Sunday February 1, 2009, 10:43 am
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Banks collecting billions of dollars in federal bailout money sought government permission to bring thousands of foreign workers to the U.S. for high-paying jobs, according to an Associated Press review of visa applications.

The dozen banks receiving the biggest rescue packages, totaling more than $150 billion, requested visas for more than 21,800 foreign workers over the past six years for positions that included senior vice presidents, corporate lawyers, junior investment analysts and human resources specialists. The average annual salary for those jobs was $90,721, nearly twice the median income for all American households.

The figures are significant because they show that the bailed-out banks, being kept afloat with U.S. taxpayer money, actively sought to hire foreign workers instead of American workers. As the economic collapse worsened last year — with huge numbers of bank employees laid off — the numbers of visas sought by the dozen banks in AP's analysis increased by nearly one-third, from 3,258 in fiscal 2007 to 4,163 in fiscal 2008.

The AP reviewed visa applications the banks filed with the Labor Department under the H-1B visa program, which allows temporary employment of foreign workers in specialized-skill and advanced-degree positions.

It is unclear how many foreign workers the banks actually hired; the government does not release those details. The actual number is likely a fraction of the 21,800 foreign workers the banks sought to hire because the government limits the number of visas it grants to 85,000 each year among all U.S. employers.

During the last three months of 2008, the largest banks that received taxpayer loans announced more than 100,000 layoffs. The number of foreign workers included among those laid off is unknown.

Foreigners are attractive hires because companies have found ways to pay them less than American workers.


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Yes, the corporate class has no discernible loyalties to our nation, other than knowing where to go for a handout.

Sunday February 1, 2009, 11:08 am
Russia is at the moment protesting their economy and demanding leaders to step down and resign http://www.care2.com/news/member/593971236/1032891
What is about us that we sit here and complain and do absolutely NOTHING! These people are ripping us off left right and center, we have been conned out od money and jobs!
Wake up America before it is too late!

We are allowing these criminals to walk all over us!

Sunday February 1, 2009, 12:07 pm
Sue ... our food and water is so full of drugs that Americans have become complacent. Probably 60% of our entire country is now stuffing their faces and watching the $uperbowl game ... Neil Postman wrote a book "Entertaining Ourselves To Death" ... about the plug in drug ...

it's no longer ... funny ...

Sunday February 1, 2009, 12:28 pm
Yep, and half of America is on antispychotics - total zombies! But of course that WAS what they were banking on. Big Pharma in bed with FDA, Monsanto and Insurance co"s. The bailout banks giving loans to Big Pharma so they can come up with more drugs to control the mind and be the monopoly in the industry. While AIG collects money from Medicare and Medicaid - the taxpayer money!

New World Order - One Government, one bank, one culture, one food supply, one Big Pharma, One set of stupid masses!

Sunday February 1, 2009, 12:48 pm
yep, keep the population mellow and they that can, will enact any bill they can push through without opposition to it in the pursuit of the almighty dollar. agree with Blue and Sue w. and, oh yes, keep the population entertained and dumbed down with mindless sports, movies, bad music videos, etc. while the environment and the wildlife are decimated, polluted and killed for the purpose of greed. it does seem as if people around the globe are waking up to that fact and hopefully, will demand a stop to the greed of big business. we need a kinder, gentler world.

Sunday February 1, 2009, 2:34 pm
Samantha, I didn't see you arguing about Bu$h and Bernanke pu$hing thru their $700 billion TARP bill with no re$triction$; are you comfortable enough that you can pay for foreign vi$a$ so that foreign worker$ cna come to AmeriKKKa work for bank$ the taxpayer$ bailed out and take Americna job$?

Sunday February 1, 2009, 10:42 pm

President Obama Wants You to Join the Union
On Friday, President Obama, a onetime organizer, had more words to say about unions, and they were the kind of explicit endorsement that we
literally haven't heard from a president since FDR's day. His stunning declaration of support came at the...

Monday February 2, 2009, 1:46 pm
What kind of BS is this? We, the US people, voted for change. Now, let's make these banks/bankers "show us the MONEY!!! The idiots at the top call this fair? There are no Americans, already in place, who can do these JOBS??? Again with the separation of us vs. them.

