hcard
06-05 02:32 PM
What should be filled for question 16 in I765 form.
My lawyer asked me to fill C C 9, but the instruction says C 9. Which is correct.
My lawyer asked me to fill C C 9, but the instruction says C 9. Which is correct.
wallpaper was angry when I left the
GCVictim
07-17 05:50 PM
http://www.aila.org/content/default.aspx?docid=22912
Where can I get this pdf link in USCIS website ?.
Where can I get this pdf link in USCIS website ?.
masouds
03-21 08:49 PM
Hello,
so, between my external attorney and in-house immigration people at place that I work for (through H1B, no less!), they have managed to lose the I-131 that was approved very recently. External lawyer has received it and sent it to our internal people, and from that point nobody know where it is.
What are my options (other than praying)? How long will it take for USCIS to reissue (or reprint) an I-131? Is there a fast method for this?
so, between my external attorney and in-house immigration people at place that I work for (through H1B, no less!), they have managed to lose the I-131 that was approved very recently. External lawyer has received it and sent it to our internal people, and from that point nobody know where it is.
What are my options (other than praying)? How long will it take for USCIS to reissue (or reprint) an I-131? Is there a fast method for this?
2011 Color. kristen stewart
Jeff Wheeler
07-11 04:38 PM
This is from months ago…
more...
ajaysri
09-13 05:21 PM
can any one answer the question please.
Macaca
12-13 06:23 PM
Intraparty Feuds Dog Democrats, Stall Congress (http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119750838630225395.html) By David Rogers | Wall Street Journal, Dec 13, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Democrats took control of Congress last January promising a "new direction." A year later, the image that haunts them most is one symbolizing no direction at all: gridlock.
Unfinished work is piling up -- legislation to aid borrowers affected by the housing mess, rescue millions of middle-class families from a big tax increase and put stricter gas-mileage limits on the auto industry. Two months into the new fiscal year, Democrats are still scrambling just to keep the government open.
President Bush and Republicans are contributing to the impasse, but there's another factor: Intraparty squabbling between House Democrats and Senate Democrats is sometimes almost as fierce as the partisan battling.
A fracas between Democrats this week over a proposed $522 billion spending package is the latest example. The spending would keep the government running through the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, 2008, but it has opened party divisions over funding the Iraq war and lawmakers' home-state projects.
After enjoying an early rise, Congress's approval ratings have fallen since the spring amid the rancor. In the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC poll, just 19% of respondents said they approved of the job Congress is doing, while 68% disapproved.
Democrats are hoping to get a boost by enacting the tougher auto- mileage standards before Christmas, but other matters, such as a farm bill to continue government price supports, are likely to wait for the new year.
Republicans suffered from the same House-Senate tensions in their 12 years of rule in Congress. But the situation is more acute now for Democrats, who must cope with both Mr. Bush's vetoes and the narrowest of margins in the Senate, leaving them vulnerable to Republican filibusters.
Democrats in the House interpret the 2006 elections as a mandate for change. They are more antiwar and more willing to shed old ways -- such as "earmarks" for legislators' pet projects -- to confront the White House. Senate Democrats, by comparison, remain more tied to tradition and institutional rules that demand consensus before taking action.
"The Senate and House are out of phase with one another," says Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. "There was a big change last year, a big change that affected the whole House and one-third of the Senate. That's the fundamental disconnect."
Rather than move to the center after 2006, President Bush has moved right to shore up his conservative base. He has also adopted a confrontational veto strategy calculated to disrupt the new Congress and reduce its effectiveness in challenging him on Iraq.
Just yesterday, the president issued his second veto of Democrat- backed legislation to expand government-provided health insurance for the children of working-class families. In his first six years as president, Mr. Bush issued only one veto. Since Democrats took over Congress, he has issued six vetoes, and threats of more hang over the budget talks now.
For Democrats, teamwork is vital to challenging the president, and it's not always forthcoming. A comment by Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat who is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, suggests the distant relationship between the two houses. "We have a constitutional responsibility to send legislation over there," said Rep. Rangel. "Quite frankly I don't give a damn what they feel."
