- Gary Sherman of Nederland, Texas
- Congress should clean up the ethics and accountability of its members first and impose stricter sanctions on those who violate them or the rest of what they do is moot. If we can't have honesty, integrity, accountability and responsibility in our representatives, then how can we trust them?...
- Daryl Jackson of Shutesbury, Massachusetts
- IMHO the first thing that must be done is to restore the nation's trust in Congress. The Republican K Street project was a disaster for the American people [as was the Democrat K Street project]. Second, I would demand that law-makers act like legislators, not partisan attack dogs. Fighting over gays, guns, and God divides the country. We need to celebrate our diversity and have respect for each of our opinions. Third, I would call for an end to the war on the American middle class. Only our corporate leaders and the wealthy think the H-1B visa program is good for America. On the same subject, I would get the borders under tight control. It doesn't help our democracy to have millions of illegal immigrants in the country.
- Angelina Broussard of Reynoldsburg, Ohio
- Reduce student loan interest rates, so that the middle class can afford to send their children to college.
- John Kuhn of Salina, Kansas
- Provide for defense of our service personnel fighting for our freedoms. Stop counting how many die and understand that our service personnel are dying to defend us here and in Congress to be free of harm or death by terrorist factions around the world wanting to destroy our rights and freedoms. Stay the course, fight the battle outside the U.S. while protecting our nation with defense, not economics or political gain as our choice.
-
- Karen Bragg of Anderson, Indiana
- Close the borders. Stop illegal immigration. Do not allow them to receive any benefits, which we have paid into for years. I am 64 and have worked since I was 17. Wrong is wrong. If I did something illegal, I'm sure the government would not say, "That's OK, we forgive you."...
- Bill Cope of Taylorsville, Illinois
- Does it really matter? Both political parties are so full of themselves with such arrogance and self-fulfillment that it doesn't matter who is in control. They will butt heads over Iraq, taxation, entitlements, as easily as they would argue over who buys the next round or a piece of chicken at free buffet. The entire governing process has made me such a cynic and non-participant for politics at all levels...
- David Delgado of Hemlock, Michigan
- I work for the auto industry and would like to see changes in fair trade agreements that would make it a more level playing field. G.M., Ford and Chrysler put a lot of American people to work. Let's keep the jobs we have left...
2007-01-04
Christian Bottorff & Michaela Jackson _Tennessean_
Davidson county TN sheriff Dan Hall set to screen for illegal aliens in jail: Hopefully, the program could lead to more deportations
Dickson Herald
Fairview Observer
Ashland City Times
"As Nashville sheriff's deputies prepare to step in to help enforce federal immigration laws, their assistance could result in the deportation of maybe thousands more people each year from Nashville... Under the program, Davidson county Sheriff's deputies will check the immigration status of every foreign-born person booked into the Metro jail. Anyone found to have an immigration hold or immigration violation will be turned over to federal authorities for deportation proceedings. Sheriff Daron Hall requested that Nashville participate in the program after several high-profile crimes in which illegal immigrants were charged. In some cases, the [illegal aliens] had been arrested repeatedly in the Midstate without being processed through the federal immigration system... Metro police chief Ronal Serpas and governor Phil Bredesen have voiced support for the program, which is coordinated through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau... Nashville's program is patterned after a similar effort in Charlotte, NC and comes at a time when the number of foreign-born people booked into Metro Jail each year continues to soar. Nashville officials estimate the program could result in 2,960 illegal immigrants being turned over to federal officials each year. Officials say that the 4,173 foreign-born prisoners who moved through the Nashville lock-up during the past fiscal year are nearly twice as many as were booked 5 years ago, county figures show. Those who support the measure expect the new procedures will lead to better cooperation with the federal government to remove illegal immigrants from the community. 'And we're taking a burden off local [tax-victims], not to mention that we'll be getting some more of the criminal element off the street.', said Theresa Harmon, co-founder of Tennesseans for Responsible Immigration Policies. Harmon, whose organization lobbies for tougher laws against illegal immigrants, said the measure pales in comparison to the larger issues facing the country: porous borders, businesses that hire illegal [aliens] and lack of enough detention space. 'Obviously, I would much rather see something done at the federal level.', Harmon said. 'But barring that [and in light of federal government resistance to doing their job], the local governments are really having no choice but to protect the citizens.'"
2007-01-04
Spencer S. Hsu _Washington Post_
Visa processing falling behind even without proposed additional guest-worker programs and thorough background checks
"Another 100K names submitted to the FBI for background checks have been on hold for a year or more. Congressional auditors recently reported that 14 immigration offices had lost track of 111K files as of July... The agency announced in September that it had cut its back-log of applications by 70% after a 5-year, $560M effort provided more personnel. In August, USCIS awarded a 5-year, $150M contract to convert 55M files into electronic form."
2007-01-04
Uma Shankar Sathya Kumar _Hindustan Times_
Why the USA should be worried
"From the beginning of this 21st century, the United States is facing competition from beyond its borders as well as internal difficulties. Its lower and middle class families are slowly turning out to be the biggest losers of current globalisation. The United States, like ancient Rome, is beginning to be plagued by the limits of its power. The current globalisation is heavily affecting its economy. In fact, the US has actively promoted the worldwide exchange of commodities like no other nation, and the result is that their local manufacturing industries have begun to be eroded. Some manufacturing sectors such as furniture, consumer electronics, automobile part suppliers and computer manufacturers have had left the country for good. In the recent past, 'free' trade has primarily benefited the very rival countries that are now mounting a heavy economic offence on the United States and the rival countries have cut off a large slice of America's global market share... In the near future, many US citizens may have to face harsh reality like a poverty-stricken, third world family, living from hand to mouth situation without any kind of financial reserves whatsoever... the US job growth rate is falling behind its own population growth. A country that cannot create jobs for its own population is not a super-power. Today, the United State's biggest bankers are [Red China] and Japan, both of whom could cause the United States very serious financial problems, if they wish to do so at any time. Roughly 27% of the government bonds issued by the US treasury are held by [Red China] and Japan. That's why US doesn't complain much about [Red China] and Japan. A country whose financial affairs are in the hands of foreigners is not a super-power."
2007-01-04 15:00PST (18:00EST) (23:00GMT)
Lou Dobbs _CNN_
Immigration corruption legislation is one of top congressional priorities
"the Democrats are bent on giving amnesty to millions of illegal aliens and leaving our open borders wide open. One of those critics is Congressman Brian Bilbray...
William Schneider: We haven't heard a lot about immigration reform. Why? Too big, too difficult, too controversial. They want to concentrate on things they can actually get done...
James Thurber of American University: There are many issues where there's going to be dead-lock, dead-lock within the Senate because basically it's tied. Dead-lock between the Senate and the House, therefore, but also dead-lock between the president and Congress... [It is a beautiful thing...jgo]
Lisa Sylvester: On trade, Democrats plan to fight to protect American jobs, replacing free trade with fair trade. Many Republicans, including President Bush, vow to fight additional tariffs... And on immigration, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce predicts victory on passing a guest worker program amnesty for illegal aliens. The chamber's president delicately putting it this way...
Tom Donohue of the US Chamber of Communists: You know, people that oppose guest-worker programs are dumb as a box of rocks. [When actually, its people who support the existing corrupt guest-worker programs and additional guest-worker programs who are as dumb as a box of rocks...jgo]
Lisa Sylvester: a growing number of Democrats who are listening to concerns of working Americans that inviting illegal workers into the country will drive down wages and dry up good-paying jobs...
Lou Dobbs: Still ahead, a communist Chinese company breaking U.S. law, forming an energy alliance with Iran. So why is that [Red Chinese] company still listed on the New York Stock Exchange?... The U.S. government bars American companies from doing business now with Iran. At the same time, it is opening American capital markets to foreign companies that do business with Iran. And in so doing, they violate American law...
