First month of the 3rd quarter of the 7th year of the Clinton-Bush economic depression

 

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

Batman Begins

2006-07-01 - 129 Days Until Congressional Election

2006-07-01 14:17PDT (17:17EDT) (21:17GMT)
Matt Crenson _AP_/_Yahoo!_
The branches of the human family tree are short, though the roots are deep
"Whoever it was probably lived a few thousand years ago, somewhere in East Asia -- Taiwan, Malaysia and Siberia all are likely locations.   He -- or she -- did nothing more remarkable than be born, live, have children and die.   Yet this was the ancestor of every person now living on Earth -- the last person in history whose family tree branches out to touch all 6.5G people on the planet today.   That means everybody on Earth descends from somebody who was around as recently as the reign of Tutankhamen, maybe even during the Golden Age of ancient Greece.   There's even a chance that our last shared ancestor lived at the time of Christ.   'It's a mathematical certainty that that person existed.', said Steve Olson, whose 2002 book _Mapping Human History_ traces the history of the species since its origins in Africa more than 100K years ago...  
few people realize just how intricately that web connects them not just to people living on the planet today, but to everyone who ever lived.   With the help of a statistician, a computer scientist and a supercomputer, Olson has calculated just how interconnected the human family tree is.   You would have to go back in time only 2K to 5K years -- and probably on the low side of that range -- to find somebody who could count every person alive today as a descendant.   Furthermore, Olson and his colleagues have found that if you go back a little farther -- about 5K to 7K years ago -- everybody living today has exactly the same set of ancestors.   IOW, every person who was alive at that time is either an ancestor to all 6G people living today, or their line died out and they have no remaining descendants...  
Every Palestinian suicide bomber has Jews in his past.   Every Sunni Muslim in Iraq is descended from at least one Shiite.   And every Klansman's family has African roots...  
Every person has 2 parents, 4 grand-parents and 8 great-grand-parents.   Keep doubling back through the generations -- 16, 32, 64, 128 -- and within a few hundred years you have thousands of ancestors.   It's nothing more than exponential growth combined with the facts of life.   By the 15th century you've got a million [2^20] ancestors.   By the 13th you've got a billion.   Sometime around the 9th century -- just 40 generations ago -- the number tops a trillion...  
In fact, most of the people who lived 1,200 years ago appear not twice, but thousands of times on our family trees, because there were only 200M people on Earth back then.   Simple division -- a trillion divided by 200M -- shows that on average each person back then would appear 5K times on the family tree of every single individual living today.   But things are never average.   Many of the people who were alive in the year 800 never had children; they don't appear on anybody's family tree.   Meanwhile, more prolific members of society would show up many more than 5K times on a lot of people's trees.   Keep going back in time, and there are fewer and fewer people available to put on more and more branches of the 6.5G family trees of people living today.   It is mathematically inevitable that at some point, there will be a person who appears at least once on everybody's tree...  
When you walk through an exhibit of Ancient Egyptian art from the time of the pyramids, everything there was very likely created by one of your ancestors -- every statue, every hieroglyph, every gold necklace.   If there is a mummy lying in the center of the room, that person was almost certainly your ancestor, too.   It means when Muslims, Jews or Christians claim to be children of Abraham, they are all bound to be right...  
In a paper published by the journal Advances in Applied Probability Joseph Chang showed that there is a mathematical relationship between the size of a population and the number of generations back to a common ancestor.   Plugging the planet's current population into his equation, he came up with just over 32 generations, or about 900 years.   Chang knew that answer was wrong...  
people have to select their partners from the pool of individuals they have actually met, unless they are entering into an arranged marriage.   But even then, they are much more likely to mate with partners who live nearby.   And that means that geography can't be ignored if you are going to determine the relatedness of the world's population...  
Douglas Rohde, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology neuro-scientist and computer expert who now works for Google...   They decided to build a massive computer simulation that would essentially re-enact the history of humanity as people were born, moved from one place to another, reproduced and died.   Rohde created a program that put an initial population on a map of the world at some date in the past, ranging from 7K to 20K years ago.   Then the program allowed those initial inhabitants to go about their business.   He allowed them to expand in number according to accepted estimates of past population growth, but had to cap the expansion at 55M people due to computing limitations.   Although unrealistic in some respects -- 55M is a lot less than the 6.5G people who actually live on Earth today -- he found through trial and error that the limitation did not significantly change the outcome with regard to common ancestry...  
Rohde, Chang and Olson chose a range of migration rates, from a low level where almost nobody left their native home to a much higher one where up to 20% of the population reproduced in a town other than the one where they were born, and one person in 400 moved to a foreign country.   Allowing very little migration, Rohde's simulation produced a date of about 5K BC [Hebrew-1240] for humanity's most recent common ancestor.   Assuming a higher, but still realistic, migration rate produced a shockingly recent date of around 1 AD [Hebrew 3761].   Some people even suspect that the most recent common ancestor could have lived later than that...  
Take Alexander the Great, who conquered every country between Greece and northern India, siring 2 sons along the way by Persian mothers.   Consider Prince Abd Al-Rahman, son of a Syrian father and a Berber mother, who escaped Damascus after the overthrow of his family's dynasty and started a new one in Spain.   The Vikings, the Mongols, and the Huns all traveled thousands of miles to burn, pillage and -- most pertinent to genealogical considerations -- rape more settled populations...   [The Goths left Sweden in AD50, traveling to present-day Poland and Turkey, then West to Spain by AD500=Hebrew4260.]   During the Middle Ages, the Gypsies traveled in stages from northern India to Europe.   In the New World, the Navaho moved from western Canada to their current home in the American Southwest.   People from East Asia fanned out into the South Pacific Islands, and Eskimos frequently traveled back and forth across the Bering Sea from Siberia to Alaska."

2006-07-01
"dallaschumley" _American Workers Coalition_
Searching for work with Tata
"I have decided to continue my career in IT, I need to go to work for a known global IT firm, perhaps like Tata Consulting Services.   Per [Tata's] archived web page:
  52% of their staff have 2 years or less experience, I have triple that much experience, so I'm sure they would be interested in hiring a person with 6 years experience.
  Only 5% of their staff has that much experience, and only 7% have more than 2 years experience.   But I'm having a hard time finding where they post their openings.   I searched the following places:
Computerjobs.com: 0
Monster: 15
[Tata's] home page: 0
America's Job Bank: 0
I know there must be Tata jobs listed someplace I'm not looking; I just can't find it.   I think they must be hiring, as there are 370 entries in the 2005 LCA data-base for 3,140 visas.   Unless: they aren't recruiting Americans for these jobs :O ...   Next spring when the 2006 LCA comes out, I want to compare my DB with the LCA to prove that the jobs weren't advertised to Americans.   Of the 15 job listings I've found so far, only 4 of them were for programmers.   This should mean Tata will only file for 4 programmer visas :)   Any more than that and I'll have basis to file a complaint that Tata doesn't make a 'good faith effort' to hire Americans."
To which "ihatefleet" responded
"There are very few jobs or possibly even no jobs listed for Americans.   Tata generally advertises in India for high caste well-educated single men in their 20s."
 

2006-07-02 - 128 Days Until Congressional Election

2006-07-02 14:50PDT (17:50EDT) (21:50GMT)
Kristen Gerencher _MarketWatch_
Buck Institute researches disease and aging

2006-07-02
Dave Gibson _American Daily_
The USA is being over-thrown by politicians
"A description on the Smart Port website reads: 'For those who live in Kansas City, the idea of receiving containers nonstop from the Far East by way of Mexico may sound unlikely, but later this month that seemingly far-fetched notion will become a reality.'   NASCO (North American Super Corridor Coalition) is building the NAFTA ten-lane highway.   NASCO is a collection of government agencies and private business organizations.   NASCO has officially been given $2.5M by the U.S. Department of Transportation.   So how can private groups pay for a public highway?...   On 1992 April 30, President George H.W. Bush issued Executive Order #12803, which allows private investment in U.S. infrastructure.   While only $2.5M in federal dollars is reported to have been spent on this venture, considering the more than 6K ear-marks in the last $300G Highway Bill, it is really impossible to know the exact amount of [tax-victim] money being used on the project."
 

2006-07-03 - 127 Days Until Congressional Election

2006-07-03 08:26PDT (11:26EDT) (15:26GMT)
Greg Robb _MarketWatch_
ISM factory index fell from 54.4% in May to 53.8% in June

2006-07-03 08:26PDT (11:26EDT) (15:26GMT)
Greg Robb _MarketWatch_
US construction spending down 0.4% in May

2006-07-03

DJIA	11,228.02
S&P 500	1,280.19
NASDAQ	2,190.43
10-year US T-Bond	5.15%
crude oil	73.93

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

2006-07-04 Independence Day126 Days Until Congressional Election

Declaration of Independence
Indiana University
Yale
US History.org
Library of Congress
USA National Archives

2006-07-04
Robert Sanchez _PHX News_
John Shadegg declared war on the USA's middle class
Shadegg's web page

"The special interest groups that want large increases in the number of employment based visas have made a major move forward towards that goal, thanks to John Shadegg (R-AZ) who just introduced a House version of the SKIL Bill (HR5744). The text of the bill isn't even on-line at the time of this writing and yet it's picking up co-sponsors very rapidly. I often call the Senate version of this horrendous excuse to replace American workers 'Bill's SKIL Bill' because of Bill Gates's role in lobbying for the original legislation. The legislation was first put into senator Arlen Specter's comprehensive immigration bill now known as S2611. The Skil Bill morphed from S2611 and became a separate and smaller bill called S2691."
 

2006-07-05 - 125 Days Until Congressional Election

2006-07-05
_Orlando Sentinel_
H-1B: the fashion model visa!? Say it aint so
"So, I'm perusing the government's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services [USCIS] web site trying to be a faithful servant and not just some babbling blogger, you know, looking for something actual useful to tell you about.   And, there, I find some need-to-know info on the ever-popular H-1B visa.   They've filled their cap for [FY] 2007, but mark your calenders because starting 2007 April 1, you can make your petition for one for an employment start date of October 1, 2007.   In case you don't know, the H-1B visa is the one for workers that we really, really, really need in the United States.   Engineers, computer programmers, high-tech workers, some college professors and, of course, FASHION MODELS!!!!!!!!!!!...   So, if you really want to come to the U.S., you can   1. Go to college and study real hard topics like science and math; or   2. Stop eating all those toast soldiers (!!!).   Can you really believe we are giving H-1B visas to fashion models?   I'm sure some American sack of bones in the Big Apple is very upset by this."