Adds Wisconsin Rep. David Obey, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee: "I can tell you when bills will move and you can tell me when the Senate will sell us out."
With 2008 an election year overseen by a lame-duck president, it's unlikely that Congress will be able to break out of its slump.
Sometimes the disputes resemble play-acting. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) has quietly invited House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Cal.) to blame the Senate if it suits her purpose to explain the slow pace of legislation, according to a person close to Sen. Reid.
At the same time, he can use her as his foil to fend off Republican demands in the Senate: "I can't control Speaker Pelosi," he said last week in debate on an energy bill. "She is a strong independent woman. She runs the House with an iron hand."
Still, the interchamber differences have real consequences, as seen in the fight over the budget.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd of West Virginia long argued against creating a big package that would combine all the main spending bills. He preferred to confront Mr. Bush with a series of targeted individual bills where he could gain some Republican support and maintain leverage over the president. But Mr. Byrd was undercut by his leadership's failure to allow more time for debate on the Senate floor. After Labor Day, the House began pressing for a single large package.
The $522 billion proposed bill ultimately emerged from weeks of talks that included moderate Republicans. The bill cut $10.6 billion from earlier spending proposals, moving closer to Mr. Bush, while giving him new money he wanted for the State Department as well as a border-security initiative.
No new money was provided specifically for Iraq but the bill gives the Pentagon an additional $31 billion for the war in Afghanistan and body armor for troops in the field. The goal was to provide enough money for Army accounts so its funding would be adequate into April, when a fuller debate could be held on the U.S.'s plans in Iraq.
For Senate Democrats and Mr. Byrd, the effort was a gamble that a moderate center could be found to stand up to Mr. Bush. The more combative Mr. Obey, the House appropriations chairman, was never persuaded this could happen.
After the White House announced its opposition over the weekend, Mr. Obey said Monday that the budget proposal was dead unless changes were made. The effect was to divide Democrats again, instead of putting up a united front against the White House's resistance.
Mr. Obey suggested that lawmakers should be willing to strip out home-state projects, acceding to Mr. Bush's tight line on spending, if that's what it took to make a tough stand on Iraq.
"I am perfectly willing to lose every dollar on the domestic side of the ledger in order to avoid giving them money for the war without conditions," Mr. Obey said. His suggestion met strong resistance from Senate Democrats. At a party luncheon, senators were almost comic in their anger, said one colleague who was present, loudly complaining of being reduced to being "puppets" or "slaves."
On the Senate floor yesterday, Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn said Democrats were showing signs of "attention deficit disorder." Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, accused the new majority of being more interested in "finger pointing" and "headlines" than legislation. "It won't get bills signed into law," he said.
While Ms. Pelosi had personally supported Mr. Obey's approach, she instructed the House committee to preserve the projects as it began a second round of spending reductions yesterday, cutting an additional $6.9 billion from the $522 billion package.
The Senate committee's Democratic staff joined in the discussions by evening, but the White House denied reports that a deal had been reached at a spending ceiling above the president's initial request.
If agreement is not reached by the end of next week, lawmakers may have to resort again to a yearlong funding resolution that effectively freezes most agencies at their current levels. This would be a repeat of the collapse of the budget process last year under Republican rule -- not the "new direction" Democrats had hoped for.
Tied in Knots
The House and Senate are struggling to complete several matters before they head home this month.
Appropriations: Only the Pentagon budget is in place for the new fiscal year that began Oct. 1. The House and Senate are struggling to finish a bill covering the rest of the government.
Farm bill: The Senate still hopes to complete its version of a farm bill but negotiations with the House will wait until next year.
AMT relief: The House and Senate have passed legislation limiting the alternative minimum tax's hit on millions of middle-class taxpayers. But they differ about whether to offset the lost revenue.
Medicare: Doctors are set to see a cut in Medicare payments in 2008, which lawmakers want to prevent. The House acted, but Senate hasn't yet.
Housing: Several bills addressing the housing crisis have passed the House but are languishing in the Senate.
WASHINGTON -- Democrats took control of Congress last January promising a "new direction." A year later, the image that haunts them most is one symbolizing no direction at all: gridlock.
