Is Silicon Valley Trying to Buy the Presidency? Yet another Outsourcer, Symantec, for Commerce Secretary

Yes this is an incredible title but an incredible pattern is emerging. First we had the notorious we want to be a Chinese company offshore outsourcer CISCO CTO, Padmasree Warrior being considered for our Government CTO.

Now we have reports of another notorious offshore outsourcer and promoter of labor arbitrage of engineers, Symantec CEO, John W. Thompson, being considered for Commerce Secretary, the slot vacated by Bill Richardson.

This is a disaster for workers, for labor. Both of these Silicon valley incorporated companies promote offshore outsourcing and use of guest workers to displace U.S. workers, repress wages, labor arbitrage and discriminate.

Both promote bad trade deals as well. Is this the message to America? To the American worker? More of the same?

Case in point is the report that Symantec CEO John Thompson may be Obama's choice for Sec. of Commerce. Talk about NON-change! Just a few minutes of Web browsing revealed a Thompson letter to a Symantec PAC, reported in a critical blog under the title, "US company Symantec using PAC to bypass campaign contribution limits 2008." I then found several articles showing that Symantec does a substantial--and apparently increasing--fraction of its R&D in India.

Equally disturbing is the list of people pushing Thompson's candidacy. We find that Thompson was suggested to Obama by Rep. Zoe Lofgren, Queen of H-1B, and he has enthusiastic support from the ITAA's Phillip Bond (who came to ITAA from the Dept. of Commerce). There's also Carl Guardino, one of the most outspoken advocates for increasing the H-1B cap. It's clear that they all expect Thompson to advance their agenda at DOC.

Indeed, Bond's description of Thompson as "globally experienced" is very telling. The firm says about 30% of its engineers are in India, and last year Symantec opened a second R&D center there

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I hope Obama does not pick

I hope Obama does not pick any one of them. With millions of folks unemployed I don't know how Obama could justify temporary working visas. It's a shame if he gets bought by Silicon Valley which means he is only a good orator.