jgo Resume	Reading Room
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updated: 2023-10-31
 

"Even so, the federal commitment to academic research remained intact, providing the finances for a system in which annual increases came to be regarded as the natural order of things, equilibrium as a set-back, and decline as catastrophic.   The sums, as we have seen, are colossal in their scale and continually upward." --- Daniel S. Greenberg 2001 _Science, Money, and Politics: Political Triumph and Ethical Erosion_ pg88

 
 

2010 August

U	M	T	W	R	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30	31

 

"For decades, the reproductive urge in science and engineering was abetted by policies that sanctified and subsidized the taining of doctoral students, with little or no regard for their employability, except as cheap labor in the academic research system.   A confident belief in infinite demand for science and scientists..." --- Daniel S. Greenberg 2001 _Science, Money, and Politics: Political Triumph and Ethical Erosion_ pg89

 
 
 

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

2010-08-01

2010-08-01
CocoaHeads is an international Mac programmer's group.   Meetings are free and open to the public. &nbnsp; We specialize in Cocoa, but everything Mac programming related is welcome.

Australia	NSW	Sydney	Thursday, 2010 August 5, 18:30
Canada	Ontario	Ottawa/Gatineau	Thursday, 2010 August 12, 19:00
Germany	Rhine-Westphalia Aachen	Thursday, 2010 August 26, 19:00
Germany	Bavaria	Munich	Thursday, 2010 August 12, 19:00
Germany	Baden-Wuerttemberg	Stuttgart	Wednesday, 2010 August 18, 19:00
Germany	Rhineland-Palatinate	Trier	Tuesday, 2010 August 3, 19:00
USA	MI	Ann Arbor	Thursday, 2010 August 12, 19:00
USA	GA	Atlanta	Thursday, 2010 August 12, 19:00
USA	CO	Boulder	Tuesday, 2010 August 10, 19:00
USA	IL	Chicago	Tuesday, 2010 August 10, 19:00
USA	OH	Cleveland	Monday, 2010 August 9, 18:00
USA	CO	Colorado Springs	Thursday, 2010 August 12, 19:00
USA	MD	Columbia	Tuesday, 2010 August 10, 19:00
USA	OH	Columbus	Tuesday, 2010 August 10, 2010 21:00
USA	TX	Dallas	Thursday, 2010 August 12, 19:00
USA	CO	Denver	Tuesday, 2010 August 10, 19:00
USA	IA	Des Moines	Thursday, 2010 August 12, 19:00
USA	CA	Lake Forest	Wednesday, 2010 August 11, 19:00
USA	CT	New London	Thursday, 2010 August 12, 19:00
USA	NY	New York	Thursday, 2010 August 12, 18:00
USA	OR	Portland	Wednesday, 2010 August 25, 19:00
USA	CT	Upper Connecticut River Valley	Thursday, 2010 August 12, 19:00
UK	WiltShire	Swindon	Monday, 2010 August 2, 20:00

Some chapters may have yet to post their meeting for next month. Meeting times may change. Locations and more information.
 
Also be sure to check for an NSCoder Night in your area.
---30---

2010-08-01 Jonathan Freeman
Cocoa Camp in Atlanta 2010-09-25 08:00 to 14:00
"The Atlanta CocoaHeads and Atlanta iOS Developers are organizing the first Cocoa Camp, 2010 September 25, from 08:00 to 14:00.   Aaron Hillegass, of 'Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X', will be giving the opening key-note.   Directions and other information.   We're expecting around 25 sessions in this half day event.   We also encourage other Cocoa developers to start their own Cocoa Camp in their local area.   Hope to see you there!"

2010-08-01
Bertram deSouza _Youngstown OH Vindicator_
Balancing Mahoning Valley's image in light of cases of corruption

2010-08-01
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Obama's proposed $30G small business loan fund
Edmund L. Andrews: Fiscal Times: We Are Currently Not Hiring

++ 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
---- HR5658; Shadegg; STEM Job Destruction Act
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

2010-08-02

1776-08-02: Declaration of Independence Signed

2010-08-02
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Leftist congress-critter Fortney "Pete" Stark backs tyranny, violation of oaths of office
Investor's Business Daily
Warner Todd Huston: Chicago Now
Scott Hewitt: Technorati
Tim Alberta: Politico
Washington Examiner
W.C. Varones
Eliabeth Meinecke: Human Events
Shane VanDer Hart: Caffeinated Thoughts
Rush Limbaugh
Mark Whittington
YouTube video

2010-08-02
Deanne Amaden _DoL OPA_
US Department of Labor debars Southland Filipino newspaper from H-1B program: Asian Journal agrees to pay nearly $516,500 to 32 employees plus a $40K penalty

2010-08-02
Bob Murphy _Lew Rockwell_
Krugman's bogus history vs. the reality that Herbert Hoover was a big spender and taxer (with graphs)
William L. Anderson
J.T. Young: Investor's Business Daily

2010-08-02
P.A. Madison _Federalist_
historical analysis of the meaning of the 14th amendment's first section
"To understand the goal and function of the 14th amendment's first section one needs to understand that its entire purpose was to give legal validity to the Civil Rights Bill of 1866.   The goal of both of these acts were to put an end to criminal black codes established under former rebel States that at the time were being administered under policies of President Andrew Johnson.   Because former slaves were now considered citizens of the United States by Lincoln's emancipation, Congress felt it was vital to protect their fundamental rights as United States citizens under article 4, section 2 of the U.S. Constitution wherever they traveled within the Union (especially in the South and Oregon).   These fundamental rights of United States citizens (not citizens residing within their own State) were universally understood to include protection of due process in criminal proceedings and access to courts to enforce contrats, sue, etc.   This is why black codes were found objectionable; they placed the black man on unequal footing in criminal proceedings with the white man.   Under the original Constitution, citizens of the United States were required to be first a citizen of some State -- something blacks of the south could not claim..."

2010-08-02
_Dice_
Dice Report: 65,959 job ads

2010-08-03

2010-08-03 (5770 Menachem-Ab 23)
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Is the era of Fed monetary dinking nearing an end?
John M. Berry: Fiscal Times: Fed running out of options

2010-08-03 (5770 Menachem-Ab 23)
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Government Motors notion of "green car" vs. products in demand, and repaying tax-victims with their own money

2010-08-03 07:20PDT (10:29EDT) (14:29GMT)
Dana Blankenhorn _Ziff Davis_/_CBS_
VC money is easy to get these days
"'Smaller amounts lent over longer periods create more patience.'...   Growth rates on even the best companies aren't enough for a VC who needs a good shot at a 10-1 win to justify his investment of money and time...   Of course, the way to get those cheap rates is to not need the money.   But if you're rich money right now is not a problem.   And you shouldn't need a 1,000% return to justify an equity investment, either.   The world is awash in capital, and what was once considered a modest return can justify the investment.   Even open source can get new financing in this environment.   All we need is a working model for how that cheap money gets paid off."

2010-08-03 (5770 Menachem-Ab 23)
Paul McDougall _InformationWeek_/_UBM_
US government to spend $36M to train 3K foreign IT workers over-seas
"Following their training, the tech workers will be placed with [cross-border bodyshoppers] in the region that provide off-shore IT and business services to American companies looking to take advantage of the Asian sub-continent's low labor costs.   Under director Rajiv Shah, the United States Agency for International Development will partner with private outsourcers in Sri Lanka to teach workers there advanced IT skills like Enterprise Java (Java EE) programming, as well as skills in business process outsourcing and call center support.   USAID will also help the trainees brush up on their English language proficiency...   As recently as Monday, Obama, speaking at a Democratic fundraiser in Atlanta, boasted about his efforts to reduce offshoring.   The President said he's implemented 'a plan that's focused on making our middle class more secure and our country more competitive in the long run -- so that the jobs and industries of the future aren't all going to [Red China] and India, but are being created right here in the United States of America'.   Obama in January tapped Shah to head USAID.   At the time of his appointment, Shah—whose experience in the development community included senior positions at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation—said the organization needed to focus more on helping developing nations build technology-based economies.   'We need to develop new capabilities to pursue innovation, science, and technology.', said Shah, during his swearing in ceremony.   Sri Lanka's out-sourcing industry is nascent, but growing as it begins to scoop up work from neighboring India.   In addition to home-grown firms, it's attracting investment from Indian outsourcers looking to expand beyond increasingly expensive tech hubs like Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Mumbai.   In 2007, consultants at A.T. Kearney listed the country as 29th on their list of the top 50 global out-sourcing destinations."
David Kramer: Lew Rockwell
"My guess is that most Americans didn't think that some of the new jobs that the current Administration wanted to create were for people who were foreigners in other countries."