Unfinished work is piling up -- legislation to aid borrowers affected by the housing mess, rescue millions of middle-class families from a big tax increase and put stricter gas-mileage limits on the auto industry. Two months into the new fiscal year, Democrats are still scrambling just to keep the government open.
President Bush and Republicans are contributing to the impasse, but there's another factor: Intraparty squabbling between House Democrats and Senate Democrats is sometimes almost as fierce as the partisan battling.
A fracas between Democrats this week over a proposed $522 billion spending package is the latest example. The spending would keep the government running through the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, 2008, but it has opened party divisions over funding the Iraq war and lawmakers' home-state projects.
After enjoying an early rise, Congress's approval ratings have fallen since the spring amid the rancor. In the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC poll, just 19% of respondents said they approved of the job Congress is doing, while 68% disapproved.
Democrats are hoping to get a boost by enacting the tougher auto- mileage standards before Christmas, but other matters, such as a farm bill to continue government price supports, are likely to wait for the new year.
Republicans suffered from the same House-Senate tensions in their 12 years of rule in Congress. But the situation is more acute now for Democrats, who must cope with both Mr. Bush's vetoes and the narrowest of margins in the Senate, leaving them vulnerable to Republican filibusters.
Democrats in the House interpret the 2006 elections as a mandate for change. They are more antiwar and more willing to shed old ways -- such as "earmarks" for legislators' pet projects -- to confront the White House. Senate Democrats, by comparison, remain more tied to tradition and institutional rules that demand consensus before taking action.
"The Senate and House are out of phase with one another," says Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. "There was a big change last year, a big change that affected the whole House and one-third of the Senate. That's the fundamental disconnect."
Rather than move to the center after 2006, President Bush has moved right to shore up his conservative base. He has also adopted a confrontational veto strategy calculated to disrupt the new Congress and reduce its effectiveness in challenging him on Iraq.
Just yesterday, the president issued his second veto of Democrat- backed legislation to expand government-provided health insurance for the children of working-class families. In his first six years as president, Mr. Bush issued only one veto. Since Democrats took over Congress, he has issued six vetoes, and threats of more hang over the budget talks now.
For Democrats, teamwork is vital to challenging the president, and it's not always forthcoming. A comment by Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat who is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, suggests the distant relationship between the two houses. "We have a constitutional responsibility to send legislation over there," said Rep. Rangel. "Quite frankly I don't give a damn what they feel."
Adds Wisconsin Rep. David Obey, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee: "I can tell you when bills will move and you can tell me when the Senate will sell us out."
With 2008 an election year overseen by a lame-duck president, it's unlikely that Congress will be able to break out of its slump.
Sometimes the disputes resemble play-acting. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) has quietly invited House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Cal.) to blame the Senate if it suits her purpose to explain the slow pace of legislation, according to a person close to Sen. Reid.
At the same time, he can use her as his foil to fend off Republican demands in the Senate: "I can't control Speaker Pelosi," he said last week in debate on an energy bill. "She is a strong independent woman. She runs the House with an iron hand."
Still, the interchamber differences have real consequences, as seen in the fight over the budget.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd of West Virginia long argued against creating a big package that would combine all the main spending bills. He preferred to confront Mr. Bush with a series of targeted individual bills where he could gain some Republican support and maintain leverage over the president. But Mr. Byrd was undercut by his leadership's failure to allow more time for debate on the Senate floor. After Labor Day, the House began pressing for a single large package.
The $522 billion proposed bill ultimately emerged from weeks of talks that included moderate Republicans. The bill cut $10.6 billion from earlier spending proposals, moving closer to Mr. Bush, while giving him new money he wanted for the State Department as well as a border-security initiative.
No new money was provided specifically for Iraq but the bill gives the Pentagon an additional $31 billion for the war in Afghanistan and body armor for troops in the field. The goal was to provide enough money for Army accounts so its funding would be adequate into April, when a fuller debate could be held on the U.S.'s plans in Iraq.
For Senate Democrats and Mr. Byrd, the effort was a gamble that a moderate center could be found to stand up to Mr. Bush. The more combative Mr. Obey, the House appropriations chairman, was never persuaded this could happen.
