When IT Pros talk

Saturday evening I had a rather interesting conversation with another software engineer. I hadn't seen him in several months. So, we caught up on a number of topics including, offshore outsourcing, layoffs, H-1b, job insecurity, Bill Gates and Harris Miller



We discussed the fact that there's now a full-scale propaganda campaign underway for expansion of the H-1b high tech cheap labor visa program. Newspaper editorials, one-sided news reports, and agressive lobbying by pro-outsourcing groups (such as Harris Miller's ITAA) are all in evidence. Bill Gates and other IT execs have been to Capital Hill warning about high tech skilled labor shortages which will undermine the U.S. tech industry unless foreign (low wage) workers are allowed to fill these jobs.

We look upon these campaigns with the cynicism of hard experience living the reality that IT workers face: continual layoffs due to offshore outsourcing and the steady replacement of American workers with low wage foreign workers in the U.S. The short of it is that Gates, Miller and the IT execs clamoring for more cheap foreign labor are lying bastards. We know better and we are increasingly convinced that the media knows better too and is in bed with the lobbyists. This leaves the politicians; many choice opinions of politicians were offered...

My fellow engineer has many years of experience in IT and works for a Fortune 500 defense industry aerospace corporation. He reports that a number of IT workers have recently been let go but the company appears to be "pacing" the layoffs, calling them "furloughs" and giving people 60 days to find new internal jobs or seek work elsewhere. All the better for the company if people find themselves positions elsewhere rather than showing up at the state unemployment office all at once in a group...

We discussed Harris Miller of course... My friend is likewise strongly opposed to the offshore outsourcing policies which Miller has so effectively advanced as a lobbyist for the ITAA. From our view, there are no comparable white collar jobs being created for the IT workers being let go in IT or any other area. The overall number of white collar job opportunities seems to be shrinking. This, of course, is what Paul Craig Roberts says in his regular analyses of the BLS job reports...(I thought it would be fun for Miller and Dr. Roberts to debate the issue but I'm afraid Harris would run away as he has so far on the outsourcing debate in this campaign.)

It's an altogether dismal situation to be in. We both wondered if people will ever wake up to the fact that the U.S. economy is hollow: the best middle class jobs are gone or disappearing whether industrial or "post-industrial" jobs in high technology fields. (All the traditional white collar back office jobs are disappearing too; there's no safety there just increasing job losses.) The offshore outsourcing and worker replacement programs are destroying the American middle class and the ability of the U.S. to create any export products in services or industrial goods.

We did both agree that this sort of downward slide cannot be corrected unless we change political leadership and elect people like Jim Webb to high public office.

WILL-fully Ignoring the Webb Challenge

Writing in Virginia's Contest of Heavyweights ("neo-con"-ised) conservative columnist George Will fails to comprehend or chooses to ignore the issue of offshore outsourcing of American middle class jobs and the widening replacement of American middle class workers with low wage foreign workers.

Nowhere in Will's Washington Post article is there mention of Jim Webb's recent inspiring comments re. economic issues -- offshore outsourcing, job loss, wage stagnation and fair trade.

Will has long taken a very strong position in favor of offshore outsourcing of American jobs and replacement of American workers. The fact that this topic was absent from Will's article leads me to believe that Will omitted this topic quite deliberately.

Clearly, these issues are significant and have played a critical role in Harris Miller's continuing decline. Tarred as a pro-outsourcing, anti-union and anti-American worker lobbyist, Miller is on a downward spiral.

The fact that the Washington Post published an account of the AFL-CIO, DPE letter and fact sheet which branded Miller as an "anti-worker hired gun" was unmentioned by Will. I find that very strange.

By George, why the silence on this topic?

Perhaps it's because this is an issue which Republican officeholders generally and George Allen in particular are very vulnerable on?

Is the electorate seeing the benefits of outsourcing? I think NOT! Many of us live in fear of job loss and feel the pinch of stagnant incomes.

Webb Takes the High Road

Matt Stoller should be ashamed. He has leveled unfair accusations against Jim Webb.

Jim Webb has chosen to make this a campaign about political issues. He does not want to step into an Allen family fight and make accusations about actions outside the public arena so far from the present issues of the day. I'm sure that if Allen made public statements today asserting a racist agenda or a supposed right to violence against women, Jim Webb would be all over the SOB.

If Matt Stoller can't see this distinction or willfully chooses to ignore it, he has my contempt...

Stoller's final sentence was sickening:"James Webb should be ashamed today. He acted without honor, without decency, and without courage. For shame."

The shame is on Matt Stoller. He is unable to distinguish between an honest and honorable disagreement over the merits of political debate topic, on the one hand, and the deliberate tolerance or embrace of family violence and racial hostility.

Stoller should issue an apology to Jim Webb and a retraction. Our political system needs less misguided zealots -- not more of them.

Jim Webb has "class" -- he is passionate about the issues which concern us all. That's damn clear from his public speaking. This is a candidate with "fire in his belly" but the integrity to speak about issues.

Jim Webb wants to avoid the accusation of personal attack -- something the MSM and the Republican/Allen "lie machine" would surely charge him with if he attempted to speak on the matters which Stoller promotes.

I have no doubt that Jim Webb is a man of the highest honor and integrity. His counselors and advisors give evidence of his credibility. (I note that Stoller has criticism for these honorable people as well.)

Webb stands with American working people

Jim Webb stands with American working people: blue collar or white collar, union or non-union.

Jim Webb understands the importance of keeping America the land of opportunity where hard work is respected and rewarded and people dare to dream of a middle class life for themselves and their children.

Jim Webb is one of us. He holds our values not elitist values.

Jim Webb has earned his way in life. He worked his way up through honest sincere effort -- not behind the scenes deal-making and insider connections.

Jim Webb understands the struggles of the middle and working classes and he sees us -- the "average Americans" as the backbone of this country -- not the smug elites who think the United States and American government exists for their benefit alone.

More than just the candidate who will fight the outsourcing of middle class American jobs, Jim Webb is the candidate fighting to keep the American Dream alive.

Yes Virginia Outsourcing is BAD...

I find it impossible to discuss Harris Miller without reference to his beliefs and his previous actions. Claims to the contrary notwithstanding, this is the stuff of legitimate debate.

The rub is that Miller, his campaign staff and his supporters want to avoid all discussion of Miller's past support for offshore outsourcing of American jobs and use of imported low wage foreign workers. While these policies have been central elements of Miller's long tenure as a business lobbyist with the ITAA "trade organisation", they are issues that Miller is running away from today.

