Companies lay off thousands, then demand immigration reform for new labor

On Tuesday, the chief human resources officers of more than 100 large corporations sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi urging quick passage of a comprehensive immigration reform bill.

The officials represent companies with a vast array of business interests: General Electric, The Walt Disney Company, Marriott International, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, McDonald's Corporation, The Wendy's Company, Coca-Cola, The Cheesecake Factory, Johnson & Johnson, Verizon Communications, Hewlett-Packard, General Mills, and many more. All want to see increases in immigration levels for low-skill as well as high-skill workers, in addition to a path to citizenship for the millions of immigrants currently in the U.S. illegally.

A new immigration law, the corporate officers say, "would be a long overdue step toward aligning our nation's immigration policies with its workforce needs at all skill levels to ensure U.S. global competitiveness." The officials cite a publication of their trade group, the HR Policy Association, which calls for immigration reform to "address the reality that there is a global war for talent." The way for the United States to win that war for talent, they say, is more immigration.

Of course, the U.S. unemployment rate is at 7.3 percent, with millions of American workers at all skill levels out of work, and millions more so discouraged that they have left the work force altogether. In addition, at the same time the corporate officers seek higher numbers of immigrants, both low-skill and high-skill, many of their companies are laying off thousands of workers.

For example, Hewlett-Packard, whose Executive Vice President for Human Resources Tracy Keogh signed the letter, laid off 29,000 employees in 2012. In August of this year, Cisco Systems, whose Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer Kathleen Weslock signed the letter, announced plans to lay off 4,000 — in addition to 8,000 cut in the last two years. United Technologies, whose Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Organization Elizabeth B. Amato signed the letter, announced layoffs of 3,000 this year. American Express, whose Chief Human Resources Officer L. Kevin Cox signed the letter, cut 5,400 jobs this year. Procter & Gamble, whose Chief Human Resources Officer Mark F. Biegger signed the letter, announced plans to cut 5,700 jobs in 2012.

Via: Washington Examiner

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Grant fraud probe includes suspects with ties to Obama, Wright

Illinois state workers with ties to President Obama and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright have been charged with fraud involving grants from state health and commerce departments, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

In total, 13 state workers have been charged after a multi-year investigation found fraudulent state grant and contract activity adding up to more than $16 million, including embezzlement from an AIDS benefit organization.

The numerous cases — some of which stretch back to 2011 — were investigated by the U.S. Postal Service, the Internal Revenue Service and the Illinois Secretary of State’s office, according to the Sun-Times.

Jeri L. Wright, whose father was Obama’s controversial pastor, is charged with money laundering and making false statements to a grand jury.

Wright said she is a “close associate and friend” with Regina and Ronald Evans. Mrs. Evans is the former police chief of Country Club Hills, Ill.

The Evanses will soon be sentenced for embezzling nearly half of a $1.25 million commerce grant. The couple admitted that they spent the loot on personal debt and gifts for friends.

Quinshaunta Golden is the former chief of staff to long-time Obama friend Eric E. Whitaker, the former head of the Illinois Department of Public Health. Jones is accused of skimming $433,000 in kickbacks on health department grants and contracts, according to the Sun-Times.

The Sun-Times reported that Whitaker is cooperating with the investigation and had no knowledge of Golden’s scheme.

Via: The Daily Caller

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‘Fox News Cooties’: The Five Knows Why Media Isn’t Covering Benghazi One Year Later

Today is not only the 12th anniversary of the attacks that killed thousands of Americans on U.S. soil, but, as you would know if you’ve been watching Fox News today, it’s also the one year anniversary of the attack in Benghazi, Libya that killed four American diplomats. Many conservatives, as well as some outspoken family members of the victims, feel that the story is not getting as much attention as it deserves. And The Five’s Greg Gutfeld knows why: It has “FNC cooties.”

After playing clips of family members speaking out (on Fox) about how the Obama Administration has let them down, Kimberly Guilfoyle said, “It’s so embarrassing. It’s so shameful. I feel horrible as an American that this is what has happened to these family members that have kindly asked for some answers, that were promised that face-to-face and still no justice, no answers.” Adopting the rhetoric of 9/11, she added, “Benghazi should never be forgotten.”