After the White House announced its opposition over the weekend, Mr. Obey said Monday that the budget proposal was dead unless changes were made. The effect was to divide Democrats again, instead of putting up a united front against the White House's resistance.
Mr. Obey suggested that lawmakers should be willing to strip out home-state projects, acceding to Mr. Bush's tight line on spending, if that's what it took to make a tough stand on Iraq.
"I am perfectly willing to lose every dollar on the domestic side of the ledger in order to avoid giving them money for the war without conditions," Mr. Obey said. His suggestion met strong resistance from Senate Democrats. At a party luncheon, senators were almost comic in their anger, said one colleague who was present, loudly complaining of being reduced to being "puppets" or "slaves."
On the Senate floor yesterday, Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn said Democrats were showing signs of "attention deficit disorder." Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, accused the new majority of being more interested in "finger pointing" and "headlines" than legislation. "It won't get bills signed into law," he said.
While Ms. Pelosi had personally supported Mr. Obey's approach, she instructed the House committee to preserve the projects as it began a second round of spending reductions yesterday, cutting an additional $6.9 billion from the $522 billion package.
The Senate committee's Democratic staff joined in the discussions by evening, but the White House denied reports that a deal had been reached at a spending ceiling above the president's initial request.
If agreement is not reached by the end of next week, lawmakers may have to resort again to a yearlong funding resolution that effectively freezes most agencies at their current levels. This would be a repeat of the collapse of the budget process last year under Republican rule -- not the "new direction" Democrats had hoped for.
Tied in Knots
The House and Senate are struggling to complete several matters before they head home this month.
Appropriations: Only the Pentagon budget is in place for the new fiscal year that began Oct. 1. The House and Senate are struggling to finish a bill covering the rest of the government.
Farm bill: The Senate still hopes to complete its version of a farm bill but negotiations with the House will wait until next year.
AMT relief: The House and Senate have passed legislation limiting the alternative minimum tax's hit on millions of middle-class taxpayers. But they differ about whether to offset the lost revenue.
Medicare: Doctors are set to see a cut in Medicare payments in 2008, which lawmakers want to prevent. The House acted, but Senate hasn't yet.
Housing: Several bills addressing the housing crisis have passed the House but are languishing in the Senate.
more...
Blog Feeds
07-29 05:30 PM
The fact that the GOP has no clear plan to win the election next year other than hoping President Obama fails so miserably that people will feel no choice but to vote Republican became more apparent yesterday. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13 to 6 to confirm Judge Sotomayor as the next Supreme Court Justice. And only one Republican voted in favor of the nomination. The GOP got shellacked by Hispanic voters last year - losing 3 out of 4 votes compared to getting nearly half of those votes in 2004. And political analysts are in general agreement that the...
More... (http://blogs.ilw.com/gregsiskind/2009/07/the-gops-last-chance-.html)
More... (http://blogs.ilw.com/gregsiskind/2009/07/the-gops-last-chance-.html)
2010 images rown eyes rown hair
arnet
06-14 03:32 PM
contact the following people and ask what you need to do to file taxes:
1. contact employer
2. contact your payroll company (like adp, etc) that process your company's payroll
3. contact IRS helpline or customer service (including local or state tax dept)
4. contact experienced tax consultant (CPAs)
I thought employer should have arranged for duplicate one. if not contact above all people and find out what you can do about it.
1. contact employer
2. contact your payroll company (like adp, etc) that process your company's payroll
3. contact IRS helpline or customer service (including local or state tax dept)
4. contact experienced tax consultant (CPAs)
I thought employer should have arranged for duplicate one. if not contact above all people and find out what you can do about it.
more...
monu19_75
11-06 06:03 PM
I believe you should just send the H1B approval.
hair 0625-kristen-stewart_bd.jpg
Prashanthi
07-02 11:16 AM
If her H-4 has not expired she can file now for a change of status from H-4 to H-1, as per the last action rule, her petition filed now will override the earlier request for H-4 extension. If she does not have an unexpired H-4 she can file for COS based on the pending H-4 extension request by including the receipt.
more...
luksy
05-25 12:21 PM
is it possible to make a 3d room and walk through it with arrow keys? (in flash & swift3d ofcourse)
hot color
mna123
07-30 05:46 PM
I am stuck out side of US for my name check for last 9 months when I applied for H-1. I have approved I 140. is there any way I can file my I 1485 and Advance parole or any thing to get back into US.
