2010 April

1st month of the 2nd quarter of the 21st year of the Bush-Clinton-Shrub-Obummer economic depression

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updated: 2018-03-29
 

  "Internally, however, granting asylum was an important political symbol.   Among the Pare a ruler who failed to protect his people, or to treat them fairly, was faced with mass movement of people from his district to another ruler's district.   A movement of a mistreated non-Pare group to a Pare district had the saem meaning, that is, that a good ruler's protection was being sought." --- Isaria Kimambo "Migrations to the Pare Mountains" in Franklin D. Scott 1968 _World Migration in Modern Times_ pg 99  

 
 
2010 April
UMTWRFS
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  "A proverb from the Machame section of the Mountain warns that 'sitting buttocks never carry straw'.   That is, if someone wants to make something of himself, he must go out in search of the means." --- Susan Geiger Rogers "Emigration and Return of the Chagga" in Franklin D. Scott 1968 _World Migration in Modern Times_ pg 104  

 
 

 

 


captain William Scott's flag for the Republic of Texas.

2010 April

1st month of the 2nd quarter of the 11th year of the Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama economic depression


 
 

2010-04-01

2010-04-01 05:30PDT (08:30EDT) (12:30GMT)
Scott Gibbons & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
DoL home page
historical data
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 404,869 in the week ending March 27, a decrease of 3,784 from the previous week.   There were 599,299 initial claims in the comparable week in 2009.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 4.0% during the week ending March 20, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 5,174,470, a decrease of 170,152 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 4.8% and the volume was 6,388,414.   Extended benefits were available in AL, AK, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, ME, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, and WI during the week ending March 13...   States reported 5,894,337 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending March 13, an increase of 267,012 from the prior week.   There were 2,172,852 claimants in the comparable week in 2009.   EUC weekly claims include first, second, third, and fourth tier activity.
graphs
more graphs

2010-04-01 03:00PDT (06:00EDT) (10:00GMT)
David Whelan _Forbes_
Hiring Hot Spots: firms expanding pay-rolls... in ways that won't help US citizens
Red China construction machinery trade company
Silicon Investor
"Some of the companies on the list are expanding in ways that won't be of great help to U.S. job seekers.   Cognizant, a computer out-sourcer [cross-border bodyshopper] with big offices in New Jersey and Phoenix, added 16,700 workers -- the most of any on our list.   But most of these jobs were at computing centers in India and other over-seas locations.   Still, Cognizant says it is hiring in the U.S.A. as well -- 13K of its 78,400 workers as of year end were in North America. [But how many of them are native US citizens?]   Says spokeswoman Catherine Marenghi: 'We have 5 IT delivery centers and numerous sales and business offices across the country.'"

2010-04-01 06:02PDT (09:02EDT) (13:02GMT)
_CNN_
CGC: 67,611 planned job cuts announced in March
alternate CNN story
MSFT/GE/CNBC
Reuters
Courtney Schlisserman: Business Week
Timothy R. Homan: Business Week
Fox
Melly Alazraki: Blogging Stocks
Karl Denninger: iStockAnalyst
Bob Chapman: Before It's News
AOL Daily Finance
Francine Knowles: Chicago IL Sun-Times
Mary Ann Milbourn: Orange County CA Register
Fierce Pharma
Fierce Bio-Tech
Genome Web: Fewer Cuts, Or Fewer Left To Cut?
Hartford Business Journal
Phil Izzo: Wall Street Journal
Prison Planet
Employers announced plans to cut 67,611 jobs in March, Challenger said.   That's up 61% from February, when 42,090 jobs were lost, and down from 150,411 in 2009 March.
 
The first-quarter total of 181,183 lay-offs compares favorably with the 578,510 of 2009Q1.
 
Planned government cuts rose 75% last month to 50,604, with the US Snail planning to cut its pay-roll by 30K workers while 20,604 came from state and local agencies, including many school districts.   Computer industry was second with 2,796 followed by energy at 2,225.
 
Year-to-date, government employers have announced 61,800 job cuts, or about a third of all announced layoffs; followed by the pharmaceutical sector at 26,165; retail at 20,368; and telecommunications at 14,795; and automotive with 7,728.   Compare this with government 32,923; pharmaceuticals 48,655; retail 76,548; telecommunications 18,972; automotive 76,864 up to this time last year.
Government/Non-Profit Sector Job Cuts
2002 - 2010Q1 TotalAnnual Total
200244,304106,071
200361,658177,215*
200418,96392,094
200531,119136,640
200631,97164,970
20078,80635,044
200828,36377,045
200932,923170,853
201061,80061,800 ytd
Illinois-based employers announced 10,329 job cuts in March, a nearly five-fold increase over February.
March Announced Lay-Offs by Firm HQ State/District
State/areaLay-Offs
DC30,200
IL10,329
CA5,379
GA4,000
NC3,334
wrote Denninger: "a private pension plan which can and sometimes does default.   When private sector employees push too hard and abuse their pension systems, forcing them under-water, the PBGC comes in and takes over the plan.   This results in the plan forcibly resetting back to whatever it can actually fund, which frequently results in a 50% or more reduction in benefits for pensioners.   Those who think that the 'pain is over' need to look at state finances."

2010-04-01
_Voice of America_
Timothy Geithner says US unemployment rates will remain unacceptably high for a long time
The U.S. economy shed more than 8M jobs during the current recession within the Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama economic depression.   The unemployment rate is currently a relatively high seasonally adjusted 9.7%, about 3 times what full-employment would be.

2010-04-01
_Dice_
Dice Report: 62,067 job ads

Total62,067
UNIXNA
WindozeNA
JavaNA
C/C++/Objective-CNA
body shop29,766
full-time temp36,296
part-time temp1,310

 
graphs

2010-04-01 (5770 Nisan 17)
Dennis Pager _Jewish World Review_
Where Do Jews and Christians on the Left Get Their Values?

2010-04-01 (5770 Nisan 17)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
Conflict or Co-Operation
"The prime feature of political decision-making is that it's a zero-sum game.   One person's gain is of necessity another person's loss...   As such, political decision-making and allocation of resources is conflict enhancing while market decision-making and allocation is conflict reducing.   The greater the number of decisions made in the political arena, the greater the potential for conflict...   As our nation forsakes our founders' wisdom of constitutional limitations placed on Washington, we raise the potential for conflict."

++ S887; Durbin, Grassley; H-1B and L-1 visa program reform
Status of S877
+++ S2804; Sanders; Employ Americans: prohibit firms who lay off large numbers of capable US citizens from making use of guest-work visas
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

  "In 1941 July, an agreement was published by the governments of India and Burma regulating and restricting the admission of Indians to Burma.   'It was intended to remove from Burmans reasonable apprehension that Burma might be subjected to undue economic compettion by reason of such immigration, while securing for Indians settled in Burma recognition of their proper rights.   The principles underlying the agreement were that Burma had the right to determine the composition of her population, and that Indians who have wholly identified themselves with the interests of Burma should enjoy the same rights as members of her permanent population.   The agreement has been strongly attacked by Indian nationalists, led by Mr. Gandhi, who urged among other points that public opinion had been inadequately consulted, and that the measure cast a slur upon Indians.'" --- Bruno Lasker 1945 _Asia on the Move_ pp 57-93 (quoted in in Franklin D. Scott 1968 _World Migration in Modern Times_ pg 122)  

 

2010-04-02

2010-04-02 12:44PDT (15:44EDT) (19:44GMT)
Dan Gallagher _MarketWatch_
Software developers race to get ahead of iPad release

2010-04-02
Kim Berry _Programmers Guild_
Lottay.com "skill shortage" commentary on PBS exposed as a sham
Thanks Walter for posting this PBS commentary by Harry Lin CEO of Lottay.com in the PG Yahoo! forum:
 
"...Yes, even as unemployment in the golden state passes 13%, I and my fellow employers struggle to hire the talent we need.   That's because the speed of innovation in IT, software and barely-above-voodoo jobs such as Internet marketing and social media strategy put a premium on skills that very few people possess.   My Internet start-up needs ruby-on-rails (ph) developers.   Do you even know what that means? It means they're hard to find.   I could go on listing jobs that tech companies need filled but the point is that shockingly few people have what these companies need which is why so many tech companies out-source jobs to India..."
 
Why would there be more people in India with these 'voodoo' skills?   Does Harry deny that the key factor in out-sourcing to India is not 'available skills' but rather 'willing to work for $4/hour'?
 
Harry Lin comes of as if he is seeking a team of developers and will offer fair wages.   Neither is true -- PBS got fooled.   It's fine if startups want to find people willing to work for 'stock' -- but they are unethical when the misrepresent to PBS that there are a shortage of people with skills like 'ruby on rails'.   A good web developer can pick that skill up in a few weeks anyway.
 
Prior Harry Lin interview
 
Here are their developers -- 'nice cubicles' -- looks like a couple of guys who still live with mommy:
 
Pair programming at Lottay.com
 
This is an office photo of Chris L. and Jesse F., two of Lottay's web developers.   At Lottay, we practice what's known in the web dev world as 'XP' -- 'extreme programming'.
 
LOTTAY.COM is a poorly funded start-up.   Their web-site lists the need for one web developer, which is cutesy 'join our cult' and vague about the salary, but mentions 'stock options' -- I phoned the number at the bottom of their web-site at 11am Friday to ask about salary, but got a personal voicemail box.
 
Wish you had a fun job?   Work for us!
 
Lottay is hiring!   We especially need a web designer.   Join our startup cult, er, team in Ventura California, where surfboard storage comes with the gig (and plenty of stock options).   Send your resume (and questions) to jobs -at- lottay -dot- com.
 
Here's another Help Wanted -- again no salary listed:
 

Application / Software Engineer
 
Web Software Engineer Lottay () is looking to expand its development team with a motivated, fun-loving, creative software engineer to iterate on, scale up and develop new features.   Lottay is a gift-giving web application that's about making the act of online gift-giving more personal, fun, social and fulfilling.   We recently closed a Series A round of funding, we're partnered with PayPal, and we're building buzz on a national level.
 
Job Description: You'll be working with the team to implement features, fix bugs, configure servers and improve our development process.   We do Extreme Programming which includes pair programming, test-driven development, week-long iterations, refactoring and all the rest of that agile goodness.   But we're not nazis about it so be prepared to do some soloing too.   There's no code ownership and that means you'll be working from the very backend all the way to the front.   Nginx configuration and database optimization all the way through CSS and Javascript implementation.
 
Required Skills: Experience with Ruby on Rails or a strong desire and good background to learn it (e.g. experience with php and cake) Experience with front-end implementation including HTML, CSS and Javascript Experience with Linux web-server configuration (bonus for "in the cloud") Desire to practice Test-Driven Development Desire to work as part of an agile development team Plusses: Experience with jQuery Experience with hosting on Amazon's AWS (double bonus for RightScale) Experience with Customer Driven Development (aka Experiment-Driven Development, aka Analytics-Driven Development)
 
Compensation: Salary Meaningful amount of equity Working in Ventura, CA is required.   Are you ready to push the boundaries of Agile and Customer-Driven Development as part of a plucky young team of adventurers? Are you ready to let loose creatively and help build a product that you can truly own and be proud of? Do you want more surfing, ping pong and customer love.   To apply send your qualifications to Location: Ventura, CA Compensation: Salary + Significant amount of equity.
 
RO: Ruby on Rails is basically a framework based on Ruby.   It also brought down twitter.   The reality is one can send good engineers to a 3 day intensive to learn a new language and a framework is just a set of glorified APIs using that language.   So, yeah, nobody uses it because it kind of sucks, but even so, he could easily get those skills by simply hiring good engineers and sending them to a max 2 week course intensive.
---30---

2010-04-02 (5770 Nisan 18)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
Exploiting the Crisis

2010-04-02 (5770 Nisan 18)
"TexasFred"
Fort Hancock, TX braces for Mexican gang battle

++ S887; Durbin, Grassley; H-1B and L-1 visa program reform
Status of S877
+++ S2804; Sanders; Employ Americans: prohibit firms who lay off large numbers of capable US citizens from making use of guest-work visas
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

  "In 1930, we had 45,208 Filipinos in continental United States; in 1940 there were 45,563.   Although the same in number, the Filipinos in the United States are less conspicuous than they were.   More of them have become fully assimilated.   The adult age level has gone up, and there is also a larger proportion of children.   The number of young Filipinos engaged in commercial agriculture as laborers has decreased considerably.   By 1960, however, the US census showed 201,746 Filipinos in the United States, of whom 104,843 were born abroad.   The 1960 figure, of course, included Hawaii." --- Bruno Lasker 1945 _Asia on the Move_ pp 57-93 (quoted in in Franklin D. Scott 1968 _World Migration in Modern Times_ pg 123)  

 

2010-04-03

2010-04-03
_Orange County CA Register_
Gallery of Cartoons on the Economy: Unemployment In America: Obama says family living in card-board box need weather stripping
cartoon 2: pick-pocket
cartoon 3: Obama turns a deaf ear
cartoon 4: Unexpected unemployment insurance claims
cartoon 5: No Jobs Growing in Stimulus Garden
cartoon 5: No Jobs Growing in Stimulus Garden
cartoon 6: Job Ads Only For Government Czars
cartoon 7: Job Market Closed for At Least a Year
cartoon 8: Winds of Change Blow All Worker Leaves from the Job Tree
cartoon 9: Man Sleeping on Bench Covered by Newspaper with Headline "Recession Is Over"
cartoon 10: "Jobless Recovery" replaces "Military Intelligence" as favorite oxymoron
cartoon 11: New Grad Trying to Sell Pencils Out of His Mortar Board
cartoon 12: Home-Less, Job-Less told to Do More with Less
cartoon 13: Stimulus promised fat turkey, delivered a small order of turkey nuggets
cartoon 14: Stimulus promised fat turkey, delivered a small order of turkey nuggets
cartoon 15: Passing Rumor that Bernanke Has Announced Recovery, Down Block-Long Unemployment Line
cartoon 15: No Food on the Table, and No Table
cartoon 16: If Unemployment Rate Were Olympic Scores
cartoon 17: "Social Service" workers dumped out the back door join line to the front door
cartoon 18: Long lines for flu vaccinations and unemployment insurance claims
cartoon 19: Americans in line for economy on the move says Bernanke; In Unemployment Line "Next"
cartoon 20: US unemployed drowning while government's little girl with a twig represents "economic recovery"
cartoon 21: Obama handing out stimulus job tricks at Halloween
cartoon 22: Turkey getting the axe, not laid off
cartoon 23: Stimulus job numbers balloon: Warning: Do not over-inflate
cartoon 24: Presidential turkey pardon; Put it down as another job saved
cartoon 25: Cap & Trade in practice
cartoon 26: Algore and Obama at liar's club
cartoon 27: More fun with phony job creation numbers
cartoon 28: Damocle's lay-off sword in the office
cartoon 29: State workers sent to a bowl game, and being flushed
cartoon 30: Hour glass as recovery gets smaller and unemployment mounts
cartoon 31: US map holding cup and "Need Work" sign
cartoon 32: Mrs. Robinson as job market, wearing cleats as Benjamin looks on holding new sheep-skin and commencement gown
cartoon 33: Wall Street up, while employment remains down
cartoon 34: Man living under bridge realizes stimulus promise of bridge repair and home improvement is redundant

++ S887; Durbin, Grassley; H-1B and L-1 visa program reform
Status of S877
+++ S2804; Sanders; Employ Americans: prohibit firms who lay off large numbers of capable US citizens from making use of guest-work visas
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

  "Under the Independence Act of 1934, an annual quota of 50 Filipino immigrants to the United States [was] permitted until 1946...   In Hawaii, the number of resident Filipinos dropped from about 70K in 1930 to 52K in 1940; but most of these are now permanent residents.   Active labor recruiting in the Philippines stopped some years ago, and the movement of laborers between Manila and Honolulu has assumed very small proportions." --- Bruno Lasker 1945 _Asia on the Move_ pp 57-93 (quoted in in Franklin D. Scott 1968 _World Migration in Modern Times_ pg 123)  

 

2010-04-04

2010-04-04
Vctor Davis Hanson
A Post-Modern Presidency

2010-04-04
Tim Higgins _Akron OH Beacon Journal_/_Detroit MI Free Press_
Chrysler out-sourcing computer jobs

++ S887; Durbin, Grassley; H-1B and L-1 visa program reform
Status of S877
+++ S2804; Sanders; Employ Americans: prohibit firms who lay off large numbers of capable US citizens from making use of guest-work visas
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

  "With the beginning of the world economic depression in the late 1920s, as in previous business depressions, the normal excess of Chinese emigration over-seas over return migration was reversed.   In 1930 over 500K workers were forced by the economic depression to return to their homeland, in 1931 almost 300K.   Anti-Chinese movements gained force in Thailand, Burma, Netherlands India, and the Philippines.   Thousands of independent Chinese colonists -- farmers, artisans, small business men, and wage earners -- bought steam-ship tickets home; and other thousands were repatriated under the terms of their contract.   There were also many, especially descendants of mixed marriages who previously had considered themselves Chinese, who now silently disappeared into the general citizenry of their adopted country (in Thailand, more especially).   Hostility to Chinese residents in Burma was less pronounced than to Indians, although the former had, in the decade 1920 to 1930, increased twice as fast." --- Bruno Lasker 1945 _Asia on the Move_ pp 57-93 (quoted in in Franklin D. Scott 1968 _World Migration in Modern Times_ pg 125)  

 

2010-04-05

2010-04-05
professor Gerald L. Boerner
introduction to the history of hand-held computers

2010-04-05
Tom Lutey _Billings MT Gazette_/_Lee_
Crow Tea Party denounces "Many Stars" deal
"Crow Nation Tea Party members blasted their tribal chairman Monday for selling water rights to an Australian company that plans to build an on-reservation, coal-to-liquid fuel refinery...   At issue is water granted to the Australian-American Energy Co., with which the tribe partnered in 2008 to create a $7G coal-to-liquids Many Stars energy project.   Still in the works, the project was to convert Crow coal reserves into 50K barrels a day of diesel and other fuels.   Project construction was expected to create 4K jobs.   Once operational, the plant was expected to employ 900.   Plains Bull Martin said Crows generally lacked the technical skills needed to work at Many Stars."

