Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Does Silicon Valley Need More Visas for Foreigners?
Bill Gates Can't Get Enough Burnt Fries: McKennedy Bill is a Bust
**(reposted from March 8, 2007 by popular demand) and submitted by QUINCY
Bill Gates went through the motions today before the Senate, "asking" for an unlimited number of H1B visas in Washington DC today in a closed door session. Ted Kennedy, chair of the committee, apparently wasn't interested in hearing from anyone else so nobody else was invited besides Gates and his senatorial groupies. Sen. Orrin Hatch wasted no time getting on his knees
when addressing Gates:
"You've done so much with your wealth that is so good for mankind that I don't think anyone should fail to recognize that," Hatch said, adding: "I usually don't lavish praise on anyone, but I think you deserve it."
Gates suggested that there should be an "infinite" number of H-1B visas. As the last commentary included in this newsletter points out, while Bill Gates does everything possible to crush Microsoft's competition he thinks American workers should be forced to "compete" with cheap labor from abroad. When asked by Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) how many visas Congress should approve, Gates repeated a suggestion he made years ago: that there should be an "infinite" number. "Even though it might not be realistic," he said, "I don't think there should be any limit." Sen. Gregg wasn't willing to grant Gates a blank check, but what he put on the table must have brought joy to every greedy fiber in Bill Gates' body. Senator Judd Gregg, a New Hampshire Republican, said he agreed that Congress needed to raise the H-1B cap. He asked if an annual cap of 300,000 would be appropriate. "It'd be a fantastic improvement," Gates said. "My basic view is we should welcome as many of 'these people' as we can get."
Some Senators visibly wanted to avoid blaming H-1B for job losses.
Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, and Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, blamed outsourcing for the loss of jobs. They didn't even mention H-1B role in the job destruction! How convenient! Pay close attention to the way Brown dodges the issue: "Time and time again, local businesses told me that they just could not find the engineers or the computer scientists they needed to run their businesses," he said. "At the same time, skilled workers in my state are watching their jobs move overseas, not because foreign workers are more qualified, but because U.S. companies can get away with paying poverty wages to workers in other countries."
Say "NO" to the Mc Cain-Kennedy immigration bill.
-2Truthy
**2Truthy will return from vacation June 1.
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9012426Gates: U.S. risks losing technology leadership rolehttp://news.zdnet.com/2100-11153_22-6165166.html?tag=sas.emailGates calls for 'infinite' H-1Bs, better schoolshttp://www.infoworld.com/article/07/03/07/HNgatesimmigrantvisas_1.htmlGates: Tech needs more immigrant visas
Why Congress Threw the Anti-War Left Under the Bus
Congress Votes to Outsource Presidency
Dennis Kucinich: "Privatizing Iraq's Oil is Theft!"
Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich: "Privatizing Iraq's Oil is Theft!"
**Submitted to LOSING THE WAR ON HUMOR by Victor L. Giancarlo, Los Angeles, CA
Dennis Kucinich explains in the 7 minute video (click link below)
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17769.htm
how the proposed bill, now pending before the U.S. Congress, via its benchmarks, will provide for the privatization of Iraqi oil. This bill requires the regime in Iraq to pass a law called, "The Hydrocarbon Act." (For more information about the bill, see below.)
As Kucinich explains, if they refuse to do so, over a billion dollars in reconstruction funds will be blocked by the Bush-Cheney administration. This measure, which he characterized as "blackmail," would permit multinational oil corporations---many based in the U.S.--to exercise control over the Iraqi oil. The Democratic leadership in the Congress is giving its explicit support to this legislative device. Unless the scheme is stopped, Rep. Kucinich predicted, we will be looking at an Iraqi War "going on forever!"
