There Is a Congressman Crazier than Michelle Bachmann

Texas's (where else) own Louie Gohmert.

Play him off, Jon Stewart:

2 Snaps Up to Senator Schumer

He just made the obvious point that the current H1B program does not serve the needs of the American people:

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) says that the H-1B program has created "multinational temp agencies" that undercut U.S. wages and discourage students from entering tech fields.

Schumer said the H-1B program has morphed into program used to hire foreign tech workers "willing to accept less pay than their American counterparts." He spoke on the Senate floor in advance of its approval Thursday of $600 million for border security that includes an H-1B visa fee increase.

He's right, of course. The program is not about finding people who cannot be found in the US, it's about importing cheap labor.

The rise in the H-1B fees is perhaps the best part of the law, thought, of course, the foreign body shops are apoplectic about this, claiming that "The US is giving a very strong signal foreigners are not welcome."

My heart bleeds borscht for them, but they should consider themselves lucky: I would set a soft cap of something like 50K a year visas, and raise the rates when the number of applications exceed this.

As an alternative, you could go with a bidding system, with something like quarterly auctions, which would raise the cost from a $2,500 fee

The new law added $2000 for firms that have more than 50% non citizen/green card workforces, which is still too low.

I Wish that I Lived In Pennsylvania Right Now

I want to vote for Joe Sestak, candidate for Senate,who just did his commonwealth proud:

Sestak chimed in, "As you know, I haven't taken very good direction yet from party leadership. All that said, I strongly believe in the constitutional right of religious freedom and in the separation of church and state applying equally to everyone. Those are rights that I defended for 31 years in that fine U.S. Navy. This is an issue for New York to resolve as long as it respects those constitutional rights. ... Let's also step back and say, 'Let's stop playing politics with religion.' "

When someone asked about the sensitivities of the Sept. 11 families, Sestak said, "Do I respect those sensitivities? Oh yeah. When I walked out of that Pentagon, 30 people who I knew never walked out of that building. My 9/11 is that Pentagon. Am I sensitive to their desires? Sure I am. But I also upheld the Constitution for 31 years. I lived with men and women of all religons and you know what? They're all equal, and I believe that is what's most omportant in this."

Maybe I'll write him in in 2012.

I'm not feeling to hopey changey about Dr. Dean today.

Before I add Heidi Montag to My List of They Who Must Not Be Named,

I must note that her plastic surgeon died in a car accident while texting and driving:

Plastic surgeon-to-the-stars Frank Ryan was killed Monday when his jeep rolled over an embankment off Malibu's Pacific Coast Highway outside of Los Angeles. Authorities believe Ryan was distracted by text messaging at the time of the accident.

Ryan, 50, was known for performing extreme plastic surgery on Hollywood celebrities, including "The Hills" star Heidi Montag. Ryan reportedly performed ten procedures on Montag in one day, including work on her ears, chin, nose, and breasts.

You know, there is a segment of our society that I neither understand nor approve.

They are free to neither understand nor approve me as well.

Still these events evoke Zathras to me:

At least, there is symmetry.
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Rest assured now. Ms Montag is on my list of They Who Must Not Be Named.

He's Not the Wanker of the Day……

But only because Howard Dean gets that honor today.

Once again, it's Chris Dodd, who continues to audition for his 7-figure lobbying gig, because after sending out signals that she was a great candidate, but not confirmable, there has been a groundswell of support that appears to be dragging the Obama administration kicking and screaming into nominating her. (I still don't think that they will)

So now Dodd has taking a new tack, saying that he is unsure if she is qualified:

"If the president wants to name her and it goes through the hearing process, then fine, she'll have my support," Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) told the Hartford Courant editorial board. "But she has to tell me more than just she's a good consumer advocate or that's she's got a great campaign.

"It isn't just a question of being a consumer advocate. I want to see that she can manage something, too."

Dude, you ran for President of the United States, and you never managed anything bigger than a a Senator's office.

<Facepalm>

Breaking: Obama Breaks Iraq Withdrawal Promise

The news is out, and the State Department has announced that they have declared victory but we will not be leaving.

You see, there are no more combat troops, just, "50,000 advisers," along with something like 85,000 mercenaries contractors, or about 1 per every 200 Iraqis.

And this is what these folks will do:

So will all the troops be coming home? Hopefully, but don't bet on it. Recall that US troops remain in South Korea, six decades after the Korean War.

The 50,000 US troops left until 2011 will supposedly "advise and assist" and perform "anti-terrorism" missions and training. To this old war correspondent and military historian, that sounds an awful lot like the British Empires employment of native troops under white officers.

These remaining rebranded US "training" troops will likely be six armor-heavy combat brigades, backed by warplanes from US air bases in the Gulf. A US brigade withdrawn from Iraq will go to neighboring Kuwait. Most of the rest will transfer to Afghanistan.

You know, he doesn't have to get through Congress, he can just do this, and he won't.

I called this 2 weeks ago, and said that it would be a phony withdrawal.

Unfortunately, I was correct.

Barney Frank: Missing the Lede on the GSEs

The headline, of course is that he is calling for the gradual elimination of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:

"I think they should be abolished," Frank said. "The only question is what do you put in their place. This is a situation where given the importance they had come to play in housing, you can't tear down the old jail until you build a new one. And that's a process that we've started."

This is legitimately a big news story, but the rest of his proposal is far more revolutionary. He is a calling for an end to government subsidies to home buyers:

Frank went on: "I have been very critical for a long time that not everybody should be a homeowner. There are people in this society who for economic and frankly social reasons can't and shouldn't be homeowners. I do want some government help to build affordable rental housing."

It's this 2^nd point that is a big deal. While the GSEs (Government Sponsored Entities) were a vanishingly small part of the housing bubble, as house prices exploded, their share of the market fell precipitously, what was a huge part of the market was the enormous subsidies made available to both home buyers, sellers, builders, and agents.

This distorted the market in some very profound ways, and it is very likely that if these measures had not been in place, we would have seen neither the bubble nor the crash.

We sacrificed our economy on the alter of home ownership.