I'd like to focus some attention on the broader issue of offshore outsourcing and worker replacement programs. I think that many of us already understand how harmful these policies have been to American society, American families, American workers, and our comunities. While Harris Miller attempts to evade his support for offshore outsourcing and worker replacement programs, we need to remember how significant the stakes really are. We need to ask the hard questions about why this situation has been allowed to deteriorate as badly as it has. We need to hold people like Harris Miller and George Allen accountable for their support of offshore outsourcing and worker replacement programs. After all, these are politically-enabled programs and policies...

Over the past several years, I have become a regular reader of economist/commentator Paul Craig Roberts. Dr. Roberts distinguishes himself as one of the sharpest critics of offshore outsourcing and worker replacement programs. He crunches the numbers and puts the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports under careful review. He does this regularly, consistently. His findings are not encouraging and they underscore the tremendous damage that has been done to our economy and society by a government in the grip of a culture of corruption.

Here are some excerpts from Dr. Roberts' latest article in the April 25 edition of Counterpunch:

The US is heavily dependent on imports for manufactured
goods, including advanced technology products. In 2005 US dependency (in dollar amounts) on imported manufactured goods was twice as large as US dependency on imported oil. In the 21st century the US has experienced a rapid increase in dependency on imports of advanced technology products. A country dependent on foreigners for manufactures and advanced technology products is not a superpower.

...Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs reports document the
loss of manufacturing jobs and the inability of the US economy to create jobs in categories other than domestic “hands on” services...

A country that cannot create jobs for its native born population is not a superpower.

In an interview in the April 17 Manufacturing & Technology News, former TCI and Global Crossing CEO Leo Hindery said that the incentives of globalization have disconnected US corporations from US interests. “No economy,” Hindery said, “can survive the offshoring of both manufacturing and services concurrently. In fact, no society can even take excessive offshoring of manufacturing alone.” According to Hindery, offshoring serves the short-term interests of shareholders and executive pay at the long-term expense of US economic strength.

Hindery notes that in 1981 the Business Roundtable defined its constituency as “employees, shareholders, community, customers, and the nation.” Today the constituency is quarterly earnings. A country whose business class has no sense of the nation is not a superpower.

The Efficacy of the Lie and the Politics of Desperation

The Roanoke Times reports today that Harris Miller said: "Clearly Mr. Webb has been a Republican all his life, so he has a different view of the world than I do."

It's an interesting strategy borne out of desperation for Harris Miller to attack James Webb as a life-long "Republican".

In fact, as anyone who has read James Webb's many public articles and books will attest and anyone who has reviewed Mr. Webb's commendable and honorable service to our nation (which has recognised his heroic conduct on the battlefield,) James Webb is one of the most sincere and honest Democrats we now have in public life.

Mr. Webb's public announcement of affiliation with the broader Democratic Party rather than being the stuff of mere formality, is clearly underpinned by his body of writing. It is underpinned by his public actions. It is underpinned by Mr. Webb's willingness to explain himself on blogs and in interviews. We know where Jim Webb stands -- with the working people -- with the middle class -- with the ideals of a democratic society.

Insulting the intelligence of the electorate with unfounded claims that James Webb is a "Republican" does nothing but underscore the emptiness of Harris Miller's claim to be a "Democrat".

Of course, Harris Miller has a long history of working against the interests of middle class blue collar and white collar Americans. So, it's to be expected that Miller will attempt to muddy the waters and avoid a real discussion of his political philosophy (or lack thereof).

As Mr. Miller is a long-time student of political philosophy and practitioner of politics as an effective pro-outsourcing business lobbyist, he is quite aware of Machiavelli's admonitions regarding the efficacy of the lie.

And lie Mr. Miller does and has done for years extending unto decades. He has lied about labor shortages. He has lied about inadequacies of skill and education in American workers. He has lied about the utter failure of American educators -- American teachers -- to prepare children for the jobs of the 21st century. He has lied about the use of imported foreign workers to facilitate offshore outsourcing of American jobs. He has lied about the presence of foreign workers in the U.S. imported by corporations to perform work that Americans can and should perform.

In sum, it's quite reasonable to say that Harris Miller's wealth and success has been based on his mastery of the lie coupled to his unprincipled subservience to business interests single-mindedly engaged in maximising profits without regard to the adverse consequences to our fellow citizens, our society, our communities, and our country.

To which party then does Harris Miller pledge his loyalty? Clearly not the Democratic Party of real democrats. I suggest that Miller is an ally of the "Party of Davos" -- the international group of intellectuals and business leaders who care more for a world built around business efficiency, maximising transnational profits and the enrichment of international elites of investors.

Miller is clearly not concerned about the impact of such policies on the American people. Harris Miller is not a "good Democrat".

Harris Miller's acquisition of wealth, power, and political influence which he calls the realisation of the "American Dream" came at the cost of ruining the dreams of millions of hard-working Americans whose jobs he helped destroy. (That he had allies and collaborators in this activity is no defense; he has allied himself against the interests of millions of Americans.)

Is Harris Miller the sort of candidate that Democrats can reasonably support? I think not.

Harris Miller, Job Killer

Harris Miller opposes laws to limit offshore outsourcing of American jobs. Miller opposes laws to prevent American workers from being forced to train foreign replacements. Miller claims "labor shortages" to justify business importation of hundreds of thousands of low wage replacement workers. Lobbyist Harris Miller destroys middle class American jobs.

Outsourcing Lobby funds Harris Miller

Harris Miller’s pro-outsourcing and worker replacement friends in the IT business lobby recently had a little fund-raiser for Harris in Santa Clara, California. (Thanks to VirginiaBelle for first reporting this.) The cast of characters are familiar to many of us involved in the anti-outsourcing movement, symbolising the insidious infiltration of corporate outsourcing influence in what is supposed to be the Party concerned with the welfare of common people – the broad majority of Americans.

Silicon Valley business lobbyists’ best friend in Congress, Rep. Zoe Lofgren was there along with former Intel corp. executive, Tom Kalil… Miller’s ITAA friend, Amy Callahan, Vice President of the Western Region of the Information Technology Association of America was there… Well, you get the picture.

It’s no surprise that cynical political and industry insiders are helping Harris Miller, their insider-lobbyist friend, a man characterised as an “anti-worker hired gun” by the AFL-CIO, DPE. Miller has been useful in funneling pro-outsourcing business money into political campaigns while advancing the interests of the “new money” information technology investor and managerial class. This, of course, has been at the expense of the information age “working class” -- American information technology workers, specifically and American white collar workers, generally.