2006-07-05 06:30PDT (09:30EDT) (13:30GMT)
Paul McDougall _Information Week_
India's refusal to open domestic markets could put international out-sourcing industry at risk
"When Indian commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath walked out of the WTO's Doha Round trade talks over the weekend in Geneva, the moment symbolized for many the country's refusal to budge on the issue of granting foreign companies wider access to its agricultural, services, and retail markets.   When Indian commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath walked out of the WTO's Doha Round trade talks over the weekend in Geneva, the moment symbolized for many the country's refusal to budge on the issue of granting foreign companies wider access to its agricultural, services, and retail markets.   India argues that the U.S. and other Western countries must first cut the big subsidies they give to their farmers before it makes any meaningful trade concessions.   That may be a fair point, but both U.S. and Indian tech services and BPO firms fear that a trade war over manufactured and agricultural products could spill over to their turf...   The stakes are high.   Congress thus far has resisted the many cries from within the U.S.A. by unions and some media commentators to impose limits on offshore outsourcing.   But for how long can it keep up that resistance if India itself continues to ignore U.S. requests for greater market access?   I recently spoke with an IT exec at Continental Airlines who was frustrated by India's burdensome trade regulations.   Continental wanted to route customer calls to its Delhi base made from within India to a service center in the U.S.A. -- kind of a reverse BPO.   No can do, said the Indian government.   Customer calls originating from within India must be handled by Indian workers.   Meanwhile, Indian BPO staffers handle millions of calls per day that originate in the U.S. That doesn't sound like fair trade, does it?"

2006-07-05 09:12PDT (12:12EDT) (16:12GMT)
Greg Robb _MarketWatch_
ADP's pay-roll survey shows net gain of 368K since last year: Largest increase since survey started a couple years after the beginning of the on-going Clinton-Bush depression
"U.S. private-sector non-farm pay-rolls increased by about 368K in June, ADP said.   This is the largest monthly increase in employment since the ADP index was created 5 years ago...   In May, the ADP report showed 122K net new jobs, while the Labor Department's survey indicated 67K new jobs in the private sector."
ADP's report (with graphs)

2006-07-05
Norm Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring e-News-Letter_
LA Times article fails to delve
"Readers of this e-newsletter can be broken down into 'techies' (engineers and programmers) and 'newsies' (journalists, university and government researchers, political staffers, etc.).   I constantly hear from the techies that the press is highly biased in favor of the industry [executives] on the H-1B issue...   the [LA Times] article [by Anna Gorman] is unbalanced, whether deliberately or not.   I actually decided to quantify it, by counting lines of text.   Turns out that there are 93 lines which quote advocates of increasing the H-1B cap and liberalizing the green card process, but only 24 lines quoting the critics of these programs.   It's not just a question of line counts.   I'm more worried about omission of centrally relevant information...   When the reporter interviewed me, I explained to her that the prevailing wage requirement is useless, due to gaping loop-holes, and that a number of university and government studies have confirmed that the H-1Bs are indeed on average paid less than Americans.   Yet the reader sees none of this.   It could be that the material was edited out, thus not the reporter's fault, but in any case it's disappointing.   Also, one of the themes of the article (including the head-line, though again it's put in by the editor rather than the reporter) is that employers supposedly hire H-1Bs because not enough Americans have graduate degrees.   The employers hire new foreign graduates of U.S. schools.   I had made sure to point the reporter to the wage data, showing that starting salaries for new graduates with Master's degrees in computer science and electrical engineering have been FLAT since 1999, thereby showing we have no shortage at the graduate degree level.   Yet again, nothing about that here.   One interesting aspect of the article is the quotes in which H-1Bs (Gareth Lloyd and Swadha Sharma) present themselves as being such wonderful assets to the U.S.A.   I was a bit startled to see such a display of immodesty, especially since these workers don't seem to be of outstanding talent, judging by the descriptions in the article.   As many readers of this e-newsletter will recall, I strongly support the notion of rolling out the immigration red carpet for 'the best and the brightest'.   I have personally championed the hiring and green card sponsorship of many foreign nationals, mainly Chinese and Indian, of outstanding levels of talent.   But the vast majority of H-1Bs are ordinary people doing ordinary work, apparently including those profiled here.   I couldn't find Lloyd and Sharma on the web, but I did find one of the others highlighted in the article, Swati Srivastava.   [What seems to be her CV.]   (This should be the same person, as the CV gives a birth date of 1978, matching the article's statement that she is age 28.)...   There is nothing wrong with Srivastava's CV, but it definitely is far below the 'best and brightest' level.   She did not attend one of the top universities in India, or even second-tier.   I think university 'pedigree' tends to be over-rated, but certainly there is nothing special in her CV, either in education or work experience."
I'll go further.   Her objective is contentless and demonstrates aimlessness and lack of creativity.   There's no special depth, but that would be OK for a recent graduate if she were not claiming to be among "the best and brightest".   Her CV shows no especially good programming languages and operating systems, not very many of them, and no great experience.   COBOL, Windoze and DOS are negatives, so she's a little behind the curve.   Rational Rose is a small plus, but nothing to compete with an old pro who's read a couple books.   And she seems proud to have been body shopped but that's balanced by the Gramin Bank gig (if it's the Gramin bank covered by some of the news programs a couple decades ago for its micro-loans and enterprise circles).   I'm not so sure about those percentages ("board marks"); I'm used to 65% to 75% being a nearly failing mark (D or 1.0 to 1.99), and 75% to 80% being merely "average" (C or 2.0 to 2.99) and these days (and by "these days" I mean since she was born, certainly) an American student needs to be making an average of 95% or better (A or 3.5 or better) to get into the next grad school and have decent job offers...jgo

2006-07-05 09:16PDT (12:16EDT) (16:16GMT)
Greg Robb _MarketWatch_
US factory orders were up 0.7% in May
"Factory orders fell a revised 2.0% in April, down from the initial estimate of a 1.8% decline."

2006-07-05
Jerome R. Corsi _Human Events_
NASCO has altered Super-Corridor message
"NASCO has altered the organization's web site home-page, apparently in direct response to the North American Union series we have published here, including discussion of NASCO and NAFTA Super-Highways.   NASCO appears to be reacting from recent publicity deriving from our argument that NASCO actively supports the goals of their members, including the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and the Kansas City SmartPort.   TxDOT plans to start the first segment of the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) as early as next year and the Kansas City SmartPort plans to house a Mexican customs operation within their Inland Port design.   These are new infrastructure developments along the North American NAFTA Super-Corridor that NASCO as a trade organization was created to support...   NASCO appears engaged in a public relations marketing effort to defuse concerns that the organization supports any new NAFTA Super-Highway development that would include TTC features...   Perhaps NASCO would be well advised to review the Trans-Texas Corridor website of its member TxDOT agency.   There the 4K page Environmental Impact Study (EIS) clearly describes the 1,200 foot new Super-Highway that TxDOT plans to build parallel to I-35.   Page 4 of the EIS Executive Summary shows an artist's rendition of the full build-out of the TTC-35 concept, an automobile-truck-railroad corridor with a utility space for energy pipe-lines and electronic circuits, along with tower electricity strung out on the perimeter.   No artist's conception of the TTC drawn by the TxDOT bears any resemblance to the current I-35 in Texas or anywhere else...   George Blackwood, NASCO President, attended the January 10-11 meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, held by the Council of the Americas and the North American Business Committee to conduct a 'Public/Private Sector Dialogue' on the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America.   A key finding of this meeting was that associations in the U.S. organized to promote particular corridors needed since the dawning of SPP in Waco, Texas, on 2005 March 23, to coordinate their efforts in a less provincial style, more reflective of the North American regional orientation of SPP itself..."

2006-07-05
Travis Loller _Tennessean_
SPLC law-suit claims guest-workers under-paid
"Not only were living and working conditions difficult, but Rosiles-Perez believes he was constantly under-paid...   Rosiles-Perez is among about 40 Mexican workers being represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center [SPLC] in a law-suit against their former employer, Arkansas-based Superior Forestry Service Inc.   Because some of the forestry work took place around Columbia, TN, the suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Nashville earlier this year...   Because he could make more money planting and fumigating pine trees here than working in agriculture at home, Rosiles-Perez said he kept coming back.   He decided to call it quits and return to Mexico last year.   Rosiles-Perez was recruited by Superior Forestry Service Inc., which secured an H-2B guest worker visa for him.   These visas are reserved for temporary and seasonal jobs...   The Tennessee suit is one of four filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center involving forestry workers.   All allege underpayment by contractors.   Workers are required to receive the prevailing wage for their industry and geographic area.   This ensures that the foreign workers do not undercut the wages of American workers.   Turner, speaking of the industry in general, said forestry workers are paid an hourly wage for some tasks, but for tree planting, they tend to be paid per bag of 1,000 pine trees planted.   A usual wage is $25-$28 per bag.   Some forestry companies use the per bag payments to conceal the fact that they are not paying workers prevailing wages, Turner said...   The prevailing wage is determined by the U.S. Department of Labor and changes from state to state and year to year, but attorneys for both sides agreed that a prevailing wage for this work during the time period of the law-suit is in the range of $7-$8 an hour.   Another point of contention is whether workers should have been paid for hours they weren't able to work because of weather conditions.   For instance, they could not fumigate when there were strong winds and could not plant trees when the ground was frozen.   Stine maintains that the company rightfully does not pay for hours that are not worked.   Turner, the Southern Poverty Law Center attorney, disagrees.   'The question is, are they being retained for work?   If they're in the field, waiting for the wind to die down, they're not on their own time, free to use as they may.'   The 2 sides also disagree whether workers should have been reimbursed for expenses such as transportation and work visas and for supplies such as boots...   In recent weeks, the court denied class-action status for the suit, but attorneys for the plaintiffs will have the chance to prove their case for a class action again in a few months.   [And why are they planting only pines instead of hard-woods native to the area?...jgo]"

2006-07-05

DJIA	11,151.82
S&P 500	1,270.91
NASDAQ	2,153.34
10-year US T-Bond	5.23%
crude oil	75.19

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

2006-07-06 - 124 Days Until Congressional Election

2006-07-06
Kim Berry Programmers Guild
H-1B "Prevailing" Wage Is Substantially Below the Median Wage of US Workers
"While several bills, such as the "SKIL Act of 2006" [Senate version S2691], aim to nearly double the annual H-1B quota, all such bills provide for the legal displacement of U.S. workers by under-paid foreign workers under a flawed prevailing wage provision.   The H-1B 'prevailing wage' is a sham that allows employers to pay H-1B workers 25% below market wages while claiming full compliance with the law...   The General Accountability Office (GAO) reports that the Department of Labor (DoL) had approved thousands of H-1B applications, in spite of clear prevailing wage violations within the applications.   But GAO did not consider whether the prevailing wages themselves were flawed.   Had GAO evaluated the DoL's prevailing wages against actual U.S. wages, the number of violations might have exceeded one hundred thousand.   In the Silicon Valley, California region, the median wage in 2004 for the occupation 'computer programmer' was $83,500.   This median represents the wages for U.S. workers with average skills and experience.   But of the 9721 LCAs (Labor Condition Applications) for H-1B computer programmer in the region in fiscal year 2005, 2877 (29%) were for a salary of $57,000 or less, and fully 8193 (84%) paid less than the median wage of $83,500...   The Programmers Guild calls on Congress to set the base 'Prevailing Wage' for H-1B and L-1 workers as the median wage earned by U.S. workers within the classification for the region.   Currently Congress and DoL are creating a financial incentive for corporations to lay off their skilled U.S. staff and replacing them with foreign workers on H-1B and L-1 visas."

