Obama's Afghanistan and US Middle Class War Strategery

(Very Special thanks to The Dark Wraith)

United States Neo-Frat Boy Government Gives Whores a BAD NAME

In today's Afghanistan, things are not all poppies and roses.

President Obama has decided to send over 35,000 more US troops to ostensibly “stabilize” their country, begging the question what needs stabilizing over there by the United States? In a perfect world, Afghanistan is the kind of place one could visit to enjoy the company of kind and decent locals, enjoy great food and centuries of strong tradition that is not exactly patterned after Disneyland. Far from it. Obama has declared open season on the people of Afghanistan and America's middle class by diverting US taxpayer dollars to kill Afghanis and US middle class citizens by not spending the money on single payer health care and restoring middle/upper middle class jobs to US citizens that were given to imported Indian workers.

Strategery, Bush 2.0. In his speech last night, Obama said “the only nation I am interested in building is our own.” Is someone's nose growing? If ONLY this were true, as his actions continue to betray his words on every single policy stance his Manchurian fingers (h/t Dave Lindorff) have touched in his award winning role of POTUS. From job outsourcing/in sourcing US jobs to India, disastrous health care “reform”, casino climate change cap and trade, and this latest Afghanistan foreign policy fiasco, it is important to recognize these four convergent points ALL hinge on selling out American middle class jobs and livelihoods to imported, cheap workers and shoring up an insiders playground of global elites determined to profit from ridding the US of any traces of a prospering and truly democratic middle class society through labor arbitrage.

Killing off national pride and sovereignty is the first place to start, and the corporate run US government is hellbent on spreading its hubris disease to the AfPak region in order to strengthen its US/Indian alliance with its “strategy” of integrating US military forces while it grows its corporate presence into their population “as long as they are needed on the ground.” Hmm, like indefinitely? Sounds like a grand recipe of taking US taxpayer funds to shore up US/India interests over there from guns to butter, if you want to ask me...and while the US economy is in the shitter, why not spend billions of dollars over there so we don't have to spend them over here to create new jobs and improve our own infrastructures? (h/t Tony Wikrent at Economic Populist.)

What I want to know is this: why is Obama so concerned about stabilizing someone else's country when he can not even stabilize his own? (Presuming of course, that he really IS a US citizen.) For the past twenty years, US citizens have watched their jobs and salaries disappear and erode as greedy politicians like Bill and Hillary Clinton figured out to a way to hack away at middle class jobs and create a delightful have and have-not neo-feudal frat boy society in this country by importing cheap workers from India under the lie that Americans are too uneducated to work and that there are not enough of them. Hey, go tell that to over one hundred million US citizens with degrees from the finest universities in the world – American -- who are now unemployed and underemployed because a few US corpo-political sociopaths have no regard for human life and local civility. With his latest let them eat cakism, hey, goes the thinking, why not just export this distinct US brand of ''hate thy neighbor' over to the AfPak region, too?

So why not turn Afghanistan into a serfy police state and get them to protect US corporate interests against a few of the local, uppity bad guys? I mean, how many American soldiers DOES it take to weed out a few bad guys and then go home? Maybe as many Secret Service guys it takes to weed out a couple of terrifying party crashers? India has looked to the US as a strategic partner to not only siphon American jobs but to shore up their own interests in the AfPak region against Muslim Pakistan. This is a country which could arguably be considered a virtual mecca of perpetual destabilization by the US in order to create more foment, wars and profits for a few sociopathic corporate and political elites.

This unseemly bond between the US and its so-called partner, India, has led to the destruction of the US economy as evinced by the H-1b visa/green card program designed to siphon US jobs from American citizens. (h/t Paul Craig Roberts.)

And now, not only are US government officials fond of employing a disproportionate mix of Indian cybersecurity “experts” to run everything from its IT infrastructure to agriculture with Obama's recent appointment of this USAID Czar (with ties to Google 'Monopoly Man' Al Gore), it is hardly a stretch to imagine Afghanistan becoming Big Ag's new bitch with this accelerated troop increase to protect profits for the few who will gain. And it won't be the ordinary Afghanis, the ones whom the US government insists will benefit from our deadly and hateful brand of “democracy” spreading.

Obama said the goal of sending 35,000 more troops into Afghanistan is based upon the need to help train their military on how to police certain elements of their society who would threaten “democracy” but the reality is that it has bug eyes on expanding the neo-frat boy corporate state over there whether they like it or not. Current TV (Al Gore's company) explains Big Ag's role in “the real war agenda” in Afghanistan:

“In this Briefing, we look at how the US's agricultural reconstruction work in Afghanistan and Iraq not only gives easy entry to US agribusiness and pushes neoliberal policies, something that has always been a primary function of US development assistance, but is also an intrinsic part of the US military campaign in these countries and the surrounding regions.

Seen together with the growing clout that the US and its corporate allies exercise over donor agencies and global bodies - such as the World Bank, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) centres, which influence the food and farm policies adopted by the recipient countries - this is an alarming development.
These are not unique cases born from unusual circumstances, but constitute a likely template for US activities overseas, as it continues to expand its "war on terror" and pursues US corporate interests.”

In the true spirit of giving, as we enter the most joyous of holiday seasons and celebrate Christmas, isn't it redeeming to know that someone is profiting wildly from the spread of Islamaphobia? (h/t Chris Floyd at Empire Burlesque.) With Obama's commitment to more killing and destruction in the name of “democracy” in Afghanistan, let us not forget that those billions of dollars spent on this Surge 2.0 in Afghanistan and their destruction diverts US funds from paying for universal health care and a real US jobs program to restore stolen American jobs that this US/India “strategic alliance” cooked up in order for a few elites to wildly profit from. This Sodahead article observes:

“In order to increase profits, companies outsourced American jobs to China, Korea, Taiwan, India, etc. This has cost many Americans their jobs, and by doing so they cannot buy the products the companies they used to work for produce, as well as insurance, cars and homes. All the company needed to do was ask for money and it was given, by a government they bought and paid for. They stayed rich as the middle class worker joined the ranks of the impoverished.”