This California “outsourcing fest” was advertised under the auspices of the Santa Clara County Democratic Party illustrating the cozy familiarity which the outsourcing/worker replacement lobby enjoys with many in the Democratic Party at the state and national levels. Here’s how the announcement for the fundraiser appeared on the SCCDP web site:

Harris Miller for Congress
03/30/2006 7:00pm
1168 Barroilhet Drive, Hillsborough, Other
Ben Barnes and the Host Committee, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, Amy Callahan, Elizabeth Echols, Ben Golub, Tom Kalil, Chris Kelly, Lee Miller, Michael Nacht, Cindy Rubin, Mark Stechbart, invite you to join them to support Harris Miller, Technology Leader and Democratic Candidate for U.S. Senate - Virginia at the home of Ben Barnes and Nadine Taylor-Barnes. For questions or to R.s.v.p. please contact Mr. Jason Langford at Jason@Miller2006.org.

The fact that the outsourcing lobby is funding Miller while still in the primary is in itself interesting. Are they afraid of James Webb? Is James Webb perceived as a threat to the anti-worker policies that insiders have pushed through Congress? This is something that the AFL-CIO isn't doing. (Should it?)

From the standpoint of the offshore outsourcing and worker replacement lobby, it’s a win-win situation if Miller faces off against Allen. Miller or Allen will continue to support the offshore outsouricng of American middle class jobs and the importation of low wage skilled white collar replacement workers. The real threat comes from someone with integrity like James Webb who isn't a part of the insider-lobbyist loop.

Of course, a Miller v. Allen match-up presents no real choice for Virginia voters concerned about job loss, wage stagnation, and declining middle class employment opportunities. Both Miller and Allen are candidates of wealthy undemocratic elites. They will pursue policies contrary to the interests of the American middle class.

The reality is that the only real democrat in this election is James Webb.

The outsourcing and worker replacement lobby know this and you should too. Don’t forget it and remember to tell all your friends. Email them. Call them. And talk to ‘em. You can be sure Miller’s friends are going to be spinning a different story with their big money and insider connections.

Yahoo enables human rights crackdown in China

PC World reports that Yahoo has helped the Chinese government target advocates of free speech and democracy leading to another arrest. This is yet another example of how transnational corporations subordinate human rights to maximising profits... Why won't the U.S. government demand that Yahoo cease its cooperation in the suppression of free speech? This is a mockery of the alleged benefits of the "information age". Yahoo: Pull your email servers OUT of China!

Group Says Yahoo's Help Led to Another Dissident's Arrest

Reporters Without Borders says company information enabled Chinese government to make a third arrest.
Grant Gross, IDG News Service
Wednesday, April 19, 2006

WASHINGTON -- A media rights group has identified a third dissident that the Chinese government arrested based on information seemingly supplied by a Yahoo subsidiary.

On Wednesday, Reporters Without Borders announced that it has obtained a copy of the verdict against cyber-dissident Jiang Lijun, sentenced in November 2003 to four years in prison for his online pro-democracy articles. The verdict notes that Jiang's e-mail account, provided to Chinese authorities by Yahoo Holdings (Hong Kong), was part of the evidence used to try him for the crime of subversion.

Charges

Jiang used the Internet and other methods to promote a "so-called Western-style democracy" and to advocate the overthrow of the Chinese government, the verdict said. The government also accused Jiang of planning to make bomb threats and attempting to start a new political party, according to the verdict. He denied the charges against him.
"Little by little we are piecing together the evidence for what we have long suspected, that Yahoo is implicated in the arrest of most of the people that we have been defending," Reporters Without Borders said in its statement.

The group called on Yahoo to pull its e-mail servers out of China. "This way, any request from the Chinese would have to be supervised by...American justice," said Julien Pain, head of the Internet freedom desk at Reporters Without Borders. "They shouldn't comply with all Chinese demands. It's possible to negotiate with the Chinese authorities. The Chinese wouldn't ban such an important company."

Yahoo is unaware of this latest case, according to Yahoo spokesperson Mary Osako. It is "unclear" how the Chinese government obtained Jiang's information, she said.
Yahoo condemns punishment of free expression in any country and recognizes the need to take local conditions into account when deciding whether to do business outside the United States, she said. "We also think there's a vital role for government-to-government discussion of the large issue involved," she added.

Background

Chinese police apparently believed that Jiang was the leader of a small group of cyber-dissidents that included Internet user Liu Di, who was imprisoned between November 2002 and November 2003. Reporters Without Borders has also blamed Yahoo for helping to implicate Chinese journalist Shi Tao, who was sentenced in April 2005 to 10 years in prison for divulging state secrets abroad.

In a fourth case, Li Zhi, a Chinese Internet user, was sentenced in August 2003 to eight years in jail for his involvement in the China Democratic Party; Yahoo Holdings (Hong Kong) again provided evidence in connection with the charges, though it's unclear how much that evidence contributed to Li's sentence.

More: "Yahoo Denies Link To Jailing Of Third Chinese Activist"
Comment: Yeah, sure. Deny everything and blame everyone else you greedy self-serving bastards.
Quote: "U.S. Internet companies operating in China, the world's second largest market, have said they have to follow Chinese law, no matter how distasteful to Western countries, in order to do business under the communist government. Google Inc., Microsoft Corp.'s MSN and Yahoo, for example, censor their Chinese-language search results at the request of Beijing."

Harris Miller doesn't want you to read this...

OUTSOURCING is not beneficial to the long term interests of the United States, the U.S. economy or American workers.

Why has Harris Miller supported outsourcing as a well paid business lobbyist for more than 10 years?

Shouldn't we hold Harris Miller to account for his support of outsourcing and worker replacement programs? (Harris Miller is far more than "anti-union".)



This has been the profile of US employment growth for a number of years, along with some construction jobs filled by legal and illegal immigrants. It is the job profile of a third world economy.

From January 2001 to January 2006 the US economy lost 2.9 million manufacturing jobs. The promised replacement jobs--“new economy” high-tech knowledge jobs--have failed to materialize.

High-tech knowledge jobs are also being outsourced abroad. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, US employment of engineers and architects declined by 189,940 between November 2000 and November 2004 (latest data available).

Economist Alan Blinder estimates that as many as 56 million American jobs are susceptible to offshore outsourcing. That would be about half of the US work force.

Offshoring has contributed to the explosion of the US trade/current account deficit over the past decade to $800 billion annually and rising. The US has a trade deficit in manufactured products, including advanced technology products, of more than a half trillion dollars annually, a sum far larger than the oil import bill.

To cover the trade deficit, the US has to turn over to foreigners ownership of its accumulated wealth. This worsens the current account deficit as the income streams on the US based assets now accrue to foreigners.

Many economists pretend that the whopping US trade/current account deficit is evidence that the rest of the world has great confidence in America. They pretend that it is foreign investment in the US that causes the trade deficit, whereas the simple fact is that it is the US trade deficit that gives foreigners the dollars with which to purchase our existing assets.

Traditionally, a trade deficit might indicate that a country’s industries were not competitive against imports from abroad, resulting in a decline in the exchange value of the country’s currency. This would make foreign goods more expensive for that country and its goods cheaper for foreigners, thus restoring a balance.