Below is more information about the bill:
The Proposed Petrochemical Bill
When the "Draft Hydrocarbon Law" was finally delivered to the Iraqi Parliament on February 18, 2007, key provisions had already been leaked and immediately denounced by the full spectrum of the Iraqi opposition. Taking turns registering dismay were the majority of the Parliament, a wide range of government officials, the leadership of major Sunni political parties, the union of oil workers, the Sadrists -- the most powerful Shia grouping -- and the visible leadership of the insurgency. All this led to many changes in the law, including the removal of all mention of either privatization or Production Sharing Contracts, which would have given multinational oil companies 15-25 years of basically unregulated operational control over Iraqi oil facilities. The amended version in no way excluded the use of PSAs, but it removed the explosive designation from the actual wording of the law. It is worth reviewing the logic of PSAs to understand why the U.S. was so determined to make them a part of the law, and why many Iraqis were soferociously opposed. Production sharing agreements are generally applied in circumstances where there is a strong possibility that oil exploration will be extremely costly or even fail, and/or where extraction is likely to prove prohibitively expensive. To offset huge and risky investments, the contracting company is guaranteed a proportion of the profits, if and when oil is extracted and sold. In the most common of these agreements, the proportion remains very high until all development costs are amortized, allowing the investing company to recoup its investment expenditures (if oil is found), and then to be rewarded with a larger-than-normal profit margin for the remainder of the contract which, in the Iraqi case, could extend for up to 25 years.
THE ENTIRE ARTICLE : http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=192709
**2Truthy will return from vacation June 1.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
David Sirota Speaks Truth to Power: Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying
Elitist Democrats Want to Bury Our Middle Class
“Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying.” –Morgan Freeman in Shawshank Redemption, 1994
While the Democrats look more and more like Republicans every day as they allow bipartisan, elitist, Big Money People to destroy their own party, will this Party finally bury itself by backing the wrong horse in 2008? All Democrats have to do (left, right and center) is open their eyes to the elitist agendas and decide: do they want to dig their own grave with a candidate who is committed to burying the middle class? If you want answers to who’s selling out to who in the Party while, most recently, the immigration debate rages on, one need look no further than to David Sirota’s excellent blog http://davidsirota.com for answers.
While certain driven radio talk show hosts and otherwise admirable blogging divas who shall remain unnamed work fervently to interview and promote the corporate welfare, tech-lobby-supporting, former vice president Al Gore with almost cult like zeal is his undeclared presidential bid, Democratic journalists with integrity and conviction like David Sirota are cutting through the elitist wannabe bullshit and speaking truth to power.
In a speech he gave last week in Montana to the AFL/CIO entitled “Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying”, he speaks of the corporate lobbying that “has become a multibillion-dollar industry” and goes on to explain to us that “at a time of war and deficit, we have upcoming federal tax cuts that will hand roughly a half-trillion dollars to the wealthiest 1 percent--tax cuts for millionaires are larger than the annual income of the average American household.”
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070604/sirota
Sirota describes the inspiration for the title came while he was watching the movie The Shawshank Redemption: “Knee-deep in economic data and stories about the recent legislative session, I heard Morgan Freeman's distinct baritone voice utter that haunting phrase: "Get busy living, or get busy dying."
Along with his impeccable and thorough research and investigative reporting, what is most impressive about Mr. Sirota is his intelligent, unassuming, humble and laser sharp wit with which he provides the facts and takes no prisoners. He reminds me of those unpopular kids in high school who I identified with…although they looked ‘normal’ and otherwise acted ‘cool’, they would steadfastly refuse to go along with the crowd even at the point of ridicule.
That’s what I call integrity. If only a mass epidemic of integrity would replace this massive onslaught of hubris from popular bloggers and elitist wannabes that has infected the Left, imagine how large the Democratic Party could start living!
“Get Busy Living, or Get Busy Dying.” –David Sirota, 2007
-2Truthy
Friday, May 18, 2007
China To America: Eat That Shit Or We Shoot This Dog
“Please, pleaaaaasssse, shove some more melamine tainted pet food and people food up our big, fat, super sized YING YANGS and we’ll forget all about the beef you have with our mad-cow beef, just keep buying our iPods and TRY not to pirate the intellectual property!! Yes, yes, YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do it AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Tired of China laughing at us with our “insatiable” addiction to poisonous and tainted food and medicines from their country including “dried apples preserved with a cancer-causing chemical. Frozen catfish laden with banned antibiotics. Scallops and sardines coated with putrefying bacteria. Mushrooms laced with illegal pesticides” yet?