2006-07-05 20:27PDT (2006-07-05 23:27EDT) (2006-07-06 03:27GMT)
Richard Willing _USA Today_
While US governments continue to declare personal private information to be "public", they also want to declare public date to be secret
Privacy links

2006-07-06
Jerome R. Corsi _World Net Daily_
Documents reveal plan for Mexican trucks in the USA: Internal e-mail messages belie public statement, suggest aim is to expand quietly

2006-07-06 05:30PDT (08:30EST) (13:30GMT)
Subri Raman & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 303,265 in the week ending July 1, an increase of 15,545 from the previous week.   There were 327,268 initial claims in the comparable week in 2005.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.8% during the week ending June 24, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 2,268,509, an increase of 48,460 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 1.9% and the volume was 2,415,224."

2006-07-06 11:51PDT (14:51EDT) (18:51GMT)
Greg Robb _MarketWatch_
ISM services index fell from 60.1 in May to 57, lowest since January
"The employment index, which has tracked trends in employment growth pretty well according to economists, [fell from 58 in May to 52 in June]."

2006-07-06 13:00PDT (16:00EDT) (20:00GMT)
_USCIS_
Current Cap Count for Non-Immigrant Worker Visas
"The H-1B Visa Reform Act of 2004, which took effect on 2005 May 5, changed the H-1B filing procedures for FY2005 and for future fiscal years.   The Act also makes available 20K new H-1B visas for foreign workers with a Master's or higher level degree from a U.S. academic institution...   H-1B Cap 58,200 cap reached 2006-05-26...   H-1B Advanced Degree Cap 20K...   4,558 Beneficiaries Approved...   9,129 [Applications Pending] 13,687 Date of Last Count 2006-06-30 [leaving 14,552 left to be awarded, and if all pending applications were approved would leave 6,313]...   Through 2006 May, 301 H-1B1s counted against the FY2006 H-1B1 cap.   The combined statutory limit is 6,800 per year.   Based on the H-1B1 usage to date, USCIS has reasonably projected that 700 H-1B1 visa numbers will be used in FY2006.   The projected number of 6,100 unused H-1B1 visas for FY2006 has been incorporated and applied to the FY2007 H-1B cap...   [Thus demonstrating that the total H-1B cap was not exhausted for FY2006, nor does USCIS expect it to be exhausted during the remainder of FY2006, nor has it yet been exhausted for FY2007...jgo]"
 

2006-07-07 - 123 Days Until Congressional Election

2006-07-07 13:43PDT (16:43EDT) (20:43GMT)
Mark Cotton & Leslie Wines _MarketWatch_
Stocks took a loss for the week

2006-07-07 15:00PDT (18:00EDT) (22:00GMT)
Lou Dobbs _CNN_
only lower-end service sector jobs being created
"Auggie Tantillo of the American Trade and Manufacturing Coalition:   'You have to look at the type of jobs that are being created.   Most of them are in lower-end, service sector areas., often-times paying minimum wage or slightly above.   And in almost all cases, with limited to no health benefits and limited to no pension plans associated with those jobs.'"

2006-07-07

DJIA	11,090.67
S&P 500	1,265.48
NASDAQ	2,130.06
10-year US T-Bond	5.13%
crude oil	74.09
gold	634.80

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

2006-07-08 - 122 Days Until Congressional Election

2006-07-08 07:42PDT (10:42EDT) (14:42GMT)
George W. Bush _MarketWatch_
Bush urges congress to force tax-victims to increase subsidies to wealthy tech executives

2006-07-08
David Fried _North San Diego County Times_
Escondido council-woman proposed banning rentals to illegal aliens
"Waldron said last week that she wants the city to look into drafting a law that would fine landlords $1,000 for renting or leasing property to [illegal aliens; about the cost of a month's rent for a 1 bed-room apartment], and possibly include arrest for extreme violators.   'I don't want it (the ordinance) to be a slap on the wrist.', Waldron said.   Waldron, who has regularly pushed for cracking down on illegal immigration, said that prohibiting undocumented immigrants from renting in the city was a response to federal border control efforts, which she believes have failed.   'It's something every city needs to consider.', Waldron said of her proposal, which would follow a Pennsylvania city's tentative approval of a similar measure.   'It's just a matter of having the political will.'   A rental ordinance would place Escondido square in the middle of an ongoing national debate over illegal immigration, and potentially put the city and landlords in a costly position.   City Manager Clay Phillips said he is not sure the city can legally restrict rental agreements.   But even if it can, any resulting ordinance would require additional spending and employee time to enforce it for each of the 20,500 rental units in the city...   Public housing agencies regularly -- and legally -- demand proof of citizenship or legal residency from applicants for government-subsidized housing programs, according to officials with the Fair Housing Council of San Diego...   Last month, Hazleton, PA, passed its own ordinance aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration in the town of 31K residents.   In addition to fining landlords who rent to undocumented immigrants, the law also would deny business licenses to companies that hire illegal immigrants and establishes English as the city's official language.   Hazleton's council is scheduled to vote on the measure for its second, and final, reading, this week.   Some residents in San Bernardino have proposed a similar voter initiative for their city.   But their efforts were put on hold last month, after a Superior Court judge said supporters needed to gather more signatures in order to place the proposed law on the November ballot.   Other cities have passed measures taking on different issues related to illegal immigration.   Just down the road from Escondido, Vista's City Council unanimously passed an ordinance last month requiring employers who hire day laborers to register with the city."
 

2006-07-09 - 121 Days Until Congressional Election

2006-07-09
Joe Guzzardi _V Dare_
Where in Congressional Debate Is Discussion of Legal Immigration?
"As it turns out Bakr, a sexual predator, should have been subjected to an intense background check with the hope that information about him would have kept him out.   Supposedly, the Department of Homeland Security does a security check through the local consulate.   But the paucity of rejected visa applications indicates such checks must be random [or, as USCIS has confessed, mere data-base look-ups rather than actual investigations].   When you add Bakr's case to Lodi's experience last summer with the R-1 visas granted to imams Shabbir Ahmed and Muhammad Adil Khan, many Lodians conclude that legal immigration, with its layers of loop-holes, presents as much of a threat as illegal immigration.   The House of Representatives (HR4437) and the U.S. Senate (S2611) are hotly debating whether the nation should adopt a security first approach to immigration or grant amnesty to illegal aliens.   Meanwhile the risk the Senate creates by adding more legal immigrants through increases in H-1B visas and establishing new categories of work and student visas is ignored." pending immigration proposals in congress:
Frist's S2454
Hagel's S2612
Tancredo's HR1325
Tancredo's HR1450
Tancredo's HR1587
Tancredo's HR3333
Tancredo's HR3700
Pascrell's HR4378
Sensenbrenner's HR4437
Shadegg's HR5744
Specter's S2611
Cornyn's S2691

2006-07-09
Barbara Rose _Chicago Tribune_
Tech workers plugging back in, but for some jobs power and hope has faded
"A growing economy is producing the first sustained high-tech hiring surge since the dot-com stock boom's collapse threw hundreds of thousands of technology professionals out of work 5 years ago [over the last 7 years].   Yet even though a cyclical recovery is creating good opportunities for many workers as employers scramble to fill openings, trends such as outsourcing are making it harder for others to find work.   The varying fortunes of tech workers in a healthy economy illustrate the paradox of an era in which highly skilled workers in a fast growing industry face challenges staying fully employed even in good times.   Nowhere is this more apparent than in technology, where rapid change is constant.   'Even when companies are adding labor they're also hedging their future.', said Gartner Inc. senior adviser Howard Rubin.   'They've learned the economy doesn't always go up.   They're only hiring specialized skills close to home' that are essential...   'I'm simply not getting responses.', said the [former systems support manager and] Villa Park resident, who averages one interview a month."

2007-07-09
_Matt Dattilo's Today in History_
Braddock's Expedition
 

2006-07-10 - 120 Days Until Congressional Election

2006-07-10 12:44PDT (15:44EDT) (19:44GMT)
Robert Schroeder _MarketWatch_
US consumer debt rose 2.4% in May: Revolving debt up 10%

206-07-10
Tom Daschle & Leo Hindery _Chicago Sun-Times_
Immigration reforms proposed will not give the average American more job security
"With millions of [aliens illegally] entering the United States each year, law-makers are under pressure to stop the flow and determine how best to deal with [8M to 24M] illegal workers in the country today.   Unfortunately, no amount of immigration reform will give average Americans what they want and need most: a secure, good-paying job.   Despite the best intentions of both political parties, Congress cannot effectively address illegal immigration -- or any other major domestic economic issue -- without first finding ways to strengthen and protect America's middle-class jobs, the backbone of our economy.   Much has been written about how the influx of low-wage immigrants has made it more difficult for struggling native-born Americans to find employment.   This is true...   However, the far more serious threat to America's economic well-being is the ongoing, systematic pressure to eliminate jobs, reduce wages and cut benefits.   Nearly 5M American jobs have moved off-shore since 2000.   If this trend continues, a staggering 18M positions in manufacturing, services and information technology will move over-seas by 2015.   No economy in the world can sustain that kind of loss in all 3 sectors and hope to remain productive and prosperous.   Although the U.S. economy is creating new jobs, most of these positions are not symmetrical in numbers and quality with those being lost to off-shoring.   Domestic service jobs paying on average $9K or less a year are not an acceptable offset to the loss of high-quality manufacturing, service and IT positions.   An honest accounting of the nation's true unemployment rate would show as many as 10% to 12% of Americans are currently out of work.   In addition, there are several million more people who are under-employed, having accepted jobs with fewer hours and benefits and lower wages...   Tom Daschle was Senate majority leader in 2001-02.   Leo Hindery is the managing partner of InterMedia Partners, former CEO of TCI, AT&T Broadband and the YES Network, and author of It Takes a CEO: It's Time to Lead With Integrity."