If this is what Obama meant by his promise of transparency, isn't it a relief to know that he and his neo-frat boy sycophants are spending US taxpayer dollars killing people in other lands with guns and bombs over there while they oh-so-discreetly kill off educated US citizens here by denying universal health care coverage and jobs? Like many people here and around the globe, during this Christmas and holiday season, I'll be praying for the people of Afghanistan. And like the peace loving dove that I am, I know Obama's deadly Afghanistan troop surge is more smoke being blown up the pants of corporate crooks and war hawks to blur the truth about this war against America's middle class, dressed up in a burqa and smoking a hookah pipe.

  

Party on, plebs!

-2Truthy

Martha Stewart has Sarah Palin for Dinner

FROM THE DESK OF QUINCY

Happy Thanksgiving, Everybody!

Hello Everybody, it's me,

QUINCY.

I'm finally back now from my unexpectedly lengthy, undercover furlough investigating the culprits behind the Swine Flu pandemic, after becoming embroiled in the political controversy surrounding it. Many of the SWINE FLUERS insisted that I withhold my research for fear  that lady, Orly Taitz would start following me around and try to get me to sign a joint book deal entitled “UNNATURAL BORN PIGS AT THE TROUGH” to expose everybody in Russian and Chinese lab coats to the White House, where President Obama had to shell out $2M to get her off his back about where he was born.

The persistent questions Barack keeps receiving about the true whereabouts of his birth are really getting annoying to him. That would be like me going into my favorite chorizo place in Redwood City and asking the owner, server and dishwasher, Pepe, to show me his visa every time I went in there. And I go there a lot.

Anyway, this is the time of year when everybody gets a little nervous about who's inviting them to dinner, and for what.

What's so exciting this Thanksgiving is that the nation's favorite insider stock tip criminal and diva of delectable dishings, Martha Stewart, served up a skewered Sarah Palin on a silver platter of roasted foibles. When asked why people think Sarah Palin is so polarizing to people, Martha spared no cleavers:

“She's a dangerous person, she's very boring (when) she speaks, she's so confused...anyone in government like that is a REAL PROBLEM.”

Well, ok. Martha's right! The most dangerous thing about a politician is that when they're boring, nobody even wants to listen to them. Of the two of them, which one do you think has more Native American ancestry? It doesn't matter. Even if Martha IS Polish, she pulls off the whole “Mayflower Madame” thing a whole lot better than Sarah Palin, so that' s why I think she is so polar-bear-ized.

Martha ALSO said everybody should give back with services and money or with “guidance” and that's why I am writing her a letter to thank her for giving back to us with this delightful Palin dish on this Thanksgiving Day. I'm not sending her any money, since her well-greased stock tip turkey baster is going to be filled to the brim once this cap and trade bill gets passed.

Today, I am also pondering the parable of the wolf and the hawk, which is very important to me since I just found out that I am one forty second Cherokee! This really has me hoping that I will resolve my issues over whether or not it is ethically suitable to eat vegetables that have been cooked in clay pots next to the other white meat.

Well, make sure to celebrate your Native American roots, even if you don't have any because that's what this day is supposed to be all about and for giving thanks for being able eat as much as you can without being hauled off to the hospital in an ambulance for porking up like that guy in LIFE OF BRIAN.

Happy Thanksgiving!

QUINCY

Shell Pushes for "Unfettered" Cap and Trade

Cap & Trade or Carbon Tax?

Silicon Valley – It's the Derivatives Beast, Stupid! Get over yourselves and embrace the politics of eco-guilt and its elitist fraternal twin, cap and trade.

Climateer Investing reports that Shell Oil is pushing for an “unfettered” carbon trading market, along with BP Plc. Both support cap-and-trade, while Exxon Mobile Corp. prefers a more environmentally and consumer friendly carbon tax scheme. LWOH readers will recall that even the world's flattest and not-so-hottest NYT opinionator trashed cap-and-trade BEFORE he was for it. As yours truly has suggested, when former billionaire Tom Friedman is following the money, it's time to take a closer look at who's behind the next bubble. After all, if the U.S. can't keep its intellectual property safe from the Chinese or make stuff here anymore, what do Americans do for jobs? Time to tap George Soros and trot out the Goldman Sachs investment bankers. So...

Bend Over, Here it Comes Again! This from Climateer:

“Remember, just as economists using the tools of science (mathematics) doesn't make economics a science, artificial constructs like cap-and-trade using the tools of markets doesn't make the racket "market based".”

For more LWOH cap-and-trade market analysis, there are also voluntary cap-and-trade programs such as the one operated by the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), whose inbred and humble roots began with the current POTUS along with an all-too familiar, all-star caste.

As yours truly has also noted here, even Al Gore expressed the downside of cap and trade, preferring the more sensible carbon-based tax system which would create direct incentives to develop and use less carbon-intensive fuels and more energy-efficient technologies. Avast, me hearties! The Derivatives Beast waits for no one.

