A few days after the New York Times’ (embarrassingly belated and deeply flawed) article on Apple’s Chinese production facilities reignited a national discussion about offshore outsourcing, President Obama was confronted during a Google+ “hang out” about why during a brutal unemployment crisis his administration continues to support expanding the H-1B visa program that allows tech companies to annually import thousands of low-wage engineers from abroad. In his stunning answer, the president first expresses bewilderment that any American high-tech engineer could be out of work, because he says that “what industry tells me is that they don’t have enough (domestic) highly skilled engineers” and that “the word that we’re getting is that somebody (a domestic engineer) in a high-tech field should be able to find something right away.” He then goes on to insist that the H-1B program is “reserved only for those companies who say they cannot find somebody in (a) particular field” and that it shouldn’t apply to industries where “there are a lot of highly skilled American workers” looking for a job because he says his administration is focused on “encourag(ing) more American engineers to be placed” in open positions.

A multimedia extravaganza direct from Tim Riley's palatial West Side manor, where an evening of food, drink, and rapturous holiday spirit help us ring in the holiday season. It's a gathering replete with friends, laughter, Tofurkey, bacon, and significant amounts sugars in various states of fermentation...and all that that implies. You'll have a fly-on-the-wall seat to the culinary and social event of the year, a night of conviviality and carbohydrates featuring Rick, Sarah, Tim, and Greg, as well as many of The Rick Emerson Show extended family