This does not work for the US for three reasons:

(1) The US dollar is the world’s reserve currency. The dollar can be used to settle all international accounts. Therefore, there is a world demand for dollars. This demand absorbs what would be an excess supply for any other country running such large deficits.

(2) China pegs its currency to the dollar, thus preventing an adjustment in the price of the two countries goods and services. Other countries, such as Japan, intervene in currency markets by purchasing dollars in order to support the dollar and prevent its currency from rising in dollar value.

(3) Offshoring turns US production into imports. Much of the US trade deficit results from offshoring, not from traditional trade competition. The collapse of world socialism and the advent of the high speed Internet made cheap foreign labor available to US companies. US firms use foreign labor to produce offshore the goods and services that they market to Americans. For example, more than half of the large US trade deficit with China is comprised of goods and services produced by US companies in China for American markets.

How can the US reduce its trade deficit when it deprives itself of exports and fills itself with imports by offshoring its production of goods and services, and when the devaluation of the dollar is limited by the dollar’s reserve role and by other countries pegging their currency to the dollar or by intervening to support the dollar? Obviously, when balance returns to US trade, it will not come through traditional means.

One way balance can return is by the US oversupplying the world with dollars to the point at which the dollar is abandoned as the reserve currency.

Another way is through the limit placed on Americans’ ability to consume that results from replacing manufacturing and engineering jobs with waitress, bartender and hospital orderly jobs. A country that loses high value-added jobs and gains low value-added jobs is in danger of losing its prosperity. Offshoring raises corporate profits in the short-run at the expense of destroying the domestic consumer market in the long-run.

Most economists are confused about offshoring. They mistakenly think offshoring is an example of free trade bringing mutual benefit through the principle of comparative advantage. It is not. Offshoring is an example of companies obtaining absolute advantage by combining high-tech capital with low-cost labor. The gains from absolute advantage are asymmetrical or one-sided. The cheap labor country gains, and the expensive labor country loses.

As Morgan Stanley economist Stephen Roach pointed out on April 7, “average hourly compensation of Chinese manufacturing workers is only 3-4 per cent of levels in the US, 10% of the pay rate of Asia’s newly industrialized economies, and 25 per cent of levels in Mexico and Brazil.” Roach also notes that with a rural population of 745 million (about two and one-half times the total US population) and headcount reductions of more than 60 million workers from state-owned enterprises, China will not experience a labor shortage any time soon.

This means that it will be a long time before Chinese wages rise enough to offset the benefits of offshoring. The same can be said about India. Consequently, a large percentage of US jobs is vulnerable to being moved abroad.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at: paulcraigroberts@yahoo.com

Harris Miller Lie Machine Part 2

Here are the comments of Dr. Norman Matloff, professor of Computer Science at UC, Davis, a self-described Democrat and articulate, long-standing critic of outsourcing, worker replacement programs, expert on H-1b and not, coincidentally, critic of Harris Miller.

H-1B/L-1/offshoring e-newsletter, 4/18/2006

When Harris Miller, former president of the industry lobbying group ITAA, first announced his intention to run for the Senate, I said, "Miller has consistently used tactics which most people would consider underhanded." I gave a couple of examples of such tactics, and could have given a lot more.

At the time, a lot of programmer and engineer activists thought that Miller would be highly vulnerable due to his support of H-1B and offshoring. But they forget that he's a PR guy, an extremely skilled one. You can see it in the second enclosure below, where he deflects the questions quite deftly.

Speaking of slick PR people, look at this passage:
"Miller's communications director, Taylor West, downplayed the importance of the letter and said Miller will be courting union voters by stressing the need for better education and training so that Virginians can compete."

"Harris is not someone who wants to see jobs leaving this country," West said. "We have to acknowledge the realities of a global economy and be sure we're providing the resources and the tools for our workers."

Miller's ITAA membership consisted of some of the largest firms involving offshoring, so West's claim is really absurd. Miller has made hundreds of public statements in favor of offshoring. For instance, in his testimony to Congress on March 5, 2004, he said
"My members believe outsourcingâ-rather than trying to build and retain a substantial in-house capability--remains the most effective strategy for conducting a wide variety of IT operations."

Here is a quote from The Economist, Dec. 11, 2003:
"Many companies have not yet taken anything like full advantage of offshoring. Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), a lobby group, says that offshore locations have so far captured just 3-4% of all American companies' outsourcing. The bulk remains onshore in the hands of big firms such as ... of offshoring (see chart 2). Mr Harris [sic] says some big companies have told him that up to 40% of their outsourcing business could end up offshore. That suggests the industry still has a long way to grow."

Keep in mind that the ITAA worked hard to defeat bills in state legislatures that would mandate that state government work be done in the U.S. (HR Magazine, May 2004)

Remember how offshoring was an issue in the 2004 presidential election? Miller made it clear that the ITAA was opposed to it being an issue. Here is some interesting material from the New York Times, January 20, 2004:

"One of the concerns I have is what happens in this situation when, in their eagerness to create a policy issue, some of them have engaged in a lot of antitrade rhetoric and antiglobalization rhetoric," said Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA). "From the association's perspective, it will be an ongoing concern if it turns into a hard-and-fast policy concern in the general election."
* ...
"ITAA's Miller, who says he has helped to raise money for candidate Howard Dean in a personal capacity, says IT companies would 'be very disappointed in any presidential candidate who has made a fundamental of his campaign that he would remove the U.S. from a leadership role on trade issues...obviously this is a lot of posturing in the primary. We know that candidates in both parties have last-minute changes of heart when they have to go out in front of the general electorate.'"

Did you catch that last sentence? Miller has the nerve to castigate politicians who do what the voters want!

Here is another example of Miller's slickness, from the Manufacturing and Technology News, November 4, 2003:

" industries. 'That's not to say that isn't a significant number, but the hyperbole with this issue tends to outweigh reality," Miller says. These consulting firms 'are trying to make a lot of money by projecting these ridiculous percentages of work offshore. The Forresters and Gigas are trying to get consulting contracts by using these ridiculous reports that they have no basis for.'"

So does that mean Intel chairman Andrew Grove is guilty of using hyperbole when he notes that 500,000 IT jobs have already left the United States, Miller was asked at a recent hearing of the House Small Business Committee by Rep. Don Manzullo (R-Ill.). 'It's because we had a major recession in the IT industry," Miller responded.

To which Manzullo said: 'That's not what he's talking about.'

Miller: 'I understand. I'm not going to get into a fight with Mr. Grove. Intel is a member. But what I'm saying is the U.S. software and services industry according to all data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics...'"

Amazing.

