to ensure only citizens are counted toward congressional districting: Illegal aliens influence US elections
alternate link
"[Currently, both citizens and aliens -- legal and illegal -- are counted when apportioning congressional districts.]   Michigan representative Candice Miller wants to change that so that both legal and illegal aliens would be excluded.   'This is about fundamental fairness and the American ideal of one man or one woman, one vote.', Miller told a hearing of the House of Representatives subcommittee on federalism and the census called to debate the matter.   Miller's proposal comes amid a growing tide of anti-immigrant sentiment, particularly among Republicans in the House of Representatives.   Several proposals are under consideration to toughen border controls and make it more difficult for employers to give jobs to illegal aliens.   Supporters of the amendment argue that the presence of non-citizens caused 9 seats in the House of Representative) to change hands between states in 2000...   "Immigration takes away representation from states composed almost entirely of U.S. citizens so that new districts can be created in states with large numbers of non-citizens," said Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors a slow-down of legal immigration and tough enforcement against illegal aliens...   The most recent amendment to pass, which provided that any change in the salary of members of Congress may only take effect after the next election, was first proposed in 1789 and finally ratified in 1992."

2005-12-06 08:12PST (11:12EST) (16:12GMT)
_WAFF_
Valley leaders are ill over illegals
"Searching for a solution.   Valley leaders say illegal immigrants are flooding the area...   In a regularly scheduled meeting, district one commissioner Mo Brooks files a resolution.   'Whereas illegal aliens murder and kill too many Americans in general.', he reads.   'And whereas illegal aliens hurt public education.'   Ten minutes, plenty of blame, and several pages later, Brooks resolves to ask for the authority to enforce immigration laws locally [something they already have the delegated power to do]."

2005-12-06
Steve Camarota _US News Wire_/Center for Immigration Studies
In the last 5 years the US has experienced the highest immigration in history
"As the nation considers immigration proposals from Congress and the President, an analysis of new Census Bureau data shows that the immigrant population (legal and illegal) reached a new high in 2005.   The data, which the Bureau has not yet analyzed, also show that 2000 - 2005 is the highest 5-year period of new immigration (legal and illegal) in American history.   Almost half of new arrivals are estimated to be illegal aliens.   The new report provides a detailed picture of the socio-economic status of immigrants, including estimates for illegal aliens.   States with the largest increase in immigrants are California, Texas, Georgia, New Jersey, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Washington, Virginia, Arizona, Tennessee, Minnesota and Nevada.   The report, 'Immigrants at Mid-Decade: A Snap-shot of American's Foreign-Born Population in 2005', is embargoed until Monday, December 12, at 10:00."

2005-12-06
_BBC_
Jury clears former USF computer engineering professor Sami al-Arian of nearly half of charges of funding Islamic Jihad
Miami Herald
Jerusalem Post
"Sami al-Arian wept after hearing he had been cleared of 8 of the 17 counts, including conspiracy to murder and material support for a terrorist group.   With jurors dead-locked on the other counts, he remains in custody while prosecutors consider a retrial...   Co-defendants Sameeh Hammoudeh and Ghassan Zayed Ballut were acquitted of all charges against them while Hatem Naji Fariz was found not guilty on 24 counts, with jurors dead-locked on the remaining 8."

2005-12-06
Irwin Kellner _MarketWatch_
Learning to love the trade deficit, and fear the cure
"It's been about a quarter of a century since we sold more goods to foreigners than we bought from them.   In the intervening months and years, our trade deficit has grown markedly.   14 years ago, it took an entire year for our monthly trade deficit to total $70G.   Now we run up this much red ink in just one month.   Not surprisingly, our current account deficit, the shortfall on all trade and investment income we have with everyone else, has just hit another record.   It's now more than 6% of our gross domestic product -- a number that has sent shivers up some spines...   Think of what would happen if we suddenly reduced our purchases of foreign goods.   Growth in these countries would slow and un-employment would rise.   Meanwhile, back in the United States, prices of the remaining goods would soar as domestic demand far exceeded supply.   Another side effect of a swift reduction in our trade deficit would be a drop in the number of dollars foreigners would have to buy U.S. stocks and bonds.   This would result in lower stock prices and higher interest rates.   In my view there are 2 reasons why we have a trade deficit.   The first is that we are growing faster than the rest of the world.   The second is that the dollar is trading way above its intrinsic value in the foreign exchange markets."