2010-08-03 14:21:32PDT (17:21:32EDT) (21:21:32GMT)
Lolita C. Baldor _San Jose CA Mercury "News"_/_AP_
Criminal hackers targeting power plants

2010-08-03 14:29:20PDT (17:29:20EDT) (21:29:20GMT)
Erika Kinetz _San Jose CA Mercury "News"_/_AP_
Telecomm execs object to India's security regulations
"Under guidelines proposed last week, foreign equipment makers must allow regular security inspections and make their network design and source code -- proprietary information used to run a network -- available to the Indian government.   Companies would also be subject to large penalties and black-listing for security breaches, and would have 2 years to replace foreign engineers with local hires."

2010-08-03 (5770 Menachem-Ab 23)
Paul Beckett _Wall Street Journal_
Bribe-taking in India

2010-08-03 (5770 Menachem-Ab 23)
Greta van Susteren & Charles Grassley _Fox_
How the administration's back-door amnesty plan memo was obtained and where it goes from here

2010-08-03 (5770 Menachem-Ab 23)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
Is Profiling Racist?
"We live in a world of imperfect and costly information, and people seek to economize on information costs in a variety of ways.   If we don't take that fact into account, we risk misidentifying and confusing one type of human behavior with another.   Let's look at it.   Pima Indians of Arizona have the world's highest diabetes rates.   With knowledge that his patient is a Pima Indian, it would probably be a best practice for a physician to order more thorough blood glucose tests to screen for diabetes.   Prostate cancer is nearly twice as common among black men as white men.   It would also be a best practice for a physician to be attentive to -- even risk false positive PSAs -- prostate cancer among his black patients.   What about physicians who order routine mammograms for their 40-year and older female patients but not their male patients?   The American Cancer Society predicts that about 400 men will die of breast cancer this year.   Because of a correlation between race, sex and disease, the physician is using a cheap-to-observe characteristic, such as race or sex, as an estimate for a more costly-to-observe characteristic, the presence of a disease.   The physician is practicing both race and sex profiling."

2010-08-03 (5770 Menachem-Ab 23)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Democrats Bite Democrats part1
Lew Rockwell
Abilene TX Reporter News/Scripps
National Review
One News Now
Detroit MI News
"What Barack Obama and his followers want is called 'comprehensive immigration reform'.   What that amounts to is some form of amnesty up front, combined with a promise to strengthen the border later [i.e. reprehensible immigration law perversion].   That political game has been played for years, and it has roped in some weak-kneed Republicans, as well as being a mainstay of Democratic politics.   Regardless of what immigration policy anyone believes in, the government cannot carry out that policy until after it has first gained control of the borders.   Regardless of what Washington politicians may say about how many immigrants should be allowed into the country, or on what basis, none of that matters when the real decision is in the hands of innumerable other people, who can simply climb over a fence along the border and come on in whenever they feel like it.   Even if they get caught, the most that is likely to happen to them is that they get sent back to try again later.   In many cases in the past, they have been issued legal documents ordering them to appear in court -- and were released inside the United States.   Why anyone would think that people who disregarded the border and the fence would take a piece of paper more seriously defies logic.   That doesn't mean that Washington politicians were stupid.   They were political, which is worse.   The point was to win Hispanic votes, even though not all Hispanics believe in open borders.   President Obama would rather have an issue with which to win the Hispanic vote than to have a bipartisan bill that would simply take control of the borders.   Such a bill would help the country but that obviously takes a back seat in an election year.   Even some members of Obama's own party are uneasy with such cynicism."
 
 

2010-08-04

1730-08-04: John Peter Zenger acquitted of sedition

2010-08-04 (5770 Menachem-Ab 24)
Courtney Schlisserman _Bloomberg_
CGC: announced job cuts lower than last July
Francine Knowles: Chicago Sun-Times
Reic Risberg: Syracuse NY Post-Standard/AP
Julie Fortier: Financial Post
Henry Unger: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
MS/GE/CNBC
* Planned firings dropped from 2009 July's 97,373 to 41,676 for 2010 July, but up from the 39,358 of 2010 June.
* 339,353 cuts have been announced for 2010 January through July.
* Government and non-profit agencies led sectors with 7,193 announced reductions in July (105,969 year to date, compared to last year's January to July total of 109,433).   Financial firms followed with 5,498.   Transportation 5,331.   Health care/products 2,694.   Food 2,429.   Industrial goods 2,362.   Aerospace and Defense 2,281.   Pharmaceuticals 2,023.   Consumer products 1,424.   Services 1,411.   Telecomm 1,199.   Electronics 1,144.   Energy 696.   Computer 632.   Chemical 314.   (The pharmaceutical industry, has announced 37,010 job cuts year to date compared with last year's 52,683 for the same period.   Financial 15,399 ytd.   Retail 26,993 compared with last year's 88,352 ytd.   Transportation 19,098 compared with last year's 61,578 ytd.   Computer 17,596 compared with last year's 53,145 ytd.)
* CA led all states with 6,853 announced job cuts (55,122 ytd), followed by GA with 3,429.   FL 3,411.   NY 2,619.   TX 2,605.   UT 2,500.   IL had 2,360 (24,602 ytd).   PA 2,274.   MO 2,133.   CT 2,040.   MS 1,704.   AZ 1,656.   AL 1,278.   OH 1,183.   VA 1,103.
* 14,713 were attributed to "restructuring", 7,186 to "cost-cutting", 5,345 to "demand downturn", 4,366 to "closing", 3,867 to "economic conditions", 185 to "out-sourcing", 74 to "voluntary severance", and another 70 to "reorganization/consolidation".
Complete Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. press release (PDF)
graphs

2010-08-04 12:00PDT (15:00EDT) (19:00GMT)
Ethan Watrall _Chronicle of Higher Education_
5 favorite iPad applications

2010-08-04 (5770 Menachem-Ab 24)
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Timothy Geithner in GaGa Land: Is the whole federal government schizo (cut off from reality)?

2010-08-04 (5770 Menachem-Ab 24)
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Now They Tell Us: The more we find out about National Socialist Health Care Perversion (ObummerDoesn'tCare), the worse it looks
Kevin Hassett: Bloomberg

2010-08-04 (5770 Menachem-Ab 24)
W. James Antle iii _American Spectator_
Biased judge Walker: Parts of your constitution are unconstitutional

2010-08-04 (5770 Menachem-Ab 24)
Mike Hasten _USA Today_/_Gannett_
Law-suit alleges abuse of Filippino teachers in LA
"'It was a recipe for abuse.', Bauer said, and anytime a Filipino teacher complained, Navarro threatened law-suits and deportation."

2010-08-04 16:01PDT (19:01EDT) (23:01GMT)
Jason Stein _Automotive News_
Ford says it will bring an additional 635 workers into 9 plants by 2012
"The UAW agreement called for 1,559 jobs to be in-sourced to Ford hourly workers throughout the four-year term of the contract.   Ford already has added 1,340 jobs to 24 U.S. plants.   By 2012 it will have added a total of 1,975, the automaker says."

2010-08-04 (5770 Menachem-Ab 24)
William L. Anderson
Krugman moves to stifle discussion

2010-08-04 (5770 Menachem-Ab 24)
Norm Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring News-Letter_
inexplicable move by Obama administration: US government to spend $36M to train 3K foreign IT workers over-seas
As many of you know, I'm a life-long Democrat, but have been profoundly disappointed with both major parties for some time now.   But I must say that the Obama administration has, sadly, out-done itself now, as the linked article shows.
 
Since the dot-com bust in 2000, the Democrats have generally had a policy of supporting H-1B but opposing offshoring.   Though I of course consider that policy contradictory and sadly ill-advised, the relevant point here is that the party has been consistently critical of off-shoring of IT.   As noted in the article, President Obama is no exception, having said a number of times that he wants to reduce the outflow of IT jobs abroad.
 
And yet we see now that the Obama administration is actually training workers in Sri Lanka to work on IT projects for U.S. firms.   And this is more than call centers -- it's a sophisticated form of Java software development.
 
