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"'4 great beasts... from the sea, diverse one from another' who ruled the earth until that kingdom was finally recaptured by 'one like the Son of man' who would rule on for eternity.   Daniel 7:3,13 in Daniel, according to plaintiff's interpretation, the beasts are explicitly political powers who prevail for a time against the forces of God.   Daniel 7:24-27.   The 'Son of man' who will ultimately conquer these forces is, according to plaintiff's contention, the predicted Messiah of the Jews...   The original model for the Antichrist, Antioches Epiphanes, was king of Syria from 175 to 163 BC...   [Antichrist] has always [meant] the threat & destruction to human liberty & life." --- judge Weinstein 1977-03-03 in Stevens v Berger 428 FS 896 @903

 
 

2007 April

U	M	T	W	R	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30

 
 

"In the 2nd article, it is declared, that a well regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free state; a proposition from which few will dissent.   Although in actual war, the services of regular troops are confessedly more valuable; yet, while peace prevails, & in the commencement of a war before a regular force can be raised, the militia form the palladium of the country.   They are ready to repel invasion, to suppress insurrection, & preserve the good order & peace of gov't.   That they should be well regulated, is judiciously added.   A disorderly militia is disgraceful to itself, & dangerous not to the enemy, but to its own country.   The duty of the state gov't is, to adopt such regulations as will tend to make good soldiers with the least interruption of the ordinary & useful occupation of civil life.   In this all the Union has a strong & visible interest.   The corollary, from the 1st position, is, that the right of the people to keep & bear arms shall not be infringed.   The prohibition is general.   No clause in the Constitution could by any rule of construction be conceived to give to congress a power to disarm the people.   Such a flagitious attempt could only be made under some general pretense by a state legislature.   But if in any blind pursuit of inordinate power, either should attempt it, this amendment may be appealed to as a restraint on both...   This right ought not, however, in any gov't, to be abused to the disturbance of the peace.   An assemblage of persons with arms, for an unlawful purpose, is an indictable offence, & even the carrying of arms abroad by a single individual, attended with circumstances giving just reason to fear that he purposes to make an unlawful use of them, would be sufficient cause to require him to give surety of the peace.   If he refused he would be liable to imprisonment." --- William Rawle 1829 2nd ed. _A View of the Constitution_ pp 125-126 (quoted in Clayton E. Cramer 1994 _For the Defense of Themselves & the State_ pp 69-70)

 
 
 

My 4*great uncle's (captain William Scott's) flag for the Republic of Texas.

2007-04-01

2007-04-01
Dino Perrotti _Computer World_
Round 6 of the H-1B battle: Who are the worst April Fools?

2007-04-01
Tom Abate & Ralph Hermansson _San Francisco Chronicle_
Tech firms scramble for cheap-labor visas

2007-04-01
Jonathan Gaw _Minneapolis Star Tribune_
By the numbers

2007-04-01 11:00PDT (14:00EDT) (18:00GMT)
_On Milwaukee_
Wisconsin AG J.B. van Hollen proposes medical testing of illegal aliens
"Van Hollen's idea? Beginning July 1, the [Medical College of Wisconsin] and other research facilities will begin performing medical tests on illegal immigrants.   'The key word in ''illegal immigrant'' is ''illegal''.', Van Hollen said.   'I have tremendous respect for the immigrant community, but I also have respect for the law.   By coming here to pick crops and clean hotel rooms for low wages, these people are breaking the law and they should be punished...' "

2007-04-01 14:08:17PDT (17:08:17EDT) (21:08:17GMT)
Diane Stafford _Silicon Valley_
Candidate/job matching process has been broken
"Instead of reading your re`sume`, an employer may ask you to fill out an online form or take an online test that measures how well you fit the job, based on responses from successful workers.   Mountain View-based Google, for example, uses a screening program to measure applicants' attitudes, behaviors, personality and biographical details.   Answers are scrunched in a formula that creates a score, indicating how well the candidate is likely to fare on the job.   'It's getting harder to sell yourself for a job you think you're qualified for.', said SM, a 48-year-old job hunter from Lenexa, KS, who's been surprised at all the electronic hoops he's had to jump through before nabbing interviews.   In most cases, he said, 'You're just able to post on-line.'...   Some employers don't even want [resumes] in digitized format.   They prefer customized online forms, tailor-made to cull the applicant field.   Some human-resources gurus suggest the personal interview could be next on the endangered-species list."

2007-04-01
Terri Ferguson _Greenville Delta Democrat Times_
Bennie Thompson blasts companies that hire illegal aliens
"U.S. representative Bennie Thompson, D-MS, chairman of Homeland Security, was in Greenville Friday and was asked about the arrests of 76 alleged illegal immigrants, including 35 who had been working with companies contracted to build the new U.S. 82 Greenville Bridge.   'They could be from anywhere.', Thompson said.   'It's unfortunate that a contractor would use illegal labor when we have so many people in this area who need and want to work.'   Thompson said invariably these cases bring to light the low wages being paid to illegal immigrants and, in this instance, a company is being charged with falsifying [Socialist Insecurity] numbers as well as immigration forms."

2007-04-01
Barbara Vickroy _Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star_
California shows effects of illegal alien invasion
"Our immigration-driven population grew by 4M in the past decade, and at current rates will increase by 6M at the next census.   In spite of that population increase, more than 80 emergency rooms closed because of non-paying patients.   California's prisons are bursting at the seams, with the nation's highest recidivism rate.   We have the highest teen-birth and school drop-out rates.   Of our 6.5M students, 2.5M are in Limited English Proficient classes (California has one third of the nation's total LEP students).   Even though we passed a citizen initiative making English the state's language, our out-of-control legislators have held debates in the capitol in Spanish.   The FBI estimates that half of the more than 100K gangsters in Los Angeles County are deportable illegal aliens who out-gun the police."

2007-04-01
Howard Goodman _Know Gangs_
Gangs braced by illegal aliens
Florida Sun-Sentinel
"South Florida's population includes a large -- seemingly growing -- number of young people from impoverished backgrounds who don't have the skills to succeed in school.   If you can't read by the third grade, she said, the chances are good you will drop out of school as a teenager.   For many such kids, the street is the logical next step.   In fact, education is so important that we use third-grade reading scores to predict the future prison population...   Some of the most violent gangs operating in our area define themselves along national lines.   Top 6, whose members were targeted in Tuesday's blood-bath in Lake Worth, is largely Haitian.   MS-13, a mega-gang with a lot of subgroups, began in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador before spreading to Los Angeles, then to Fairfax, VA, and on to Florida.   In the past couple of years, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested more than 4K violent gang members nationwide. They're prosecuted, deported or both.   Last year, state senator Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, got money for the Department of Juvenile Justice to track, for the first time, the citizenship status of juveniles convicted of serious crimes."

2007-04-01
Norman Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring e-News-Letter_
Re: long SF Chroncile article on H-1B by Tom Abate
"Yes, as professor Hira has shown, H-1B is indeed used as a vehicle to facilitate off-shoring.   However, although this is definitely important, it is a secondary usage of the visa.   The primary usage is to import cheap labor to work here, so the above passage is somewhat misleading from my point of view...   Professor Hira's work consists of a lot more than simply looking at per-country H-1B counts and hearing anecdotes from American workers.   He has done a thorough academic study of the use of H-1B (and the L-1 work visa as well) to facilitate off-shoring.   See R. Hira 'U.S. Immigration Regulations and India's Information Technology Industry' _Technological Forecasting & Social Change_ 2004.   BTW, the congressionally commissioned National Research Council study, which included interviews with employers, found the same thing.   (National Research Council _Building a Work-force for the Information Economy_ National Academies Press, 2001, p.185.)...   The reader -- and much more importantly, the member of Congress -- is supposed to make the inference that there is 'something wrong' with Americans for not pursuing graduate study.   But the truth is very different...   most of the H-1Bs don't have graduate degrees.   But concerning the cited statistic, what the lobbyist isn't telling you is that this high percentage of foreign graduate students was a PLANNED GOAL OF THE H-1B PROGRAM.   The governmental National Science Foundation, in pushing Congress to establish the H-1B program back in 1989, explicitly stated that PhD salaries in science and engineering were too high, and advocated bringing in foreign students to hold down wages.   It also stated that a consequence of this would be that Americans would not find PhD study financially attractive and thus would not pursue it.   The NSF stated
A growing influx of foreign PhDs into U.S. labor markets will hold down the level of PhD salaries to the extent that foreign students are attracted to U.S. doctoral programs as a way of immigrating to the U.S.A.   A related point is that for this group the PhD salary premium is much higher [than it is for Americans], because it is based on BS-level pay in students' home nations versus PhD-level pay in the U.S.A...   [If] doctoral studies are failing to appeal to a large (or growing) percentage of the best citizen baccalaureates, then a key issue is pay...   A number of [the Americans] will select alternative career paths...   For these baccalaureates, the effective premium for acquiring a PhD may actually be negative.
And it worked just like the NSF wanted.   The H-1B program was enacted by Congress in 1990 and implemented in 1991.   Consider this: Since 1996, starting salaries for new PhDs in computer science have gone up about 30%.   Meanwhile, starting salaries for new law school graduates have gone up 100%...   Again, this was a planned consequence of H-1B.   Recently the industry has been asking for another work visa aimed at foreign graduates of U.S. universities.   (It was called F-4 when proposed in the last Congress, but in the new [Flake-Gutierrez] Act introduced last week in Congress, it has a different name.)   Given that H-1B itself was used to make graduate [work] unattractive to Americans, creating a visa specially for foreign students would be absolutely unconscionable.   I wonder how many members of Congress know that suppression of wages was one of the original goals of H-1B.   For that matter, how many know that former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan just last month stated the same thing (and he said it more generally, not just for PhDs).   Bloomberg News reported on March 14:
Allowing more skilled workers into the country would bring down the salaries of top earners in the United States, easing tensions over the mounting wage gap, Greenspan said.   'Our skilled wages are higher than anywhere in the world.', he said.   'If we open up a significant window for skilled workers, that would suppress the skilled-wage level and end the concentration of income.'..."
The quota was not fully used at its peak, but it is definitely true that H-1B usage increased AFTER the dot-com bust.   In 2001, 163K H-1B visas were issued, a big increase from the year before.   See the very appropriately titled article 'Industry Down-Turn Hasn't Killed Tech's Big Appetite for Top Talent' _Los Angeles Times_ 2001 December 9...   the dirty little secret about H-1B is that it is used to avoid hiring older (age 40+) U.S. citizens and permanent residents.   When the employers run out of young Americans to hire, they hire young H-1Bs (in addition to the many employers who don't even hire the young Americans).   Ironically, because the H-1B cap was reached so quickly this year, the market for American programmers is not too bad -- if they're young.   But once Congress ups the cap this year, even many of the young ones will suddenly run into brick walls.   Let's look at... Meebo.   They've got pictures of all their staff, and all the engineers are clearly young.   Then look at their opening for a C/C++ programmer.   They want '3-5+ years of C/C++ software development experience on Linux/Unix'.   That's very typical.   The industry wants people with 3-7 years of experience -- and typically not more than that.   Beyond that, people are just too expensive.   The job description is filled with what might be taken to be code words for 'young'...   Some of you may be interested in reading Meebo CEO Sternberg's rant against the H-1B cap in his blog.   Nice to see attorney Gupta's candor about the non-shortage, shown above...
the people who come to the United States on temporary work permits with the hope of getting permanent residency and find themselves trapped.   'If they later on apply for a green card, they tend to stay with the same employer because if you chance changing employers during that time, you have to start all over again.', she said, adding, 'They get locked in.'
Yes, absolutely, and it is that trapped status that makes them exploitable.   If you can't freely move around in the labor market, you're not going to command as high a salary.   And the employers WANT it that way, both to keep salaries down and to avoid the disruption that comes to a project when someone jumps ship.   Indeed, immediately after that legislation was enacted [in 2000], immigration attorney Jose Latour hastened to assure nervous employers that things would indeed continue to be business as usual in terms of indentured servitude.   An employer had asked him, 'Won't this [new bill] mean that H-1B employees will start jumping from job to job more often?'   Latour answered that there may be some reduction in green card time, but assured the employers that 'the labor [certification] process [still] requires a trusting relationship between employer and employee...   the need for stable employment for the realization of permanent residency remains unchanged', i.e. H-1Bs will continue to need to stick with their employers for the several years while the green card is pending.   Durbin's bill is apparently [a watered-down version of] the one introduced by representative Bill Pascrell of NJ in the last session.   Pascrell's bill never even got to committee, and thus it would not be surprising at all to see the same thing happen to Durbin's bill."
 

