Eco Friendly Products And The Outsourcing Bill For Off-Country Call Centers

By Esther Alarcon

Eco friendly products must be put into use in the countless offshore based call centers. In a bid to dissuade businesses from outsourcing American careers, Senator Charles E. Schumer has released a bill which has asked for the wrath of U.S. based businesses that have contact facilities abroad.

The bill aims to impose a per-call excise levy to the tune of $.25 for companies that choose to shift domestic customer support calls to call centers found on international shores. Because of this, the bill would enforce strict fees on companies that delegate customer service operations to offshore suppliers.

In that way, Schumer hopes to keep American careers at call centers across the nation as well as restore the jobs that have been sent abroad to international call centers.

Call center providers have openly belittled the bill. Hit Rate Solutions, a U.S based outsourcing company with contact centers in the Philippines, was the most recent to denounce the bill and the implications it took, and said that it was a clear attempt for protectionism.

Operations Director Adam Shore was extremely critical and indicated that the suggested law demonstrated a basic lack of knowledge of the outsourcing industry and business operations on the whole.

Schumer's bill would levy a $.25 per call tax on companies switching calls to an offshore call center, and would also require the company to inform the consumer of the position of the actual contact center managing the phone call.

Retaliating, Operations Director Adam Shore believes that the taxes are going to be exorbitant, and also the impact could be enormous. He faulted Schumer for being incapable to realize the sheer amount of telephone calls placed to customer service departments.

Moving forward on the same line, Shore added that Hit Rate Solutions served organizations of all sizes from large companies to entrepreneurs and sole proprietors. Schumer was under the misunderstanding that the only businesses making use of offshore call centers are large corporations with deep wallets, which was simply not the case.

Contrary to Schumer's apparent perception, Shore stated that Hit Rate Solutions' mission was to create a means for businesses big and small to cut costs and increase output, and most of its business had come not from companies seeking to replace present employees, but business interested in attempting brand new techniques to broaden their services.

The company focuses primarily on telemarketing, customer support, data entry, and marketing assistant outsourcing. The majority of the company's customers are not used to outsourcing and therefore are in the start-up stage of their businesses.

Reiterating his belief that the law is misguided, Shore said that the aim of the bill going through Congress had been to produce a disincentive to the hiring of offshore employees, but for the majority of Hit Rate Solution's clients, the alternative to hiring offshore wasn't to employ at all. The purpose of the bill for that reason would be regarded to have already been defeated.

About the Author:

In case you definitely care about your future, be eco friendly. All of us could do this by choosing eco friendly products and participating in environment friendly activities. We only have one world to exist in so let's stand up for this!

American Citizenship And The Supreme Court

By Lynn Schott

It may be summer, but I have a pop-quiz for you. Who said, "Give me liberty, or give me death!" Right. Patrick Henry. How about this one, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" I'm sure you know that Ronald Reagan made that challenge. Finally, who recently said, "Being an American is not a matter of blood or birth. It's a matter of faith." That statement was made by Barack Obama during a speech about immigration reform.

When it comes to citizenship, is it a matter of faith, as the President said? Is it more precise to say that American citizenship is settled law? The U.S. Constitution states in Article 1, Section 8, that Congress (the lawmaking branch of the three branches of government) has the power to legislate the terms of citizenship. When the Constitution was written, the Founders were coming to terms with all the details of forming a new nation. Having been Englishmen prior to the Revolution, but now, they were Americans. The Founders had to clarify who could be an American citizen.

Some say that any child born in the United States, even if his parents are in the U.S. illegally, should be entitled to birthright citizenship. Although Congress passes law in the three branches of government, the judicial branch has effectively made new law by establishing a precedent for continued birthright citizenship. Since we see so many expectant moms crossing the border just in time to give birth, it is clear that American citizenship is an attractive benefit to illegal immigrants. These newborns are given automatic citizenship, and serve as an "anchor" for the family's future.

The Civil War was fought, in part, over the great question of slavery. Slaves were not considered fully human by many of their captors, let alone American citizens. After the slaves' emancipation, there were some who would not recognize their citizenship, nor the citizenship of their offspring. This was an argument that had to be settled. The question of who was entitled to American citizenship was addressed in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

The Civil Rights Act of 1866 was passed to clarify the status of freed slaves. It begins, "All persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States..." The clause "not subject to any foreign power" is salient when examining the issue of citizenship. The Amendment's language clearly points to allegiance to America as the key to citizenship by right of birth.