One wonders who suggested this idea to Mr. Shah, and how he could be so politically tone deaf.
Paul McDougall: InformationWeek: US government to spend $36M to train 3K foreign IT workers over-seas

2010-08-04 (5770 Menachem-Ab 24)
Bruce Kennedy _Daily Finance_
Corning's strong, flexible Chemcor/Gorilla glass could remake televisions
"Up until about a decade ago, Corning's bread-and-butter product was the optical fiber used in telecommunications -- but that industry shrank dramatically after the tech bubble burst [2000 to 2002]...   Corning has ramped up production of Gorilla glass at its plant in Harrodsburg, KY, and the company just approved about $180M in capital expenditures to expand the plant."

2010-08-04 (5770 Menachem-Ab 24)
Kathy Kristof _Fiscal Times_
congress-critters living high on the backs of tax-victims

2010-08-04 (5770 Menachem-Ab 24)
David Blaska _WI Isthmus Daily Page_
Conservatives in Academia

2010-08-04 (5770 Menachem-Ab 24)
Ann Coulter _Human Events_
William Joseph Brennan ii's foot-note fabricated anchor babies
Pittsburgh PA Tribune-Review_
Town Hall
World Net Daily
"Democrats act as if the right to run across the border when you're 8.5 months pregnant, give birth in a U.S. hospital and then immediately start collecting welfare was exactly what our forebears had in mind, a sacred constitutional right, as old as the 14th Amendment itself.   The louder [leftists] talk about some ancient constitutional right, the surer you should be that it was invented in the last few decades.   In fact, this alleged right derives only from a footnote slyly slipped into a Supreme Court opinion by justice Brennan in 1982...   The 14th amendment was added after the Civil War in order to overrule the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision, which had held that black slaves were not citizens of the United States.   The precise purpose of the amendment was to stop sleazy Southern states from denying citizenship rights to newly freed slaves —- many of whom had roots in this country longer than a lot of white people...   In the 1884 case Elk v. Wilkins, the Supreme Court ruled that the 14th amendment did not even confer citizenship on Indians -— because they were subject to tribal jurisdiction, not U.S. jurisdiction..."

2010-08-04 (5770 Menachem-Ab 24)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Democrats Bite Democrats part2
Front Page Magazine
Real Clear Politics
Manchester NH Union Leader
"Without naming names or making political charges, the Congressional Budget Office last week issued a report titled 'Federal Debt and the Risk of a Fiscal Crisis'.   The report's dry, measured words paint a painfully bleak picture of the long-run dangers from the current runaway government deficits.   The CBO report points out that the national debt, which was 36% of the Gross Domestic Product 3 years ago, is now projected to be 62% of GDP at the end of fiscal year 2010 -- and rising in future years.   Tracing the history of the national debt back to the beginning of the country, the CBO finds that the national debt did not exceed 50% of GDP, even when the country was fighting the Civil War, the First World War or any other war except World War II.   Moreover, a graph in the CBO report shows the national debt going down sharply after World War II, as the nation began paying off its wartime when the war was over.   [OTOH, looked at in a longer historical perspective, we can see that nowhere near as much of the debt was paid off after WW2 as had been paid off after previous wars.]...   Although Barack Obama and members of his administration constantly talk about the so-called 'stimulus' spending as creating a demand for goods that is in turn 'creating jobs', every dime they spend comes from somewhere else, which means that there is less money to create jobs somewhere else.   There is no reason to believe that all this runaway spending is creating jobs -- on net balance.   The fact that the unemployment rate remains stuck at nearly 10% belies the idea that great numbers of jobs are being created -- again, on net balance...   Just paying the interest on a growing national debt can require higher tax rates, which 'would discourage work and saving and further reduce output', according to the CBO."
 
 

2010-08-05

2010-08-05
senator George LeMieux
Federal government debt = $13,301,637,817,150.95 ($13.3T).
Estimated debt per tax-victim = $119,913

2010-08-05 05:30PDT (08:30EDT) (12:30GMT)
Scott Gibbons & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
DoL home page
DoL OPA press releases
historical data
" The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 399,570 in the week ending July 31, a decrease of 14,247 from the previous week.   There were 466,695 initial claims in the comparable week in 2009.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.5% during the week ending July 24, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 4,418,756, a decrease of 152,113 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 4.5% and the volume was 6,019,822.   Extended benefits were available in AL, AK, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA ID, IL, IN KS, KY, ME, MA, MI, MN, MO, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, TN, TX, VA, WA, WV, and WI during the week ending July 17...   States reported 3,314,629 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending July 17, an increase of 60,993 from the prior week.   There were 2,830,911 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" changes
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;
to 126,763,245 beginning 2010-07-03.]
graphs
more graphs

2010-08-05
Grace Wyler _Youngstown OH Vindicator_
Turning Technologies audience response software product expanding sales in Europe
"Turning's software, designed at its West Federal Street head-quarters, has rapidly grown in popularity in the United States since the company's inception in 2002.   The software is now used by 67 of the Fortune 100 companies and more than half of the country's higher-education institutions, Broderick said."

2010-08-05
_Wall Street Journal_
Missouri citizens reject National Socialist Health Care Perversion (ObummerDoesn'tCare): more people considering bill's deeper implications

2010-08-05
Joseph Lawyer _American Spectator_
Gaming the system: Why some prefer complex legislation and regulation

2010-08-05
Quin Hillyer _American Spectator_
Why not seriously oppose Elena Kagan appointment
"Just BEFORE Reid actually files for cloture, somebody should take the floor and not give it up.   Hold it for 18 straight hours.   Read the actual Constitution alive.   Blast Kagan's ethics and suggest that she pushed at least to the very border-line of perjury in her Senate testimony.   Talk about how she screwed the 2001/09/11 families.   Make a big deal of it.   Attract network attention to the first honest-go-goodness one-man filibuster since Al D'Amato did one in 1992.   Get the public engaged...   Make them explain how they support a partial-birth abortioning, 2001/09/11 family screwing, political pamphlet-banning, First Amendment 'doling', speech 'redistributing', sharia-law supporting, foreign law promoting, gay marriage-by-judicial fiat promoting, ethically challenged, military denying/law-breaking, anti-gun-rights, natural rights denying, woefully inexperienced, Borking supporting, no-government-limiting, racial preference supporting judge who believes it is okay for a judge to 'create rights' and 'try to mold and steer the law in order to promote certain ethical values and achieve certain social ends'.   Just for once, take it to the f*n mat."

2010-08-05 13:00:23PDT (16:00:23EDT) (20:00:23GMT)
Mike Swift _San Jose CA Mercury "News"_
CA supremes rule that age-bias case against Google can go forward
Jonathan Stempel: Reuters

2010-08-05 11:48PDT (14:48EDT) (17:48GMT)
Matt Andrejczak _MarketWatch_
Russia banning wheat exports for 3 months due to drought: Price rises begin to work through product chain with immediate winners and losers
Alex Duval Smith: Manchester Guardian

2010-08-05
Chris Strohm _GovExec_/_Congress Daily_
Senate leftists pushing Immigration Law Perversion bill, throwing distracting bones
"In an apparent effort to counter Republicans, the bill introduced by Senate Democrats Thursday would be paid for by raising fees on foreign companies that hire more than 50% of their U.S. work-force through the H-1B high-skilled visa work program or the L visa program [a microscopic percentages of firms which abuse these visa programs].   'They really use the system in a way it was never intended.', Schumer said of those companies.   Firms would face a fee increase of about $2K for each visa application on foreign workers who constitute more than 50% of their work-force, a Democratic aide said."
Patrick Thibodeau: ComputerWorld/IDG
+ HR6080; Price; "emergency" supplemental appropriations for "border security"
+ S3721; Schumer; "emergency" supplemental appropriations, "Border Security", pork for government employees

2010-08-05
Zach Benoit _Billings MT Gazette_
Cardiothoracic surgeon in Billings teaches VATS mini-maze procedure to pair of physicians from Red China
"Dr. Cui Kaijun, a cardiologist, and Dr. Guo Ying Qiang, a cardiac surgeon, came to Billings from the West China School of Medicine at Sichuan University's West China Hospital.   They spent Thursday afternoon at Billings Clinic with Dr. Scott Needham, a cardiothoracic surgeon, learning a procedure called video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery mini-maze...   Imagine the human heart as a maze and electrical impulses as the mouse running through it.   There's a specific path they're supposed to take that leads to the end, or the heart-beat.   When the mouse takes a wrong turn, it runs into a wall and its path gets interrupted.   When the impulses take an errant path, it can lead to atrial fibrillration...   He said the procedure is 80% to 90% effective in curing atrial fibrillation, a much higher success rate than other treatments, such as medication.   Cui and Guo will be able to take home to [Red China] an effective treatment -- one that is barely practiced in the country -- to a fairly common problem."