Some one has told me that I can use consular processing but have no idea about that.
Please help me and let me know what are possible options for me to return to US.
Some one has told me that I can use consular processing but have no idea about that.
Please help me and let me know what are possible options for me to return to US.
more...
house geeksugar has a pix of kristen
kirupa
10-08 03:26 PM
Do the suggestions here help: http://silverlight.net/forums/p/4812/14415.aspx#14415 ?
tattoo Kristen Stewart looked as
manishkatiyar
01-11 04:54 PM
I am on L1 and my wife was working on L2 + EAD since Aug-2007 with her employer.
She got her H1B approved in Oct-2009 with the same employer - which means that she automatically moved to H1B, correct?
We went to India but she gave her L2 I-94 on departure and did not give H1B I-94
She entered back to US on L2 on 03-Jan so I am assuming that her status has been updated to L2 now.
Please advise if at all she needs to move to H1B again since her L2 EAD is still valid.
If she needs to move to H1B, then what is the best way, we can easily go to Meixco for stamping from LA.
Thanks
She got her H1B approved in Oct-2009 with the same employer - which means that she automatically moved to H1B, correct?
We went to India but she gave her L2 I-94 on departure and did not give H1B I-94
She entered back to US on L2 on 03-Jan so I am assuming that her status has been updated to L2 now.
Please advise if at all she needs to move to H1B again since her L2 EAD is still valid.
If she needs to move to H1B, then what is the best way, we can easily go to Meixco for stamping from LA.
Thanks
more...
pictures Kristen Stewart as Bella
dollar500
11-07 08:42 PM
bump
dresses Kristen Stewart/Getty Images
wandmaker
09-10 12:25 PM
Does anyone know about the timeframe for this?
Ranges from 3-6 months, check out your jurisdiction for ball park -
https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/processTimesDisplay.do
If you have a welcome letter, you can take infopass appointment and get a temporary stamp to facilitate the travel outside US.
Ranges from 3-6 months, check out your jurisdiction for ball park -
https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/processTimesDisplay.do
If you have a welcome letter, you can take infopass appointment and get a temporary stamp to facilitate the travel outside US.
more...
makeup Kristen Stewart,
Img
07-25 05:32 PM
Guys, applied recently for EAD and its pending and 180 days has not passed. I am planning to open a part time business. Does anyone know if its ok to start a part time business before the EAD gets approved ? Any insights will be appreciated.
Thanks
img
Thanks
img
girlfriend Kristen Stewart/Getty Images
siddar
12-09 01:19 PM
Are you really sure that your H1B is still valid? My understanding is, only one type of Visa will be issued to a country for an individual, they cancel previously valid visas.
hairstyles Kristen walking the red carpet
Macaca
09-06 05:30 PM
Congress Deserves Better Ratings, But Not by Much (http://www.rollcall.com/issues/53_22/kondracke/19839-1.html) By Morton M. Kondracke | Roll Call, September 6, 2007
Congress returned to town this week with its poll ratings even lower than President Bush's. That's because nearly all the public ever sees is Members fighting and accomplishing nothing.
But it's not a completely accurate picture. By the time Congress adjourned for the August recess, it actually had racked up some legislative accomplishments that voters didn't appreciate.
So perhaps a fair grade for the 110th Congress so far would be an F for style, a C-plus for effort and an Incomplete for quality of achievement. There is plenty of room for checking the box "shows improvement."
What Congress has accomplished this year came in two bursts - the first "100 hours," when the House pushed through much of its promised "Six in '06" agenda, and the final 100 hours or so last month, when both the House and Senate processed a bevy of legislation.
In between, what occurred was five months of nearly nonstop ugliness - failed Democratic efforts to stop the Iraq War, a fractious and futile fight over immigration reform, vengeful exercises of legislative oversight designed to discredit the Bush administration, and shouting matches between majority Democrats and minority Republicans.
