About a dozen Democrats from the City of Fairfax, plus assorted children, met with Harris Miller Saturday morning at The Old Country Buffet in the City of Fairfax. While ingesting our monthly quota of cholesterol we had a lively conversation with the Senatorial candidate, who appeared to be in good form, accompanied by his (non-eating) aide, Andrew.
After mentioning the newly announced closing of the Ford plant in Norfolk, which brought up globalization, the lead-off question pointedly introduced Mr. Miller+óGé¼Gäós lobbying background, and established that, contrary to frequent media sound bites, he was not a successful industrial dot.com technocrat but rather someone who represented such CEO+óGé¼Gäós by lobbying Congress and in helping, in Mr. Miller+óGé¼Gäós view, to develop America+óGé¼Gäós contribution to the Information Age.
When told that he seemed to be part of the problem through his efforts at outsourcing jobs as well as bringing foreign info workers to this country through H1-B and L-1 visas, he brushed aside any negatives. His response was that there were at least a million more info tech workers in America today than three years ago, which in his view showed job increases, not job loss, and he ignored a question as to how many of these workers were American or foreign hires while he launched into a rather persuasive discussion of American education.
The problem, in his view, is that American education is based on a 19th century agricultural society. American students are choosing not to study science and engineering, whereas China, three times our size, graduates six times as many engineers annually as America, and the same goes for India. So naturally American bosses have to fill their need for technical engineers with foreigners. He basically ignored a comment that perhaps one reason students no longer study engineering is that American industry consistently turns down American graduates in favor of the cheaper foreign experts, so Americans are going into other fields. He proposed developing incentives and subsidies to encourage students to study science and engineering, and to re-train laid-off workers.
This segued into how to create jobs for Virginia, especially in desperate areas like Southside and Southwest Virginia, where the economy is still in a slump. A massive transportation development program would not only provide jobs for many years, but it would have a multiplier effect throughout the Virginia economy, and could be tied to national security as a rationale for the expense, in Miller+óGé¼Gäós view. Why, he asked, did not Virginia install broadband throughout the state, as Alberta has done in Canada, which would enable information workers to work from Danville as easily as if in more expensive Northern Virginia? Certainly Danville jobs would not have to pay as much as in Northern Virginia.
A Gulf War veteran asked several pointed questions about both the Iraq war and the health problems of returning vets. Once Mr. Miller ran through his usual statements about establishing a +óGé¼+ômetric+óGé¼-¥ for withdrawal of our troops, based on how prepared Iraqis were to take over security, he floundered a bit, repeating that we could be out of Iraq safely in two years. In his view there is a chance Bush will announce victory and go home in September in time for the November elections; or, some one said, begin bombing Iran. There was a quick discussion of nuclear war, but the Gulf War vet persisted in pulling Miller back to the problems of veterans now beginning to return in large numbers, needing health care. The concentrated rage of these veterans is stunning. They feel betrayed by this country+óGé¼Gäós leadership, which, they have now discovered, actively lied to them, and then failed to provide them with adequate materiel and support. Some, when unable to find jobs and denied immediate health care, have become homeless or committed suicide, a fact carefully concealed by this Administration. Mr. Miller offered one or two feel-good efforts at how he takes some veterans to dinner, and agreed to contact some veteran+óGé¼Gäós organizations. He admitted he had never been in the military.
Here we got into some serious name-dropping as Mr. Miller discussed Democratic chances in the upcoming election. He feels that, with +óGé¼+ôJim+óGé¼-¥ (meaning Webb) having entered the race, and events going as they are, now it looked as though national Democratic leadership with whom Miller has been in close contact, might raise the Virginia Senatorial race to one of its top eight races and provide national support.
Despite the give and take, and the breadth of the discussion, my personal estimate is that Harris Miller convinced, at best, perhaps two or three that they should support him rather than James Webb. He failed to give answers (satisfactory or otherwise) to concerns about his anti-worker, pro-business lobbying past, and blew past questions asking for details on many of his answers.