Christine Romans: State-owned [Red Chinese] oil company CNOOC is pledging $16G to develop Iranian natural gas fields, flouting American foreign policy and law, undermining Washington's stated goal... The Iran-Libya Sanctions Act forbids foreign companies that invest in Iran's energy sector from tapping American capital markets. CNOOC is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, one of 33 [Red Chinese] companies, many of which maintain ownership by or close ties with the communist government.
representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinin (R-FL), International Relations Committee: Just because they're on the stock exchange here in the United States, just because they have the veneer of being like any old -- good old-fashioned American company. They are not...
Christine Romans: The New York Stock Exchange says since no action has been taken against CNOOC... foreign companies using American capital markets are injecting funds into a country with a long list of dangerous ambitions... By law, this proposed CNOOC deal requires the president to launch an investigation to determine which sanctions apply here. Congress also looking into the matter. It's on the top of the agenda for the House Foreign Relations Committee...
Lou Dobbs: Foreign spies tonight are increasing their efforts to steal American technological secrets. A Defense Security Service report saying there is a surge in espionage activity from Asian countries, and some reports saying communist China is leading the way...
Kathleen Koch: espionage attempts aimed at sensitive U.S. defense technology have shot up 43% over the last year. That finding in a new report by the Defense Security Service counterintelligence office. Space systems, lasers and missile and radar-evading stealth technology were in greatest demand... And East Asian and Pacific countries are the biggest suspected thieves. The study found they account for a third of all spy attempts. The Near East is next at 23%, followed by Eurasia at 19%. And South Asia at 13%. Africa and the Western Hemisphere count for 11%. The 29-page report doesn't accuse specific countries. But [Red China], followed by Russia and Iran, are often cited by U.S. officials as the top spy threats to the United States... The study is based on suspicious foreign contacts reported to the government by defense contractors and other defense-related sources. It says operatives in some cases made simple verbal requests for classified information. Other methods, trying to buy controlled technology. Spying while visiting U.S. companies, offering marketing services to contractors...
Lou Dobbs: The privacy of U.S. mail protected by law, but President Bush may have changed all that. When the president signed a postal bill last month, President Bush added a signing statement that appears to loosen the rules... And the U.S. Border Patrol tonight is reporting one of its observation posts on the Arizona-Mexico border was approached by unknown gunmen. The site in the Rust Desert District, was approached late last night. The site is manned by National Guard troops who, according to their policy, withdrew. The Border Patrol would not say whether any shots were fired. No guardsmen were injured in the incident, and the gunmen fled back into Mexico. The area where the incident took place is a known drug smuggling corridor...
representative Brian Bilbray (R-CA): just finished talking to Sylvester Reyes who's actually going to be a new chairman about a bill that he has, about making it a very simple system, working with David Dreier at cracking down on the source of illegal immigration. That's illegal employment of illegals. And so all we do is we shift from one chairman to the other. But the strategy should be the same and that's defending our national community -- I mean our local communities from over-seas influences... And I think the real issue was not doing more at cracking down on the employers and allowing the Chamber of Commerce to dictate the Republican policy on national security and immigration control rather than the American people... are you willing to stand up for enforcing the law and not rewarding those who broke it, and are you willing to stand up for those who have not broken our immigration law who wait patiently in other countries to come here, work, do the kind of work that the chamber says they want done and then go home, not get citizenship, not get [Socialist Insecurity], not get -- earn income tax credit and not get job security that's far beyond what legal U.S. citizens are allowed? That's the challenge for the chamber. Are they really for a guest worker program or is this their way of trying to reward themselves and the people that are profiteering from illegal immigrants that are their members, that the employers who have been hiring illegals behind our back for the last 20 years...
representative Tom Lantos (D-CA): We have a law on the books and it's up to the administration to fully enforce it. Next week I am calling Secretary Rice to get an assurance from her that sanctions will be imposed on [Red China] if [Red China] goes ahead with its plan to put $16G into Iran, which obviously will be used, at least in part, to develop nuclear weapons. The administration has a legal obligation to place sanctions on Iran. This has not been done in the past. And I will insist that it be done. And if the answer is unsatisfactory, I will hold early hearings on this subject... And I will seek assurance from the secretary of state that the sanctions will not be waived. We simply cannot allow [Red China] to supply Iran with billions of dollars to be used for the development of nuclear weapons."
2007-01-05
2007-01-05
Rob Sanchez _Zazona_/_American Workers Coalition_
Indians blocked distribution of Job Destruction News-Letter via AT&T
"There is no shortage of news and opinions concerning the negative effects of out-sourcing but... ALMOST NOTHING IS SAID ABOUT HOW OUT-SOURCING IS ERODING OUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS. I had an experience with AT&T that demonstrated to me the insidiousness and pervasiveness of this attack on our basic rights. In mid-December of 2006 AT&T blocked my news-letter from all of its customers. I found out that AT&T was blocking it mostly by coincidence while talking to a subscriber who asked me why I haven't been publishing news-letters lately. To make a long story short, the reason they weren't getting the news-letters is that someone in India arbitrarily decided to put a spam block on all e-mail content from ZaZona internet servers. I base this accusation on converstations I had with a few AT&T customers that fought this censorship. I am pleased to announce that the AT&T blockade was lifted today after efforts by several of their customers who called AT&T's technical support -- which is in India. It was no small effort by these brave activists because the Indians they talked to were snotty, arrogant, and uncooperative. They wouldn't even honor their American customers by explaining why the news-letter was blocked and when or if the block would be lifted. Battling the censorship took a lot of my own personal time also. The time I take to ward off these attacks detracts from other efforts. AT&T and their staff in India may think their trans-national status gives them the right to subvert our freedom of speech but they are wrong on several counts. Violations of U.S. and international laws as well as their own were made: 1) The First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects our right to freedom of speech and freedom of the press. 2) Article 19 of the Indian constitution states that all citizens shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression. 3) The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, says that: 'Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers.' Several people suggested that I contact the ACLU, FCC, EFF, and a variety of other organizations to take action against AT&T. Great idea, but folks, I can only fight so many battles! I have enough on my plate as is, and I hope you agree that my time and energy is best spent fighting H-1B and out-sourcing. I will conclude this news-letter with some thoughts about AT&T, corporatism, and fascism. James Carlini [wrote in a recent article] that the merger of AT&T was a net positive. He then [went] on to say: AT&T won. Even though some people for Net neutrality are very passionate about their position as they fight AT&T, they don't understand who they are going up against, the prior regulations and guarantees set in the Telecom Act of 1996 and what resources the incumbents really have. Carlini makes some good arguments in favor of the merger, but I think he is the one who doesn't understand what we are going up against. This concentration of power will allow AT&T to be a bigger and more powerful bully than they are now. Once this merger is completed you can bet that BellSouth customers will experience similar erosions of their Constitutional rights, which means the abuse will be bigger and badder. Carlini's material has been used several times for this news-letter because he has great insight on high-tech, H-1B, and out-sourcing. This time though, I think he missed the boat. As the trans-national corporations concentrate their power they are becoming tyrannical behemoths."
2007-01-05 04:27:27PST (07:27:27EST) (12:27:27GMT)
Leo Sears _Times-Standard_
Employers of illegal aliens are sucking at Uncle Sam's teat
"The 1986 amnesty was supposed to halt illegal immigration and make employers liable for hiring illegal aliens. But the agricultural lobby succeeded in adding a provision that required search warrants before going into a field to check worker documentation. This enabled agricultural interests to maintain substandard working conditions and hold down the wages of the illegal workers. It was a major reason for the tripling of illegal immigration, and the billions of dollars in associated costs to the [tax-victims]. 'Uncle Sam's teat', the title of a farm subsidies article in The Economist, is very appropriate. The American Farm Bureau was successful with its lobbying to continue the present federal farm subsidies of over $20G yearly. Not included in that figure are the billions of our tax dollars that go to support illegal [alien] farm-workers, which is just another form of farm subsidy. Cheap, exploitable labor also stifles innovation and automation... Businesses, with governmental complicity, exploit illegal aliens to drive down labor costs. The non-living wages they pay result in [tax-victims] subsiding their illegal [alien] workers at a cost far greater than any savings we might realize from lower prices... labor is less than 10% of the retail price of produce, and a 40% increase in labor costs equates to a 4% increase in consumer prices."