Good news and bad news: Noting that we humans in this country are nothing but a bunch of beastly whiners when it comes to our consumer protections, but nothing like a few pets keeling over to get the attention of the media and this excellent weekend WAPO article by Rick Weiss says it all
http://www.truthaboutchina.com/archives/2007/05/why_us_doesnt_s.html
According to the article, the United States finds itself "kowtowing to China," Cassidy said, even as that country keeps sending American consumers adulterated and mislabeled foods.
“It's not just about cheap imports,” added Carol Tucker Foreman, a former assistant secretary of agriculture now at the Consumer Federation of America.
"Our farmers and food processors have drooled for years to be able to sell their food to that massive market," Foreman said. "The Chinese counterfeit. They have a serious piracy
It is time for the People of this country to stop pretending that our government is working for us and change our M.O.
-2Truthy
Liars and Spinners and Big Money People
Senate Negotiators Announce Immigration Deal
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Maria Shriver Does the Google AND Goes on Oprah
Maria Shriver Does the Google AND Goes on Oprah
“You can never be too rich or too thin.” –Nan Kempner
This is so sweet. Just when Arnold Schwarzenegger (wearing Governor’s hat) plans to kill prison inmates on death row in a kinder, gentler manner
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_5907053
his wife, Maria Shriver, (who makes more claims to JFK than his humble daughter Caroline) made an appearance yesterday to Google. Who ever said business, “popping out” kids and politics don’t mix? Read
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_5907126
What IS the job description, anyway, of the First Lady? By the looks of things, it is to fly via private jet to Google HQ in Mountain View.
Here is something exciting…Are you a multi-talented and wealthy, high profile mom? Even if you’re not, our 21st century MSM will have you believing it, as you too can participate (however passively) in a special Mother’s Day interview with California’s First Lady, Maria Shriver and Demi Moore on Oprah! Pull up a chair, pretend you're there and click below:
http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200705/tows_past_20070511.jhtml
Now watch real multimillionaire Hollywood moms stare into the camera and prove to us their invincibility while Maria Shriver interviews Demi Moore, who reveals in an electrifying moment that she never wanted to be like her mother! Indeed, you can never be too rich or too thin.
-2Truthy
A Sad State of Affairs: War on the Middle Class
Friday, May 11, 2007
Bush Administration Goes After SiCKO
Very interesting...right before Moore is ready to debut his new movie "SiCKO" about the disastrous state of our nation's healthcare in Cannes, the Bush adminstration decides to hassle him. (click on Daily Kos link below for full story) Here is a letter he wrote today in response.
May 11, 2007
Secretary Paulson,
I am contacting you in light of the document sent to me dated May 2, 2007, which was received May 7, 2007 indicating that an investigation has been opened up with regards to a trip I took to Cuba with a group of Americans that included some 9/11 heroes in March 2007 related to the filming of my next documentary, on the American Healthcare system. SiCKO, which will be seen in theaters this summer, will expose the health care industry’s greed and control over America’s political processes.
I believe that the decision to conduct this investigation represents the latest example of the Bush Administration abusing the federal government for raw, crass, political purposes. Over the last seven years of the Bush Presidency, we have seen the abuse of government to promote a political agenda designed to benefit the conservative base of the Republican Party, special interests and major financial contributors. From holding secret meetings for the energy industry to re-writing science findings to cooking the books on intelligence to the firing of U.S. Attorneys, this Administration has shown time and time again that it will abuse its power and authority.
There are a number of specific facts that have led me to conclude that politics could very well be driving this Bush Administration investigation of me and my film.
First, the Bush Administration has been aware of this matter for months (since October 2006) and never took any action until less than two weeks before SiCKO is set to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and a little more than a month before it is scheduled to open in the United States.