Even the pre-adjournment legislative push was clouded over by a raucous, late-night dust-up over a thwarted House GOP move to deny benefits to illegal immigrants that made for great television, doubtless reinforcing the public's impression of a Congress in total disarray.
It's not a complete misimpression. Partisan wrangling is the dominant activity of this Congress. It makes a mockery of the fervent proclamations by leaders of both parties in January that they understood voters' dismay with endless, pointless point-scoring and the desire that Congress solve their urgent problems.
Congress' failure to make problem-solving its dominant activity accounts for its low public esteem. Polls on public approval of Congress average 22 percent, compared with 33 percent for Bush. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed that only 14 percent have confidence that Congress will do the right thing.
But Congress has done some things right this year and notice should be taken of them.
A statistical rundown by Brookings Institution scholars published in The New York Times on Aug. 26 showed that the current House is running well ahead of recent Congresses in terms of days in session, bills passed and hearings held. The Senate has a mixed record.
One signal, unappreciated accomplishment was overwhelming passage of a $43 billion program designed to bolster America's competitiveness by doubling its scientific research budget and training more scientists and linguists.
Sponsored by Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Reps. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) and Vernon Ehlers (R-Mich.), the final bill passed the House 367-57 and by voice vote without dissent in the Senate.
Other bills passed and sent to the president this year include an increase in the minimum wage, lobbying and ethics reform and homeland security enhancements fulfilling the recommendations of the presidential 9/11 commission.
Also on the list, but the subject of ongoing partisan division, was last-minute legislation authorizing the government to conduct no-warrant intercepts of electronic communication between two overseas parties when the messages pass through a server in the United States.
Civil liberties groups, many Democrats and some editorial writers contend that the measure authorized "domestic spying on U.S. citizens," but the objections seem to reflect distrust of the Bush administration more than any leeway in the law to tap persons in the United States.
Congress will revisit the issue and to the extent that controversy continues, it will reinforce public dismay that its leaders would rather fight than protect them from terrorism.
Meanwhile, some of the claimed accomplishments of the Democratic Congress are less than stellar. Energy bills passed by both chambers fall far short of setting the nation on a path to independence. Neither contains a gasoline tax, encouragement for nuclear power or provisions to expand America's electricity grid.
Farm legislation that passed the House limits subsidies to the richest American farmers but basically leaves intact a subsidy system for corporate farmers that artificially inflates land values, inhibits rural development, hurts farmers in poor countries and puts the U.S. in danger of world trade sanctions.
Bush has signaled his intention to veto both the House farm bill and the Senate energy bill - and also both the House and Senate measures expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program. The Senate SCHIP bill has funding flaws but basically is a responsible, bipartisan bill that deserves to survive a veto.
With Congress back, the prospect is for more combat with Bush, largely over spending and Iraq. The country will be lucky to avoid government shutdowns as the two sides trade charges that the other is fiscally irresponsible.
And a flurry of progress reports on Iraq is only stimulating new rancor, despite widespread underlying agreement that troop withdrawals need to be gradual and responsible.
Congress and the Bush administration ought to resolve to improve their public esteem not at each other's expense, but by seeking agreement in the public interest. Admittedly, the chances are slim.
Congress returned to town this week with its poll ratings even lower than President Bush's. That's because nearly all the public ever sees is Members fighting and accomplishing nothing.
But it's not a completely accurate picture. By the time Congress adjourned for the August recess, it actually had racked up some legislative accomplishments that voters didn't appreciate.
So perhaps a fair grade for the 110th Congress so far would be an F for style, a C-plus for effort and an Incomplete for quality of achievement. There is plenty of room for checking the box "shows improvement."
What Congress has accomplished this year came in two bursts - the first "100 hours," when the House pushed through much of its promised "Six in '06" agenda, and the final 100 hours or so last month, when both the House and Senate processed a bevy of legislation.
In between, what occurred was five months of nearly nonstop ugliness - failed Democratic efforts to stop the Iraq War, a fractious and futile fight over immigration reform, vengeful exercises of legislative oversight designed to discredit the Bush administration, and shouting matches between majority Democrats and minority Republicans.
