Today's edition of quick hits:
* Iran: "On the eve of international talks in Baghdad over Iran's disputed nuclear program, the leader of the United Nations nuclear monitoring arm announced what appeared to be a significant concession from Tehran, saying that, despite unspecified differences, he expected a deal 'quite soon' on arrangements for an investigation into potential military applications of the program."
* Afghanistan: "The leading American diplomat in Afghanistan, Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, will leave his post this summer for health reasons after serving here less than a year, a State Department official said Tuesday."
* After a brutal tornado killed 161 people in Joplin, Missouri, a year ago, President Obama returned to the community last night to deliver a commencement address at Joplin's high school graduation.
* A case worth watching: "The Supreme Court will decide next term whether a group of lawyers, human rights activists and journalists may challenge the federal government's widespread use of electronic surveillance to monitor suspected terrorist activities overseas."
* They overcounted affluent whites owning multiple homes: "The 2010 census missed more than 1.5 million minorities after struggling to count black Americans, Hispanics, renters and young men, but was mostly accurate."
* Good move: "A bipartisan group of four senators proposed on Tuesday easing visa limits for highly skilled immigrants and foreign students, a move that challenges Congressional leaders on their fixed positions on the issue of immigration during an election year."
* There's a bipartisan effort underway, at least in the U.S. House, to roll back legal prohibitions on State Department propaganda campaigns inside the United States. Glenn Greenwald talked to Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), one of the bill's sponsors.
* Political comparisons involving rape and the Holocaust are never a good idea.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
Leave a Comment:
Wonderful, they are going to bring more overseas workers in the take jobs that I am sure our citizens are qualified for or could quickly be trained to do.
Steve I get the feeling you are for this??
Cheap foreign labor, that is just what our country needs. Taking jobs the young men and women who fought the recent wars so badly need.. wonderful
I think the reason for this is because there are not enough American students graduating in these fields. One of the Senators said as much on an interview on MSNBC this morning. So....there are not enough of our citizens qualified for these positions.
Skip,
First I'm going to set aside the fact that the available workforce is composed of more than graduating college students. Quoting a senator off of MSNBC has marginal entertainment value but really? You're going with a senator's rationalization on this? Wow.
But even constraining the argument to just new entrants from university, in which discipline do you think we have a shortage of graduating workers? Take engineering> we graduate more engineers every year than the US has new jobs (even counting attrition and retirement). So we should make an exception for a foreign graduating engineer and allow them to compete for jobs here becaauuuse why?
This policy is always, always brought by Congress on behalf of companies looking to reduce wages and benefits. Always. Foreign workers will increase the applicant pool, driving down wages in an immutable way. If their visa expires in 3-5 years they will not take their unvested retirement plans with them when they return home (bonus!) and with the threat of job-loss=deportation they are amazingly compliant.
Show me a real shortage of qualified workers in some area and then we can start a discussion on visas but not until then.
There are enough with talents here but they are discourage by the price of higher education. A person who also works at least 25 hours a week may not have enough time for study/homework. A math class requires at least 2 hours of problem solving per day. In other countries education is not as expensive and also those they want to bring from other countries are from the top 20% of the population of their country who went to college on daddy's moolah and did not need to work. The top 20% over here get into the easy programs instead of the Science/Math programs.
I think it is a shame that in this country there aren't enough sponsor of those with the talents so they can go to college and graduated.
And those who come over here will be trained by someone here who has those talents. When my husband was asked to train someone from abroad he refused and everyone in his department applauded him when he e mail the administration explaining that he cannot in good conscience do that to an American worker.
For anyone wondering what's wrong with Americans in this day and age, take a look at this guy's facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/don.blackford
Note the first comment regarding Steve King; compare it with literally everything else on the page. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is the world we live in.
Right....Facebook is the place to go to get a good take on the world we live in. I think most of the folks that are involved in the real world - like very high ranking government people and doctors, scientists, etc. - you know the ones that are doing important things - do NOT have a facebook page and do not put up pictures of their dog in costume, or their "favorite" band or who they are "friends" with. Come on, Facebook like most of the internet is electronic garbage. How the hell did you even find this guy? And more importantly, why???
I do find it fascinating the number of people over the age of 18 that are on facebook a decent amount of time. I do not get it. It is the modern version of vacation slide shows or pictures of you kids in your wallet that folks used to whip out and show strangers (like they really cared).
I'm sure we agree that people who have plenty to do not spend much time on Facebook. I agree with a lot of your take on how stupid it is. But its stupidity is ultimately irrelevant--the point is that people who spend a lot of time on Facebook do have too much time to spare, and this is the same kind of person who makes up a huge percentage of the republican 'base' (if one can call it that). I don't mean to poke fun at a random moron on the internet so much as I mean to demonstrate the wild disparity in how the Tea Party crowd thinks of government largesse as it relates to others versus how it relates to they themselves.
It goes to show that they are completely ignorant and they are transmitting the ignorance to every idiot that is willing to close their eyes to the truth. That is called brainwashing and the GOP uses people like him to spread their stupidity.
I say stupid is who listens and believes stupidity instead of doing the research.
LA Times has an article the death of two wolves near Denali National Park. They were lured just outside park bounderies with a dead horse and snared. Even better yet, the horse ended up in the stream of another guy's water supply. Boil the water.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-denali-wolf-20120521,0,1909818.story
People do spend time on FB it's on their phones, iPads, kindles, nooks and pc's. They spend less time on research and believe more and more what people say. Here is a scary & terrible post, that I hope is not true but did not show up on snoops. The person who posted it and others like him who would believe it or post similar are like me and 400 of my other friends. 40 something middle class and do not trust politicians but feel we are being squeezed into poverty. Help prove this wrong and help open people up to facts and not fear. Don't however underestimate the power of FB or people's laziness when it comes to information.
Link did not post.
click this text to read
People do spend time on FB it's on their phones, iPads, kindles, nooks and pc's. They spend less time on research and believe more and more what people say. Here is a scary & terrible post, that I hope is not true but did not show up on snoops. The person who posted it and others like him who would believe it or post similar are like me and 400 of my other friends. 40 something middle class and do not trust politicians but feel we are being squeezed into poverty. Help prove this wrong and help open people up to facts and not fear. Don't however underestimate the power of FB or people's laziness when it comes to information