Barack Obama - Technet Toadie?
Barack Obama - Technet Toadie?
Date: Monday, February 12, 2007 4:05 PM
<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1640 -- 2/xx/2007 >>>>>
The three best methods for determining where a politician is on the H-1b
issue is:
1) Review his/her voting record
2) Find out where the money is coming from.
3) Read what they have written or said on the subject. Of course this
process requires a lot of reading between the lines to pick out the spin.
Barack Obama fails on all three accounts. Let's take a look at what we know
about Obama so far.
VOTING RECORD
Obama hasn't been a Senator very long, but his stance on H-1B and other
immigration issues has not been encouraging. Obama's voting record isn't
much different than those of Kennedy, McCain, and Hillary Clinton. Obama
gets a few good grades but probably only because he hasn't got a long
enough record on some issues to fail.
The best source for voting records is:
http://grades.betterimmigration.com/
Barack Obama's grades are as follows:
CHAIN MIGRATION F-
FOREIGN WORKERS (H-1B etc.) F-
AMNESTIES F-
BORDER CONTROL C+
INTERIOR ENFORCEMENT A+
LETTER FROM OBAMA:
This letter from Obama to a concerned voter is the standard template used
by all politicians who support H-1B. In it, Obama says that the caps on
H-1B need to be increased, and then there are some boiler plate statements
about enforcement. Yawn!
Politicians of Obama's ilk use the same templates that have been passed
down from generations of H-1B advocates. If you want to read more of the
same, just go here:
http://www.jobdestruction.info/ShameH1B/Library.htm
[mailto:senator_obama@obama.senate.gov]
Date: Friday, February 09, 2007 1:36 PM
Dear H***********:
Thank you for writing me with your concerns. I agree that the H-1B visa
program should be continually monitored, but I do believe that the limited
increase in visas for highly skilled immigrants will benefit the economy.
I understand and have heard your concerns about the H1-B visa program and
its potential effects on the jobs and wages of American workers. The intent
is that H1-B visas only be issued if qualified American workers are unable
to take the jobs in question. Also, H1-B visa holders should be paid a fair
market wage for their work, not less than what an American worker would
make for performing the same work. The intent of the program is not to
undercut existing wage structures by importing foreign workers.
The demand for these workers is clear. When the H-1B annual numerical
limits reverted to 65,000 from 195,000 the Fiscal Year 2004 limit was
reached in mid-February 2004, and the Fiscal Year 2005 limit was reached on
October 1, 2004, the first day of the fiscal year.
I believe that within limits, skilled immigrants play a valuable role in
our economy. I understand that we need to create more jobs for American
workers. And, using the technology sector as an example, the economic
production of companies assisted by workers on H1-B visas in 1998 created
more than $16.8 billion in sales and over 58,000 jobs. The great majority
of these news jobs are going to American workers. Immigrants are not the
cause of the squeeze on middle class families. Tax, workforce, and
infrastructure policies that favor the wealthy at the expense of greater
deficits hurt working class Americans. Failing to address the health care
crisis in America while favoring pharmaceutical companies hurts working
Americans. Scapegoating immigrants will not help us rise to meet these
challenges.
But I fully agree that H1-B hires should be a last recourse as a matter of
labor policy. I support the efforts of the Departments of Labor and
Homeland Security to ensure that employers and H1-B applicants follow the
intent and restrictions of the program. It is incumbent upon the Department
of Labor to monitor the wages being paid to H1-B visa holders and enforce
the H1-B programs provision that wages reflect the current job market.
As this debate continues, I believe it is important for Congress to assess
how the H1-B visa affects job opportunities for Americans and wages in the
relevant sectors. I look forward to working with the Departments of Labor
and Homeland Security and my colleagues in Congress to determine where
there may be gaps in the enforcement of the program as it stands. I would
also like to explore increasing the burden on employers to prove that all
attempts had been made to hire qualified American workers. I then will take
the appropriate steps to protect the interests of American workers.
Again, thank you for writing me about the H1-B visa program. Please stay in
touch on any issue of concern to you.