Miller has also opposed having H-1B employers give hiring priority to American workers. (CNet News, January 20, 2005) Etc., etc.
Well, enough quotes of Miller. Clearly, the Web abounds with them.
Nice to see the DPE of the AFL/CIO speaking out, as seen in the first enclosure below.
Norm

Labor Labels Senate Hopeful 'Anti-Worker'
By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 14, 2006; B05

RICHMOND, April 13 -- National labor union leaders are criticizing Virginia U.S. Senate candidate Harris Miller for opposing worker rights as a lobbyist for the high-tech industry.

In a letter to the Virginia AFL-CIO, the national union group representing white-collar workers called Miller "truly one of the bad guys" for his support for outsourcing jobs and importing foreign guest workers.

The letter was the latest example of Virginia's two Democratic Senate hopefuls having problems with their party's base voters. This month, several prominent black politicians criticized Miller's opponent, former Navy secretary James Webb, for statements he made about affirmative action.

"I cannot accept Jim Webb's views and statements on affirmative action,"
state Sen. Henry L. Marsh III (D-Richmond) said April 3. "I think his candidacy will have rough going gaining support among the rank and file."

Kristian Denny-Todd, Webb's communications director, said Marsh was mischaracterizing Webb's comments, in which he said that affirmative action should be based on class, not race.

"Jim Webb always has and always will support affirmative action for African Americans," Denny-Todd said.

The letter from the Washington-based AFL-CIO's Department for Professional Employees, which represents 4 million white-collar workers, was sent in February and first made public Thursday on the Raising Kaine Web blog, which is run by Webb supporters.

In the letter, Executive Director Michael W. Gildea writes of the candidate, a former president of the Arlington-based Information Technology Association of America: "Miller's anti-labor, anti-worker activities find him unfit for any kind of labor support."

Gildea was out of town and did not return calls. But the president of the professional employees' union, Paul Almeida, said his organization has a "long track record" with Miller that he said motivated the unusually blunt letter and an accompanying two-page fact sheet.

"When we saw his name pop up, we didn't know if people in the labor movement knew him the way we did," Almeida said. "He should be [asked] to defend why the outsourcing of jobs and the bringing in of guest workers is a good idea."

Doris Crouse-Mays, secretary-treasurer of the Virginia AFL-CIO, said her organization is not endorsing anyone in the June 13 primary. But she said the comments from the national group will be considered when determining endorsements in the general election.

"Assuming that Harris Miller was to win the nomination, it would be addressed at our executive council," she said.

Miller's communications director, Taylor West, downplayed the importance of the letter and said Miller will be courting union voters by stressing the need for better education and training so that Virginians can compete.

"Harris is not someone who wants to see jobs leaving this country," West said. "We have to acknowledge the realities of a global economy and be sure we're providing the resources and the tools for our workers."

http://www.raisingkaine.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2134
Breakfast With Harris Miller
by: Teddy <http://www.raisingkaine.com/userDiary.do?personId=11>
[subscribe <http://www.raisingkaine.com/subscription.do?diaryId=2134> ]
April 15, 2006 at 16:06:58 MST
(Thanks to Teddy for this article... - promoted by Lowell)

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.
Teddy <http://www.raisingkaine.com/userDiary.do?personId=11> :: Breakfast With <http://www.raisingkaine.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2134> Harris Miller

After mentioning the newly announced closing of the Ford plant in Norfolk, which brought up globalization, the lead-off question pointedly introduced Mr. Miller's 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's by lobbying Congress and in helping, in Mr. Miller's view, to develop America's 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's 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 "metric" 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's 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's 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 "Jim"
(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 "deleting American
workers")

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- as my grandmother used to say, "a mile wide and an inch deep."

Harris Miller Lie Machine

Last Friday, the Washington Post published an article reporting charges leveled against Miller in an AFL-CIO union letter and fact sheet. The response from the Miller campaign was classic "smoke and mirrors".

According to the WP, "Miller's communications director, Taylor West, downplayed the importance of the letter and said Miller will be courting union voters by stressing the need for better education and training so that Virginians can compete."

"Harris is not someone who wants to see jobs leaving this country," West said. "We have to acknowledge the realities of a global economy and be sure we're providing the resources and the tools for our workers."

The claim that American education is so flawed and training is so inadequate that jobs are fleeing the U.S. is laughable -- nay contemptible. These are the stock claims of the outsourcing and worker replacement lobby -- the lobby in which Harris Miller was a major player until only recently.

How does Miller explain the replacement and job loss of long time American information technology workers and others in professional, scientific, engineering and technical areas?

Many of these American workers are highly experienced, well educated and not recent graduates of university. Any alleged problems with the American education system could not possibly explain the continued huge job losses to outsourcing and the common use of foreign replacement workers. The continuing high levels of unemployment, underemployment and non-employment of skilled, experienced, educated Americans indicates that outsourcing and "business visa" programs are eliminating middle class employement opportunities for Americans.

Americans want middle class jobs and can’t get them. Middle class jobs have been moved out of the U.S., are being moved out of the U.S., are increasingly not even being created in the U.S. and when the jobs do exist in the U.S., they are being filled by imported low wage replacement workers instead of qualified Americans.

Harris Miller has helped do to white collar workers that which has been done and is being done to American blue collar workers. Miller's actions are equivalent to shipping factories and factory jobs to China.

Miller has lied about the reason why American jobs are disappearing and he has helped enable the job losses.

What American values are served by this sort of behavior? Is greed an "American value" which deserves reward with a seat in the U.S. Senate?

Miller has long been the cheerleader of outsourcing and worker replacement programs; he’s still lying about these programs. It's also clear that Miller's campaign has turned itself into a "lie machine" justifying the injustice of corporate "leaders" and defending the indefensible.

Harris Miller is the enemy of middle class working Americans.

Harris Miller is the enemy of the United States.

Harris Miller is a greedy self-interested elitist who does not care about our nation or our society.

It is an insult to the millions of displaced and replaced American workers to claim that they lost their jobs because they were incompetent, unskilled, uneducated, ill-educated and unable to perform work which went offshore or is now filled with imported replacement workers.

DON'T LIE TO US -- AMERICAN WORKERS ARE NOT SECOND RATE, HARRIS MILLER!

Washington Post Get's Part of the Miller Story -- FINALLY!

They ignored my earlier letter about Miller's past but finally took note of the AFL-CIO, DPE denunciation of Miller's anti-American worker lobbying history.

Still, they couldn't get it right: the letters were published online at this site FIRST.

Darn it, I stayed up VERY late to put these documents online and it would be nice if the Washington Post would get it right. They must not even have bothered reading the Raising Kaine post about this because Lowell told everyone where the docs were -- right here at The Modern Patriot.

I wrote to the Post to correct them and noted that I have opposed Miller for more than 3 years and this site is far more than just "pro-Webb".