2007-01-05 (5767 Teves/Tebet 15)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
The bitter fruits of corruption
2007-01-05
Dave Eberhart _News Max_
USA-Mexico pact revealed: Billions to be given to non-USA citizens
"As a result of lawsuits, the U.S. government released this week the actual U.S.-Mexico Social Security Totalization Agreement, an understanding signed between the Bush administration and the Mexican government in 2004 that would funnel billions of U.S. [Socialist Insecurity] funds to Mexican citizens."
2007-01-05
"brian" _Media Bistro_
Lou Dobbs's viewership up 57% in 2006Q4 over 2005A4
"Lou Dobbs Tonight up 57% Most Growth of any program on CNN or FNC. The Situation Room at 19:00 up 50% (Fox Report down -7%). The Situation Room at 17:00 up 40% (Big Story flat). CNN Newsroom at 15:00 up 31% (Studio B down -8%). The Situation Room at 16:00 up 30% (Your World down -3%). Anderson Cooper 360 at 22:00-midnight up 24%. American Morning up 17% (Fox and Friends down -8%). Larry King Live up 12% (Hannity & Colmes flat)."
2007-01-05
Edwin S. Rubenstein _V Dare_
Non-native workers had the merriest Christmas (with graph)
"The Household Survey was a blow-out, registering a whopping [seasonally adjusted] 303K new jobs in December. That's nearly twice the job growth counted in the more widely cited business survey. More important from our perspective is who is getting those new jobs: to a large extent, immigrants. Here are month's gains by racial group: Total: +303K (+0.21%); Hispanic: +178K (+0.89%); Non-Hispanic: +125K (+0.10%). 6 out of every 10 jobs created last month went to Hispanics -- who account for 14% of the U.S. labor force. Since about half of Hispanics are foreign-born, we use Hispanic employment as a proxy for immigrant employment. The government does not make immigrant data available in its monthly employment report, yet another example of its failure to keep tabs on our ongoing immigration disaster. The national unemployment rate held steady at 4.5% in December. Hispanic unemployment dropped by 0.1%age point, to 4.9%. White unemployment rose by 0.1%, to 4.0%. Last month's decline in Hispanic unemployment is especially noteworthy in that it coincided with a large increase in their labor force participation rates. In December 69.2% of adult Hispanics were in the labor force, up from 68.8% in November. White participation was 64.0% last month... Since 2001 January Hispanic employment has increased by 4.013M—a gain of 24.9% -- while 4.137M new jobs were filled by non-Hispanics—a gain of 3.4%. In other words, Hispanic grabbed almost half all the jobs created during Señor Bush's great job boom."
2007-01-05
| DJIA | 12,398.01 |
| S&P 500 | 1,409.71 |
| NASDAQ | 2,434.25 |
| 10-year US T-Bond | 4.65% |
| crude oil | 56.31 |
| gold | 606.90 |
| silver | 12.23 |
| platinum | 1,109.00 |
| palladium | 335.10 |
| copper | 0.15844 |
| natgas | 6.184/MBTU |
| unleadedgasoline | NYMEX no longer trading |
| reformulatedgasoline | $1.4931/gal |
| heatingoil | $1.5658/gal |
I usually get this info from MarketWatch, which gets them from BigCharts.
| |
"If you tax something, you get less of it. If you subsidize something, you get more of it. In America we tax work, growth, investment, employment, savings, productivity, initiative and ability, while subsidizing non-work, consumption, welfare and debt. Isn't it time to allow our people to probe, test, prove their character and sensibilities, to be inspired to growth and initiative?" --- Jack Kemp
| |
2007-01-06
2007-01-05 16:00PST (2007-01-05 19:00EST) (2007-01-06 00:00GMT)
_Yahoo!_/_Investor's Business Daily_
Mexico's Big War Against the USA
"The invasion and rout of an Arizona National Guard station by Mexican traffickers Wednesday signals that Mexico's fierce new war against smugglers is spilling over into the U.S. We should have been prepared... This attack on the National Guard is part of a much larger war that Calderon is waging on Mexico's violent criminal syndicates, which thrive on smuggling drugs and illegal immigrants. Last week Calderon dispatched 3,K federal troops to Mexico's second-worst crime haven, Tijuana -- where traffickers murdered 300 people in 2006 -- in a head-on confrontation with the enemy. This is Calderon's second dispatch of troops to fight organized criminal mafias, following a dispatch of 7,200 federal troops into crime-racked Michoacan state in the south. The timing of Calderon's move coincided with Wednesday's armed border attack by bandits on U.S. National Guard troops near Tucson, AZ. The U.S. troops are patrolling the border to help spot illegal immigrants but aren't allowed to shoot. So once attacked, they had no choice but to retreat... Al-Qaida terrorists have been [crossing] our unfortified border... for some time."
2007-01-06
Michael Cutler 
_Family Security Matters_
Unarmed border guards put more than our nation at risk
"Recently, unarmed National Guard troops were forced to flee when they were confronted by armed intruders who ran our nation's border with Mexico. The troops who fled the confrontation were assigned to an entry-identification team, asigned to monitor major illegal-alien and drug-smuggling routes into the United States. Clearly these troops succeeded in identifying the fact that armed intruders had crossed the Mexican border. Unfortunately, because they were forced to escape, the troops were unable to identify the intruders and were uncertain how many there were. All that they were able to report is that our borders had been violated by an unknown number of armed and dangerous men! The Border Patrol agents, obviously disgusted with the abysmal situation on the border they've taken an oath to protect, refer to this operation as 'Nanny Patrol'. The government refers to it as 'Operation Jump Start'. Actually, 'Jump Start' may not be an inaccurate name for the operation. The bad guys jumped our unarmed National Guard troops and our troops started to run. Actually, I refer to the administration's efforts to provide tough-sounding names for largely ineffectual field operations by another name, 'Operation Back Rub'... Teddy Roosevelt described his concept of foreign policy as, 'Walk softly but carry a big stick.'. Here the administration demonstrates a reverse philosophy. It engages in all sorts of false bravado by providing all sorts of macho sounding operational names for efforts they claim have the situation under control. The facts simply do not add up. The bad guys learned an important lesson as a result of that encounter. They know, if they doubted it before, that they can cross into our country with impunity. They have already learned that the administration is more than willing to prosecute the sworn Border Patrol agents to the maximum if they make a split-second decision to try to protect our border and their own lives... I was appalled that Congress wanted to hire only 800 new special agents but absolutely flabbergasted that the administration wanted to hire only a fraction of that number. Similarly I was amazed that while Congress had provided the funding to hire an additional 2K new Border Patrol agents, the administration slashed that number to just 210!"