The Fourteenth Amendment begins, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." The portion of that statement that is critical, is the clause "...and subject to the jurisdiction thereof..." It is clear that only those who are subject to the jurisdiction of the United States of American are to be considered citizens.

Those who argue against birthright citizenship say that the Fourteenth Amendment requires a child's parent to be "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States in order for the newborn to attain American citizenship. Since minor children remain subject to their parents, and if the parents are foreign nationals, the child cannot be considered an American by birth. The Fourteenth Amendment jurisdiction clause negates birthright citizenship.

Constitutional language lays out the path to American citizenship, so how was a judicial precedent set in favor of birthright citizenship? The Supreme Court, in 1973, heard a New York case, Sugarman vs. Dougall. The state of New York terminated four legal resident aliens from federal jobs because they lacked U.S. citizenship. The workers filed suit against the state, and the Supreme Court (last on the list of the three branches of government) ruled that American citizenship could not be a determining factor in hiring for government jobs.

In 1982, the Supreme Court also threw out a Texas statute that denied children of undocumented aliens from attending public schools. The Court ruled that public education was so important to society, that even if a child's parents had come to the country illegally, the child was entitled to free education. Now, any child born on American soil is given citizenship as a right of birth.

Birthright citizenship and "anchor babies" are a hot topic in today's news. Liberals and Conservatives can disagree about birthright citizenship, but the Constitution is clear about who is a citizen. Only those born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens. Until the Congress passes a law to the contrary, any rulings by the Supreme Court, or any other court, are in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

About the Author:

Lynn Schott shows teens and families how easy it is to finish U.S. Government and Economics in Half the Time, and Without the Tears. She invites you to an awesome FREE webinar to learn her secret to accelerated homeschool scheduling. Act now, this webinar will fill up fast! Reserve your seat now and learn more about inexpensive high school diploma courses online.

Reusable Grocery Bags: The BYOB Solution

By Albert Jefferson

Did you BYOB the last time you went shopping? This is a question everyone ought to ask themselves. We are halfway through 2010 and there has never been a more crucial time to bring your own green shopping bags. When you BYOB, instead of using single-use plastic or paper disposable bags, you instantaneously become a part of the solution to the massive urban waste problem linked with disposable shopping bag waste. As of July 1st 2010, it is estimated that over 240 billion plastic bags have been consumed in 2010 alone. Whats even more alarming is the impact that plastic and paper single-use bags are continuing to have on the ecosystem. The intent of this article is to look at the latest reports regarding large-scale efforts to reduce the use of plastic and paper throw-away bags along with the related litter, and discuss what alternatives are available to us individual consumers in order to know for sure we are a part of the solution to this problem.

The excellent news is that BYOB momentum is growing rapidly in this year. Provided you havent heard yet, the California legislature has written a bill; AB 1998 (to be voted on by the Senate in August), which would ban throw-away bags sold inside supermarkets, drugstores, convenience, and liquor stores and take complete effect no later than 2013. Even The Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, said that he would sign his name on the bill if it makes it to his desk. This would be a massive win for all friends of the natural world to have the most populated state, in the 3rd largest nation on the earth, to put in place a prohibition on throw-away plastic bags. Considering that China already cracked down on plastic bags in 2008 and Ireland lawmaking efforts to lower plastic bag consumption began in 2002, it is so wonderful to be informed that California legislators have introduced this bill to the table.

In America, metropolitan areas from San Francisco to Los Angeles to Washington DC have approved or enacted laws that either tax customers for the utilization of plastic bags or ban them overall, but California would be the first American state to take action if this bill were to be approved. Believe it or not, even lawmakers from the state of Texas have written possible legislation that would insert a seven-cent tax for each throw-away bag used. It is so exciting that there is a prospect that both Texas and California might soon have laws and regulations in place to fight the plastic bag craze. Hard work by persons and governments to shrink large-scale use of single-use grocery bags is a wonderful way to encourage people and spread the word about the overwhelmingly positive benefits of ecologically friendly reusable shopping bags.

Plastic bags might take up to one thousand years to biodegrade completely, and before that it just deteriorates down in smaller and even tinier poisonous pieces that find their way inside our food, water, and soil. Biodegradable and green reusable bags, are a good quality alternative, once discarded in landfill sites, the subjection to sunlight, oxygen, and high temperature will convert these bags into water, carbon dioxide, mineral salt and biomass. Similar to a fallen leaf, it will perish in time as well as leave NO Toxic Residue in the soil. Single-use plastic bags end up in our landfills as well as frequently get tangled and bring about permanent harm in trash management equipment. Millions if not billions of additional bags end up as urban litter and usually find their way in to creeks, large bodies of water, streams, as well as the ocean. Creatures, especially aquatic animals, get intertwined in single-use plastic bags, and/or swallow them and regularly asphyxiate or starve to death.