AFL-CIO Union: MILLER is "ANTI-WORKER HIRED GUN"

FACT SHEET
HARRIS MILLER: ANTI-WORKER HIRED GUN

The following is an outline of some of the activities of Harris Miller—announced Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate from Virginia—in his former capacity as President of the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA)

EXPORTING U.S. JOBS
His organization has been one of the loudest cheerleaders in support of the offshore outsourcing of American jobs. In this regard, here are just a few of ITAA’s antics under Miller’s leadership:

• During Congressional deliberations on the 2004 American Jobs Creation Act (the so-called FSC/ETI legislation), the ITAA opposed retention of a labor-backed Senate amendment by Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CN) to prohibit off-shore outsourcing of federal contracts.


• Opposed an amendment by Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) to the FY 2005 Agriculture department appropriations bill to prohibit the offshore outsourcing of and all federal contracts related to the federal food stamp program;


• Fought AFL-CIO state efforts to restrict the off-shoring of state contract work in over a dozen states. A few examples include:


• The ITAA successfully lobbied CA Governor Schwarzenegger to veto a series of anti-off-shoring bills that would have: precluded the state from funding the employment training of individuals located outside the U.S. or from entering into contracts with contractors for services performed overseas; prohibited work involving information vital to homeland security from being performed outside the U.S.; and required the disclosure to patients of any personally identifiable medical information to be transferred outside of the U.S.


• In NJ, the ITAA opposed legislation to prohibit off-shore outsourcing of state contracts and blasted NJ governor James McGreevey for issuing Executive Order No.129 prohibiting state agencies from contracting with a vendor (or their subcontractors) which performs such services in a foreign country.


• Lobbied for Congressional passage of the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and is one of the lead business groups affiliated with the American Business Coalition for Doha (ABCD), one of the major pro-free trade, business lobbying coalitions.


• Opposed a Buy American amendment added to the 2005 Homeland Security Authorization Act by Rep Don Manzullo (R-IL) that would require 50 percent or more of components in products acquired by the DHS be made in the U.S. The ITAA described such “Buy America” provisions as “a lose-lose proposition for the nation”.


• On 10/20/03 Miller testified before the House Small Business Committee on the off-shoring of white collar jobs. The Atlanta Journal—Constitution 10/21/03 edition described his remarks this way:

As U.S. companies send more high-tech work overseas, they are creating a ''downward pressure on salaries'' that may help slow American job losses, a technology industry leader told Congress on Monday. Indeed, U.S. workers may have to get used to lower wages, said Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America.

Unlike the late 1990s, when the tech sector was booming, U.S. workers no longer can expect employers to offer ''six-figure incomes to technical people with little or no actual on-the-job training,'' Miller told the House Committee on Small Business.

Americans must face the ''hard truth'' that offshore companies not only offer information technology services for ''a fraction of the cost,'' but they can ''compete for increasingly more sophisticated and complex IT work,'' he said. The silver lining of this wage pressure, Miller said, is that ''a more competitive payroll picture may undercut [U.S. employers'] need to move jobs offshore.''

LABOR LAW
The ITAA has supported business led efforts to eliminate overtime protections for U.S. workers:

• The ITAA supported of H.R. 1119, legislation in 2003 to allow workers to “choose” flex time instead of overtime pay (Source: 6/4/03 news release by House Committee on Education and the Workforce) ;


• In 2000 they partnered with the notorious union busting firm of Seyfarth-Shaw (Chicago) to co-sponsor a forum on (overtime) exempt and non-exempt employees in the IT industry.


• Miller’s reaction in a 5/17/05 article by C/NET NEWS that the new Bush overtime regulations could produce a spate of lawsuits to protect worker rights, were described this way:

But Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America trade group, has a grimmer view. Moving to more of a 9-to-5, clock-punching culture will hurt the country's computer sector, he argues. "One of the strengths of the tech industry has been that there has not been a lot of we-against-they mentality regarding labor and management," Miller said. "You run the risk of losing the collaborative relationship that has been so productive."

GUEST WORKERS

• The ITAA is the lead lobby urging Congress to allow in hundreds of thousands professional guest worker under the H-1B visa program that allow foreign workers to come in a take American jobs from highly skilled workers here in the U.S. (a.k.a. in-sourcing);


• They have opposed DPE/AFL-CIO recommended pro-worker reforms in both the H-1B and L-1 (intra-company transfer visa) programs to stop abuse of the program particularly replacement of U. S. workers. (Source: Q and A at hearings before the House International Relations Committee on the L-1 visa, 2/4/04).

.
PRIVATIZATION
Under Miller, the ITAA has opposed efforts by labor’s congressional allies to prevent the privatization of federal jobs. Most recently the ITAA sought elimination of an amendment by Senators. Kit Bond, (R-MO) and Barbara Mikulski, (D-MD)., to FY 2006 Transportation/Treasury/Housing appropriations bill to requires: a public-private competition before any work performed by 10 or more government employees can be awarded to a private company, and; that private contractor bids must be lower by either 10 percent of personnel-related costs or $10 million - whichever is lower.

STATE FUNDING OF VITAL SERVICES
ITAA supports making permanent the temporary congressional ban prohibiting the states from applying state sales taxes to commodity sales over the internet. If allowed to tax these transactions, states could raise nearly $16 billion dollars annually in needed fiscal resources for vital public services such as education, roads, health care such as Medicaid, law enforcement, social services etc.

POSTSCRIPT
A 11/20/03 article in Tech Worker News entitled “IT Industry: Race to the Bottom”, summed up Miller’s work:
By pumping up the number of technologically skilled immigrants allowed into the country and outsourcing growing numbers of tech jobs abroad, these firms [U.S. technology companies] are well on their way to guaranteeing that whatever jobs of the future remain in America pay as little as possible. Worse, in the process, they’re discouraging more and more young Americans from studying science and technology, and thus encouraging a dangerous dumbing-down of the nation’s future workforce. Try preserving superpower status after a generation or two of that.This year, technology and other white-collar outsourcing has become so widespread, and the economy’s job-creating powers have become so feeble, that the issue has become front-page news and the public is revolting. Like their counterparts in the rest of the economy, the multinational tech-outsourcers and their apologists have begun to react with a combination of almost refreshingly honest arrogance and insultingly incoherent deception.In the former category, tech industry spokesman Harris Miller takes first prize. President of the Information Technology Association of America, Miller spent the late 1990s insisting that America faced a tech worker shortage so enormous that only a flood of immigrant techies could fill the gap. He also warned that, without such tech worker imports, these firms would send the jobs overseas.Now, as unemployment in technology still tops 8 percent despite months of better economic growth, Miller has shifted toward defending outsourcing as a “hard truth” that Americans must face. The nation’s main hope for stemming this job flight? As Miller told Congress, “downward pressure on salaries.” In other words, U.S. technology workers should plunge deeper into the global race to the bottom.More funding for technology education would help, too, he added. But Miller was surely relieved that no Congressmen asked him how this would improve America’s competitiveness with foreign workers who he argued can “compete for increasingly more sophisticated and complex IT work” at “a fraction” of U.S. costs.