2005-12-06
Cathy Herholdt _Lynnwood Journal_
Living in a friendless world
"Matthew crossed his arms and furrowed his brow when he entered the house and saw the crowd of people...   But Matthew became more agitated as the noise level rose in the small, crowded house...   At dinner, he frowned again at the massive Thanksgiving buffet, insisting on only sliced white bread for his meal...   As his cousins excitedly spread out their sleeping bags for a sleepover in the living room, Matthew again refused to participate, avoiding eye contact with the other kids when they invited him to join them...   Asperger syndrome is a relatively new disorder, having been discovered by an Austrian pediatrician, Dr. Hans Asperger, in 1944, about the same time scientists were realizing there was such a thing as high-functioning autism which has many similar characteristics as Asperger syndrome.   While some still disagree that theyre related, the two conditions present many of the same challenges and have seen success with similar treatments.   Asperger syndrome (AS) is characterized by social withdrawal...   Children with AS may appear shy and lack interest in seeking out friendships.   While most are of average intelligence and have good analytical skills, they have difficulty with social interactions.   People with AS make little eye contact with others, may make inappropriate facial expressions or have strange body posture or movements, often have one repetitive activity they revert to when stressed, and become agitated or irritable when they have to socialize...   They are very focused on maintaining an emotionally safe, controllable environment...   Children with AS can be obsessive about a single object or interest, to the exclusion of any other.   Their expertise regarding their topic, high level of vocabulary and formal speech patterns are apparent in conversations.   Other characteristics include repetitive routines or rituals, peculiarities in speech or language, problems with non-verbal communication and uncoordinated or clumsy movements...   Dr. Becker says AS affects about one in 250 people, with 3/4 of the population being male.   He believes there is a slightly higher occurrence in the Seattle area, as in the Silicon Valley in California, because of the types of high-tech/computer jobs people with AS seem to work in...   People with AS often have unique talents and strengths including excellent memories, reading skills and visual-spatial skills."
 

2005-12-07

2005-12-06 22:00PST (2005-12-07 01:00EST) (2005-12-07 06:00GMT)
Patrick Buchanan _World Net Daily_
No deal, Mr. President
Human Events
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
"Why, then, has it taken 5 years for the White House to wake up to the first imperative in the immigration crisis: Fix the border, stop the flood?   Why is President Bush still chattering on about a 'guest-worker' program that has nothing to do with the crisis?   Since he took office in 2001, Bush said in Tucson, AZ, U.S. border agents have apprehended and sent home 4.5M illegal aliens, 'including more than 350K with criminal records'.   Astonishing.   That is 75K criminals a year, 200 felons a day, for the last five years, trying to break into our country to rape, rob and kill, and molest our children...   what did Bush say in Tucson?   I can't defend the border if you won't give me a guest-worker program...   But this is preposterous.   Bush is saying he cannot do his constitutional duty to protect the nation from invasion - unless we let 12M illegal aliens become guest-workers and allow greedy U.S. businesses to go over-seas and hire foreigners for jobs that U.S. workers won't take at the paltry wages they offer.   But not since the "bracero" program of decades ago have we had a national guest-worker program.   And never in our history have we given business carte blanche to go abroad and hire foreigners to come and take American jobs.   Yet Bush says if we don't, he can't control the border.   What he means is, he won't control the border...   Conservatives should reject this "guest-worker" program, even if it is Bush's price tag for border protection.   Far from solving the crisis, this Chamber of Commerce-LULAC scheme will mean final defeat, after decades of struggle to protect the borders.   For though Bush may say, 'I oppose amnesty.', his guest-worker program is amnesty."