Saturday February 7, 2009, 7:00 am
Wall Street and the banking fraud can be over if "we the people" stop buying into this system. Buy from local and small business owners. Avoid corporations whose interests are opposed to yours like the plague. It's already happening as people lose income, these businesses are crumbling. Yes, it's a double edged sword because the jobs have been with these big corporations. We will have to bite the bullet, lick our wounds and learn to work and create things for ourselves and market to others. Government needs to follow suit by regulating the market severely and realizing capitalism is dead.

Saturday February 7, 2009, 9:04 am
We have to not bank with those bailout companies/banks. We have to stop buying Big Pharma, Insurance and Monsanto including those food products.
The cord runs deep!
What is catching on now is small communities, barter, trade and buy only from that group.

Sunday February 8, 2009, 4:27 pm
Operation Zero Credibility : Calling the Leadership

Majority Leader Harry Reid
(202) 224-3542

Majority Whip Dick Durbin
(202) 224-2152

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
(202) 225-0100

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer
(202) 225-4131

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn
(202) 226-3210

The message:

"The Republicans have zero credibility on the economy."

Paraphrase President Obama:


"Please reject the Republican theories that got us into this mess in the first place."

And for Senator Reid:


"Make the Republicans stand and filibuster if they want to filibuster. No cloture votes!"

From there, considering the unprecedented dollar amount of the recovery bill, it might be impossible to herd every cat. But perhaps, in the process, we'll at least marginalize the Republicans just a little more. And that will surely mean a larger, more robust recovery bill.

So as the saying goes: We are the ones we've been waiting for, and all that.

Don't write or send e-mails. Written screeds can be conveniently lost, deleted or shredded. Telephones, on the other hand, make loud beeping and ringing noises and you'll know right away that there's a real life human being on the other end of the line who has to listen to what you have to say.


Phone numbers for your senators here. Phone numbers for your congressmember here.


The message:

"The Republicans have zero credibility on the economy."

Paraphrase President Obama:

"Please reject the Republican theories that got us into this mess in the first place."

Feel free to toss in the following:

"Make the Republicans stand and filibuster if they want to filibuster. No cloture votes!

Don't get into specific details of the bill. Our message needs to be consistent and unified: Zero Cred. The Republicans have zero credibility. We reject their ideas and we reject their theories.

Let's do this.

Sunday February 8, 2009, 9:26 pm
Naomi Klein says All of Them Must Go:

Watching the crowds in Iceland banging pots and pans until their government fell reminded me of a chant popular in anti-capitalist circles in 2002: "You are Enron. We are Argentina."

Its message was simple enough. You--politicians and CEOs huddled at some trade summit--are like the reckless scamming execs at Enron (of course, we didn't know the half of it). We--the rabble outside--are like the people of Argentina, who, in the midst of an economic crisis eerily similar to our own, took to the street banging pots and pans. They shouted, "¡Que se vayan todos!" ("All of them must go!") and forced out a procession of four presidents in less than three weeks. What made Argentina's 2001-02 uprising unique was that it wasn't directed at a particular political party or even at corruption in the abstract. The target was the dominant economic model--this was the first national revolt against contemporary deregulated capitalism.

It's taken a while, but from Iceland to Latvia, South Korea to Greece, the rest of the world is finally having its ¡Que se vayan todos! moment.

The stoic Icelandic matriarchs beating their pots flat even as their kids ransack the fridge for projectiles (eggs, sure, but yogurt?) echo the tactics made famous in Buenos Aires. So does the collective rage at elites who trashed a once thriving country and thought they could get away with it. As Gudrun Jonsdottir, a 36-year-old Icelandic office worker, put it: "I've just had enough of this whole thing. I don't trust the government, I don't trust the banks, I don't trust the political parties and I don't trust the IMF. We had a good country, and they ruined it."

In other countries, then, people aren't accepting the destruction with resignation, but making it clear out in the streets that they refuse to be victimized any longer. I realize Americans are fearful, but I am more afraid of what will happen if we don't do the same.