2010-04-05 03:00PDT (06:00EDT) (10:00GMT)
Mary Brandel _ComputerWorld_/_IDG_
Salaries stalled, work-loads up, employment down: IT workers being squeezed

2010-04-05 16:52PDT (19:52EDT) (23:52GMT)
Joe Ryan & Brian T. Murray _NJ Star-Ledger_
2 NJ men charged with extortion and obstruction of justice in case of Illinios body shop, for intimidating whistle-blower
"Shortly after a foreign computer consultant complained he had been lured to the United States on a promise of a job and cheated out of $53K, he received a late-night visit from two hostile men, according to authorities.   He was pulled from his Middlesex County house on January 22, forced into a car and taken for a long ride on a cold night while the 2 men threatened to 'take care of' him.   They wanted the consultant to withdraw complaints he made to federal labor investigators about their employer, an Illinois company that recruited the consultant to come to the United States, according to a federal indictment unsealed today.   Now, 2 employees of the firm are facing extortion and obstruction of justice charges, which carry up to 20 years in prison.   Trinath Chigurupati, a 36-year-old Indian citizen living in Monmouth Junction, was arrested at his home Wednesday and released on $150K bail.   Sateesh Yalamanchili, 38, who recently moved from New Jersey to Wood Dale, IL, surrendered today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Shipp in Newark, who set his bail at $150K.   The intimidated consultant, said federal prosecutors, is a witness in a year-old probe by the U.S. Department of Labor into the suspects' employer, ComData Consulting Inc. of Rolling Meadows, IL, which recruits foreign workers with an expertise in web development, information technology and software development.   The firm generally out-sources the employees to other companies after sponsoring them for entry into the United States on special temporary visas, known as H-1Bs, reserved for foreign workers with specialized skills.   On January 15, labor officials filed a civil complaint accusing ComData of failing to pay and underpaying four immigrant workers, including the consultant, about $142K after recruiting them under the H-1B program.   Harassment of the computer consultant by Chigurupati and Yalamanchili began five days later, federal prosecutors said.   ComData was not named in the indictment...   On February 4, the 2 men met him again at a restaurant and offered to pay $5K for him to recant his story, authorities said, adding the consultant had gone to federal authorities by then and was outfitted with a hidden recorder that captured every threat."

2010-04-05
_Reuters_
Conference Board Job index up for 7th straight month: report
"The Conference Board, a private research group, said its Employment Trends Index rose 0.7 percent to 94.4 in March from an upwardly revised 93.7 in February, originally reported as 93.5."

2010-04-05 16:52PDT (19:52EDT) (23:52GMT)
Joshua Rhett Miller _Fox_
failure of US federal government to fence borders is again under fire after rancher Robert Krentz was killed by illegal alien
"...Of the 646 miles of barriers currently constructed along the [nearly] 2K-mile southern border of the United States, 300 miles are vehicle barriers, according to the Department of Homeland Security [DHS].   That means they're meant to keep out cars and trucks, but aren't high enough [nor dense enough] to keep out people crossing the border illegally on foot..."

++ S887; Durbin, Grassley; H-1B and L-1 visa program reform
Status of S877
+++ S2804; Sanders; Employ Americans: prohibit firms who lay off large numbers of capable US citizens from making use of guest-work visas
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

  "Labor difficulties had earlier prompted William C. Kelly to bring the only group of Chinese into the ante-bellum South.   One of the inventors of teh Bessemer iron refining proess, Kelly objected to working Christian Negroes as slaves in Kentucky where few white were willing to do the low labor of an iron facory.   Born and raised in Pittsburgh, he had absorbed anti-slavery sentiment before coming to Eddyville [north of the present Land Between the Lakes park] where it was also bad business to contract laborers from slave-holders who required compensation for hired Negroes if they escaped North across the nearby Ohio river.   In 1854 Kelly obtained 10 Chinese through a New York or Philadelphia tea house to take the place of Blacks at the Suwanee Furnace and Union Forge in Lyon county." --- Gunther Barth 1964 "Chinese Migration to the United States" _Bitter Strength: An History of the Chinese in the US, 1850-1870_ pp 183-189, 196-202, 212-213 (quoted in in Franklin D. Scott 1968 _World Migration in Modern Times_ pg 140)  

 

2010-04-06

2010-04-06
Heather Stauffer _Cumberland PA Sentinel_
South Newton family recovering after buggy crash
Wheel-wright keeps craft alive

2010-04-06
Avani Chhaya _Daily Illini_
Urbana, IL council accepts unconstitutional federal hand-out for moderate-speed broad-band
"The fiber-optic broadband Internet project entails a $22.5M grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and would connect institutions such as hospitals and libraries.   It would also allow 4,600 homes in lower-income neighborhoods access to a higher-speed Internet service if all of the homes are willing to utilize the service.   Pradeep Khanna, associate vice chancellor for public engagment at the University, said access to high speed Internet would be essential to the success of the University.   The University would draw upon the resources of the Internet service to continue to attract students and innovative faculty."

2010-04-06
Zen T.C. Zheng _Houston TX Chronicle_/_Hearst_
Fort Bend school district dodges and weaves about recruiting cheap, pliant, flexible-ethics teachers from abroad
Jamie Mock: Fort Bend Now
Zen T.C. Zheng: Houston Chronicle/Hearst: Fort Bend school district is dumping teachers and recruiting from over-seas
470 laid off

2010-04-06
Jan Falstad _Billings MT Gazette_/_Lee_
Roscoe Steel lays off workers in Billings, Missoula and Casper
"Roscoe Cos. announced Tuesday it is laying off approximately 40 employees in Billings to cut costs and return the company to profitability.   Roscoe Steel & Culvert at 1501 S. 30th St. W., was started in 1953 by Bill Roscoe Jr. and 2 other men who eventually sold out to the Roscoe family...   In 2007, the company employed 200 people in Billings, Missoula and Casper...   Smurfit-Stone Container Corp.   announced last year that it was laying off more than 400 people and closing is fiberboard plant in Frenchtown.   Even the billions of dollars in federal stimulus money didn't stop the steep decline in orders at Roscoe Steel.   The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has had a negligible impact on revenue and earnings at Roscoe Steel, Lundberg said. Three years ago, times were good [for the business]."

++ S887; Durbin, Grassley; H-1B and L-1 visa program reform
Status of S877
+++ S2804; Sanders; Employ Americans: prohibit firms who lay off large numbers of capable US citizens from making use of guest-work visas
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

  "[After the Civil War] American and Chinese agents [cross-border bodyshoppers] arranged the importation of Chinese into the South." --- Gunther Barth 1964 "Chinese Migration to the United States" _Bitter Strength: An History of the Chinese in the US, 1850-1870_ pp 183-189, 196-202, 212-213 (quoted in in Franklin D. Scott 1968 _World Migration in Modern Times_ pg 140)  

 

2010-04-07

2010-04-07
Beth Lamontagne Hall _NH Union Leader_
NH residents lost the most jobs to Red China
"An estimated 16,300 jobs were shifted to [Red China] between 2001 and 2008, about 2.35% of the total job market, according to a report recently released by the Economic Policy Institute...   New Hampshire had a large share of the nation's computer and electronic parts industry, Scott said.   Because this is an area where [Red China] has made exporting gains in the last decade, New Hampshire and other high-tech hubs in Texas and California saw big job losses, he said...   Ross Gittell, professor at the University of New Hampshire's Whittemore School of Business and Economics, has research that also shows a big loss of high-tech jobs in New Hampshire, especially in the early part of the last decade.   Companies making computer parts and electronics benefited from the Y2K scare and the boom in cell phone use, said Gittell.   After 2000, some of the demand in technology began to wane, the economy lagged and companies looked to move their manufacturing to countries with cheaper labor, he said.   'We had thousands of employees at single facilities, and those jobs went away and they didn't come back, but they didn't come back just because of [Red China].', said Gittell...   Exports from New Hampshire decreased in 2009, but last year was still the second most robust year for exports on record.According to Wivell, total exports in January went up 28% compared to what was shipped overseas in the same month last year.   About 45% of small businesses in New Hampshire export, compared to 26% of small businesses nationwide.   These exports include electronic parts and equipment, medical supplies and products in the safety, security and defense sector, she said.   Business with [Red China] is up as well.   Exports increased 54% in January and, last year, [Red China] was New Hampshire's third biggest export market, after Mexico and Canada, said Wivell."

2010-04-07
_Reuters_
Greenspan says congress-critters -- M. Waters, B. Franks, C.Dodd... -- pushed Fed, Fannie, Freddie to keep giving out loans to people who could not pay them back
Michael R. Crittenden & John D. McKinnon
Ben Rooney: CNN

2010-04-07
Geoffrey A. Fowler _Wall Street Journal_
Young programmers & computer support workers prefer the title "ninja": 'Guru' (which I never personally liked) is passe, as is "evangelist"
"Jinichi Kawakami, honorary master of the Iga-ryu Ninja Museum in the city of Iga, is known as one of Japan's last living ninjas.   He says that calling efficient workers ninjas is not completely inaccurate.   But he's disappointed that the term has lost touch with its roots in the military arts.   'As a Japanese person, I feel a bit of discomfort about it.', says Mr. Kawakami, 60.   Ninjas aren't assassins, insists Mr. Kawakami...   A real ninja must have stealth, intelligence, a righteous heart and patience, he says.   'Lacking any one of those, you cannot make a useful ninja.   These things are required in the business world as well.', he says."

2010-04-07
Chad Garrison _River-Front Times_
St. Charles representatives team up to attempt to stop illegal aliens from driving in MO

2010-04-07
Sandra Guy _Chicago IL Sun-Times_
Numbers of those unemplyed a year or more are growing; 23%, 3.4M
"Those without jobs for a year or longer include 21% with a bachelor's degree, 27% with a high school diploma but no college degree, and 23% high school drop-outs...   Spending on unemployment benefits is expected to total $168G this fiscal year, including $87G for extended benefits for people out of work for 6 months or longer, according to the Pew report.   That compares with yearly federal spending of $31G to $33G in each of the years between 2005 and 2007, the report stated.   In February, 13 states and the District of Columbia had unemployment rates higher than 10%.   Further adding to the glum news Tuesday was a Labor Department report that there were 5.5 job seekers for every one job opening in February.   That is a significant improvement over the high of 6.2 job seekers per job opening last November.   But it is still nearly twice as high as the worst month of the early 2000s recession, when there were 2.8 job seekers per job opening in September of 2003, according to an analysis of Labor Department data by the Economic Policy Institute."

2010-04-07 13:07:16PDT (16:07:16EDT) (20:07:16GMT)
Frank Michael Russell _San Jose CA Mercury News_
Apple iPad manufacturing cost estimated at less than $260, only a little more than a share of Apple stock
Dan Gallagher: MarketWatch

2010-04-07 13:08PDT (16:08EDT) (20:08GMT)
Amy Hoak _MarketWatch_
As Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama Depression continues and people can't afford housing, the number of US households has dropped by 1.2M
"The likelihood of a young adult forming an independent household falls up to 4% in a recession, depending on the person's age and the severity of the changes in unemployment rates.   The national home-ownership rate has fallen to just above 67%, from above 69%.   Renter household formation dropped even more than the formation of homeownership households.   Native-born Americans showed a larger decline in household formation and a larger increase in overcrowding rates than immigrants.   Parents with higher incomes are more likely to have young adults living with them instead of moving into the rental market.   But children with parents who have higher financial wealth are more likely to form their own new rental households.   [And older Americans are also moving in with children and friends.]"

2010-04-07 (5770 Nisan 23)
Rabbi Doctor Asher Meir _Jewish World Review_
Talmudic Investment Advice

2010-04-07 (5770 Nisan 23)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Race and Politics part 1

2010-04-07 (5770 Nisan 23)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Race and Politics part 2

2010-04-07 (5770 Nisan 23)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
Parting Company
"I believe we are nearing a point where there are enough irreconcilable differences between those Americans who want to control other Americans and those Americans who want to be left alone that separation is the only peaceable alternative.   Just as in a marriage, where vows are broken, our human rights protections guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution have been grossly violated by a government instituted to protect them...   Article I, Section 8 of our Constitution lists the activities for which Congress is authorized to tax and spend.   Nowhere on that list is authority for Congress to tax and spend for: prescription drugs, Social Security, public education, farm subsidies, bank and business bailouts, food stamps and other activities that represent roughly two-thirds of the federal budget.   Neither is there authority for congressional mandates to the states and people about how they may use their land, the speed at which they can drive, whether a library has wheelchair ramps and the gallons of water used per toilet flush.   The list of congressional violations of both the letter and spirit of the Constitution is virtually without end."

++ S887; Durbin, Grassley; H-1B and L-1 visa program reform
Status of S877
+++ S2804; Sanders; Employ Americans: prohibit firms who lay off large numbers of capable US citizens from making use of guest-work visas
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

  "These projects, which aimed at bringing freed Negro plantation workers to terms, also intended to use Chinese in the struggle between capital and labor.   The adaptation of the Chinese importation system to labor warfare occasioned the first movement of Chinese sojourners to the East.   In 3 places, North Adams, MA, Belleville, NJ, and Beaver Falls, PA, entrepreneurs contracted for Chinese laborers in San Francisco as a weapon against striking American workers." --- Gunther Barth 1964 "Chinese Migration to the United States" _Bitter Strength: An History of the Chinese in the US, 1850-1870_ pp 183-189, 196-202, 212-213 (quoted in in Franklin D. Scott 1968 _World Migration in Modern Times_ pg 141)  

 

2010-04-08

2010-04-08 05:30PDT (08:30EDT) (12:30GMT)
Scott Gibbons & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
DoL home page
historical data
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 414,657 in the week ending April 3, an increase of 6,492 from the previous week.   There were 623,279 initial claims in the comparable week in 2009.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.9% during the week ending March 27, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 5,027,944, a decrease of 168,431 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 4.8% and the volume was 6,451,690.   Extended benefits were available in AL, AK, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, ME, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, and WI during the week ending March 20...   States reported 5,593,484 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending March 20, a decrease of 300,853 from the prior week.   There were 2,251,784 claimants in the comparable week in 2009.   EUC weekly claims include first, second, third, and fourth tier activity.
graphs
more graphs

2010-04-08
Sandra Guy _Chicago IL Sun-Times_
Former company president unemployed for over 4 years
"Bednar, of Woodridge, used to be president of a suburban company that makes and sells traffic-safety equipment such as road warning cones and signs.   He fondly recalls his 21 years at that company, including 8 as president, overseeing profitable years, including 1 year of record-breaking sales, and building strong relationships with customers and vendors...   Immediately he started running into hiring managers and recruiters telling him why they wouldn't hire him: He was overqualified; he would try to become the boss; he wouldn't want the job for which he had applied; he would bolt at the first opportunity; the company wanted a younger person whom it could train; the hiring managers knew of unemployed people with skills in their particular industry and wanted their depth of expertise.   And in one instance, he was told he would cost more in insurance expenses than a 30-year-old.   Research released this week by Pew Economic Policy Group shows that while workers 55 or older are less likely to be unemployed, those who are jobless are more likely to stay unemployed for a long time.   Nearly 30% of unemployed people 55 and older have been jobless a year or longer -- a higher rate than any other age group...   'I'm a very competitive person, and I like being involved.', he said.   'It was the way I was raised -- I like to be productive.   I want to do something good for society.   It's not always about benefitting yourself.'"

2010-04-08 05:56PDT (08:56EDT) (12:56GMT)
Erica Dolson _Cumberland PA Sentinel_/_Lee_
Carlisle student to compete in statewide geography bee
"Although Forest, an honor roll student, quiz bowl team member and Boy Scout, thinks it would be interesting to one day design video games, his love of geography may be pulling him toward a different career path."

2010-04-08
Andea Koncz & Pattie Giordani _NACE_
Starting Salary Offers to Class of 2010 Decline
"The Spring 2010 issue of NACE's Salary Survey shows the overall average salary offer to a bachelor's degree candidate is $47,673, which is 1.7% lower than the average offer of $48,515 made to Class of 2009 bachelor's degree candidates...   The average offer to finance majors rose by 1.6% to $50,546, and the average offer to accounting majors inched up by 0.4% to $48,575.   OTOH, business administration/management grads saw their average offer fall 8% to $42,094.   Marketing graduates' average salary offer also fell, but not as far, to $42,710, down 2.1% from last year.   As a group, graduates earning computer-related degrees saw their average salary offer soar in comparison to the other disciplines: Their average offer rose 5.8% to $58,746.   And, the average offer to computer science majors increased by 4.7%, bringing it to $60,426.   As a group, engineering graduates saw their average salary offer increase by 1.2% to $59,149.   Electrical engineering grads saw the largest increase of the engineering disciplines.   Their average offer rose by 3% to $59,326.   Chemical engineering graduates' average offer is up 1.6% to $66,437, and civil engineering grads saw a similar increase -- 1.3% -- bringing their average offer to $52,443.   Computer engineering grads, however, saw their average offer move up just a scant 0.2% to $61,121.   Mechanical engineering graduates also saw a 0.2% increase, bringing their average salary offer to $58,881.   Graduates earning liberal arts degrees may be the hardest hit by the effects of the recession: Currently, their average salary offers remain well below last year's levels -- 8.9% lower at $33,540."
graphs
employment/unemployment and salaries by occupation
employment/unemployment by industry

2010-04-08
_Challenger, Gray & Christmas at Work_
Overly social-networked
"Tim Bursch suggests that maybe it's time to start ignoring these networks."