2007-04-02

2007-04-02
_Los Angeles Times_
Tom Tancredo & Fred Thompson officially announced run for presidency
The Hill
USA Today
News Max
Denver Business Journal
Congressional Quarterly politics
Fox
abc/Reuters
Forbes/AP
Guardian Unlimited

2007-04-02
Elinor Emmick _Star-Gazette_
Federal income extortion is an evil joke
"The 16th Amendment was ratified in 1913 and created the federal income tax.   It made slaves of all of us.   It [after statutory revision during WW2] gave the government the power to take from our earnings before we even received them.   It takes from the rich and the poor and every hard-working person in between.   Why the American people continue to put up with this questionable amendment that rules their lives and fortunes is beyond me.   We now have an announced presidential candidate, U.S. representative Ron Paul of Texas, who is committed to eliminating this horror.   He deserves your whole-hearted support."

2007-04-02
_Zee News India_
SAARC moots trade agreement in services
"In India, services contribute 56% of GDP.   Even in countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Maldives services such as tourism, banking, telecom and financial sector are becoming an important engine of growth."

2007-04-02
_USA Today_
Enzyme converts A & B & AB blood to type O by removing sugars from surface of blood cells
Wired
Kansas City Star
Scotsman
Sydney Morning Herald

2007-04-02 14:33PDT (17:33EDT) (21:33GMT)
Liz Moyer _Forbes_
Mergers and Acquisitions roared as many public stock firms were taken private
"Deal engines roared in the first 3 months of the year, punctuated by a record $197G worth of mergers arranged by private equity groups in a trend toward public companies seeking the shelter of private ownership...   Global mergers and acquisitions surpassed the trillion dollar mark, to $1.2T, in the first quarter, according to Dealogic, pushed by Porsche's $96T offer for Volkswagon, which is the fifth-largest deal ever recorded.   The quarter saw a 23% increase in deal activity from the same period in 2006."

2007-04-02
Burt Herman & Kwang-Tae Kim _Chicago Sun-Times_
US and South Korean negotiators reach agreement on trade: Mixed response from congress, public
CNN
Houston Chronicle
Forbes
Boston Globe
San Diego Union-Tribune
Business Week
Swiss info
Kansas City Star/Detroit Free Press
Kansas City Star
MarketWatch
composite: "The deal, which requires approval by law-makers in both countries, is the biggest for the United States since the North American Free Trade Agreement, which took effect in 1994.   It is the largest ever for South Korea.   South Korea and the U.S. agreed to eliminate and lower tariffs and other trade barriers in a wide range of industrial goods and services, including financial services.   The agreement also covered sectors such as e-commerce.   'The free trade agreement we are announcing today is a historic accomplishment.', Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Karan Bhatia told reporters...   South Korea, under pressure from farmers who were worried that eliminating protections for rice would destroy the domestic industry, succeeded in keeping the staple food out of the deal.   But Seoul agreed to lower tariffs on other agricultural goods, including American oranges.   South Korea promised to eliminate tariffs and other restrictions on imported cars which include an 8% tariff, a tax on engine size and restrictions on parts.   The U.S. will eliminate its lower tariff on South Korean cars over 3 years and a larger one on pickup trucks over 10 years.   South Korean auto-makers sold 730,863 vehicles in the United States in 2005, while American auto companies sold only 5,795 in South Korea, according to Commerce Department figures.   Last year, U.S. automakers and their foreign brands sold 7,165 vehicles in South Korea; Korean auto-makers sold about 1.2M vehicles at home and 800,692 cars and trucks in the United States.   All foreign auto-makers in South Korea sold just 40,530 vehicles in 2006.   It will phase out duties on bigger engines within 3 years, on tires within 5 years and on pick-up trucks within 10.   South Korea exported $6.6G a year in automobiles to the U.S.A. between 2003 and 2005.   Auto part exports [to the U.S.A.] during the same period averaged $1.4G annually.   'As a company that operates and competes in 200 markets globally, we see the real and tangible benefits of free trade.   Unfortunately this agreement, as we understand it, will not open the Korean market to free trade in automobiles.', said Steve Biegun, vice president for international governmental affairs at Ford.   'We have been working with the Administration since the beginning of the talks to reduce barriers to the Korean auto market, which is the most closed market in the industrialized world.', a Daimler-Chrysler spokes-person said.   'we will not support this agreement as we currently understand it.'   Earlier this month, representative Sander Levin (D-MI), chair of the House Ways & Means Trade sub-committee, had proposed that USTR offer South Korea a tariff-rate quota that would grant a zero tariff for a number of autos that would grow only as U.S. auto exports to South Korea increased in the future.   Trade between the two nations was worth almost $77G in 2006, according to South Korea's Commerce Ministry.   A free-trade agreement may boost U.S. exports to Asia's third-largest economy by as much as $19G annually, while South Korea stands to get a $10G jump in exports to the U.S.A., according to the U.S. International Trade Commission.   South Korean farmers and laborers, worried their jobs would be threatened by an agreement, took to the streets of the South Korean capital in the last week to protest against the possible deal.   South Korean cattle farmers are especially concerned since the deal would phase out over 15 years the 40% restrictive tariffs on U.S. beef imports into South Korea, and similarly reduce the tariff on pork over 10 years.   South Korea wanted goods produced in Kaesong [North Korea] included in the pact, while the U.S.A. refused and expressed concern about the unmonitored money it could be funneling to the Pyongyang regime for possible weapons development."

2007-04-02
_Fox_
US electronics supplier arrested for allegedly exporting missile technology to India
"Working with Indian government officials, Cirrus Electronics founder Parthasarathy Sudarshan ordered computer equipment from U.S. manufacturers using falsified documents about their destination, federal prosecutors said.   The parts were allegedly shipped to India through Cirrus offices in South Carolina and Singapore.   Prosecutors say that between 2003 and 2006, Sudarshan was buying the equipment for three Indian government agencies: the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, which researches spacecraft and ballistic missiles, Bharat Dynamics Ltd., a key agency in the nation's guided missile program, and the Aeronautical Development Establishment, which is developing the Tejas combat jet.   The U.S. Commerce Department restricts exports to these agencies.   The equipment included heat-resistant memory chips, microprocessors, capacitors and semiconductors used in missile guidance systems and firing systems, according to a federal indictment unsealed recently."

2007-04-02 08:14PDT (11:14EDT) (15:14GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
ISM factory index fell from 52.3% in February to 50.9% in March
 

2007-04-03

2007-04-03
Ephraim Schwartz _InfoWorld_/_IDG_
H-1B reform bill seeks stricter enforcement

2007-04-03
Patrick Thibodeau _Computer World_/_IDG_
Senate H-1B bill seeks to give U.S. workers a better shot at tech job openings: Legislation would also boost Labor Department's enforcement powers
Anne Broache: CNET/ZD Net

2007-04-03
Kathy Gurchiek _Society for Human Resource Management_
Former DoL secretary assails work authorization system
"Ray Marshall, secretary of labor during the Carter administration and professor emeritus of the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, presented his report during EPI's Agenda for Shared Prosperity policy initiative in Washington, DC, on 2007 March 28...   There are 11M to 20M [illegal aliens] in the United States, according to Marshall, who predicts that the number will double 20 years from now in the absence of a workable policy...   One myth is that illegal aliens fill jobs Americans won't take, 'an attitude encouraged by employers, immigrants and their foreign and domestic supporters to justify unauthorized immigration.', Marshall writes.   'Once the strong employer-immigrant bonds are established, it is hard for even willing natives to compete for these jobs, thus appearing to confirm the myth.', he says in the EPI report.   Among 473 job titles the Center for Immigration Studies looked at, only 4 -- stucco masons, tailors, produce sorters and beauty salon workers -- are made up of a majority of authorized and unauthorized immigrants.   Despite that majority, more than 40% of U.S. citizens hold these jobs, Marshall writes...   [But he concludes that we should grant amnesty to a bunch of illegal aliens, create a foreign worker adjustment board, and 'increase the flow of workers whose skills and education are in short supply in the United States' of America.   So, who gets to declare the supply is 'short'?...]"