2005-12-07
Norman Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring e-News-Letter_
A Trial Balloon?
"editorials often are written in response to visits by lobbyists to editorial boards.   The proposal discussed here -- give automatic green cards to foreign students who get Master's or PhDs at U.S. universities in 'selected fields' -- is not new, but it may be an idea whose time has come.   It's wrongheaded and has hidden motivations, but there are enough special interests work here that it just might get by Congress.   It's certainly not needed.   As I've said many times, contrary to fears expressed by special interests that we are not producing enough PhDs in science and engineering, we are producing too many, as evidenced, for example, by the fact that very few PhDs in physics ever actually get a job doing physics.   The only 'need' to produce so many PhDs is to maintain the academic empires of certain faculty...   The sad fact is that tons of those baby boomers wish they could get technical work now.   Even if we needed more MS/PhD people in science and engineering, I and others have shown quite clearly that the remedy is obvious and classic: Raise salaries of jobs requiring these degrees.   Remember, the NSF advocated bringing in more foreign scientists and engineers precisely to avoid this remedy.   Even if the foreign students were needed, the proposed remedy would be absurd.   Do they really think that all Master's and PhD recipients are created equal?   Just about anyone can get a Master's degrees at some school somewhere in the U.S.   So anyone who wants to immigrate would merely get a Master's at some 'wild chicken' school (Chinese phrase) and they're in like Flynn.   Same thing at the PhD level, even from a 'good' school, and David North's research found that most foreign students getting PhDs in the U.S. were concentrated in the weaker schools.   Recall, by the way, that needed or not, I've always strongly supported facilitating the immigration of 'the best and the brightest'.   What this editorial writer doesn't know is that we already have a mechanism for giving green cards to that category of people, called the National Interest Waiver.   No employer sponsorship is needed, as long as one can document that one IS the best and the brightest."
Dr. Matloff's archive of articles and news-letters and congressional testimony

2005-12-07
Rajesh Mahapatra _Seattle Times_
M$ to invest $1.7G, add 3K jobs in India

2005-12-07
_Dayton Daily News_
Suit says cops zapped great-grand-mother
"A 68-year-old great-grand-mother has filed a federal law-suit against the city and its police department, claiming her civil rights were violated when she said an officer used a Taser gun on her multiple times in the police department lobby.   Attorneys for Beverly Kidwell argue in the suit that police used excessive force and said they have a tape of the April incident to prove it, WHIOTV.com reported."

2005-12-07
Nina Bernstein _Sarasota Herald Tribune_
Most Mexican Immigrants Gave Up Jobs to Come to USA
"The report, released Tuesday by the Pew Hispanic Center, was based on surveys of nearly 5K Mexicans, mostof them here illegally.   Those surveyed were seeking identity documents at Mexican consulates in New York, Atlanta and Raleigh, NC, where recent arrivals have gravitated toward construction, hotel and restaurant jobs, and in Dallas, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Fresno, CA, where they have been more likely to work in agriculture and manufacturing.   Unlike the stereotype of jobless Mexicans heading north, most of the immigrants had been employed in Mexico, the report found.   Once in the United States, they soon found that their illegal status was no barrier to being hired here.   And though the jobs they landed, typically with help from relatives, were often unstable and their median earnings only $300 a week, that was enough to keep drawing new-comers because wages here far exceeded those in Mexico...   Only 5% had been un-employed there...   After a difficult transition in their first 6 months in the United States - about 15% of the respondents said they did not work during that time - the rate of un-employment plummeted, to an average of 5%.   But in one of the most striking findings, 38% reported an un-employment spell lasting a month or more in the previous year, regardless of their location, legal status or length of time in the United States...   Among respondents to the survey, those who settled in Atlanta and Dallas were the best off, with 56% in each city receiving a weekly wage higher than the $300-a-week median.   The worst off were in Fresno, where more than half of the survey respondents worked in agriculture and 60% reported earning less than $300 a week...   To some scholars of immigration, the report underlines the lack of incentives for employers to turn to a guest-worker program like the one proposed by President Bush because their needs are met cheaply by illegal workers - and all without paper-work or long-term commitment...   'You can't plausibly argue that immigrant-dominated sectors have a labor shortage.', said Robert Courtney Smith, a sociologist and author of _Mexican New York: Transnational Lives of New Immigrants_.   Instead, he said, the report and evidence of falling wages among Mexican immigrants over time point to an over-supply of vulnerable workers competing with each other."

