The leadership of the Professional Staff Congress (PSC) has been preoccupied with a Gramscian strategy of occupation of American cultural institutions, specifically the City University of New York, in order to further its progressive end of culturally dominating New York City's college students. Initially funded by international banking interests, namely one of George Soros's foundations, the PSC leadership believes and claims that it is pursuing a radical "New Left" agenda ("new" is hardly the word, being 40 or 50 years old by now). But just as Morgan banker (and executive of International Harvester) George W. Perkins was Theodore Roosevelt's economic adviser and chief backer when TR ran as a socialistic, "Progressive" candidate in 1912, George Soros finances various left wing advocacy groups who are his dupes and marionettes and that serve the reactionary interests of international finance. The leadership of the Professional Staff Congress, the faculty union of the City University of New York, falls into this category.
The courageous Sharad Karkhanis has stood alone against the Professional Staff Congress's aim of cultural hegemony.
In a recent e-mail Karkhanis notes that although New York and the City University face significant budget cuts because of Wall Street's malaise, the leadership of the PSC has done nothing to attempt to manage the coming budget crisis. Might the problem be that, according to Karkhanis, the PSC is raising dues even as it obtained the worst union contract in New York compared to any other public sector union for the past 50 years? If we get 40% of the raise that the New York City teachers get, shouldn't our dues be 40% of what the teachers pay?
Karkhanis notes that, just as George Soros advocates a "closed society", claiming that he is for an "open society", his lackeys at the PSC refuse to make information about union operations public even as they criticize the CUNY administration for lack of disclosure:
"The Chancellor's Report has complete listings of appointments, promotions and other information about you and me. But we never know who makes what at the union office. Neither do we know the exact amount of released time given to their people, including PSC officers. What are Barbara and Steve paying themselves in summer salary, stipends and travel? Do we know their travel budget? Have they reduced expenses on food orders for breakfasts, lunches, dinners, hats, t-shirts, travel for demonstrators, marchers and hangers-on? Does every meeting and gathering have to include elaborate food? Is it not time for them to place this information on the PSC website?"
This skirting of law in the name of the union's being a private institution flies in the face of the union's claim of an exemption from the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, which they base on their claim that they are a public institution. It seems that the PSC leadership has managed to find a way to be both a public agency to avoid regulation and a private organization, also to avoid regulation, at the same time.
Kharkhanis states that despite the coming budget cuts, the only resolution that the union leadership has published in the past year has concerned striking workers at a Stella D'Oro bakery in the Bronx:
"PSC Executive Council Resolutions are not posted after 2003. Are we to understand that the Executive Council conducted all its business for the past five years without ever passing any resolution? Perhaps, we may as well abolish the Executive Council."
Moreover, like their master, George Soros, the PSC leadership looks out for itself first. According to Karkhanis:
"(President) Bowen screams in the Clarion (the union newsletter) about the fat salaries of the Chancellor and of College Presidents. But have we ever been told how much money Bowen, London, Fabricant and DeSola make? They get CUNY salaries, PSC stipends, summer pay, travel and food money, and have PSC credit cards. What are they paid for sitting on the NYSUT board? What is Barbara's additional salary from AFT? Does she tell you how much (sic) time she spends on PSC related business and how much time she and sidekick London spend on scheming, planning, organizing and demonstrating?"
It seems to me that unfair labor exploitation of CUNY faculty has raised its ugly head.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Ex Post Birth Certificates Available in Hawaii in 1961
An Anonymous Poster to my blog just left the following message:
>People interested in this issue might want to look at this page from the Hawaii Department of Health.
>http://web.archive.org/web/20070924135018/http://www.hawaii.gov/health/vital-records/vital-records/hawnbirth.html
>It shows that before 1972 when Hawaii was a territory that you could apply for a birth certificate for any child under 1 year of age.*
When I go to the link on the Hawaii website, it says the following:
>Who is Eligible to Apply for the Issuance of a Late Birth Certificate in Lieu of a Certificate of Hawaiian Birth?
>The Certificate of Hawaiian Birth program was established in 1911, during the territorial era, to register a person born in Hawaii who was one year old or older and whose birth had not been previously registered in Hawaii. The Certificate of Hawaiian Birth Program was terminated in 1972, during the statehood era.