2010-04-08 (5770 Nisan 24)
Sharon Bernstein _Jewish World Review_
Apparel stores for men who are not vertically fat are getting more difficult to find
"The average height for an American man is now close to 5 feet 10 inches -- nearly 2 inches taller than in 1960, according to the National Center for Health Statistics."

2010-04-08 (5770 Nisan 24)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Race and Politics part 3
"In medieval times, Europeans could not match the achievements of the Chinese, but in later centuries their relative positions reversed and there was no evidence of any fundamental change in the genes of either the Chinese or the Europeans.   Much was made of the fact that, within Europe, 'Nordics' were prospering more so than the peoples of Mediterranean Europe.   But, a thousand years earlier, the reverse was true.   A 10th century Muslim scholar pointed out that the farther north you go in Europe, the more pale the people become and the 'farther they are to the north the more stupid, gross, and brutish they are'."

++ S887; Durbin, Grassley; H-1B and L-1 visa program reform
Status of S877
+++ S2804; Sanders; Employ Americans: prohibit firms who lay off large numbers of capable US citizens from making use of guest-work visas
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

  "Some countries of Europe -- Britain, Austria, the Netherlands and Scandinavia -- do not as a rule admit Southern Europeans, but the country which has the most -- Switzerland -- is now experiencing a revulsion on social and political grounds which has given rise to executive restrction... That immigrants are still accorded a warm welcome in Belgium, France and Germany may be attributed to their limited numbers, as compard with those who came to the United States.   Here the foreign-born constituted 20% of the labor force in 1890 and 1900, as compared with 4% in Germany, about 9% in France, 10% in Belgium and 30% in Switzerland currently..." --- C.P. Kindleberger "Mass Migrations Then and Now" _Foreign Affairs_ vol43 #4 pp 647-658 (quoted in in Franklin D. Scott 1968 _World Migration in Modern Times_ pg 147)  

 

2010-04-09

2010-04-09
_Chronicle of Higher Education_
Leftist UCSD prof Dominguez under scrutiny for aid to illegal aliens
Eleanor Yang Su: San Diego CA Union-Tribune
"Dominguez, 50, is a self-described activist and new media artist who is accustomed to stirring up controversy.   But he said he's troubled that his tenured status may be revoked for work that promotes his academic specialty of electronic civil disobedience...   Others, including three Republican congressmen who have written to UCSD Chancellor Marye Anne Fox, said Dominguez should not be using [tax-victim] money to develop programs that aid illegal immigrants...   Dominguez said he's been told the audit will examine his Transborder Immigrant Tool, a project that provides migrants with GPS-enabled cell phones informing them about water jug locations and U.S. Border Patrol look-outs.   It also attempts to blend technology with art, delivering inspirational poetry through the phone speakers...   'We would say there's more important things to be spending money on, like good science and math studies, as opposed to a GPS tool that could help illegal immigrants, terrorists, criminals and drug runners cross the border illegally.', Hunter said in an interview yesterday.   He said he has not received a response from the chancellor, but hopes the project will be halted.   It'll likely take days or weeks for the GPS-tool audit and sit-in investigation to be completed."

2010-04-09
Thomas Catan, Brent Kendall, Don Clark & Jessica E. Vascellaro _Wall Street Journal_
US government steps up probe of hiring practices in STEM fields
"The inquiry is focused on whether companies, particularly in the technology sector, have agreed not to recruit each others' employees in ways that violate anti-trust law.   Specifically, the probe is looking into whether the companies' hiring practices are costing skilled computer engineers and other workers opportunities to change jobs for higher pay or better benefits...   Some tech companies also say the agreements under investigation only stop them from cold calling each other's employees, not from hiring them...   [DoJ] brought a civil case against a group of hospitals in Utah in 1994, alleging that they had illegally conspired to hold down nurses' wages by exchanging information about their pay.   A year later, it took action against the American Bar Association for allegedly using its accreditation process to force universities to raise law-school salaries.   Both cases were settled...   The Federal Trade Commission's on-going investigation into inter-locking boards of tech companies forced Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt, to resign from the board of Apple.   Another casualty of the FTC probe was Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson, who stepped down from Google's board.   He had been doing double duty as a director for Apple and Google until the FTC started asking questions.   More recently, the decision by legendary venture-capital investor John Doerr to resign from Amazon.com's board was influenced by the FTC investigation, according to a person familiar with the matter.   Mr. Doerr -- who recently declined to comment -- is also on the board of Google."

2010-04-09 11:20:58PDT (14:20:58EDT) (18:20:58GMT)
Deborah Yao _San Jose CA Mercury News_
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts paid $25M in 2009

2010-04-09
Ron Paul _Free Liberal_
Government and Gasoline

2010-04-09 (5770 Nisan 25)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Race and Politics part 4
"One of the most ominous developments of our time has been the multi-cultural dogma that all cultures are equal."
NH Union Leader

2010-04-09
DJIA10,997.35
S&P 5001,194.37
NASDAQ2,454.05
Nikkei11,204
10-year US T-Bond3.88%
crude oil$84.92/barrel
gold$1,126.10/ounce
silver$18.3510/ounce
platinum$1,727.40/ounce
palladium$513.60/ounce
copper$0.224375/ounce
natgas$4.084/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline $2.2772/gal
heatingoil$2.2185/gal
soybeans$9.5225/bushel
maize$3.4575/bushel
wheat$4.6575/bushel
dollarindex81.027
yenperdollar93.23
dollarspereuro1.3473
dollarsperpound1.5371
swissfranksperdollar 1.068
indianrupeesperdollar 44.2
mexicanpesosperdollar 12.3
MorganStanleyHighTechIndex609.95

I usually get this info from MarketWatch; see also Dow Jones Indexes.
 

++ S887; Durbin, Grassley; H-1B and L-1 visa program reform
Status of S877
+++ S2804; Sanders; Employ Americans: prohibit firms who lay off large numbers of capable US citizens from making use of guest-work visas
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

  "Departures from the United States between 1897 and 1918 were almost half as many as arrivals (47%).   The longer they stayed the less was the likelihood of return.   Of some 2M returning after 1908 who anwered a government questionnaire, 77% had been in the United States less than 5 years." --- C.P. Kindleberger "Mass Migrations Then and Now" _Foreign Affairs_ vol43 #4 pp 647-658 (quoted in in Franklin D. Scott 1968 _World Migration in Modern Times_ pg 148)  

 

2010-04-10

2010-04-10
Jackie Headapohl & Todd Farkman _Michigan Live_
Engineer finds he's not being allowed to compete with foreign tech workers

++ S887; Durbin, Grassley; H-1B and L-1 visa program reform
Status of S877
+++ S2804; Sanders; Employ Americans: prohibit firms who lay off large numbers of capable US citizens from making use of guest-work visas
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

  "In the United States, the states regulated abuses (as early as 1847 in NY), but the federal government operated only to slow down the movement and ultimately to turn it off.   In Europe it is under continuous government surveillance and control...   When a man did stay 5 years [in the USA], and learned the language, he was eligible to become an American citizen adn to vote on a par with the native born.   This was the expectation.   In Europe it is the exception." --- C.P. Kindleberger "Mass Migrations Then and Now" _Foreign Affairs_ vol43 #4 pp 647-658 (quoted in in Franklin D. Scott 1968 _World Migration in Modern Times_ pg 151)  

 

2010-04-11

2010-04-11
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
The Willful Ignorance of the Left: Nazism is simply one of the varieties of socialism

2010-04-11
Rob Sanchez _Job Destruction News-Letter_ #2099
Graders (teaching assistants) out-sourced to Bangalore
V Dare
Jacques Steinberg: NY Times
"So, Lori Whisenant, who teaches business law and ethics at the University of Houston, is off-shoring the job of grading the assignments from her students to India.   Out-sourcing teaching assistant (TA) jobs to Asia might seem like a lack of the ethics she is supposedly teaching -- until her corporate background is reviewed.   She worked at international corporations and Wall Street [bodyshops] such as Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young, and PricewaterhouseCoopers, which might help to explain where she honed her globalist ideologies.   Seven TAs seems like an adequate number of graders for one professor.   Since she teaches management, is it not reasonable to expect her to manage the work load of her TAs?   These types of jobs are very valuable for students who need a steady pay-check and work experience.   Out-sourcing these jobs will only serve to hurt students and to further the deterioration of our university system.   It makes far more sense to hire a few more TAs than to send the money off-shore...   The truth about Virtual-TA is exposed with a quick browse of their management team page where you will see names like Chandru Rajam, Tara Sherman, Ravindra Singh Bangari, Jeanne Grunert, and Ravi Shankar.   I don't know if Ravi Shankar is the famed sitar player.   Quite conspicuously the only address they list is for an office in Virginia -- and there is no clue that all the work is done off-shore.   Their Virginia company is listed as EduMetry, which is part of the Forbes conglomerate and is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange...   OK, now for the reality check: Out-sourcing the grading of student papers is a preposterous idea.   Even if the work was out-sourced to a different location within the U.S. it would be a disaster -- but these tasks are being done in foreign countries by people who have unknown qualifications and who have no understanding of our culture and linguistic idioms.   They probably don't even speak [American] English!   Everyone reading this is educated to one degree or another so it's probably not necessary to spend much time explaining why off-shoring TA jobs is an absurd idea.   The most obvious problem with the entire concept is that the graders won't even know what was taught in the class-room or what context the students were writing in...   Weren't college professors hired to be educators?   Apparently nowadays they are just too busy doing 'research' to bother with the tedium of the class-room...   In a previous quote Mr. Rajam said that the concept of anonymous graders might bother skeptics.   Could that be because some people might question the qualifications of part-time women and children in third world countries, who operate out of shanty towns and sweat shops, to decide what grades American college students earn for their academic papers?   I was curious to see what Whisenant's students think about the out-sourcing of TAs so I went to ratemyprofessors.com to read the gossip on her.   Of course these online ratings might not be representative of all of her students but some of their opinions seem to make sense considering the poor quality of the TAs.   Not surprisingly none of the students have a clue who is actually grading their papers, but they know shoddy and sub-standard when they see it!   Here is a sampling of some of the recent comments from students.   'All student ''help'' is thru a TA & graders that aren't much help.   Grading of papers is subjective and contradictory;one time they say not developed enough & then say its too wordy after adding 30 words.'...   'Devastatingly bad prof.   In class she reads her own slides and that's it.   Asking for help = cheating, totally laughable.   Since she doesn't teach you, and no one else can help you, it ends up being an utter and obscene waste of $1k.   Writing intensive means professional critique?   Course not.   An under-grad TA (non-English major) grades you.   Awful awful Graders are extremely subjective.   Difficulty in getting help.'"
Audrey Williams June: Chronicle of Higher Education: Some Papers Are Sent to Bangalore To Be Graded
Laurie Fendrich: Chronicle of Higher Education: Ethics? Let's Out-Source Them!
"Teachers, including those who teach large classes and require teaching assistants and readers, need to get past thinking that they can get around grading."

2010-04-11
David North _Right Side News_/_Center for Immigration Studies_
Guest-workers and OPT students pocket $1G which would be extorted from US workers for Socialist Insecurity Abomination each year
"When the expanded OPT program was announced USCIS said that it would involve about 22K workers.   Presumably this is an annual figure, and spread out over 29 months (or nearly two-and-a-half years) that would bring it to about 55K.   Given the usual path of expansion of USCIS-run foreign worker programs, let's assume that the 55K of 2 years ago is 70K now.   (That's an expansion rate of about 13% a year.)   That produces about 70K person-years of OPT employment each year.   USCIS has never, to my knowledge, collected -- as it should have done -- earnings information on the OPT workers, but since they are employed in place of H-1B workers, we are using data from that program as a rough measure of what the OPT workers are being paid.   One array of U.S. Department of Labor data, showing salaries paid to H-1B workers at the 50 largest employers of such workers, shows a median salary of $86,148.   Because the big employers probably pay more than the smaller ones, and for estimating convenience, let's round that hefty salary figure down to $85K a year.   The sum (70K x $85K) comes to $5.95G, and with [Socialist Insecurity] (FICA) and Medicare taxes together being 7.65% for the worker and a matching 7.65$ for the employer, we multiply the salary total by 15.3% and find that $910,350,000 is what the government is missing each year.   There may be a couple of balancing factors regarding that estimate.   First, were all OPT workers to be taxed at the same rate as H-1B and U.S.-resident workers, such a change would cover an unknown number of OPT workers who were in other than scientific and technical fields, and thus not covered by the USCIS 22K-a-year estimate.   On the other hand, in the course of two and a half years of extended OPT coverage some of the individuals would have passed the fifth anniversary of their arrival in the States and thus would be forced into FICA and Medicare payments by a provision of the federal tax law, even though still in F-1 status.   (After five years in the country nonresident aliens become resident aliens in the eyes of the IRS.)   It is time for OPT workers, students no longer, to be covered by FICA and Medicare taxes."

2010-04-11
Dave Gibson _Norfolk VA Examiner_
With 1 in 5 Americans out of work, federal government just issued 1,130,818 new Green Cards to foreign nationals
"750K of the new Green Cards were given to the families of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents...   Mexico 164,920; [Red China] 64,238; Philippines 60,029; India 57,304."

2010-04-11
Casey Mulligan _Seeking Alpha_
Unemplyment and Overall Lack of Demand

++ S887; Durbin, Grassley; H-1B and L-1 visa program reform
Status of S877
+++ S2804; Sanders; Employ Americans: prohibit firms who lay off large numbers of capable US citizens from making use of guest-work visas
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

  "By 1966-06-30, 1,317,000 were registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA): 707K in Jordan, 307K in the Gaza Strip, 164K in Lebanon, and 140K in Syria...   By 1965-06-30, 70% of the refugees received basic dry rations, and 40% had been sheltered in 54 camps, the rest having found their own accommodations.   More than 228K children were going to school, 168K of them in the 406 UNRWA-UNESCO schools...   From 1950-05-01 to 1965-12-31, UNRWA spent close to $535M, contributed to a large extent by the USA." --- Louise Holborn "The World Refugee Problem" from David L. Sils 1968 _International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences_ vol13 pp361-373 (quoted in Franklin D. Scott 1968 _World Migration in Modern Times_ pg 158)  

 

2010-04-12

2010-04-12 11:28PDT (14:28EDT) (18:28GMT)
Amy Hoak _MarketWatch_
Home prices have fallen from peak, but aren't necessarily affordable

2010-04-12 15:17PDT (18:17EDT) (22:17GMT)
Patrick Thibodeau _ComputerWorld_/_IDG_
IT employment dipped, initial demand for H-1B visas for FY2011 is sluggish

2010-04-12
_Fox_/_Wall Street Journal_
Criminals trying to trick desperate job hunters

2010-04-12
Christopher Neefus _Cybercast News Service_
WhiteHouse Science and Tech Czar John P. Holdren Told AAAS that the USA Can't Expect To Be #1 in Science Forever
"[The Obama administration's] goal [is] to increase [unconstitutional federal STEM] spending in the area to 3% of the GDP...   'We intend to grow those programs [to transfer US knowledge over-seas] because we think they are mutually beneficial and we intend to grow the cooperations (sic) in which we engage with other countries.', he said...   Similarly, in his 1973 book _Human Ecology: Problems and Solutions_, he suggested 'de-developing' the United States to benefit other, poorer nations."

2010-04-12
Catherine Herridge _Fox_
al-Qaeda recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki, born in Las Cruces, NM, lied to qualify for $20K college scholarship funded by US tax-victims

2010-04-12
_Leagle_
3rd circuit ruled against Indian body shop
"Under federal law, Cyberworld is required to inquire of the secondary employer whether the hiring of an H-1B employee will cause a 'United States worker' to be laid off, or 'displaced'.   On 2001 August 9, the Department of Labor received a complaint that Cyberworld had failed to comply with this requirement.   Although the Department was required by law to determine within thirty days whether a 'reasonable basis' existed for the complaint, it did not make this determination until 2003 March 20, when it found that Cyberworld had failed to make the required inquiries on fourteen occasions.   As provided for by statute, the Secretary of Labor assessed a $3400 penalty and notified the Attorney General to deny Cyberworld's H-1B applications for the ensuing year."