2005-12-07 04:50PST (07:50EST) (12:50GMT)
Jim Abrams _AP_/_Yahoo!_
Legislation to Allow More Guest-Workers Is In the Works
Johnstown PA Tribune-Democrat
"The House is to vote next week on legislation that strengthens border security and requires work-place enforcement of immigration law but does not offer a guest-worker program...   House Judiciary committee chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-WI, who crafted the bill, said he supports a guest-worker program, which would provide temporary visas for unskilled labor.   Some guest-worker proposals would allow illegal immigrants already in the country to participate, although Sensenbrenner has not stated a position on that issue.   But he said that without a clear consensus on what that program would entail, 'I believe it is wise to move cautiously.'   The committee is expected to vote on the measure, which also imposes tougher penalties for both smugglers and illegal immigrants, on Thursday.   The full House will take up the bill next week, committee aides said...   The Sensenbrenner bill [HR4437] incorporates border security legislation sponsored by Homeland Security committee chairman Peter King, R-NY, with new penalties for violators and new requirements on employers who hire non-citizens.   Among the penalties, it makes illegal presence in the United States, currently a civil offense, a criminal felony.   Some immigration experts estimate that 40% of illegal immigrants enter the country legally and then overstay their visas.   It places mandatory minimum sentences on smuggling convictions and attempts to re-enter the country after removal, and subjects all non-citizens, legal or illegal, to deportation if convicted of three or more drunken driving offenses.   The legislation also provides reimbursement for local sheriffs in 29 border counties who transfer illegal immigrants to federal custody and would make non-citizen gang members deportable...   Currently the maximum fine [for employing illegal aliens] is $2K [far less than the employers gain by under-cutting prevailing compensation rates]."
HR4437

2005-12-07
_USA Today_
Ford to lay off 30K through 2011 (gaphs)
Detroit News
MarketWatch
"Up to 30K workers to be eliminated and at least 10 factories to close.   Ford Motor Company executives will present a restructureing plan to the company's board of directors, today, that calls for closing at least 10 assembly and component plants and eliminating 25k to 30K hourly jobs in North America within 5 years...   In meetings today and Thursday, Mark Fields, Ford's new president of the Americas division and the architect of the [blood-bath' will walk board members through the fine points, including budget projections for 2006 & 2007, capital [investment] requests and other details...   Ford had 87K UAW-represented workers in North America at the end of 2004.   It has about 11.6K union workers in Canada...   The auto-maker already has announced plans to cut about 4K salaried jobs in the first quarter of 2006 on top of 2,750 white-collar cuts made this year."

2005-12-07
Eric Union _Small Times_
Security plan could restrict flood of cheap foreign lab assistants
"It's no secret that the United States has grown more dependent on foreign researchers.   At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, for example, 577 foreign under-graduate and graduate students are enrolled, and many are engaged in on-going research.   The Research Foundation of the State University of New York, meanwhile, says it has 18,006 non-citizens, including researchers, employees and students, on its campuses across the state...   Now, proposals by the U.S. Departments of Commerce and Defense to tighten access by many of these researchers to various sensitive technologies have academic and industry officials warning that the move could endanger the nation's technological edge...   The proposed regulations grew out of perceptions by some federal officials that research institutions weren't being as stringent as they should be in guarding access to technologies that could have military or other strategic applications.   The Defense Department published proposed changes in the Federal Register in July, while the Commerce Department hasn't yet released to the public its proposed rule changes...   Another change would be the classification of foreign researchers by country of birth instead of country of citizenship.   So a Chinese native who is a citizen of Canada would be classified under more stringent regulations."