Eric Bolling agreed that family members deserve more transparency than they’ve received. “You’re ready to go kill someone in Syria on the one hand,” he said, “without all the information, but we’re a year into this and allegedly a year into an investigation, you have a lot going on behind the scenes and nothing’s happening on Benghazi.”

Bob Beckel pushed back on his “Benghazi conspiracy theorist” co-hosts, saying “you can’t call it an injustice” when you don’t know all of the facts of the U.S. investigation.

As long as she was being called a “conspiracy theorist,” Dana Perino decided to offer up a “theory” of her own. She said, “The White House has done some polling. They’ve figured out internally that the only people that care about this are on the right, so ‘we can just weather this storm and wait until it goes away.’”

Gutfeld concurred, claiming the story has “FNC cooties.” He said it’s “personal” for the mainstream media, who say “I’m not doing that story if the conservative media is doing it.” Furthermore, he added, “if the media actually followed this story” Hillary Clinton wouldn’t get the 2016 presidential nomination. “But they’re not going to follow it, so she probably will.”

Watch video below, via Fox News:

Via: Mediaite.com

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Fox News Poll: Record 38 percent say US less safe today than before 9/11

As September 11 approaches, a new Fox News national poll finds that nearly 4 voters in 10 (38 percent) feel the United States is less safe today than before the terrorist attacks 12 years ago.  That’s up five percentage points from 2011 (the last time this question was asked), and is the highest number saying the country is less safe in a Fox News poll. 

Just 23 percent felt less safe in 2004 (the first time this question was asked).

The new poll also shows a slim 51-percent majority thinks the U.S. is safer today.  That’s down from 54 percent who felt the country was safer in 2011, and down from a high of 58 percent in 2004.

Just 38 percent of Republicans say the U.S. is safer today, which represents a substantial drop from 60 percent who felt that way in 2011. 

The decline among independents is much smaller: 47 percent say the country is safer now, down from 52 percent two years ago.

Sentiment among Democrats has gone in the opposite direction: 64 percent feel the country is safer today, up from 50 percent in the 2011 poll. 

Meanwhile, by a 48-45 percent margin, more voters approve than disapprove of the job President Obama is doing handling terrorism. 

This is the only issue area in which the president receives positive ratings.  Even so, his current 48 percent approval on terrorism makes this a new low approval for him on the issue.

Via: Fox News

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Obama's Syria address: do we look that dumb?

Link to video: Barack Obama addresses the nation on Syria – video

Upholding and enforcing the longstanding global norm against chemical weapons – while deterring Bashar al-Assad from using them again against his own people – offers a compelling rationale for even a punitive use of force by the United States against Syria. Tuesday night, Barack Obama made a semblance of that argument; but he lathered it in so much threat-exaggeration and maudlin imagery that it was virtually impossible to take his case for war seriously.

If anything, the fact that Obama was forced to rely on contradictory and deceptive arguments to sell the American people on the idea of military intervention in Syria did more to undermine the case for intervention than reinforce it.

The best argument for the use of US military force against Syria is actually a rather simple one: international norms dictating how wars are fought and how civilians are treated in wartime matter because they make wars less likely to occur. And when wars do happen, those norms ensure that that conflicts are just a bit less deadly.

In fact, the reason we uphold and enforce norms, like those on chemical weapons, is not because the world is a hotbed of violence, but actually, because it's never been safer. Sometimes, it is necessary to punish behavior that goes far beyond commonly accepted international norms and legal rules governing armed conflict.

Of course, such universalist, almost symbolic arguments are not easy ones on which to base a military intervention. And so it is perhaps not surprising that Obama felt the need to broaden his message … into the world of the fantastical.

Via: theguardian

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Obama Is Helping the Terrorists to Win

President who is against this nation, who supports the very enemies who attacked us, Fundamentally transformed – into something less sane, less safe, less free

Twelve years ago, on September 11, 2001, the United States of America suffered the worst single attack upon our homeland that had ever been made.  I’m sure that all of us remember that day when 19 radical Islamic fanatics murdered three thousand civilians, both Americans and guests in our country, and American military personnel while acting on the dictates of authentic Islam as it is drawn from the Qur’an and the Islamic traditions.