Second, the health care and insurance industry, which is exposed in the movie and has expressed concerns about the impact of the movie on their industries, is a major corporate underwriter of President George W. Bush and the Republican Party, having contributed over $13 million to the Bush presidential campaign in 2004 and more than $180 million to Republican candidates over the last two campaign cycles. It is well documented that the industry is very concerned about the impact of SiCKO. They have threatened their employees if they talk to me. They have set up special internal crises lines should I show up at their headquarters. Employees have been warned about the consequences of participating in SiCKO. Despite this, some employees, at great risk to themselves, have gone on camera to tell the American people the truth about the health care industry. I can understand why that industry's main recipient of its contributions -- President Bush -- would want to harass, intimidate and potentially prevent this film from having its widest possible audience.
And, third, this investigation is being opened in the wake of misleading attacks on the purpose of the Cuba trip from a possible leading Republican candidate for president, Fred Thompson, a major conservative newspaper, The New York Post, and various right wing blogs.
For five and a half years, the Bush administration has ignored and neglected the heroes of the 9/11 community. These heroic first responders have been left to fend for themselves, without coverage and without care. I understand why the Bush administration is coming after me -- I have tried to help the very people they refuse to help, but until George W. Bush outlaws helping your fellow man, I have broken no laws and I have nothing to hide.
I demand that the Bush Administration immediately end this investigation and spend its time and resources trying to support some of the real heroes of 9/11.
Sincerely,
Michael Moore
--Unfortunately, I won't be able to stick around to answer questions this time (SiCKO premieres at Cannes next Saturday and my schedule is crazy) but I want to be sure you know where I stand. I hope you will stand with me. Thank you for your support and I promise to return again soon for a more involved chat. MM
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/5/11/93540/9491
Thursday, May 10, 2007
The Prince of Perfume: Quincy Rates The Former Purple One's New Scent "3121"
The 411 On Prince’s New Perfume “3121”
Hello Everybody, It’s me, QUINCY.
PRINCE THE PERFUMER? That’s right. If the former Purple One otherwise known as PRINCE can become a Jehovah’s Witness, then I suppose that ANYTHING is possible. And guess what? It is, because Prince the Performer is now Prince the Perfumer so I am going to buy some just as soon as it comes out on July 7th because that will complete my new IMAGE that was inspired by Rudy Giuliani (see above photo).
http://www.3121perfume.com/
What do you think of the pearls? Anyway, have you ever noticed how much Rudy is just like Prince? They are really a lot alike. Prince is basically a very versatile entertainer, just like Rudy, when he changes his mind about looking and dressing like a lady and gets in big trouble over oxycontin and blow and things
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/05/oxycontin_the_g.html
and most of all, like everybody else, they both want to smell good after they get sweaty after a long night of interviews and performances.
Buy the perfume, everybody!
QUINCY
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Eliot Spitzer Hearts Hillary: Gangs of New York
Senate Blocks Affordable Prescription Drugs
When people want to express total pointlessness, they sometimes say a thing is as silly as "arguing over how many angels could dance on the head of a pin." It is pointless to argue over the motivation of a group of Senators who will resort to new lows by using the recent food and drug scandals to yet again screw millions of American out of affordable prescription drugs
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/08/washington/08drug.html
Big Pharma win. $$$$$$$$$$ As rising healthcare costs soar and the price of prescription drugs become prohibitive for most Americans, the Senate voted Monday to prevent the importation of affordable prescription drugs from Canada and other countries, citing a fear of “risk to consumers”, despite the fact that the FDA is cutting costs and corners while tainted foods and medicines continue to harm and kill consumers as they enter our food and drug supply chains. Health officials in both the Bush and Clinton administrations have repeatedly blocked such efforts to make drugs affordable, saying they cannot guarantee the safety of such drugs. Senators Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota, and Olympia J. Snowe, Republican of Maine, were the chief sponsors of the original proposal, which would allow imports with the goal to reduce consumer costs and increase trade, which, if executed properly, would be a win-win scenario.
Here’s an idea: Why not overhaul the FDA to include stringent safety measures and consumer accountability and regulate the pharmaceutical industry to REDUCE outrageously over inflated costs of prescriptions drugs?
Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, was a pivotal figure in negating Dorgan’s proposal to allow affordable, imported prescription drugs. Although he is the chief author of the bill overhauling the FDA, he encouraged others as well in the Senate to also vote “no” and stated that “he feared that it would sink the overall bill granting new powers to the food and drug agency.” ‘New Powers’? What would those be? If the Senate is so concerned about the health and safety of the consumer, let it prove itself by passing legislation that supports the consumer with an accountable FDA and affordable drug pricing. In the past, Mr. Kennedy has voted to allow drug imports, recognizing consumer’s inability to pay for the over priced drugs and he is a co-sponsor of a bill to do just that.
Consumer champion and smart trade? While Dorgan’s proposal would have allowed consumers, pharmacists, drug wholesalers and distributors to import prescription drugs from Canada, Japan, Australia and European countries found to have regulatory requirements comparable to those in the United States, the consumer once again has been delivered a blow by the bipartisan party of Big Money as demonstrated with this Big Pharma win.
-2Truthy
Sunday, May 6, 2007
'Cocaine' Drink Yanked From Shelves
Toxic Medicine in Panama Traced to China
How do We the People wean ourselves from our sleep-induced addiction to corrupt government and legions of greedy corporate executives who sell us out under the banner of “Free-Trade” and “Globalization”?
A sack of poisoned pet food here, a sprinkling of toxic medicine there and voila! Recipe for eradication of ehm, “free-trade super-power undesirables” without even pulling a trigger. As a Beijing business sold counterfeit chemical that killed dozens of people in Panana
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18518915/
after it was used in medicine, Sunday’s NY Times reports that a Chinese factory was the source of a counterfeit chemical that killed dozens of people in Panama after it was used in human medications. The Times said investigators in four countries identified Taixing Glycerine Factory as the maker of the poison. Meanwhile, the FDA believes that the pet food melamine poisoning was intentional (watch video)
COUNTERFEIT chemical? WTF? Under what conditions, pray tell, would a Chinese company manufacture a chemical that would earn the honorable distinction of being “counterfeit”? Never mind. Too much thinking. Best to take it up with my local representatives…maybe at the next Town hall meeting? Oh wait – where is my Town hall? I’ve got it! Our captains of industry who have already built their own bunkers and employ their own taste testers, like Nero before each meal, can arrange a special food and medicine pass for We the People to purchase (at a premium of course, like the special Airport Security bypass the TSA hassle upgrade) that will guarantee an “extra level” of security to make us all feel safe, as we sleepily chant the mantra “profits over people.”
Consumer protections are now a luxury, the new diamond and rose gold Rolex in this War on the Middle Class.
-2Truthy
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Flights of Sycophancy and the Diseased Body Politic
"Emergency special session?" More shouts of "isolationism?" Sociopaths like McGraw are role models for the rest of the Entitlement Class here in Silicon Valley, Wall St. and the Beltway, where the tech lobby is all over Congress and Nancy Pelosi to sell out millions of our middle class professional jobs to the third world. Why the liberal Democratic support from the average person for Pelosi and Congress while non-Democrats like Lou Dobbs and - ready for this WTF--- Phyllis Schlafly have actually become the leading vocal proponents of populism?
David Sirota recently attended the International Economic Summit held in Butte, Montana last week where he describes the “sheen of hypocrisy” of a few corporate greedsters in action as it relates to the impending class warfare to come
http://www.montanaeconomicsummit07.org/
Just when you thought Big Money was Big Daddy, think again, because lawmakers and Big Business “have used special tribunals to force American taxpayers to hand over $1.8 billion."
During the summit, Sirota describes asking McGraw a question, which drew a rambling response that favored Big Money over the People Party. During McGraw's "incoherent" gurglings he muttered " "some people want to use trade policy as foreign policy" which is just more frat -boy sociopath-speak for “we can make it up as we go along and get the average taxpayers to keep funding our tidy scam.” This flim-flam, hack response is the uncertified surgeon's equivalent of not amputating and leaving the gangrene to 'save' the torso...an unacceptable response, leaving only a catastrophic outcome for the whole body.