In other exciting news, Al Gore's Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers VC funded 25 or so person start-up Hara Software, which came out of stealth mode a few months ago, has been described as a “hot commodity.” Their product is meant to track the carbon footprints of large corporations and to identify or police “a business' entire environmental impact from laptop to long-haul truck.” Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers invested $6 million in venture capital with recent follow on investments from JAFCO Ventures and Nth Power. Fast Company explains Hara's noble rot or “low-hanging fruit” identification scheme:

“Hara CEO Amit Chatterjee says the software, "is focused on understanding organizational metabolism, the input and output of natural resources and energy."  Hara--"Fresh green" in Sanskrit--tracks use of electricity, water, chemicals, and gas, and compares it to outputs of waste water, greenhouse gas, and solid waste. The software identifies the "low-hanging fruit", or the simplest ways to cut energy use and waste, along with longer-term goals.”

Hara has also managed to attract Rupert Murdoch to help his media company, News Corp clean up their emissions, or whatever it is that they drag around in their canvas bags for lunch. News Corp go carbon neutral by 2010. It's one thing to ask the local steel mill to go all carbon neutral, but an office full of self-satisfied, upwardly-urban, literate neophytes? Aren't these people already heeding the climate change memo by wearing more sweaters in the winter, turning the lights off, recycling  their empty ale bottles and cooling it on the A/C during hot summer days like the rest of the world's eco-serfs?

News Corp’s manager of Energy Initiatives, Vijay Sudan, said in the company's report that News Corp had looked “at numerous solutions” and chose Hara “due to the intuitive nature as well as the breadth and depth of the Hara solution.” Given the sheer size of News Corp, Hara has bagged a very large win for such a small, newbie firm. Back in 2007 Murdoch described the impact of News Corp going carbon neutral as similar to “turning off the electricity in the city of London for five full days.”

There we have it. In a million, climate change wracked years, London would not ever stand for the electricity being turned off for a five full days. And with Hara's low-hanging fruit detection technology, let's hope that Murdoch's noble soldiers on the front lines will not end up losing the war on climate change, and that a good time will be had by all. After that, at least a few investors will collect their checks and go back to their country houses or Westminster flats.

Elaine Meinel Supkis at Culture of Life News offers signs of intelligent life in the blogosphere on the subject of cap and trade, as she reports how hackers released private global warming emails:

“The obvious hysteria of the people pushing us into the fatal carbon trading market scheme has alerted many people who already are not prone to trust bankers, into digging in heels over global warming.  And thus, we are set on the path to another mega-confrontation that will not be based on science by EITHER side of the issue but will be mostly emotional.”

About those emails, while one can reasonably conclude that although the science of global warming is real, a current cooling trend is here. One of the emails indicated that one scientist had to hide and bury the current cooling trend in the data INSTEAD of explaining or clarifying it with regards to “global warming.” Supkis correctly points out that the emails do not disprove global warming, but rather show that “scientists can be stupid or difficult like other people.” She truly understands the science behind global warming and the political and economic motivations prompting the urgency going into Copenhagen:

“Global warming was NOT embraced by the ruling elites until it was connected to the Derivatives Beast. Then and only then, did it take off like a rocket. Only, the sun didn’t cooperate, did it?”

-2Truthy

2Truthy's Happy Friday Birthday Hour with Sean Young: THE BOOST

Happy Birthday Sean Young & The Gay
Swami

November 20 -- If this isn't my favorite movie evah, it's right up there...

Let's enjoy this old, timeless classic as we celebrate Jimmy Woods & Sean Young in The Boost. These two are the Spencer & Tracy of blow movies, bar none,  and make Michelle Pfeiffer & Al Pacino look like Chip n' Dale.

Happy Friday, Loserettes!

-2Truthy

Blankfein & Buffett Establish $500 Million Small Business Charity

(Click on Photo to Enlarge)

New York -- "Oracle of Omaha" Warren Buffett has announced that he is "teaming" with  Goldman Sachs to provide assistance to 10,000 small businesses in the U.S. through a $500 million charitable effort:

"The newly created “10,000 Small Businesses Initiative” will be guided by an advisory council co-chaired by Blankfein, Buffett and Harvard Business School’s Michael Porter. The council will include George Boggs, president and CEO of the American Association of Community Colleges, and Dan Danner, president and CEO of the National Federation of Independent Business.

The program will contribute $200 million to local community colleges, universities and other institutions to provide small- business owners with practical business education. Goldman Sachs will invest $300 million through a combination of lending and philanthropic support to community development financial institutions."

The article states that the initiative "aims to provide assistance -- ranging from counseling to obtaining funding -- to 10,000 businesses." Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is the largest shareholder in New York-based Goldman Sachs. Counseling and obtaining funding? For $500 million, that's got to be some  kind of gold-plated counseling for those unnamed 10,000 small businesses along with access to obtaining funding...

Good to know that Buffett and Lord Blankfein feel the need to "do the right thing" by helping all of those charitable and philanthropic GS venture-backed portfolio companies (small businesses) to potentially get their newly minted guest worker/student visa holders up to speed by packing them off to community colleges. No mention was made as to whether or not unemployed/underemployed American engineers will be eligible for participation.

-2Truthy

Everybody Knows

(Very Special Thanks to the Amazing Leonard Cohen)

Silicon Valley -- Everybody knows. Wander around the halls of this valley's once great corporations and VC funded, neo-frat boy start-ups and you will find all you need to know about the causes for rising rates of American unemployment and underemployment. Whether it's Sun or Adobe, these "best and brightest" bean-counter powered executives have sold out the livelihoods of US engineers along with product/service quality for a quick cash-out to India under the ruse of a US skilled great labor shortage. And yet, US cheap labor junkies are STILL heading for the Hill to buy off another round of politicians to supply them with their fix while Obama  plans a summit on job creation next month.

LWOH readers know that  yours truly has written extensively on the wholesale sell-out of US white collar jobs and has provided the solutions with which to correct the problem of rising unemployment/underemployment by reforming CEO cheap labor lobby practices. It's not rocket science. Sometimes, my dear, a banana is just a banana...