2006-07-10
Don Tennant _Computer World_
Older IT Pros have been Worn Down by Decades of Employer Abuse
"Clearly, these findings won't sit well with a lot of un-employed or under-employed IT workers who have been unsuccessful in matching their skills with the needs of employers that claim there's a scarcity of good IT talent.   We've already gotten an earful from readers who responded to Management editor Kathleen Melymuka's interview last week with the author of a book that warns of a coming IT talent crunch ('Work-Force Crisis' 2006-07-03).   'Kathleen Melymuka has been drinking at the Kool-Aid trough of the tech executives and their lobbyists again.', wrote one.   'Are you kidding me?', asked another.   'The only shortage of computer professionals [is] for the jobs that don't pay enough to raise a family on.'   A third reader was more succinct in his assessment of the article: 'Total crap.'"

2006-07-10
Vivek Wadhwa _Business Week_
Engineering Gap?   Fact and Fiction: USA should hone our own strengths

1. Shortages usually lead to price increases.   If there were a shortage of engineers, salaries should have risen.   Yet in real terms, engineering salaries have actually dropped (2005/09/15 Good Time to Learn Accounting).
2. 25% to 40% of engineering graduates don't become engineers.   At Duke, I noted that 40% of our Masters of Engineering Management students were accepting jobs in fields such as investment banking and management consulting.   Our researchers called other engineering schools and found this was common.   Don Giddens, dean of engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, says that this is by design -- U.S. schools provide a broad education that prepares students for careers other than "strictly" engineering.
3. Quantity usually comes at the cost of quality.   [Red China] has increased the number of engineers it graduates by a staggering 126% over the last 5 years with a factory-like approach to education.   Degree quality can't be maintained unless academic staff and facilities grow with student populations.   According to the [Red Chinese] Ministry of Education, from 1999 to 2004 the number of technical schools in [Red China] actually fell from 4,098 to 2,884.   During that same period, the number of teachers and staff at these institutions fell 24%.
4. Graduate too many and you'll create unemployment.   [Red China's] National Development and Reform Commission recently reported that job openings in [Red China] have dropped 22% over the last year and that 60% of [Red China's] upcoming university graduates will be unable to find work.   Media reports say that in an effort to "fight" unemployment, some universities in [Red China's] Anhui Province are refusing to grant diplomas until potential graduates show proof of employment.   And Premier Wen Jiabao announced that [Red China] would be cutting university enrollment levels.
5. We've got enough qualified computer programmers.   The Wall Street Journal reported that M$ received resumes from about 100K graduating students in 2004, screened 15K [15%] of them, interviewed 3,500 [3.5%], and hired 1K [1%].   It said that M$ receives about 60K resumes a month for its 2K open positions.
6. The vast majority of engineering under-graduates aren't foreign nationals.   According to the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE), the percentage of under-graduate engineering degrees awarded to students with U.S. citizenship or permanent residency has remained close to 92% for the past 7 years.
7. U.S. students don't gain enough financial benefit from post-graduate engineering education.   The proportion of domestic to foreign students completing graduate degrees in engineering dropped from 60.3% in 1999 to 57.4% in 2005, and doctoral degrees from 54.4% to 40.4% in the same period, according to the ASEE.   In a National Bureau of Economic Research [NBER] working paper, Harvard economist Richard Freeman says this is because salaries for scientists and engineers are lower than for other professions, and the investment that students have to make in higher degrees isn't cost-justified.
   Doctoral graduate students typically spend 7 to 8 years earning a PhD, during which time they are paid stipends.   These stipends are usually less than what a bachelor's degree-holder makes.   Some students never make up for this financial loss.   Foreign students typically have fewer opportunities and see a U.S. education as their ticket to the U.S. job market and citizenship.
8. The majority of foreign engineering students come here to stay.   A report prepared for the National Science Foundation [NSF] showed that the number of foreign-born doctorates who chose to stay in the U.S increased from 49% to 71% from 1989 to 2003.   While these numbers are likely to decline, I'd bet Friedman that they don't decline to 1989 levels.

2006-07-10
Jeff Johnson _Cybercast News Service_
Barney Frank legislation opened immigration door to whose activities would be prejudicial to the public interest or safety

2006-07-10
_Ocala Star-Banner_
Florida cities tackle illegal immigration
""

2006-07-10

DJIA	11,103.55
S&P 500	1,267.34
NASDAQ	2,116.93
10-year US T-Bond	5.13%
crude oil	73.61
gold	626.10
silver	11.11
platinum	1,230.70
palladium	323.70
copper	0.2239

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

2006-07-11 - 119 Days Until Congressional Election

2006-07-10 22:00PDT (2006-07-11 01:00EDT) (2006-07-11 05:00GMT)
John Sweeney & Rick Bender _News Tribune_
NLRB poised to disqualify many from union membership
"The cases involve charge nurses in a hospital and nursing home and lead workers in a manufacturing plant, but they represent just the tip of the iceberg.   The rulings will affect construction workers, painters, welders, electricians -- potentially millions of workers in every industry.   At the heart of the issue is an effort to reclassify employees as 'supervisors', who do not have protected rights under federal labor law to form and join unions.   Any skilled or experienced worker who occasionally or incidentally over-sees or assigns the work of those less skilled and experienced is vulnerable under a broader interpretation of 'supervisor'."

2006-07-11 13:04PDT (16:04EDT) (20:04GMT)
_USCIS_
Current Cap Count for Non-Immigrant Worker Visas
"The H-1B Visa Reform Act of 2004, which took effect on 2005 May 5, changed the H-1B filing procedures for FY2005 and for future fiscal years.   The Act also makes available 20K new H-1B visas for foreign workers with a Master's or higher level degree from a U.S. academic institution...   H-1B Cap 58,200 cap reached 2006-05-26...   H-1B Advanced Degree Cap 20K...   4,881 Beneficiaries Approved...   9,368 [Applications Pending]... Total 14,249... Date of Last Count 2006-07-06 [leaving 15,119 yet to be awarded, and if all pending applications were approved would leave 5,751]...   Through 2006 May, 301 H-1B1s counted against the FY2006 H-1B1 cap.   The combined statutory limit is 6,800 per year.   Based on the H-1B1 usage to date, USCIS has reasonably projected that 700 H-1B1 visa numbers will be used in FY2006.   The projected number of 6,100 unused H-1B1 visas for FY2006 has been incorporated and applied to the FY2007 H-1B cap...   [Thus demonstrating that the total H-1B cap was not exhausted for FY2006, nor does USCIS expect it to be exhausted during the remainder of FY2006, nor has it yet been exhausted for FY2007...jgo]"

2006-07-11
Charlie Savage _Boston Globe_
DHS investigation found fraud in visa program for religious workers
"The probe found numerous instances in which groups in the United States falsely claimed to be churches, and visa applicants lied about their religious vocations in order to get into the country.   More than a third of the visas examined by investigators were based on fraudulent information...   instances of fraud were particularly high among applicants from predominantly Muslim countries, and the report raised concerns about potential terrorism risks...   The US government issues several thousand religious worker visas each year.   There are 2 types: temporary 3-year visas, and 'green cards' that allow foreigners to become permanent residents.   The Homeland Security study looked only at petitions for green cards, but the report noted that the 3-year visa program faces identical fraud risks...   In 1999, for example, the General Accounting Office found that many applicants for temporary religious worker visas were unqualified for the positions they were coming to fill...   The internal investigation was completed in 2005 August, but it has not been made public.   The Globe obtained a a redacted version with several pages missing.   Stewart Baker, assistant secretary of homeland security for policy, said in an interview that the department is still wrestling with how to crack down on fraud in the program without hurting the benefits it provides to legitimate churches."

2006-07-11

DJIA	11,134.77
S&P 500	1,272.52
NASDAQ	2,128.86
10-year US T-Bond	5.10%
crude oil	73.61
gold	643.10

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

2006-07-12 - 118 Days Until Congressional Election

2006-07-12
_Numbers USA_
Principles for Immigration Reform

2006-07-12 05:27PDT (08:27EDT) (12:27GMT)
Steve Goldstein _MarketWatch_
M$ fined $357M by European regulator: Still not in compliance with anti-trust rulings
"The 280.5M euro fine imposed was less than the regulator could've fined the world's largest [defective] software maker, as it amounts to 1.5M euros a day starting from a Dec. 16 deadline it gave M$ to comply with a ruling to make source code more readily available...   The commission said M$ hasn't disclosed complete and accurate interface documentation that would allow non-M$ work group servers to achieve full interoperability with [Windoze] PCs and servers...   The European Commission fined M$ 497M euros 2 years ago and ordered it to sell a version of [Windoze] without a video and music player."

2006-07-12
Andrea Koncz and Mimi Collins _National Association of Colleges & Employers_
Starting Salaries for New Grads NACE
"The average offer to accounting grads is $45,656 -- up 5.5% from last year at this time.   Business administration/management graduates also fared well; their average salary offer jumped by 6.3% to $42,048.   A large number of offers made to these graduates came from investment banking firms, who offered on average, salaries of $53,277, well in excess of the overall average.   The average salary offer to economics/finance graduates rose to $45,112, a solid 5.1% increase...   The average offer to MIS grads rose by 2.9% to $45,724, while the average offer to marketing graduates inched up 0.9% to $37,851...   The average offer to computer science graduates rose just 1% to a healthy $51,305.   Information sciences and systems graduates saw a more substantial increase, gaining 8.5% to bring their average offer to $48,593...   Chemical engineering majors posted a solid 4.7% increase to their average salary offer, raising it to $56,335.   Petroleum and coal products manufacturers made the largest number of offers to these grads and were willing to pay them top dollar-an average of $58,456.   The average offer to civil engineering grads rose 5.4% to $46,023, while salaries to computer engineering graduates rose 2.3% to $53,651.   Electrical engineering graduates saw their average salary offer increase by 3.2% to $53,552.   Mechanical engineering grads saw a similar increase: Their average offer rose 3% to $51,732...   as a group, liberal arts majors posted just a 0.2% increase over last year...   History majors saw their average offer rise 3.1% to $32,697.   Conversely, English majors experienced a 4.1% decrease, dropping their average offer to $30,906.   Sociology majors also lost ground; their average offer fell 2.7% to $30,944.   Psychology majors, on the other hand, posted a small increase of 1.2%, bringing their average salary offer to $30,218."