(And, no, let’s not delude ourselves that what motivated those terrorists was anything other than genuine, traditional, non-sanitized-for-Western-consumption Islam in its purest form.)  On that day, many Americans had their eyes opened to some stark realities about the world in which we live, while many others chose to bury their heads in the sand and blame America, blame capitalism, blame freedom for the attacks, instead of blaming the ideology of radical Islam.  In the years following the 9-11 attacks, even though we have rebuilt much of what was destroyed that day, the lingering effects of the New Division – between those on the Right who want to oppose the anti-Americanism of radical Islam and those on the Left who embrace it, as well as the radical Muslims as fellow-travelers – have not only remained, but become more pronounced. 

This became even more obvious in November of 2008, when America elected a Manchurian candidate who promised to “fundamentally transform” America.  In the years since, it has become apparent to anyone with their eyes open that Barack Hussein Obama is diametrically opposed to every ideal, every moral standard, every principle upon which the United States of America was founded and constituted.  In essence, he is fundamentally anti-American in every way.  He and those like him hate our nation – they hate the Christian basis of our laws and founding documents, they hate our freedom, they hate our prosperity.  His promise to “fundamentally transform” America was not idle – he has done and is doing it as we speak.  He is turning us into something that is not America, which is what he and the others on the Left intended all along.

Via: Canada Free Press

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Sources: US weapons stolen in Libya raids, fueling Special Forces pull-out

Highly sensitive U.S. military equipment stored in Libya was stolen over the summer by groups likely aligned and working with terrorist organizations, State Department sources told Fox News -- in raids that contributed to the decision to pull Special Forces personnel from the country. 

The stolen equipment had been used by U.S. Special Forces stationed in the country. Lost in the raids in late July and early August were dozens of M4 rifles, night-vision technology and lasers used as aiming devices that are mounted on guns and can only be seen with night-vision equipment. 

"This stuff is how we win wars. The enemy doesn't have that," one source said. 

The overnight raids happened at a military training camp run by American Special Forces on the outskirts of Tripoli, in the weeks before the team was pulled from the country in August. 

That U.S. team was funded by the Department of Defense Section 1208, which provides support to assist and stand up foreign counterterrorism forces in other countries. And in the case of Libya, the trainers were also tasked with hunting down the Benghazi attack suspects that killed four Americans one year ago. As Fox News previously reported, members of that team are leaving Libya. 

Via: Fox News

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Holder Names Benghazi Victims in 9/11 Memorial Remarks

Attorney General Eric Holder added the names of the Benghazi fallen to his short 9/11 remembrance speech at the Justice Department this morning, while President Obama mentioned the attack in his remarks at the Pentagon’s wreath-laying ceremony.

“Especially this morning, here at the United States Department of Justice, as we lift up the memories of those who were taken from us so suddenly, we must also renew our shared commitment to the uniquely American values that have always defined this great nation, and must guide this department’s work every single day,” Holder said in remarks to department staff.

“This is the only fitting legacy we can build for the innocent victims of that terrible morning. The public servants and the military personnel who lost their lives at the Pentagon. The workers who were struck down in their offices at the World Trade Center. The heroic passengers who brought down a hijacked airliner in a field in Pennsylvania. And so many first responders and ordinary, but really extraordinary, citizens who ran toward burning buildings and saved countless lives, as so many others were racing away,” the attorney general continued.

“We pay tribute to each of them, and to many others who have given their lives in the service of this country since 9/11, from the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who have fought on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, to patriots, like Glen Doherty, Tyrone Woods, Sean Smith, and Ambassador Chris Stevens, who were taken from us just one year ago in Libya.”

Via: PJ Media

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Who funds Syrian rebel advocate O’Bagy and the Syrian Emergency Task Force? You do

The Syrian Emergency Task Force, the pro-rebel lobbying outfit that employs widely quoted intervention advocate Elizabeth O’Bagy as its political director, receives funding from the U.S. Department of State and related government contractors.

In an exclusive interview with The Daily Caller earlier last week, O’Bagy explained how she got paid. O’Bagy has been roundly condemned for working for a pro-Syrian lobbying group at the same time she was casting the Syrian rebels in a positive light. She works as an analyst at the neoconservative think tank, the Institute for the Study of War.

“Most of the contracts that I’ve been a part of through the Task Force have been through CSO, which is the Conflict and Stabilization Office[sic],” O’Bagy told The Daily Caller. O’Bagy was likely referring to the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, a State Department-funded organization.

“My salary comes from the Institute for the Study of War. I don’t get a salary from working with the Task Force,” O’Bagy said. “I get paid contracting fees for very specific contracts.”