In this excellent 2007 article by Alison Overholt at Fast Company entitled The Labor Shortage Myth, the author debunked the thesis that "When boomers start to retire, the theory goes, we'll see a job boom" by asserting "Too bad it won't happen." Overholt suggests that CEOs have manufactured the myth of a US labor shortage where none will exist, and cites this Wharton study by Peter Capelli, as yours truly has previously discussed:

"The labor-shortage alarmists underestimate the capability of younger generations. Peter Cappelli, another Wharton professor and director of the school's Center for Human Resources, notes that even though boomers outnumber busters overall, "the cohort of college grads didn't shrink. We've just pulled more kids up into the system," he says. Some 930,000 bachelor's degrees a year were conferred at the height of the boomers' run through college -- while the smallest graduating class for busters produced 1.16 million grads. Now college-educated members of the "Echo Boom," a group close in size to the boomers themselves, are starting to enter the workforce. No evidence there of a shrinking skilled labor pool."

In addition to Capelli's thorough research, he has been one of the most consistent yet dismissed scholars on the war on America's educated middle class. Overtholt references the following quote:

"But the coming labor shortage? The job boom? They're myths, kept alive mostly because they allow employers easy solutions. "A lot of companies got whacked around in the 1990s when the economy heated up and the labor market tightened. They learned it's easier to lobby for more Indian engineers on H-1B visas than to address their own retention policies and training programs," Cappelli says."

(Note that "easy" solutions = "cheap imported labor.") Fast forward to post ARRA 2009, and the promised jobs stats don't shake out, either.

Everybody knows. Millions of educated Americans are now unemployed and underemployed due to the flood of imported cheap workers that do not need to be here. We have been played by cheap labor junkies and it's time to throw them out. The H-1B temporary work visa program has kept workers in the US when they should have been sent back years ago. Now, Compete America, the cheap labor lobby (see above link)  wants MORE of them? What is the matter with the people of this country? This is nuts.

Overholt's article inspired the visionary scenario into what CEOs across the country might do to bring back the millions of professionals they kicked to the curb by sending back the millions of temporary visa holders whom our unemployment statistics prove corporate America no longer needs. She queries the "pro-worker" reality that educated boomers (and their kids) need those jobs back here:

"With retiring age being pushed off and Social Security at risk, will labor conditions turn pro-worker at any point in the future?"

How to heal this problem? Like the crack whore it is, Corporate America and their lusty political enablers are addicted to imported cheap labor like a sex rehabilitation client is to a daily quickie with the Swedish therapist. Sending millions of temporary work visa holders home so that our citizens can get back to work may not be a sexy topic,  but it can no longer be ignored or swept under the carpet as "politically incorrect." As yours truly reported here, in 2007 Bill Greider also predicted that the US would have to  ostensibly stop the great American jobs giveaway:

"At the moment, there's a great yawn about all this, but one day when everything collapses, people will ask: Why didn't we do anything about this?"

Indeed, Overholt got it right about corporate America's dependencies on "demographic crutches":

"The real solution, of course, is more difficult. It requires companies to invest in the right technologies and in their own employees in order to stay ever more productive. It's not as sexy as a demographic crutch. It just happens to be the right answer."

So let's help Obama with his jobs summit next month by demanding that the cheap labor junkies detox from their fixes of imported labor by sending them back and getting educated Americans back to work again. This H-1B/green card  visa scam has been propped up by the lie of an American skilled labor shortage myth. Now we are in a depression, and US citizens  need jobs. This is no longer a secret.

Everybody knows.

 

-2Truthy

Obama Names USAID Czar

 More Eyes on India

For Immediate Release

Washington -- Obama has today named a 36-year-old doctor, Rajiv Shah to head the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), filling what lawmakers and aid experts had called a "glaring vacancy" on a key foreign-policy front. His impressive seniority and in-depth track record is noteworthy, suggesting deep, deep reaches into even deeper pockets. Not only has he served as undersecretary of agriculture since June, but he previously worked for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest private charity headed by Bill "Give Me Infinite H-1Bs" Gates.

The highly seasoned professional even has ties to Al Gore, Obama's very special sponsor:

"Shah, whose family emigrated from India, holds an MD and a master's in health economics and gained political experience advising Al Gore's presidential campaign on health-care policy. He was deeply involved with international vaccine efforts at the Gates Foundation and led Agriculture Department efforts on the Obama administration's food security initiative, part of a global campaign to help small farmers get more food to the hungry."

But wait...there's more! Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is said to be deeply interested in this development, "wanting to link it more to diplomacy." This worries some aid groups, which fear that projects with little short-term political payoff may be short-changed.

Obama is pledging to double foreign assistance to $50 billion a year and make non-domestic economic development a pillar of his strategy in Afghanistan and to "push for a $20 billion program in conjunction with other countries to fight hunger."

-2Truthy

2Truthy's Happy Friday Hour with Sesame Street & Loretta Lynn: The Coal Miner's Lamp

(Click on photo to enlarge)

Very Special Thanks to Sesame Street and the Amazing Loretta Lynn

In celebration of our friends over at Sesame Street who have dispensed laughter, joy and communism to us and our precious cargo for forty years, we were going to feature Loretta Lynn's timeless “Coal Miner's Daughter” but decided “Don't Come Home a Drinking'” would work better with our exclusive photos and captions.

Happy Friday, Loserettes!