2006-07-12 05:42PDT (08:42EDT) (12:42GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
Trade deficit widened to $63.8G in May
BEA

2006-07-12 06:30PDT (09:30EDT) (13:30GMT)
Lou Dobbs _CNN_
Bush and his Senate lackey reach a new low
"The Bush White House and its lackeys in the Senate have reached a new low in their quest to bestow amnesty on 11M to 20M illegal immigrants, while doing as little as possible to secure our nation's borders and ports...   The senators and the White House demonstrated that they have no shame in continuing to try to blur the line between legal and illegal immigration...   The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 called for at least 2K more Border Patrol agents per year along our border with Mexico to stop the unrelenting flow of people and illegal drugs into this country.   But the Bush administration provided funding for only around 200 additional agents.   President Bush then promised to deploy by August 6K National Guard troops to support the U.S. Border Patrol on the border with Mexico. Now, in mid-July, having already missed a June deadline, fewer than 900 have moved into place along the border...   27 state governments have passed some sort of legislation cracking down on illegal immigration.   Many of these efforts are focused on employers and landlords who are hiring and housing illegal aliens and demanding proof of citizenship before granting unfettered access to social and health services.   Just this week, Colorado set the highest standard to date.   Both houses of Colorado's Democrat-controlled state government approved a plan that will deny most non-emergency state benefits to illegal aliens.   Colorado governor Bill Owens, a Republican, said an estimated 50K illegal immigrants may be affected by the measure, which will free up Medicare, Medicaid and unemployment insurance funds for legal state residents.   Inaction at the federal level is also inspiring some cities and counties around the country to enact laws to deal with this illegal influx.   Hazleton, Pennsylvania, and Avon Park, Florida, are set to vote on important ordinances intended to fight the problems created by illegal immigration in their communities."

2006-07-12
_Rediff_
Oracle to hire 2000 more in India by December
"In 2005 the company's head-count [in India] grew from 2K to 8K...   At present the company has 9,500 employees in India.   [The company said it has many more privacy violation projects in the works.]"

2006-07-12
_CNN_
Arab-Israeli War Has Broken Out Again
Guardian
Evening Times of London
WTSP
WTVG
Globe and Mail

2006-07-12
Joe Hanel _Durango Herald_
Colorado legislators moved to restrict aid to illegal aliens, but measures leave much to be desired
Amherst NY Times
Chicago Tribune
Pueblo Chieftain
Composite: "Legislators wrapped up their special session on immigration at 23:17 Monday, with House members voting 48-15 for the Democrats' major bill.   Governor Bill Owens promised to sign a bill in a deal reached earlier in the day...   People who apply for government benefits will have to show a Colorado drivers' license or military or tribal ID.   They also will have to sign an affidavit affirming their legal U.S. residency.   Their names will then be run through the federal SAVE program, which confirms legal residency.   The benefits include welfare, retirement, disability, public housing, college education, food stamps and unemployment.   These benefits already are limited by federal law to legal residents, but HB1023 adds verification.   A second law passed Monday requires all employers in the state to certify that each new hire is a legal resident.   Under business lobbying, the wording was softened so employers can be sanctioned only if they show 'reckless disregard' about an employee's background."

2006-07-12
Geov Parrish _Seattle Weekly_
Show-down at Virginia Mason Medical Center as directors attempt to reclasify nurses as supervisors
"But a series of decisions expected this summer from the Bush-appointed National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) could nullify the union memberships of millions of people in the United States and prevent any future unionization attempts by tens of millions more.   And one of the most closely watched harbingers in the nation of how these rulings might play out is here in Seattle.   Under 1947's... Taft-Hartley Act, supervisors in the U.S. work-force are considered 'management' and therefore have no legal right to unionize.   The anticipated NLRB rulings, of 3 disputes collectively known as the Kentucky River cases, would allow employers in a wide array of industries to reclassify as 'supervisors' any employee who has any type of oversight -- no matter how inconsequential -- over a lower-ranked or less-senior co-worker.   Workers who take on apprentices.   Lead men in manufacturing crews.   Nurses who direct nursing aides...   A nurse, for example, has no power to hire or fire, doesn't set schedules, can't mete out discipline.   Yet under these rulings, she or he would be considered management.   And in anticipation of such a ruling, Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle is quietly hoping to have all 600 of its registered nurses reclassified as supervisors, so as to break the VM nurses union, the Washington State Nurses Association, and win a legal dispute with them."

2006-07-12

DJIA	11,013.18
S&P 500	1,258.60
NASDAQ	2,090.24
10-year US T-Bond	5.10%
crude oil	74.95
gold	651.20
silver	11.555
platinum	1,267.60
palladium	329.95
copper	0.2291

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

2006-07-13 - 117 Days Until Congressional Election

2006-07-13 04:00PDT (07:00EDT) (11:00GMT)
Carolyn Lochhead _San Francisco Chronicle_
House GOP may stick to their moderate line on immigration despite Senate's extremist proposals
AP/Sky Valley Journal
"House Majority Leader John Boehner of Ohio cited as evidence phone calls, constituent reaction and 'the number of conversations I've found myself in with Democrats and Republicans on the Senate side.', which he said 'have made it clear to me that there's some movement toward the House bill'.   The reaction came after a week of hearings across the country in which House law-makers focused on illegal immigration and its possible links to terrorism.   Boehner announced Wednesday 7 new hearings for July that will highlight the perceived flaws of the Senate's immigration bill, which would create [two new] guest-worker [programs] and offer a path to legalization for the estimated [8M to 20M] illegal [aliens] now in the country, in addition to cracking down on enforcement."

2006-07-13 05:30PDT (08:30EST) (13:30GMT)
Subri Raman & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
un-employment insurance weekly claims report
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted [not seasonally adjusted], totaled 416,542 in the week ending July 8, an increase of 112,799 from the previous week.   There were 427,323 initial claims in the comparable week in 2005.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.7% during the week ending July 1, unchanged from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 2,219,848, a decrease of 41,466 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 1.9% and the volume was 2,410,697."

2006-07-13 07:07PDT (10:07EDT) (14:07GMT)
Myra P. Saefong _MarketWatch_
Crude petroleum futures reach $76.30 per barrel

2006-07-13 11:01PDT (14:01EDT) (18:01GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
Federal budget surplus fell to $20G in June
Monthly Treasury Statement

2006-07-13 12:07PDT (14:07EDT) (18:07GMT)
_USA Today_
Intel to cut 1K management jobs
CNET
MarketWatch
Seattle Times

2006-07-13
Charles Hurt & Jeffrey Sparshott _Washington Times_
Senate bill would pay guest-workers more
"The bill 'would guarantee wages to some foreign workers that could be higher than those paid to American workers at the same work site.', says a policy paper released this week by the Senate's Republican Policy Committee.   'This is unfair to U.S. workers, inappropriate, and unnecessary.'...   Though the bill was supported by Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and Majority Whip Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, it was opposed by the rest of the Senate Republican leadership and a majority of Republicans in the chamber.   And despite the support of Mr. Frist and Mr. McConnell, this week's policy paper critical of the wage guarantees for foreign workers marks the official stance of the Republican Policy Committee, which formulates and implements the policies of the caucus...   House Republicans are so critical of the Senate bill that they can't bring themselves to call it by the name of any of the several Republicans who played a larger role in passing it..."

2006-07-13 11:50PDT (14:50EDT) (18:50GMT)
Polya Lesova _MarketWatch_
Middle East tensions push gold prices higher

2006-07-13 14:10PDT (17:10EDT) (21:10GMT)
Marianne Kolbasuk McGee _Information Week_
Doing H-1B Math, in Dollars and Sense
"[H-1B guest-workers are paid significantly less than] American workers with the same skills, according to the Programmers Guild, an advocate organization for U.S. tech professionals.   And the guild's president, Kim Berry, is hoping that Congress will 'correct' current wage rules that are supposed to keep the pay playing field level between American professionals and H-1B visa holders, but aren't.   Current regulations have loop-holes that allow employers to hire H-1B workers at wages 25% or more lower than Americans earn for the same jobs, says Berry.   And that's one of the big factors that make hiring H-1B workers so attractive, he says...   For instance, while the Dept. of Labor has four pay levels considered 'prevailing wages' for programmers in San Jose, CA, employers can get away with paying H-1B workers the lowest wage level by watering down the position's required skills, education, experience, etc., says Berry.   More specifically, in San Jose, the Dept of Labor's 4 levels of 'prevailing wages' for programmers range from $57,762 for level 1; $72,800 for level 2; $87,838 for level 3; and $102,877 for level 4.   The 4 different levels are based on skills, years of experience, education, and a few other things.   So, for instance, the loop-holes in DoL rules allow employers to hire foreign workers with PhDs in jobs paying the lowest wages as long as the position's job description doesn't require an advanced degree or 'more than average experience', says Berry...   For employers in San Jose, that would mean paying an H-1B programmer a minimum of $83,500 annually—which is the median wage earned by American programmers in that occupation in that city—instead of finagling to pay only $57,762, the lowest wage allowed today.   That would make employers think twice about whether they really 'need' twice as many H-1B tech workers allowed into the U.S. each year, he says."
Norm Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring e-News-Letter_
Re: Article on Programmers Guild press release
"Nice article, important topic that goes to the heart of the H-1B issue.   One point I've often made, but is often forgotten, is that H-1B provides employers with a means to avoid older American workers.   If they run out of young Americans to hire, they can avoid turning to older (age 35+) Americans by hiring young H-1Bs.   As the Guild points out, the prevailing wage law is defined by the job, not by the qualifications of the worker.   This means that an employer could even hire an older H-1B as long as the job only requires a few years of experience...   The vast majority of programming jobs are defined to require somewhere between 3 and 7 years of experience.   So what they H-1B program does is expand the supply of younger workers.   And the proposed new F-4 program in the Senate bill and in the House SKIL bill, would make things even worse, since by definition it deals with new graduates.   However, the fact that the prevailing wage is defined by the job and not the worker is very big for employers in a different way.   As the Guild points out, the employer can hire an H-1B who has a PhD for a job requiring only a Bachelor's degree.   The legal prevailing wage then is set at the Bachelor's level.   The employer gets the PhD education of the worker as a bonus...   Virtually no software development job requires a PhD.   The PhD should have a better overview, sharper insights and so on, but it's only a plus, not a necessity.   So, no fraud here either, just... old fashioned aggressive use of loop-holes...   it's already been written up in a bill (by representative Pascrell).   The language in that bill could be copied verbatim into whatever bill Congress passes on H-1B this year.   Now, WILL they enact something on H-1B and F-4 this year?   As I said yesterday, I'd be shocked if they didn't.   Interestingly, the July 14 issue of Immigration Daily suggests that the bill will be passed during the 'lame duck session' after the November elections [this is also the time of year and election cycle when they enacted automatic raises for themselves just before a constitutional amendment was ratified prohibiting them from enacting raises without an intervening election, a time when congress-critters believe they need not pay attention to constituents because what they have done will not be remembered when they vote the next time, 2 years later...jgo].   This is very possible.   The last H-1B legislation, in 2004, was also enacted at that time.   It added a new 20K-visa category for foreign grads of U.S. universities, and implemented that 4-level prevailing wage system (formerly only 2) referred to in the article, a measure that immigration attorneys had been requesting.   BTW, in today's San Francisco Chronicle, senator Specter [erroneously and, perhaps, dishonestly...jgo] stated that critics of the H-1B program are motivated by racism.   By implication, he seems to feel that programmers don't mind losing their jobs to H-1Bs as long as the H-1Bs are 'white'.   When someone loses his job and can't pay the mortgage, they don't care what color the replacement worker is."
Matt Crenson _AP_/_Yahoo!_
The branches of the human family tree are short, though the roots are deep
immigration proposals pending in congress:
Frist's S2454
Hagel's S2612
Tancredo's HR1325
Tancredo's HR1450
Tancredo's HR1587
Tancredo's HR3333
Tancredo's HR3700
Pascrell's HR4378
Sensenbrenner's HR4437
Shadegg's HR5744
Specter's S2611
Cornyn's S2691

