Re: Single-payer healthcare And yet we're subjected to this constant barrage of threats by Obama supporters that they won't vote for Hillary in the general election. Whatever.
Re: Single-payer healthcare He doesn't. He wants a "temporary" increase. Unless you can show me otherwise. http://www.zazona.com/NewsArchive/2007-11-20 Letter from Obama.htm He said... I do believe that the limited increase in visas for highly skilled immigrants will benefit the economy. ....the economic production of companies assisted by workers on H-1B visas in 1998 created more than $16.8 billion in sales and over 58,000 jobs, the great majority of which are going to American workers. Immigrants with H1-B visas are not the cause of the squeeze on middle class families. Tax, workforce, and infrastructure policies that favor the wealthy at the expense of greater deficits hurt working class Americans. Failing to address the health care crisis in America while favoring pharmaceutical companies hurts working Americans. Blaming H1-B visas will not help us rise to meet these challenges.
Re: Single-payer healthcare It was on his site but now it's gone. I googled it and found this response MA: What is your position on H1B visas in general? Do you believe the number of H1B visas should be increased? BO: Highly skilled immigrants have contributed significantly to our domestic technology industry. But we have a skills shortage, not a worker shortage. There are plenty of Americans who could be filling tech jobs given the proper training. I am committed to investing in communities and people who have not had an opportunity to work and participate in the Internet economy as anything other than consumers. Most H-1B new arrivals, for example, have earned a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent abroad (42.5%). They are not all PhDs. We can and should produce more Americans with bachelor’s degrees that lead to jobs in technology. A report of the National Science Foundation (NSF) reveals that blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans as a whole comprise more that 25% of the population but earn, as a whole, 16% of the bachelor degrees, 11% of the master’s degrees, and 5% of the doctorate degrees in science and engineering. We can do better than that and go a long way toward meeting industry’s need for skilled workers with Americans. Until we have achieved that, I will support a temporary increase in the H-1B visa program as a stopgap measure until we can reform our immigration system comprehensively. I support comprehensive immigration reform that includes improvement in our visa programs, including our legal permanent resident visa programs and temporary programs including the H-1B program, to attract some of the world’s most talented people to America. We should allow immigrants who earn their degrees in the U.S. to stay, work, and become Americans over time. As part of our comprehensive reform, we should examine our ability to replace a stopgap increase in the number of H1B visas with an increase in the number of permanent visas we issue to foreign skilled workers. I will also work to ensure immigrant workers are less dependent on their employers for their right to stay in the country and would hold accountable employers who abuse the system and their workers. The "temporary increase" is BS. There is no such thing. Expecting that the H1b spots will be filled by increasing the number of minority graduates is BS. We need employers to start paying college grads with skills that are in demand, nursing, engineering, etc. more. That will improve wages not a temporary increase.
Re: Single-payer healthcare You can't first say that the candidates are similar on the issues, and then criticize supporters for turning their focus to other important aspects of what constitutes a good candidate. Nor is the FACT of Bill campaigning an issue, but the CONTENT and MANNER of his comments, his role in the campaign (he gave the first speech after the SC vote, e.g.), and the fact that Hillary claims his tenure as her experience. In any event, if internet posts and blogs are failing to provide you the information you seek, rather than have that lead you to judgment about a candidate's worth, please welcome yourself to speeches of the candidates. But stop parading your strawman mischaracterizations of supporters here as if providing your summation of blogs and posts amounts to insight. Or take the more entertaining route of Ben and say "educated white folk is dum. LOL! silly picture".
Re: Single-payer healthcare Agreed. Just saying he's supporting an increase in H1-b. Far as I can tell, Romney, McCain, Clinton, and Obama all support an increase. The difference is in degree.
Re: Single-payer healthcare That's because politics has never been and will never be just about the issues. It is also and should also be about who we are as a country, who we are as a people. Obama understands that, Hillary Clinton does not. That makes all the difference.
Re: Single-payer healthcare It's not that Obama supporters are dumb; don't be so defensive (chad). The point is that the preference is not issue- or substance-based. It's personality based. There's nothing wrong with that, but you can't deny the truth of it.
Re: Single-payer healthcare No, it's not as trivial as personality. I feel pretty much the same about Romney as I do Hillary. They have very different personalities.
Re: Single-payer healthcare Uuuuh, I meant the preference of Obama versus Clinton, not Obama over a Republican -- who, presumably, would differ from Obama on the issues in many important ways... uh... dude. Wait. What?
Re: Single-payer healthcare If personality means everything external to their platform, then sure - but I think that personality's scope is more limited. We all know there are issues with Hilary's senate votes that are non-trivial to at least some Obama supporters. That's not a personality issue. Further, personality and ethics are different matters. A person can have a charming personality yet be a duplicitous douchebag. What a person is willing to do to achieve an end is not a mere personality issue, but an issue of character and integrity (ethical traits). I don't think pushing a false dichotomy of issues vs. personality is helpful - I think it is an attempt to make small real matters of importance. And I know Ben doesn't think Obama supporters are dumb. He thinks that they are so educated as to be insensitive.
Re: Single-payer healthcare Excellent observation; my thoughts as well! I just wish Sen. Obama would comment on the issues rather than revel in his own Messiah complex...
Re: Single-payer healthcare It's not personality. Hillary and Romney have different personalities. I would put them in the same box. Obama I would put in a different box. Hillary and Romney are fundamentally consultant driven people. Obama is not. That's not a personality issue.
Re: Single-payer healthcare Maybe the Clintons wouldn't be having that problem if they weren't trying to pull a "hands ad" on black voters. As for myself, even back months ago before the Clintons revealed themselves as racebaiters, I had Hillary far down the list because of her vote on the Iraq war, her refusal to revisit her thinking, and her egregious vote on Kyl-Lieberman.
Re: Single-payer healthcare Well that's fair. There are some serious issues w/ Hill's record. Also, I was using "personality" very loosely, w/o explaining. I sort of meant personality/style/character and all that's included therein, including ethics and whatnot. I tend to categorize those together, because they're not specifically related to platform (positions on issues), but rather to questions of competence and trustworthiness. I don't mean to trivialize the importance of competence or trustworthiness, ethics or integrity -- not at all. But I do consider them in a separate category from platform positions.
Re: Single-payer healthcare I can deny it because it's flatly false, particularly on foreign policy. Either you haven't done your homework, or you're simply being disingenous. Clinton represents a classic Hawkish/realist stance. Obama endorses the "soft power" popularized by Joseph Nye. That's a real and significant difference, and it's as good an explanation as any for why Hillary could have been so wrong on Iraq and Iran and Cuba, when Obama was/is right on all three. This NYT quote from a Kos posting puts it well: And here's the blogger's analysis: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/1/25/212158/864/126/443304
Re: Single-payer healthcare So I won't do my duty and vote for a candidate I don't like just because she wins the nomination. Boo ********ing hoo.