Jurassic Shorties

As I await a packing crew, I have a few minutes to bring you some of the news tidbits that struck me.

Green Card? I’m from East L.A.! (pop culture reference)You would think the President had more important things to do than worry about “Immigration Reform” what with the problems in the Department of Justice and the EPA being told to do their jobs and people not being real happy about what’s going on in Iraq and everybody going behind his back to do this “diplomacy” thing with our “enemies”. Nope! My favorite quote from this article is “With up to 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., lawmakers haven’t agreed on how to uphold the law without disrupting lives, eroding the workforce and risking political upheaval.” Guess what? You can’t do all three. Blanket amnesty will get you one and two, but then you still have the problem of not knowing whether any of these immigrants are Bad Guys. I can’t think of another option that will get you 2 out of 3. And don’t forget that “eroding the workforce” is a codephrase for “getting rid of people willing to work illegally in questionable conditions for possibly very little money.” Oh, the horror, if employers had to follow the law! Elsewhere, the President says he’s caused a drop in illegal immigration by hiring more border guards and building more fences. Maybe he also caused it by making the economy bad enough for the poor that it’s easier to stay in one’s home country.

Making it way too complicated. Democratic leaders in the House want to “fix” the AMT. How about just capping tax deductions at 3 or 4 times poverty level for a family of four and abolishing the AMT? Allow an additional deduction for charitable contributions — we don’t want to interfere with people who want to do good for society — but that’s it!

The name is Short. Miss Woman if you’re nasty! (pop culture reference) Kudos to the IHT for bringing us “Backlash against enforced informality”.

“A Terrorist Watchlist couldn’t possibly be used for political purposes…. could it?” Maybe not. This story is as yet unsubstantiated, but it seems a University Professor, Constitutional scholar, and Veteran has been put on a no-fly list for saying things the Bush Administration disagrees with. When trying to figure out what was going on, he was allegedly asked if he’d been in some peace protests, because that often lands people on the list. Right, because peace activists are really apt to blow stuff up. Yeah.

And my pet peeve doesn’t even make the list. This article uses British rules but still makes some interesting points. However, if you want me to read your resume instead of tossing it in the trash, you’ll need this page too.

Downsizing: It’s not just for low wage workers anymore. Citigroup prepares to lay off 8% of its workforce.

CNBC’s Chief Economist called it “unremittingly bad.” Yeah. US mortgages are at all-time record default rates. The IMF says there is a “small chance” of “major dislocation”.

Castro says something to the effect of “Burn food because there’s not enough oil?? Are you people out of your minds???” Excellent point. In other news, Changes to emissions rules are in the wind.

Eliot finally does something I don’t like. Just what we all want, for the Presidential campaigns to be even longer.

At least somebody is coming out ahead. “More Uninsured Means More Healthcare Corporate Profits. And remember, “corporate profits” do not provide care to anyone. “Corporate profits” represent overcharges to people who need healthcare. This is not money paid to doctors and nurses. Very little of it is money paid to community hospitals. This is money counted after all the researchers creating drugs to treat serious diseases have already been paid. This is money whose sole purpose is to say to Wall Street “Look how much money we have!”

“First you give me money every week. Then I tell you to eat less food, eat more veggies, and take these vitamins.” Maybe I need to write a diet book! The Motley Fool catches up to what I said years ago, some diet plans do more for your wallet than your waistline. Don’t get me wrong, not all diet plans are evil, and there is something to be said for the portion/calorie control of “once you have eaten the contents of this box you are done.” But the primary goal of a corporation is to make money, and these diets are being marketed by corporations.

That’s all for today. It is unknown whether I will have time to post later this week. Thank you for your patience.