2006-07-13 15:00PDT (18:00EDT) (22:00GMT)
Tara Weiss _Forbes_
Computer workers are a dime a dozen
"In the late 1990s, software engineers and other IT specialists were in demand.   Now, immigration lawyers say, they're a dime a dozen..."

2006-07-13
Jim Stroud _Recruiters Lounge_
H-1B workers work cheaper than American workers

2006-07-13

DJIA	10,846.29
S&P 500	1,242.29
NASDAQ	2,054.11
10-year US T-Bond	5.07%
crude oil	76.70
gold	654.40
silver	11.485
platinum	1,264.00
palladium	334.06
copper	0.2298

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

2006-07-14 - 116 Days Until Congressional Election

2006-07-13 17:10:13PDT (2006-07-13 20:10:13EDT) (2006-07-14 00:10:13GMT)
_Orlando Sentinel_
Americans need not apply?

2006-07-14 08:18PDT (11:18EDT) (15:18GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
Retail sales fell 0.1% in June: autos down 1.4%, other sales up 0.3%
"Retail sales are up 5.9% in the past year."
census bureau report

2006-07-14 08:22PDT (11:22EDT) (15:22GMT)
Greg Robb _MarketWatch_
June import prices were up 0.1%, non-fuel prices up 0.7%
BLS import/export price indices

2006-07-14 08:41PDT (11:41EDT) (15:41GMT)
Greg Robb _MarketWatch_
UMich consumer sentiment index fell from 84.9 in June to 83.0 in July

2006-07-13
Robert Klein Engler _American Daily_
Unrestricted Immigration vs. a More Perfect Union
"Why have Mayor Bloomberg and Secretary Gutierrez all of a sudden become Marxists and economic determinists?   Why has the discussion of illegal immigration turned into a discussion of money and workers but not laws?   Unfortunately, many have forgotten that it is not the economy that makes the U.S. Constitution possible, but it is the U.S. Constitution that makes the economy possible...   What is more just, law enforcement or 20M illegal immigrants.   What is more desirable, guest worker programs or domestic tranquility?   What is more needed, open borders or the establishment of a common defense?   What is of more concern to our elected officials, Mexicans, or the general welfare of United States citizens?   You know our senators or those employers of illegal immigrant workers would run to the police if something were stolen from them.   But they don't care if someone sneaks into the country, breaks our laws and steals citizenship by an act of amnesty...   When the light of freedom passes through it, the Constitution focuses on the individual citizen.   The flame in the heart of a citizen by this focused light was called patriotism.   Today, illegal immigrant workers, like water, have already put out the flame of patriotism in the heart of many corporate executives.   These executives have become the calculating, Marxist bureaucrats of capitalism who rest assured we have the best senators money can buy...   Those who favor deportation and oppose 'comprehensive immigration reform' support the U.S. Constitution.   They support the Constitution not because they want markets to be free but because they want MEN to be free."

2006-07-14
_You Don't Speak for Me_/_PR News Wire_
American Hispanics bring border sheriffs to Washington DC to demand that congress deal with border crisis and immigration law enforcement
Yahoo!
"You Don't Speak for Me! a coalition of American Hispanics, accompanied by 2 Texas border sheriffs will arrive on Capitol Hill next Tuesday to counter a lobbying effort by illegal aliens and their supporters pressing for a sweeping amnesty.   They will be carrying a simple message for Congress and the Bush Administration: Secure our borders and enforce our immigration laws.   Sheriffs Arvin West of Hudspeth County and Sigifredo Gonzalez of Zapata County, and You Don't Speak for Me!, will join Representatives Walter B. Jones (R-NC), Brian Bilbray (R-CA), Virgil Goode (R-VA) and other House members for a Capitol Hill news conference to discuss the urgent need for immediate enactment of immigration enforcement and border security legislation.   The news conference will take place on [Tuesday] July 18 in Room 2456, Rayburn House Office Building at 11:00...   Colonel Al Rodriguez, chairman of YDSFM and the organizer of the new conference.   'Last week, another border sheriff, testifying at a congressional hearing held in San Diego, described the 'war' that is raging along our southern border.   We believe that the first and only order of business for Congress must be to address this security crisis, not a massive amnesty and guest worker program to satisfy the demands of illegal aliens and their employers.'   Sheriff West, whose deputies battle organized crime gangs and even incursions by Mexican military personnel believed to providing support to cross border smugglers, will describe conditions along the border and provide photographic documentation of the crisis his department is dealing with.   Sheriff Gonzalez will detail the violence and crime in Zapata County and the threat to national security resulting from the border crisis along the border.   The 2 law enforcement officials represent the 16-member Border Sheriffs Coalition, which was formed as a result of the federal government's failure to protect the borders.   'America's security is being compromised, our citizens along the border live in a state of fear, and our law enforcement personnel are under assault.   It's time for action, not talk; enforcement, not amnesty.', said Claudia Spencer, vice chair of YDSFM."

2006-07-14

DJIA	10,739.35
S&P 500	1,236.20
NASDAQ	2,037.35
10-year US T-Bond	5.06%
crude oil	76.70
gold	668.00
silver	11.530
platinum	1,267.50
palladium	334.50
copper	0.2320

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

2006-07-15 - 115 Days Until Congressional Election

2006-07-15 11:44PDT (14:44EDT) (18:44GMT)
Leslie Miller _AP_/_Yahoo!_
Foreign companies lease roads and bridges in the USA
"On a single day in June, an Australian-Spanish partnership paid $3.8G to lease the Indiana Toll Road.   An Australian company bought a 99-year lease on Virginia's Pocahontas Parkway, and Texas officials decided to let a Spanish-American partnership build and run a toll road from Austin to Seguin for 50 years.   Few people know that the tolls from the U.S. side of the tunnel between Detroit and Windsor, Canada, go to a subsidiary of an Australian company — which also owns a bridge in Alabama.   Some experts welcome the trend.   Robert Poole, transportation director for the [libertarian-leaning] think tank Reason Foundation, said private investors can raise more money than politicians to build new roads because these kind of owners are willing to raise tolls.   [Earlier research by Reason showed that toll bridges and roads were better maintained.]...   Gas taxes and user fees have fueled the expansion of the nation's highway system.   Thousands of miles of roads built since the 1950s changed the landscape, accelerating the growth of suburbia and creating a reliance on motor vehicles to move freight, get to work and take vacations.   In 1956, President Eisenhower pushed to create the interstate highway system for a different [purpose]: to move troops and tanks and evacuate civilians...   Last year, [Chicago] sold a 99-year lease on the eight-mile Chicago Skyway for $1.83G.   The buyer was the same consortium that leased the Indiana Toll Road — Macquarie Infrastructure Group of Sydney, Australia, and Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte of Madrid, Spain.   Chicago used the money to pay off debt and fund road projects.   Skyway tolls rose 50 cents, to $2.50; By 2017, they will reach $5...   Between 1980 and 2004, people drove 94% more highway miles, according to Federal Highway Administration statistics.   But the number of new highway lane miles rose by only 6%...   The federal highway fund — which will have a balance of about $16G by the end of 2006 — will run out in 2009 or 2010, according to White House and congressional estimates...   Indiana governor Mitch Daniels, who championed his state's toll road deal, now wants investors to build and operate a toll road from Indianapolis to Evansville.   Patrick Bauer, the Indiana House's Democratic leader, says such deals are taxpayer rip-offs.   Bauer believes Macquarie-Cintra could make $133G over the 75-year life of the Indiana Toll Road lease — for which Indiana got $3.8G.   'In 5, maybe 10 years, all that money is gone, and the tolls keep rising and the money keeps flowing into the foreign coffers.', Bauer said."

2006-07-15
Wendy Wurtele _On-Line Legal Marketing_
ADP sued for over-time pay for programmers in California
"California Labor Code 515.5 applies to computer programmers and code writers who were not paid at least $99,445 per year in 2006...   Federal labor laws require over-time pay for eligible employees who work more than 40 hours a week, but in California over-time pay must be calculated on a daily basis – requiring companies to pay for over-time after an eligible employee has worked more than 8 hours in any single day.Computer programmers and code writers who are working, or have worked, for ADP, are alleging the company is trying to avoid paying legitimate over-time claims by not correctly calculating employees’ over-time hours, based on California labor laws.   Case No. RG06268889, Reynov v. ADP, has been filed in Alameda Superior Court.   Lawyer Walter Haines..."