Prepared by: Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO 2/6/06

Sources: Except where otherwise indicated, all references are derived from documents published on the ITAA website as of 2/1/06.

Note: This document was transmitted to me with permission to publish by Marcus Courtney, President of "Washtech", Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, Communications Workers of America, Local 37083, AFL-CIO.

AFL-CIO UNION OPPOSES MILLER

Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO





February 6, 2006

Doris Crouse-Mays
Secretary-Treasurer
Virginia AFL-CIO
5400 Glenside Dr.
Suite E
Richmond VA, 23228

Dear Doris,

Sincerest congratulations on your elevation to the new leadership position at the Virginia State AFL-CIO. If ever the Department for Professional Employees DPE) can be of assistance, please don’t hesitate to call on us.

As a follow-up to our recent conversation, we wanted to provide you with some more details about an announced Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate from Virginia—Harris Miller.

Over the last decade DPE has frequently encountered Mr. Miller—in his former capacity as President and CEO of the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA)—leading the charge against us, the AFL-CIO and many of our affiliated unions on many, many legislative issues.

For your information, I have attached a brief outline of what we could find out from a cursory review of available information. I’m sure that there’s probably a lot more out there, but the specifics we have uncovered thus far should be sufficient.

On the issue of the Bush Overtime regulations, we could not specifically find information relative to the ITAA’s position. Documentation is made nearly impossible since the U.S. Department of Labor doesn’t provide an index to the organizations that filed public comments during that phase of the rulemaking process. It is hard to imagine however, that—given the ITAA’s proclivities regarding other worker-related matters—that the organization sat this fight out when in fact the final rules exempted an even greater number of IT professionals that had been excluded previously.

Finally, as to his views on unions, the appended article from the 6/4/01 edition of Network World says it all. Entitled “IT workers don’t need to unionize”, Miller launches into a typical anti-union screed replete with references to union bosses, attacks on seniority systems, and snide references to collective bargaining agreements and job security. He concludes his rant against unionization of tech workers with the following quote:

Unions have their place. But for today's high-tech workers, union membership would minimize job flexibility, reduce the ability to negotiate wages and stifle the creativity that has made the U.S. IT industry the world leader. High-tech workers have consistently rejected efforts to organize them and will continue to frown upon unions as a useful or desirable move.

Needless to say Miller is truly one of the bad guys. Over and over again on core issues like trade, immigration, overtime protections and privatization of federal jobs, he’s not only been on the wrong side, he’s been galvanizing corporate efforts against us.

As the state AFL-CIO and the labor councils throughout the state embark on their candidate assessment process, I hope they will take into consideration Miller’s anti-labor, anti-worker activities and find him unfit for any kind of labor support.

Feel free to give this letter the widest possible circulation throughout the labor movement in the Commonwealth.

In closing, please also extend my best wishes to Brother Jim for a long and successful tenure as the new President of the Virginia AFL-CIO.

In solidarity,

Michael W. Gildea
Executive Director

1025 Vermont Avenue, N.W.
Suite 1030
Washington, D.C. 20005
Phone: (202) 638-0320
Fax: (202) 628-4379
Website: www.dpeaflcio.org

Note: This letter was transmitted to me with permission to publish by Marcus Courtney, President of "WashTech", the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, Communications Workers of America, Local 37083, AFL-CIO. As Michael Gildea, the Executive Director of the DPEA, AFL-CIO makes clear, Harris Miller is the enemy of American labor. Harris Miller is not a "good Democrat". --Info_Tech_Guy

Harris Miller and the Demise of American Information Age Jobs

Increasingly we hear arguments that America needs additional technical and scientific workers. This is usually presented in articles which urge us to believe that “we” (American corporations) will lose our ability to compete if we (the elected representatives of the American people) don’t allow in large numbers of educated and skilled foreign workers to fill jobs here in the U.S.

Such claims are eerily familiar and rather ironic because Harris Miller has made such claims for more than a decade as a business lobbyist. Miller’s career was built on selling mythical high tech labor shortages to Congress and the public to justify the entrance of tens of thousands and then hundreds of thousands of foreign “tech sector” guest workers

Now, American tech workers are reaching the end of the road. The future of Americans in this field is in serious question. Magazine articles have been written about the situation but nothing will be done to change the trend because the political and business forces in control of our society don’t care.

We’re on the path to becoming a Third World nation. American corporations have decided that American “brains” cost too much. Labor cost savings mean more to them than an investment in quality. Only “cheap” brains are of interest.

Allow me to put a human face on this situation which alludes to the future of this country.

My young son talks about black holes, watches PBS “Nova” and does basic algebra. He’s exceptionally intelligent and I’m very proud of him.

My son might have become a third generation engineer but I consider this highly unlikely. I doubt that my son will do anything technical or scientific. This is a source of considerable regret and bitterness in our family. We haven't told him that his dreams have been stolen.

If my son attends college, it is unlikely that he will study any branch of engineering or anything scientific at all. You see, this work is earmarked for Third World workers now. “American brains” cost too much. American business and American politicians have decided that Americans will not have these sorts of jobs no matter their public statements. Actions speak louder than words.

The evidence indicates that most employers discard their American employees at the earliest sign of a cheaper foreign substitute. (Economists call this "labor arbitrage".) Wagering that successful completion of an engineering or scientific degree will lead to employment in such a field is foolish. The Bureau of Labor Statisitics tell the story of declining technical and engineering jobs for Americans...

American employers have given every reason to believe that anything that can be moved offshore will be moved offshore. They have poisoned the well in this country and they have the audacity to lie about “tech labor shortages” (Harris Miller’s special talent) while untold numbers of American high tech workers are unemployed, underemployed or discouraged from even seeking employment.

The numbers of Americans in IT are shrinking. (Perhaps this is why Harris left his job; there are fewer American jobs to destroy.)

Successive waves of outsourcing and the presence of foreign low wage replacement workers makes the white collar job market for Americans very tight. Tech workers are fleeing this disaster when they can. College students are avoiding professions which offer nothing but the threat of job loss to outsourcing or foreign replacement workers in the U.S.

Who should we blame for this situation? Politicians and business leaders certainly.

We should also blame Harris Miller the outsourcing lobbyist who has done so much to help ruin our high tech jobs sector for Americans. Miller’s conduct is disgraceful and as morally reprehensible as anything that Jack Abramoff has done.