2010-04-12 (5770 Nisan 28)
Paul Steinhauser _CNN_
66% of Americans say the U.S. government should not make it easier for illegal aliens to become citizens
Jack Cafferty: CNN

2010-04-12 (5770 Nisan 28)
Jeff Jacoby _Jewish World Review_
Support for Israel runs on party lines

++ S887; Durbin, Grassley; H-1B and L-1 visa program reform
Status of S877
+++ S2804; Sanders; Employ Americans: prohibit firms who lay off large numbers of capable US citizens from making use of guest-work visas
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

  "In 1882 only some 24K Jews lived in their ancient ancestral land.   Gradual resettlement brought the figure to 85K in 1914, then war and privation reduced it to 56K in 1918.   Under the British mandate the Jews came to number 650K by 1948, with 90% of the immigration coming from Europe.   Under independence the Law of the Return [1950-07-05] promised any Jew from anywhere the right to live in Israel.   1.25M poured in within the next 20 years, 55% of them from Asian and African backgrounds in stark contrast with the cultural heritage of their predecessors.   From Iraq alone came 120K, and many countries simply sent their entire Jewish population to Israel.   Except for religion, they thought and lived more like the surrounding Arabs.   Never the less, in 1966 the population was composed of 2.6M Jews and only about 300K non-Jews.   The war of 1967 resulted in the addition, at least temporarily, of 1.1M Arabs... the European-American Jewish immigration had been largely in the older age brackets; the Asian and African immigration was of families in lower age brackets and with a much [higher] birth rate." --- Hal Lehrman 1951 _Israel, The Beginning and Tomorow_ pp 57-67 (quoted in in Franklin D. Scott 1968 _World Migration in Modern Times_ pg 159)  

 

2010-04-13: Thomas Jefferson's birth-day

2010-04-13
Rahul Raddy _Live PR_
Most New H-1B visa grantees are under 35
"And, according to data recently released by the AFL-CIO labor union, most of the visa-holders are less than 35-years-old and most likely from India.   About half work in computer-related occupations...   54% of 2008 visa recipients were from India, close to the percentage from the past several years, according to the USCIS reports.   Two-thirds of H-1B petitions approved in 2008 were for workers between the ages of 25 and 34, compared to 48% in 2007 and 66% in 2006...   the pool of young of workers is helping to foster age discrimination in the IT work-place...   in 2008, for example, 61,739 were to workers from India, followed by 9,157, or 8.8%, from [Red China].   Canadians accounted for 3,968 visas or 3.9% of the total, and the Philippines, 3,957, or 3.5%."

2010-04-13
Joseph Curl _Washington Times_
inflation-adjusted US personal income has fallen 3.2% since Obama took office

2010-04-13 Rebekah Rast _Americans for Limited Government_
IS the US government killing "green" jobs?
"Solar-cell manufacturing in Frederick, MD, dates back to the mid-1970s.   BP Solar, one such company, was so profitable it was in the middle of building a $97M expansion to create more jobs in the solar panel industry.   Now the BP Solar building is being demolished and 320 people in Maryland are unemployed.   What happened?   The answer is, the federal government got involved and destroyed the free market generated profitability of the making of solar panels.   Here's how: the Obama Administration has spent billions of dollars to create 'green jobs'.   Through his tax incentives and credits for those businesses that manufacture renewable energy products, he created a glut in the marketplace.   With so many businesses now producing solar panels (most of them overseas in anticipation of a booming U.S. market), the cost of panels has been nearly cut in half, making it impossible for businesses like BP Solar to stay in business in the U.S.A.   In an effort to create green jobs, hundreds of green jobs that had been around for 30-plus years were lost.   Ironic isn't it?   Because companies like BP Solar can't survive in the U.S.A. anymore, due to the market being over-inflated with far too many subsidized companies creating a surplus of solar panels, they move to where business is more cost effective.   Places like [Red China], India, Mexico and Poland, where less overhead, lower labor costs and fewer taxes make for a friendlier business environment.   Businesses in the U.S.A. pay huge corporate and property taxes, as well as absorb skyrocketing energy costs.   Even if the government subsidized BP Solar, like it has done with so many other green industries, it would not have been enough...   While Maryland's drop in 2007 to 47th worse business tax climate, according to a non-profit Tax Foundation report played a big role in BP Solar's decision to close, the overall business climate in the U.S.A. contributed to the shut-down as well.   It's not only solar panels that are being manufactured overseas, it's other renewable energies as well -- even by those companies that received 'help' from the federal government.   For example, of the $2G already spent on wind power alone, funding the creation of enough new wind farms to power 2.4M homes over the past year, nearly 80% of that money has gone to foreign manufacturers of wind turbines.   And wind energy is just another industry receiving some of money spent on this 'green' initiative.   There are still billions more dollars being spent by the federal government on this initiative.   Obama's method of subsidizing these renewable energy companies and interfering in free market environments is not original.   Spain is a good example of a country that has done exactly what Obama is trying to do.   An Institute of Energy Research (IER) -- commissioned study coming out of King Juan Carlos University in Madrid by Gabriel Calzada found that, for every green job created, 2.2 jobs in other sectors have been destroyed."

2010-04-13 05:00PDT (08:00EDT) (12:00GMT)
_MarketWatch_/_PR News Wire_
Indian body shop Infosys to manage MSFT internal IT work

2010-04-13 07:40PDT (10:40EDT) (14:40GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
NFIB survey shows small business don't see economic recovery

2010-04-13 09:13:42PDT (12:13:42EDT) (16:13:42GMT)
Yuri Kageyama _San Jose CA Mercury News_
Honda plans to lease electric scooters
"Honda plans to lease the scooters instead of selling them and hopes to set a price will that will cost less than a regular bike over 3 years including gas prices -- a range that would be about 600K yen ($6K) to 800K yen ($8K) each...   Honda may face stiff competition from [Red Chinese] manufacturers who already are churning out 22M battery-powered bikes and scooters a year priced at 1.7K to 3K yuan ($250 to $450).   Most are for domestic use but exports to other developing markets have soared...   [The Honda EV-neo] takes 4 hours to recharge fully from a regular home outlet, and recharges about 80% in 20 minutes from a special machine.   EV-neo runs on lithium-ion batteries from Japanese electronics maker Toshiba.   Honda sold more than 130K traditional gasoline-powered scooters in Japan last year, accounting for more than half the market."

2010-04-13
Michael Sneed _Chicago IL Sun-Times_
Census outrage: Promotional gear made in Red China, Bangladesh and Haiti "'They've apparently determined there is massive non-compliance in Chicago [56%] and decided to start community- based out-reach programs...', added Burke."

2010-04-13
Jeff Lukens _View from 1776_
Did George Soros have a hand in creating the financial crash of 2007-2010?
"'On Thursday at about 11 o'clock in the morning the Federal Reserve noticed a tremendous drawdown of money market accounts in the United States, to the tune of $550G was being drawn out in a matter of an hour or two...'   Courtesy of Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, the crisis came about by the uncertain value of subprime securities held by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, banks, saving and loans, and other lending institutions...   It is widely agreed that hedge funds profited by selling short the collapsing market in 2008, and chief among them was George Soros' hedge fund.   Soros may have personally had the motivation, method, and opportunity to trigger the crash.   Soros' over-seas-based hedge fund evades much scrutiny, and its activities that week left almost no trail.   Could Soros and his hedge fund be behind many of the withdrawals of that week, and particularly on that Thursday?"

2010-04-13 15:00PDT (18:00EDT) (22:00GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
You call this a recovery!?

2010-04-13
Michael Tanner _Fiscal Times_
The Evil of Government Extortion

2010-04-13 (5770 Nisan 29)
Ed Koch _Jewish World Review_
A Dangerous Silence

2010-04-13 (5770 Nisan 29)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Good Riddance!
"the careers of all too many of these retiring jurists, including currently retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, have been an enormous disservice to this country."

++ S887; Durbin, Grassley; H-1B and L-1 visa program reform
Status of S877
+++ S2804; Sanders; Employ Americans: prohibit firms who lay off large numbers of capable US citizens from making use of guest-work visas
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

  "Estimates of the Indian population [throughout the Americas] before 1492 vary tremendously from 8M to as hight as 100M.   Whatever the figure may have been, there is no disagreement about the catastrophic effet of the European intrusion.   Everywhere the Indians were decimated, by varying combinations of physical losses during the process of conquest, disruption of cultural patterns, psychological trauma of subjugation, imposition of forced labor, and introduction of alcohol and of new diseases.   Within a century the total indigenous population appears to have declined by 90% to 95%.   Most badly hit were the Indians of the Caribbean islands and of the tropical coasts, where they disappeared completely within a generation.   More resilient were the natives of the upland tropical regions and of lowland tropical areas such as those of Brazil and Paraguay...   Only in the 20th century [1900s] has this population approached its original numbers in tropical America, while elsewhere it still lags far behind." --- L.S. Stavrianos 1966 _World History Since 1500_ (quoted in in Franklin D. Scott 1968 _World Migration in Modern Times_ pg 168)  

 

2010-04-14

2010-04-14
Courtney Yuen _Daily Illini_
U of IL received $15M, holding conference to promote medical privacy violation

2010-04-14
_Brunswick NJ Sentinel_
Chigurupati of Monmouth Junction, NJ and Yalamanchili of Wood Dale, IL charged with extortion in connection with body shop under-payment of H-1B guest-workers
"Trinath Chigurupati, 36, of Monmouth Junction, NJ, and Sateesh Yalamanchili, 38, of Wood Dale, IL, are charged in a two-count criminal complaint related to threats allegedly made against a foreign worker [who blew the whistle on under-payment of wages]."
NJ Star Ledger

2010-04-14 07:15PDT (10:15EDT) (14:15GMT)
Gabriela Montell _Chronicle of Higher Education_
Removal from general bio class of tenured prof at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge, because he "graded too hard" causes an uproar
"Kevin Carman, dean of the College of Basic Sciences, told the student newspaper that his decision to yank Homberger was justified: '''75% of the students were failing, and fewer than 8% of students had grade C or better.'', Carman said.   ''The number of students failing the course was out of line with that class in any history. Therefore I took action because I felt it was in the best interest of the students.''   Carman said 27.8% of students had dropped the class.'"
Chronicle of Higher Education
Xerxes A. Wilson: LSU Daily Reveille: Professors outraged by admin. decision
"Homberger said she received a message from the College of Basic Sciences Dean Kevin Carman while the second exam was being administered.   The message said she had been removed from the course because of a 'developing situation concerning student grades'...   Homberger, who has taught at the University for more than 30 years, said the average grade for the course was a 53 following the first exam, but raised to a 77 following the second exam."

2010-04-14
Devin Dwyer _abc_
Foreign "Birth Tourists" seek US citizenship for children
"The number of U.S. births to non-resident mothers rose 53% between 2000 and 2006, according to the most recent data from the National Center for Health Statistics.   Total births rose 5% in the same period.   Among the foreigners who have given birth here, including international travelers passing through and foreign students studying at U.S. universities, are 'birth tourists', women who travel to the United States with the explicit purpose of obtaining citizenship for their child.   Catering to the women is a nascent industry of travel agencies and hotel chains seeking to profit from the business.   The Marmara Manhattan, a Turkish-owned luxury hotel on New York's City Upper East Side, markets birth tourism packages to expectant mothers abroad, luring more than a dozen pregnant guests and their families to the United States to give birth last year alone."
Lino Graglia (pdf)
Dena Bunis: Orange County CA Register
Mark Krikorian: Center for Immigration Studies: George Will and Citizenship
George Will: Washington Post

2010-04-14
Sherri L. Smith _Black Web 2.0_
Where are all the black STEM workers?

2010-04-14 (5770 Nisan 30)
Lori Borgman _Jewish World Review_
Warning: Soul gazing can save your marriage!

2010-04-14 (5770 Nisan 30)
Rabbi Doctor Asher Meir _Jewish World Review_
Perform, Then Pay part1

2010-04-14 (5770 Nisan 30)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
Minimum Wage Cruelty

++ S887; Durbin, Grassley; H-1B and L-1 visa program reform
Status of S877
+++ S2804; Sanders; Employ Americans: prohibit firms who lay off large numbers of capable US citizens from making use of guest-work visas
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

  "In the British Barbados, for example, there were only a few hundred Negroes in 1640, but by 1685 they numbered 46K as against 20K whites.   The French islands, likewise, had 44K Negroes and 18K whites by 1700...   Negro immigration [reached] a total of about 15M slaves, whiel European immigration steadily increased, reaching a high point at the beginning of the 20th century when nearly 1M arrived each year." --- L.S. Stavrianos 1966 _World History Since 1500_ (quoted in in Franklin D. Scott 1968 _World Migration in Modern Times_ pg 169)  

 

2010-04-15

1961-04-15 early: diversionary feint led by Higinio Diaz in lead-up to Cuban counter-revolution

2010-04-15 05:30PDT (08:30EDT) (12:30GMT)
Scott Gibbons & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
DoL home page
OPA press releases
historical data
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 514,742 in the week ending April 10, an increase of 99,730 from the previous week.   There were 610,522 initial claims in the comparable week in 2009.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.8% during the week ending April 3, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 4,931,188, a decrease of 114,048 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 4.7% and the volume was 6,327,841.   Extended benefits were available in AL, AK, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, ME, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, and WI during the week ending March 27...   States reported 5,855,301 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending March 27, an increase of 261,817 from the prior week.   There were 2,148,241 claimants in the comparable week in 2009.   EUC weekly claims include first, second, third, and fourth tier activity.   [Note that the population used for calculating the "insured unemployment rate" has been changed
to 132,623,886 beginning 2007-10-06;
to 133,010,953 beginning 2008-01-05;
to 133,382,559 beginning 2008-04-05;
to 133,690,617 beginning 2008-07-05;
to 133,902,387 beginning 2008-10-04;
to 133,886,830 beginning 2009-01-03;
to 133,683,433 beginning 2009-04-04;
to 133,078,480 beginning 2009-07-04;
to 133,823,421 beginning 2009-10-03;
to 131,823,421 beginning 2009-10-17;
to 130,128,328 beginning 2010-01-02;
to 128,298,468 beginning 2010-04-03.]
graphs
more graphs

2010-04-15 07:09PDT (10:09EDT) (14:09GMT)
Dhanya Ann Thoppil _Wall Street Journal_
After years of abuse, can Infosys keep workers with small raises?
"Infosys 'freshers', or entry-level workers, earn about 325K rupees ($7,300) a year...   Analysts, however, called the hikes a form of damage control, following an unpopular HR initiative called Infosys Role and Career Enhancement, or iRACE."

2010-04-15 09:29:20PDT (12:29:20EDT) (16:29:20GMT)
Barbara Ortutay _San Jose CA Mercury News_
Study found young adults do care about privacy on-line
"The report, from researchers at UC Berkeley and the University of Pennsylvania, is among the first quantitative studies looking at young people's attitudes toward privacy...   88% of people of all ages said they have refused to give out information to a business because they thought it was too personal or unnecessary.   Among young adults, 82% have refused, compared with 85% of those older than 65.   Most people -- 86% -- believe that anyone who posts a photo or video of them on the Internet should get their permission first, even if that photo was taken in public.   Among young adults 18 to 24, 84% agreed -- not far from the 90% among those 45 to 54.   40% of adults ages 18 to 24 believe executives should face jail time if their company uses someone's personal information illegally -- the same as the response among those 35 to 44 years old.   The study, based on a 2009 telephone survey of 1K Americans 18 and older, did find some areas with generational differences in attitudes.   For example, while 69% of all respondents said a company should be fined more than $2,500 for privacy violations, 54% of those 18 to 24 years old thought the fine should be that steep."

2010-04-15
Tom Lutey _Billings MT Gazette_/_Lee_
Federal Food Safety Modernization Act could shut down small bakers, farmers' markets, etc.

2010-04-15 11:48:28PDT (14:48:28EDT) (18:48:28GMT)
Mike Cassidy _San Jose CA Mercury News_
The Unemployed Are Silicon Valley's Heroes
"They are resilient, persistent and, at times, optimistic.   They are ready to do whatever it takes to find a job or start a business.   They'll take a long shot.   They're convinced they are coming back.   They are to be admired...   It can consume you, if you let it.   But so many won't let it.   Nearly half of those 15M jobless people have been out of work for at least 6 months.   That's at least 6 months of sending off résumés only to never hear from the company you're courting.   At least 6 months of hearing that you're overqualified and figuring what they mean is that you're too old.   Six months of wondering whether you can hang on to the house or whether you'll ever work again.   [The average duration of unemployment is now up over 30 weeks.]   Six months of knowing that for every job opening, there are 5 people looking for a job...   KB was using a conference room at a downtown office building where she was shooting videos of the unemployed for $100 -- but waiving the fee until the video résumé subject finds work...   BM is hitting workshops, networking like crazy and doing volunteer work.   Now she plans to start a blog focused on what she sees as the hot marketing trends: virtual conferences, greening real-life conferences and using social media to promote business events."

2010-04-15
Cari Tuna, Jessica E. Vascellaro & Pui-Wing Tam _Wall Street Journal_
STEM sector is hiring
graphs
graphs of employment by industry
graphs of employment by occupation

2010-04-15
_Science_
Slow Demand, Again, for H-1B Visas

++ S887; Durbin, Grassley; H-1B and L-1 visa program reform
Status of S877
+++ S2804; Sanders; Employ Americans: prohibit firms who lay off large numbers of capable US citizens from making use of guest-work visas
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

  "In the 1820s a total of 145K left Europe, in the 1850s about 2.6M, and between 1900 and 1910 the crest was reached with 9M emigrants, or almost 1M per year." --- L.S. Stavrianos 1966 _World History Since 1500_ (quoted in in Franklin D. Scott 1968 _World Migration in Modern Times_ pg 170)  

 

2010-04-16

2010-04-16 03:11PDT (06:11EDT) (10:11GMT)
Patrick Thibodeau _ComputerWorld_/_IDG_
NJ H-1B case reads like a Sopranos episode
"Federal prosecutors filed extortion-related charges against 2 men, Sateesh Yalamanchili, 38, of Wood Dale, IL, and Trinath Chigurupati, 36, of Monmouth Junction, NJ, both of whom were employees of an Illinois-based IT [body shop] that was not identified in the court documents."
NJ Star-Ledger
Slash Dot discussion

2010-04-16
Peter Foster _London Telegraph_
MSFT accused of abusing teen "slave labour" to build mice and Xboxes in Red China
"The report by the National Labour Committee, a US advocacy group for the rights of workers used by big corporations, alleged that 16 and 17 year olds were working 15-hour shifts in crowded conditions often without air-conditioning.   Managers at the KYE Systems factory in Dongguan, southern China, were accused of controlling and bullying workers who sleep 14 to a room and 'shower' by taking sponge baths from a small plastic bucket of water.   'The factory is very crowded.   In one work-shop measuring around 105ft by 105ft, there were nearly 1,000 workers...'"