2005-12-07
Diane M. Grassi _Frontiers of Freedom_
US Jobs in IT Development and Finance Solely Reserved for India and Guest-Workers
American Chronicle
Sierra Times
Magic City Morning Star
Michigan News
The Rant.us
Amherst Times
"Americans are well familiar with the down-sizing, out-sourcing and off-shoring of the U.S. manufacturing base which has seen 2/3 of its jobs lost in the past 20 years, having been traded in for third world cheap labor.   And while white-collar workers have hardly been immune from off-shoring practices infiltrating boardrooms, indication this week is that the tide has changed.   Both the Intel Corp., the world's largest computer chip manufacturer, as well as J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., one of the world's largest financial institutions and 2nd largest in the U.S.A., are investing in creating new jobs in India over the next few years rather than in the U.S.A...   With only 200 on staff in India just two years ago, in order to achieve their latest goal, J.P. Morgan will hire between 300-400 graduates a month in order to have 9K total positions in front and back-office positions by 2008...   The remaining approximately 4K - 4,500 employees J.P. Morgan employs will be divided between Bournemouth, England and New York, NY...   Similarly, Intel will invest $1.1G in India over the next 5 years, with $800M dedicated specifically for research and development operations and other projects including chip design, also in Bangalore, according to Chairman Craig Barrett...   Cisco Systems, the world's largest maker of internet equipment, which announced in 2005 October that it would invest $1.1G in India, tripling its work force to more than 4K from 1,400 in the next 3 years...   [Former] M$ chairman Bill Gates [and current chairman Steven Ballmer are] expected to invest $400M in Hyderabad, India where he plans to hire several hundred workers...   consultants such as Stefan Spohr of AT Kearney estimate that investment banks could raise their staff levels in India to as much as 20% in the next few years.   Since salaries in India are 70-80% lower than in the U.S.A., with total costs about 40% lower than in the U.S.A., the trend of off-shoring will no longer exist.   Rather, jobs will now originate from India and totally bypass the U.S.A...   Companies are directly contributing to the supposed engineering shortage themselves by requiring that an applicant meet every item on a detailed list of qualifications.   Transfer of like-skills is a long lost concept.   With approximately 200 responses for every job listing, companies have the luxury to hold out until they get the perfect candidate, as job cuts in technology positions are up 20% in the past year, according to Challenger, Challenger, Gray & Christmas.   The un-employment rate for computer programmers and engineers is higher than the national average..."

2005-12-07
_Qatar Gulf Times_
India continues pushing at WTO talks to open flood-gates of off-shoring and guest-worker abuse
"India should use the Hong Kong round of global trade talks to push for more overseas work visas for software engineers in exchange for opening its booming services sector, analysts and industry groups say.   With 50% of India's gross domestic product linked to services such as software, out-sourcing, retail and banking, developed countries are eager to tap the now restricted sectors.   But India, a leader along with Brazil of the influential G-20 group of developing nations, wants to make sure that in return its companies that bid for lucrative services work in developed countries are able to get [an unlimited number of] work visas."

2005-12-07
_Blog Houston_
Houston debates illegal alien sanctuary policy
"Houston residents asked a divided City Council Tuesday to end an official city policy that forbids local police from rounding up undocumented immigrants for being in the country illegally."

2005-12-07
Kyra Kyles _Chicago Tribune_
Y Generation: Want "Meaningful Work" without paying dues
"'Generation Y [like the boomers and Gen X before them, are eager to cut to the chase, to do] more meaningful work and is looking for more give-and-take from their employers.', said John Challenger, CEO of out-placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.   'They want a lot of responsibilities and also to do work that is interesting to them.'   Most researchers define Gen Y as the age group born between 1978 and 1989, making the oldest of them 27 and the youngest 16, researcher Bruce Tulgan said.   Unlike previous generations, Gen Y enters the office with clear-cut goals and ambitions, according to Tulgan, who founded RainmakerThinking Inc. to study young people in the work-place...   'Generation Y's main concerns are control, timing and customization.', Tulgan said.   'They'll trade off some financial benefits for more control over where they work, who they report to and how long they work each day.' Clear career growth, increasing responsibility and ongoing performance feed-back are critical to Gen Y workers, who are accustomed to being listened to and respected by their doting parents, said Anastasia Goodstein, editor of a blog called Ypulse...   'More senior partners are more phone-oriented or face-to-face, but we prefer e-mails to voice mails.'...   Gen Y resents gopher duties including making photocopies, fetching coffee or answering phones...   Y's sense of entitlement often is tempered with excellent teamwork skills and a strong desire to learn from previous generations...   Baby Boomers say, 'Hey, these kids have a point, but I was here 20 years before them, so I want what they want, but I deserve it first.' "

2005-12-07
_People's Defender_
Making America Safter by Strengthening Our Borders

2005-12-07
_KVOA Tucson_
Minutemen to hold weekend vigil near Naco
"Civilians belonging to a border watch group will hold a vigil along portions of the Mexican border in Cochise County this weekend looking for illegal aliens crossing the border.   Typically, volunteers sit in their vehicles or on lawn chairs, with binoculars and cell phones, watching for any illegal aliens trying to cross from Mexico into the United States.   Any sightings are to be called in to the U.S. Border Patrol..."