-2Truthy

Middle Class Czar Joe Biden Hosts Exclusive "Stripped Dignity" Panel

Click here for lyrics to yours truly's “Everybody is a Czar”

-2Truthy
(Special thanks to Sly and the Family Stone)

Middle Class Czar Joe Biden on Stripping American Dignity

Washington – Vice President Joe “Middle Class Czar” Biden hosted a live webcast today with a panel of scholars to discuss the demise of American middle class citizens. Biden is chairman of the White House Task Force on Middle Class Families, established by President  Barack Obama earlier this year. The task force was created “to ensure the administration’s economic recovery effectively raises the living standards of middle-class families and those aspiring to be in the middle class.” The site invites questions for the Czar, and LWOH has a few below. (Yours truly likes Joe Biden and hopes he will succeed by using his gilded pulpit to not only give himself something self-important to do but to actually get results for the greater good of the non-hubris class...some of whom might actually take his Czar position in all of its grand regalia seriously.)

During the speech, Biden observed that “people have been stripped of their dignity” but insisted that the administration is not interested in redistributing wealth. (h/t Sam Stein.) Hmm. Is he talking about more labor arbitrage to”level the playing field” by reducing middle class incomes for educated citizens to cap at the paltry $40,00 per year range instead of doing the smart thing by reinstating the 91% tax rate and relieving us of U.S. corporate cheap labor junkies? Queried the Middle Class Czar:

"We aren't talking about income redistribution," he said. "We are talking about a fighting chance to make a decent income... it's about fairness. It is about simple fairness. It is about an equality of opportunity. At least that's what we are searching for. We are searching for that Holy Grail. How do we establish that level playing field?"

Back to the pressing questions for the Middle Class Czar. Let's start with electronic health records (EHRs) and the Democrats' curious refusal to bring Single Payer to the table and worse, their lust for sticking it to middle class Americans via a cost prohibitive mandated health insurance scam that will, in the words of Obama, stop middle class Americans who don't have insurance because they can't afford it from “gaming the system.” Why is the Obama administration so hell bent on forcing Americans to buy unaffordable health insurance and to subsidize the same corporate technocrats who pander to the cheap labor lobby that refuses to hire educated Americans in favor of cheap imported labor? Read more on this research from yours truly in this recent article Electronic Health Records (EHRs) No Cure-All.)

There's a gold rush in them thar hills, and a few technocrats smell a big, fat taxpayer-funded bonanza at the insufferable elitist BBQ pit – at the expense of the jobs and health of educated America's beaten down middle class. The creation and taxpayer subsidization of half-baked venture backed technologies is nothing new, but when it comes at the expense of health and jobs for middle class Americans, its forced expansion into the domain of health care providers has raised concern from some of the nations finest physicians and organizations. Indeed, the shake down on the nation's physicians is so mighty that even the Huffington Post's “Investigative Fund” has teamed with American University's Investigative Workshop in today's post entitled Stimulus fuels Gold Rush for Electronic Health Systems. (h/t Fred Schulte.)

What could Biden really do to represent middle class Americans? As U.S. taxpayers bankroll or subsidize private electronic medical records technology firms (many whose employees and contractors are not U.S. citizens but imported workers), a few elementary questions for Czar Biden include: “So, to the tune of an estimated $50 billion, where is our Single Payer health care bill?” And “Does Biden represent the portfolio class of corporate technocrats whose business plans revolve around kicking America's educated white collar middle class to the curb via offshoring/onshoring U.S. jobs to foreign workers?” Naturally, the next question is “What are you doing to stop these corporations from importing cheap labor so Americans can get back to work to pay for this craptastic, cost-prohibitive mandated coverage?” Finally “Since most doctors don't want these EHRs, why are you meddling?”

Of all the pressing needs that middle class Americans face today, access to a non-mandated, universal health care system and good paying jobs for its citizenry displaced by imported workers are most critical. Both issues are intrinsically related. Now that the Huffington Post's tentacles have finally gripped the ongoing research of yours truly regarding the stealth taxpayer funded EHRs diverting money from universal health care coverage for all, the corporate sponsored nature surrounding the “health care debate” appears to have much more to do with taxpayer funded, private corporate welfare sponsored growth than preserving health and avoiding financial ruin via a much overdue Single Payer health care system.

Schulte describes the voracious corporate sales push to hustle the same physicians that American middle class citizens depend upon to provide them health care here:

“A super group of major tech firms has banded together and hit the road with what they call a "stimulus tour" to boost sales. So far, the tour, which includes officials from Microsoft, Dell and Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions, has played in more than 30 cities. It stops at local convention centers and hotels, where it holds seminars for doctors. Those who attend receive a "customized stimulus analysis of how much money your practice could earn in federal incentives."

Perhaps Czar Biden, in his role of middle class protectorate can explain how to bust up the toga party between this taxpayer funded, consumer driven private health care medical industrial complex and its evil twin, the American job sacking machine (h/t to EndH1B.com) to restore community and civility to our country's broken, for-profit government run by neo-frat boy corporate elites. Until Biden proves otherwise, that's the group our Middle Class Czar appears to represent.

-2Truthy

Health Care Debate Focuses on Legal Immigration

Will Health Care Debate Offer Fix to Corporate America's Cheap Labor Junkies?

Will legalized immigration mainline a cure-all for corporate America's smackheads? Today's New York Times article Health Care Debate Focuses on Legal Immigrants by Julia Preston reports that bipartisan lawmakers are “wrangling” over how much health coverage “to provide for immigrants who have settled in the country legally.” The article only mentions Latino immigration and not other legal immigration from countries like India who might also be eligible for subsidies under the debated health care reforms for legal immigrants. Meanwhile, Microsoft today announced it has cut an additional 800 jobs, up from its previous estimate of 5,000 by 2010 in the company's round of layoffs. An MS spokesman said positions being eliminated “will affect staff internationally and in a range of business units.” As local U.S. unemployment rates rise and millions of people lose Cobra benefits, how will the current health care debate for reform help millions of unemployed/underemployed citizens and immigrants (legal and illegal) obtain access to affordable health care?