Even the pre-adjournment legislative push was clouded over by a raucous, late-night dust-up over a thwarted House GOP move to deny benefits to illegal immigrants that made for great television, doubtless reinforcing the public's impression of a Congress in total disarray.
It's not a complete misimpression. Partisan wrangling is the dominant activity of this Congress. It makes a mockery of the fervent proclamations by leaders of both parties in January that they understood voters' dismay with endless, pointless point-scoring and the desire that Congress solve their urgent problems.
Congress' failure to make problem-solving its dominant activity accounts for its low public esteem. Polls on public approval of Congress average 22 percent, compared with 33 percent for Bush. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed that only 14 percent have confidence that Congress will do the right thing.
But Congress has done some things right this year and notice should be taken of them.
A statistical rundown by Brookings Institution scholars published in The New York Times on Aug. 26 showed that the current House is running well ahead of recent Congresses in terms of days in session, bills passed and hearings held. The Senate has a mixed record.
One signal, unappreciated accomplishment was overwhelming passage of a $43 billion program designed to bolster America's competitiveness by doubling its scientific research budget and training more scientists and linguists.
Sponsored by Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Reps. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) and Vernon Ehlers (R-Mich.), the final bill passed the House 367-57 and by voice vote without dissent in the Senate.
Other bills passed and sent to the president this year include an increase in the minimum wage, lobbying and ethics reform and homeland security enhancements fulfilling the recommendations of the presidential 9/11 commission.
Also on the list, but the subject of ongoing partisan division, was last-minute legislation authorizing the government to conduct no-warrant intercepts of electronic communication between two overseas parties when the messages pass through a server in the United States.
Civil liberties groups, many Democrats and some editorial writers contend that the measure authorized "domestic spying on U.S. citizens," but the objections seem to reflect distrust of the Bush administration more than any leeway in the law to tap persons in the United States.
Congress will revisit the issue and to the extent that controversy continues, it will reinforce public dismay that its leaders would rather fight than protect them from terrorism.
Meanwhile, some of the claimed accomplishments of the Democratic Congress are less than stellar. Energy bills passed by both chambers fall far short of setting the nation on a path to independence. Neither contains a gasoline tax, encouragement for nuclear power or provisions to expand America's electricity grid.
Farm legislation that passed the House limits subsidies to the richest American farmers but basically leaves intact a subsidy system for corporate farmers that artificially inflates land values, inhibits rural development, hurts farmers in poor countries and puts the U.S. in danger of world trade sanctions.
Bush has signaled his intention to veto both the House farm bill and the Senate energy bill - and also both the House and Senate measures expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program. The Senate SCHIP bill has funding flaws but basically is a responsible, bipartisan bill that deserves to survive a veto.
With Congress back, the prospect is for more combat with Bush, largely over spending and Iraq. The country will be lucky to avoid government shutdowns as the two sides trade charges that the other is fiscally irresponsible.
And a flurry of progress reports on Iraq is only stimulating new rancor, despite widespread underlying agreement that troop withdrawals need to be gradual and responsible.
Congress and the Bush administration ought to resolve to improve their public esteem not at each other's expense, but by seeking agreement in the public interest. Admittedly, the chances are slim.
gcwait2007
03-18 01:28 PM
Many of us (including me) are frustrated in waiting for NSC approval of I-140.
I was asking my friend how NSC is processing the 140 & 485 applications and he has sent me the following youtube video and I give below the link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-30BZtpvaTY
PS: It is just funny video and let us hope that it is not true :(
I was asking my friend how NSC is processing the 140 & 485 applications and he has sent me the following youtube video and I give below the link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-30BZtpvaTY
PS: It is just funny video and let us hope that it is not true :(
glus
08-18 02:16 PM
hi,
As far as I know you do not need to get a new visa stamping. At least, it was like that when I was on F-1. What you need to re-enter is to have I-20 from new school. Check with the school's international students adviser.
As far as I know you do not need to get a new visa stamping. At least, it was like that when I was on F-1. What you need to re-enter is to have I-20 from new school. Check with the school's international students adviser.
0 comments:
Post a Comment