>Certified copies of a Certificate of Hawaiian Birth may be requested following the procedures for certified copies of standard birth certificates (see Certified Copies). The eligibility requirements for issuance of a certified copy of a standard birth certificate apply to Certificates of Hawaiian Birth. And the same fees charged for standard birth certificates are charged for Certificates of Hawaiian Birth. Copies of the set of testimony used to establish a Certificate of Hawaiian Birth may also be requested, and an additional fee is charged for each copy of the set of testimony.
How does this impact the claims of the Hawaii Health Department, Governor Lingle and the Obama campaign?
*Of course, Hawaii attained statehood in 1957, however, the law was not changed until 1972.
>People interested in this issue might want to look at this page from the Hawaii Department of Health.
>http://web.archive.org/web/20070924135018/http://www.hawaii.gov/health/vital-records/vital-records/hawnbirth.html
>It shows that before 1972 when Hawaii was a territory that you could apply for a birth certificate for any child under 1 year of age.*
When I go to the link on the Hawaii website, it says the following:
>Who is Eligible to Apply for the Issuance of a Late Birth Certificate in Lieu of a Certificate of Hawaiian Birth?
>The Certificate of Hawaiian Birth program was established in 1911, during the territorial era, to register a person born in Hawaii who was one year old or older and whose birth had not been previously registered in Hawaii. The Certificate of Hawaiian Birth Program was terminated in 1972, during the statehood era.
>Certified copies of a Certificate of Hawaiian Birth may be requested following the procedures for certified copies of standard birth certificates (see Certified Copies). The eligibility requirements for issuance of a certified copy of a standard birth certificate apply to Certificates of Hawaiian Birth. And the same fees charged for standard birth certificates are charged for Certificates of Hawaiian Birth. Copies of the set of testimony used to establish a Certificate of Hawaiian Birth may also be requested, and an additional fee is charged for each copy of the set of testimony.
How does this impact the claims of the Hawaii Health Department, Governor Lingle and the Obama campaign?
*Of course, Hawaii attained statehood in 1957, however, the law was not changed until 1972.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Is President-elect Obama Capable of Handling Violence in India?
The Wall Street Journal Online has a useful map of where the violence in Mumbai has occurred. The terrorists' orchestrated attacks involve the killing of more than 100 people and the taking of five Jewish families as hostages, including Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, at a community center. The Wall Street Journal notes that "it remains unclear who was responsible for Wednesday's terrorist attacks in Mumbai. But by Thursday, Indian officials had voiced suspicions that some of the terrorists were from Pakistan." Pakistani officials condemned the attacks, yet the training involved in an orchestrated assault could not have taken place in India. Also, "one of the attackers reportedly spoke with a Pakistani accent in a phone call to India TV."
It seems more than coincidental that the attack comes weeks after the election of Senator Barack Obama to the presidency. Even during the election, Joe Biden stated that an Obama victory would stimulate terrorist assaults. The question that comes to my mind is whether President-elect Obama will be capable of handling violence in Pakistan and India. Incompetence would not be a first for American presidents--Presidents Carter and Clinton were both inept at handling terrorists. However, there is an additional issue with respect to President-elect Obama.
In 2007 then-Senator Obama claimed that he would take a hard line on Pakistan. This position had the flavor of psychological compensation. Mr. Obama has long had close ties to Pakistan, and there are serious reasons to consider whether he will be morally capable of impartially responding to Islamic terrorism in ways that reflect American interests. Some might argue that the psychological force of cognitive dissonance, the need to resolve conflicting psychological forces, might impel President-elect Obama to be more aggressive than necessary with respect to Pakistan. However, cognitive dissonance is notoriously difficult to predict, and the response could go in the opposite direction as well--or none at all.
According to Amir Mir, of the Pakistani Rupee News, who quotes an article by Umar Chema:
"Chairman (of the Pakistani) Senate Muhammadmian Soomro may be having a friend in White House if Barak Hussain Obama finally succeeds in his presidential bid. Hardly a few people know about Soomro’s link with Obama, which he never discussed it in public. But in private interactions with influential Pakistanis here in the US, Obama disclosed that Soomro’s father was his host when he went on a hunting expedition in Jacobabad during his visit to Pakistan in 1981."