How much she makes is “completely dependent on the contract,” says O’Bagy. “Usually, they [the SETF] kind of write in a specific fee. So it’s not a percentage of the contract, but it’s like I get, just off the top of my head, like two thousand dollars to help implement this project. And then I just get that standard contracting fee. And I actually get a 1099.”

State Department contracting firms like “ARK [Access Resources Knowledge], Chemonics, Creative [Associates International]—a number of the big contractors” set up the contracts and pay the Syrian Emergency Task Force, O’Bagy told TheDC.

With each contract, O’Bagy made more money. This revelation raises serious questions about her incentives to support American involvement in Syria. Both Secretary of State John Kerry and Senator John McCain cited O’Bagy’s work in the push for military action but did not disclose her ties to the rebel groups.

When asked about the potential conflict of interest, O’Bagy said she was working for the Syrian people.

Via: The Daily Caller

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http://dailycaller.com/2013/09/09/who-funds-syrian-rebel-advocate-obagy-and-the-syrian-emergency-task-force-you-do/

Unions to Vote on Changes in Obamacare; Law Will Have 'Devastating Impact'

The AFL-CIO will vote on a resolution that calls for changes to the Affordable Care Act, revealing divisions within the labor movement over whether the landmark health-care law is good for union members.

The labor federation’s executive council today approved the resolution, sending it to the delegates for debate during the final sessions of the group’s quadrennial constitutional convention, said Terry O’Sullivan, general president of the Laborer’s International Union of North America. More than 1,600 delegates and guests of the nation’s largest labor federation are meeting this week in Los Angeles.

“I didn’t hear any votes against it,” O’Sullivan said after a meeting of the executive council.
Drafts of the resolution call for changes to several provisions in the law, such as one that requires employees under certain plans to pay a fee to maintain coverage. Or one that classifies multi-employer plans as group plans to deny them subsidies. Republicans in Congress are vowing to block the changes sought by labor.

Editor's Note: ObamaCare Is About to Strike Are You Prepared?

“We want to offer some constructive suggestions” to President Barack Obama, Fred Redmond, a vice president with the United Steelworkers Union and a member of the AFL-CIO executive council, said in an interview. “We’re walking a balance to make sure that our message to the president is not disrespectful and should not imply any lack of support for the plan.”

O’Sullivan said without subsidies, some of the health funds used by his members could be forced out of business. He also opposes a temporary reinsurance fee to offset costs of expanding coverage.
‘Devastating Impact’

Via: Newsmax

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Surprise: ‘Million Muslim March’ Really Was ’9/11 Truther Convention’

Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, and the hosts of The Five were all criticized in early August when they sounded alarms about the purpose of Wednesday’s “Million Muslim March.”The Five’s Eric Bolling preemptively accused the organizers of the march of putting on a “9/11 truther convention.” Well, surprise! It turns out he was completely right. 

The Media Research Center sent an interviewer down to the sparsely populated “Million Muslim March” on Wednesday where he probed former Princeton University professor Cornel West and march organizer Chris Phillips about the purpose of the event.

When asked about the march’s mission, West first indicated that it was to protest against “the precious and priceless folk who have been killed by U.S. drones.”

RELATED: ‘Hundreds’ Participate in ‘Million Muslim March’ on 9/11 Anniversary

When asked if Islamic extremists were behind the September 11 attacks, West replied that this question was a “good question.”

“From what I see, I think that certainly bin Laden said he did it and had connections,” West said, “But I’m also open to the conversation and investigation.”

He conceded that Osama bin Laden did “have something to do with” the attacks of September 11.

When directly asked if “Muslims” perpetrated the 9/11 attacks, Phillips replied that he did not. “I’m asking questions and finding my own truth,” Phillips said.

Via: Mediaite.com

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US income inequality at record high

The income gap between the richest 1% of Americans and the other 99% widened to a record margin in 2012, according to an analysis of tax filings.

The top 1% of US earners collected 19.3% of household income, breaking a record previously set in 1927.

Income inequality in the US has been growing for almost three decades.

Overall, the pre-tax incomes of the top 1% of households rose 19.6% compared to a 1% increase for the rest of Americans.

And the top 10% of richest households represented just under half of all income in the year, according to the analysis.

