Free Republic

On the first day that H-1B visas became available, corporations snapped up all that are allowed. Our government received 150,000 applications for the 85,000 slots set aside to bring in foreign skilled workers. Corporations whine that H-1Bs are needed because of a shortage of Americans with skills, but major studies at the University of California Davis and Duke University conclusively prove we have thousands of unemployed or underemployed Americans with all the needed technical skills. Nobel economist Milton Friedman accurately labeled H-1Bs a government "subsidy" to enable employers to get workers at a lower wage.

On Tuesday's Countdown show, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann fretted about an Oval Office meeting of President Bush and several conservative talk radio hosts -- verbally tagged by Olbermann as "right-wing radio yackers" and labelled on-screen as the "Legion of Doom" -- as the Countdown host contended that Bush was devoting "90 minutes worth of your taxpayer dollars" to the meeting. And in an amusing faux pas, Olbermann's staff, for the second time in less than a year, accidentally displayed a photograph of former liberal Democratic Senator Max Cleland instead of conservative talk radio host Neal Boortz. During the show's opening...

NEW YORK, Oct 5 (Reuters) - The trouble may not be over for the long-distressed high technology sector, as statements and reports on September job cuts indicate a surge in layoffs. Whether this is the tipping point for a long-troubled sector, or a blip in the path toward steady growth remains to be seen, analysts said. In the month of September alone, layoffs in the computer and telecommunications industries reached a six-month high, according to a monthly report by employment services firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., squelching hopes job cuts were slowing in these industries. The computer industry lost...