2006-07-15 12:25PST (15:25EST) (18:25GMT)
Aaron Klein _World Net Daily_
Multiple sources confirm Iranian troops working with Hizbollah to fire katyusha rockets into Israel

2006-07-16 - 114 Days Until Congressional Election

2006-07-16
_Bradenton Herald_
Immigration Irony: Fruit-growers obstinacy against raising compensation highlights changing immigration picture
"Sam Udani of Immigration Daily, an on-line immigration information portal, recently noted Congress is unlikely to focus on immigration reform before September.   But he optimistically predicted that there is a good chance for successful compromise on comprehensive immigration reform.   And even if comprehensive immigration reform is not adopted this year, 'significant immigration benefits ([reduced] H-1B numbers, [reduced] Schedule A numbers, and perhaps retrogression relief for employment-based beneficiaries) will come down the pike, no later than early 2nd quarter 2007.'...   many [illegal alien] migrant workers are joining better-paid construction crews in lieu of the fields...   First, our farmers may finally be forced to modernize, improving efficiency and productivity and eliminating much of the current archaic living conditions for migrant workers.   Second, national security could be improved if Congress can get a handle on illegal immigration, with legislation making it easier for workers to register and work legally in the United States, instead of the current system that seems to promote an underground, undocumented flood of illegal immigration.   Finally, we might all become better educated on the true nature of most of the people who seek to come to our country to better their lives and the lives of their families."

2006-07-16
Angie C. Marek _US News & World Report_
States and localities legislate while congress-critters hold propaganda meetings
"So he crafted a bill allowing local authorities to issue $200 tickets to companies for each nonlegal worker they employ, and then, if that doesn't work, forbid them to do business in Palm Bay for a minimum of 2 years.   He expects the bill will pass in August...   State legislators have introduced more than 500 immigration-related bills this year, according to the National Conference on State Legislatures...   the rush to pass laws at the state and local levels is only growing more intense...   In Colorado, legislators meeting in emergency session passed a massive package of legislation that will deny illegal immigrants older than 18 most state benefits, a move that will very likely take up to 50K people off state benefit rolls.   Meanwhile, the town of Hazleton, PA, approved legislation fining landlords $1K for each illegal immigrant found renting on their property..."

2006-07-16
George Avalos _Contra Costa Times_
Pay dips in jobs held by immigrants
"The surge of immigrants in recent years appears to have depressed the pay-checks of East Bay workers in jobs with a big share of foreign-born employees...   'Any time you have a large number of workers who are available in a particular occupation, it is going to depress wages.', said Jack Martin, special projects director with the Federation for American Immigration Reform.   FAIR endorses a crack-down on illegal immigration and curbs on all immigration.   'It's simple supply and demand.'...   the data do show a consistent pattern of wage gaps in occupations with large numbers of foreign-born immigrants.   The average pay of people in those occupations is well below the average of all workers in the East Bay, according to a Times analysis of data supplied by the state's Employment Development Department.   These occupations were chosen because they were identified by the Pew Hispanic Center as having a large share of foreign-born Latinos, who make up the bulk of recent California immigrants.   What's more, these paycheck trends have worsened in recent years.   In the third quarter of 2001, the average East Bay wage for 20 occupations identified by Pew as having the largest share of foreign-born Latinos was $32,099 a year.   That was 22% below the average wage for all jobs in the East Bay at that time.   By the third quarter of 2005, the average East Bay wage for the same 20 occupations was $34,638 -- but that was 27% below the average East Bay wage...   The average wage for these occupations did rise over the 4 years, by 8%.   But that was roughly half the pace of the overall wage gains for all East Bay workers during the same period, 15%...   'Immigration is having a depressing effect on wages and jobs.', said Peter Brimelow, author of the best-selling book _Alien Nation: Common Sense about America's Immigration Disaster_ and editor of Vdare.com, an on-line [site with articles] about immigration issues.   'That is why businesses are so keen to have immigrants here.   They are a source of cheap labor.'   The total foreign-born population in California in mid-2005 was 10.3M residents -- or about 28% of California's total population, according to estimates calculated using Census Bureau data.   That's up from 8.9M in 2000...   'The [executives are] getting addicted to cheap labor, and the cheap labor here in part because it is being subsidized by the [tax-victims].', Brimelow said.   'Illegal immigration is imposing a heavier and heavier burden on the [tax-victims].   The economy and the nation are being transformed for nothing.'"
 

2006-07-17 - 113 Days Until Congressional Election

2006-07-16 (2006-07-17 02:14GMT)
Grant Gross _News Forge_
Fair use advocates silenced at digital rights management "public" meeting
"Advocates trying to speak for regular Internet users were basically told to sit down and shut up during a 'public' work-shop on digital rights management dominated by IT heavyweights and Big Hollywood at the U.S. Department of Commerce Wednesday.   Members of NYLXS and NY for Fair Use mostly had to settle for interjecting comments from the back of the room and distributing a pamphlet called 'We are the Stake-holders' and buttons saying 'DRM is theft'.   The meeting's purpose was to discuss the progress of digital rights management -- the process by which record and movie companies control how you use the products you've purchased from them -- and how the government can help grease the wheels of DRM.   The fair use advocates argued that digital rights management allows Big Hollywood to steal fair use copying rights [the 'right' to violate copyrights] from the public and steal several current uses of computers away from the public...   Robin Gross, intellectual property lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said her organization was disappointed that it wasn't invited to be part of the digital rights management work-shop.   She later said the EFF was invited to comment in writing."

2006-07-17 08:47PDT (11:47EDT) (15:47GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
Industrial production up 0.8% in June: Capacity utilization rose to 6-year high of 82.4%
Federal Reserve data

2006-07-17
Marianne Kolbasuk McGee _Information Week_
Why Aren't Business Executives Making a Good-Faith Effort To Attract IT Workers
"Internships aren't enough.   IT-dependent businesses need to take the talent pipe-line as seriously as they do other critical industry risks...   'Many companies look at talent like it's raw material.', says Michael Hignite, MBA director and professor at Missouri State University's [B-school].   'I'll buy it when I need it.'   That won't work...   During the dot-com boom, Missouri State University worked with about 50 employers that were recruiting students and offering internships to computer science majors, Hignite says.   That's fallen by about half, and enrollment in computer science majors at Missouri State's business school has dropped precipitously, from 1,100 students several years ago to 200 today.   The companies that recruit best get ahead of their staffing needs.   'If you're going to need talent 4 or 5 years from now, you need to be at our campus now.', Hignite says."

2006-07-17 11:29PDT (14:29EDT) (18:29GMT)
Bonnie Erbe _Scripps Howard_/_Modesto Bee_
Communities are stepping in to tighten immigration control in face of federal weakness
Scripps Howard

2006-07-17
_abc_/_Reuters_
Bush tells Fox that US immigration law reform is unlikely soon

2006-07-17
Steven Malanga _City Journal_
How Unskilled Immigrants Hurt Our Economy
"as many Americans sense and so much research has demonstrated. America does not have a vast labor shortage that requires waves of low-wage immigrants to alleviate; in fact, unemployment among unskilled workers is high—about 30%.   Moreover, many of the unskilled, uneducated workers now journeying here labor, like Velasquez, in shrinking industries, where they force out native workers, and many others work in industries where the availability of cheap workers has led businesses to suspend investment in new technologies that would make them less labor-intensive.   Yet while these workers add little to our economy, they come at great cost, because they are not economic abstractions but human beings, with their own culture and ideas—often at odds with our own.   Increasing numbers of them arrive with little education and none of the skills necessary to succeed in a modern economy...   In 1965, a new immigration act eliminated the old system of national quotas, which critics saw as racist because it greatly favored European nations.   Lawmakers created a set of broader immigration quotas for each hemisphere, and they added a new visa preference category for family members to join their relatives here...   But, in fact, the law had an immediate, dramatic effect, increasing immigration by 60% in its first 10 years.   Sojourners from poorer countries around the rest of the world arrived in ever-greater numbers, so that whereas half of immigrants in the 1950s had originated from Europe, 75% by the 1970s were from Asia and Latin America.   And as the influx of immigrants grew, the special-preferences rule for family unification intensified it further, as the pool of eligible family members around the world also increased.   Legal immigration to the U.S. soared from 2.5 M in the 1950s to 4.5 M in the 1970s to 7.3 M in the 1980s to about 10 M in the 1990s.   As the floodgates of legal immigration opened, the widening economic gap between the United States and many of its neighbors also pushed illegal immigration to levels that America had never seen.   In particular, when Mexico's move to a more centralized, state-run economy in the 1970s produced hyperinflation, the disparity between its stagnant economy and U.S. prosperity yawned wide.   Mexico's per-capita gross domestic product, 37% of the United States' in the early 1980s, was only 27% of it by the end of the decade—and is now just 25% of it.   With Mexican farmworkers able to earn seven to ten times as much in the United States as at home, by the 1980s illegals were pouring across our border at the rate of about 225K a year, and U.S. sentiment rose for slowing the flow.   But an unusual coalition of business groups, unions, civil rights activists, and church leaders thwarted the call for restrictions with passage of the inaptly named 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, which legalized some 2.7M unauthorized aliens already here, supposedly in exchange for tougher penalties and controls against employers who hired illegals.   The law proved no deterrent, however, because supporters, in subsequent legislation and court cases argued on civil rights grounds, weakened the employer sanctions.   Meanwhile, more illegals flooded here in the hope of future amnesties from Congress, while the newly legalized sneaked their wives and children into the country rather than have them wait for family-preference visas.   The flow of illegals into the country rose to between 300K and 500K per year in the 1990s, so that a decade after the legislation that had supposedly solved the undocumented alien problem by reclassifying them as legal, the number of illegals living in the United States was back up to about 5M, while today it's estimated at between [8M and 20M]."