This left me, at least, with the impression that he is running a standard, garden variety campaign based on Democratic stereotypes and slogans, endorsements and platitudes. He is able to trot out a few showcase ideas (like transportation construction and education) and he sternly conceals his dismal record in dismantling employment for hundreds of thousands of American middle class workers (what one researcher termed +óGé¼+ôdeleting American workers+óGé¼-¥) Actually, I almost think he would be better as a candidate for Governor than for Senator, but, when this was hinted at, his supporters became angry. While it was a reasonably enjoyable morning, the truth is, he seemed a practiced schmoozer, not a deep thinker+óGé¼GÇ¥ as my grandmother used to say, +óGé¼+ôa mile wide and an inch deep.+óGé¼-¥
"We've got enough politicians, what we need are leaders."
'Nuf said.
Here's what economist and outsourcing critic Paul Craig Roberts says about the situation of American IT workers:
"Information technology workers and computer software engineers have been especially heavily hit by offshore jobs outsourcing. During the past five years (Jan 01 - Jan 06), the information sector of the US economy lost 645,000 jobs or 17.4% of its work force. Computer systems design and related lost 116,000 jobs or 8.7% of its work force. Clearly, jobs outsourcing is not creating jobs in computer engineering and information technology. Indeed, jobs outsourcing is not even creating jobs in related fields.
For the past five years US job growth was limited to these four areas: education and health services, state and local government, leisure and hospitality, financial services. There was no US job growth outside these four areas of domestic nontradable services.
Oracle, for example, which has been handing out thousands of pink slips, has recently announced two thousand more jobs being moved to India. How is Oracle's move of US jobs to India creating jobs in the US for waitresses and bartenders, hospital orderlies, state and local government and credit agencies, the only areas of job growth?
Engineering jobs in general are in decline, because the manufacturing sectors that employ engineers are in decline. During the last five years, the US work force lost 1.2 million jobs in the manufacture of machinery, computers, electronics, semiconductors, communication equipment, electrical equipment, motor vehicles and transportation equipment. The BLS payroll job numbers show a total of 70,000 jobs created in all fields of architecture and engineering, including clerical personal, over the past five years. That comes to a mere 14,000 jobs per year (including clerical workers). What is the annual graduating class in engineering and architecture? How is there a shortage of engineers when more graduate than can be employed?
Of course, many new graduates take jobs opened by retirements. We would have to know the retirement rates to get a solid handle on the fate of new graduates. But it cannot be very pleasant, with declining employment in the manufacturing sectors that employ engineers and a minimum of 65,000 H-1B visas annually for foreigners plus an indeterminate number of L-1 visas.
It is not only the Bush regime that bases its policies on lies. Not content with outsourcing Americans' jobs, corporations want to fill the remaining jobs in America with foreigners on work visas. Business organizations lie about a shortage of engineers, scientists and even nurses. Business organizations have successfully used pubic relations firms and bought-and-paid-for "economic studies" to convince policymakers that American business cannot function without H-1B visas that permit the importation of indentured employees from abroad who are paid less than the going US salaries. The so-called shortage is, in fact, a replacement of American employees with foreign employees, with the soon-to-be-discharged American employee first required to train his replacement.
It is amazing to see free-market economists rush to the defense of H-1B visas. The visas are nothing but a subsidy to US companies at the expense of US citizens.
Keep in mind this subsidy to US corporations for employing foreign workers in place of Americans as we examine the Labor Department's projections of the ten fastest growing US occupations over the 2004-2014 decade."
One of the issues with displaced workers -- IT or any other category such as factory workers is what do they "retrain" into? There is very little that is available for them. Everything possible is being shipped offshore or filled with NIV's.
In fact, H-1b and L-1 are not the only way that foreign workers get into the U.S. The Bush admininistration has been putting language into "free trade" agreements permitting unlimited movement of "natural persons" (foreign workers) into the U.S. This completely removes the power of the Congress to limit or shut off the flow of foreign workers into the U.S. It places the whole matter inside the control of the WTO.
Do you think we can trust Miller to speak truth to power? I don't.
Webb has a long history of calling them like he sees them rather than playing the game.
"Free trade" is not free, it is a misnomer, another clever Republican framing (like "Clear Skies" legislation which encouraged polluting) which conceals the reality: that the American middle class taxpayer is subsidizing its own destruction, and adding to the bloated bottom line of global corporations. Conversations with Harris Miller are never allowed to get to that point of truth, however. He is leaning heavily on his connections with the old-line power structure (and this includes the national Democratic machine, too), and punching all the Democratic special interest hot buttons.