Monday February 9, 2009, 2:47 pm
What Matters



Charming. Just charming. Nice going, "centrists." Nice %#&!*% job:


$40 billion State Fiscal Stabilization

$16 billion School Construction

$7.5 billion of State Incentive Grants

$5.8 billion Health Prevention Activity

$4.5 billion GSA

$3.5 billion Higher Ed Construction (Eliminated)

$3.5 billion Federal Bldgs Greening

$2.25 Neighborhood Stabilization (Eliminate)

$2 billion broadband

$2 billion HIT Grants

$1.25 billion project based rental

$1 billion Head Start/Early Start

$1.2 billion in Retrofiting Project 8 Housing

$1 billion Energy Loan Guarantees

Via Kos, that's what got cut from the stimulus bill. Bipartisanship is the
victor! Huzzah, huzzah, we all feel good about ourselves for being friends! Wheee! Way to go, Senator Nelson, Senator Collins, Senator McFlockingCaskill. Way to be. You cut some kids' textbooks and made sure we'll get our a$$et$ kicked by the Chinese IN SPACE just to continue going to lunch with your favorite people in the whole wide world: One
another.
So you schoolkids, trying to do math problems with the windows nailed shut and your coats on, who walked through doors with padlocks and chains just to show up today, you can just bugger off, because the Republicans and Democrats still love each other, and that's
what matters.
You families, living in your apartment on Section 8 vouchers in the only part of town your snotty suburb will allow Section 8 housing built, wondering why your heat is off in January and you can't get hot water and the sewer backs up and your locks don't work (which is good, because the crackhead next door likes to come in at all hours) and the roof's caving in? Not as important as maintaining Senate collegiality and crowing about working together.

You parents, trying to raise little kids while working the five jobs you work to be "uniquely American" and pay your mortgage? Not as big a deal as being able to Twitter joyously that you aren't for pork and earmarks, no siree.

You know, I think I really wouldn't have a problem with bipartisanship. But this isn't bipartisanship, making these cuts in order to make these friends. This is narcissism. This is the same mirror-kissing bullshit that got us FISA and the Military Commissions Act, that got us the war and the spying and the debt and the death. This is prioritizing being friends over improving people's lives, and that's not bipartisanship, that's institutionalized selfishness.
I have a news flash for Nelson and McCaskill. Nobody really gives a %#&!*%
about you. Nobody really cares if you can still pass notes to Susan Collins in the coatroom between classes sessions. Nobody out here in the world in which our local governments can't pay people to do such trivial work as teaching people to read gives a %#&!*% about how you look on the Sunday shows because we're too busy working extra hours to watch the Sunday shows.
We only care about "ending the gridlock in Washington" and "working with Congress and the president" and "moving things along" when it results in our lives being better. Otherwise we don't really care that much. So quit sucking face with your reflections and acting like it means something to us. It's embarrassing.
A.


Posted by Athenae on February 09, 2009 at 09:05 in Congress | Permalink

Tuesday February 10, 2009, 11:49 am
Protestors Picket Bank CEO's Homes, Offices


A new kind of street warfare is breaking out against Wall Street titans - and it's happening on their lawns and outside their lobbies too. A corps of agitators - financed, ironically, with federal-stimulus millions - is making the rounds of suburban mans

Tuesday February 10, 2009, 5:55 pm
Goldman CEO Blankfein Acknowledges "Broad Public Anger" At Wall Street

"Anger" is putting it mildly. Outrage is more like it. Not only should Washington insist on pay caps for any firm taking taxpayer funds, but most of these crooks should be canned without any serverence. They held themselves out as the titans of finance and they skated along with unchecked greed and complete incompetence that resulted in lives in rubble across the globe.

Friday February 13, 2009, 2:01 pm
Now that the banksters have admitted didn't need a bailout, do you think we could have our money back and put it somewhere it might do some good?
Will Marshall earned yesterday's Wanker of the Day award from Atrios for his moronic attack on Krugman, but even if you don't read the article, read
the comments, which are ten times smarter than Marshall is.

Monday March 2, 2009, 7:46 pm
BofA's Ken Lewis: TARP Funds "A Mistake"CNBC: Lewis Earned $8.8 Million In '08

Wednesday March 11, 2009, 11:56 am

EFCA's Opponents Received Millions Upon Millions From Business PACs

Friday March 27, 2009, 8:06 pm

Joe The Plumber Enlisted To Campaign Against Employee Free Choice Act