2007-04-03
Dena Bunis _Orange County Register_
First cap reached on H-1B visas for FY2008
"It took just hours Monday for federal officials to log in about 150K applications for visas for high-skilled workers to come to the United States...   Citizenship and Immigration Services has closed the application period and will use a lottery system to determine which employers will get to bring in the workers they want.   Companies that don't get the visas they want now won't be able to apply again until 2008 April...   Norman Matloff, a computer science professor at UC Davis says the average H-1B visa holder in the computer field earns $50K a year while the average American worker doing the same job earns about $80K.   The reaching of the cap within hours, Matloff said, 'validates the insatiable thirst for cheap labor.   The employers wrote the law.   They are the ones with the clout in Congress.   It's a thoroughly corrupt program.'"

2007-04-03 08:31:48PDT (11:31:48EDT) (15:31:48GMT)
Jim Eykyn & Bryan L. Obenchain _Minot Daily News_
It's time to get serious about the illegal alien invasion problem
Daily Mining Gazette
"More than 623K of the estimated 11M to 12M illegal aliens in the United States have been caught at least once by law enforcement agencies, and ordered to leave this country.   But they're still here -- and there is no reason to believe that they will leave of their own volition or be apprehended and forced out.Why?   Because our federal government isn't taking the problem seriously, according to its own report.   A report by the Department of Homeland Security reveals that the government has a total of 52 'fugitive operations teams' seeking the aliens who have ignored orders to leave the country.   That works out to nearly 12K fugitives for each of the teams...   the government simply isn't serious about catching and deporting scofflaw aliens."

2007-04-03
Norman Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring e-News-Letter_
Durbin introduced H-1B/L-1 bill S1035
"The rumor had been that the bill would essentially be the one introduced in the House in the last session of Congress.   It turns out to have both similarities and differences.   The key feature of the Pascrell bill -- setting a simple, EFFECTIVE definition of 'prevailing wage' -- is also in the Durbin bill.   Both bills feature some kind of provisions which would require employers to give Americans employment priority over foreign nationals (note my qualifier, 'some kind').   The Pascrell bill gives rejected Americans the right to bring law-suits, which the Durbin bill does not.   The Durbin bill requires that employers wishing to hire an H-1B advertise the job on a DoL data-base on the Web, which Pascrell does not.   The Durbin bill has myriad anti-fraud provisions, but as I've said before, fraud is only a small part of the H-1B problem, and I consider it a distraction to discuss it, distracting focus away from the core H-1B issue, which is the loop-holes in the 'prevailing wage' law and regulations...   As usual, the bill takes the form of amendments to the U.S. Code, 8 U.S.C. 1182(n)...   Section 1: Though some fraud does occur, currently the vast majority of the abuse is done in full compliance with the law, because the law, especially regarding prevailing wage, is written so loosely...   Section 2 sub-sections a & b: Now ALL employers would be subject to...restrictions, which would include:   Employers would not be allowed to hire H-1Bs within 180 days (expanded from the old 90) of a lay-off.   Employers would be required to make 'good faith recruitment efforts' to find American workers before filling jobs with H-1Bs.   Impact: The anti-lay-off provisions would definitely be helpful.   Though non-H-1B-dependent employers have not been subject to the 'good faith recruitment' requirement before, the employer-sponsored green cards have always had such a requirement.   Typically employers circumvent that by requiring so many 'special skills' that the only one in the world who would qualify is the foreign national they want to hire.   DoL PERM regulations had in their draft form some restrictions against employers doing this, but the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) forced DoL to back off.   Still, this 'good faith recruitment' requirement provision would have some value.   Section 2 sub-section c: This would require employers to advertise jobs on a DoL Web page for 30 days before filling the jobs with H-1Bs.   Impact: I have made such a proposal in the past myself.   I believe it would be quite helpful, as it would provide public exposure of employers who are avoiding hiring Americans.   The provision would be a lot better if the employers were required to state what the final disposition of the opening was, i.e. did the employer hire an H-1B in the end or not?   Section 2 sub-section d: This would ban the job ads so often seen with phrasing like 'H-1Bs only'.   Section 2 sub-section e: This would forbid employers from hiring H-1Bs and then in turn renting them out to other employers.   Impact: This problem has gotten a lot of press, but I just don't see it as an issue.   What difference does it make whether Intel hires an H-1B directly, or through a [body shop] such as TCS?   And it really would be difficult to enforce.   If TCS tells its H-1Bs to always communicate with Intel managers via their own TCS managers, who is to say the H-1B is working for Intel and not TCS?   The H-1B can even wear a TCS baseball cap to make the point.   Section 2 sub-section f: This would limit firms to having 50% of their employers as H-1Bs.   Impact: Almost none for most employers.   Only 0.1% of employers even meet the 15% threshhold of the existing H-1B-dependency category; even fewer will be over 50%.   This is because these firms do have other workers, e.g. clerical staff, marketing people, accountants and so on.   Now if the provision were to say 50% of engineering staff, some employers would be impacted.   Section 2 sub-section g: This would redefine 'prevailing wage' requirements.   The key point is that it would require them to be paid at least the median for all workers in that occupation.   Impact: In principle, this could cut down H-1B usage by huge amounts, maybe a 70%-80% reduction in visas used.   Here is why: As I've often said, the dirty little secret is that H-1B allows [firms] to hire young H-1Bs instead of older (40+), thus more expensive, Americans.   Currently employers can hire a young H-1B at the lowest of the 4 defined experience levels, and thus can legally get away with hiring the younger H-1B instead of an older American.   By setting the prevailing wage to be at least the median of all workers in the occupation, REGARDLESS OF EXPERIENCE LEVEL, the bill would basically cut the rug out from under the employers of H-1Bs.   Simply put, the H-1Bs just wouldn't be so cheap anymore.   However, the phrasing is a bit vague.   Clause (iii) in this section specifies that OES data be used, which would be great, but clause (ii) does not say this.   Nevertheless, even allowing for the probability that the AILA would pressure DoL do put in loop-holes in this section, the net effect should be a very big reduction in H-1Bs hired.   Section 3: These are various anti-fraud provisions.   Impact: Very little in the grand scheme of things, as I explained above.   Section 4: L-1 reform.   This would require recruitment of Americans and would require paying of the prevailing wage, redefined as for H-1B above.   Renting out of workers would be banned.   There are various anti-fraud measures.   Impact: This would be the same as for the corresponding provisions for H-1Bs above.   So, what is my overall assessment?   IF this bill is given serious consideration in Congress, and IF it passes, and IF the Dept. of Labor does not kowtow too much to the AILA, the redefinition of prevailing wage would bring an absolute sea change to the business of importing foreign programmers and engineers.   In addition, the establishment of a DoL Web page for jobs that employers propose to be filled by H-1Bs would be very beneficial.   OTOH, if Congress says, 'Well, let's fold those anti-fraud measures in this bill in with our H-1B expansion bill.   After all, Durbin's bill was mainly about fraud, so we would be using the essence of his bill.', a terrible hoax will have been played on the American people.   H-1B is NOT about fraud, for the most part; it's about employers, large and small, taking advantage of huge loop-holes, that they wrote, in order to hire cheap foreign labor.   Durbin's bill, by having so many anti-fraud measures, and by having its very title focus on fraud, invites a scenario in which its valuable portions are jettisoned."
Durbin S1035 Reduce fraud and abuse with non-immigrant visas

2007-04-03
Dan Thomasson _Boston Herald_
Dems drop time bomb on Iraq: Announcing departure dates is irresponsible

2007-04-03
Andy Selepak _Accuracy in Media_
Can talk radio defeat illegal alien amnesty?

2007-04-03
_Baptist Press_
Richard Land clarifies immigration reform stance
"Land's commentary, printed in today's Baptist Press release, reiterates neither he nor Southern Baptists support amnesty for illegal aliens.   It also says Southern Baptists 'will not embrace reform that is not committed to securing the borders'...   the SBC's 2006 resolution on illegal immigration. That measure, approved by an overwhelming majority of the messengers, called for increased border security and enforcement of the laws, while urging Christians to minister to all immigrants and to encourage them 'toward the path of legal status and/or citizenship'."

2007-04-03 14:53PDT (17:53EDT) (21:53GMT)
_Fox_
Polk county deputies bust baby food nappers
"After Ruiz was arrested, deputies say Roman Rico-Ruiz came to bail him out.   He was also arrested.   Both men are illegal aliens and deputies say they're part of a crime ring that steals baby formula...   Investigators say the men appear to be part of the same group caught on surveillance tape and arrested in Pasco County last month for stealing formula...   thieves take between $15G and $30G worth of merchandise from store shelves every year..."

2007-04-03
Bill Wilson _WDC Media News_
Powerful groups unite to destroy America from within
"There is a group of powerful godless people intent on making America a multicultural, socially democratic society devoid of a middle class in order to restrict freedom and bring the nation under a one-world rule.   The battle front is found in immigration reform, promoting homosexuality, abortion, feminism, environmentalism, racism and war on the soil of the United States.   This group believes by allowing free immigration across U.S. borders, that the middle class will soon be replaced by a peasant class, both in numbers and from a financial burden; that by promoting immorality and minority victim clashes the country will be divided.   And by bringing war on American soil, personal liberties will be eliminated...   Those who want free and unimpeded migration across the U.S. borders have found common ground with those who want cheaper labor, with those who want expansion of [tax-victim] funded social programs.   Those who want a North American Union have found common ground with free trade supporters.   Some examples: The Bush Administration working with the Democratic leadership to provide amnesty for illegal aliens; The bi-partisan push for the Security and Prosperity Partnership that seeks to cut the nation in half with a trade route between Mexico and Canada; the coalition between the National Education Association, the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network, Planned Parenthood, the National Organization of Women and others to teach tolerance, sexual freedom and equality to children in public schools.   And these are the same people, who in the name of peace, who work together to hand terrorists and terrorism victory by withdrawing from the war on terror.   The battle lines are drawn and the American people are being bombed each day over the airwaves of propaganda to accept and submit.   The godless know that if morals, ethics and religious freedom can be dismantled, especially in our children, no one will care enough to save the nation that has been the worldwide standard-bearer for freedom and justice.   If those godly people, who love their freedom and their children and their country do not stand now, there will be nothing left for which to stand."