Sincerely,
Barack Obama
United States Senator
P.S. Our system does not allow direct response to this email. However, if
you would like to contact me again, please use the form on the website:
http://obama.senate.gov/contact/
Stay up to date with Barack's work in the Senate and on issues of
importance to Illinois. Subscribe to the weekly podcast here:
http://obama.senate.gov/podcast/
MONEY TRAIL
The pig trough's that politicians feed from is the most important indicator
of their voting behavior. In Obama's case, one of his big money friends is
the Political Action Committee (PAC) called TechNet. I often refer to
Technet as the West Coast's version of the ITAA because of their aggressive
media and political campaigns to promote H-1B. You can go to their website
at:
http://www.technet.org/
Obama is quite proud of his incestuous relationship with Technet. He even
has a transcript of a speech he gave for them in 2005 on his website. The
most telling part of the speech was his explanation for America's job loss
-- it's because the foreigners have superior educations. Well heck, that's
one of Technet's key arguing points for H-1B. I can just imagine the big
grins on the faces of the technet lobbyists when Obama said this.
http://obama.senate.gov/speech/050308-remarks_of_senator_barack_obama_at_technet/index.html
They know that when it comes to their jobs and their wages,
they're not only competing with workers in Naperville and
Carbondale, but in New Delhi and Calcutta. What's more,
they know that when it comes to the high-tech, high skill
jobs of the future, their children are not only competing
with children here in the United States, but with those on
the other side of the globe who are increasingly being
educated earlier, longer, and with a special emphasis on
the math and science skills required for the industries of
tomorrow.
Obama has been listening Bill Gates too much and not enough to unemployed
tech workers in Illinois.
And we can do better, think bigger, and act bolder when it comes
to education in this country. The best part about Bill Gates'
speech last
week was when he said that our schools are in danger of becoming
obsolete as tools to educate tomorrow's workers for tomorrow's
jobs. But schools are where our children's dreams begin, and so
schools are where we must begin to make those dreams come true.
Finally, we should work to close the gap that is widening between
America and the rest of the world when it comes to math and
science graduates.
Obama's coziness with Technet isn't new news. Here are two articles, one
recent and one from last year.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/living/community/16499633.htm
Posted on Fri, Jan. 19, 2007
Obama wins over tech-savvy supporters
VALLEY PAC FORMED; FUNDRAISER IN WORKS
By Mary Anne Ostrom
Mercury News
Obama-mania has hit the Bay Area.
Tech-savvy politicos have formed a Silicon Valley-based political action
committee supporting Barack Obama. A major local fundraiser is being
planned for next month for the Illinois senator, who posted an Internet
video announcing an exploratory committee for a 2008 presidential run. Bay
Area politicians say the media-genic, mixed-race Obama is a natural for
California and could go far here.
The PAC, created by San Jose Democratic consultant Jude Barry, raised
$30,000 in the final week of December in Silicon Valley.
Onetime TechNet adviser Wade Randlett, a San Francisco fundraiser for
Obama, says the phone is ringing off the hook from potential contributors
and volunteers.
San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, an Obama friend, and Rep.
Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, say his story ``reflects America.''
In ways few politicians have, Obama has ``already crossed from the
political culture to celebrity culture,'' says Barry, who launched
obama4america.com earlier this week at the urging of former eBay executive
Tom Adams. While 2004 presidential candidate Howard Dean revolutionized
fundraising on the Internet, Barry, who was Dean's California director in
2004, and others predict Obama will take campaigning a step further -- to
the YouTube generation.
While generating excitement among the tech-centric, progressive pockets of
the Bay Area, Obama, 45, for many remains little-known beyond his
risumi. And potential Democratic rival Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.,
remains popular here and has a strong California organization.
But the fascination with Obama is mushrooming.
``He's certainly bringing a new perspective to national politics,'' said
Clayborne Carson, founding director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Research
and Education Institute. ``It's not just the fact he is biracial. I think
the fact he was raised in Hawaii and Indonesia helps give him a distinctive
understanding of America in the world.''
Obama's anti-war stance and youth, combined with his upbringing, has made
him an instant magnet for attention. From his stirring 2004 keynote speech
at the National Democratic Convention in Boston to his 2006 bestseller,
``The Audacity of Hope,'' much has gone well for him.
Whether he survives the 2008 presidential primary season or not, Bay Area
political leaders say Obama already has changed the dialogue over race and
politics.
