Hillary’s “Hire More Foreign Engineers” Employment Plan for Silicon Valley

Hillary spoke to Silicon Valley executives yesterday, unveiling her technology strategy. Her first plank is to increase the number of H1B visas:

“If you think you have a skills shortage now, project it out a decade and we’re going to be in real trouble,” Clinton said to applause from more than 200 executives attending a half-day CEO Summit by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. “We need to guide immigration reform to attract and retain foreign-born students who want to work in the United States.”

Now a decade from now we could have created an entirely new generation of PHDs, and several generations of BS- and MS-level engineers. But Hillary wants to educate foreign workers here, then modify immigration law to allow them to stay and work here. 53% of engineers in Silicon Valley are already foreign-born: doesn’t it seem like we ought to emphasize education and placement of our kids first?

Oh yeah, she does want to support American engineers, but only some Americans: girls and minorities will be encouraged to study technical subjects. So I’m a little confused: if we have a high tech manpower shortage, shouldn’t she encourage all students to study technical subjects? Like, say, even white males? Does employing foreign workers via H1B visas outrank employing white male citizens?

Here are the rest of the components of her plan:

• Increase Gov’t-sponsored R&D by 50% over 10 years: That’s money in geoff’s pocket!! Teh yay!!
• Establish a new global warming research agency: Eh. Waste of money and needless increase in bureaucracy (could easily be covered by NSF, NIST, NOAA, or NASA).
• Give tax incentives for increasing broadband access: WTF? We have 50% broadband penetration among US households already, and 80% broadband penetration among heavy internet users. Not to mention that most businesses offer broadband at work. She’s trying to fix something that simply ain’t broke. On the other hand, she’s pitching woo to Silicon Valley types – they probably lapped it up.

All in all not very comprehensive or organized, and very discriminatory toward white American men. I sure hope they get more rights when they’re a minority.

Dueling discriminations

On the one had we have this:

eHarmony sued for excluding gays

The popular online dating service eHarmony was sued on Thursday for refusing to offer its services to gays, lesbians and bisexuals.

and on the other we have this:

Woman bounced from Montreal gay bar

University student Audrey Vachon sat down at a city patio for a late afternoon drink with her dad last week. What happened next prompted a complaint to Quebec’s human rights tribunal.

The patio belongs to Le Stud, a self-styled “hard, manly and virile” leather bar on the fringes of Montreal’s Gay Village.

Audrey’s father, Gilles Vachon, said a server sidled over and said “This establishment is for men only. Please leave.”

Interesting happenings in Iraq

Verrrry interesting, though there’s not much decent info yet.

The one morning of liberal gloating has already gotten old

In every anti-immigration thread I checked today I found liberal commenters echoing the sentiments of our own MarkinNJ: “Welcome aboard, what took you so long?” Even Andrew Sullivan is running with this schtick, which is especially galling.

It’s time, Fred

The tease is getting old, and coy is only cute on women in their 20′s. Any longer and it will look like you’re just avoiding the scrutiny and the debates. If you’re running, get in there.

July 4th is romantic, but too late.

UPDATE: Looks like he thinks so, too:

Politician-turned-actor Fred Thompson has been coy with audiences as he flirts with a bid for the Republican presidential nomination.

In an interview with USA TODAY, however, the former Tennessee senator not only makes it clear that he plans to run, he describes how he aims to do it. He’s planning a campaign that will use blogs, video posts and other Internet innovations to reach voters repelled by politics-as-usual in both parties.

“I can’t remember exactly the point that I said, ‘I’m going to do this,’ ” Thompson says, his 6-foot, 6-inch frame sprawled comfortably across a couch in a hotel suite. “But when I did, the thing that occurred to me: ‘I’m going to tell people that I am thinking about it and see what kind of reaction I get to it.’ “

Huzzah!!

Don’t the Al Qaedans ever get tired of being wrong?

Not that we shouldn’t take any and all threats seriously, but I just can’t avoid the feeling of “here we go again:”

Adam Gadahn, a convert to Islam who has been indicted for treason by a US jury, issued a list of demands and warned they were not up for negotiation.

“Your failure to heed our demands means that you and your people… will experience things that will make you forget all about the horrors of September 11, Afghanistan and Iraq, and Virginia Tech,” he said in the video posted on Tuesday.

Haven’t we heard this before?