hearing transcript
2007-01-06
_News-Press_
Enforcement against illegal alien invasion is long over-due
2007-01-06
Gene A. Nelson, PhD _Immigration Daily_
H-1B visas are at the heart of the Abramoff scandal
"These leaders associated directly or indirectly with lobbyist Jack Abramoff will not be a part of the 110th Congress: representative Tom DeLay (R-TX), representative Bob Ney (R-OH), representative Richard W. Pombo (R-CA), representative J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ), representative John E. Sweeney (R-NY), senator Conrad Burns (R-MT), and senator Mike DeWine (R-OH)... M$ lobbyist Jack Abramoff lobbied for expansion of the harmful H-1B visa program in 1998. In 1998, M$ lobbyist Jack Abramoff lobbied former U.S. Representative and Majority Whip Tom DeLay's office for expansion of this controversial visa program as shown in disclosures posted at the U.S. Senate Office of Public Records... Select the link to view lobbyist disclosure records. Use 'Abramoff' as the lobbyist name. Select 'Jack Abramoff' as the lobbyist name. Then view line 22, which is the 1998 mid-year report for M$ Corporation. Page one of this report shows that M$ paid Abramoff $360K for 6 months (or $60K/month). Then, go to page 6 of 11. The reader will learn that DeLay's office was lobbied by Abramoff regarding 'HR3736, The Workforce program and S1723 American Competitiveness Act (sic), all provisions relating to the H-1B visa program'. William Jarrell, representative DeLay's Deputy Chief of Staff was lobbied. Non-partisan site Public Integrity provides documentation of the $46.02M that M$ Corporation has spent on lobbying between 1998 and 2004. Add the $15,420,453 in campaign donations at Open Secrets since about 1998. In exchange for these funds, M$ has been able to save billions annually. H-1B Info shows over 4,327 H-1Bs directly employed by M$ between 2001 and 2003. (Many more are hired via contractors such as Tata, Infosys, Satyam, etc.) Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) attempted to push through a version of his S2611 in the last days of the lame duck session of the 109th Congress. The House counterpart was HR5744. S2611 could caused the largest (and open-ended) expansion of the H-1B visa program in its 16 year history. This 'under the radar' action is extremely controversial! Lobbyist (and convict) Jack Abramoff's role in the destruction of the American science and engineering enterprise is under-appreciated."
2007-01-07
2007-01-07
_KXLY Miami_/_AP_
Security increased at Miami port AFTER 3 Middle-Eastern men were taken into custody
Conservative Voice
"Security has been increased at the Port of Miami, where 3 Middle Eastern men were caught trying to slip past a checkpoint today in a cargo truck. Two of the men are from Iraq, and the other is from Lebanon. They are legal permanent residents of the US, and authorities say they don't show up on any terrorist watch list. One of the men was the driver of the truck. Police say a port security officer became suspicious when the driver couldn't produce the proper paper-work. He also indicated he was alone. But police say they searched the truck and found the other two men in the cab, trying to conceal themselves... Authorities say an initial check of the truck found that its contents don't match what was listed on its manifest."
2007-01-07
_Courier News_
Illegal aliens go under-reported
"This letter cited various recent local episodes, including the fatal accident at the Kimball Street railroad crossing in Elgin and the fatal stabbing on the Grand Victoria riverboat parking deck. Her point was that taxpayers are obligated to pay the medical costs for illegals, as well as education, social services, and other costs. When arrested, she says, the public should be informed if they are legal residents. The answer is that police do not identify every person they arrest as a legal or illegal resident of this country. Police reports usually do not provide that information to us, and of course we have no way of knowing the status of every person arrested. Additionally, courts have held that it is not lawful in many cases for government officials to even request such information. Schools, for example, cannot ask those who apply for free or reduced lunch whether they are legal residents. Likewise, when illegal immigrants enroll in school, they might not be entitled to a free public education, but the courts do not allow schools to pursue that. Hospitals cannot ask people in emergency rooms if they are legal residents before treatment. The list goes on. The inability to identify illegal aliens makes it nearly impossible to enforce any immigration laws. Couple that with the unwillingness of federal agencies to initiate meaningful action when these illegals are identified and the futility of it all becomes apparent. In a related matter, another person called to chastise us for not making the residency status of the driver in the Dec. 8 van-train crash the main focus of our follow-up story, which detailed the charges filed against her. We agree that whether the driver was a legal resident of this country is pertinent to the story, but we disagree that it is or should be the central theme. The same goes for the legal status of the 3 dead and 4 injured passengers in whom you are so interested."
2007-01-07
Jayme Evans _WEB Commentary_
I'd like to give you a swift kick...
2007-01-07
Michael Kinsman _Jamaica Observer_
Businesses should help train today's and tomorrow's workers
Law Crossing
"Several months ago, I reviewed the job posting for an entry-level position at the newspaper where I work. The job was for a newsroom support person, who would assist editors and reporters and sometimes do minor writing jobs. There is no heavy lifting in this job. But upon reviewing the job requirements, I am embarrassed to say I would not be considered a viable candidate today for that job. Still, I certainly could do the job, and did when I first started in the newspaper business. And, I certainly am capable of handling a job more demanding than that position right now. But I would not be hired today. That thought lingers with me, and I must admit that it bothers me to a degree. I have come to realise that sometimes employers sabotage their hiring flexibility by becoming too rigid in the list of requirements they demand of job candidates. If you stand in the middle of the street today, you can hear employers on one side who claim they cannot find 'qualified' workers. On the other side of the street, you can hear job seekers complaining that they cannot find work even though they have been diligently looking for months... Although it is certainly not the only goal of our educational institutions, helping prepare young people for the work is an important role for schools and universities. And, the basic education they provided was fine for people through the 1960s. Then, an individual could graduate from high school and go out and land at least a middle-class job. And, to fill jobs that required advanced training or special expertise, companies often helped individuals gain that training... [Now, firms are turning up their noses at people who have been to college and even people with work experience, claiming they're 'unqualified' because they haven't got years of experience in some specific variant or brand-name tool.] A simple solution is for employers to lower their hiring standards and step up to the plate to provide more training for the individuals they need to fill highly specific skilled jobs."
2007-01-07 09:22PST (12:22EST) (17:22GMT)
John Lillpop _Conservative Voice_
US border with Mexico attacked, National Guard backed off under fire: Where is Bush?
"Meanwhile here at home, the National Guard stationed at the Arizona border was attacked, presumably by Mexican thugs. IOW, U.S. personnel have been attacked on American soil by foreigners. No doubt they were good hearted, hard working foreigners who only came for a better life!... It is reported that in 2004, the Bush administration and Mexico entered into an agreement, not yet approved by Congress or signed by the president, that would results in billions of dollars being paid to illegal aliens in the form of [socialist insecurity] benefits. That would be the same social security system that is in danger of going bankrupt..."
2007-01-07
_Aspen Times_
On readers' comments on illegal aliens
"At the same time that we have lost over 3K soldiers fighting terrorism around the world, 19710 American citizens have been killed by illegal aliens..."
2007-01-07 12:58PST (15:58EST) (20:58GMT)
Jim Kouri _Conservative Voice_
The big lie about immigration enforcement
"The Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement dierctorate recently authorized 16 additional Alabama state troopers to enforce federal immigration law, following their completion of ICE training at the Center for Domestic Preparedness in Anniston, AL. A Florida deputy sheriff was also authorized to enforce federal immigration law after participating in the same class. That graduating class boosted the number of Alabama troopers trained and certified to a total of 60. The Immigration and Nationality Act includes section 287(g), added in 1996, that grants local and state jurisdictions the ability to enforce immigration law with proper training and supervision by federal authorities. In 2003, Alabama became the second state in the nation to participate in the program by signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Department of Homeland Security. Florida was the first state to participate, in 2002."
2007-01-07
Seth Freedland _Hampton Roads Daily Press_
Williamsburg city council wrangling over how to dodge protections for J-1 guest-workers
2007-01-07
Steve Huygens _Sioux City Journal_
GESTAPO
"I've got it: Governmental Evidence, Surveillance Tracking and Personnal Observation System. That should be the name of the camera system RedFlex is putting in for the cities who sign up with them. Whataya think? A little GESTAPO never hurt anyone."
2007-01-07
Judy Wells _Pasadena Star News_
Fed up with holes in borders
Whittier Daily News
"When Eisenhower was elected president, he was very upset with the fact that illegal aliens were taking jobs away from citizens of this country and destroying their wages. He sent border enforcement to farms in California and arrested the illegal aliens of several farms or dairies. In the following months, when the illegal aliens knew they would be next on the list, they deported themselves. That is a fact. It is inconceivable to my friends and family that our elected officials do not care if the illegal aliens are stealing the identification of citizens of this country and are keeping the citizens of this country from gaining employment! We do not want and should not have to work next to someone who does not speak English, and then they get together with their cousins/friends and run the citizens out of the work-place. My sister and nephew worked in a meat packing plant near Council Bluffs, Iowa, in the 1980s. They did hard work. When the union said they were going out on strike, they went. The company shut down the plant, moved to another city and started hiring illegal aliens. We are fed up with our elected officials. Immigration and Customs Enforcement needs to arrest more employers and shouldn't let them have business licenses ever again. They also need to pay heavy fines and serve prison time."