2005-12-07
Paul J. Lim _US News & World Report_
A pink slip in the stocking
MarketWatch
Globe & Mail
Boston Globe
Business On-Line
Fox
CNN/Money
"Fourth quarters are always a tough time when it comes to lay-offs.   That's because companies often do last-minute cost cutting at year end to hit their budget targets and make their numbers look good.   This year appears to be no different, as corporate America announced 99,279 lay-offs last month.   That's up 22% from the 81,301 job cuts announced in October, according to the out-placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas...   The auto industry was the biggest contributor to November's lay-off announcements, slashing an additional 16,870 jobs.   They are also the lay-off leaders so far this year, having announced 105,886 cuts since January, which represents around 11% of all job cuts announced in 2005, according to Challenger...   Lay-offs were down 5% from 2004 November's 104,530.   So far in 2005, corporations have announced 964,232 job cuts, up 3.6% from the year-to-date total a year ago.   Lay-offs are likely to surpass 1M for the fifth straight year.   In 2004, 1.04M job reductions were announced."

2005-12-07
Susan Kuchinskas _Datamation_
A job for the holidays
CNN
"Around 20% of job seekers take a break during the holidays, Challenger said, figuring that they'll begin another full-court press on January 2.   Those who do will miss out on what the company estimates at 300K managerial and professional jobs that may be added in the closing months of the year...   some managers speed up the hiring process to use up funds from the current year...   the lion's share of those 30K jobs won't be in technology.   There, the cuts continue.   According to Challenger, technology companies announced 41,439 job cuts in the third quarter, up 4.3% from 39,720 in the second quarter.   For the year, tech-job cuts totaling 140,696 were 18.8% higher than the three-quarter total of 118,427 in 2004.   But Challenger saw signs that job cuts in the sector, which includes computers, telecommunications, electronics and e-commerce, may be slowing.   The 41,439 job cuts announced between July and September were 24% lower than the 54,701 job cuts during the same period in 2004.   In 2006, the company expects the biggest job gains to come in the financial services, technology, health care, energy and international business sectors, which together could create as many as 1.3M new jobs next year."

2005-12-07 12:41PST (15:41EST) (20:41GMT)
Robert Schroeder _MarketWatch_
Consumer debt posts historic 4% drop
"Consumer credit posted a large, unexpected drop in October, falling by a record $7.2G, or a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4%, according to the Federal Reserve.   The $7.2G decline was the largest monthly drop since the Fed began keeping records in 1943...   Revolving credit - generally credit cards -- fell by an annual rate of $1.6G, or 2.4%.   Non-revolving credit - typically auto loans -- declined 5%, by $5.6G, also marking a record decline.   September consumer credit, meanwhile, was revised upward to an annual rate of $4.1G from the previously estimated decline of $100M."

2005-12-07
Stephen Dinan _Washington Times_
Visas are awarded without background checks
World Peace Herald
"Top officials at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services acknowledged in internal e-mails that some of their employees are able to decide visa applications without being able to do full background checks, even in important national security cases...   a robust debate among top leaders at USCIS, the agency charged with deciding who should get green cards or temporary work or study visas, over how to do national security checks while deciding millions of applications a year.   In one situation, the acting deputy director purportedly ordered one investigative branch not to provide information to a top-level team deciding the toughest cases because of turf conflicts with another branch.   Meanwhile, other adjudicators do not have the right level of access to data-bases, meaning they could miss another agency's flagged information and could let someone into the country who should be denied entry...   The official said the situation has improved dramatically since September 11, including requiring an IBIS check on every application.   She said the agency is so diligent about completing all checks that it faces law-suits and court orders from applicants still awaiting a final decision...   'The adjudicators are being denied the ability to do criminal background checks; they're being told not to ask questions they might not like the answers to; they are filing or throwing away criminal hits on applicants; and I understand perhaps even ignoring terrorists.', [representative John Culberson of Texas] said."