"Many say that Obama visited Pakistan: Didn’t learn anything!
"While in Karachi, Obama had stayed at the residence of his college friend, Hassan Chandio. In Jacobabad, he was the guest of Soomro family. Muhammadmian Soomro confirmed this information and said it was his first meeting with Obama.
“Yes, he had been our guest and spent three days in Jacobabad,” he told The News. Soomro, presently in the US, his second home, said an American friend had told his father, Ahmadmian Soomro, about Obama’s arrival in Pakistan and asked him to look after the American. Soomro’s father was the deputy speaker of West Pakistan Assembly and had also later served in the Senate.
"By the time Soomro’s father had hosted Obama, he was only a college student who went to Pakistan on his way from Indonesia where his mother was working with the Ford Foundation’s micro credit finance project. Also Obama’s mother was a frequent traveller to Pakistan and according to Time Magazine, she had a little bit proficiency in speaking Urdu.
"Although, Obama has not disclosed his link with Soomro, he mentioned it during his canvassing campaign while talking to a Pakistani American, Shahid Ahmad Khan, member of Board of Trustees Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
"Obama’s war mongering should be repudiated not encouraged. During the 2008 elections Senator Barack Obama listened to the hawkish members of the Bush Administration and threatened Pakistan...Pakistani Americans are a powerful lobby in the US. Pakistani-Americans ask Obama to ease rhetoric about bombing targets in Pakistan.
"...According to news reports Mr. Obama visited Pakistan. His mother had visited the country so many times that she had a working knowledge of Urdu-the national language of Pakistan as well as many Muslims in the Subcontinent.
"He had travelled with a college friend whose family used to live in Karachi.” As a matter of fact, Obama had travelled to Pakistan after leaving Occidental College in Los Angeles in 1981 to transfer to the Columbia University in New York.
"The Afghan war was at its peak at that time and the US State Department had already issued a warning for Americans travelling to Pakistan.An August 14, 2008 report by the Associated Press even alleged that Obama had actually travelled to Pakistan under his Muslim name-Barry Soetero-while using an Indonesian passport.
"As a matter of fact, Barack Obama Junior was born to Barack Obama Senior, a black Kenyan, and Ann Dunham, a white American. Barack Obama Senior and Mrs Ann Dunham were divorced when their son Obama was two.
"Obama Senior, who had died in a car accident in 1982, met his son only once after the divorce. Ann Dunham later married Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian Muslim.
"A news report carried by a US-based website www.pakistaniat.com http://www.pakistaniat.com/ in Sept 2008 stated while quoting the US media that Barack Obama had many Pakistani friends during his college days, and it was friendship that brought him to Pakistan. In his memoir, Dreams from My Father, Obama talks of having a Pakistani roommate when he moved to New York, a man he calls Sadik (his 1982 roommate at an apartment at a sixth-floor walkup on East 94th Street). Obama describes Sadik as a short, well-built Pakistani who smoked marijuana, snorted cocaine and liked to party. During his years at the Occidental College, Barack befriended Wahid Hamid, a fellow student and an immigrant from Pakistan. Wahid Hamid is now a vice president at Pepsico in New York. His third Pakistani friend was Imad Husain, a Pakistani, who is now a Boston-based banker.
"According to www.pakistaniat.com , during his Pakistan visit, Obama stayed in Karachi with the family of his college friend Hassan Chandeo. Now a self employed financial consultant living in Armonk in Westchester County of New York, Hassan Chandeo took his African-American college friend on traditional partridge hunting trips to Hyderabad, Larkana, Shikarpur and Jacobabad districts. Partridge hunting is considered a symbol of good hospitality in Sindh. Barack Obama made friends with a Sindhi politician Muhammadmian Soomro as well, who hails from the Shikarpur district of Sindh and is Senate Chairman. The newly elected American president reportedly lived at Muhammad Ali Society residence of Ahmad Mian Soomro, the father of Muhammadmian Soomro.
"Another US-based website www.freerepublic.com quoted Time Magazine on September 1, 2008, stating that Obama may have visited Pakistan again in the second half of 1980 and stayed there for a month with his mother who was an employee of the Ford Foundation and posted in Gujranwala as a microfinance consultant for an Asian Development Bank micro-credit finance project that ran from 1987 to 1992.