2010-08-05
S. Fred Singer _Independent Institute_/_American Thinker_
The Renewable Electricity Standard Is a Hoax, a Fraud, and a Rip-Off

2010-08-05
Razib Khan _Discover_
1 of every 200 man is descended from Genghis Khan
 
 

2010-08-06

2010-08-06
Sean Barron _Youngstown OH Vindicator_
Anniversary of signing of Voting Rights Act celebrated

2010-08-06 08:00PDT (11:00EDT) (15:00GMT)
Greg Robb _MarketWatch_
Non-farm pay-rolls drop 131K in July, BLS reports: Private pay-rolls up 71K
graphs

2010-08-06
_Association of Equipment Manufacturers_
Response to job losses
"Generate economic activity by rebuilding and modernizing America's infrastructure -- roads, bridges, sewer, clean water and flood control systems -- starting immediately with the long overdue reauthorization of the federal surface transportation programs. Help our farmers and manufacturers create more jobs in the U.S. by exporting their products to new markets around the world.   One very direct way [NOT] to do this is by passing the pending free trade agreements with South Korea, Panama and Colombia."

2010-08-06 10:09PDT (13:09EDT) (17:09GMT)
Catherine Carlock _MarketWatch_
Needs vs. Wants

2010-08-06
Norm Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring News-Letter_
USAID facilitating off-shoring to Armenia, too
After hearing the outrageous news the other day that the federal government is subsidizing the off-shoring of IT work to Sri Lanka, it now turns out that the same is occurring in Armenia.
 
Moreover, this new article has a couple of interesting wrinkles.   First, it's happening as we speak, with Jonathan Hale, USAID deputy assistant administrator for Europe & Eurasia, currently on a 4-day trip to Armenia to work these out with the Armenian government.   Second, this article confirms that at least one American company is a partner in the operation.
 
One rather unfortunate point in the article is that union official Sawade seems to buy into the notion that no Americans could do this work without retraining.   The fact is that many of the U.S. un/under-employed already have background like Java EE.
 
My review of the InformationWeek article on the Sri Lanka case.
 
As the saying goes, "Where's the outrage?"
 
Norm
Paul McDougall: InformationWeek: Now It's Armenia: USAID Funds IT In Eurasia: After pledging millions to bolster out-sourcing in South Asia, federal agency extends largesse to a new recipient

2010-08-06
William L. Anderson
Leftists'/Keynesians' addiction to over-taxing and over-spending

2010-08-06
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Further light on the mythical Keynesian multiplier effect

2010-08-06
Jake Filip _Wall Steet Cheat Sheet_
Guide to unemployment statistics
graphs

2010-08-06
Edwin S. Rubenstein _V Dare_
July Jobs: Americans Are the Biggest—and Only—Losers. We Need a Visa Moratorium Now! (has graphs and tables)
"For every 100.0 Hispanics employed in 2001 January there were 124.0 in 2010 July.   For every 100.0 non-Hispanics employed in 2001 January there were 97.8 in 2010 July.   July's VDAWDI equals 126.8 (=100 X 124.0/97.8)."

2010-08-06
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Why do government planners do so poorly?
Freddie Mac requests another $1.8G bail-out: Fannie and Freddie lost a combined $9G in the April-to-June quarter and have needed more than $148G to stay afloat since the government rescued them nearly 2 years ago

2010-08-06
Michael Greenstone & Adam Looney _Brookings Institute_
The Long Road Back to Full Employment: How the "Great Recession" Compares to Previous U.S. Recessions

2010-08-06 (5770 Menachem-Ab 26)
Caroline B. Glick _Jewish World Review_
Hundreds of millions of US tax dollars being used to train, arm and supply armies whose goals is elimination of Israel

2010-08-06

DJIA	10,653.50
S&P 500	1,121.64
NASDAQ	2,288.47
Nikkei	9,642
10-year US T-Bond	2.83
crude oil	$80.70/barrel
gold	$1,205.30/ounce
silver	$18.47/ounce
platinum	$1,570.80/ounce
palladium	$487.60/ounce
copper	$0.2089375/ounce
natgas	$4.47/MBTU
reformulatedgasoline	$2.11/gal
heatingoil	$2.1517/gal
soybeans	$10.335/bushel
maize	$4.20/bushel
wheat	$7.5525/bushel
dollarindex	80.38
yenperdollar	85.49
dollarspereuro	1.3282
dollarsperpound	1.5967
swissfranksperdollar	1.0374
indianrupeesperdollar	46.16
mexicanpesosperdollar	12.6670
MorganStanleyHighTechIndex	562.57

I usually get this info from MarketWatch.
 
 
 

2010-08-07

2010-08-07
Marc Kovac _Youngstown OH Vindicator_
Ohio governor Strickland issued order banning off-shore out-sourcing
Mark Niquette: Columbus OH Dispatch

2010-08-07
Liz Peek _Fiscal Times_
Hey, Dude. Where's My Job?: Minimum wage increases give harsh lesson in economics to teens
Investor's Business Daily

2010-08-07
Rob Rogers _Billings MT Gazette_/_Lee_
Learning science, technology, engineering and math can be exciting

2010-08-07
Mike Lynch _Adirondack Daily Enterprise_
Little brown bats from MO to Quebec threatened by fungus
Pete Spotts: Christian Science Monitor
Discover
Scientist
BusinessWeek
Brian Handwerk: National Geographic
John Timmer: Ars Technica
Frick, Pollock, Hicks et al.: Science
"the little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus), which is among the most common in North America, and lives in the areas being ravaged by WNS.   At least 6 other species of bats have been affected by WNS, but the little brown bat has an advantage for scientific studies: there are 30 years of data on the animal's numbers at major hibernation spots, and another 16 of breeding and mortality data from a single site...   the fungal pathogen (Geomyces destructans)"

2010-08-07
Gerald Celente _Lew Rockwell_
US citizens have been cheated and betrayed

2010-08-07
Niles Gardiner _London Telegraph_
Obama and his modern-day ancien regime: extravagant and out of touch with the American people
 
 

2010-08-08

1902-08-08: Paul A.M. Dirac -- predictor of existence of anti-particles and magnetic monopoles -- was born

2010-08-08
Courtney Denen _Youngstown OH Vindicator_
Claims of widespread job growth disputed
"Some authorities say Youngstown is on the brink of an economic breakthrough, evidenced by a third shift at Lordstown's GM plant, the investments in downtown jobs at VXI's call center and business development at the Youngstown Business Incubator.   Others say the local economy is no better now than the day the mills closed, that the Valley has remained economically stagnant for 33 years.   'Black Monday' hit hard in 1977.   Tens of thousands of jobs were lost, and by 1982 November, Youngstown had the highest unemployment rate in the nation.   Since 1982, the Valley has faced the constant need for jobs...   John Russo, co-author of 'Steel Town USA' and professor of labor studies at Williamson College of Business Administration at Youngstown State University, said local economic development agencies are not realistic.   'They are trying to put a good face on things.'...   'It's almost as though to solve our unemployment problem, we had to create a lot of economic development agencies to hire people to work in these agencies, and the only thing they were doing was developing their own jobs.', McKelvey said.   'When it's all said and done, much more is said than done.', McKelvey said...   Many public-records requests and other inquiries yielded mixed results...   The Ohio Department of Development claimed to have created 2,143 jobs in Region 12 -- Mahoning, Trumbull and Ashtabula counties -- from 2007 January through 2009 December.   To create these jobs, a staff of 5 earned $917,654 in 3 years [$305,885 per year, $61,177 per staffer per year, on average].   Katie Sabatino, public information officer for communications and marketing division of the Ohio Department of Development, said via e-mail, 'Some of these projects are proposed jobs that are to be created in the near future.'   The Regional Chamber says it created 1,052 new jobs in 20 different companies in 2009...   Heather McMahon, communications director for Ryan's office, said though there are no quick fixes in economic development, small businesses are the future of the economy.   'When Delphi came in the mid-1960s they hired 14K [people] to start working there.   That's just not being done in America anymore.', McMahon said."

