Category: Politics

What has happened to this country…

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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.

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Obama, The Messiah, I don’t think so

I’ve never voted for a Republican, and I am having a hard time getting excited about Obama.  The media is fueling some of that lack of excitement.  They love to show Obama with some sort of halo around his head.  I do not believe him to be the Messiah or a saint.

I also got so tired of the depiction of Hillary as a bumpkin from Arkansas.  She is not a bumpkin nor is she from Arkansas.  If they were not doing that, they were painting her as a shrewish old woman.

Obviously, he has managed to woo the media and Clinton has managed to alienate them.  Or maybe it is as Paul Krugman suggests, racism is declining, but not misogyny.

I really wonder if having news 24×7 on multiple medias is really doing us a service.   Especially when they use such broad strokes.

Number 5 has been used in a multitude of news stories.

And now Michelle…

 

And the broad strokes to paint the Clintons as hillbillies. Well I know hillbillies and they are not hillbillies…to paraphrase someone.

Click on cartoon to see larger image 

Credit: Pat Oliphant

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USOC to ship 25,000 pounds of food to China

Next time you go to a US supermarket and pick up a food package with a produced in China label give this some consideration.  This is from an article by Suzie Richards in The Retriever Weekly.

Recent reports have revealed that the United States Olympic Committee has been busy planning the team’s preparations for the summer games. The committee has announced that Team USA will not be eating the local Chinese food at this summers’ games, but instead 25,000 pounds of meat and other food will be shipped from America to the training camp at Beijing Normal University.

The decision comes in response to a food safety check carried out on Chinese foods. Dangerously high level of steroids were found in chickens and other food products. Continue reading “USOC to ship 25,000 pounds of food to China”