The son of a Kenyan father and white Kansan mother, who was raised on the
Pacific Rim before heading to Harvard University, the U.S. senator from
Illinois and likely candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination
transcends many traditional divisions.
``A lot of us tend to oversimplify political labels,'' said Harris, who has
an Indian mother and African-American father. Obama and Harris have hosted
earlier fundraisers for each other. ``He's much more interesting and
complex than those normal categories.''
Added Lee, ``I think his candidacy reminds Americans that we are a diverse
country. What Sen. Obama reflects is America. And I hope Americans will see
that as a positive. I think they will.''
But others say it is far too early to tell whether Obama, with only two
years in the U.S. Senate, has the staying power to survive what's expected
to be a brutal and costly primary season.
And while a growing number of Americans say they could vote for an
African-American president,'' said Steven Millner, chairman of the
African-American Studies Department at San Jose State University, ``until I
see clear evidence that older white voters, who are not members of the
Democratic Party's left, start attaching bumper stickers with a name like
`Obama' on their gas guzzlers, I'll reserve judgment.''
And while Obama may be drawing a page from Dean's Internet playbook, which
helped raise money and attract young voters, there needs to be more to the
message than the medium, say others.
``Along comes Obama, who obviously has great communication skills and
clicks with people. But, ultimately, you're going to have to give people a
more basic idea of what you're about,'' said Democratic political
consultant Chris Lehane, who worked for Al Gore's 2000 campaign but is not
currently affiliated with any presidential candidate.
``Is he going to be the Google of the presidential campaign and redefine
the model or will he be the Webvan.com, which has a lot of promise on paper
and takes off quickly, but ultimately sinks.''
Part of the promise is his ability, so far, to bridge the historically
divisive racial divides. Stacy Thompson, an Oakland college educator who
works on mixed-race issues, says in her experience, people of combined
Caucasian and black heritage are more easily accepted by white Americans.
``They can speak comfortably as a member of both groups, of the pros and
cons of both groups,'' said Thompson.
Political experts think Obama's success or failure may answer the question
of whether Americans can embrace a leader who does not look like most of
them.
``If he has any realistic chance to turn the tide of history in America,
people will have to push back the legacy of the American past. When they go
in the voting booth, will Americans in large enough numbers really say, `I
can vote for this guy who is half-black and let the legacy go'?'' said
Albert Camarillo, a history professor at Stanford University.
``It's a rocky, rocky road. But even if he slips and falls, he's a very
ambitious guy, and he'll be a household name when this is all through.''
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.harpers.org/sb-a-little-bit-more-on-obama-1161881683.html
A Bit More on Barack
Senator's office criticizes Harper's story
Posted on Thursday, October 26, 2006. By Ken Silverstein.
SourcesKEN SILVERSTEIN
takes a close look at
BARACK OBAMA INC.
Only in the November
Harper's Magazine
Available on newsstands now
The November issue of Harper's Magazine is just hitting newsstands
everywhere, and I've received quite a few comments about my story on
Senator Barack Obama. That tally includes several lengthy conversations
with a staffer in Obama's office, who graciously but firmly rejected some
of the article's contentions. Late Monday, Obama's office issued a press
release that challenged parts of the story.
The staffer -- and some readers -- took issue with my statement that Obama
had "established a political machine funded and run by a standard Beltway
group of lobbyists, P.R. consultants, and hangers-on." But if you examine
Obama's campaign finance records carefully, it's hard to reach any other
conclusion. Here are some additional details that were not included in the
article.
Since announcing his candidacy for the Illinois Senate seat, Obama has
raised the astonishing sum of nearly $21 million and has built close
relationships with a number of traditional fat-cat donors. For example, one
of Obama's leading career patrons is Skadden, Arps ($53,271, according to
the most recent disclosure filings), a leading corporate law firm and one
of the biggest donors to the Democratic Party.
Several of the firm's lawyers donated money to Obama and also helped raise
money for him as well. That includes Christina Tchen, a corporate litigator
at Skadden who has represented major financial firms in consumer
class-action suits. (Tchen is on the board of trustees of the University of
Chicago Hospitals, where Obama's wife, Michelle, is vice president for
community and external affairs.)