2007-04-03 11:00PDT (14:00EDT) (18:00GMT)
Patrick J. Buchanan _Conservative Voice_
Nicolas Sarkozy plays the patriot card
Human Events
"a speech in Lille where Sarkozy ripped into the take-over of Arcelor, Europe's largest steel-maker, by Lakshmi Mittal, the Indian steel magnate.   A 'mistake', declared Sarkozy: 'Look at the waste of Arcelor, which we sold off on the cheap because we believed the steel industry was history.   They got it wrong.   They lied.'...   Do we Americans, too, wish to live in a world where unelected trans-national bureaucrats speak imperiously to U.S. presidents on what we may and may not do to restore the old self-sufficiency and independence of the United States?   Because that is where we are headed -- with NAFTA, the World Trade Organization and the North American Union agreed to by Bush, Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin in 2005, under the rubric of 'The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America'...   'free' trade is the Trojan horse of global government...   The struggle that succeeds the Cold War may not be vertical at all -- i.e., between nation-states -- but horizontal, between patriots of all nations and trans-national elites, like Kroes and her fellow commissioners."

2007-04-03 14:22:09PDT (17:22:09EDT) (21:22:09GMT)
_Joplin Independent_
DC protest planned for April 22 through 26 to support immigration law enforcement

2007-04-03
_Richmond Times-Dispatch_/_AP_
Virginia State Crime Commission to study crime by and against illegal aliens

2007-04-03 14:59PDT (17:59EDT) (21:59GMT)
Lou Dobbs & Kitty Pilgrim & Bill Tucker _CNN_
H-1B visa reform proposal
Kitty Pilgrim: Now, not all Americans are suffering.   Since 2000, half of the gains in the economy have gone into corporate profits and the top tier wage earners.   It's the middle class Americans who are no longer participating in the economic gains -- Lou.
Lou Dobbs: And that report focussing on the number of hours that working men and women in this country are putting in, as compared to most of their European counterparts, the American worker today is working nearly a month longer, despite basically stagnant wages over the last 3 decades -- nearly a month longer in terms of total hours than 30 years ago.   It's crazy what's happening in many respects.   And then we have idiots talking about raising productivity and making the American worker productivity -- more productive.   Just asinine talk.   Thank you very much, Kitty Pilgrim.   Two key Senators, one Republican and one Democrat, today working towards stopping another assault on middle class working men and women.   The H-1B visa program.   That's the one that Bill Gates, the world's richest man, just loves.   As we've reported here many times, the H-1B program has been abused by corporate America in its search for cheap foreign labor to replace middle class workers.   Bill Tucker reports on new efforts to pass this bipartisan legislation that would end that.
Bill Tucker: Senators Durbin and Grassley aim to fix the H-1B visa program for a straightforward reason.
Ron Hira, Rochester Institute of Technology: Right now too many American engineers believe that this program is really a scam, that it's a way to under-cut their wages.   It's really a cheap labor program to out-source jobs.
Bill Tucker: From Iowa, Senator Grassley released this statement.   Quote, 'Plain and simple, this bill is about protecting the American worker.' End quote.   Troubles with the H-1B visa program have been well-documented on Lou Dobbs Tonight and in studies by the Office of Management and Budget, the GAO, and the inspector general of the Department of Labor.   What the bill would do is tighten the rules and oversight of the program.   Every employer seeking to hire an H-1B worker would have to pledge that they looked for a qualified American first.   Just to be sure, the employer would be required to post the opening on the Department of Labor web site for 30 days for everyone looking for work to see.   On top of that, every company who has hired an H-1B worker would be listed on the DoL's web site, along with the positions hired.   And the definition of prevailing wage would change: from whatever the employer wants to pay to a median of all the workers in that occupation.   Employers laying off workers would have to wait 180 days before they could apply to hire an H-1B visa worker.
Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL): Senator Grassley and I believe our first obligation is to American workers to make sure they have an opportunity to bid on these same jobs, to be paid a decent wage for performing these services.
Bill Tucker: And in the minds of some, it's chances are slim to none.
John Miano: This bill obviously has an up-hill path to face, because the industry has controlled H-1B legislation and has been able to block any reform attempts over the years.
Bill Tucker: Reform legislation introduced in the House for the past two years ended up buried in committee and never saw the floor.   Which is why there is already a concerted grassroots campaign underway to inform American workers, to get them actively involved to support the Durbin-Grassley Bill, and, Lou, that in hopes that they can rally the support of their senators.  
Lou Dobbs: Well, their senators certainly should be aware of the support of all the working people.   I love what Senator Durbin said, that they're going to take it as their first obligation being to American workers.
Bill Tucker: Right.
Lou Dobbs: You don't hear that very often in Washington, DC Americans first?   I mean, this is a -- this is a corrosive idea.   I mean, that can actually spread and be deleterious to a lot of these so-called corporate policies that pose as legislation.   You know, it's sort of display making to think they don't have a chance for this.   You know, it's sort of dismaying to hear you say that they don't think they've got much of a chance with this.   This is a Democratically-led Congress.
Bill Tucker: Unfortunately, Pascrell, two years in row, a Democrat in the House has introduced similar legislation.   This is a little tougher.   It was buried in committee, never came out of committee, so that a lot of people think the Bill Gates of the world are going to prevail on this issue, Lou.
Lou Dobbs: Well, you know, we're going to hold out hope here.   I mean, this Congress did pass an increase in the minimum wage.   The Senate hasn't done anything with it, by the way, unfortunately.   And we -- I keep waiting for the leadership of this Congress to do something about that.   I hope that we don't end up having to say that Democrats are bought and paid for to the same extent as the Republicans were in the previous Congresses.   But we'll see.   Hopeful, but not optimistic.   How's that?

2007-04-03
Stephen Deere _St. Louis Post-Dispatch_
Valley Park will stay the course on illegal immigrants

2007-04-03
Courtney Stevens _Daily Nexus_
Politically-driven policies hinder border safety and security

2007-04-03
Maureen Magee _San Diego Union-Tribune_
More cargo, money steaming into port of San Diego
"Cargo topped 2.8M metric tons in 2006, according to the San Diego Unified Port District, 6% more than in the year before.   Maritime cargo revenue totaled $37M for the same period, up 28% from 2005...   Also contributing to increased port business is the country's off-shoring of manufacturing in several industries.   The Port of San Diego is positioning itself to take in as much of that business as possible."
 

2007-04-04 (5767 Adar 14)

2007-04-04
Norman Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring e-News-Letter_
H-1B cap reached lickety-split
"As predicted, the H-1B cap for the new fiscal year was reached immediately...   Note that the immigration [lawyers are giving] the usual industry lobbyist line that it costs more to hire an H-1B, due to legal and government fees.   The fact is that these amount to only about $2K or so.   If the employer is also sponsoring the H-1B for a green card, the legal fees would be higher, about $10K.   That's all.   [A thorough background investigation would cost $25K to $35K.]   Meanwhile the employer is saving [$13K or $20K] or more in wages EVERY YEAR, for the 6 years duration of the visa.   So, obviously the employer comes out way ahead by hiring H-1Bs.   The law requires that H-1Bs be paid 'prevailing wage', but the legal definition of that term is chock full of loop-holes.   So, the employer can pay the H-1B less than Americans and yet still be fully compliant with the law.   The bill recently introduced by senator Durbin which for the most part plug these gaping loop-holes.   It remains to be seen, though, whether the bill will get any traction.   I predict, for instance, that my own 2 senators, Boxer and Feinstein, will NOT support this bill.   With Feinstein playing a key role on the senate Judiciary Committee, it is likely to die in committee."

2007-04-04
Anand Giridharadas _NY Times_
kinds of jobs that cannot be off-shored are slowly evaporating
"Infosys devotes $65 of every $1K in revenue to training.   I.B.M., by contrast, spends just $6.56, according to a 2006 proxy statement."
FinFacts/ Irish Independent/ Irish Times

2007-03-03
_Public Technology_
IT sector in UK backs common terminology to describe skills, knowledge and experience
"David Clark, CEO, British Computer Society, a member of the Professionalism in IT Alliance said: 'There is a growing need for structured development programmes for IT professionals, particularly in the light of off-shoring and its impact on the UK's IT skills ladder.'"
e-Skills UK
IT professional competency model
IT PCM (pdf)
http://www.e-skills.com/cgi-bin/orad.pl/406/ITProfessionalCompetencyModel_v12_28Mar07.pdf

2007-04-04
Ron Hira _ZD Net_
Durbin's H-1B reform proposal and off-shoring
"I think you are taking a too limited view of business decision-making.   The companies do not make binary either-or choices: hire a foreign guest-worker or hire abroad.   If the company can't find a US worker for an opening at a particular price, they will choose one or more of the following options: raise the wages offered to attract a larger pool of candidates; hire a less ideal candidate and have them do some training; train an internal worker to move to the job; split the tasks up and spread them across a number of workers; mechanize/automate the job -- substitute capital for labor; out-source the work to a contractor domestically; out-source the work over-seas; hire over-seas.   The idea that there are a fixed number of jobs in the country is something that economists call the 'lumps of labor' fallacy [with the 'fixed pie' fallacy thrown in].   This is generally talked about in terms of the lay-person's misperception that 'jobs' move over-seas and no new ones will be created in their place.   I think you have the same misperception of the labor market.   It is a 'market' that exhibits all kinds of flexibility.   Now turning to the business logic of off-shoring, and the constraints on off-shoring.   Companies are not moored to the U.S.A.   If a set of tasks are off-shorable, and companies can save money doing so, then you better believe that companies are doing it.   If they didn't, they would be irresponsible to their share-holders.   The Boards do not compensate managers and executives based on how many U.S. workers are employed.   I don't say this as a criticism, simply as a fact.   So, companies are off-shoring everything they can, and I see few political constraints.   M$ isn't keeping work in the U.S.A. because it is 'patriotic', nor should it.   The real constraints are technical.   The nature of the tasks are such that they require physical presence in the U.S.A.   They are 'geographically sticky'.   See for example, Alan Blinder's recent foray into the off-shoring discussion (WSJ profiled this about a week ago).   Now, turning to the bill provisions themselves.   [Larry Dignan had written,] 'A company, say M$ on any other technology concern that hires a lot of H-1B workers, is going to look at this bill and say it's not worth the effort to hire foreigners in the U.S.A.'   This seems unlikely to me.   All of the provisions are things that M$ already says they comply with.   Why would they balk at signing a sheet of paper saying they are complying with it?   There is little additional cost to them to do this.   They are, after all, asking for a privilege not afforded to most other businesses, and they are increasing the supply of the labor market.   It seems reasonable enough to ensure that the H-1B program meets its intents.   If this means that there are costs to ensure compliance, then it seems like a reasonable trade-off."