• “A man describing himself as an American member of al Qaeda says a new wave of terror attacks against the United States could come “at any moment,” according to a videotape obtained by ABC News.” (10/28/04)
• “If you continue your politics against Muslims, you will see, God willing, such horror that you will forget the horrors of Vietnam.” . . . “If you don’t leave today, certainly you will leave tomorrow, and after tens of thousands of dead, and double that figure in disabled and wounded.” (8/4/05)
• “In an apparent Sept. 11 communiqué broadcast on ABC News, an al Qaeda operative threatens new attacks against cities in the U.S. and Australia.” (9/12/05)
• ” In his first public communication since December 2004, Osama bin Laden says in an audiotape broadcast that al Qaeda is preparing attacks inside the United States.” (1/19/06)
• “Al Qaeda’s deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, called President George W. Bush a “butcher” and threatened a new attack in the United States in a videotape aired on Arab television Monday, his first appearance since an American airstrike against him this month in Pakistan.” (1/30/06)
• “Get out of Muhammad’s peninsula, get out of all Muslim lands, stop supporting the Jews in Palestine, halt supporting Christians in Muslim lands, or else you’ll have nothing but killing, destruction and explosions.” (3/16/06)
• “It is a jihad for God’s sake and will last until [our] religion prevails. We will attack everywhere.” (7/27/06)
• “Al Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri has appeared in a new video urging Muslims to step up their attacks as the United States marks the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 strikes. . . . CNN has quoted Zawahri as saying that “new events” are on the way.” (9/11/06)
• “The new al-Qaida field commander in Afghanistan is calling for Muslims to leave the U.S. – particularly Washington and New York – in anticipation of a major terror attack to rival Sept. 11, according to an interview by a Pakistani journalist.” (9/17/06)

Their track record for accuracy is miserable. And people get on Bush’s case for “Mission Accomplished?”

The hole in liberal philosophy

I’ve touched on this before, but Hillary’s recent socialistic policy pronouncements brought it to mind again. Simply put, here is the question:

What is the destiny of the United States?

geoff’s ultra-clever plan to increase voter turnout

Legalize gambling on election results.

For folks interested in the uncropped Mahmud Hams photo

Click on photo to enlarge (from Getty Images)

…and my support for Bush dissipates completely

You know, I’ve carried a lot of water for this president, but my water-carrying days are over:

President Bush attacked opponents of an immigration deal Tuesday, suggesting they “don’t want to do what’s right for America.”

I don’t think he can flip me off more strongly than that.

UPDATE: Jay Nordlinger talks about me (in the generic sense, that is):

A little advice for President Bush: Watch your rhetoric against opponents of the immigration bill. Be understanding of those who oppose it. Why? Well, in part, because they include some of the people who still love you — and that band is not getting any bigger.

I don’t think I ever “loved” Bush, but I did bend over backwards to be fair to him, and to demand that his record not be distorted. Now that I’m bent over in an entirely different fashion, I’m not nearly as concerned.

UPDATE II: Check out similar sentiments at Dave in Texas, Slublog, and Ace of Spades HQ. More links can be found in the comments.

UPDATE III: And here’s a great summation by Peggy Noonan:

The president has taken to suggesting that opponents of his immigration bill are unpatriotic–they “don’t want to do what’s right for America.” His ally Sen. Lindsey Graham has said, “We’re gonna tell the bigots to shut up.” On Fox last weekend he vowed to “push back.” Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff suggested opponents would prefer illegal immigrants be killed; Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said those who oppose the bill want “mass deportation.” Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson said those who oppose the bill are “anti-immigrant” and suggested they suffer from “rage” and “national chauvinism.”

Why would they speak so insultingly, with such hostility, of opponents who are concerned citizens? And often, though not exclusively, concerned conservatives? It is odd, but it is of a piece with, or a variation on, the “Too bad” governing style. And it is one that has, day by day for at least the past three years, been tearing apart the conservative movement.

He can’t have gone far…

An amusing story from the North:

Police in Ontario are looking for a man who allegedly approached women and asked them to kick him in the groin.

I think a very simple capture plan would work in this instance:

1. Man approaches woman, asks her to kick him in the groin
2. Woman obliges him
3. Police arrive 30 minutes later, finding him writhing where she dropped him

Doesn’t seem very difficult. But why are they bothering to look for this masochistic chump?

”That kind of behavior tends to be a precursor to sexual assault. That’s what we’re trying to determine,” Welsh said.

Well . . . not for a while, I would think.

Sure makes the bedbug epidemic look trivial…

Imagine being awaking to a leopard in your bed:

A man clad only in underwear and a T-shirt wrestled a wild leopard to the floor and pinned it for 20 minutes after the cat leapt through a window of his home and hopped into bed with his sleeping family.

Fortunately the leopard was ailing, and was weakened enough that our undy-clad hero could control it. I’d say, though, that he ought to look into a little finer mesh on his screens.

You can see a photo of the leopard here.

Good news for Memorial Day – Cindy Sheehan throws in the towel

Why is this woman smiling?

Her parting quote is very telling:

Good-bye America …you are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can’t make you be that country unless you want it.

This is exactly my point with regards to the patriotism of many liberals: they are patriotic to their own idea of what America should be, not to what it is. So when she defends her patriotism, she’s defending her personal conception of America, not America.

To a conservative, that’s not patriotism. That’s narcissism.

Via Hot Air.

A veteran who’s fortunately still among us

I talked about one of my top two favorite veterans last Veteran’s Day. I don’t personally know any military folk who have fallen (and I’d like to keep it that way), so today I’d like to talk about my other favorite veteran – the one I married.

My annual Memorial Day toast…

Wang Chi: Here’s to the Army and Navy and the battles they have won; here’s to America’s colors, the colors that never run.

Jack Burton: May the wings of liberty never lose a feather.

[from Big Trouble in Little China]