2007-01-07
Jonathan T. Rothwell _Princeton 14 Points_
Racism & IQ: Recalling the Political Genealogy of Genetic Fundamentalists
2007-01-08
2007-01-08
Norman S. Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring e-News-Letter_
Robert Reich interview
"In an interview last month, enclosed below, Reich at least avoids using the term 'fat and lazy', but the message isn't any better. His basic theme, of course, is retraining. I say 'of course' because this is a favorite of the Democrats, especially the labor-oriented ones. I'm a life-long Democrat myself, and maybe retraining is just the ticket for laid-off steel workers, but it sure isn't a solution for IT people. Just what is it that Reich thinks programmers who are displaced by the H-1B program and offshoring can retrain for? If he means simply to update their skills in their present field, say learning a new programming language (and his comments seem to indicate this), then he's way off the mark. Employers don't want the older (> 35 years old) programmers because they are too expensive. After taking a retraining course, they're just as expensive as they were before -- especially compared to the H-1Bs and off-shore workers. Maybe Reich feels they should leave the field, say go into nursing? Fine, but if so, why go into IT in the first place? It's especially odd to see Reich dismiss the lower number of IT jobs in the last 5 years or so as simply a dip in the business cycle. Different analysts may disagree about the degree of off-shoring occurring today, but they all agree that it is not cyclical -- it's an upward trend. Moreover, Reich misses the mark badly again when he says, 'But every time the business cycle turns up again, IT professionals are once again employed and they get good jobs.' No, Dr. Reich, this is not like the auto workers, who would get rehired by the industry when business picked up again. In IT, once you're not working in the field for say, a year, employers don't want you anymore, even if they need to hire people. You're viewed as out of date, hopelessly so. Reich also uses language disturbingly like that of the industry lobbyists, such as 'the increasing mythology among college students that IT is a risky profession'. How can it be a myth? Reich himself said that employment in the field has its ups and downs? So who can blame young people for seeking a more stable profession?"
Allan E. Alter interview of Robert Reich CIO Insight
2007-01-08
_Corruption Chronicles_
Criminal illegal aliens repeatedly released
CBS
"Many of the states and municipalities that annually receive millions of federal dollars to deal with criminal illegal aliens violate the law by releasing repeat offenders -- up to 6 times -- and refusing to document immigration status because they are self-described sanctuaries... In numerous cases, county and city law enforcement agencies released offenders with existing criminal histories -- including serious weapons and drug charges -- who had been previously arrested without notifying the Department of Homeland Security to begin deportation proceedings. Among the more scandalous revelations in the [DoJ Inspector General's] audit's 109-page report are the 2 self-described immigrant sanctuaries that received a combined $4.5M in federal funds to specifically deal with criminal illegal aliens. Oregon got $3.4M yet the entire state is a sanctuary that refuses to identify illegal aliens and seldom cooperates with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials. The famously liberal northern California city of San Francisco got $1.1M even though ICE agents crowned it the least cooperative."
2007-01-08
Charles Hurt _Washington Times_
Immigration debate gets religious as ad hoc coalition proposes compromise
Austin Statesman
2007-01-08 11:00PST (14:00EST) (19:00GMT)
Phyllis Schlafly _Conservative Voice_
We need compassion for our border guards
"President George W. Bush pardoned 16 criminals including 5 drug dealers at Christmastime, but so far has refused to pardon the two U.S. Border Patrol agents who were trying to defend Americans against drug smugglers. It makes us wonder which side the self-proclaimed 'compassionate' President is on. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean were guarding the Mexican border near El Paso on 2005 February 17 when they intercepted a van carrying 743 pounds of marijuana. For what happened next, they were convicted and sentenced under a statute that was designed to impose heavy punishment on criminal drug smugglers caught in the commission of a crime. The two agents are scheduled to start 11- and 12-year prison terms, respectively, on January 17, for the crime of putting one bullet in the buttocks of the admitted drug smuggler, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, and failing to report the discharge of their firearms. The non-fatal bullet didn't stop the smuggler from running to escape in a van waiting for him on the Mexican side of the border... The White House and the U.S. Department of Justice are stone-walling requests for a presidential pardon from 55 Members of Congress and U.S. citizens who have sent at least 160K petitions and 15K faxes. When the Bush Administration deigns to respond at all, the official line is that the Border Patrol agents got a fair trial... How did the prosecution go from an administrative violation for failing to report a firearm discharge, with the penalty of perhaps a 5-day suspension, to prosecution for intent to commit murder? After the trial, two jurors gave sworn statements that they had been pressured to render a guilty verdict and did not understand that a hung jury was possible."
2007-01-08
Chad Groening & Jim Brown _USA Religious News_
Lack of fortitude in enforcing immigration laws emboldens Mexico
Agape Press
WDC Media
2007-01-08
Bonnie Booth _AMA Medical News_
extreme age discrimination in medicine
"Nationwide, only 1% of the students who entered medical school [in 2000] were 36 or older, a number that holds steady today."
2007-01-08
Frosty Wooldridge _American Daily_
Bush escalates immigration crime wave
News By Us
"President George W. Bush, by violating his oath of office and by his disregard of Article IV, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution, escalates a crime wave on American citizens unprecedented in 231 years of our republic. Every day, in the United States, thousands of illegal aliens unleash a reign of terror on Americans. Illegal alien migrants murder us, rape our wives and daughters, kill us on our highways, commit identity theft, smuggle drugs, forge documents, steal our cars, spread diseases and create a new bench-mark of lawlessness in our country. Bush aids, abets and encourages illegal aliens to remain in our country by not enforcing our laws to deport them. In 2003, the Government Accountability Office reported 55,322 illegal aliens in federal prisons. Those criminals had been arrested 459,614 times, or eight times each. They committed 700K crimes, or 13 each. A third had been arrested 5 times each. If you're deported and return, it's a felony that sends you to prison. None of them were deported after their crimes—even after the eighth arrest... According to a report in The New American 2006 January 8, by Cort Kirkwood, 'Illegal aliens made up 27% of the federal prison population in 2003. Mexican felons composed 67% of that number. In excess of 267K illegal aliens were jailed in federal, state and local facilities.' They cost [tax-victims] $1.6G annually. In Los Angeles, California, 95% of outstanding warrants for murder named illegal aliens. Deborah Schurman Kauflin, head of the Violent Crimes Institute, reported sex offenders represent two percent of illegal aliens. With a minimum population of 12M illegal aliens, 240K sexual predators reside within the U.S. If the Bear-Stearns Report showing 20M illegals holds true, that's 400K illegal alien sexual fiends preying on our citizens. 'IOW, 93 sex offenders and 12 serial sex offenders cross our borders daily without interruption.', she said."