"The report said Mrs Dunham, who died in Hawaii-Obama’s birth place-in 1995 from ovarian cancer, used to stay at Hilton International Hotel in Lahore. She travelled daily from Lahore to Gujranwala and Obama stayed with her in the same hotel which has been already renamed as Avari Hotel, the report added."
To what degree does Obama's background color his attitudes about Pakistan? Amir Mir is uncertain. So am I.
It seems more than coincidental that the attack comes weeks after the election of Senator Barack Obama to the presidency. Even during the election, Joe Biden stated that an Obama victory would stimulate terrorist assaults. The question that comes to my mind is whether President-elect Obama will be capable of handling violence in Pakistan and India. Incompetence would not be a first for American presidents--Presidents Carter and Clinton were both inept at handling terrorists. However, there is an additional issue with respect to President-elect Obama.
In 2007 then-Senator Obama claimed that he would take a hard line on Pakistan. This position had the flavor of psychological compensation. Mr. Obama has long had close ties to Pakistan, and there are serious reasons to consider whether he will be morally capable of impartially responding to Islamic terrorism in ways that reflect American interests. Some might argue that the psychological force of cognitive dissonance, the need to resolve conflicting psychological forces, might impel President-elect Obama to be more aggressive than necessary with respect to Pakistan. However, cognitive dissonance is notoriously difficult to predict, and the response could go in the opposite direction as well--or none at all.
According to Amir Mir, of the Pakistani Rupee News, who quotes an article by Umar Chema:
"Chairman (of the Pakistani) Senate Muhammadmian Soomro may be having a friend in White House if Barak Hussain Obama finally succeeds in his presidential bid. Hardly a few people know about Soomro’s link with Obama, which he never discussed it in public. But in private interactions with influential Pakistanis here in the US, Obama disclosed that Soomro’s father was his host when he went on a hunting expedition in Jacobabad during his visit to Pakistan in 1981."
"Many say that Obama visited Pakistan: Didn’t learn anything!
"While in Karachi, Obama had stayed at the residence of his college friend, Hassan Chandio. In Jacobabad, he was the guest of Soomro family. Muhammadmian Soomro confirmed this information and said it was his first meeting with Obama.
“Yes, he had been our guest and spent three days in Jacobabad,” he told The News. Soomro, presently in the US, his second home, said an American friend had told his father, Ahmadmian Soomro, about Obama’s arrival in Pakistan and asked him to look after the American. Soomro’s father was the deputy speaker of West Pakistan Assembly and had also later served in the Senate.
"By the time Soomro’s father had hosted Obama, he was only a college student who went to Pakistan on his way from Indonesia where his mother was working with the Ford Foundation’s micro credit finance project. Also Obama’s mother was a frequent traveller to Pakistan and according to Time Magazine, she had a little bit proficiency in speaking Urdu.
"Although, Obama has not disclosed his link with Soomro, he mentioned it during his canvassing campaign while talking to a Pakistani American, Shahid Ahmad Khan, member of Board of Trustees Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
"Obama’s war mongering should be repudiated not encouraged. During the 2008 elections Senator Barack Obama listened to the hawkish members of the Bush Administration and threatened Pakistan...Pakistani Americans are a powerful lobby in the US. Pakistani-Americans ask Obama to ease rhetoric about bombing targets in Pakistan.
"...According to news reports Mr. Obama visited Pakistan. His mother had visited the country so many times that she had a working knowledge of Urdu-the national language of Pakistan as well as many Muslims in the Subcontinent.
"He had travelled with a college friend whose family used to live in Karachi.” As a matter of fact, Obama had travelled to Pakistan after leaving Occidental College in Los Angeles in 1981 to transfer to the Columbia University in New York.
"The Afghan war was at its peak at that time and the US State Department had already issued a warning for Americans travelling to Pakistan.An August 14, 2008 report by the Associated Press even alleged that Obama had actually travelled to Pakistan under his Muslim name-Barry Soetero-while using an Indonesian passport.
"As a matter of fact, Barack Obama Junior was born to Barack Obama Senior, a black Kenyan, and Ann Dunham, a white American. Barack Obama Senior and Mrs Ann Dunham were divorced when their son Obama was two.