Emmanuel Saez at the University of California, Berkeley, one of the economists who analysed the tax data, said the rise may have been in part because of sales of stock to avoid higher capital gains taxes in January.

Mr Saez wrote in an analysis that despite recent policy changes aiming at lessening income inequality, the measures were relatively small in comparison to "policy changes that took place coming out of the Great Depression".

"Therefore, it seems unlikely that US income concentration will fall much in the coming years."

Via: BBC

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Obama's Syria address attracts 32 million U.S. viewers

(Reuters) - More than 32 million U.S. television viewers watched President Barack Obama outline his policy towardSyria in a speech aired live on 13 broadcast and cable networks, according to Nielsen ratings data on Wednesday.

The Tuesday night address attracted a smaller audience than the 56 million who tuned in to see the president announce the killing of Osama bin Laden in May 2011.

It pulled in more viewers than Obama's March 2011 speech on U.S. military involvement in Libya, which drew 25.6 million viewers, and his August 2010 speech declaring the end of the U.S. combat mission in Iraq, which was watched by 29.2 million.

Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in September 2012 attracted about 35.7 million people.

The Syria address aired live from about 9 p.m. to 9:15 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday. The combined average audience on 13 networks totaled 32.3 million viewers, Nielsen said.

Via: Reuters

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How The New York Times Remembers 9/11 Aftermath: Flag-waving a 'Cousin to Intolerance'

Since it’s the twelfth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, here’s a slightly dated outrage. On September 4, TV critic Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times tackled a CNN documentary called “The Flag,” which focused on an American flag that three firefighters raised at Ground Zero late on the afternoon of the attacks. A photo taken for the New Jersey newspaper The [Bergen] Record “became a heartening, patriotic symbol for many on an otherwise awful day, and so did the flag itself.”

But the flag disappeared, and that story spurred the CNN program. Genzlinger ruined the review by dragging out the old leftist saw that flag-waving and “intolerance” are closely related:

The photographer rebelled at efforts to make him a celebrity, and so did the three firefighters. A plan to turn the photograph into a sculpture became a source of controversy. Nationwide, flag-waving was sometimes a cousin to intolerance.

This is the same critic who complained about the PBS series on the Constitution that put liberal NPR game-show host Peter Sagal on a motorcycle ride across America – that was an ecological offense: “

And when did Mr. Sagal’s vehicle of choice, a motorcycle, morph into a symbol of freedom, when anyone who has ever been awakened by one late at night wishes the Bill of Rights had something in it about freedom from noise pollution?

Anyway, what’s irksome about the format is that it has become so common that it just feels like an excuse for the host to do some traveling in a way that unnecessarily burns fossil fuel. If you’re making a travel show, sure, get in or on some eye-catching vehicle and drive across America. If you’re making a show about current constitutional debates, just read a newspaper. If you need to go someplace where such a debate has occurred, take public transportation.

You might call that transporation intolerance.

Via: Newsbusters

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WSJ op-ed writer Elizabeth O’Bagy fired for resume lie

The Syria researcher whose Wall Street Journal op-ed piece was cited by Secretary of State John Kerry and Sen. John McCain during congressional hearings about the use of force has been fired from the Institute for the Study of War for lying about having a Ph.D., the group announced on Wednesday.

“The Institute for the Study of War has learned and confirmed that, contrary to her representations, Ms. Elizabeth O’Bagy does not in fact have a Ph.D. degree from Georgetown University,” the institute said in a statement. “ISW has accordingly terminated Ms. O’Bagy’s employment, effective immediately.”

O’Bagy told POLITICO in an interview Monday that she had submitted and defended her dissertation and was waiting for Georgetown University to confer her degree. O’Bagy said she was in a dual master’s and doctorate program at Georgetown.

Kimberly Kagan, who founded the ISW in 2007, said in an interview that while she was “deeply saddened” by the situation, she stands by O’Bagy’s work on Syria.

(POLITICO reports - Obama’s Syria address: special coverage)

”Everything I’ve looked at is rock solid,” Kagan told POLITICO. “Every thread that we have pulled upon has been verified through multiple sources.”

Paul Gigot, editorial page editor of The Wall Street Journal, told POLITICO in a statement that “we were not aware of Elizabeth O’Bagy’s academic claims or credentials when we published her Aug. 31 op-ed, and the op-ed made no reference to them.”

Via: Politico

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