2010-04-16 07:26PDT (10:26EDT) (14:26GMT)
Ruth Mantell _MarketWatch_
UMich consumer sentiment index fell from 73.6 in March to 69.5 in April

2010-04-16
Dale Steinreich _Ludwig von Mises Institute_
100 years of US medical fascism
"By 1860, there were more than 55K physicians practicing in the United States, one of the highest per capita numbers of doctors in the world (about 175 per 100K)....   Around the time of Flexner, there was a high of a 166 medical schools; by the 1940s there were just 77 -- a 54% reduction.   Most small rural schools were closed, and only 2 African-American schools were allowed to remain open.   By 1963, despite advances in technology and a huge growth in demand, one effect of the report was to keep the number of doctors per 100K people in the United States -- 146 -- at the same level it was at in 1910.   Of the approximately 375K physicians in practice in 1977, only about 6,300 or 1.7% were African-American."

2010-04-16
DJIA11,018.66
S&P 5001,192.13
NASDAQ2,481.26
Nikkei11,102
10-year US T-Bond3.77%
crude oil$84.67/barrel
gold$1,136.90/ounce
silver$17.67/ounce
platinum$1,695.30/ounce
palladium$531.85/ounce
copper$0.22096875/ounce
natgas$4.0390/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline $2.2770/gal
heatingoil$2.2169/gal
soybeans$9.5225/bushel
maize$3.4575/bushel
wheat$4.6575/bushel
dollarindex80.819
yenperdollar92.15
dollarspereuro1.3500
dollarsperpound1.5394
swissfranksperdollar 1.0615
indianrupeesperdollar 44.43
mexicanpesosperdollar 12.2750
MorganStanleyHighTechIndex617.88

I usually get this info from MarketWatch.
 

++ S887; Durbin, Grassley; H-1B and L-1 visa program reform
Status of S877
+++ S2804; Sanders; Employ Americans: prohibit firms who lay off large numbers of capable US citizens from making use of guest-work visas
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

  "Principal Sources of European Emigration, 1846-1932
Great Britain & Ireland: 18M
Russia: 14.25M*
Italy: 10.1M
Austria-Hungary: 5.2M
Germany: 4.9M
Spain: 4.7M
Portugal: 1.8M
Sweden: 1.2M
Norway: 850K
Poland: 640K (1920-1932 only)
France: 520K
Denmark: 390K
Finland: 370K
Switzerland: 330K
Holland: 220K
Belgium: 190K
Total: 63.66M
* Consists of 2.25M who went over-seas, 7M who migrated to Asiatic Russia by 1914, 3M who migrated to the Urals, Siberia, and the Far East from 1927 to 1939 and 2M who migrated to Central Asia from 1927 to 1939.   Since 1939, Russian emigration, free and forced, into the trans-Ural areas, has been the greatest single population movement in the world." --- L.S. Stavrianos 1966 _World History Since 1500_ citing A.M. Carr-Saunders 1936 _World Population_ pp 49, 56; and W.S. Woytinsky and E.S. Woytinsky 1953 _World Population and Production_ pp 69, 93 (quoted in in Franklin D. Scott 1968 _World Migration in Modern Times_ pg 170)
 

 

2010-04-17

1961-04-17: Cuba invaded at Blue Beach and Red Beach of the Bay of Pigs, which failed due to limited DoD involvement to support the CIA and Cuban exile forces

2010-04-17
Rodney J. Jaleco _ABS-CBN North America news bureau_
Filippino teachers won suit in Louisiana
Greg Toppo: USA Today/Gannett
Shreveport LA Times
Michael Cutler
"A Louisiana administrative judge has ordered a California-based Fil-Am recruitment agency to refund at least $1.8M, representing part of fees it illegally collected from 350 Filipino teachers hired by the state's public schools.   Administrative Judge Shelley Dick said Universal Placement International (UPI) violated at least 5 Louisiana labor statutes, among them the collection of 'marketing fees'; collection of placement fees 'prior to actual commencement of work'; collection of fees from teachers who never got to work with the schools; compelling them to pay 10% of their gross monthly income for 2 years; and failing to adjust employment service fees according to the teachers' actual gross earnings.   It also found UPI liable for operating without a license in Louisiana."

2010-04-17
Robert Moon _Macon county IL Examiner_
President of Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, Patrick J. O'Connor, refuses to enforce immigration laws

++ S887; Durbin, Grassley; H-1B and L-1 visa program reform
Status of S877
+++ S2804; Sanders; Employ Americans: prohibit firms who lay off large numbers of capable US citizens from making use of guest-work visas
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

  "Principal Destinations of European Emigration
Destination PeriodCovered Total
USA 1821-1932 34.2M
Asiatic Russia 1800-1939 12M
Argentina 1856-1932 6.4M
Canada 1821-1932 5.2M
Brazil 1821-1932 4.4M
Australia 1861-1932 2.9M
British West Indies 1836-1932 1.6M
Cuba 1901-1932 900K
South Africa 1881-1932 900K
Uruguay 1836-1932 700K
New Zealand 1851-1932 600K" --- L.S. Stavrianos 1966 _World History Since 1500_ citing A.M. Carr-Saunders 1936 _World Population_ pp 49 (quoted in in Franklin D. Scott 1968 _World Migration in Modern Times_ pg 170)
 

 

2010-04-18

2010-04-18
Liz Hull & Lee Sorrell _London Daily Mail_
Too tired to stay awake, the Chinese working for MSFT are paid just 34p an hour
SlashDot discussion
Yahoo! Programmers Guild discussion

2010-04-18
Linda Halstead-Acharya _Billings MT Gazette_/_Lee_
Wheel-wright keeps craft alive in Joliet MT
"'It's all just math.', Engel said.   'Just woodworking and circles.'   Besides the obvious symmetry, the calculations touch just about every aspect.   'The seats aren't square either.', he said.   'You have to factor in for the tufts.'...   But the Montana native didn't dabble in wheel making until 1979 when he began helping his brother-in-law, Rick Bischoff.   As the two tried to apply the basic principles Bischoff had learned in a wheelwright class, they discovered that the numbers just didn't jibe.   So they analyzed the formulas, made some adjustments and never looked back. By the early 1980s, Bischoff had quit wheel making and created his own business, the Luminary Shoppe.   Also based in Joliet, Bischoff continues to build and restore carriage lanterns and lamps through his web site.   Meanwhile, the partners' business launched with a bang.   Their first contract assigned them the task of restoring an 8-passenger Yellowstone-style coach and building a replica using the first as a model...   Engel relies on both old tools and new to get the job done.   At times, he's fabricated his own.   Perhaps most critical, however, are his camera and keen sense of observation.   'I photograph everything.   I need reference.', he said.   'Probably the greatest teachers I've had are the old vehicles themselves.   When you dismantle a wheel on a buggy, the observation of just how it went together, that's my best teacher.'"
family recovering after buggy crash

++ S887; Durbin, Grassley; H-1B and L-1 visa program reform
Status of S877
+++ S2804; Sanders; Employ Americans: prohibit firms who lay off large numbers of capable US citizens from making use of guest-work visas
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

  "They tell us that he was born in Mecca, a town in western Arabia, perhaps in or near the year 570.   His family belonged to the tribe of Quraysh, although not to its most powerful part.   Members of the tribe were traders, who had agreements with pastoral tribes around Mecca and also relations with Syria as well as south-western Arabia.   They are also said to have had a connection with the sanctuary of the town, teh Ka'ba, where the images of local gods were kept.   Muhammad married [his cousin] Khadija, a widow engaged in trade, and looked after her business for her." --- Albert Hourani 1992 April _An History of the Arab Peoples_ pg 15  

 

2010-04-19: Patriot's Day

1775-04-19
Battle Road
Jimbo Wales's WikiPedia on Lexington Battle Green
Jimbo Wales's WikiPedia on Patriots' Day
Jimbo Wales's WikiPedia on Skirmishes at Lexington & Concord
Lexington local Patriots' Day observances schedule
letter by E. James Adkins
about Patriots' Day
wiseGeek: What is Patriots' Day?
History, analysis, and unabashed gossip about the start of the American Revolution in Massachusetts
FreeRepublic: Jim Koch wants natonal Patriots' Day Celebrations
EyeWitness to History
Liberty Ride
Worcester Polytechnic Intitute: Battle of Lexington and Concord
U.S. History: Battle of Lexington
National Park Service
Mohican Press: Lexington Green
Boston 1775
Lexington Historical Society tours
Examiner
Doctor Samuel Prescott, William Dawes & Paul Revere
American Revolution: Midnight Ride: Paul Revere and the "mechanics"
Wikipedia on Paul Revere
Wikipedia on Samuel Prescott
Wikipedia on Longfellow's poem
Color Pro: William Dawes
BloggerHeads
US History
Rense on Samuel Prescott
Concord MA: The Love Story
captain John Parker
Wikipedia on captain John Parker
EyeWitness Account of the Skirmish
Captain Parker
American Revolutionary War
Patriot Resource
The American Revolution
Library of Congress

2010-04-19
Vincent Fernando _Free Republic_
Conference Board's US Leading Economic Indicators are high (with graphs)
Business Insider

2010-04-19
Gypsy Guillén Kaiser _Transparency International_
seeking nominations to recognise inspirational anti-corruption heroes

2010-04-19
Jeremiah Dyke _Ludwig von Mises Institute_
the checkered flag of communal "ownership": the race to exhaust fisheries

++ S887; Durbin, Grassley; H-1B and L-1 visa program reform
Status of S877
+++ S2804; Sanders; Employ Americans: prohibit firms who lay off large numbers of capable US citizens from making use of guest-work visas
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

  "It was therefore not only the interests of the dynasty but also the separate identity of Andalus which was expressed by the assumption of the title of caliph by 'Abd al-Rahman III (912-961).   His reign marks the height of the independent power of the Umayyads of Spain.   Soon afterwards, in the 11th century, their kingdom was to splinter into a number of smaller ones ruled by Arab or Berber dynasties (the 'party kings' or 'kings of factions', muluk al-tawa'if), by a process similar to that which was taking place in the 'Abbasid Empire." --- Albert Hourani 1992 April _An History of the Arab Peoples_ pg 43  

 

2010-04-20

2010-04-20
James Maguire _IT Management_/_Datamation_
STEM cross-border bodyshopping, off-shoring, and the Great American Cowboy Attitude
"For off-shore out-sourcers, their development model's sheer predictability -- the exact opposite of the cowboy mode -- is central to their sales pitch. In contrast, 'If you are an [American-based] employee programmer, you're more likely doing Agile development, you're doing Scrum, you're doing high interactivity stuff where the quality is just a quarter of the story.', he says. 'Your ability to interact with other human beings to understand what they need is a bigger part of the story. So it's fundamentally different.'... firms are now willing to consider permanent, domestically-based hires. 'It's not contract -- they want one perfect guy to add back to the team.', Borough says. Because of the tight job market, that one hire 'has to be exceptional, has to be almost walking on water'."

2010-04-20
Frosty Wooldridge _Before It's News_
Immigration's Riveting Question: Are you better off today than before the flood?
"Senators Orrin Hatch, John McCain, Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid -- aid and abet illegal immigration by doing nothing to stop it.   Senator Mark Udall of Colorado, Degette of Colorado and hundreds of other elected American 'leaders' support illegal and legal immigration without end.   They support H-1B visas, chain migration, anchor babies and diversity visas.   Their actions and inactions on illegal immigration gave the 2001-09-11 terrorists an open door with driver's licenses, sanctuary laws in major cities, lax immigration enforcement and confidence to the terrorists they could succeed.   But they also have given us a massive legal immigration crisis where-by millions of immigrants pour into our country without end.   It begs the question.   'Are you better off today than you were four years ago?' is a standard opening salvo as one political candidate attempts to unseat the incumbent.   But not today!   We are not candidates for any office except average citizen.   The target for our questions is not an incumbent office holder, but an entrenched government policy -- massive, unrestricted immigration into the United States.   It began in 1965 when Teddy Kennedy and president Johnson pushed the [Hart-Celler-Kennedy] Immigration 'Reform' Bill that changed the average of 178K immigrants allowed into this country annually to an unprecedented 1M which has ballooned to over 1.5M today.   [And, as though that wasn't bad enough, they followed it with Simpson-Mazzoli/IRCA1986 and Kennedy-d'Amato-Dodd-Moynihan-Simpson/IMMACT1990 and several proposals since, to make things worse.]   Added to that number, according to the Center For Immigration Studies, 800K illegal aliens now immigrate into America annually.   The total of illegals is between 15M to 20M.   Are you better off in 2010 than you were 70M immigrants ago including their off-spring in 1965?   Are your schools in better shape as they cope with multiple languages, overcrowded classrooms, rising campus violence, teacher shortages, and a record setting student population of 53M, heading for 97M by the end of this century?   Are your students better prepared to meet the challenges of a new century and a global market-place?"

2020-04-20 13:52PDT (16:52EDT) (20:52GMT)
Derek Thompson _Atlantic_
54% of Households Have Someone Who's Been Without Work This Year

2010-04-20
Penny Starr _Cybercast News Service_
Arizona Sheriff Says Cops Are Being Killed by Illegal Aliens; Joins Call for U.S. Troops at Border

2010-04-20
_Challenger, Gray & Christmas at Work_
Body shopping still on the rise: Work-place privacy at issue
"contingent labor, or temporary workers, could soon account for as much as 30% to 50% of the entire U.S. work-force...   March total of 2.037M, or about 1.6% of total non-farm pay-rolls..."

2010-04-20
_V Dare_
Legal Immigration Has Increased (YES—INCREASED!) During The Recession
"DHS has not yet released its figures for temporary workers or illegal aliens.   The few Democrats and left wing groups who make any opposition to immigration usually focus their attention to temporary workers, while conservatives limit their opposition to illegal immigration.   But the fact is that legal permanent immigration is by far the most important category of immigration to reduce.   While illegal aliens can get amnesty, and 'temporary' workers often end up staying here permanently -- with anchor babies exacerbating both problems -- both groups in theory will eventually be out of the country.   Legal Permanent Residents, in contrast, are here, displacing American workers and using [tax-victim]-funded services, for [the long run]."

2010-04-20 (5770 Iyar 06)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
The Limits of Power: Slavery and Government
"The point of all this is that when even slaves had to be paid to get certain kinds of work done, this shows the limits of what can be accomplished by power alone.   Yet so much of what is said and done by those who rely on the power of government to direct ever more sweeping areas of our life seem to have no sense of the limits of what can be accomplished that way."

++ S887; Durbin, Grassley; H-1B and L-1 visa program reform
Status of S877
+++ S2804; Sanders; Employ Americans: prohibit firms who lay off large numbers of capable US citizens from making use of guest-work visas
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

  "The attitude of those who at a certain point came to be called Sunnis was that it was important for all Muslims to live together in peace and unity, and this implied that they should accept what had happened.   They came to accept all 4 of the first caliphs as legitimate, and as virtuous or rightly guided (rashidun); later caliphs might not always have acted justly, but they should be accepted as legitimate so long as they did not go against the basic commandments of God.   There is some evidence that the Umayyad caliphs put forward claims to be not only the successors of the Prophet as leaders of the community, but vice-regents of God on earth and the ultimate interpreters of the divine law.   Sunnism in its developed form, however, regarded the caliph neither as a prophet nor as an infallible interpreter of the faith, but as a leader whose task it was to uphold peace and justice in the community; for this he should possess adequate virtues and a knowledge of religious law.   It was widely accepted that he should be descended from the tribe of Quraysh, to which the Prophet had belonged." --- Albert Hourani 1992 April _An History of the Arab Peoples_ pp 60-61  

 

2010-04-21

2010-04-21
Sara Lipka _Chronicle of Higher Education_
US DoL released new rules for "educational" internships
DoL WHD Fact Sheet #71: Internship Programs Under The Fair Labor Standards Act
"The following 6 criteria must be applied when making this determination:   The internship, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to training which would be given in an educational environment;   The internship experience is for the benefit of the intern;   The intern does not displace regular employees, but works under close supervision of existing staff;   The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern;   and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded;   The intern is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the internship;   and The employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to wages for the time spent in the internship.   If all of the factors listed above are met, an employment relationship does not exist under the FLSA, and the Act's minimum wage and over-time provisions do not apply to the intern.   This exclusion from the definition of employment is necessarily quite narrow because the FLSA's definition of 'employ' is very broad.   Some of the most commonly discussed factors for for-profit private sector internship programs are considered below...   The internship should be of a fixed duration, established prior to the outset of the internship.   Further, unpaid internships generally should not be used by the employer as a trial period for individuals seeking employment at the conclusion of the internship period.   If an intern is placed with the employer for a trial period with the expectation that he or she will then be hired on a permanent basis, that individual generally would be considered an employee under the FLSA."