Nancy Pelosi
president
2007-01-08
James H. Walsh _News Max_
Immigration free-for-all is under way
"Failing to learn from its past mistakes, Congress is doomed to repeat the history of flawed U.S. immigration legislation set in motion by the Immigration & Naturalization Services Act of 1965 (INSA). That insidious law laid the foundation for the open-door free-for-all we under-write today. Subsequent immigration laws, especially Ronald Reagan's Immigration Reform & Control Act of 1986 (IRCA), have managed to push open that door ever wider... On 2007 January 4, a secret agreement between the United States of America and Estados Unidos Mexicanos was made public. The agreement, in the mill for several years, will reward Mexicans in the United States illegally with Social Security benefits that will cost U.S. [tax-victims] billions of dollars... The Democrats' 2007 immigration agenda features a 'pathway to citizenship', which is another name for amnesty for illegal aliens, based on last year's legislation passed by the then-Republican-controlled Senate but stalled by the more conservative Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
2007-01-08
_Family Security Matters_
Illegal aliens' impact on American jobs part 2
"The mainstream media report ad nauseam that illegal aliens are doing work that Americans won't but that is mostly because the compensation is artificially depressed and illegal aliens are the only ones who will do the work for such low wages. However, as noted in the Education report, it also probably has something to do with the very low education level of the vast majority of illegal aliens. In any case, illegal aliens are not just picking strawberries and cleaning toilets any more. It wasn't that long ago that being a dry-waller, brick-layer, house framer, painter, carpet layer, plumber, or electrician was a decently compensated, middle class trade. Now it is increasingly becoming the work for illegal aliens at far less than the free market rate. While illegal alien workers are only a small portion of many of those job categories their willingness to work at dramatically lower rates artificially drags down the compensation for all workers... In 2003 March the American Engineering Association reported that the US high tech sector lost 560K jobs between 2001 January and 2002 December. While this corresponded with the dot-com bust, it is worthwhile to note that during the same period companies sponsored more H-1B and other 'temporary' visas than the numbers of jobs lost. Obviously, there could not have been a shortage but employers simply wanted cheaper labor. In 2001 it was reported that 9 out of every 10 new job openingsfor computer/IT were taken by H-1Bs, and the INS issued 312K visas in 2002."
Alan Tonelson "Immigrants and wages" Washington Times
2007-01-08
_Washington Times_
Illegal-alien positioning system
2007-01-08
Chip McClean _Post Chronicle_
Bush falling through looking-glass
American Daily
2007-01-08
Bob Herbert _NY Times_
Working harder for the man
"Data recently compiled by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston offers a startling look at just how out of whack executive compensation has become... According to the center's director, Andrew Sum, the top 5 Wall Street firms (Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley) were expected to award an estimated $36G to $44G worth of bonuses to their 173K employees, an average of between $208K and $254K, 'with the bulk of the gains accruing to the top 1K or so highest-paid managers.'... Between 2000 and 2006, labor productivity in the nonfarm sector of the economy rose by an impressive 18 percent. But workers were not paid for that impressive effort. During that period, according to Mr. Sum, the inflation-adjusted weekly wages of workers increased by just 1%. That's $3.20 a week... There are 93M production and non-supervisory workers (exclusive of farm-workers) in the U.S.A. Their combined real annual earnings from 2000 to 2006 rose by $15.4G, which is less than half of the combined bonuses awarded by the 5 Wall Street firms for just 1 year."
Boston Globe
2007-01-08
_Hindustan Times_
Indian lobbied for nuclear deal
"Our numbers in the US too have risen, what with students, professionals, the H-1B visa holders coming in droves -- we are now 2.5M strong..."
2007-01-08
Rush Limbaugh
GOP doesn't have the will for immigration fight
2007-01-08
Kavan Peterson _StateLine_
Are you a citizen? Prove it.
"Going to the DMV never has been a walk in the park, but it's likely to get even more difficult as states across the country begin to comply with stringent federal identification rules required by the 2005 Real ID Act... One of the plaintiffs, 70-year-old LH, became homeless after he was robbed of his identification and money shortly after moving to Denver in 2006. He was denied a new ID when he could produce only his original California birth certificate and a photo-copy his driving record... 'In Colorado they've made it so hard to get an ID, it's truly a Catch-22 where citizens can't get an identity card unless they've already got one.', said Denver attorney Tim MacDonald, whose law firm is working pro bono on the case with the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless... 'When lines at the DMV are snaking around the block and the cost of a driver's license has doubled or tripled, the politicians holding the bag won't stay in office very long.', predicts Lee Tien, an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco consumer advocacy group that opposes national ID standards. It worries that large government data-bases of personal information are a threat to privacy and could expose consumers to identify theft and fraud."
2007-01-08 13:05PST (16:05EST) (21:05GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
US consumer credit increased by a seasonally adjusted $12.3G in November: Outstanding debt $2.39T
Federal Reserve Board statistical release
2007-01-08
| DJIA | 12,423.49 |
| S&P 500 | 1,412.84 |
| NASDAQ | 2,438.20 |
| 10-year US T-Bond | 4.66% |
| crude oil | 56.09 |
| gold | 609.40 |
| silver | 12.36 |
| platinum | 1,129.90 |
| palladium | 332.10 |
| copper | 0.158 |
| natgas | 6.378/MBTU |
| unleadedgasoline | NYMEX no longer trading |
| reformulatedgasoline | $1.4685/gal |
| heatingoil | $1.5571/gal |
I usually get this info from MarketWatch, which gets them from BigCharts.
2007-01-09
2007-01-09
Norman S. Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring e-News-Letter_
article in Employment Law 360
"The quote of me at the end is a condensation of what I said, and is misleading. My point (made earlier in the article) was that in most cases, employers use the skills issue as a pretext to avoid hiring the older programmers, but to have any chance at all, an older programmer needs to get on-the-job work experience (not training) by constantly asking his employer to assign him work using new language, OS, etc. At any rate, this is an interesting and useful article. It's the first time I've seen the difference in health benefits costs quantified, for instance. BTW, as some of you know, the Google suit is still alive, with the case being currently on appeal."
Quotes of NSM from the article: "Older workers cost more than younger workers, but in this field the problem is worse because the technology is constantly changing. Employers shove older workers out by using the excuse that their skills are out of date. It's a pretext, but it sounds good if litigation ever comes up."... "An employee has to keep up with one's job skills. One way this does not work is by taking courses. What does work is getting on-the-job training."
Erin Coe & Cat Fredenburgh _Employment Law 360_
Suit Takes Aim At Silicon Valley's Youth Culture
2007-01-09 02:09PST (05:09EST) (10:09GMT)
Steve Goldstein _MarketWatch_
Performance of Europe's 3 leading economies may be diverging
2007-01-09 06:50PST (09:50EST) (14:50GMT)
Jeffry Bartash & Matt Andrejczak _MarketWatch_
Sprint Nextel to cut 5K jobs
2007-01-09 08:04PST (11:04EST) (16:04GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
Federal government deficit fell $85G in FY2007Q1
2007-01-09 11:11PST (14:11EST) (19:11GMT)
William L. Watts _MarketWatch_
Dem congress-critters strive to make America lose the war
2007-01-09 12:01PST (15:01EST) (20:01GMT)
Rex Crum, Stacey Delo & Matt Andrejczak _MarketWatch_
Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced iPhone
"iPhone, its new touch-screen mobile phone that will be able to play music, surf the Internet and take pictures, among other features... The phone, to be available in June, will use new 'multi-touch' technology, Jobs added, calling the phone the 'ultimate digital device'. It will have a 3.5-inch diagonal screen and be 11.6mm thick. Apple's iPod technology is built into the phone. Among its features, Apple said that the phone will have a 2Mpixel camera, instant text-messaging capacity, iTunes sync and a visual voice-mail system, which will allow users to read a list of people who called."
2007-01-10
2007-01-10 04:00PST (07:00EST) (12:00GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
Mortgage applications up 16.6% last week from the week before
"The average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate loan fell from 6.22% the previous week to 6.13%, which was the highest rate seen in 8 weeks."
2006-01-10 05:47PST (08:47EST) (13:47GMT)
Greg Robb _MarketWatch_
US trade deficit reduced in November to $58.2G
BEA press release
2007-01-10 07:46PST (10:46EST) (15:46GMT)
Nick Obradovich _Yahoo!_/_Rooftop Publishing_
North American Union would erase US borders, replace US constitution, destroy Americans' standard of living
PR News Wire
"As the 110th Congress convenes, supporters of U.S. borders and sovereignty urge more Americans to join Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO), Virgil Goode (R-VA), Ron Paul (R-TX) and Walter Jones (R-NC) in fighting a little-known plan to create a North American Union. The scheme would combine the U.S. with Mexico and Canada into a single political and economic system modeled after the European Union. The merger would erase U.S. borders and sovereignty and allow for the free movement of people, products, and capital between the regions by 2010. It would allow unelected bureaucrats and corporate internationalists to 'harmonize' U.S. laws with corrupt Mexico and socialist Canada, according to Daniel Sheehy, author of _Fighting Immigration Anarchy: American Patriots Battle to Save the Nation_. In 2006 September, the 4 congressmen introduced a resolution opposing the merger and the construction of the NAFTA Superhighway system that would connect the 3 countries. The massive corridors would result in the loss of countless acres of private land and more terrorists, criminals and drugs entering the U.S., Sheehy said."