While a number of Democratic sycophants of this smug, mutual admiration society are in support of these sociopaths in exchange for the implicit ‘promise’ of jobs and social affiliation for themselves, the vast majority of American taxpayers are lined up on gurneys in preop, waiting for surgery by hack corporate 'leaders' who have been allowed to practice "business" without the proper license for the last thirty years.
http://www.workingassetsblog.com/2007/04/making_the_chairman_of_the_bus.html
What are Democratic voters doing about it? Name a populist Democratic candidate who is taking on trade issues and corporate governance reform and John Edwards comes to mind. Like other anti-war Democrats, I too applaud Pelosi's stand against the Bush administration's disastrous Iraq war which by now, has been declared DOA by both parties. But the praise stops there. While liberal Democrats choose to ignore this critical issue of economic trade and corporate tax loopholes at home, Democrats are handing over the car keys to Republicans like Dobbs and Schlafly to drive the populist voice over to the Republican platform. Is that what the average liberal Democrat wants? Of course not. But in their emulation of and determination to seek affiliation with the Entitlement Class, the Democratic party won't have a pulse come election time in 2008 because the American People have forked it over for too long, only to be fu**ed over by a few corporate Entitlement Class Democrats and Republicans who are hell-bent on outsourcing/H1B millions of our middle class jobs to the third world by “leaders” who have no conscience.
Like all MSM rags and blogs penned by journalists and bloggers who reap economic gain and derive political connection such as the NY Times and Arianna's tired, however justifiable one-note anti-Bush recycled HuffPo column (hint: pick up the populist message), these MSM media journalists serve no one but themselves and their corporate welfare supporting friends. It’s high time we jumped off the gurney of this broken government system and demand corporate reform and accountability as class warfare calls for us to exhume the Social Contract between the People and our corrupt government.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/05/04/EDGTLOS9JV1.DTL
-2Truthy
Schwarzenegger loses: Hasta la vista, baby!
It’s me, Quincy.
The Republicans said today that they don’t want you to run for president because you weren’t born here and you must be saying “well, this is just not fair.”
But do want to know what my FAVORITE Terminator was Arnold? It was when director Jonathan Mostow made Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. That one was cool. 2Truthy even bought me the DVD and I watch it a lot.
Anyway, the Republicans probably don’t like your accent either, even though they probably pretend a whole lot like they do to your face but that’s why everybody says that
The Republican Party is the Party of Two Faces. Talk about two faces, but did Rudy get a facelift? He looks different now.
Hasta la Vista, baby,
QUINCY
Judge: Cleaner owes me $65 million for my pants
For the past two years, however, they've been dealing with the nightmare of litigation: a $65 million lawsuit over a pair of missing pants. But a patron of the cleaners, Washington Judge Roy Pearson, has turned a $10 dry cleaning bill for a pair of trousers into a $67 million civil lawsuit.
American Pets Getting as Fat as Their Owners
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Imus Seeks $40M for Being "Confrontational and Irreverent"
"Nonsense Poopypants!" Duke Study Confirms Tech Industry Sells Out Educated Americans for Cheap Labor
NPR Reveals Duke Study
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Joan Baez Banned from Walter Reed Hospital Performance
-Joan Baez Performed at Operation Ceasefire Concert in Washington D.C. 2005-
WASHINGTON- Folk singer and anti-war activist Joan Baez says she doesn't know why she was not allowed to perform last month for recovering soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as she planned. But according to John Mellencamp, whose management invited Baez to perform in March,
In a letter to The Washington Post published Wednesday, she said rocker John Mellencamp had asked her to perform with him last Friday and that she accepted his invitation.
Joan Baez She had been banned from performing as planned at Walter Reed Hospital, despite the fact that she has always been an advocate of nonviolence. How 'fitting.'
-2Truthy
http://www.mercurynews.com/celebrities/ci_5798530
Why There Was No Exit Plan