2007-04-04 08:52PDT (11:52EDT) (15:52GMT)
Robert Schroeder _MarketWatch_
Factory orders up 1% in February: down 0.4% excluding transportation equipment

2007-04-04
Julian Pecquet _Tallahassee Demagogue_
Gang problem growing
"Some 150 to 200 young people are thought to be involved in gangs, said captain Chris Connell of the Tallahassee Police Department.   More and more girls are joining.   There are signs that national gangs such as Crips, Bloods and MS-13 are moving in, partially because they don't have much competition when it comes to dealing drugs and committing other crimes."

2007-04-04
Jason D. O'Grady _ZD Net_
Apple released 8-core Mac Pro

2007-04-04 09:53PDT (12:53EDT) (16:53GMT)
Greg Robb _MarketWatch_
ISM services index fell from 54.3 in March to 52.4 in April
ISM report

2007-04-04
Lisa Petrillo _San Diego Union-Tribune_
California State University system reaches deal with faculties
"After almost 2 years of acrimonious bargaining, capped by a fact-finder's intervention, the proposed pact would raise base pay for all faculty 20.7% over the next 4 years.     Potential increases for eligible instructors would make the package worth 24.9%...   CSU officials put the cost of the pay raises for 22,400 faculty at $400M [less than the cost of a couple new stadiums].   With 23 campuses and 417K students, CSU is the nation's largest public university system.   It awards more than 85,000 degrees annually and trains the bulk of the state's teachers and other professionals.   The contract proposal would increase top pay for professors from $86K to $105,465 a year.   Average salary for a tenure-track faculty member would increase from $74K to $90,749...   more than 60% of CSU classes are taught by faculty at the lower end of the pay range and by part-time lecturers, who on average are paid less than half of the top pay for a professor...   At SDSU, faculty voted 95% in support of the union job actions because they wanted competitive salaries, Wheeler said."

2007-04-04 09:56:16PDT (12:56:16EDT) (16:56:16GMT)
Barbara Ortutay _AP_/_York Dispatch_
Google executives take cash salary cut for 2006 but face no risk of going to poor-house
"Besides his $1 salary, Schmidt, who was #116 on Forbes magazine's most recent ranking of American billionaires, received a bonus of $1,723 and 'other compensation' valued at $555,742, according to a proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.   The bulk of that other compensation, $532,755, was for personal security...   Schmidt, 51, owns 10,096 of Google's Class A shares and 10.7M of its Class B shares.   At the end of 2006, those securities were worth about $4.9G...   [Brin and Page are each] worth $16.6G, according to the magazine's estimate.   Brin beneficially owns 28.6M of Google's B stock, which was worth about $13.2G at the end of 2006.   and Page owns 29.2M shares, worth about $13.4G at the end of the year.   In addition to their $1 salaries, Brin and Page each received a bonus of $1,723 -- of this, $1K was a holiday bonus awarded to each Google employee.   Page, whose title is president of products, topped Brin's $1,724 compensation package with compensation valued at $38,519.   He received perks totaling $36,795, which consisted of $33,195 for transportation, logistics and security during personal travel and $3,600 for personal travel using rental cars."

2007-04-04 10:16PDT (13:16EDT) (17:16GMT)
_Forbes_/_AP_
Lay-off announcements total 48,997 for March
San Diego Union-Tribune
Inc
composite: "The number of job cuts announced by U.S. corporations in March fell 41.7% from February to a total of 48,997, according to a Challenger, Gray & Christmas survey released Wednesday.   Job cuts were 24.6% lower in March than the same month a year earlier, when there were 64,975 announced job cuts.   The quarterly total nearly matches the overall 2006 total of 22,814, Challenger Gray said.   The automotive industry announced 23,481 job cuts in March, the most for any industry.   Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. reported that job cuts in housing, including real estate, construction and mortgage lending, soared 346% to 21,245 in the first quarter, compared with 4,764 job cuts in the same quarter last year.   The first-quarter number barely trails the total number of jobs cuts in 2006 of 22,814.   In 2005, the housing industry slashed only 13,656 jobs.   Construction led the job cuts with 13,958, compared with only 115 in the fourth quarter of 2006.   Mortgage lending rose to 6,138 from 3,497 the previous year.   Only the real estate sector -- which includes commercial and residential real estate agencies -- saw a decline in jobs cuts to 1,149 from 1,152."

2007-04-04
Harold Meyerson _Washington Post_
In fear of democracy in Red China
"Listen to the apostles of free trade, and you'll learn that once consumer choice comes to authoritarian regimes, democracy is sure to follow.   Call it the Starbucks rule: Situate enough Starbucks around Shanghai, and the Communist Party's control will crumble like dunked biscotti.   As a theory of revolution, the Starbucks rule leaves a lot to be desired.   Shanghai is swimming in Starbucks, yet, as James Mann notes in _The China Fantasy_, his new book on the non-democratization of [Red China], the regime soldiers on.   Conversely, the American farmers who made our revolution didn't have much in the way of consumer choice, yet they managed to free themselves from the British.   In New England, however, they did have town meetings, which may be a surer guide to the coming of democratic change.   It's a growing civil society -- a sphere where people can deliberate and decide on more than their coffee -- that more characteristically sounds the death knell of dictatorships...   There, since March of last year, the government has been considering a labor law that promises a smidgen of increase in workers' rights.   And since March of last year, the American businesses so mightily invested in [Red China] have mightily fought it.   Beyond the Starbucks of Shanghai, the [Red China] of workers and peasants is a sea of unrest, roiled by thousands of strikes and protests that the regime routinely represses.   Cognizant that they need to do something to quell the causes of unrest, some of [Red China's] rulers have entertained modest changes to the country's labor law.   The legislation wouldn't allow workers to form independent trade unions or grant them the right to strike -- this is, after all, a communist regime.   It would, however, require employers to provide employees, either individually or collectively, with written contracts.   It would allow employees to change jobs within their industries or get jobs in related industries in other regions; employers have hitherto been able to thwart this by invoking statutes on proprietary information.   It would also require that companies bargain with worker representatives over health and safety conditions.   It's not as if [Red Chinese] unions would use these laws to run roughshod over employers.   [Red Chinese] unions are not, strictly speaking, unions at all.   They remain controlled by the Communist Party.   Their locals can be and frequently are headed by plant managers, whether the workers want them or not.   And yet, these changes proved too radical for America's leading corporations.   As documented by Global Labor Strategies, a U.S.-based non-profit organization headed by long-time labor activists, the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai and the U.S.-[Red China] Business Council embarked on a major campaign to kill these tepid reforms.   Last April, one month after the legislation was first floated, the chamber sent a 42-page document to the [Red Chinese] government on behalf of its 1,300 members -- including General Electric, M$, Dell, Ford and dozens of other household brand names -- objecting to these minimal increases in worker power.   In its public comments on the proposed law, GE declared that it strongly preferred 'consultation' with workers to 'securing worker representative approval' on a range of its labor practices.   Based on a second draft of the law, completed in December, it looks like American businesses have substantially prevailed.   Key provisions were weakened; if an employer elects not to issue written contracts, workers are guaranteed only the wages of similar employees -- with the employer apparently free to define who, exactly, is similar."

2007-04-04 11:11PDT (14:11EDT) (18:11GMT)
Anne Broache _CNET_/_ZD Net_
What does H-1B application surge mean?

2007-04-04
Jeannine Aversa _AP_/_Wichita Eagle_
IMF says global economy is moving ahead
Bradenton Herald
Philadelphia Suburbs
Centre Daily Times
"The global economy is forging ahead despite slower growth from its #1 player, the United States, the International Monetary Fund concluded Wednesday.   A sharper-than-expected U.S housing slump, though, could pose a risk to the world's economic performance, IMF researchers warned.   'So far, however, the U.S. slow-down has had little discernible effect on growth in most other countries.', the IMF said.   That's because the troubles in housing so far -- while painful -- have largely been contained and haven't spread to lots of other sectors in the U.S. economy...   The global labor force has risen 4-fold over the past 2 decades, reflecting an influx of workers from [Red China], India and the former Eastern bloc countries.   However, the extent of off-shoring, or moving work to locations outside a given country, was still quite limited in 'advanced' economies, including the United States.   Off-shoring made up about 5% of gross output in advanced economies in 2003, the most recent period available, the IMF said.   The skewed pattern of global trade and investment patterns that are viewed as a threat to the world economy's long-term stability could be helped if the U.S. dollar were to go down in value and the currencies of other countries -- including [Red China] -- with big trade surpluses were to go up in value.   Even a depreciation in the value of the dollar of less than 10% could bring about a narrowing in the U.S. trade deficit, the IMF said."

2007-04-03
Frosty Wooldridge _American Chronicle_
If I were president of the United States
"While over 1M high tech American workers can't find jobs, our own government handed out 1M H-1B, H-2B and L-1 visas to foreigners in the past decade...   I would gather the greatest economic minds together in the United States and create a plan for solving our $8.5T national debt...   A sound money system is a sound country...   I would concentrate on assisting American citizens by making powerful executive decisions to stop in-sourcing, out-sourcing and off-shoring of American jobs.   I'd make sure our citizens are employed before people from other countries took those jobs.   I'd rescind all H-1B, H2-B and L-1 visas immediately and send those foreign workers back to their own countries.   I would support the American worker, period!   I wouldn't make excuses and I wouldn't denigrate my fellow Americans by telling them they won't work the jobs.   I'd give 14M unemployed Americans a chance to work their jobs at a living wage.   IOW, I would not allow corporations to govern America.   I would enforce our immigration laws by locking up and prosecuting employers of illegal aliens.   I'd do it slowly and methodically.   I'd use my presidential power to create the greatest exodus of illegal aliens out of this country since Ike in 1954.   For those jobs requiring farm work, I would create the 'pink card' that lasts for 3 months.   It would feature a finger print, picture ID and tax number.   If you break the law by forging it, you instantly go to prison and you will never be allowed to come back as a seasonal worker again."