2007-01-10
Mike Johanns _USDA_
Productivity
"U.S. agriculture, ladies and gentlemen, as a whole achieved a record-breaking $68.7G in exports in Fiscal Year 2006 and should reach $77G this fiscal year. I think in the 6 years that this President has been in office we've set a record 3 out of those 6 years. This is equivalent to one-quarter of our cash receipts. Trade is vital to our agricultural industry. Our productivity is increasing by about 2% a year on average, but the population is growing and consumption is growing at about half that rate. Chart that out over 10 years and you begin to see the dramatic imbalance between production and consumption in the United States. As the world's second-largest cotton producer, the United States achieved a record $4.7G in exports last year. We expect that number is going to grow this year. We expect that it should be about a $5G year in exports. And to keep reaching new customers around the world and have a role in that growth, USDA is announcing that we are granting $12.7M this fiscal year to the Cotton Council International under our Market Access Program, a program that really makes a difference. I am also very pleased to announce that 67 U.S. trade organizations are going to receive a total of $100M in Fiscal Year 2007 to promote U.S. agricultural products over-seas. If I'm not mistaken in looking at the list, though, I think cotton is the largest recipient. This is the kind of support that helps our farmers and ranchers to compete in the market-place. This is the kind of support that I believe just is really sound farm policy. While we export close to 80% of our cotton production, our own share of world consumption has dropped to about 5%. That would be the lowest since the 1800s. Developing countries are increasingly driving world textile production and trade... 50% of our rice goes into the international market-place... about one-third of our row crops go into the international market-place... 15% of the largest farms in America do receive 54% of all farm program payments... 60% of U.S. producers really are pretty well left out of farm programs because they don't raise the program crops that are traditional to farm bills leading back to the Depression... per capital cotton consumption has jumped by over 27% since 1985 -- 27%."
2007-10-10 08:57PST (11:57EST) (16:57GMT)
Y.P. Rajesh _Yahoo!_/_Reuters_
India could dump US nuclear deal
"'Can we walk away from this deal if it does not correspond to our national interest? Obviously we have to walk away from this and we will walk away from it.' President George W. Bush last month signed into law a bill approved by Congress allowing the deal to go through, a major step toward letting India buy U.S. nuclear reactors and fuel for the first time in 30 years. But Congress attached several conditions to the law which have not gone down well with New Delhi, and the two countries have returned to negotiations. Under the bill, the U.S. president would be required to end the export of nuclear materials if India tests another nuclear device. It tested one in 1998. It also does not guarantee uninterrupted fuel supplies for reactors and prevents India from reprocessing spent fuel. Saran said these conditions were not acceptable to India and this had been conveyed to the U.S.A... The deal has also been unpopular with the U.S. non-proliferation lobby which says Washington is undermining efforts to curb the spread of nuclear arms. India has not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty."
2007-01-10
Kevin O'Horan _Lakeland Ledger_
DNA search firms help clients discover missing pieces of past
"men and women today are reconnecting with their forebears not in stories passed down from generation to generation, nor with the paper trail of birth certificates and marriage licenses and death records and such -- but through science. Genetic testing, to be precise... Most human cells contain 23 pairs of chromosomes in their core - or, nucleus. Each chromosome contains genes that determine everything from height to hair color to health, with one pair of chromosomes responsible for determining sex. Here's where it gets a little tricky: Cells reproduce in a couple of ways, one that copies the chromosomes and sends just half a set to egg or sperm cells, and the other that makes a whole, though somewhat-jumbled, copy for a completely new cell. Don't sweat the details. What's important is that when cells split the first way, with half the genetic set, labs can track and analyze the Y chromosome, the sex-determining chromosome that is passed down from father to son alone... [A] mitochondrial DNA test... looks at genetic material passed down only from mother to daughter... A match of DNA, he explains, confirms an ancestor, but it doesn't necessarily mean a direct link... She had DNAPrint Genomics of Sarasota look at her DNA to find information in the mix of genes she has received from her father and mother, as well as their fathers and mothers, and so on for generations. Random recombination... It happens when a cell splits to produce two new cells, when chromosomes swap little snippets of genetic material before the split. In those little snippets, scientists have discovered distinct patterns of how and where a tiny set lines up on chromosomes. But there's a tiny set of genetic information that remains relatively consistent, and relatively different, for 4 predominant population groups around the globe: Indo-Europeans, sub-Saharan Africans, East Asians and Native Americans. By comparing a DNA sample against a vast database of patterns known for those four groups, DNAPrint can break down a person's ancestry by contribution from those various population groups. For T, the company looked at 176 genetic markers -- out of the 3.3G found in human DNA -- and found her roots to be 75% Indo-European, along with 12% East Asian, 8% sub-Saharan African and 5% Native American... T has ponied up for an expansion of her first test and will have the company look at another 150 or so markers that bring a little more focus to the European findings."
2007-01-10
Leah Beth Ward _Yakima Herald Republic_
Washington Department of Labor and Industries drops proposed regulation of body shops under pressure from corrupt agriculture groups
"But the Department of Labor and Industries is still asking the 2007 Legislature to fund two new staff positions for administration and enforcement of existing farm-labor contractor rules. The Washington Farm Bureau, Washington State Horticultural Association and Washington Growers League opposed the tougher requirements, saying they were unfair and would hinder growers' ability to hire workers... The proposal grew out of the state's problems with a Los Angeles-based company that recruited Thai workers to the Yakima Valley in 2004 and 2005... The draft legislation would have required contractors to post a repatriation bond to cover room and board for foreign guest-workers waiting for their return trip home at the end of a season, as well as their travel expenses. Fees that contractors could charge workers also would have been capped... Officials came up with the proposal because they felt at a disadvantage in dealing with Global Horizons of Los Angeles, which brought about 260 workers from Thailand to the Yakima Valley in 2004 and 2005. L&I revoked the company's farm- labor contracting license in 2005, saying it failed to correct labor and insurance-law violations in a timely manner. One of the violations was a failure to fully reimburse workers' travel expenses back to Thailand..."
2007-01-10
_PR News Wire_
Small Business Legislative Council revealed its agenda
"We believe that it is important for any immigration reform proposal to include [an additional] guest-worker provision, a path to citizenship [i.e. amnesty for illegal aliens in the USA], and increased border security... between 2004 and 2005 the number of uninsured increased by 1.3M to 46.6M, while spending on health care rose 7.9%... Small businesses cannot afford to return to the draconian level of estate taxes prior to the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Act of 2001... there should be adjustments made to the Research and Development Tax Credit... we encourage the implementation of a simple flat credit. The credit should be limited to companies with 500 or fewer employees or an asset size of less than $50M."
2007-01-10
Elliot Spagat _Chicago Sun-Times_
Wealthy Mexicans, fleeing kidnappings & violence, follow millions of illegal aliens north
"The city has nearly doubled to 230K people since 1990 as new housing tracts have sprung up on the plains and rolling hills beyond Chula Vista's aging downtown. The well-to-do newcomers cross the border legally, using green cards, investor visas or temporary permits for shopping trips or other short visits. Kidnappings-for-ransom in the last year or two appear to have fueled the northward push."