2010-08-08
Patrick O'Donnell _Youngstown OH Vindicator_/_Cleveland OH Plain Dealer_
Ohio government employee pension funds ask for government bail-out, refuse to open their account-books to scrutiny
Dayton OH Daily News

2010-08-08
Margo Rutledge Kissell _Dayton Daily News_
high turn-over in K-12 students is a problem
"Some of the districts see an average turn-over rate of 30% to 52% of their students each year.   Children are bouncing from troubled school to troubled school, with few moving up to better performing schools.   Students moving from one building to another tend to have lower reading scores...   The concept of a common curriculum was floated by Tom Lasley, executive director of EDvention, a collaborative dedicated to accelerating science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) talent in the Dayton area, and former dean of UD's school of Education and Allied Professions was involved in the study."

2010-08-08 02:43PDT (05:43EDT) (09:43GMT)
Hugo Miller, Mourad Haroutunian & Anthony DiPaola _Bloomberg_
Saudia Arabia government thugs extend dead-line for BlackBerry to provide them with means to violate privacy of BlackBerry users
Souhail Karam: Reuters
BBC
Douglas McIntyre: Daily Finance
"Saudi Arabia delayed shutting off Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry instant messaging until midnight tomorrow, giving operators time to test a system that can monitor user data, the state-run Saudi Press Agency said...   The United Arab Emirates, India [Lebanon, Algeria,] and Indonesia have also expressed concern that such mobile communications could be used to violate laws or national mores...   RIM said in a statement Aug. 4 that it cooperated with governments around the world with standard practices and that any reports it gave special access or information to certain authorities were inaccurate.   Marisa Conway, a RIM spokes-woman in New York, declined to make any further comment when contacted by Bloomberg News...   Turkey's telecommunications regulator Aug. 6 said there are 'serious' security weaknesses related to BlackBerry services in the country, adding that it has set up a committee to look into the matter.   The U.A.E. said in a statement Aug. 4 that it wouldn't be changing its decision to ban BlackBerry service in October and that it was open to discussions aimed at achieving a solution to the issue...   RIM said Aug. 4 that it couldn't meet requests from governments that it reveal codes for reading some users' communications.   The corporate service was designed to prevent RIM, or anyone else, from reading encrypted information.   'In some sense, the Saudi drama has been over-blown as the government is already monitoring every other handset maker in the region offering SMS and e-mail, which it can monitor.', said Tero Kuittinen, an analyst with MKM Partners in Greenwich, CT.   He has a 'buy' rating on the stock.   [Blackberry's encrypted data is stored in Canada, the home country of manufacturer RIM, out of reach of third party monitoring.]"

2010-08-08
Jon Boone _Manchester Guardian_/_The Observer_
10 medical workers killed by terrorists in northern Afghanistan Friday
"The Taliban claimed responsibility for the murders, saying the group had been trying to convert Afghans to Christianity, but local police said they believed thieves were to blame.   General Agha Noor Kemtuz, the local police chief, told the Observer that the group had stopped for lunch in a heavily forested area at around 2pm when they were robbed.   The team, which included six Americans, one German and two Afghans, were returning to Kabul after a two-week mission to provide basic health-care in remote mountain valleys in Nuristan.   According to the sole survivor, an Afghan man called Safiullah, the attackers first took their money and then lined them up to be shot.   Kemtuz said Safiullah had been spared after he cried out passages from the Qur'an and pleaded: 'I am a Muslim. Don't kill me.'"

2010-08-08
_Billings MT Gazette_/_AP_
USDA planning to demand national ID for live-stock that cross state lines: No word on whether it will be applied to human bodies shopped across borders
"Official animal identification tags could come from 3 places: the National Uniform Ear Tagging System utilized by programs such as brucellosis prevention; the 15-digit international standard numbering system; or a numbering system compatible with the USDA's National Scrapie Eradication Program for sheep and goats."

2010-08-08
"Professor Pennywise" _Chronicle of Higher Education_
A Short Recent History of the US Economy
 
 

2010-08-09

2010-08-09
_Florida agency for WorkForce Innovation_
Work Opportunity Tax Credit
"The Work Opportunity Tax Credit Program (WOTC) offers private for profit employers an opportunity to earn a federal income tax credit for hiring individuals from certain target groups.   The program is also designed to help job-seekers who consistently have a particularly high unemployment rate, enter employment.   By hiring individuals from these targeted groups, employers can reduce their taxes up to $2,400 or $4,800 during the first year of employment or up to $9K over 2 years, depending on the qualified applicant.   The targeted groups are: Qualified Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Recipients, Qualified Veterans/Disabled Veterans, Qualified Ex-felons, Designated Community Residents, Vocational Rehabilitation Referrals, Qualified Summer Youths, Qualified Food Stamp Recipients, Qualified Supplemental Security Income Recipients and Long-Term Family Assistance Recipients.   The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 expand WOTC to include 2 new targeted groups: disconnected youth and unemployed veteran."

2010-08-09
Edwin S. Rubenstein _V Dare_
Deportations of Illegal Aliens Have Been Decreasing under Obama Admin (with table, graph)
"Fiscal 2010, which started on 2009 October 1, and is Obama's first full year, is on course to be the first since FY2002 in which deportations will have declined...   The largest decline—16%—occurred in May.   As of this writing the ICE web-site provides deportation numbers through 2010 July 22.   Prorating the 22 days of July you get a full month total of 19,200 deportations, which is 45% below the 34,819 deportations recorded in 2009 July...   To be sure, not all types of deportations have declined.   Convicted criminal removals rose 37% in the first nine months of FY2010 compared to the same period of FY2009...   Reality check: most of the rise in criminal deportations is attributable to the Secure Communities program, a Bush initiative inherited by Mr. Obama.   While ICE takes full credit for expanding the program, the real impetus comes from state and local governments.   They are sick and tired of footing the bill for holding illegal aliens in their lock ups.   But 'Non-criminal' deportations fell to 142,100 in the first nine months of FY2010, from 188K in the same period last year—a 24% decline.   This category includes illegals busted in workplace raids or identified by those employer audits that ICE claims are a more effective way to enforce immigration laws in the work-place.   Even in the Great Depression, there are far more illegal aliens working than in jail in the U.S.A.   It is scandalous that their deportations are declining while American unemployment remains at such historic highs."
xls spread-sheet

2010-08-09
_ICE_
Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT) have been integrated

2010-08-09
_National Sheriffs' Association_
National Sheriffs' Association expresses support for ICE criminal alien enforcement efforts
"In a resolution adopted on June 29 during a meeting in Anaheim, CA, the NSA membership affirmed their support for ICE's Secure Communities and 287( g ) programs. The resolution noted, in part, that the programs serve to 'effectively and accurately identify and remove criminal aliens from the U.S.A.' while upholding civil rights and civil liberties."

2010-08-09
_Morning Sun_/_Jacksonville Daily News_
Finger-print sharing system can stop criminals
"Law enforcement officials have been asked to provide finger-prints of people who are arrested to immigration officials.   Some, including the San Francisco sheriff, have balked at the request, and the Washington, DC, City Council enacted a resolution blocking its use by DC police...   the reviews are part of a larger Secure Communities initiative to identify criminals of all types.   The fingerprints are to be shared with the Department of Homeland Security, which now oversees America's immigration agencies, as well as with the FBI.   The prints are to be checked against federal criminal records as well as immigration data.   The initiative began in 2007 under the George W. Bush administration.   To date, most law enforcement agencies have not begun the practice; it's being done in 467 jurisdictions in 26 states, a small percentage of the thousands of cities, counties and parishes that comprise local political subdivisions in this country.   But the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that it wants to be getting data from all of the nation's jails by 2013.   Many Americans -- including some of those now expressing outrage -- have long called for better information sharing among the nation's policing agencies.   Countless crimes have been committed by people who had been released from police custody on other charges because their criminal history didn't show on a standard background check.   Many suspects have been in custody and then released because the fact that they were wanted for a crime wasn't available to all law enforcement agencies.   If the Secure Communities initiative includes full sharing of criminal data by all law enforcement agencies, then it is hard to find fault with its implementation.   That's exactly what we've been asking for since before the 2001/09/11 terrorist attacks.   And as long as our nation's immigration laws and policies are on the books, we must expect that they will be enforced."

2010-08-09
Steve Johnson _San Jose CA Mercury "News"_
Micro-processor chip industry booming
"The Semiconductor Industry Association last week reported that worldwide chip sales for the first half of 2010 hit $144.6G, more than 50% higher than the same period a year ago.   And while that rate of growth is expected to slow in the second half of the year, the association predicted that 2010 sales would wind up being about 28% more than in 2009.   Research firm IC Insights recently estimated that 2010 global chip sales eventually will hit $310G, a $72G increase over 2009, which the firm called the biggest jump in annual sales in the industry's history."