2007-04-04
Bob Chapman _Gold $eek_
US markets are broken
"Free trade and globalization is the new imperialism, the re-colonization of sovereign nations.   In America the ramrod for destruction of what has come to be known as the American system is the Council on Foreign Relations.   They have been instrumental in the development of GATT, WTO, NAFTA, CAFTA, FTAA and now SPP or the North American Union.   Over the last 6 years Americans have lost more than 5M jobs to out-sourcing and off-shoring.   Congress has heard one gory story after another from its own members, yet little has been done to solve this problem that is ripping the heart out of our country.   Congress has answered by offering a stipend to those over 55 years old who accept a lower paying job.   That isn't the answer, because the [tax-victims] pay for it and the culprit gets away paying a token amount via normal taxation.   Those companies that off-shore and out-source should pay that bill and not for just a year, but until the worker ceases working."

2007-04-04
_Heise_
US-Politiker wollen Visaprogramme für Fachkräfte stärker reglementieren
"Zwei US-Senatoren haben Kritik an den Visa-Programmen H-1B und L-1 aufgegriffen und in einen Gesetzentwurf gegossen.   Der Republikaner Chuck Grassley und der Demokrat Dich Durbin wollen mit dem nun laut Mitteilung in den Kongress eingebrachten The H-1B and L-1 Visa Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act of 2007 erreichen, dass US-Bürger bei Einstellungen bevorzugt werden und vermeiden, dass die Konkurrenz mit ausländischen Fachkräften zu Lohndumping und Beschneidung von Arbeitnehmerrechten führt.   Derartige Bedenken hatte beispielsweise das Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA (IEEE-USA) geäußert."

2007-04-04
Deborah Perelman _eWeek Channel Insider_/_Ziff Davis_
There is no shortage of US engineers
eWeek
"there is no shortage of engineers in the United States, and that off-shoring is all about cost savings.   This report, entitled 'Issues in Science and Technology' and published in the latest National Academy of Sciences magazine further explores the topic of engineering graduation rates of India, [Red China] and the United States, the subject of a 2005 Duke study.   In the report, concerns are raised that [Red China] is racing ahead of both the United States and India in its ability to perform basic research.   It also asserts that the United States is risking losing its global edge by out-sourcing critical R&D and India is falling behind by playing politics with education.   Meanwhile, it considers [Red China] well-positioned for the future.   Duke's 2005 study corrected a long-heard myth about India and [Red China] graduating 12 times as many engineers as the United States, finding instead that the United States graduates a comparable number.   'You had the brightest kids [in the USA] worrying about their jobs being out-sourced.   We thought, if kids at Duke were worried, then let's do a study about what's going on in education.', Vivek Wadhwa, [former body shopper,] executive in residence at Duke University's master's in engineering management program and a co-author of the study, told eWEEK at the time.   'The first thing you do in a study is you look at the facts.   But we couldn't find any facts.   The more we dug, the more we looked, the more we discovered there were no facts.', said Wadhwa.   However, Duke's 2005 study reported serious problems with the quality of Indian and [Red Chinese] bachelor-level engineering graduates, and predicted both shortages in India and unemployment in [Red China].   The current report finds these predictions to be accurate, with [Red China's] National Reform Commission reporting that the majority of its 2006 graduates will not find work.   There are also oft-heard whisperings of an engineering shortage in India, though private colleges and 'finishing schools' are going far to make up for the Indian deficiencies, the report said.   Yet, it is cost savings, and not the education of Indian and Chinese workers, or a shortage of American engineers that has caused off-shore out-sourcing, the study asserts.   'Respondents said the advantages of hiring U.S. engineers were strong communication skills, an understanding of U.S. industry, superior business acumen, strong education or training, strong technical skills, proximity to work centers, lack of cultural issues, and a sense of creativity and desire to challenge the status quo.', wrote Wadhwa in the 2007 report.   'The key advantage of hiring Chinese entry-level engineers was cost savings, whereas a few respondents cited strong education or training and a willingness to work long hours.   Similarly, cost savings were cited as a major advantage of hiring Indian entry-level engineers, whereas other advantages were technical knowledge, English language skills, strong education or training, ability to learn quickly, and a strong work ethic.'   The report concludes by stating that out-sourcing will continue to build enough momentum that the next big piece to be off-shored is R&D, and that these jobs will require more Master's degrees and PhDs, something [Red China] graduates more of in engineering than the United States.   The number of India's engineering PhD's has remained flat, while [Red China's] has surged, the report said.   The study ultimately found that the United States has a tremendous amount of work to do to keep up, above and beyond fixing K-12 education.   'Even if the nation did everything that is needed, it will probably take 10 to 15 years before major benefits become apparent.   Given the pace at which globalization is happening, by that time the United States would have lost its global competitive edge.   The nation cannot wait for education to set matters right.', said Wadhwa.   Furthermore, even while the education system does improve, the report pressures for a more welcome attitude toward skilled immigrants.   'It is clear that skilled immigrants bring a lot to the United States: They contribute to the economy, create jobs and lead innovation.   H-1B's are temporary visas and come with many restrictions.   If the nation truly needs workers with special skills, it should make them welcome by providing them with permanent resident status.', Wadhwa said.   'Temporary workers cannot start businesses, and the nation currently is not giving them the opportunity to integrate into society and help the United States compete globally.   We must also make it easier for foreign students to stay after they graduate.'"
 

2007-04-05 (5767 Adar 15)

2007-04-05
Norman Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring e-News-Letter_
today's Wall Street Journal editorial
Today's WSJ includes an editorial whose lead paragraphs are:
While politicians haggle over immigration reform, the U.S. economy's demand for workers foreign and domestic continues to grow.   On Monday U.S. officials began accepting applications for the 85K available H-1b visas -- the kind that go to foreign professionals -- for the fiscal year starting in October.   By Tuesday, the quota had been filled, making this the third straight year that the cap was reached before the fiscal year had even begun.   It's another example of the disconnect between immigration policy and labor market realities.   A common assumption of immigration critics is that alien workers are either stealing American jobs or reducing home-grown wages.   But both notions are flawed, according to a new and illuminating study by economist Giovanni Peri for the Public Policy Institute of California.
Giovanni Peri is my colleague at UCD [University of California at Davis], and is a very friendly, pleasant fellow.   He is in the earlier part of his career, and I predict he will gradually make his mark in the economics community.   But the editorial is completely wrong to cite him regarding H-1B, for the following reasons:
1. First and foremost, PERI'S STUDY WAS NOT ABOUT H-1B.   It was a study about immigration in general, the rich, poor and middle, all mixed together.   There is really nothing in his study which sheds light on H-1B.
2. Second, Peri has not studied H-1B or related issues otherwise.   I asked him to give a guest lecture in my freshman seminar class on immigration last Fall.   He showed some slides about his study, and we chatted afterwards.   He readily admitted that he doesn't know much about H-1B or tech immigrants in general.   He said that he just assumes that if the employers hire H-1Bs, there must be a shortage of workers.   When I said that the 'shortage' is one of cheap labor, he was surprised and seemed interested, but this is not a topic on which he has any expertise.
3. For our purposes, Reasons 1 and 2 above are quite enough to show the irrelevance of the study to the H-1B issue, but as an academic I do feel the need to explain how academic research works.   Peri's study is not yet published academically.   He will submit it to a scholarly economics journal, which will assign two or more reviewers who are experts in the field.   If they believe his methods and conclusions are sound, and his results are useful, the journal will publish it.   This is the case, for instance, when you see a news report which starts out with 'The new issue of the New England Journal of Medicine has an article...'   That medical article will have gone through the academic review process to verify that it is correct.   If Peri's paper is rejected, he will either heed the negative comments and submit a modified version to another journal, or will simply move on to something else.   The reason that Peri's study is getting so much press is that it is a message that lobbyists want to transmit to the American populace and especially to Congress.   That's why the pro-H-1B Wall Street Journal (which once called for a constitutional amendment instituting fully open borders) is citing his study, and it's why the industry lobbying group Compete America has a copy of the WSJ editorial on their web [site].   Note that you can't get it on the WSJ site if you're not a subscriber, but Compete America is happy to provide it.
4. Peri's thesis is that immigrants and natives play complementary roles with respect to each other, rather than competing with each other.   He makes this conclusion by observing certain patterns in the data, but actually the conclusion is invalid.   Let me explain why, using something the WSJ cites from the study, which is that larger percentages of immigrants have PhDs than do natives.   Peri's point is that the data patterns show that a higher percentage of immigrants want to study for a PhD while a lesser percentage of natives don, so that they are complementing each other.   But as readers of this e-news-letter know, the governmental National Science Foundation brought in foreign students and foreign professionals for the express purpose of keeping PhD wages down.   And most significantly, the NSF projected, quite correctly, that this suppression of wages would drive away Americans from pursuing doctoral study.   So the immigrants and natives aren't playing complementary roles at all.
Norm"

2007-04-04 17:06:39PDT (2007-04-04 20:06:39EDT) (2007-04-05 00:06:39GMT)
_Americans for Legal Immigration_
Illegal aliens apprehended: They were carrying Bank of India (formerly called Bank of America) credit cards
"Illegal immigrant suspects had records.   Two of 9 caught at hotel are fugitives, Morganelli says...   Morganelli said Flor Rocha, of Falls Church, VA, was wanted in California for a dangerous drugs charge, but officials wouldn't extradite him back to California.   Juan Carlos Hinjosa, of Springfield, VA, was wanted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials after he was arrested in 2005 February."