2005-12-07
_Barbados Advocate_
Off-Shoring Debated at ILO Meet
"The main presenter, Professor Gary Gereffi, of the Sociology Department at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, USA, has noted that global out-sourcing has triggered a debate about the benefits and costs of globalization, for developing as well as developed countries.   Some, he has noted, claim that off-shore production in both the manufacturing and service sectors have been extremely beneficial, since it promotes economic efficiency and it spreads the gains of globalization to poorer, less developed, export-oriented countries.   Others, he has however pointed out, argue that global out-sourcing has led to a 'race to the bottom', as developing countries struggle with one another, to offer trans-national companies the lowest operating costs.   The wages and benefits for workers in industrialised economies, he says, are under constant downward pressure, because of the realities of global competition...   Gereffi notes that off-shore out-sourcing has been gathering pace since the 1970s.   Out-sourcing [has become] a standard aspect of all businesses which frequently and continually need to make the decision to 'make or buy' specific inputs and services.   Meanwhile, Off-shoring refers to the decision to move the supply of goods and services from domestic to over-seas locations.   The first wave of global out-sourcing began in the 1960s and 1970s with the exodus of production jobs in shoes, clothing, cheap electronics and toys.   After this, routine service work, such as credit-card receipt processing, airline reservations, and the writing of basic software code began to move off-shore, Gereffi has pointed out.   Today the computerisation of work, widespread access to the Internet, and high-speed private data networks have allowed a wide range of knowledge-intensive jobs to become more foot-loose, he says."

2005-12-07
Of-Shoring Poses Crucial Challenges
"Potentially massive savings in wage and benefit costs continue to drive the global off-shoring movement, but companies are facing a wide range of people management issues both overseas and at home, according to a major study released today by The Conference Board, the global research and business membership organization.   Aligning The Organization: Management and Human Resource Concerns is the third report in the series Thinking OffShoring Through: A Framework for Decision Makers...   how long [will] the arbitrage opportunity...last...   increases in demand for IT skills are driving up pay levels, especially in such centers as Bangalore and New Delhi in India.   The study emphasizes that companies must look beyond wages to consider benefits, training and other costs before they out-source and also consider transportation, cultural and other expenses related to off-shoring...   Due diligence for off-shoring companies should include a basic familiarity with local employment law, particularly the requirements and obligations surrounding termination.   Companies should also know the standard contractual terms that apply, as well as the costs of hiring and firing and the procedures prospective vendors follow to screen potential employees, including background checks and references...   the mere threat of moving administrative jobs over-seas [has depressed] wages and any potential increases in income at home...   The number of U.S. citizens pursuing science and engineering degrees has fallen [in response to depressed compensation and employment insecurity]."

2005-12-07
_Quad City Times_/_AP_
Maytag will pay $334,500 to settle age discrimination charges
"Maytag Corp. has agreed to pay $334,500 to settle an age discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of three regional sales managers who claimed they were demoted.   Matthew Max, the appliance company's former regional sales manager in Chicago, and two other former managers will get back pay as a result of the settlement.   Ethan Cohen, a Chicago attorney who represented the EEOC and Max in the case, said the lawsuit alleged that Maytag demoted 8 managers older than age 50 to a new position of zone manager in 1999.   In some cases, new supervisors hired to replace them were younger, Cohen said Tuesday."

2005-12-07
_Wolters-Kluwer_
Maritime facility AND union will pay $625K for age discrimination
"The EEOC has announced a litigation settlement for $625,000 and comprehensive injunctive relief in an employment discrimination suit against the Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education (Paul Hall Center) and SeaFarers International (SIU) alleging age bias in an apprenticeship program.   The apprenticeship program, which is based in Piney Point, MD, trains individuals wishing to become mariners in the US Merchant Marine.   Upon completion of the apprenticeship program, graduates are guaranteed jobs as unlicensed seamen on-board a SIU contracted vessel.   The EEOC asserted in the law-suit that the Paul Hall Center and SIU refused to admit individuals at least 40 years old into the apprenticeship program in violation of the ADEA."

2005-12-07
Mark Samuels _Computing_
Over-turning ster