2010-08-09
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Obama's national socialist health care perversion considered as dispassionately as possible

2010-08-09
_FAIR US_/_Right Side News_
Update on US immigration legislation: House, Senate Pass Competing "Border Security" Bills Before Recess: ICE Union Takes Unanimous Vote of "No Confidence" in government management: Republican Leaders Voice Support for Re-Examining Birthright Citizenship
"In the scathing release, the ICE union also accuses Director Morton and Assistant Director Coven of:   Dedicating more time to immigration reforms aimed at large-scale amnesty legislation, than advising the public and Federal law-makers of the severity of the illegal immigration problem;   Misleading the public regarding the effectiveness of the Secure Communities program and using it as a selling point to move forward with amnesty legislation;   Refusing to alert Congress as to the severity of the problem regarding criminal aliens and to request additional resources to provide better enforcement and support of local agencies;   Prohibiting the majority of ERO agents from making arrests or enforcing United States immigration laws outside of the institutional (i.e. jail) setting; and Implementing detention reforms that have created a resort like living conditions to criminal aliens."

2010-08-09
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
What are the leftists aiming to do?
"their fiscal and monetary policies impede creation of jobs and re-hiring of laid-off workers.   It should be obvious by now that reducing unemployment is not their objective."

2010-08-09
William L. Anderson
Conflicting visions of government as creator of light or darkness

2010-08-09
Thomas E. Brewton _View from 1776_
Why Government Programs Are Stalling Employment
Michael P. Fleischer: Wall Street Journal
"When you add it all up, it costs $74K to put $44K in Sally's pocket and to give her $12K in benefits.   Bottom line: Governments impose a 33% surtax on Sally's job each year."

2010-08-09
Mark Whitehouse _Wall Street Journal_
Employers Demanding More Skills at Lower Wages and Worse Working Conditions
mark.whitehouse@wsj.com
mark . whitehouse @ wsj . com

2010-08-09
Erin Rosa _NarcoNews_
Algore and the Mexican government don't support freedom of the press
 
 

2010-08-10

2010-08-10
Mychal Massie _World Net Daily_
The penalty for pushers of amnesty for illegal aliens

2010-08-10 05:46PDT (08:46EDT) (12:46GMT)
Chris Oliver _MarketWatch_
Red China's trade surplus increased to $28.7G on export surge

2010-08-10 08:26PDT (11:26EDT) (15:26GMT)
Steve Goldstein _MarketWatch_
There can be no recovery without jobs

2010-08-10
Joseph Farah _World Net Daily_
birthers have won victory in public opinion

2010-08-10
Patrick J. Buchanan _World Net Daily_
activist judges impose their morality... or lack thereof rather than adhering to US constitution and laws

2010-08-10
Kartik Goyal, Unni Krishnan, Sam Nagarajan, & Indranil Ghosh _BusinessWeek_
Indian government goes ballistic over US bill that would make microscopic reduction in discrimination against US workers in the USA
Erika Kinetz: Forbes/AP
Bruce Einhorn: BusinessWeek

2010-08-10
Coey Boles _Wall Street Journal_
"Border Secuity" measure passed US House
Dena Bunis: Orange County CA Register
Jim Abrams: San Francisco CA Examiner/AP
Wendell Goler: Fox
Beth Bacheldor: CIO
"The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday unanimously approved a $600M measure to boost border security on the U.S. southern border, a move Democrats hope is the first step toward a broader overhaul of the country's immigration laws.   The cost of the legislation is offset by a hefty increase in fees paid by primarily technology companies that hire highly skilled foreign workers under the H-1B visa program.   Those firms with more than 50 workers and with more than 50% of those employees from abroad would see the current $320 fee per visa application jump to $2K.   Backers of the fee increase argued that the fee increase would help create more U.S. jobs in competitive sectors like technology.   The extra funding for border security would hire more border guards, boost federal agents in the region and increase the number of manless drones used to conduct surveillance of the border area...   The border security bill is identical to the one the Senate passed last Thursday before it went home for its summer recess.   But because the Constitution requires that all bills that raise money begin in the House of Representatives and the Senate bill raises revenue by increasing some business visa fees, the House had to enact a new bill.   The bill approved today, HR6080, will have to be voted on by the Senate when it returns in September."
+ HR6080; Price; "emergency" supplemental appropriations for "border security"
+ S3721; Schumer; "emergency" supplemental appropriations, "Border Security", pork for government employees
"Sec. 402. (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act or any other provision of law, during the period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act and ending on 2014 September 30, the filing fee and fraud prevention and detection fee required to be submitted with an application for admission as a non-immigrant under section 101(a)(15)(L) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(L)) shall be increased by $2,250 for applicants that employ 50 or more employees in the United States if more than 50% of the applicant's employees are nonimmigrants admitted pursuant to section 101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b) of such Act or section 101(a)(15)(L) of such Act.   (b) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act or any other provision of law, during the period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act and ending on 2014 September 30, the filing fee and fraud prevention and detection fee required to be submitted with an application for admission as a non-immigrant under section 101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b)) shall be increased by $2K for applicants that employ 50 or more employees in the United States if more than 50% of the applicant's employees are such nonimmigrants or nonimmigrants described in section 101(a)(15)(L) of such Act."
CIOL
Anand Sharma, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry in a letter to US Trade Representative, Mr. Ron Kirk today, has expressed serious concern over the proposed legislation S3721.   Executives of cross-border bodyshops based in India strike out at visa filing fee and fraud prevention and detection fee.

2010-08-10
_BLS_
In 2010Q2 US productivity dropped 0.9% seasonally adjusted and annualized; output rose 2.6%, hours increased 3.6%
"The second-quarter gain in hours worked was the largest since the first quarter of 2006 when hours rose 4.1%.   From the second quarter of 2009 to the second quarter of 2010, both productivity and output increased 3.9%; hours were unchanged (tables A and 2).   Labor productivity, or output per hour, is calculated by dividing [a bogus national income and products accounts] index of real output by an index of hours worked of all persons, including employees, proprietors, and unpaid family workers.   Data in this release reflect the regular multi-year revision to the [bogus] National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA) released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the U.S. Department of Commerce on 2010 July 30."

2010-08-10
Luke Johnson _Florida Independent_
Marco Rubio announces his opposition to changing the 14th Amendment to end "anchor baby" scam

2010-08-10
_Investor's Business Daily_
The Federal Reserve throws in the towel, cranks up the inflation machine

2010-08-10
Susan M. Sipprelle
Over 50 and Out of Work

2010-08-10 (5770 Menachem-Ab 30)
Cal Thomas _Town Hall_
Vigilante Law
Patriot Post
Fresno CA Bee
World Magazine
Indiana PA Gazette
Free Republic
Worthington MN Daily Globe
Jewish World Review
The Citizen

2010-08-10 (5770 Menachem-Ab 30)
Frank J. Gaffney _Jewish World Review_
Coming to grips with shariah
"the Mayor seemingly is indifferent to whether the funding for the mosque sponsored by the Cordoba Initiative (named for the capital city of the Moorish conquerors of Spain and the site where they triumphally transformed a Catholic church into a massive mosque) might be the Saudis, with their version of Shariah known as Wahhabism...   as is true of, by some estimates, 80% of the mosques in America -- the Ground Zero Mosque is going to fit the profile of a Wahhabi-associated facility.   The challenge of assuring public awareness of the Shariah threat would be hard enough if the only impediment were ill-informed politicians and journalists.   Matters are made much worse by the skill with which Shariah's adherents dissemble, or simply lie...   among other Constitution-affronting features, Islamic law prohibits democratic law-making.   It requires the replacement of constitutions and governments like ours with a global theocracy governed by Islamic law.   It brutalizes women and otherwise treats them as second-class citizens and authorizes the murder of homosexuals and apostates.   Shariah is, in short, wholly incompatible with our legal system, freedoms and way of life...   Look no further than the NYPD report for a reality check.   It reported that: 'This [Shariah] ideology is proliferating in Western democracies at a logarithmic rate.   The Internet, certain Salafi-based non-governmental organizations, extremist sermons/study groups, Salafi literature, jihadi videotapes, extremist-sponsored trips to radical madrassas and militant training camps abroad have served as extremist incubators for young, susceptible Muslims -- especially ones living in diaspora communities in the West.'"