It could, in fact, be argued that Harris Miller has done greater harm to our society than Jack Abramoff and that by way of comparison, it is a cruel irony that Abramoff is the one being punished by society. It is a commentary on the perversions of justice which reward liars and political confidence men whose despicable actions remain within the letter of the law.

When future generations look back upon the middle class society we have lost because of corporate greed and cynical politics, Harris Miller’s infamy will surely be a part of this sad chapter in our once great nation’s history.

The Widening Credibility Gap of Harris Miller

Harris Miller's critical role in the outsourcing and worker replacement lobby call into question his credentials as an authentic Democrat among many people -- especially the Democratic working people suffering from the policies he has helped "advocate for".

Once these facts become more clear to the citizens of Virginia, Miller's credibility will be destroyed.

I speak with union rank and file rather regularly. I talk to working class people struggling to pay their bills after losing middle class jobs.

Say the word "outsourcing" around them and watch the fireworks.

In light of these facts, I have to ask people if Harris Miller is the sort of candidate that best represents the Democratic Party?

Yes, Harris has "old friends" in the Party. We know that.

We've also seen how people have this habit of endorsing Harris and then launching into attacks on Jim Webb. Very interesting and not a little bit embarassing, even kind of shameful.
After we've all had a chuckle over the humorous "Where's George Allen?" ads, think about the ads that might be made about Harris Miller: "Where did Harris send my job?" or "Where in India is my job, Harris?". You catch the drift, I'm sure.

Harris Miller's activities at the ITAA pro-outsourcing lobby inspires the sort of passionate hatred that cannot be smoothed over. His long record at the ITAA is very, very public. And people are starting to dig. They aren't going to stop.

Don't believe me? Do a google search on Miller's name and "outsourcing" or "H-1b".
Go have a look at http://www.itpaa.org or any number of other sites. Millers actions aren't in any way "secret".

The millions of people who were affected by Miller's actions haven't all just shut up and gone to work at Wal-Mart.

Harris Miller is not a "high-tech executive"

Sent: Sunday, April 09, 2006 4:45 PM
To: 'letters@washpost.com'; 'national@washpost.com'
Subject: Re. "Campaign Is a Yawner No Longer: 2 Democratic Novices Are Suddenly Shaking Up Allen's Reelection Bid" Importance: High

Re. "Campaign Is a Yawner No Longer: 2 Democratic Novices Are Suddenly Shaking Up Allen's Reelection Bid"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/08/AR2006040801005.html


You have misreported Harris Miller's past.

Wash Post: "Harris Miller, a high-tech executive,"
Reality: Miller was, until recently, the president of and aggressive lobbyist for the pro-outsourcing and anti-American worker ITAA and WITSA corporate lobbies.

Wash Post: "Miller's rise from the "coal and steel country of western Pennsylvania" to the high-tech corridors of Northern Virginia lends itself to the American Dream background that politicians crave, and it has also made him a wealthy man."

Reality: Shilling for American corporations as they engaged in a ruthless campaign to eliminate their American workforce and shift work into the hands of low-wage Third World workers (offshore or through the use of so-called "busines visas" or "non-immigrant visas") has made Miller a wealthy man with the inaccurate public reputation of a technology leader.

Far from it. Miller is the minister of propaganda for global labor arbitrage -- the replacement of middle class Americans with low-wage Third World workers for the benefit of elite managerial and investor classes.

Miller's apt nickname among some detractors is Harris "the shiller" Miller.

Keep in mind that Miller's achievement of the "American Dream" (wealth and power), a frequent theme of his campaign, came at the cost of hundreds of thousands of American jobs and the lost dreams of millions of Americans.

Harris Miller and his allies undermine the American Dream and render the entire idea of upward mobility through education and hard work untenable where unlimited outsourcing and importation of low wage replacement workers is completely legal and politically acceptable.

Harris Miller is the enemy of the American middle class and our middle class society.

Harris Miller DESTROYS American jobs and ruins lives.

Are my views credible? Am I an "expert"? You be the judge.

I have witnessed outsourcing first-hand as a software engineer and database administrator in the Fortune 500.

I have written about this phenomenon for more than 3 years. I have engaged in political activism re. this issue for more than 3 years.

I have been published in Computerworld and Counterpunch, among other journals.

And, I served as the Policy Analyst for a national anti-outsourcing group (a position in which I assisted a number of journalists with stories, including some from the Washington Post).

I've been interviewed and quoted in a number of publications including the LA Times and the New York Times.

What I'm reading...

"America's Jacobin Ideologues" by Thomas DiLorenzo at Lew Rockwell

"A Nation Polarized Between Rich and Poor: America's Bleak Jobs Future" by Paul Craig Roberts at Counterpunch

Forward...

As the title of this blog surely indicates, the focus here is American politics from the perspective of an American who considers himself both "modern" as well as a "patriot".

Some may wonder at the use of the term, "patriot". I use this term in the truest sense -- not as it has been used of late to mask anti-democratic and unconstitutional repression, destruction of Constitutional rights and liberties and imperial wars founded in lies. Real patriotism has nothing to do with the false patriotism of would-be tyrants.

I intend to explore a number of political issues on a regular basis, including:

• OUTSOURCING of AMERICAN JOBS
• IMPORTATION of LOW-WAGE FOREIGN REPLACEMENT WORKERS
• SUBVERSION of AMERICAN REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT
• SUBVERSION of AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTIES
• SUBVERSION of the RIGHTS and PRIVILEGES of AMERICAN CITIZENS
• The Virginia Senate Race

At present, I am especially interested in the Virginia Democratic Primary which pits decorated Marine Corps Vietnam War veteran, acclaimed author, and former Reagan Administration official James Webb against pro-outsourcing lobbyist Harris Miller in a political battle which involves all of the issues, I've outlined previously.

I'm not pulling any punches on this one...

Harris Miller is the longtime president of the ITAA and WITSA, lobbies which promote the outsourcing of American jobs and the importation of Third World workers into the U.S. where they 1) replace Americans, 2) fill employment positions in place of Americans, 3) depress the wages and salaries of middle class American workers, and 4) facilitate the offshore outsourcing of American jobs to low wage nations such as India and the Peoples' Republic of China.

Of late, I have posted repeatedly on this subject at Raising Kaine and the Richmond Democrat. I also post at www.itpaa.org.

It will become apparent to any reader of my RK or RD posts that I hold a very low opinion of Harris Miller whom I consider a liar, a fraud, a hypocrite, an unpatriotic opportunist, a self-promoting grifter and bootlick for transnational corporations which treat the United States and Americans as doormats.

Miller is a liar. He was a liar. He is a professional liar. And now he wants to be an elected liar.

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to ... remain silent.
- Thomas Jefferson