"Obama Senior, who had died in a car accident in 1982, met his son only once after the divorce. Ann Dunham later married Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian Muslim.
"A news report carried by a US-based website www.pakistaniat.com http://www.pakistaniat.com/ in Sept 2008 stated while quoting the US media that Barack Obama had many Pakistani friends during his college days, and it was friendship that brought him to Pakistan. In his memoir, Dreams from My Father, Obama talks of having a Pakistani roommate when he moved to New York, a man he calls Sadik (his 1982 roommate at an apartment at a sixth-floor walkup on East 94th Street). Obama describes Sadik as a short, well-built Pakistani who smoked marijuana, snorted cocaine and liked to party. During his years at the Occidental College, Barack befriended Wahid Hamid, a fellow student and an immigrant from Pakistan. Wahid Hamid is now a vice president at Pepsico in New York. His third Pakistani friend was Imad Husain, a Pakistani, who is now a Boston-based banker.
"According to www.pakistaniat.com , during his Pakistan visit, Obama stayed in Karachi with the family of his college friend Hassan Chandeo. Now a self employed financial consultant living in Armonk in Westchester County of New York, Hassan Chandeo took his African-American college friend on traditional partridge hunting trips to Hyderabad, Larkana, Shikarpur and Jacobabad districts. Partridge hunting is considered a symbol of good hospitality in Sindh. Barack Obama made friends with a Sindhi politician Muhammadmian Soomro as well, who hails from the Shikarpur district of Sindh and is Senate Chairman. The newly elected American president reportedly lived at Muhammad Ali Society residence of Ahmad Mian Soomro, the father of Muhammadmian Soomro.
"Another US-based website www.freerepublic.com quoted Time Magazine on September 1, 2008, stating that Obama may have visited Pakistan again in the second half of 1980 and stayed there for a month with his mother who was an employee of the Ford Foundation and posted in Gujranwala as a microfinance consultant for an Asian Development Bank micro-credit finance project that ran from 1987 to 1992.
"The report said Mrs Dunham, who died in Hawaii-Obama’s birth place-in 1995 from ovarian cancer, used to stay at Hilton International Hotel in Lahore. She travelled daily from Lahore to Gujranwala and Obama stayed with her in the same hotel which has been already renamed as Avari Hotel, the report added."
To what degree does Obama's background color his attitudes about Pakistan? Amir Mir is uncertain. So am I.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Federal Reserve Bank and Wages: Professor Fox Responds
Professor Langbert makes some very good points. Nevertheless, in my view the rigidity in the long run real wages received by workers of moderate skill stems primarily from other factors.
The real wages of workers without high school degrees have stagnated for several decades. During that period real interest rates have fluctuated considerably. This evidence suggests that other forces are at work.
It appears that a few coincidental factors have contributed to this trend. There is some evidence that technological change has shifted labor demand to those with higher skills – which in turn has reduced the demand for relatively uneducated workers. The expansion of free trade (e.g. NAFTA) may have caused U.S. production to shift towards those industries where the American economy is more competitive, i.e. high technology goods and services which employ more educated workers. Moreover, the increase in the pool of unskilled immigrants (legal and illegal) has probably depressed the wages of unskilled native-born workers who are their chief competitors in the labor market.
Marc Fox
Brooklyn College
Professor Fox is associate professor of economics at Brooklyn College and an expert in the subjects of labor, health and education economics.
The real wages of workers without high school degrees have stagnated for several decades. During that period real interest rates have fluctuated considerably. This evidence suggests that other forces are at work.
It appears that a few coincidental factors have contributed to this trend. There is some evidence that technological change has shifted labor demand to those with higher skills – which in turn has reduced the demand for relatively uneducated workers. The expansion of free trade (e.g. NAFTA) may have caused U.S. production to shift towards those industries where the American economy is more competitive, i.e. high technology goods and services which employ more educated workers. Moreover, the increase in the pool of unskilled immigrants (legal and illegal) has probably depressed the wages of unskilled native-born workers who are their chief competitors in the labor market.
Marc Fox
Brooklyn College
Professor Fox is associate professor of economics at Brooklyn College and an expert in the subjects of labor, health and education economics.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