2010-08-10 (5770 Menachem-Ab 30)
Rabbi Doctor Asher Meir _Jewish World Review_
Ethics of "paid volunteer" employees

2010-08-10 (5770 Menachem-Ab 30)
Walter E. Williams _Jewish World Review_
What Hand-Outs To Cut
"Because of failure to heed the limitations of the U.S. Constitution, which has produced runaway federal spending, our nation sits on the precipice of disaster.   Former senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming and Erskine Bowles, White House chief of staff under president Bill Clinton, co-chairmen of president Obama's debt and deficit commission, in a Washington Post article 'Obama's Debt Commission Warns of Fiscal Cancer' (2010 July 12) said that '(A)t present, federal revenue is fully consumed by 3 programs: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.   The rest of the federal government, including fighting two wars, homeland security, education, art, culture, you name it, veterans -- the whole rest of the discretionary budget is being financed by [Red China] and other countries.'   The commission added the current budget trend is a disaster 'that will destroy the country from within' unless checked by tough action in Washington.   The tough action required is spending cuts in programs, including the so-called nondiscretionary, eating most of the federal revenues.   According to the Census, around 80% of Americans 65 and older own their own homes compared to 43% under 35. [Only] 23M households, or 37% of all homeowners, own their homes free and clear, and most of these are seniors aged 65 and older.   According to the Federal Reserve Board's 2007 'Survey of Consumer Finances', the median net worth of people 65 and over is $232K, those under 35 years have a net worth of $12K and for those 35-44, it's $87K."

2010-08-10 (5770 Menachem-Ab 30)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
Cheering Immaturity (vs. Performance)
World Net Daily
Redding Record SearchLight
Lew Rockwell
"Since Hunter College High School selects its applicants from the whole city on the basis of their test scores, 'luck' seems a strange way to characterize why some students are admitted and many others are not.   If you can't tell the difference between luck and performance, what has your education given you, except the rhetoric to conceal your confusion from others and perhaps from yourself?...   Native intelligence may indeed not vary by neighborhood but actual performance -- whether in schools, on the job or elsewhere -- involves far more than native intelligence.   Wasted intelligence does nothing for an individual or society.   The reason a surgeon can operate on your heart, while someone of equal intelligence who is not a surgeon cannot, is because of what different people actually did with their intelligence...   If 'luck' is involved, it is the luck to be born into families and communities whose values and choices turn out to be productive for themselves and for others who benefit from the skills they acquire.   Observers who blame tests or other criteria for the demographic imbalances which are the rule -- not the exception -- around the world, are blaming whatever conveys differences for creating those differences.   They blame the messenger who brings bad news.   If test scores are not the same for people from different backgrounds, that is no proof that there is something wrong with the tests.   Tests do not exist to show what your potential was when you entered the world but to measure what you have actually accomplished since then, as a guide to what you are likely to continue to do in the future.   Tests convey a difference that tests did not create.   But the messenger gets blamed for the bad news."
 
 

2010-08-11

2010-08-11 06:59PDT (09:59EDT) (13:59GMT)
Karvy Global _The Street_
India-based cross-border bodyshops, NASSCOM continue hissyfit over small reform in H-1B visa fees

2010-08-11 08:08:55PDT (11:08:55EDT) (15:08:55GMT)
Alan Zibel _San Jose CA Mercury "News"_/_AP_
Median home prices have been rising
DC Sun Gazette
Baltimore MD Sun
Bank Rate
Chicago Sun-Times

2010-08-11
Jim Buchta _Minneapolis MN Star-Tribune_
Minneapolis home-sellers cutting asking prices

2010-08-11 10:18PDT (13:18EDT) (17:18GMT)
Cynthia Lin _MarketWatch_
Robert Shiller sees yet another down-turn if US employment rates do not increase

2010-08-11 12:06PDT (15:06EDT) (19:06GMT)
Robert Schroeder _MarketWatch_
US government deficit was $165G in July
"Outlays totaled $321G in the month, while receipts were $156G.   [Across the whole period from 1789 to 1902, total federal government expenditures totaled about $17G, including paying off debts from the American Revolution, funding the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Civil War, and the Spanish-American War.]"

2010-08-11 14:29PDT (17:29EDT) (21:29GMT)
Greg Robb _MarketWatch_
US trade deficit increased to $49.9G in June
"Separately, President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed legislation that he said would reduce certain tariffs on materials needed by U.S. companies to make their products.   The National Association of Manufacturers said studies show that the legislation will boost production by $4.6G."

2010-08-11
Bruce Einhorn _BusinessWeek_
Red China has illegal alien problem, too

2010-08-11
Catherine Ngai _Medill school of journalism NorthWestern U_
Chicago job seekers move "offices" from coffee shops to libraries
"The number of active card holders jumped to 1.82M as of 2009 December, an increase of approximately 8% from 2008, according to the Chicago Public Library...   about 60% of Internet use there is related to job-hunting, and the library has a program to help...   The unemployment situation in Cook County is among the worst in the nation.   The region lost 111,100 jobs from 2008 December to 2009 December, placing it third in the number of jobs lost out of a list of the 334 largest counties in the nation, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.   The Chicago metropolitan-area unemployment rate dropped year-over-year in June for the first time in 38 months to 10.6% from 10.9%, the Illinois Department of Employment Security reported in July...   The number of patrons who sought such help increased approximately 10% to 24,173 in the first 3 months of this year, compared with the same period in the prior year, even though library hours were reduced because of budget cuts."

2010-08-11
Norm Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring News-Letter_
Schumer bill is blatant scape-goating
As some of you may have read, Senator Schumer has introduced a measure that would fund beefed-up border security through a new H-1B employer fee, imposed on the rent-a-programmer "bodyshops".   He used the pejorative term "chop shops" [rather than the pejorative term "bodyshops"] to describe them, and said that they "don't play by the rules", implying that the mainstream employers of H-1Bs act responsibly.   Most of the body-shops are owned by ethnic Indians.   As pointed out in the articles [linked] below, they are offended at what they consider a discriminatory bill -- and I agree with them.   [The "chop shops" statement makes it clear that Schumer doesn't understand the issues thoroughly enough to remember the term, not that he was comparing bodyshoppers to car thieves who sell off their booty in pieces...jgo]
 
Some H-1B reform activists were quite pleased to find that Schumer had finally taken some action against H-1B, after consistently being a very vocal supporter of expansion of H-1B and employer-sponsored green card programs.   But I consider it a setback for reformers, as well as scapegoating and worse.
 
This has long been a tactic of the industry lobbyists and their allies in Congress -- blame the Indians.   I first noticed this back in 1998, when representative Zoe Lofgren made disparaging remarks about the Indian firms at a hearing on H-1B.   Since then there has been a constant theme from the lobbyists that the Wipros and Tatas of the industry abuse the H-1B program while the Intels and MSFTs don't.   [I would say, however, that firms that contract with bodyshops as well as bodyshops, themselves, are abusing by the nature of bodyshopping, itself, whether totally domestic or across borders...jgo]
 
For those readers here who are not techies, let me state -- once again! -- that abuse of the H-1B program is not limited to the Indian bodyshops, nor to bodyshops in general.   On the contrary, almost every employer of H-1Bs is abusing the program, definitely including the household-name main-stream firms.   The latter may be more subtle about it and often hire a higher class of worker, but they are basically all abusing the system, hiring visa workers instead of U.S. citizens and permanent residents, in order to save money.
 
The problem, as usual, is not failure to "play by the rules," but on the contrary aggressive exploiting the rules, using loop-holes.   I think Schumer knows this, not only because he's part of the body that wrote those rules, but also because if he really felt it was a rule-breaking problem, he'd move to punish the rule-breakers, rather than paint all the Indian firms with such a broad brush.   No doubt about it; this is deliberate grandstanding and obfuscation.
 
Now concerning those rules, I'm sure most people would readily believe that any firm such as, say, Intel makes aggressive use of loop-holes in the tax code.   Well, the same is true for loop-holes in the immigration code, as I've shown before, such as the Intel case in my article on Intel and what they pay H-1Bs.
 
