Sitting here trying to watch the Superbowl. Waste. This is the last year for me on this non-spectacle. The game is crashing like a gutted hotel. The only sport here is watching these dim bulbs trying to sell the world a pile of shit in the middle of a depression. Who's depressed? Not me.
And furthermore . . .
By FRANK BASS and RITA BEAMISH, Associated Press Writers
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.
2/01/2009
Soupy Bowl
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7 comments:
BC.
u needa 60 inch plasma to watch the bowl, dude. the ads mostly sucked but the actual game was pretty good.
the boss was bad, really bad.
as fer these banks: the two banks i use are of late crowded with tellers and advisors from india and south of zee border. more evidence we are slowly sawing thru the limb while we stupidly sit on the outside of it.
i also sense we are taking a perverse pleasure in watching the ship go down; almost as if we subconsciously know we deserve it.
The super bowl has always been an exercise in wretched excess. Why the giant half-time stink show? It almost always sucks.More importantly what a waste of money. Give us 15 minutes of dead air and donate the $ to Habitat for Humanity. The boss needs to retire, STOP singing those same frickin songs.Clarence appeared to get his coat the same place Aretha got her hat. We enjoyed the game but we do not get to see any of the amusing commercials here as they switch to ones in Espanol and not the 3 million $ ones either.
As for the banks and every other piece of shit business that could even give a rat's ass about the state of our country, economy, etc.
Not surprising.
It's the Super Bowl, Chuck. Not the Superbowl. Or the super bowl.
If you're that alienated, get rid of your TV, get off the grid, and go on an all-bug organic diet.
It's a stupid, brutal game. So is life.
In the meantime, go Stillers!
Anonymously as a Penn Stater who hails from Pittsburgh, bro. And go Stillers.
Easy now, Mr. Nitwitty Lion, you’re talking to a senior citizen here. Never accuse an old man of alienation. You might be right. Now let me get back to my bugrolls. Bro.
Big Chuck,
Well, I finally got a rise out of you. Good to see that you're reading your own blog, bro!
Senior citizen, my sagging butt. You were a curmudgeon when I met you. Remember, I approached you in the bathroom in the Dexter Club, and as part of an article I was writing, I asked you what you thought of the computer dating service that had recently arrived on campus. You told me what a moral tragedy it was. I liked that.
Re: the banks. We the People should stop wringing our hands about the criminal behaviour of the self-appointed plutocrats who stole our money, and instead demand the money back, and, if that doesn't work, which it probably won't, charge them with fraud. There's good laws against stealing in this country. We need to start applying them, so corporate America realizes that they haven't hi-jacked their companies, they've been entrusted with running them wisely. And on a personal note, fuck every one of those shameless, greedy bastards.
Anonymously as Tom Cool, who's password is in his pants, which have been stolen by some rich bastard to use as rags to mop the marble floors of his 12,000 sf mansion.
PS. Go Stillers, bro!
Oh well . . .
Hasta la vista, compadre . . .
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