2010-04-21
David North _Right Side News_/_Center for Immigration Studies_
1,130,818 obtained immigrant status in FY2009
"Given the fact that the majority of the 1.1M were already here, the recession did not make anywhere near as much difference as it did in the influx of H-1B temporary workers, which has dropped sharply over the last 2 years, as reported in a previous blog.   The number of employment-based preferences (immigrant workers and their families), however, did drop from 167K to 144K (both numbers rounded) from the prior year.   That decrease was more than balanced by a 31K increase in family preferences, to a total of 747K.   Interestingly, the 'diversity programs', to use the DHS term rather than mine (which is 'casino visas'), brought in a higher percentage of the 50K ceiling than in the two prior years.   The 2009 intake was 47,879, compared to about 42K in each of the 2 previous years."

2010-04-21
Devonia Smith _Dallas TX Examiner_
Rising dangers of tape-worms & TB in border states part2
Rising dangers of tape-worm, brain infections & TB in border states part2

2010-04-21 10:52PDT (13:52EDT) (17:52GMT)
Chris Isidore _CNN_
Many are still searching for work through years of unemployment
"Of the nearly 14M people now counted as unemployed, a record 44% have been out of work more than 6 months.   Before the most recent recession, that figure had never reached 24%...   But Shierholz' analysis of 2009 data shows unemployed people aged 55 and older are about 17% more likely to be out of work for longer than six months than their 25-to-54-year old counterparts."

2010-04-21
Victor Davis Hanson _National Review_
particularly bad time for the president to push for amnesty
"The public is starting to correlate the massive amount of remittances sent back to Latin American (perhaps well over $40G) with commensurate rising public subsidies to illegal aliens, funded by the now-strapped [tax-victims].   And Mexico has become far more violent than Iraq, suggesting to most that the border should be less, not more, porous.   Simply enforcing the law -- finish the fence, keep fining employers, increased patrols on the border, push for verifiable IDs -- will stop the flow."

2010-04-21
_Auto Glass and Insurance Industry News_
Glass Emporium owner Mehrdad Hakimian, confessed visa fraudster, moves for new trial
"Glass Emporium owner Mehrdad Hakimian, who recently was found guilty of charges related to insurance fraud in a U.S. District Court jury trial, has motioned for a new trial, alleging prejudice against him and that the court erred on several counts, according to court documents.   Hakimian alleges that though he had pled guilty to charges related to visa fraud and harboring illegal aliens, visa fraud-related evidence was admitted in court as part of the fraud trial, which he claims had a negative outcome the of the trial...   In addition, Hakimian alleges that the jury was not told that he had pled guilty to the visa fraud charges, leading them to 'assume that he had not been criminally prosecuted and had thus gotten away with visa fraud in spite of his admissions'.   Hakimian's counsel also claims that he was prejudiced by the fact that the court did not allow him to 'testify or present evidence concerning his repayment to numerous insurance companies of money he concluded they had been over-charged in the invoices submitted to them'."

2010-04-21
Chip Mitchell _WBEZ Chicago Socialist Radio_
Lugar & Durbin: Hold off on deporting illegal alien students
"Napolitano isn't making any promises.   A spokesman of her department says immigration officials already can [abuse] discretion in deportation cases."

2010-04-21
James R. Edwards _Right Side News_/_Center for Immigration Studies_
American common sense and excessive legal immigration
"Kuhn crafts a plausible-sounding argument about illegal aliens possessing fewer skills and less education than legal immigrants.   However, though legal immigrants aren't quite as bad off socioeconomically as are illegal aliens, they lag behind native-born Americans.   That goes for poverty, health coverage, welfare usage, and similar indicators.   This fact shows up in Kuhn's own examples of poverty level and high school graduation rates; illegal aliens are the worst off, legal immigrants are next, and the native-born are the best off.   The American public gets that most legal immigrants aren't doctors, corporate executives, and job-creating brainiacs.   And in fact you get more illegal immigration with higher legal immigration; the two move in tandem.   The main source countries of legal immigrants are the same sources of illegal aliens.   Low-sending nations of legal immigrants don't cause us much of an illegal immigration problem.   Since Congress expanded legal immigration drastically in 1965 and again in 1990, 'chain migration' visas have fed the steady importation of an under-class...   Over time, opinion polls have pretty consistently shown the American people, by at least a plurality, want legal immigration levels reduced.   For instance, in August Gallup found 50% of Americans think immigration should be cut.   And the CBS/New York Times poll asks the same question, specifically about legal immigration, over time.   The public generally consistently favors decreasing, rather than increasing or maintaining present levels, our legal immigration."

2010-04-21
_Pittsburgh PA Tribune-Review_
Arizona legislature takes the high road to crack-down on illegal immigration

2010-04-21
_San Fernando Valley CA Sun_
Los Angeles ICE Attorney Convicted for Taking Bribes
"A senior attorney with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was convicted in Los Angeles of taking bribes from immigrants seeking documentation to remain in the United States, federal prosecutors said.   Constantine Peter Kallas, 39, of Alta Loma, was found guilty of conspiracy, 6 counts of bribery, 2 counts of obstruction of justice, 7 counts of fraud and misuse of entry documents, 3 counts of aggravated identity theft, 9 counts of making false statements to the Department of Labor, 4 counts of making false statements to obtain federal employee compensation and 4 counts of tax evasion, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office...   Kallas has been jailed since 2008 August, about 2 months after he was arrested by FBI agents at the San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino in Highland, where he and his wife accepted a bribe from an immigrant, according to the government...   The Kallases took bribes from four other illegal immigrants in return for using 2 companies they had set up -- Botno Inc. and Mississippi Valley Consulting Inc. -- to file Permanent Employment Certification applications with the Department of Labor that falsely claimed the companies had offered employment to the aliens, Mrozek said...   Kallas joined ICE's predecessor agency in 1998 June, but has been on unpaid leave since 2007 January, Mrozek said."

2010-04-21 (5770 Iyar 07)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
Taxes and Voting

++ S887; Durbin, Grassley; H-1B and L-1 visa program reform
Status of S877
+++ S2804; Sanders; Employ Americans: prohibit firms who lay off large numbers of capable US citizens from making use of guest-work visas
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

  "the words of al-Kindi (c. 801-866), the thinker with whom the history of Islamic philosophy virtually begins: 'We should not be ashamed to acknowledge truth from whatever source it comes to us, even if it is brought to us by former generations and foreign peoples.   For him who seeks the truth there is nothing of higher value than truth itself.'" --- Albert Hourani 1992 April _An History of the Arab Peoples_ pg 76  

 

2010-04-22

2010-04-22 05:30PDT (08:30EDT) (12:30GMT)
Scott Gibbons & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
DoL home page
OPA press releases
historical data
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 431,740 in the week ending April 17, a decrease of 79,187 from the previous week.   There were 596,564 initial claims in the comparable week in 2009.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.8% during the week ending April 10, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 4,906,633, a decrease of 75,054 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 4.8% and the volume was 6,406,046.   Extended benefits were available in AL, AK, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, ME, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, and WI during the week ending April 3...   States reported 5,347,114 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending April 3, a decrease of 508,187 from the prior week.   There were 2,364,774 claimants in the comparable week in 2009.   EUC weekly claims include first, second, third, and fourth tier activity.   [Note that the population used for calculating the "insured unemployment rate" has been changed
to 132,623,886 beginning 2007-10-06;
to 133,010,953 beginning 2008-01-05;
to 133,382,559 beginning 2008-04-05;
to 133,690,617 beginning 2008-07-05;
to 133,902,387 beginning 2008-10-04;
to 133,886,830 beginning 2009-01-03;
to 133,683,433 beginning 2009-04-04;
to 133,078,480 beginning 2009-07-04;
to 133,823,421 beginning 2009-10-03;
to 131,823,421 beginning 2009-10-17;
to 130,128,328 beginning 2010-01-02;
to 128,298,468 beginning 2010-04-03.]
graphs
more graphs

2010-04-22 05:50PDT (08:50EDT) (12:50GMT)
David Malpass _Forbes_
Federal government has accelerated its take-over of the US economy

2010-04-22
_Pittsburgh PA Tribune-Review_
Encouraging Illegal Aliens
"Luis Gutierrez, D-IL, 'is threatening that he will urge Latino voters to stay home this November if the Democratic Party does not make a concerted effort to pass comprehensive immigration reform', reports The Hill newspaper.   Allow us to translate: Unless the president gets on the band-wagon full of musicians trumpeting amnesty for illegal aliens, Mr. Gutierrez will tell Latinos to park their franchise this Fall.   What a slap to immigrants who believe in the rule of law and entered America legally."

2010-04-22
Frosty Wooldridge _News with Views_
Arizona may begin to deal with illegal alien problem

2010-04-22
Ann Kane _American Thinker_
US constitution is no limit to corrupt politicians' lust for power

2010-04-22
James R. Edwards _Washington DC Times_
Amnesty Extortion Hike
"Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, has highlighted the fiscal costs of illegal [aliens].   Mr. Smith spelled out illegal [aliens'] additional costs to American [tax-victims], should Congress pass an amnesty bill, in a tax day blog.   Bottom line: We're talking untold billions of dollars!   Far from rescuing [the Socialist Insecurity Abomination's] fiscal solvency, mass legalization would worsen the ponzi scheme.   [Socialist Insecurity] would careen toward bankruptcy.   Millions more legalized low-income beneficiaries would get far more money in retirement than they paid during their work career.   'The legalization of 1M illegal immigrant couples who work for very low wages would be a $101G blow to [tax-victims].   And amnesty for all [8M-20M] illegal immigrants would multiply this figure many times!'   Education costs associated with illegal aliens already run upwards of $29G each year.   [The radical left's health care perversion act] could add $10G to $30G a year.   Thus, amnesty would amount to a huge wealth transfer program -- a boon for the illegal [aliens] who legalize their status!   Not much of a deal for American [tax-victims]."
Lamar Smith: The Hill
"the Obama administration has all but abandoned work-site enforcement efforts.   Administrative arrests are down 87%; criminal arrests of employees are down 83%; criminal arrests of employers are down 73%; the number of criminal indictments are down 86%; and the number of criminal convictions is down 83% since 2008."

2010-04-22
Joe Schoffstall _Cybercast News Service_
70% of Arizonans favor law authorizing local police to identify illegal aliens

2010-04-22
_Central CA Valley Business Times_
Two indicted for running fake ID business
"A federal grand jury in Fresno has returned a multiple-count indictment Thursday charging Juan Miguel Ambrosio-Perez, 32, and Ismael Preciliano Vasquez, 26, both Mexican nationals, with conspiracy, possession, transfer, production, and sale of fraudulent United States immigration and social security identification documents out of Fresno and Tulare Counties, and with avoiding inspection by immigration officers.   According to the indictment, Messrs. Ambrosio-Perez and Vasquez, both described by the government as illegal aliens, made and sold fraudulent [Socialist Insecurity] cards and 'green cards'."

2010-04-22
John W. Lillpop _Canada Free Press_
Open Letter to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer: Sign Arizona Bill SB1070
"For far too long now, the people of Arizona have been forced to go it alone in their righteous battle against the economic, cultural, and social devastation brought on by foreign invaders who cross the border illegally from Mexico into Arizona.   Border security and enforcement is, of course, a federal responsibility.   That constitutional responsibility was, in large measure, ignored during eight years of the Bush administration and by your predecessor, governor Janet Napolitano.   This dereliction of responsibility is even more severe now that Barack Obama is in power and Janet Napolitano is 'serving' as Secretary of Homeland Security.   As you are aware, irresponsible and reckless inaction by the United States government lead directly to the recent slaughter of Arizona rancher Rob Krentz who was killed on his own property by a suspected illegal alien.   [The] cold-blooded murder [of Krentz] was reportedly in retaliation against his brother who allegedly reported illegal alien crossings to federal authorities.   Governor Brewer, enough is enough!   When American citizens are murdered on U.S. soil for defending their own property, the time has come for decisive and firm action.   Ideally, the president would send a significant number of armed troops to the border to prevent further invasions, and to protect American citizens living in your great state."

2010-04-22 16:08PDT (19:08EDT) (23:08GMT)
David Hogberg _Investor's Business Daily_
Should bank size be limited, or only risky and dishonest deals?

2010-04-22
Sachin Mulay _News Blaze_
Wipro hiring in Atlanta, GA
"In recognition of our efforts to create job opportunities [for Indian nationals] in the local community in Atlanta, GA, we received the 2010 Global Impact Award from Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce under the category of Economic Development -- Foreign Direct Investment -- for success in job creation and positive impact on Atlanta's economy in 2009."
Tata median salaries by city
Wipro median salaries by city
Infosys median salaries by city

2010-04-22
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Arbitrary Exercise of Power
Michael Barone: Town Hall: Gangster government continues

2010-04-22
Bill Snyder _InfoWorld_/_IDG_
Who is buying MSFT's out-sourcing excuses?

2010-04-22
Brianna McClane _Northwestern University_
Supporters of immigration reform counter supporters of immigration perversion
"Data and numbers are the forte of Joe Daleidan.   A former employee of AT&T and Ameritech, he served as an economic consultant for the Office of Management and the Budget under President Carter.   Now retired, Daleidan has supported immigration limits since seeing its impact on U.S. labor during his White House experience.   He said immigration increases labor supply that in turn decrease wages...   The Illinois Minutemen Project based in Skokie wants to educate the state's citizens on the risks of illegal immigration.   Founder Rosanna Pulido said even legal immigration must stop until unemployment reaches 4 percent.   'Anybody who supports illegal immigration, I would like to ask them, why do you hate America's working poor?, Because it hurts them the most.', Pulido said.   'If President Obama invited me to his job summit, I would tell him that if he enforced immigration laws that would free up the 8M jobs for unemployed Americans.'   Providing amnesty to those already in the U.S.A. would send the message that the country isn't serious about preventing illegal immigration, Daliedan said.   'We're not really serious about trying to limit immigration to a number that's in the best interest of the American worker.', Daliedan said.   'We basically want an unlimited supply of cheap labor and to depress wages because we don't like the American worker, apparently.'"

2010-04-22
_Fox_
senator Charles Grassley slams GM, Obummer regime, over loans from the federal government "re-paid" to the federal government with bail-out money
"A top Senate Republican on Thursday accused the [Obummer regime] of misleading [tax-victims] about General Motors' loan repayment, saying the struggling auto giant was only able to repay its bail-out money by dipping into a separate pot of bailout money.   Senator Chuck Grassley's charge was backed up by the inspector general for the bail-out -- also known as the Trouble Asset Relief Program, or TARP.   Watch-dog Neil Barofsky told Fox News, as well as the Senate Finance Committee, that General Motors used bail-out money to pay back the federal government...   GM announced Wednesday that it had paid back the $8.1G in loans it received from the U.S.A. and Canadian governments.   Of that, $6.7G went to the U.S. treasury..."

++ S887; Durbin, Grassley; H-1B and L-1 visa program reform
Status of S877
+++ S2804; Sanders; Employ Americans: prohibit firms who lay off large numbers of capable US citizens from making use of guest-work visas
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

  "As early as the 9th century, the mathematician al-Khwarasmi (c. 800-847) was writing about the use of Indian -- so-called Arabic -- numerals in mathematical calculations.   This blend of elements is significant." --- Albert Hourani 1992 April _An History of the Arab Peoples_ pg 77  

 

2010-04-23

2010-04-23
David Pierce _Pocono PA Record_
Barletta: Government corruption is the problem
"Government is the problem, not the solution, Hazleton mayor and 11th Congressional District candidate Lou Barletta said during a forum Thursday at East Stroudsburg University.   During a speech before the ESU chapter of the American Democracy Project, Barletta recounted anti-illegal-immigrant actions that brought him to national prominence and criticized the federal government for failing to help his city address social problems and violent crime he attributed to illegal aliens.   A Washington, DC, meeting with federal officials resulted in no assistance, he added.   'I left there realizing that our federal government had failed us.', Barletta said.   'It was up to me to help our city.'   Barletta helped secure passage of a local ordinance he said punished businesses that hired illegal immigrants.   The federal government isn't any better at creating jobs, he said.   Last year's $787G economic stimulus package was designed to hold unemployment at 8%, yet the jobless rate rose to 10%.   'Government cannot create jobs.', Barletta said.   'Government cannot create wealth.   It can only spread wealth.'   Government can best help the economy by providing tax breaks to encourage innovation and private job creation, he said.   Barletta said the government bail-out of failing financial institutions further damaged the economy.   'I believe the market worked as it should have worked,' Barletta said.   'The free market -- it punishes risky behavior.'   Recently enacted health care reform came about despite public opposition and will force small employers to reduce pay-rolls, he said.   'Our elected officials were working on a health plan nobody wanted.', Barletta said.   Barletta, a Republican running for congress for the third time, said an incremental approach to health reform would have been more effective and less expensive."

2010-04-23
Ron Pinkowski _Arizona Republic_
Massive illegal immigration is what has happened to our state
"We're tired of illegal aliens demonstrating in our streets for their 'rights'.   We're tired of having to push 1 for English.   We're tired of [gangsters] with roots in El Salvador terrorizing our streets.   We're tired of people who want to maintain their heritage and refuse to assimilate while suckling at the breast of this country.   We're tired of our national parks littered with the debris of illegal travelers.   We're tired of a criminal army willing to kill to protect their trade routes.   We're tired of day laborers usurping parking lots and challenging you to make them move out of the way.   We're tired of an invasion of our nation by people who have no regard for our laws."

2010-04-23
Rush Limbaugh _Wall Street Journal_
Radical leftists and the violence card
"In just 16 months they've added more than $2T to the national debt, essentially nationalized the health-care system, the student-loan industry, and have their sights set on draconian cap-and-trade regulations on carbon emissions and amnesty for illegal aliens.   Had president Obama campaigned on this agenda, he wouldn't have garnered 30% of the popular vote."