2006-07-17
Mary Brandel _ComputerWorld_
Globalization
"it's not economically sensible to hire high-wage U.S. workers to do jobs involving basic programming, tech support, quality assurance and testing.   [A few bottom rungs have been removed from the USA IT career ladder for beginners, and the last few rungs have been removed for older, more experienced IT workers.]...   Armed with an economics degree, she has been working with the U.S. Department of State to implement ERP systems in places such as Zambia, Mali, Bolivia and Bosnia.   In all, she has traveled to 7 Third World countries to do training and support.   [So, she's not doing high-wage work that stretches her abilities in software and/or hardware development, but low-wage work outside the USA.]...   Some observers, like Edward Gordon, author of The 2010 Meltdown_ (Praeger Publishers, 2005) and president of Imperial Consulting Corp. in Chicago, see a worldwide IT skills crisis on the horizon.   'I'm aware of older engineers who are out of work, either because they didn't know the latest software or their companies were looking to bring in cheap foreign labor.', he says.   'But those companies will regret it...'...   With 20% to 30% growth among Indian-based IT [body shops], including Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., Infosys Technologies Ltd. and Wipro Ltd., U.S. [body shops] such as IBM, Accenture Ltd. and Electronic Data Systems Corp. are facing some ferocious competitors, and it's not clear yet which companies will prevail [but tech workers are losing].   [Corrupt US body shops are investing heavily in India.]...   According to neoIT, wages for Indian engineers rose 10% to 15% during 2004 and will continue on an upward trend of 8.7% annually through 2010.   This narrowing wage gap could discourage some companies from Indian-based off-shoring...   He points to the 18% illiteracy rate in [Red China] and the 42% rate in India, plus the countries' high percentages of people living in poverty with little or no access to education...   Foreign nationals are returning to their places of birth, where there economic opportunities are increasing; enrollments in computer science and math programs are decreasing in the U.S.; and employers are [adamantly opposed] to invest in worker retraining...   There will also be strong demand for project managers and business analysts, Carter says.   'I'm telling my managers if they've got an opening, those are the skills I'm looking for, and that if they need a developer, get a contractor [i.e. body shop], not an employee.'...   And that requires action, Corbett says.   'We have to invest in our people and our infrastructure and have a strong focus on really understanding where the U.S. companies can create a unique advantage for themselves.', he says.   'We have to believe we can win.'"

2006-07-17
_Pittsburgh Tribune-Review_
Specter and illegal aliens: A national disgrace
"Anyone familiar with the indifference of the upper house and White House about stopping illegal aliens knows the recently passed Senate immigration bill -- all but promising illegals amnesty, citizenship, 40 acres and a mule -- for the absolute capitulation to lawlessness that it is."
 

2006-07-18 - 112 Days Until Congressional Election

2006-07-18 05:46PDT (08:46EDT) (12:46GMT)
Sarah Turner _MarketWatch_
Fund managers foresee weaker global economy

2006-07-18 06:21PDT (09:21EDT) (13:21GMT)
Leslie Wines _MarketWatch_
PPI up only 0.5% in June, core up 0.2%
BLS site

2006-07-18 06:50PDT (09:50EDT) (13:50GMT)
Robert Schroeder _MarketWatch_
Capital flows into USA rose to $69.6G in May: April in-flow revised up to $51.1G

2006-07-18 11:54PDT (14:54EDT) (18:54GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
Home-Builders' confidence index fell to 15-year low (with graph)
National Association of Home-Builders

2006-07-18
Jerome R. Corsi _Human Events_
Red China Opens NAFTA Ports in Mexico
"The Port Authority of San Antonio has been working actively with the Communist Chinese to open and develop NAFTA shipping ports in Mexico.   The plan is to ship containers of cheap goods produced by under-market labor in China and the Far East into North America via Mexican ports.   From the Mexican ports, Mexican truck drivers and railroad workers will transport the goods across the Mexican border with Texas.   Once in the U.S.A., the routes will proceed north to Kansas City along the NAFTA Super-Highway, ready to be expanded by the Trans-Texas Corridor, and NAFTA railroad routes being put in place by Kansas City Southern.   Kansas City Southern's Mexican railroads has positioned the company to become the 'NAFTA Railroad'.   Right now, the cost of shipping and ground transportation can nearly double the total cost of cheap goods produced by Chinese and Far Eastern under-market labor.   The plan is to reduce those transportation costs by as much as 50% by using Mexican ports."

2006-08-19
Phyllis Schlafly
Statement to House Judiciary committee, sub-committee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims
"Americans are basically a fair-minded people, and the continued entry of thousands of illegal aliens offends our ideals of fairness.   Failure to stop the entry of illegal aliens is unfair to those who don=t have health insurance but see illegal aliens given costly treatment at U.S. hospitals for which U.S. [tax-victims] have to pay the bill.   It is unfair to the legal immigrants who stand in line and wait their turn to comply with our laws.   It is unfair to our friends in Arizona who are afraid to go out of their homes without a gun and a cell phone.   It's unfair to small businessmen who are trying to run an honest business, pay their taxes and benefits to employees, but can=t compete with their competitors whose costs are so much less because they hire illegal aliens in the underground economy.   It is unfair to American children in public schools who see their classrooms flooded with kids who can=t speak English and cause a gross decline in the quality of education.   It's unfair to our own high school drop-outs who need those low-wage jobs to start building a life...   Americans think we are being lied to.   Everybody knows that the various plans called legalization or earned citizenship are euphemisms for amnesty...   Americans also feel lied to by the Senate bill's use of the term 'temporary guest-workers'.   We know the President and the Senators are not telling the truth when they imply that guest workers will go home after a few years.   The American people are thinking, we don't believe you -- and worse, we don't believe that you believe what you are saying because the evidence is so overwhelming that guest workers do not go home...   The reported that 18,207 illegal OTMs (Other Than Mexicans) were the beneficiaries of the Bush Administration's scandalous catch and release procedure in the 3 months since Homeland Secretary Michael Chertoff promised to 'return ever single illegal entrant -- no exceptions'...   We currently have 37K U.S. troops guarding the 151-mile border between North and South Korea, but we have fewer than 12K agents to monitor 2K miles of our southern border...   A study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research reported that the surge of immigration in the 1980s and 1990s lowered the wages of our own high school dropouts by 8.2%.   The surge has accelerated since that report was issued."
 

2006-07-19 - 111 Days Until Congressional Election

2006-07-19 04:01PDT (07:01EDT) (11:01GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
Mortgage applications fell 4.6% last week, 31.3% from a year ago

2006-07-19 05:32PDT (08:32EDT) (12:32GMT)
Robert Schroeder _MarketWatch_
Housing starts fell 5.3% in June to 1.85M
census brueau data

2006-07-19 09:50PDT (12:50EDT) (16:50GMT)
Rex Nutting _MarketWatch_
CPI up 0.2% in June, core up 0.3%
Fed chief Bernanke emphasized flexibility, expects economy to slow, easing inflation pressure

2006-07-19
Major Owens _The Hill_
A Pension Catastrophe
"In the arena of private-sector defined-benefit pension plans, a huge conspiracy has been set in motion with a profitable bailout at the end for [corporate executives].   Yet even the luckiest workers will get no more than half of the pension benefits they worked hard to earn.   And of course any large-scale eradication of private-sector pension plans will establish the necessary precedents for legislating similar cuts for public-sector employees.   An ugly model has already been established for this blatant misuse of public institutions to enrich corporate coffers, i.e. the savings-and-loan bail-out.   Although deliberately obscured, the total [tax-victim] cost of the bail-out was no less than $1T, according to informed estimates.   This colossal historic swindle required financing by 30-year floating bonds that carry enormously high interest costs...   The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC), like the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), is buttressed by the dollars of American citizens.   According to the Center on Federal Financial Institutions (COFFI), a new invoice is about to be delivered."

2006-07-19 09:20PDT (12:20EDT) (16:20GMT)
Marianne Kolbasuk Mcgee _Information Week_
< a href="http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2006/07/group_wants_us.html"> Programmers want US government to reveal jobs for which companies have applied to bring in guest-workers
eWeek
Technocrat
"Should the U.S. Dept. of Labor provide public access to a government database that purportedly contains information about employers planning to hire H-1B workers for fiscal 2007, which starts on 2006 Oct.1?   Kim Berry, president of advocate group Programmers Guild, says he wants U.S. tech workers to have the chance to more fairly compete for jobs that might otherwise go to foreigners.   U.S. workers should have the opportunity right now to look at requests employers have made to the DoL to fill IT positions with H-1B visa holders—before the foreign workers can legally begin the jobs starting on Oct. 1, says Berry.   If American workers can check out which employers are hiring for which jobs, and at which wages, well, then maybe some interested (or out of work) American techies have a shot to apply for those jobs before they're filled by foreigners...   Berry says he doesn't believe that information about H-1B requests for fiscal 2007 doesn't yet exist in a data-base -- the Labor Conditions Application info has to go somewhere once an employer hits the 'submit' button on its request, he says.   Indeed LCA information about employer requests for fiscal 2007 does exisit somewhere, however there's 'lag time' in making this data available to the public, says a spokesman from the DoL, who returned InformationWeek's phone calls to Carlson after this blog was orignally posted on July 19.   The lag time, which is usually at least 3 months, includes time for the DoL to 'scrub' the data and ensure privacy.   That scrubbing includes removing Social Security numbers and employer tax ID info, says the spokesman...   Besides, under government regulations, employers are the ones that are supposed to be informing the public of intent to hire foreign workers -- not the DoL, he says.   Employers are supposed to inform the public 30 days preceding the date when the LCA -- or request for H-1B workers -- is submitted to the DoL.   Postings can be done in one of two ways -- hard copy in a 'conspicuous' location [within their firm], or electronically, which means e-mail, posting on e-bulletin boards or home web pages -- whichever way an employer 'normally' communicates with employees."

2006-07-19
James P. Hoffa _Huffington Post_
Oman Free Trade Agreement: Another Ports Sell-Out
UPI
Seattle Post Intelligencer/AP
The Hill
"But now, less than 6 months later, a new version of the deal is back, disguised deep inside the Oman Free Trade Agreement (OFTA), which the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on this week.   Imagine if Congress were slapped with a law-suit demanding payment of millions of our tax dollars because Congress protected our national security by denying a foreign corporation the right to run our U.S. ports.   That's exactly what's at stake.   The Oman agreement, based on the failed NAFTA model, contains a disturbing surprise: Foreign companies incorporated in Oman would be given the right to own and operate important and sensitive infrastructure in the United States, including the landside activities of our ports.   Simply put, if such rules had been applicable to Dubai, the United States would have had to pay the Emir of Dubai tens of millions of U.S. [tax-victims'] dollars for taking actions that undermined that company's 'right' to run our ports."

2006-07-19 04:00PDT (07:00EDT) (11:00GMT)
Carolyn Lochhead _San Francisco Chronicle_
House immigration he