Carrie at Brilliant at Breakfast writes about H-1B visas, while Sue Sturgis at Facing South writes about H-2B visas, both are bad ideas, and both are costing Americans jobs, while abusing foreign workers who get the visas.

The claim is that there aren’t enough American workers to do the jobs. That’s not true. What’s true is that the corporations who use these visas don’t want to hire people who have rights and will demand to be paid for their education, skills, and experience. This is a form of internal out-sourcing, and the workers are the losers.

The foreign workers put up with unreasonable living conditions, while the Americans being replaced are highly skilled workers that are considered “too expensive”. It’s all about corporate profits.

No matter how “oppressed” I might feel about my situation in Florida it is an annoyance compared to the tragedy that is Tibet.

CNN reports Dalai Lama: China causing ‘cultural genocide’

(CNN) — The Dalai Lama on Sunday called for an international probe of China’s treatment of Tibet, which he said is causing “cultural genocide” of his people.

The exiled spiritual leader of Tibet spoke at a news conference Sunday in Dharamsala, India, two days after violent clashes between pro-autonomy demonstrators and Chinese security forces in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital.

A spokesman for the self-declared Tibetan exile government said it has confirmed at least 80 deaths in Friday’s violence and that protests were continuing outside the capital Sunday, further undermining China’s hopes of a smooth run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. China’s official Xinhua news agency put the death toll at 13.

[Read more →]

It’s drawing to a close:

Finished at Nome:

69 Richard Savoyski (90)^r
70 Sue Allen (27)
71 Wayne Curtis (22)
72 Sue Morgan (72)^r [Utah]
73 Trent Herbst (85)
74 Heather Siirtola (47)
75 Gene Smith (53)^r [Washington]

On the trail out of White Mountain:

76 Martin Koenig (96)^r [Montana]

At White Mountain for the mandatory 8-hour rest.

77 Liz Parrish (75)^r [Oregon]
78 Molly Yazwinski (62)^r
79 Deborah Bicknell (21)^r

I was getting concerned about Michael Suprenant (46)^r who left Elim on 03/14/08 at 22:10 and didn’t show up at White Mountain all day yesterday and most of today. He is now listed as scratched at Elim, but there’s no explanation yet. A lot of people should have passed him if he was stopped near the trail.

The “Red Lantern” for the last place finisher is all that’s left, and it should be awarded tomorrow.

The wayback machine shows the results of the Iowa caucus to have been: Obama 37.6%, Edwards 29.7%, Clinton 29.5%.

But it turns out the 45 pledged delegates are being distributed: Obama 25, Edwards 6, Clinton 14. According to Obama’s supporters it’s perfectly all right to steal delegates from John Edwards because he withdrew. As an Edwards supporter let me remind you, that John suspended his campaign, he did not withdraw, and the supposedly “pledged delegates” were still his until the Obama camp stole them in the corrupt process that is Iowa.

How can I say Iowa is corrupt, because Iowa violated the same Rule 11A that Florida violated, and Obama says the Florida process is corrupt.

[Read more →]

This is what it looks like this morning:

Arrived in Nome:

66 Anne Capistrant (88)^r
67 Kirk Barnum (31)^r [Montana]
68 Eric Rogers (25)

Between White Mountain and Nome

69 Gene Smith (53)^r [Washington]
70 Wayne Curtis (22)
71 Sue Allen (27)
72 Richard Savoyski (90)^r
73 Trent Herbst (85)
74 Heather Siirtola (47)
75 Sue Morgan (72)^r [Utah]

Still in White Mountain

76 Martin Koenig (96)^r [Montana]

And heading for White Mountain

77 Michael Suprenant (46)^r
78 Molly Yazwinski (62)^r
79 Liz Parrish (75)^r [Oregon]
80 Deborah Bicknell (21)^r

Even this late there has been some shifting in position, more from some slowing down, than people speeding up.

^r – Iditarod rookie

Florida License Plates

Beneficiary

A weekend feature of Why Now.