2010-04-23
Pete Marinucci _Fargo-Moorhead ND InFoRum_
Americans are sick of radical leftist politicians' string of betrayals

2010-04-23
_USA Today_/_Gannett_
AZ governor Jan Brewer signed immigration bill: 1st small step in the correct direction
Washington Times
CNN
Numbers USA
Fox
Phoenix Business Journal
BBC

2010-04-23 12:49PDT (15:49EDT) (19:49GMT)
Patrick Thibodeau _ComputerWorld_/_IDG_
India-based bodyshops reveal more about work-force than US firms
"TCS [Tata] employs about 141K (not counting over-seas branches, and subsidiaries and reports total employee [numbers] of 160K).   TCS reported $1.7G in its most recent quarter...   93.3% of its work-force is Indian...   10,700 or 6.7% of its work-force [are of other nationalities]...   Just under 12% [are 'Americans']...   28 years old [is the average age of TCS employees]...   30% of its employees are women...   57% [have] 3 years or more of experience [but no word on how many have 30 years or more of experience]...   [Their attrition rate is] less than 12% [per year]...   MSFT, for instance, breaks out the number of U.S. workers versus over-seas.   (As of June last year it employed approximately 93K people -- 56K in the U.S. and 37K internationally.)   But IBM this year decided to stop disclosing all together its head-count by geography."
class action against Tata

2010-04-23
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Importance of sound financing

++ S887; Durbin, Grassley; H-1B and L-1 visa program reform
Status of S877
+++ S2804; Sanders; Employ Americans: prohibit firms who lay off large numbers of capable US citizens from making use of guest-work visas
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

  "The Qur'an taught that God had made the world by His creative word, 'Be'; how could this be reconciled with Aristotle's theory that matter was eternal and only the form of it had been created? Plato came to the Arabic-speaking world as interpreted by later thinkers, and even Aristotle was interpreted in the light of a neo-Platonic work wrongly called 'The Theology of Aristotle'.   For these thinkers, God had created and maintained the world through a hierarchy of intermediate intelligences emanating from Him; how could this view be reconciled with the idea of a god of total power who never the less intervened directly in the human world?" --- Albert Hourani 1992 April _An History of the Arab Peoples_ pp 77-78  

 

2010-04-24

2010-04-24 12:20PDT (15:20EDT) (19:20GMT)
Jose Martinez _NY Daily News_
Laid off NYC exec Paul Nawrocki who wore 'Almost Homeless' sandwich board gets job after almost 2 years

++ S887; Durbin, Grassley; H-1B and L-1 visa program reform
Status of S877
+++ S2804; Sanders; Employ Americans: prohibit firms who lay off large numbers of capable US citizens from making use of guest-work visas
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

  "In Egypt, the Fatimids continued to rule until 1171, but were then replaced by Salah al-Din (Saladin, 1169-1193), a military leader of Kurdish origin.   The change of rulers brought with it a change of religious alliance.   The Fatimids had belonged to the Isma'ili branch of the Shi'is, but Salah al-Din was a Sunni, and he was able to mobilize the strength and religious fervour of Egyptian and Syrian Muslims in order to defeat the European Crusaders who had established Christian states in Palestine and on the Syrian coast at the end of the 11th century.   The dynasty founded by Salah al-Din, that of the Ayyubids, ruled Egypt from 1169 to 1252, Syria to 1260, and part of western Arabia to 1229." ---Albert Hourani 1992 April _An History of the Arab Peoples_ pg 84  

 

2010-04-25

2010-04-25
Tim Steller _Arizona Daily Star_
Gülen (Guelen) charter schools lead in use/abuse of guest-work visas for cheap foreign teachers
"The 5 Sonoran Science Academy charter schools and their parent company, Daisy Education Corp., received U.S. Labor Department certification to fill 39 teaching and administrative jobs with foreigners last year, federal data show.   From 2002 through 2009, the schools have received certifications for 120 H-1B visas.   That's more certifications than any comparable school in Arizona received in that 8-year period -- and more than the 6 biggest school districts in Southern Arizona combined...   Daisy Education is adding schools fast, and because, in some cases, multiple applications were filed for the same person or position, Superintendent Ozkur Yildiz said via e-mail...   The Sonoran Science Academy schools emphasize Turkish culture in a way that surprises some parents.   Turkish is one of 2 languages taught at the school, along with Spanish, and a semester of each is required for sixth graders, parents said.   Even the preschoolers at the Daisy Early Learning Academy are taught Turkish language and customs.   Students are encouraged to compete in the Turkish-language olympics in California against students from other Turkish-run charter schools.   And a trip to Europe is offered every year, which may include France, or Germany or another European nation, but always includes Turkey.   A recent rivalry soccer game, pitting Istanbul clubs Fenerbahce and Galatasaray against each other, was screened at the school.   And art students may learn the Turkish practice of 'ebru', or water marbling.   It was all a bit much for Cynthia Corrales, who graduated from Sonoran Science Academy last year.   'I understand we have people from other cultures and countries, but I mean, a whole school run by Turkish people?   It was really weird.', Corrales said...   It may seem a singular story, but Turkish scholars, scientists and technology professionals were doing the same thing around the United States in the last decade.   Harmony Science Academy was born in Texas, Magnolia Science Academy in California, Coral Academy of Science in Nevada and Beehive Science & Technology Academy in Utah, among many others.   The Turkish-run schools in the West, including Sonoran Science Academy, contract with the Accord Institute, a nonprofit in Tustin, CA, also run by Turks, for curriculum and other services.   Turkish teachers and administrators circulate frequently among the schools.   Ercan Aydogdu, the Sonoran Science Academy principal who opened a school last year at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, now is principal at the Turkish-run Bay Area Technology School in Oakland, CA.   Murat Biyik was a math teacher at Sonoran Science Academy, moved on to Beehive Academy in Utah, went to the Magnolia school in Hollywood, CA, then to the Accord Institute near Los Angeles, and now is back at Beehive Academy.   Fatih Karatas, principal of Sonoran Science Academy's campus at 2325 W. Sunset Road, came from Magnolia Science Academy's Reseda campus in Los Angeles.   Rather than describe the schools as a network, Yildiz called the connections a natural result of communication in the Turkish and charter-school worlds...   Scholars Jill Carroll and Hakan Yavuz believe the schools are all inspired by Turkish Islamic leader Fethullah Gülen and follow the model he established three decades ago.   'The Gülen movement is very focused on education.', said Carroll, who wrote a book on the movement, _A Dialogue of Civilizations: Gülen's Islamic Ideals and Humanistic Discourse_, put out by a Gülen-affiliated publisher.   'There are at least 1K or more of these schools in the world.'"

2010-04-25
Rodney J. Jaleco _ABS-CBN North America News Bureau_
UPI says Filippino teachers knew what they were getting into
"Louisiana Administrative Judge Shelley Dick earlier found Los Angeles-based Universal Placement International (UPI) liable for operating without a license, and violation of least 5 state labor laws for collecting various fees from the Filipino teachers.   UPI is operated by Filipino-American businesswoman Lourdes 'Lulu' Navarro from its head-quarters in Los Angeles, California...   The Louisiana labor tribunal ordered UPI to refund at least $1.8M in 'marketing fees' collected from the teachers.   The Filipino teachers allegedly paid at least $15K each to UPI and PARS.   But in the court filings, it was estimated the teachers paid $5K each in 'marketing fees'."

2010-04-25 01:30PDT (04:30EDT) (08:30GMT)
John Harbin _Blue Ridge NC Times-News_
Arrests of illegal aliens for additional crimes are climbing

2010-04-25
Larry Arnette _Ft. Myers FL Examiner_
US government will is to make border/immigration situation worse

2010-04-25
John W. Lillpop _Border Fire Report_
What if politicians' thinking on illegal immigration were applied to bank robberies and home invasions?

++ S887; Durbin, Grassley; H-1B and L-1 visa program reform
Status of S877
+++ S2804; Sanders; Employ Americans: prohibit firms who lay off large numbers of capable US citizens from making use of guest-work visas
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

  "Further east the last great incursion of a ruler with an army drawn from the tribesmen of inner Asia, that of Timur (Tamerlane), left behind it a dynasty in Iran and Transoxania, but not for long (1370-1506).   By the early 16th century it had been replaced by a new and more lasting one, that of the Safavids, who extended their rule from the north-western region of Iran to the whole country and beyond (1501-1732).   The Mughals, a dynasty descended from the Mongol ruling family and from Timur, created an empire in northern India, with its capital at Delhi (1526-1858)." --- Albert Hourani 1992 April _An History of the Arab Peoples_ pg 86  

 

2010-04-26

2010-04-26
Steve Forbes
A Short Treatise on Money for the DC Dummies
"It's time to get back to basic economics.   Money -- both the paper [gold, silver] and electronic varieties -- is, in and of itself, worth nothing; it has no intrinsic value.   It is a means -- and a profoundly important one -- of enabling people to more easily conduct transactions without having to go through the clumsy and utterly inefficient barter process.   Money is a facilitator.   It should be a fixed standard of measure, as are the minutes in an hour, inches in a foot and pints in a quart.   Coins, mainly gold and silver, were the [second] money that facilitated trade beyond an immediate village or compact community, whose members would previously have used sea-shells or some other indigenous items.   Coins had intrinsic value, which is why they were accepted beyond their community of origin.   It was the pioneering use of coins, for example, that enabled Athens to become the commercial and cultural center of ancient Greece.   [Coins are difficult, but not impossible, to debase.   Paper is much easier to debase.]...   Imagine if the government decided to increase the number of minutes in an hour from 60 to 70...   A decade and a half ago [Red China] fixed the yuan to the dollar.   By fixing the yuan to the dollar Beijing out-sourced its monetary policy to the Federal Reserve.   And for this 'manipulation' Washington politicians and policy-makers are in a lather of outrage.   This fixing of a measure of value has enormously facilitated commerce -- and thus prosperity.   During the last 15 years U.S. exports to [Red China] have increased 650%, [Red China's] exports to the U.S.A. almost 670%.   Adjusting a currency does not ultimately improve a trade balance.   Look at Japan: The dollar has depreciated 70% against the yen since the 1970s, when we pressured Tokyo -- as we are now pressuring [Red China] -- to appreciate the yen in order to reduce our trade deficit with Japan.   Result: Japan's exports have grown markedly, and our trade deficit is far greater today than it was 30 years ago.   Make no mistake: Arbitrarily changing a currency's value is a form of protectionism.   Instead of raising taxes on imports the same effect is achieved by changing prices through currency devaluation.   In 1984 one dollar bought 250 yen.   Say that a widget cost 250 yen (or $1).   If what the dollar could buy dropped from 250 yen to 165 yen, then the price of the widget went up to $1.50.   That's as good as a 50% tariff.   The notion that a trade deficit or surplus indicates anything about an economy's health is also mistaken.   The U.S.A. has had a trade deficit with the rest of the world for some 350 years out of the 400-plus since Jamestown was settled in 1607.   Focusing on deficits and surpluses ignores equally important flows of capital, as well as the phenomenon of supply chains and the intra-company trade that crosses borders.   Pressuring Beijing about its currency is a destructively futile exercise that could have ugly political ramifications and escalate into a trade war.   The Smoot-Hawley Tariff [enacted 1930-06-17] set off a global trade war that [kept us in] the Great Depression...   We should instead focus on substantive issues, including various [Red Chinese] trade barriers to U.S. imports and getting [Red China] to open up its capital markets."

2010-04-26
Tim Steller _Arizona Daily Star_
More on Sonoran Science Academy and the Guelen movement
"First I want to say something about the schools' quality.   The Sonoran Science schools have won a lot of awards and score well on tests.   I've made no argument about their quality in my stories.   Rather, I've raised some other questions.   Here are some key ones:   1. Is there really a need to hire so many teachers from other countries when other schools perform as well without them and when teacher lay-offs are occurring?   2. Are some people using our charter school system and [tax-victim] money to establish a cultural foot-hold in the United States and/or promote a religious-political movement?   3. Are the schools and their parent company pursuing an agenda other than education?"

2010-04-26 10:29PDT (13:29EDT) (17:29GMT)
Jack Cafferty _CNN_
Will the US federal government ever conscientiously enforce our immigration laws?
"What is misguided, Mr. President, is the federal government's refusal to enforce the laws already on the books.   Read the Arizona law...   parts of it are word-for-word the same as the federal laws -- which continue to be ignored."

2010-04-26
Frosty Wooldridge _Border Fire Report_
The Rule of Law Awakened in Arizona

2010-04-26
Mark Krikorian _National Review_
Striving for genuine immigration reform
"From the AP: 'Arizona officers would arrest people found to be undocumented and turn them over to federal immigration officers.   Opponents said the federal government can block the law by refusing to accept them.'   Obviously, if the feds ever did that, Arizona would record all the information of the illegal aliens in question and then, when one of them commits some violent crime, proceed to cry quite plausibly from the roof-tops that the blood of his victim is on Obama's hands because he wouldn't deport him.   That kind of nightmare scenario is one of the reasons the White House is so desperate for the law not to go into effect."

2010-04-26
Meredith Turney _Town Hall_
State Leadership Emerged in Arizona

2010-04-26
John Wayne Smith
Report from the 2010 Libertarian Party of Florida convention in Panama City
"The only thing that was half way exciting was my resolution for Florida to withdraw from the Libertarian Party-US.   When I made my motion there were several 'What the Hell?'s and then silence.   As I explained my motion and a desire for such things became very clear to most.   Florida adopted the 2004 National Platform as its State Platform in early 2009.   Florida likes the 2004 Platform and considers it the last Libertarian Platform.   With the surprise moves by the National Convention about the Platform Committee in 2006 and their raping of what was left of the platform in 2008, The continued bastardization of that article in 2010 is no surprise.   We had a long discussion of what was happening with impute by Geoff Scott we decided it would be a good idea but further decided that it may harm our 2010 candidates (Including Me) in the up coming elections.   We tabled the motion until the 2011 convention and from the feelings of the 2010 convention we will no longer be members of the Libertarian Party-US if the reform caucus has their way or if W.A.R. is elected to anything to do with the national committee."

2010-04-26 (5770 Iyar 12)
Rabbi Doctor Asher Meir _Jewish World Review_
Perform, Then Pay part2

++ S887; Durbin, Grassley; H-1B and L-1 visa program reform
Status of S877
+++ S2804; Sanders; Employ Americans: prohibit firms who lay off large numbers of capable US citizens from making use of guest-work visas
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

  "During the early centuries of Islamic rule in Egypt, the centre of power and government had moved inland from Alexandria to the point where the Nile entered the delta, and a succession of urban centres had been built to the north of the Byzantine stronghold known as Babylon: Fustat, Qata'i, and finally al-Qahira or Cairo, the centre of which was created by the Fatamids and was to remain virtually unmoved until the 2nd half of the 19th century.   At its heart lay the Azhar mosque, built by the Fatimids for the teaching of Islam in its isma'ili form; it continued to exist as one of the greatest centres of Sunni religious learning and the main congregational mosque of the city.   Close to it was the shine of Husayn, son of the 4th caliph, 'Ali, and his wife Fatima, the Prophet's daughter; the popular belief was that Husayn's head had been brought there after he was killed at Karbala." --- Albert Hourani 1992 April _An History of the Arab Peoples_ pg 124  

 

2010-04-27

2010-04-27
John Crowell
Arizona or amnesty?
"Americans are outraged at the failure [no, the in-your-face refusal] of the federal government to do its job -- and state and local governments have stepped in where the feds have feared to go..."

2010-04-27
professor Gerald L. Boerner
NetBooks

2010-04-27
_Conference Board_
Consumer Confidence Index Is Up, from 52.3 in March to 57.9
National Post
Ag Web
"Those saying that jobs are 'plentiful' increased to 4.8% from 4.0%, while those saying jobs are 'hard to get' decreased to 45.0% from 46.3%."

2010-04-27 12:00PDT (15:00EDT) (19:00GMT)
Andrew Fuller _Chronicle of Higher Education_
Privacy violations by colleges and universities continue to worsen
"Nelson, Madi Yatch, Evan Quarles, Arianna Nord, Konner Howell and Kya Sorli are all eighth-graders from Will James who will be traveling to Washington, DC, on Thursday to compete in the National Science Bowl.   They were invited by Borman to visit his ranch last week and see his hangar and large collection of space memorabilia...   The car, a 5-speed, electrically powered vehicle, will run a 20-meter race the last day of the Science Bowl.   If it's sunny the day of the race, the car will operate on solar power.   Already, it's running faster than last year's winner."

2010-04-27
Rob Rogers _Billings MT Gazette_/_Lee_
local students to compete in national science bowl

2010-04-27 16:31PDT (19:31EDT) (23:31GMT)
Roy Beck _Numbers USA_
Vacation in Arizona this year... but e-verify your hotel
look up businesses which are signed up to use e-verify

2010-04-27 (5770 Iyar 13)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
Barreling on, regardless
"If safeguarding international security is the chief aim of US President Barack Obama's foreign policy, then at some point he can be expected to change course in the Middle East.   For today, Obama faces the wreckage of every aspect of his Middle East policies.   And largely as a consequence of his policies, the region moves ever closer to war."