2007-04-05 05:30PST (08:30EST) (13:30GMT)
Subri Raman & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
current press release
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 266,229 in the week ending March 31, a decrease of 7,364 from the previous week.   There were 253,985 initial claims in the comparable week in 2006.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.1% during the week ending March 24, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 2,731,527, a decrease of 94,946 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 2.1% and the volume was 2,680,141.   Extended benefits were not available in any state during the week ending March 17."
graphs

2007-04-05
Anya Sostek _Pittsburgh Post-Gazette_
More shortage whining amidst a surplus of under-utilized US science and tech talent

2007-04-05 15:00PDT (18:00EDT) (22:00GMT)
Lou Dobbs & Bill Tucker _CNN_
Over-paid executives; H-1b visa excess
Lou Dobbs: Ford Motor Company posted a record $12.7G in losses last year.   Yet, it's CEO, Allen Mulally, was paid $28M for just 4 months of work last year.   While Mulally was handsomely compensated, to say the very least, 38K Ford workers were given out buyout packages.   And 14 Ford plants are now scheduled to be closed.   Mulally's compensation package also includes access, of course, to corporate jets for his business and personal travel.   It's a perk that costs the company hundreds of thousands of dollars additionally each year.   And it's also a pretty good -- maybe the record for four months worth of work.   More proof tonight that business is fragrantly abusing America's visa program to replace hard-working Americans with cheap foreign labor.   U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services now reports that big business snatched up the annual quota of [85K] new H-1B visas for foreign worker visas in just one day this week.   As Bill Tucker now reports, corporate America wants even more cheap labor entering the country.
Bill Tucker, CNN correspondent: H-1B workers are irresistible to American business.   Claims by the corporate elite that it's not about the cheap labor don't ring true.   A soon-to-be-released study from the Center for Immigration Studies finds that wages reported for H-1B workers averaged $12K below the median wage for the U.S. worker in the same occupation and in the same location in 2005.   It was $16K less for computer workers.   No wonder America's richest man recently told Congress the program should be expanded.
Bill Gates, former CEO of M$: I don't think there should be any limit.
Bill Tucker: What Bill Gates knows and isn't saying, but what a former director at ICE will say is that for some, there is no limit.
Victor Cerda, former Customs Enforcement Director: Homeland Security is announcing that the cap was met, the 65K cap.   That doesn't include necessarily the 20K, the first 20K who earned masters degrees in U.S. universities.   They're excluded.
Bill Tucker: Also excluded are universities and nonprofit research organizations.   They are unlimited.   Nor do H-1B workers fall in any one category.   All the worker needs is a college degree.   Even fashion models can apply.   The biggest group under the cap are tech workers.   The United States Citizenship and Immigration Service recently released data on H-1B approvals in 2004 and 2005.   Nearly 117K visa applications were approved for the fiscal year 2004, 130K for 2005.   Both years a far cry from 65K.   And a company doesn't have to be American to apply.
Kim Berry, the Programmers Guild: The industry's created this perception that there's this great need, and that's why we bring in the workers.   What's happening, the top three users are foreign consulting firms.   First, they bring in the workers, and then they aggressively try to find work for these workers.
Bill Tucker: Those 3 companies are India's Infosys Technologies, Wipro, and Cognizant Technology Solutions.   And as you might expect, India's National Association of Software and Services Companies was quick to complain.   The organization, known as NASSCOM, is made up of 1,100 companies in India, many of whom make their money off work out-sourced to India, and engineers working on H-1B visas.   NASSCOM thinks the cap should be large enough for 'market forces to operate freely', Lou, as it did when the cap was 195K, just about 3 years ago.
Lou Dobbs: You know, it's a competitive world.   I give those Indian companies all the credit in the world.
Bill Tucker: Absolutely.
Lou Dobbs: My complaint are with the idiots who run the United States government and who permit this kind of conduct.   I mean, I love the fact that we can't even control the number of H-1B visas.   Even with the cap, they overrun it by, say, double.
Bill Tucker: Right.
Lou Dobbs: Which is ludicrous to begin with.   No one really has a clear count on the number of these visas out there, or how many people are still in the country with them.   That's your Citizenship and Immigration Services at work.   And then you have people like Bill Gates saying it should be unlimited.   Guess what, Bill, old buddy -- it is unlimited the way this government is operated.   And the people being punished, American workers as a result.
Bill Tucker: And it's not like we don't know, Lou.   There have been studies going back to 1995 from the government telling us that.
Lou Dobbs: Well, and they were supposed to be, by the way, providing accurate reporting on that every year since.   But mysteriously, that just has not quite happened.   We should point out -- you mentioned those 3 Indian companies.   We should point out that 70% of -- 70% of all of those visa applications are originating with those Indian corporations.   Those aren't American corporations seeking those workers.   Now, the other side of this is, I'm thrilled to have some people in this country who want to come here, even temporarily, who have college educations and can provide necessary skills.   But if corporate America really wants to back it up, and if those fine folks from India want to back it up with emphasis, (INAUDIBLE), and so forth, maybe they ought to lift their wages up to the prevailing American wage, and then we wouldn't be so skeptical of their intent.

2007-04-05 (5767 Nissan 18)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
The shame of higher education

2007-04-05

DJIA	12,560.20
S&P 500	1,443.76
NASDAQ	2,471.34
10-year US T-Bond	4.67%
crude oil	64.28
gold	679.40
silver	13.74
platinum	1,234.70
palladium	356.40
copper	0.2111
natgas	7.607/MBTU
unleadedgasoline	NYMEX no longer trading
reformulatedgasoline	$2.1288/gal
heatingoil	$1.8609/gal

I usually get this info from MarketWatch, which gets them from BigCharts.
 
 

2007-04-06 (5767 Adar 16)

2007-04-06
Bruce Collins _Big Finale_
interview of Doug Tjaden on Traditions of Men, wealth, debt, bondge, scrip, and religion
Equipping the Family
American Chronicle
Bruce D. Collins

2007-04-06 (5767 Nissan 18)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
Must we lose this war?
 

2007-04-07 (5767 Adar 17)

2007-04-07
Marianne Kolbasuk McGee _Information Week_
As the H-1B cap filled in record time, perversion is in the air
"The IT unemployment rate based on an average of the past 4 quarters is 2.3%, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released last week.   To compare that, unemployment across all management and professional jobs, IT and non-IT, was 2.2%.   Some segments have boomed: In IT management, jobs are up 31% since the tech employment nadir of 2003, and unemployment is 1.9%.   Jobs in the largest IT category, software engineers, are up 17% from 2003 and unemployment is 1.7%.   But the second largest category, computer scientists and system analysts, has been flat since 2003, with 2.6% unemployment today.   Support specialists see 3.2% unemployment, network and system admins 3.6%.   Overall, IT jobs are up just 1% since 2001 and 5% since 2003...   But it's the Durbin-Grassley bill that would break new ground.   It's aimed at H-1B and L-1, which isn't capped and is designed for managers of multinationals.   The Durbin-Grassley bill would bar companies from out-sourcing H-1B or L-1 employees to other companies; it would require all employers with H-1B workers to pledge that they made a good faith effort to fill those jobs with American workers, something now required only of companies with 15% or more of their employees on H-1B; and it would require them to advertise jobs on a Labor Department Web site for 30 days and post summaries of all H-1B applications.   It would also give the Labor Department more authority to investigate abuses.   'It's a great bill to fix the problems.', Hira says.   Addressing such abuses would lower demand and make it less likely that the cap would have to be raised, he contends.   Others want broader reform kept separate from the cap discussion, having seen past efforts wither while caps increase.   'This time around I think we need to reform the H-1B program first.', says John Miano, founder of the Programmers Guild, an IT professional organization opposed to H-1Bs."

2007-04-07
Neal Ross _News with Views_
Flake, Gutierrea, Kennedy, McCain and their ilk continue to float proposals to worsen excess immigration problems

2007-04-07
Glenn Stansbury & Manuel Sousa _San Jose Mercury News_
Qualified workers can be found right here: Take sanctuary cities' cops' argument to conclusion
"I read the article on H-1B visas (Page 1C, April 4) after visiting a job fair in Santa Clara.   I must ask: Where were Oracle and all these companies who are trying to find workers?   There are bright people here who are willing and able to work.   Just go to any open house, job fair or career counseling center.   Before I am dismissed as another uneducated wannabe, I will let you know that I have a bachelor of science degree in computer science and an MBA, and it is very rough to find employment...   It makes sense that Bay Area police departments refuse to report suspected illegal immigrants to the federal authorities (Page 1A, April 5).   If they were to pursue illegal immigrants, they would indeed lose the tenuous trust of the immigrant communities.   Taking this sort of thinking to the next level, will the police now look the other way when a bank is robbed or a car is stolen, to retain the trust of the bank-robbing and car-stealing communities?"

2007-04-07
weaver
Rebuttal to H-1B Shortage Claims

2007-04-07
_Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)_
No shortage of qualified scientists and engineers in America
 

2007-04-08

2007-03-08
_Hindustan Times_
Four Indians held in USA for human smuggling
"The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced Niranjan Maan Singh, also known as Jit Narinder Singh, and Ramesh Patel, the alleged leaders..."

2007-04-08
David Koenig _Akron Beacon Journal_/_AP_
American Airlines' executives give themselves a huge bonus after demanding production workers tighten their belts and improve productivity over the last several years
"The president of the flight attendants' union at American Airlines wanted to tell Chief Executive Gerard Arpey that labor relations are rocky because American will give millions in bonuses to executives but not to rank-and-file workers.   Hutto-Blake says the bonuses -- which will total an estimated $175M for 1K managers -- don't match Arpey's motto to labor: 'Pull together, win together'.   So at a meeting of about 20 labor leaders and top executives, including Arpey, Hutto-Blake showed 'Collision Course', a 1980s documentary about the union-management strife that helped sink Eastern Airlines...   The pay-out this month would, at AMR's current share price, equal three-fourths of the company's $231M profit for all of 2006.   As in past years, rank-and-file employees won't get them...   But union officials say it was their members who made the payouts possible.   In 2003, with AMR on the brink of bankruptcy, they took pay cuts of 15% to 23%, helping AMR cut its labor costs by $1.8G per year and recover from a recession, terror attacks and increased competition in the airline industry."

2007-04-08
_Cincinnati Enquirer_
Butler county sheriff Richard Jones to introduce former UN ambassador John Bolton at Miami University's Hall Auditorium at 19:00 on Tuesday

2007-04-08
Steve Sailer _V Dare_
Jewish Genius
"Jewish success in the public sphere is one of those phenomena that is widely denounced as a 'stereotype'.   But it is as well documented as anything in the social sciences."
 