2007-01-10
Tom Curry _M$NBC_
Illegal alien invasion puts downward pressure on pay and job opportunities
"In its assessment last May of the Senate immigration bill, which would have created a new guest-worker program and allowed thousands of illegal immigrants living in the United States to become legal residents, the Congressional Budget Office said it was likely that the addition of additional immigrants 'would slow the growth of the wages of workers already present in the United States with whom they most closely compete'... Lofgren, like Hoyer, is something of an agnostic on the question of whether illegal immigrants undermine native-born workers' wages... For employers, the cost of workers is not only the wages that must be paid to them, but other costs such as health insurance, paid sick days, and workers' compensation insurance in case of injury on the job. In each case, unscrupulous employers can use illegal immigrants to escape and minimize all these costs... Lofgren said, 'To the extent that some economists worry that the under-ground economy impacts adversely American workers, it's important that workers who are here temporarily not be [abused]. Because that's not only unfair to them, it's not fair to Americans. So a comprehensive immigration approach is important to American workers, but so is the minimum wage.'... For most Democrats the phrase 'comprehensive immigration reform' means deterring illegal [aliens] and those who hire them, but also legalizing the illegal [aliens] who are already living in the United States [which would attract rather than deter illegal aliens]... 'The hardest issue still is going to be how to deal with the [12M to 24M] (illegal [aliens] living in the United States).', Cornyn said. 'My position is we don't repeat the mistake we made in 1986, where we traded an amnesty for enforcement and we got an amnesty and no enforcement.'... If Congress enacts stringent border and work-site enforcement, then, he said, 'The American people would be far more generous about how we deal with the [12M to 24M illegal aliens].'"
2007-01-10
Bay Buchanan
New year, new congress, same old amnesty: Stop Martinez
"With a new year and a new congress comes a new attempt for amnesty. The usual suspects in the Senate -- John McCain and Ted Kennedy -- are planning on pushing through legislation in the spring with their friends Louis Gutierrez and Jeff Flake in the House. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said 'comprehensive immigration reform' will be among the first 10 bills he introduces, and Democratic Majority leader Steny Hoyer says that President Bush will have an 'easier time' getting amnesty with the Democrats than with his own party. I guess the Democrats only want to control Congress for one term! The open borders folks are hoping to sneak the legislation past without anyone noticing, and this is where you come in. As soon as an amnesty gets introduced, I will let you know, and we will not let up until we stop them. With Democrats embracing open borders, you would think the Republicans would take this as an opportunity to seize up on a popular issue, but the leaders are doing just the opposite. As I told you earlier, Mel Martinez has been nominated as chairman of the Republican National Committee chair. They will be voting on him next week. Martinez has a terrible record on securing our borders and was one of the sponsors of the Senate Amnesty last year. The leaders of the state parties will vote on his nomination on January 20th. [If you're a contributor to the Repucrat half of the Repucrat/Demoblican party, go] to http://www.gop.com/States/ and click on your state to contact your party and tell them that they should not be putting a pro-amnesty politician in charge of the party if they want your support. If you get any junk mail from the GOP asking for your money, tell them they won't get a dime until they get serious about securing their borders."
2007-01-10
Rob Sanchez _Job Destruction News-Letter_
Recent Duke U study
"The press never questions whether this study is scientifically valid because it confirms their preconceived notions that our high-tech industries cannot survive without the better educated geniuses from foreign countries. The most important thing to notice when looking at the 'study' is that it's merely a telephone survey that was made by calling corporate PR and HR departments. It says so right up front, but of course reporters probably never get past the introductory pages with the glossy pictures. Does this methodology sound like science to you? (page 8) Our research team then made thousands of unsolicited phone calls to these companies. We asked whether one or more immigrant key founders had established the company and if so, what their nationality was. This became the source of the data presented in this report. If all of this sounds fishy to you just wait, it gets worse! There is an abundance of hyperbole about the brilliant entrepreneurs from India, [Red China], and Taiwan that should make you suspicious -- unless of course you are a journalist for the Mercury News or Washington Post!... Now let's look at a list of students at at Duke who did the telephone survey... Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian: Hometown: Mumbai, India; Pradeep Kamsali Hometown: Hyderabad, India; Nishanth Lingamneni Hometown: Hyderabad, India; Chris Morecroft Hometown: Georgetown, KY, USA; Niyanthi Reddy Hometown: Hyderabad, India; George Robinson; Batul Tambawalla Hometown: Bombay, India; Mark Weaver; Zhenyu Yang Hometown: ChongQing, [Red China]. OBVIOUS CONCLUSION: Based on who did the telephone survey, the only real surprise is that they didn't conclude that Indians are responsible for every technological innovation in the history of mankind. Instead they made a more modest claim by giving [Red China] the #2 spot, perhaps to appease Zhenyu Yang. If we are to consider all of the bias in the study, let's not overlook the fact that Vivek Wadhwa and AnnaLee Saxenian were the [brains] behind this sham. Wadhwa is one of the often quoted gurus of out-sourcing and Saxenian is the queen of sham studies on out-sourcing and H-1B. You can read more about the shenanigans of these 2 by searching the news-letter archive."
Duke study (pdf)
related article
2007-01-10
John Stossel _Jewish World Review_
Bush and Dems sticking it to low-skilled workers
2007-01-10 (5767 Teves/Tebet 20)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
The new "Yellow Peril"
2007-01-11
2007-01-11
Norman S. Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring e-News-Letter_
A case study of under-payment of H-1Bs
"I've always stressed the point that the under-payment of H-1Bs is in most cases fully legal. The law is so full of loop-holes that an employer looking for cheap foreign labor has no need to violate the law; he can under-pay H-1Bs yet be in full compliance with the law. Recall that even an industry-friendly 2003 GAO report (unwittingly) pointed to the loop-holes when discussing the employer survey the GAO had conducted: 'Some employers said that they hired H-1B workers in part because these workers would often accept lower salaries than similarly 'qualified' U.S. workers; however, these employers said they never paid H-1B workers less than the required wage.' Again, interesting as it may be that some employers actually admitted to the GAO that they were under-paying their H-1Bs (you can imagine how many decided NOT to share such information with the GAO), that is NOT my point here. Instead, my focus is on that last statement by the GAO, 'however, these employers said they never paid H-1B workers less than the required wage.' IOW, the prevailing wage as defined in the law and regs is so broad that it is easy to pay an H-1B below-market wages yet be in full compliance with the law. All this was illustrated a few years ago in an outstanding case study by John Miano of the Programmers Guild, presented on a Web page titled, How to Under-pay H-1B Workers. In my posting here, I will present another interesting case study, with information kindly provided to me by Vivek Wadhwa, CEO of Relativity Technologies at the time I'll be speaking of, and consented to my discussing it here. (He gave further information, including the names of the 2 programmers discussed below, but wishes to not have the names released publicly.) Vivek is now an academic (among other things), with an adjunct appointment at Duke University. You may recall that I have found a couple of Vivek's studies to be refreshingly 'out of the box' thinking, but that I was quite disappointed in the study he released last week. You may also recall that I pointed out that a check of the Dept. of Labor's H-1B Web page shows that Vivek's firm hired an H-1B Software Engineer for $44,144, and a Computer Programmer for $31,933. Note that even new graduates in computer science get around $50K, so these are very low by any standard. Vivek is not a rabid defender of the H-1B program, and readily agrees that many employers abuse it. However, he believes that his hiring of the 2 H-1B programmers was justified on the grounds that they are brilliant people. I too have always supported bringing in 'the best and the brightest' from around the world. Most H-1Bs are not in that category (see my Michigan Journal of Law Reform article on this point (pdf)), but if Vivek says those 2 H-1Bs fall into that category, that's good enough for me. There is, however, the issue of how much to pay them. The one making $44K had a Master's degree and had been working part-time for Vivek in Russia for the previous 3 years. Moreover, at the time Vivek hired this worker, the guy had been working for a Russian government joint venture company in Russia, developing telephone and networking systems, which is sophisticated work. And yet as an H-1B he was being paid less than a Bachelor's graduate with no experience. The reader's reaction to all this is probably, 'Well, THAT must be illegal. The salary Wadhwa paid this H-1B didn't take into account the worker's Master's degree and his work experience.' But that is a perfect example of the myriad loop-holes in the law. The key point is t