2010-04-27 (5770 Iyar 13)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Filtering History
"Slavery is a classic example.   The history of slavery across the centuries and in many countries around the world is a painful history to read -- not only in terms of how slaves have been treated, but because of what that says about the whole human species -- because slaves and enslavers alike have been of every race, religion and nationality.   If the history of slavery ought to teach us anything, it is that human beings cannot be trusted with unbridled power over other human beings -- no matter what color or creed any of them are.   The history of ancient despotism and modern totalitarianism practically shouts that same message from the blood-stained pages of history.   But that is not the message that is being taught in our schools and colleges, or dramatized on television and in the movies.   The message that is pounded home again and again is that white people enslaved black people.   It is true, just as it is true that I don't go sky-diving with blacks.   But it is also false in its implications for the same reason.   Just as Europeans enslaved Africans, North Africans enslaved Europeans -- more Europeans than there were Africans enslaved in the United States and in the 13 colonies from which it was formed.   The treatment of white galley slaves was even worse than the treatment of black slaves picking cotton.   But there are no movies or television dramas about it comparable to 'Roots', and our schools and colleges don't pound it into the heads of students.   The inhumanity of human beings toward other human beings is not a new story, much less a local story.   There is no need to hide it, because there are lessons we can learn from it.   But there is also no need to distort it, so that sins of the whole human species around the world are presented as special defects of 'our society' or the sins of a particular race.   If American society and Western civilization are different from other societies and civilization, it is that they eventually turned against slavery, and stamped it out, at a time when non-Western societies around the world were still maintaining slavery and resisting Western pressures to end slavery, including in some cases armed resistance.   Only the fact that the West had more firepower than others put an end to slavery in many non-Western societies during the age of Western imperialism.   Yet today there are Americans who have gone to Africa to apologize for slavery -- on a continent where slavery has still not been completely ended, to this very moment.   It is not just the history of slavery that gets distorted beyond recognition by the selective filtering of facts.   Those who go back to mine history, in order to find everything they can to undermine American society or Western civilization, have very little interest in the Bataan death march, the atrocities of the Ottoman Empire or similar atrocities in other times and places."

++ S887; Durbin, Grassley; H-1B and L-1 visa program reform
Status of S877
+++ S2804; Sanders; Employ Americans: prohibit firms who lay off large numbers of capable US citizens from making use of guest-work visas
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

  "Even if the ruler was unjust or impious, it was generally accepted that he should still be obeyed, for any kind of order was better than anarchy; as Ghazali said, 'the tyranny of a sultan for a hundred years causes less damage than one year's tyranny exercised by the subjects against one another'.   Revolt was justified only against a ruler who clearly went against a command of God or His prophet...   A powerful tradition among the 'ulama (among Sunnis and Shi'is alike) was that they should keep their distance from the rulers of the world." --- Albert Hourani 1992 April _An History of the Arab Peoples_ pg 144  

 

2010-04-28

2010-04-28
Tom Lutey _Billings MT Gazette_/_Lee_
Supremes to hear suit over "Roundup Ready" alfalfa seeds

2010-04-28
_Iowa Politics_
senator Charles Grassley to DHS: enforce immigration laws
"During an oversight hearing of the Department of Homeland Security, Chuck Grassley this week told Secretary Janet Napolitano that during his town hall meetings in March and April, Iowans were upset that federal immigration laws weren't being enforced.
 
Grassley also brought to Napolitano's attention legislation that he has introduced that would treat visa revocations similar to visa denials, because the right of that person to be in the United States is no longer valid.   Already, if an individual is denied a visa by the consular officer, there's no judicial review of that decision.   The Grassley bill would apply the same standard for individuals on U.S. soil who should not have been granted a visa, limiting their rights to judicial review of such a decision.
 
'The Christmas Day bomber highlighted the need to review U.S. visa policies, especially how agencies handle visa revocations when alarming information is provided to authorities.', Grassley said.   'The Secretary has the authority to revoke a visa to any individual who is a threat to the country, however if a foreign national is already on U.S. soil, there's concern about that person accessing the U.S. court system and challenging the revocation.'
 
During his questioning of Napolitano, Grassley also continued to highlight abuses within the H-1B and L Visa programs.   He pointed out that some of the problems previously highlighted by congressional oversight of the H-1B Visa program have led applicants to use the L Visa program.   The L Visa program has no wage protections, no annual numerical limits, fewer obligations on employers, and fewer protections for American workers.
 
Grassley is the author of H-1B and L Visa reform legislation which would increase enforcement, modify wage requirements, and ensure protection for visa holders and American workers.   The bill would not eliminate the program or change the numerical cap of visas available to petitioning employers."

2010-04-28
David North _Center for Immigration Studies_
senator Charles Grassley raised H-1B and L-1 issues at senate judiciary committee hearing
DHS Inspector General: Review of Vulnerabilities and Potential Abuses of the L-1 Visa Program (pdf)
"From 1999 to 2004, 9 of the 10 firms [Tata Consultancy, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Wipro Technologies, Hewlett Packard, I-Flex Solutions, IBM Global Services, Information Systems Technology, Syntel Incorporated, and Satyam Computer Services] that petitioned for the most L-1 workers were computer and IT related out-sourcing service firms that specialize in labor from India [the exception was Honda].   And although the L-1 visa program was not intended to benefit any one country, almost 50% of the L-1B (specialized knowledge) petitions submitted in FY2005 named beneficiaries who were born in India...   Definition of the Term 'Specialized Knowledge' May Not Be Sufficiently Restrictive...   The 1994 memorandum makes clear that, in light of the enactment of section 214(c)(2)(B) of the Act, there is no longer any requirement that the alien's knowledge be unique or proprietary.   The 1994 memorandum further clarifies that the beneficiary's specialized knowledge can have been gained outside of the petitioning company, and in fact, might even be knowledge that, over time, could be transferable to a worker already in the United States through training...   That so many foreign workers seem to qualify as possessing specialized knowledge appears to have led to the displacement of American workers, and to what is sometimes called the 'body shop' problem...   One southeast Asian post we surveyed reported: 'Host country software companies appear to be using the L visa to get around H quotas, and relocate individuals who may not meet the specialized knowledge requirement.'...   the L-1 has no labor certification requirement to ensure that recipients are paid the prevailing wage and that American workers are not displaced...   In 2004... 1,975 applicants applied for both the L-1 and H-1B...   USCIS adjudicators said the L-1B program had the potential to be easily exploited for 2 major reasons.   First, adjudicators said that without a more restrictive and more precise definition of 'specialized knowledge', their denials tended to be subjective.   Subjective decisions, they said, are more easily appealed.   Because of their desire to do their jobs correctly, successful appeals are seen as a kind of failure that they strive to avoid.   They were therefore inclined to approve ambiguous petitions rather than denying them.   Second, they reported to us that because many petitions were for employment in the rapidly evolving high technology sector, they did not have sufficient technical expertise to determine whether the beneficiary's knowledge is specialized or general.   And the petitions often contain highly technical language that is not readily comprehensible to an adjudicator...   The DoS consular professionals we surveyed echoed many of the comments of the adjudicators.   One Southeast Asian visa section reported 'officers do not have the knowledge or the guidance necessary to determine whether such work involves specialized knowledge, except in the most clear cut cases.'"
class action against Tata

2010-04-28
_Chronicle of Higher Education_
13 university presidents object to clear separation between internships and under-paid work (pdf)

2010-04-28
Victor Davis Hanson _National Review_
deconstructing the "outrage"

2010-04-28 (5770 Iyar 14)
Les Blumenthal _Jewish World Review_
Supreme court to decide whether personal information about petitioners against same-sex domestic partnership law should be released

2010-04-28 (5770 Iyar 14)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
Salt Tyrants
"What the anti-tobacco zealots established is that government had the right to forcibly control our lives if it was done in the name of protecting our health...   America's tyrants have now turned their attention to salt...   Why do food processors put a certain quantity of salt in their products?   The answer is the people who buy their product like it and they earn profits by pleasing customers.   The FDA has taken the position that what the American buying public wants is irrelevant.   They know what's best and if you disagree, they will fine, jail or put you out of business."

++ S887; Durbin, Grassley; H-1B and L-1 visa program reform
Status of S877
+++ S2804; Sanders; Employ Americans: prohibit firms who lay off large numbers of capable US citizens from making use of guest-work visas
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

  "When a student had finished reading a book with a teacher, he could ask him for an ijaza, a certificate to the effet that A. had studied the book with B.   At a higher level, he could ask for an ijaza of a different kind, certifying that he was competent to exercise ijtihad as a mufti, or to teach a certain book or subject.   At this higher level, it was customary for a student to go from one teacher to another, in one city after another, and to ask for ijazas from all those whose courses he attended; such a procedure had its justification in the hadith which enjoined Muslims to seek learning wherever it was to be found.   An ijaza could be an elaborate document, mentioning a whole chain of transmission from teacher to student over the generations, and so inserting the recipient into a long chain of intellectual ancestors.   By implication it could express a certain idea of what the life of a concerned and learned Muslim should be.   No doubt there were many abuses of the system; we read of indolence and ignorance, of endowments embezzled or perverted to another use. Never the less, the scholar was one of the ideal types of Muslim man which persisted over the centuries." --- Albert Hourani 1992 April _An History of the Arab Peoples_ pp 164-165  

 

2010-04-29

2010-04-29 05:30PDT (08:30EDT) (12:30GMT)
Scott Gibbons & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
DoL home page
OPA press releases
historical data
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 423,286 in the week ending April 24, a decrease of 11,171 from the previous week.   There were 583,457 initial claims in the comparable week in 2009.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.7% during the week ending April 17, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 4,779,335, a decrease of 144,978 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 4.7% and the volume was 6,339,490.   Extended benefits were available in AL, AK, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, ME, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, and WI during the week ending April 10...   States reported 5,200,473 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending April 10, a decrease of 146,641 from the prior week.   There were 2,286,186 claimants in the comparable week in 2009.   EUC weekly claims include first, second, third, and fourth tier activity.   [Note that the population used for calculating the "insured unemployment rate" has been changed
to 132,623,886 beginning 2007-10-06;
to 133,010,953 beginning 2008-01-05;
to 133,382,559 beginning 2008-04-05;
to 133,690,617 beginning 2008-07-05;
to 133,902,387 beginning 2008-10-04;
to 133,886,830 beginning 2009-01-03;
to 133,683,433 beginning 2009-04-04;
to 133,078,480 beginning 2009-07-04;
to 133,823,421 beginning 2009-10-03;
to 131,823,421 beginning 2009-10-17;
to 130,128,328 beginning 2010-01-02;
to 128,298,468 beginning 2010-04-03.]
graphs
more graphs

2010-04-29
Frosty Wooldridge _News with Views_
Importing More Guest-Workers and Immigrants Keeps Americans Unemployed

2010-04-29 12:23:18PDT (15:23:18EDT) (19:23:18GMT)
Mike Cassidy _San Jose CA Mercury News_
Over 50 and out of work in Silicon Valley
"The fact that tech companies routinely pass over older candidates for younger talent is the valley's biggest open secret.   'It's absolutely there.', Winters says of age discrimination...   The 3 met at ProMatch, where they hatched the idea for a web-site that would offer some of what ProMatch does, but virtually and nationwide.   After more than a year of R&D, the 3 launched OurExperienceCounts.com this week...   Of the 15M unemployed in the country, nearly a third are 45 or older."

2010-04-29
Richard Fernandez _PJ Media_
showing your papers has become as American as apple pie

2010-04-29 (5770 Iyar 15)
Cal Thomas _Jewish World Review_
Economic Development for Muslims
"The president thinks more U.S. investment in Muslim lands and exchange programs that will bring Muslim women to America so they can work as interns will enhance U.S. prosperity and, thus, change Muslim attitudes about the United States.   Pigs will fly first.   The U.S.A. has been more than generous to Arab and Muslim nations in direct foreign aid, military assistance and other ways.   Egypt receives about $2G of American [tax-victim] dollars every year, yet it still votes against American interests at the U.N. 79% of the time.   Jordan, a moderate Muslim nation, receives nearly $200M annually in U.S. foreign aid, but votes against America at the U.N. 71% of the time.   Pakistan votes 75% of the time against the U.S.A. at the U.N. while pocketing nearly $7M annually in foreign aid (in addition to the money it gets to supposedly fight al-Qaida).   An even better example of the disconnect between American assistance and changed Muslim attitudes toward the U.S.A. is the Palestinian Authority.   As former Israeli diplomat Yoram Ettinger writes for ynetnews.com, just since 2007, 'U.S. foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority and to PA-controlled (quasi-non-governmental organizations) reached nearly $2G, in addition to $3.7G contributed by the U.S.A. to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East since 1950'."

2010-04-29 (5770 Iyar 15)
Rabbi Yonason Goldson _Jewish World Review_
Why Some Jews Are Leftists
"The sanctity of life, of family, of sexuality, of charity, and of prayer -- all these find their origins in Torah Judaism. Moreover, throughout the Biblical and Talmudic eras the structure of the Jewish socioeconomic community was essentially capitalistic, with the free market determining business activity and the social safety net for the poor and the weak provided (successfully) by individual responsibility within a framework of communal obligation..."

2010-04-29 (5770 Iyar 15)
Jeffrey M. Jones _Gallup_
51% of Americans favor Arizona's immigration law (SB1070)

++ S887; Durbin, Grassley; H-1B and L-1 visa program reform
Status of S877
+++ S2804; Sanders; Employ Americans: prohibit firms who lay off large numbers of capable US citizens from making use of guest-work visas
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

  "I commend you not to learn your sciences from books unaided, even though you may trust your ability to understand.   Resort to professors for each science you seek to acquire; and should your professor be limited in his knowledge take all that he can offer, until you find another more accomplished than he.   You must venerate and respect him...   One should read histories, study biographies and the experiences of nations...   He who has not endured the stress of study will not taste the joy of knowledge..." --- 'Abd al-Latif (a legal and medical scholar of Baghdad, 1162 or 1163 to 1231; Albert Hourani 1992 April _An History of the Arab Peoples_ pg 165)  

 

2010-04-30

2010-04-30
Linda Halstead-Acharya _Billings MT Gazette_/_Lee_
Columbus, MT resident brought Chinese wife he met via the Internet and married in 2006 to small-town USA

2010-04-30 07:30PDT (10:30EDT) (14:30GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
UMich consumer sentiment changed from 73.6 in March to 69.5 in mid-April to 72.2 in late April

2010-04-30 09:29:51PDT (12:29:51EDT) (16:29:51GMT)
Nirmala George _San Jose CA Mercury News_
Indian government banned telecomm equipment made in Red China
"The United States and Europe have said Beijing's requirement that global technology suppliers reveal the inner workings of computer encryption and other security products to conduct business in [Red China] was protectionist...   Last year the government banned imports of Chinese handsets without the International Mobile Equipment Identity, or IMEI, number, again citing security reasons such as the use of stolen handsets to make terror or hoax calls.   The IMEI number of a mobile phone is a 15 digit number unique to every mobile handset. It [guarantees zero privacy]."

2010-04-30 14:22PDE (17:22EDT) (21:22GMT)
Patrick Thibodeau _ComputerWorld_/_IDG_
Senate leftists aim to staple Green Cards to STEM diplomas, worsen glut of low-skill labor

2010 March/April
Thomas A. Garrett, Andrew F. Kozak & Russell M. Rhine _Cite Seer X_/_Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review_/_Pennsylvania State U_
Institutions and Government Growth: A Comparison of the 1890s and the 1930s
"For example, annual federal government per capita spending averaged $125 from 1792 to 1929 with no trend increase [inflation-adjusted 2000 dollars; OMB _Budget of the United States Government, Historical Tables_].   However, real [inflation-adjusted] federal government per capita spending rose from roughly $250 in 1930 to neary $9,200 in 2007."

federal government revenues, spending, surplus/deficit 1789 to 2009

unemployment rates 1890 to 2009

2010-04-30
DJIA11,008.61
S&P 5001,186.68
NASDAQ2,461.19
Nikkei11,057
10-year US T-Bond3.707%
crude oil$86.15/barrel
gold$1,180.70/ounce
silver$18.63/ounce
platinum$1,745.10/ounce
palladium$555.75/ounce
copper$0.20959375/ounce
natgas$3.92/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline $2.3963/gal
heatingoil$2.2885/gal
soybeans$9.5225/bushel
maize$3.4575/bushel
wheat$4.6575/bushel
dollarindex81.88
yenperdollar93.93
dollarspereuro1.3313
dollarsperpound1.5277
swissfranksperdollar 1.0765
indianrupeesperdollar 44.36
mexicanpesosperdollar 12.3020
MorganStanleyHighTechIndex599.04

I usually get this info from MarketWatch.
 

++ S887; Durbin, Grassley; H-1B and L-1 visa program reform
Status of S877
+++ S2804; Sanders; Employ Americans: prohibit firms who lay off large numbers of capable US citizens from making use of guest-work visas
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

  The greatest figure of medieval Judaism, Musa ibn Maymun (Maimonides, 1135-1204) found a freer environment in Cairo under the Ayyubids than in the Andalus from which he came.   His _Guid for the Perplexed_, written in Arabic, gave a philosophical interpretation of the Jewish religion, and other works, in Arabic and Hebrew, expounded Jewish law.   He was court physician to Salah al-Din and his son, and his life and thought give evidence of easy relations between Muslims and Jews of education and standing in the Egypt of his time." --- Albert Hourani 1992 April _An History of the Arab Peoples_ pg 187  

 



Proposed Bills 2010


Congressional candidate fund-raising, expenditures, and debt
 

USA Over-Population Clock
World + USA Over-Population Clocks
Jimbo Wales's WikiPedia on World Over-Population
 

  "self-possessed repose is the characteristic of native power; complaint is the language of weakness." --- Charles Campbell 1860 _History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia_ pg 525 (526 in pdf)  

Movies Coming Soon
 

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