Let's face it. Corporate America wants cheap workers, who tend to work better if they're healthy - especially when corporate America can get U.S. taxpayers to pick up the tab while still holding onto  hard won tax shelters, cuts and cheap labor loopholes. The NY Times article reports that Latino leaders are exclusively worried that Congress “might quietly cut back benefits” for legal immigrants, and provides this health policy analysis below:

“They don’t want to get on government benefits because they don’t trust the government and they don’t want to do anything to damage their chances to become citizens,” said Sonal Ambegaokar, health policy analyst at the National Immigration Law Center, an immigrant advocate group in California.”

What health care provisions will be made for H-1B visa holders who are laid off and don't go home? (here is a global health insurance 800 number.) As cheap labor lobbyists in California would vigorously attest, removing the proposed five-year wait for Medicare and Medicaid that was first imposed on legal permanent residents as part of the federal welfare overhaul in 1996 would greatly help the state's neo-frat boy feudal slave lords complete their purge of dreadful American middle class citizens from employee payroll and benefits roles:

 “Some Republicans favor excluding immigrants who have been legal permanent residents for less than five years, as well as all illegal immigrants. Democrats broadly agree that illegal immigrants should be excluded, but many want all legal permanent residents to be able to participate inproposed {sic} health insurance exchanges and receive subsidized coverage if they qualify.”

Leave it to the physicians, who are our communities' first line of intelligent and compassionate defense when it comes to truly understanding the vital need for an accessible and affordable health care system for all. U.C.L.A.'s Dr. Michael A. Rodriguez explains here:

“They may have conditions that don’t get identified and infectious diseases that could be prevented that put the public at risk, and they may need to use higher cost hospital services when other services become inaccessible.” 

 

How true. People get sick, regardless of make, color or creed, and no human being should ever suffer the indignity of being denied access to quality health care. Who will pay for it? Will corporate America's cheap labor junkies start opening their wallets? Isn't it time to bring back the 91% tax rate or will this tab be picked up via looting what's left of the American middle class?

The most important lesson to be learned from our leading economists is this: Healthy serfs make for happy feudal slave lords with even healthier, heftier, mud flap-sized bottom lines. For every one American citizen who is replaced by 4-8 cheap, imported workers, 89,000 champagne corks are popping inside boardrooms and brothels all across the state of California, creating more jobs for derivatives beast creators, pseudo-technocrats, displaced hookers, and the French liquor industry. Not to mention Afghanistan's poppy field entrepreneurs.

 

Like the old Irish song goes:

“When immigrants' eyes are smiling, feudal slave lords' are smiling more...in the hubris halls of Woodside, you can hear the laughter roar...”

Party on, plebes!

-2Truthy

Robert Reich Omits Solution for Getting Americans Back to Work

“While affordable health care is criticially {sic} important to Americans, making a living is more urgent.”

-Robert Reich

Robert Reich Neglects to Mention Real Solution for Getting Americans Back to Work

On the face of it, the title of Robert Reich's post Health Care Reform is Critically Important, But Getting Americans Back to Work is More So would appear to summarize what yours truly has been saying over and over again: It's not the Economy, Stupid. It's YOUR JOB. As I have said before, affordable health care for Americans is not an issue as long as they have good jobs. But Reich's post misses the mark entirely about the real causes behind American unemployment/underemployment and for the necessary solution to get Americans back to work.

In his post, Reich is now concerned that Obama's “confused priorities” have led to overspent political capital focused on health care reform instead of “getting Americans back to work” and explains:

“Obama's focus on health care rather than jobs, when the economy is still so fragile and unemployment moving toward double digits, could make it appear that the administration has its priorities confused. While affordable health care is critically important to Americans, making a living is more urgent. Yet the administration's efforts to date on this more basic concern have been neither particularly visible nor coherent.”

If Reich is so concerned about Obama getting Americans back to work, his post handily neglects to answer the obvious question: How is Obama going to get Americans back to work when our elected leaders and their corporate frat boy, neo-feudal corporate paymasters profit legally by giving those jobs to imported workers instead of our own educated citizens via their insider payday machine known as the Cash Cow of Indian Outsourcing?

Last week, the White House issued a new report claiming that the Stimulus Bill saved or created roughly 650,000 U.S. jobs, while during the same period, the federal government has imported more than a million working-age foreign citizens (h/t/ NumbersUSA) “to negate every positive impact the stimulus could have had for U.S. workers.”

Not only does Reich fail to mention corporate America's organized assault on ridding U.S. middle class professionals of their jobs, he also argues that the stimulus package should have been larger, despite the fact that Wall Street is doing great but Main Street and its people are suffering:

“The current rate of unemployment would have been even higher were it not for the federal stimulus package, but the stimulus should have been much larger.”

Confused priorities from Obama, or more obfuscation and denial from Reich regarding the ongoing purge of white collar, educated Americans from U.S. corporations and plummeting wages via the ensuing labor arbitrage? The Obama administration understands that health care reform (in the form of anything that includes the word "reform") is a shiny bullet point on this administration's resume, irregardless if it does nothing to save  millions of Americans from health and fiscal crises.

What Mr. Reich fails to mention is that we do not need MORE stimulus money as he proposes, but we need the U.S. government and corporate America to stop giving away U.S. jobs to imported workers when there are not enough jobs for educated white collar Americans. When Reich wants to finally get serious about reporting the real reason why Obama isn't “getting Americans back to work”, below are the numbers and facts from this NumbersUSA article entitled White House Claims 'Stimulus' Saved/Created 650,000 Jobs (but it imported 1,125,000 foreign workers at same time) to help him and Obama get their “priorities straight”:

“NumbersUSA has tried since last November to persuade the news media to monthly report how many working-age foreign citizens are getting first-time work permits from the feds.

