Category: Politics

What has happened to this country…

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Letter on Health Care Reform

There is fixin’ to be a big brouhaha in Congress about Health Care reform.

Below is a letter (email actually) that I have sent to both my Senators and my representative.  You may not agree with some or all of my comments, but you need to make your voice heard on this.  We do not need to let the profit driven corporations dictate our level of health care or even if we have health care any longer.

Find your Senator’s email address here

Find your Representative’s email address here

Dear Senator/Representative: 

There is going to a concerted effort by the Obama administration to Continue reading “Letter on Health Care Reform”

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Education, Education, Education

A quote from a Washington Post article:

Second, welcome foreign innovators. Harvard research fellow Vivek Wadhwa reports that immigrants have founded more than half of all Silicon Valley start-ups in the past decade. These immigrant-led, American tech companies employed more than 450,000 workers and grossed $52 billion in 2005. For U.S. companies to employ a highly specialized foreign worker, the employee must hold an H-1B visa, but current law allows for the issuing of only 65,000 H-1B visas per year.

The H-1B cap was established to prevent foreigners from taking American jobs, but, in fact, an education gap frequently leaves American candidates less qualified for these positions. Lawmakers could improve the situation all around by removing the cap on H-1B visas while imposing a 10 percent payroll tax above and beyond the benchmark salary for any position being filled by holders of such visas. The proceeds of the payroll tax could be channeled into U.S. reeducation programs. This compromise would bring the best innovators to work here while subsidizing the continued education of American talent.

Click here for full article

First Mr. Wadhwa or is it Ms. Wadhwa scares us by saying that there will be no new innovation in the USA without immigrants, specifically H-1B workers. Continue reading “Education, Education, Education”

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Four Indian Firms Hogged 10,000 H1B Visas

Original article at IndianExpress.com is no longer on Da ‘Net

I am not wild about the H-1B program, but if it were about individual Indians I would be a fan.  Admittedly it is a selected subset that I meet here, but they are generally intelligent, hard working, friendly folks.  If I have a complaint about them it is that they tend to be too compliant to the korporate overlords.  That and they undercut wages tremedously. This just adds to decreasing concern American korporations have for their employees.

However the program is about korporate greed here and in India.   It is about American korporations not investing in American workers or the American education system.  I read an article a while back about how American korporations were shifting their education dollars from American universities to those in China and India.  They did this because they felt they were getting more bang for their buck.

I do not know for a fact  how these firms that are hogging the H-1B visas treat their folks.  I do know that Indian work conditions, even for professionals, are Dickinsonian compared to American standards.

This whole paradigm of profit at any cost has got to stop.

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Obama gives me hope

I just watched Mr. Obama’s speech to Congress.  What a refreshing change to have a leader lead, to have a leader concerned about the run of mill citizen, to have a leader paint a picture of a shared future.

Obama gives me hope.

The 4 things that concern me most are health care, the deficit, energy, and education, seem to the the things that concern this president most.

Obama gives me hope.

It is time we  forgot short term gains, and made long range plans.  It is time we quit ignoring the problems.  It is time we started attacking the problems.

Obama gives me hope.

I believe that our government should govern scientifically.  We do this by identifying the problem. Gather whatever information, experts, etc we need to come up with a solution, implement that solution, and most importantly put it on a feedback loop.  If the solution does not work, then we go back to step 2, but we keep working on it.  And we do this until the problem is solved.  I believe this President will do that.

Obama gives me hope.

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Paradise Now

paradise-nowI had read or heard about this Arabic language movie, and I was very interested so I bought a copy.  Just as an aside, I told a coworker and friend that I had purchased the film.  He is Egyptian and the movie had a special interest for him.  We made a night of it, his wife and mother prepared a traditional Egyptian dinner and we watched the movie with his wife and his parents.  He sent the kids to their rooms, although now I do not believe that to have been necessary.

It is a story about two friends in Palestine that decide to become suicide bombers.  Continue reading “Paradise Now”

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Political anti-Darwinism???

It’s the birthday (February 16th) of historian and philosopher Henry Adams, (books by this author) born in Boston, Massachusetts (1838). His grandfather was John Quincy Adams, and his great-grandfather was John Adams. He hated public speaking, he had no interest in becoming a politician himself, but he did like writing about politics – mostly about how pathetic he thought American politics had become. He said, “The progress of evolution from President Washington to President Grant was alone evidence to upset Darwin.”

From Garrison’s Keillor’s “Writer’s Almanac”

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Ill wind blows in Information Technology

I sent the following letter to every presidential candidate at the beginning of the campaign…when there were about 100 of them.  I also sent it to each of my Senators and my Congressman.

Two of the campaigns sent me a letter solicting funds.  My Democratic Senator responded with a form letter letter.  My Republican Senator and Democratic Congressman ignored the letters. 

With the letter I attached an article from a prominent magazine.  I’m trying to find it on the Internet now.  The hardcopy I have is packed away.  The article detailed how H-1B was not in the best interest of the American worker.

In interest of full disclosure, Continue reading “Ill wind blows in Information Technology”

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Press 1 for English – a little progress

If you read my early post “Press 1 for English, NO Thanks” you might remember my frustration at calling to activate my credit card and being forced to select 1 for English or 2 for Spanish.  I did neither and called the Customer Service number to get my card activated.  While I had them on the phone I gave them an earful about the activation line not defaulting to English after a set period of time.

Well the card expired and they sent me a new one.  Again I had to have the card activated.  I was prepared to go through the whole scenario once more.    When the automated process picked up it told me to “Press 1 for English or Prensa dos a continuar en espanol.”    I did neither again, but much to my delight after a short pause the automated process continued in ENGLISH.

I do not know if my complaint was the impetus, or maybe several complaints, but I do know it is changed.

Sometimes the little man does win a small victory.