Rag Hand

This came from a blog post by David Gewirtz for ZDNet Government:

“According to InformationWeek, the U.S. agency known as USAID (United States Agency for International Development) is partnering with outsourcing service companies in countries like Sri Lanka to teach more than 3,000 workers technology skills in tools like Enterprise Java.

To make it easier for those workers to work with American companies who have outsourced work, American taxpayers are also paying to train the workers in English.”

This is from the InformationWeek article:

“Courses in Business Process Outsourcing, Enterprise Java, and English Language Skills will be offered at no charge to over 3,000 under- and unemployed students who will then participate in on-the-job training schemes with private firms,” the embassy said. [...]

While Obama acknowledged that occupations such as garment making don’t add much value to the U.S. economy, he argued relentlessly during his presidential run that lawmakers needed to do more to keep hi-tech jobs in IT, biological sciences, and green energy in the country.

He also accused the Bush administration of creating tax loopholes that made it easier for U.S. companies to place work offshore in low-cost countries.

Apparently USAID is beginning a similar program in Armenia.

This whole “let’s ship US jobs overseas and keep our friends in the extremely profitable IT outsourcing business fat and happy” project is run by Rajiv Shah who was hand picked by President Obama.

Obama is the guy who swore that if he was elected he would keep tech jobs here at home, and who is just another politician who plays to the masses when he wants to get elected but pays to the rich and powerful now that he’s in office.

Why is it that our government will help fund a free education for someone overseas, but in the country where people pay the taxes that fund this project, students are expected to take on massive amounts of debt to pay for that same education?

Complaining to influential politicians like Harry Reid will result in a lot of white noise, but no action. The closest thing to a solid answer you will get is that “it’s already funded,” followed by a non-committal” I’ll look into the matter.”

(Reid, Pelosi and company swore they would change the way congress runs; right up until the day that they got the power.)

When Wachovia was sold to Wells Fargo there was a class action suit filed by the banks shareholders to try and recover monies they had lost. However, a settlement was reached in which the shareholders received nothing, the bank admitted no wrongdoing, the lawyers received a million-dollar payout for their work on the case and the depositions given by top executives were sealed.

Two former stockholders recently asked the court to unseal those documents, but a North Carolina judge, Albert Diaz, has ruled that while the two former Wachovia stock holders may view the depositions given by former Wachovia CEO Bob Steel and three other executives for use in their appeal, the contents may not be made public.

They are appealing the judges decision.

Instead of fixing the MMS (Minerals Management Service) Obama’s new Interior Secretary Ken Salazar left some of the worst offenders from the Bush administration in charge.

From the Rolling Stone article originally published June, 04, 2010.

Salazar was far less aggressive, however, when it came to making good on his promise to fix MMS. Though he criticized the actions of “a few rotten apples” at the agency, he left long-serving lackeys of the oil industry in charge. “The people that are ethically challenged are the career managers, the people who come up through the ranks,” says a marine biologist who left the agency over the way science was tampered with by top officials. “In order to get promoted at MMS, you better get invested in this pro-development oil culture.” One of the Bush-era managers whom Salazar left in place was John Goll, the agency’s director for Alaska. Shortly after, the Interior secretary announced a reorganization of MMS in the wake of the Gulf disaster, Goll called a staff meeting and served cake decorated with the words “Drill, baby, drill.”

Of course there’s always the infamous “moratorium” issued by the president -giving sufficient forewarning that several “exceptions could be issued before it went into effect.

Not only did the MMS have time to do a few favors for their friends, the ban itself is just a dog and pony show that halts exploratory drilling at only 33 deepwater operations, shutting down less than one percent of the total wells in the Gulf.

Even the white-house’s fair haired boy, Secretary Salazar said that “the moratorium is not a moratorium that will affect production.”

Read the entire article to get an understanding of just how deep the influence of the oil industry runs, and how little their bought_and_paid_for lackeys care for the people they allegedly serve.

It only reinforces what everybody already knows: Crooked politician and dishonest bureaucrat are both redundant.

This is from the website of brand new California Assemblyman Mike Gatto:

Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles) has been sworn in by Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez (D-Los Angeles) after winning the special runoff election by almost 20 points. “I am deeply honored that the people of the 43rd Assembly District have sent me to Sacramento to serve as their Assemblymember,” said Gatto. “I look forward to rolling up my sleeves and working with my colleagues to address the state’s most pressing problems.”

This is the result of the press trying to film a town hall meeting in a public library.

Just another punk dodging any questions that can’t be answered by his enforcers and thinking the law doesn’t apply to him. And according to the cops, it would appear that it doesn’t.

According to an article in Vyrema.ru the head of Moscow’s Resurrection district, Mayor Yuri Voskresensk Sleptsov, was arrested for soliciting bribes.

He is accused of demanding 540,000 rubles (about $18k) and 25% of all of future profits from a local company serving the water supply and sanitation district.

Mr. Sleptsov had allegedly received part of the bribe and was due to receive a second payment of 200 thousand rubles from someone described in the article only as a businessman.
(Why do I picture this “businessman” leaning against a black Mercedes, wearing a dark suit and dark glasses?)

Mr. Sleptsov is very well connected. When he retired from the army with a rank of colonel in 2000, he was appointed the head of the Resurrection hockey club Khimik by the the new regional governor, General Boris Gromov.

Mr Sleptsov also was elected by the Council of Deputies to be the head of the Ressuraction district in 2003, 2008 and 2009. He also holds the post of Secretary-political council of the Resurrection branch of United Russia, from which he very recently resigned. –Who needs to work when you’re getting 25% off the top.

Politics. It’s all about the Benjamins.