It remains the great national secret because the U.S. news media -- from the liberal to the conservative wing -- won't report these facts.

Click here to see the full calculations and sources for these figures.”

Reich asserts “While affordable health care is criticially {sic} important to Americans, making a living is more urgent.” OK. I'll buy that. As I have said, “Pay Americans well and the health care funds will follow.” But about that jobs thing? For a guy who is supposed to know something about numbers and the economy, it is hard to believe that Reich can't grasp and articulate the simple answer to the problem of importing workers for U.S. jobs when there are not enough of them to employ our own citizens. Perhaps that is precisely the plan, after all?

-2Truthy

Congress Ethics “Furor” Over White House Cybersecurity Breach

All is Not Well in the White House IT Pumpkin Patch

WASHINGTON – House leaders on Friday called for an "immediate and comprehensive assessment" of congressional cybersecurity policies, one day after an “embarrassing data breach” revealed details of confidential ethics investigations and resulted in the termination of a staffer. Whether this breach is of a rotten pumpkins in the pumpkin patch persuasion or just another silly, silly little “youthful indiscretion", the incident raises questions about  the federal IT department's policies and protocols.

Ethics? Another “youthful indiscretion” from the White House? Politicians are always “youthful” when it comes to excusing crime.

Although recently appointed chief information officer (CIO) Vivek Kundra is responsible for oversight of federal technology spending, he may or may not be wondering what all the fuss is about with this latest White House cybersecurity ethics panel breach that has sparked furor and questions over competency and responsibility on the Hill. So many questions. As LWOH reported, Kundra can never be accused of not having federal bribery sting, crime-worthy direct reports.

Is the White House cutting corners on cybersecurity or did the CIO budget more than enough taxpayer loot to spend on souped-up firewalls and data security? Were the IT hiring choices competent but the technology choices abysmal, vice-versa or both? Whose ultimate decision is it to ensure smooth and cybersafe policies and protocols for sensitive government data?

Security breach? What's the big deal? It's not every day that, back in his early twenties, the current Chief Info Czar gets arrested for shoplifting four shirts at J.C. Penny's and THEN goes on to bag a gig as Chief Information Officer of the United States Federal Government. Huh? All that personal, discreet and confidential ethics data? GET OVER YOUSELVES, silly rubes, still clinging to data and flimsy peer to peer networks....

So what's being done about the technical problem? More legislation! We don't know what that means, per se, but many in both the public and private sectors would certainly agree that a review of technical and ethical core competencies at the highest chain of command in the federal department of information is the first place to start. In the meantime, we can always count on more legislation to protect sensitive cyberdata:

“Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is drafting legislation to protect sensitive government documents from public exposure through peer-to-peer technology.

"Unfortunately, this incident underscores the very urgent need to address the problems associated with peer-to-peer software," he said.

Towns was also mentioned in the disclosed document as having once been under scrutiny by the Office of Congressional Ethics for allegations he improperly received a Maryland homestead tax credit.”

Happy Halloween!

-2Truthy

2Truthy's Friday Happy Hour: Derek and the Dominoes on Johnny Cash Show

-Enjoy Eric Clapton, Carl Perkins and The Man in Black perform the awesome Blind Lemon Jefferson's “Matchbox” at 5:18.-

Yeah Baby!

If there were ever any question as to Carl Perkins' influence on Clapton, roll that video. But did you know that some of the most classic television shows of all time were purged between the years of 1970-1973 for their colloquial, down-home characteristics not being able to compete with a more urban demographic?

I loved the Johnny Cash Show during its short-run from 1969-1971. Its cancellation was a result of ABC's rural purge, which basically meant that between 1970-1973, the suits cut just about every TV show with a tree in it – classic “country” gems or favorites of yours truly like The Red Skelton Show, Petticoat Junction, The Beverly Hillbillies, Mayberry R.F.D, Lassie, Hogan's Heroes (OK – not a “hillbilly” show per se but its sets were housed in leafy landscapes), and Family Affair - this one's a stumper...how did a show that took place in a swanky Manhattan high-rise housing the twins Buffy and Jody, their butler, Mr. French, older sis' Sissy and uncle Bill (who always seemed like  they were playing husband and wife) ever make the “hillbilly” list? Ah, Wikipedia boo-boo.

“Let me be your big dog, 'till your little dog comes...”

Happy Friday, Loserettes!

-2Truthy

The Gay Swami Times Halloween Special Issue

(click on photo to enlarge) 

The Gay Swami's Scariest Halloween Masks Ever!

-AMERICANS JOIN THE LIVING DEAD-

Welcome back to the Gay Swami Times Vol. 1 Issue 10. Click here for previous issues. This time, we did all the work ourselves since most of our outsourcing contacts are all either in jail or busy auditioning for dreamy Steven Spielberg's upcoming movie "Throw Grandma in the Ganges” to return our phone calls.

Our exclusive FIRST Halloween commemorative issue begins with a holy meditation on our abundance and steely (as in “Manhole cover”) craftiness, as we reflect upon how a brahmin should earn his livelihood. Sweet nirvana!

Lord Brahma said to Narad:

"Alms, which a brahmin gets without making any demand for it is called Vritta. 'Unchhavritti' is even better than Vritti, and it means collecting food grains which are scattered in places like fields, granaries, the market-place, etc.” 