In November of last year, three other Skadden attorneys helped organize a
fundraiser for Obama's Leadership PAC, the vehicle he uses to support other
Democratic candidates, and to boost his own political profile and gain
support within the party. They were: Vivenne LaBorde, a former aide to
Congressman Chaka Fattah and a senior attorney in the firm's Mergers &
Acquisitions department; Toni Cook Bush, a former senior counsel to the
communications subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee and now a
representative for cable, satellite and telephone companies; and Vaughn
Williams, whose practice "emphasizes securities and corporate litigation,
including class action litigation," according to the firm's website.
Others who have helped raise funds for Obama's Leadership PAC include John
Gorman of Texas-based Tejas Securities, a major funder of Senate Democrats
(and of the Bush presidential campaigns) and Winston & Strawn, the
Chicago-based law and lobbying firm. Individual contributors to Obama
include some of the best-connected lobbyists in town, including Jeffrey
Peck (whose clients include MasterCard, the Business Roundtable, and the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce) and Rich Tarplin (Chevron, the American Petroleum
Institute, and the National Association of Manufacturers).
In the magazine article, I asserted that Obama is not a mouthpiece for his
donors; neither does his voting record mirror the wishes of his contributor
list. But, as I suggested, it's naove to think that he's completely
unaware of who's footing the bills. Exelon, a leading nuclear-plant
operator based in Illinois, is a big donor to Obama, and its executive and
employees have given him more than $70,000 since 2004. The Obama staffer
pointed out that the senator pushed for legislation that would require
nuclear companies to "inform state and local officials if there is an
accidental or unintentional leak of a radioactive substance," according to
an office press release. Obama took a stand on that issue following reports
that a plant operated by Exelon had leaked tritium several times over the
past decade.
But Exelon is probably not entirely unhappy with Obama. At a 2005 hearing
at the Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works, of which Obama is a
member, the senator -- echoing the nuclear industry's current campaign to
promotes nuclear energy as "green" -- said that since Congress was debating
"policies to address air quality and the deleterious effects of carbon
emissions on the global ecosystem, it is reasonable -- and realistic -- for
nuclear power to remain on the table for consideration." He was immediately
lauded by the industry publication Nuclear Notes, which said, "Back during
his campaign for the U.S. Senate in 2004, [Obama] said that he rejected
both liberal and conservative labels in favor of common sense
solutions. And when it comes to nuclear energy, it seems like the
Senator is keeping an open mind."
To anyone who thinks Obama is blissfully oblivious to the fundraising
imperative, consider the following: in one of his earliest votes as a
senator, Obama helped pass a class-action "reform" bill that was a
long-standing and cherished goal of business groups. (The bill was the
focus of a significant lobbying effort by financial firms, who constitute
Obama's second-biggest single bloc of donors.)
The bill was also heavily championed by high-tech firms. Shortly after the
vote, dozens of big-donor executives affiliated with a PAC called TechNet
came to Washington for an annual lobbying trip. The agenda was top-heavy
with White House officials and congressional Republicans, but Obama was
picked to address the PACs policy lunch, and a draft of the speech was
posted on his website. "None of us expect or want the government to lead
the next technological revolution," Obama told the assembled contributors,
"but I believe that we can provide the spark that fuels Americas
innovation and competitiveness in the global economy. We can do better than
burdening businesses with cases of class-action abuse, and thats why I
cast a tough vote in favor of reform the other week."
Obama has said that's he's considering a presidential bid. He has a lot of
attractive qualities and a pretty solid record, but that kind of ambition
requires deep pockets and good connections. The magazine article was
intended to explore the conflict between those two sets of facts and to
examine the obstacles that it may present.
As to Obama's press release, I had my say in the magazine and I think the
senator's office is entitled to its reply. There's much I disagree with in
the press release, however, particularly in the way that my own article was
summarized.
To take one -- and only one -- example, the press release says that I
suggested that Obama's "hiring of a former staffer for Treasury Secretary
Robert Rubin makes him susceptible to policies that hurt organized labor."
I said no such thing -- and I agree that Obama has a generally strong
record in support of organized labor. I mentioned the hiring of Karen
Kornbluh only to note that Obama's political team, from advisers to
funders, is mainstream and conventional and his choices don't indicate a
strong desire to take on entrenched interests.
I could go on for quite awhile here, but you can judge for yourself by
reading the article in the magazine and the press release issued by Obama's
office.
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