I've shown the irresponsible behavior in foreign labor programs of MSFT, Cisco, the [Bank of India], etc.   See for instance:
Cohen & Grigsby and "prevailing wage"
Bank of India and Vivek Wadhwa
Audit of Fragomen et al.
MSFT claim belied part 1
MSFT claim belied part 2
 
So while the Indian firms are hardly blameless, they are only a small part of the general H-1B problem -- 12%, to be exact, according to the Washington Post figures below.   Moreover, as Ron Hira points out in Computerworld an additional fee of $2K, whether imposed just on the Indians or the field as a whole, would have no impact anyway, since the salary savings accrued by hiring H-1Bs are far greater than that even in one year, not to mention multiplied by the six-year-plus life of the visa.
 
As mentioned earlier, the industry lobbyists love to scapegoat the Indian firms, to shift the spotlight away from themselves.   That's what makes the Schumer proposal so insidious:   It gives Congress a chance to wash its hands of the H-1B issue, declaring victory and leaving the scene.   Schumer, who announced several months ago plans to introduce legislation to expand the H-1B and employer-sponsored green card programs, can now do so and say that he took care of the abuses.
 
This bill is misleading at best, and exhibits an unhealthy racial attitude at worst.   H-1B reform activists should not be making common cause with senator Schumer on this legislation.
 
Norm
Ariana Eunjung Cha: Washington DC Post: Indian government calls H-1B visa fee hike 'discriminatory'
Rama Lakshmi: Washington DC Post
+ HR6080; Price; "emergency" supplemental appropriations for "border security"
+ S3721; Schumer; "emergency" supplemental appropriations, "Border Security", pork for government employees
Tata median salaries by city
Wipro median salaries by city
Infosys median salaries by city

2010-08-11 (5770 Elul 01)
R' Hillel Goldberg _Jewish World Review_
How to talk to a neo-Nazi
 
 

2010-08-31
_UPI_
Putin invites auto-makers to set up shop in Russia, offers protective tariffs as incentive

2010-08-31
Robert Gehrke _Salt Lake UT Tribune_
Over $65M of tax-victims' earnings are taken and spent on illegal aliens and their children in Utah

2010-08-31
Susan Carroll _Houston TX Chronicle_
Non-Feasance: ICE is not cracking down on employers of illegal aliens
"Immigration inspectors poring over the hiring paper-work of a California company last summer found that 262 employees -- a whopping 93% of the total work-force -- had 'suspect' documents on file.   At an Illinois service company, auditors found dubious documents for nearly 8 in 10 [80%] of its 200-plus employees.   Inspectors examining records at a Texas manufacturing firm found suspicious paper-work for more than half of the 107 employees on the pay-roll.   But the companies didn't pay a penny in fines.   None of the employers was led away in hand-cuffs.   Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials didn't even issue them a formal warning, the agency's internal records show...   But ICE audit records obtained recently through a Freedom of Information Act [FOIA] request show that the agency has, in many instances, failed to punish companies found to have significant numbers or high percentages of workers with questionable documents.   In response to the public records request, ICE provided limited details on about 430 audit cases listed as 'closed' by the agency through February...   U.S. representative Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, said the audits can be an effective part of an overall enforcement strategy, but that many employers consider them just a cost of doing business."

2010-08-31
William L. Anderson
More proof that the stimulus did not work

2010-08-31 (5770 Elul 21)
Thomas Sowell _Jewish World Review_
The Mosque Controversy
"The proposed mosque near where the World Trade Center was attacked and destroyed, along with thousands of American lives, would be a 15-story middle finger to America.   It takes a high IQ to evade the obvious, so it is not surprising that the intelligentsia are out in force, decrying those who criticize this calculated insult.   What may surprise some people is that the American [tax-victim] is currently financing a trip to the Middle East by the imam who is pushing this project, so that he can raise the money to build it.   The State Department is subsidizing his travel."

2010 August
Jon Feere _Center for Immigration Studies_
birth-right citizenship in the United States of America: a global comparison
"The most informative source on the intent of Congress is the _Congressional Globe_, the earlier version of today's _Congressional Record_.   The development of the language that made it into the 14th Amendment is revealing.   At the outset, the authors of the 1866 Act and the 14th Amendment understood that a certain amount of respect or allegiance to the United States was expected of all persons who found themselves within our borders, even from foreigners visiting temporarily, and that this alone would not justify a grant of citizenship.   During debate on the 1866 Act, senator Lyman Trumbull (R-IL) explained that his goal was 'to make citizens of everybody born in the United States who owe allegiance to the United States', but noted a lack of clarity in such a phrasing, explaining: 'I thought that might perhaps be the best form in which to put the amendment at one time, That all persons born in the United States and owing allegiance thereto are hereby declared to be citizens; but upon investigation it was found that a sort of allegiance was due to the country from persons temporarily resident in it whom we would have no right to make citizens, and that that form would not answer.'...   On 1866 May 30, senator Jacob Howard (R-MI) initiated debate on a resolution that would become the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment.   In defining citizenship by birth, senator Howard explained: 'This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers accredited to the Government of the United States, but will include every other class of persons.   It settles the great question of citizenship and removes all doubt as to what persons are or are not citizens of the United States.'...   There is a better record of how the sponsors expected the 14th Amendment to apply to tribal Indians.   Senator Trumbull, sponsor of the 1866 Act, offered his definition of 'subject to the jurisdiction': 'What do we mean by subject to the jurisdiction of the United States? Not owing allegiance to anybody else.   That is what it means.'   Senator Trumbull went on to explain how this clause might apply to American Indians: 'It cannot be said of any Indian who owes allegiance, partial allegiance if you please, to some other Government that he is subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.'   Senator Trumbull's explanation hearkens back to the 1866 Act and its exclusion of persons 'subject to any foreign power'.   Today, it cannot be denied that an illegal alien is, under law, a citizen of a foreign country and therefore subject to that country's jurisdiction.   An illegal alien owes at least some amount of allegiance to their home country, if not complete allegiance.   They are not under any sense of the law a citizen of the United States...   Senator Reverdy Johnson (D-MD) explained that parents must be 'subject to the authority' of the United States if their children born here are to be classified as having acquired the status of U.S. citizen: 'Now, all that this amendment provides is, that all persons born in the United States and not subject to some foreign Power…shall be considered as citizens of the United States...   the amendment says that citizenship may depend on birth, and I know of no better way to give rise to citizenship than the fact of birth within the territory of the United States, born of parents who at the time were subject to the authority of the United States.'...   _Congressional Globe_, senate, 39th Congress, 1st Session, 1866 Feb. 1.   pg572 (statement of senator Trumbull)...   ; _Congressional Globe_, senate, 39th Congress, 1st Session, 1866 Feb. 1.   (See, e.g., statements of senator John B. Henderson, pp571-572; senator Trumbull, pg572; senator Johnson, pg573).   ; Peter H. Schuck, supra note 23, at 96.   See also _Congressional Globe_, senate, 39th Congress, 1st Session, 1866 May 30. pg2891 (statement of senator Cowan).   Interestingly, there is some evidence that the 14th Amendment's framers would not have supported a permissive interpretation of the Citizenship Clause that encourages mass immigration in the way it does today.   Senator Edgar Cowan (R-PA) was concerned about giving the federal government too much control over the granting of citizenship and asked whether immigrants '...have the free right to locate [to California] and settle among [Californians], and if they have an opportunity of pouring in such an immigration as in a short time will double or treble the population of California, I ask, are the people of California powerless to protect themselves?   I do not know that the contingency will ever happen, but it may be well to consider it while we are on this point'.   The contingency certainly happened.   California's population at the time of this debate in 1866 was approximately 488K.   California's population more than doubled by 1890 (at 1,213,398) and more than tripled by 1900 (at 1,485,053).   Today, California's population is over 37M, or approximately 76 times [as large as] it was when senator Cowan voiced his concern.   Considering senator Cowan was concerned about a doubling of California’s population, it is difficult to argue that he would have agreed to language that he thought would allow for a liberal and universal birthright citizenship policy.   ; _Congressional Globe_, senate, 39th Congress, 1st Session, 1866 Feb. 1. pg2890 (statement of senator Howard);   _Congressional Globe_, senate, 39th Congress, 1st Session, 1866 May 30. pg2893 (statement of senator Trumbull);   John P. Foley, The Jeffersonian Cyclopedia: A Comprehensive Collection of the Views of Thomas Jefferson, Funk & Wagnalls, 1900, pg32;   _Congressional Globe_, senate, 39th Congress, 1st Session, 1866 May 30. pg2893 (statement of senator Johnson)."

++ 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
---- HR5658; Shadegg; STEM Job Destruction Act
more of what congress-critters are up to
 
 

Proposed Bills 2010

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

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