 

The Gay Swami said:

“Skip the Cheerios and Bombay Gin, we are taking over America! October 31st is a heavenly time for us in America, for we celebrate our divine skills of stealing US jobs AND candy from their children! It is sooooo spooky for Americans, where we TRICK them into TREATING our most holy people into sacrificing with their jobs, cars, houses and money. Candy, too! This practice, more commonly known as “Mother Bhumi” is the essence of the element earth. It is also called “Dhra” meaning 'that which holds everything'. Just like your candy bags, kids!” Or call it anything else you want - we just make it up as we go along...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!

-Select from the "Ship of the Desert" Halloween Mask Collection Now!-

• Johnny "Do me like a Slumdog" Chambers

• Billy "Ride me like a Dromedary" Gates  OR be a DOCTOR (in PRISON):
  
• Dr. Byrraju "The Rajah of Roger" Ramalinga Raju (The Scam of Satyam)
  
• Naked Hillary "Does Tata" Clinton Costume from the Limited "Friendly Competition" Line
  
• Your Own "Living Dead" face!
  
  
  
  

-Bribe the Kids

• Give them Gummy Worms IN EXCHANGE for THEIR DADS' JOBS!!!!!!!
• Offer Reeses Pieces AFTER they give you 2,000 rupees 

-How to Steal Candy from Trick-or-Treaters so You'll Have More!

• Re-wrap your Starburst Fruit Chews with old raisins, give THEM out!
• Pretend to GIVE candy in their bags, then TAKE theirs!!

Ohmmmmmmmmmmmm...

Trick or Treat! Hahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

-THE GAY SWAMI

Mel Toast: America's Labor Shortage Lie Wake-Up Call

A Mel Toast Wake-Up Call for Deluded Americans

“America Scared to Tell Wife It's Unemployed, Just Sits in Park All Day”

-Hamilton Nolan

A mighty screed from Gawker. Read it.

Americans are hopelessly deluded and passive suckers who would allow their jobs to be given away to imported and outsourced workers in order to feel philanthropic and superior, as do their trickle-up feudal slave masters. What do these cowering, blockheaded fools get in return? What is the source of “progressive” middle class Americans delusion? No matter.

Deceitful, plutocratic-bound corporate and congress creatures who LIE about skilled shortages of American professionals (h/t The Economic Populist) have found their toadies in the “yes man, yes sir” sycophantic pool of dependent, nanny-statist supporting parasites who beat the drum about creating nothing out of thin air and then steal from us what isn't nailed down to the floor.

Dictators - smiling, Machiavellian or Manchu -- like to surround themselves with plenty of lickspittles.

It's time for Revolution.

Cordially,

Melvin Toast

Chinese Drywall, Snapping Bridges

San Francisco, CA --  Toxic drywall and snapping bridges. Three pieces of an emergency repair to the Bay Bridge's cantilever section made over Labor Day weekend snapped and crashed onto the upper deck of the span late Tuesday afternoon, striking three vehicles and forcing the indefinite closure of the region's busiest bridge. The pieces that snapped were two high-strength steel rods and a crossbeam from a steel saddle, said Tony Anziano, Caltrans toll bridge program manager.

At the rate safety standards, workmanship and quality control are eroding all around us, you'd almost think our government leaders are working extra-hard to ensure these trivial matters remain the stuff of rubes.

Party on, plebes!

-2Truthy

U.S. Trade Rep. Ron Kirk Stands Up for American Professionals

Trading India's Mangoes for U.S. Pistachios, NOT American White Collar Jobs

For Immediate Release

Washington – United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk has landed a spot on 2Truthy's official “Your Invited to My Party List.”

Kirk met with Indian Commerce Minister Anand Sharma for the U.S.-India Trade Policy Forum (TPF) meeting in India this week to discuss one of India's shameless, top agenda items: getting more H-1B visas, even though millions of educated American professionals are unemployed/underemployed and there is NO skilled U.S. labor shortage. Click here to read the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative press release. (h/t Rob Sanchez http://www.zazona.com/newsletter #2068.)

Basically, Indian officials asked for more of our jobs and Kirk firmly and politely ripped them a new one with assurances of making “a note” of their outrageous request here:

“On the issue of a more liberal visa regime for Indian professionals, the US assured India that it would take up the issue with the US immigration department and see what changes could be made. "We have made a note of India’s concerns and are going to certainly discuss it with our colleagues (in the immigration department)," Mr Kirk said.

Here is the best part, where Kirk noted some trade reciprocation deficiencies:

“In the much talked about example, we open up our agricultural market to Indian mangos. These freely flow into our country. In return, we had hoped to export pistachios, which are very strong staple of your diet, not grown domestically and high-end motorcycles. Today, not one Harley Davidson motorcycle has been sold in India,” he added.”

For now, at least on the face of it - when it comes to “improving the tone and frankness” regarding stemming the abuses of H-1b visas, Ron Kirk's stand on behalf of U.S. trade is what I call progress.

-2Truthy

Fair Game: Sean Penn and Naomi Watts "Plamegate" Test Screening Preview

Fair Game: Plamegate Movie Test Screening Review

-Starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts-

Breaking News

Los Angeles, CA – A test screening for Fair Game, the movie starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts based upon the real-life saga of husband and wife team Ambassador Joe Wilson and spy Valerie Plame was held a few days ago. Directed by Doug Liman, this exclusive review rates the movie a 9/10. (h/t LWOH Santa Monica operative Ben.) We hear Sean is absolutely Oscar worthy, if not bound...

Click here for LWOH's coverage of the Plame/Wilson saga, including yours truly's original casting picks of Lisa Kudrow and Dennis Quaid and to sing along with “Scooter Libby's Prison Number” and to “The Plame Game.”

-2Truthy