In fact, he seems to be running a Republican-type campaign, including negatives. I don't see how he has a prayer of beating good ol'boy George Allen. Is it possible, though, that his promises of jobs and education programs, and his fantasy of "metrics" to remove troops from Iraq will catch the fancy of Democratic primary voters?
First, back on Friday, March 5, 2004, Senators Dorgan, Durbin, Lautenberg, and Boxer conducted a Senate Democratic Policy Committee Hearing “Shipping American Jobs Overseas: A Hearing on the Bush Administration’s Claim That Outsourcing is Good for the U.S. Economyâ€Â
The event and associated march briefly made the news, but were overshadowed by Martha Stewart's conviction that same day.
Follow the hearing transcript with Miller's candidacy annoucement for a near miracle of marketing redefinition, or in Miller speak, that would be "retooling for a brighter tomorrow" or something like that.
The transcript humanizes the impact of outsourcing on real people. And in it Miller is taken to task by the real Democrats. At one point Dorgan takes Miller behind the woodshed for politicizing the problem:
"Picking up on your last comment, there isn’t a Democratic or Republican way to lose your job. I mean, this is not about partisan politics. It is part of the political system to have a discussion about our economy and about the rules of trade."
Miller probably didn't forget that one. See how he tries to spank generic officials in his candidacy announcement:
"Too many of our elected officials in Washington are busy focusing on scoring cheap partisan political points or using their position as a stepping stone to higher office. As a result, Virginians end up without someone fighting for their everyday concerns in the Senate."
That's just one example; there are several interesting items in the transcript which is a 42 page pdf I can usually avoid printing, but this warrants an exception.
Harris Miller is always a man on the make with hidden agendas...
Oh, and before anybody accuses me of being anti-immigrant: I am an immigrant of color, and I hate to see foreigners working as indentured servants for little money with no benefits while depressing the wages of native workers and putting them out of work. Sounds like what happened in the 1980s with Cesar Chavez' union, the United Farm Workers. This candidate has a history there too. Same issue, different state. I will talk about this later. Sorry for the rant.
I am neither a cheerleader or Webb or Miller, but I am a proud Democrat who is saddened to see the attacks streaming from both sides. Don't get me wrong, I agree that we need to air out ideas and make our vote count for who we think is the best candidate, but ... let's do it by focusing our energies on beating George Allen, regaining the Senate, the House, and the White House, instead of tearing down fellow Democrats. If we do that, we may find more people will be interested in our party, our candidates and our principles.
I understand your distress on these matters. However, it is important to understand that this is not about tearing down a candidate. It is about a candidate completely misrepresenting himself as a long serving Democrat for the purpose of attaining a high level office. Quite the opposite is true on several fronts, and that is not a matter of nitpicking. It is imperative that we speak against such behavior at such a critical time in history.
What appears to be a typical stream of attacks when casually inspected, is more accurately a stream of incidents in which this candidate worked very hard against the most basic Democratic principles, and who now would have think that he believes exactly the opposite of decades of his own actions.
Some values cannot be compromised for the sake of getting along.
This isn't a contest between two "small-d" democrats -- Harris Miller is a walking, talking electoral fraud... His efforts have undermined our economy, our employment base, our national security, our middle class and the mainstay of the Democratic Party -- American unions.
We need another senator who regards outsourcing in a manner similar to that of Fritz Hollings -- not a friend of the outsourcing lobby in the U.S. and overseas...
He answered the call when there was no other candidate and it looked like there may be no other (for which he deserves praise) but then tainted that by his less then honorable campaign tactics since Webb entered.
I think he is utterly miscast as a Senator, however, despite his obvious eagerness to make use of his contacts and his anxiousness to join that exclusive Club which he has spent so many dollars and so much time influencing. After hearing him express concerns about Virginia, I think he would be better off as Governor. Or, on the other hand, remotely as 11th District Congressman, in case Tom Davis pulls it out and is re-elected for another term. Maybe?
Not a sermon, just a thought.
If he ever became Governor, we should all be very afraid. Remember, he was able to convince the Governor of Arizona (Janet Napolitano; a Democrat?) to outsource state government jobs. The voters found out. The jobs were brought back in-house.
I count myself as one of the lucky ones since I still have a job in IT but I'm working 60 hour weeks out of fear that if I don't put in an extraordinary effort my employer will replace me.
Miller doesn't represent any standard dem or progressive values that I can see - just his own self-serving interests.