2007-04-09

2007-04-08 21:15PDT (2007-04-09 00:15EDT) (2007-04-09 04:15GMT)
Andrew Dunn _Asheville Citizen-Times_
Additional guest-worker program would do harm
"Citizens of Western North Carolina woke up to some disheartening news the other week.   Eleven Circuit City workers in our area are losing their jobs so they can be replaced with lower-wage workers.   We can expect a lot more stories such as this if Congress doesn't say no to President Bush's guest-worker/amnesty program...   if Congress agrees to a 'comprehensive immigration' package that includes a guest worker program, we can say goodbye to the American middle class...   Blue-collar workers aren't the only ones who face extinction if guest worker/amnesty legislation passes.   M$, Intel and others in the technology industry are pressuring Congress to increase the number of engineers from India, Pakistan and [Red China] who can be imported on H-1B visas to take American jobs.   The United States has never had a shortage of engineers, despite what the globalists say.   Silicon Valley lost about 100K engineering jobs after the dot com bust.   American universities graduate thousands of innovative, American engineers every year.   H-1B visas are a ruse to legally import low-wage foreigners, train them, and then boost profits by using them effectively in out-sourced Asian plants.   Communist China is already starting to sell itself as a bio-tech and pharmaceutical out-sourcing center.   Employees at North Carolina's Research Triangle Park and bio-tech companies in Winston-Salem should be concerned."

2007-04-09
Larry Dignan _ZD Net_
CIO salary survey
"In an examination of proxy statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission filed from January 1 through April 5 there were 13 CIOs who made more than $1M.   Companies typically list their five highest paid executives in their proxy statements.   CIOs often don't make the cut but are increasingly turning up.   Another trend: CIOs and former CIOs seem to be appearing on company boards more often."
table

2007-04-09
Norman Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring e-News-Letter_
H-1Bs are not just 5% of the tech work-force
"One of the standard lines of the industry lobbyists is, 'Only 5% of our work-force hold H-1B visas.'   I've always countered that this figure is very misleading.   First, these figures are for a firm's workforce in general, including the secretaries, marketing people, accountants, etc.   If the firm were to disclose the number of H-1Bs in their engineering work-force, the percentage would be quite a bit higher.   Second, the usual 5% figure doesn't include workers who hold H-1B but are 'rented' from other companies [i.e. via body shops].   Finally -- and this is my reason for posting the article below -- historically most H-1Bs in the tech area have ultimately gotten green cards.   They then become permanent fixtures in the work-force, thus swelling the labor pool.   This reduces wages, and most importantly, fuels the rampant age discrimination in the industry.   In light of that third point, the following passage in the [article by Jessica Mintz, M$'s AP stringer] is of interest:
Employers seek H-1B visas on behalf of scientists, engineers, computer programmers and other workers with theoretical or technical expertise.   In M$ Corp.'s case, about one-third of its 46K U.S.-based employees have work visas or are legal permanent residents with green cards, said Ginny Terzano, a spokes-woman for the company.
Get that?   One-third!   So you can see that it's not 5% after all.   I must hasten to add that when an H-1B gets a green card, that worker becomes my fellow American and I fully support his/her right to work here.   But my point, again, is that there are permanent effects here that must be taken into account.   True, once a worker obtains a green card, he/she is no longer exploitable.   But that is still young, and thus H-1B provides a continuing supply of young workers even after they get green cards, and thus facilitates the ability of employers to avoid hiring older (age 40+ or even 35+) Americans.   Again, this is the dirty little secret about H-1B.   That's why the 'instant green card' proposals, such as the F-4 visa in the SKIL bill, are NOT the solution to the H-1B problem but instead exacerbate that problem.   IEEE-USA et al are making a huge mistake by making common cause with the industry lobbyists on this."

2007-04-09 14:46PDT (17:46EDT) (21:46GMT)
William L. Watts _MarketWatch_
US filed piracy complaints with WTO
"Amid rising tensions with Beijing, U.S. trade officials on Monday said they would bring two complaints to the World Trade Organization, both stemming from long-standing complaints about [Red China's] lack of enforcement of copyrights and trademarks on books, music, videos and movies...   One U.S. complaint charges that [Red China] has failed to make needed changes to its legal framework to ensure a sufficient crack-down on piracy.   The other complaint charges that [Red China] has failed to meet its WTO obligations to remove barriers to trade in books, music, videos and movies...   Schwab's news conference featured a table piled with counterfeit items -- including DVDs, books, CDs and lighters -- that trade officials said were obtained in [Red China].   The Motion Picture Association of America, a powerful trade group that represents the U.S. film industry, applauded the decision.   'This was a welcome and logical next step in efforts to spur progress in [Red China].', said MPAA CEO Dan Glickman.   'Fair market access and respect for the intellectual property of other countries are basic conditions of membership in the global community which [Red China] committed to live by when it sought acceptance into the WTO.'...   [Red Chinese] judicial officials recently ruled that vendors caught with 500 or more counterfeit items could face criminal prosecution, down from the previous threshold of 1K, Schwab said."

2007-04-09
John Lantigua _Miami Herald_/_Palm Beach Post_
Gangs growing in rural Florida
Known Gangs
"It is spray-painted in blue with the number 13...   Southside 13 members either are affiliated with the violent national gang Sur 13 or at least want to be...   near his thumb, a triangle of three dots.   They stand for mi vida loca -- my crazy life -- the national motto of Latin gangs...   Miami-Dade investigators have reported more national gangs like the Bloods recruiting teens in suburban parts of the county.   A Bloods member was beaten up as part of an initiation inside the bathroom of a South Miami-Dade middle school, investigators said...   Unlike big, [international] gangs like MS-13, local groups tend to be small and disorganized, with names like Lauderdale Manor Boys or Parkway Gangstas."

2007-04-09
Frank Hayes _Computer World_
H-1Bs and students
"It turns out that the much-lamented decline in CS students maps almost exactly to the dot-com boom and bust -- which matches up pretty closely with actual IT industry employment...   According to freshly updated statistics from the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, interest in CS as a major was flat at U.S. colleges until about 1994.   Then it took off like a rocket, reaching a peak in 2000.   That's right -- as the Internet soared, so did the number of kids who wanted a piece of that action.   Then, as the dot-com economy fell off a cliff, so did CS's popularity as a major.   By 2004, it was back down to pre-boom levels."
graphs of data from the Digest of Education Statistics

2007-04-09
_Media News Wire_/_US DoJ_
11 members of Cuban alien-smuggling ring indicted

2007-04-09
Jose Martinez _FIU Beacon_
Violence and corruption are still problems in South Florida
"With the massive influx of individuals from every corner of the world into the confines of Miami-Dade County, there has been an accumulation of wealth and affluence within in a relatively small geographical area.   Along with this overwhelming immigration of wealthy outsiders, there has been a rampant scourge that has threatened to shatter this equilibrium -- this divisive force is none other than crime.   As the cost of living has ballooned to unprecedented heights, many individuals belonging to the poor and underprivileged classes have taken to criminal endeavors, in an effort to scrape together some means of supporting themselves.   This is evident in the prevalence of robberies within Miami-Dade County, which boasted 65,011 robberies, burglaries and motor vehicle thefts, combined this year...   An overwhelming majority of the 89 murders, which took place in the city of Miami alone, can be attributed to gang activity.   There needs to be a more concerted effort on behalf of law authorities to apprehend and identify inner-city gang members.   City of Miami Police identified 617 gang members in 2006, and apprehended a mere 113.

2007-04-09
Victor Manuel Ramos _Orlando Sentinel_
Immigrants and illegal aliens see Florida as a path to American dream
"The immigrant population has nearly quadrupled in Metro Orlando, from about 77K in 1990 to at least 302K in 2005.   More than 3.2M foreigners of different immigration statuses and national origins lived in Florida in 2005, the last year for which updated figures are available.   An estimated 850K were in the state illegally, but most have some sort of temporary or legal status.   Tens of thousands enter under visas for specialty workers or under student visas for higher education, and thousands of others seek asylum from political oppression or refuge from war...   more than 4,700 refugee applicants who were admitted to Florida in 2005...   He arrived with an H-1B visa for specialty workers.   More than 43K immigrants entered Florida in 2005 with employment-based visas for 'specialty occupations' [H-1B visas]...   More than 122K immigrants became permanent residents in Florida in 2005.   Orlando's number of new residents ranged from 4K to 6K per year between 2002 and 2004.   More than 10K became permanent residents in 2005...   More than 37K immigrants entered Florida in 2005 with visas for 'students and exchange visitors' [F and J visas]...   There is a back-log of about 9,600 [refugee asylum visa applications] in Orlando...   More than 30K Cubans became residents, mostly under act provisions, in 2005...   He had been in the U.S. before, first in the late 1980s as an exchange student in Bantam, CT, and later in the mid-1990s with a student visa to study at Pennsylvania State University.   It was a 2002 visit to Walt Disney World that worked its magic...   years of experience as a marketing executive for Cargill, a Minnesota-based multi-national.   He got the job and flew in from Caracas, Venezuela, with one of the coveted H-1B visas that the U.S. doles out every year to temporary workers with 'specialty occupations'.   They are people who bring talents and job skills that are either in short supply or could benefit a growing sector of the economy.   After one recent day of work in February, Ojeda found a small envelope waiting for him at home.   It brought him the 'permanent resident card' -- popularly known as a 'green card' -- authorizing him to live and work here permanently.   His wife and children also received theirs...   He is seeking an industrial-engineering degree at UCF, hoping to land a job after graduation with a military or aerospace contractor in Central Florida."

2007-03-09
Frosty Wooldridge _American Chronicle_
America's Ugly Ending

2007-04-09
_FAIR US_/_PR News Wire_
Bush speech calls for same old amnesty for illegal aliens

2007-04-09
Donald A. Collins _V Dare_
Lack of arrests of illegal aliens in Los Angeles, protesting latest amnesty proposals, has many US citizens incensed

2007-04-09
Edwin S. Rubenstein _V Dare_
Blacks crushed by illegal alien & immigration job grab
"Here is the March job story by racial group: Total employment: +335K (+0.23%); Hispanic: +84K (+0.42%); Non-Hispanic: +251K (+0.20%); White: +446K (+0.37%); Black: -166K (-1.03%).   IOW, in percentage terms, Hispanic job growth was more than twice that of non-Hispanics.   (Some 40% of Hispanics are foreign born, so they are a good proxy for the displacement of American workers by immigrants.)   The Hispanicization of the U.S. work-force is happening, or course, because immigrants are cheaper than U.S.-born workers.   Many are paid 'off the books' -- freeing their employers of the onerous burden of pay-roll taxes and unemployment compensation...   In 2007 March, VDAWDI (the V-Dare.com American Worker Displacement Index) rose to 121.6, up from 121.3 the prior month, and yet another all-time record."

2007-04-09
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