So the solution leads us back to BYOB, which is extremely effortless. Just remember to utilize eco friendly reusable shopping bags or recycled shopping bags, or reuse an old bag, period. Be sure to keep additional reusable bags within your vehicle or within your backpack, since you will want to make sure they are handy when you need them. Also remember to disinfect your bags after use, in particular after transporting raw foods or cleaning supplies. You may also present them to your friends as a reminder to BYOB. Of course, continually remember to recycle every time the chance presents itself, recycling is always a victory for the natural environment. Adopting a BYOB habit in our individual lifestyles and organizations is certainly the greatest way to make sure we are truly part of the solution rather than the problem. Right now is the time to go out and lead by example.

About the Author:

Albert Jefferson is an accomplished writer discussing eco and sustainability issues and spreading the word to consumers and companies to utilize eco shopping bags to promote both their brand and awareness for the environment. We can help this planet with every bag we reuse.

Victory Regarding The Mountains

By Esther Alarcon

Remember those other sorts of non-renewable fuels, aside from oil?

Yes, we are still fighting them too. If you are like me and want a small amount of good news among all the not so good news coming from the Gulf, today is your own lucky day. Today, the Army Corps of Engineers launched that they are going to stop rubber-stamping valley fill permits in Appalachia.

As of right now, the Corps will get rid of giving Nationwide Permit (NWP) 21, that has been utilized to "authorize discharges of dredged or load material into waters of the United States for surface coal exploration activities." Valley fills are a vital element to mountaintop removal mining, simply because once the mountaintops are blasted off, just about all that stuff needs to go someplace. In Appalachia, that someplace has been streams as well as headwaters. Without having the capability to push all that rubble, i.e. previous mountain, into valleys, mountaintop elimination mining becomes far less...well, feasible.

The suspension in Appalachia will remain in effect right up until the Corps calls for further action on NWP 21 or right up until NWP 21 expires on March 18, 2012. While the suspension is in effect, people who propose surface coal exploration projects which entail discharges of dredged or load material straight into waters of the United States must obtain Department of the Army authorization under the Clean Water Act, by the Individual Permit procedure. The individual permit assessment procedure offers greater public involvement within the permit evaluation process, including a chance for open comment with individual projects.

NWP 21 was meant for dredge and fill projects that might result in minimum aquatic impacts. By any estimation, wrecking headwaters, producing new topography and polluting downstream habitats isn't small. While this particular action by the Corps does not entirely eliminate the potential for additional valley fill permits in Appalachia, it does signify that there are going to be opportunities for open public notification, opinion and participation. Nor does it stop prevailing mountaintop removal mines from creating valley fills. However, with this regulatory climate, it's not likely that lots of, if almost any, new personal licences are going to be approved.

This selection included more than just the Army Corp of Engineers. In hearings last fall season, the actual coal industry crammed open public hearings using their own supporters, trying to intimidate and drown out supporters of the Corps proposal. Based with the Corps, around 23,000 comments were sent in, plus the substantive comments were nearly equally divided amongst support and resistance for that proposition. Owing to the countless brave residents of the coalfields that stood up against the actual coal industry and made their support known and noticed. Submitting open public opinion is seldom a sexy for activity, but it's critical to influencing policy in the federal organizations.

Today is a good day for the mountains. It is time to end valley fills and mountaintop removal completely. Encourage your member of the Legislature to cosponsor and move H.R. 1310, the Clean Water Protection Act, and permanently ban valley fills.

About the Author:

In case you seriously value your future, be eco friendly. We could do this by utilizing eco friendly products and participating in environment friendly activities. We only have one world to live in so let's stand up for this!

Democrats And Republicans Can't Save America

By Todd Rutherford

Living in the Hope of My Imagination by William Simpson offers candid and honest answers as to why.

Simpson worked in both Washington DC and the Northern Virginia areas for twenty years among high-end restaurants that catered to political heavy weights and lobbyists, their lawyers and the many up and coming juniors who will do anything to gain the attention of established monarchs, to secure their public service tenure. Simpson's observation sheds a whole new light on the few select minds that dictate how the American people live.

Living in the Hope of My Imagination is a much needed dialogue that does this in a fashion that's rare in the publishing world. Simpson writes from and uses his life's and his work experience to detail the collapse of morality in America, and the inevitable price we have all had to pay.

Senators and Congressman play the Republican and Democrat party game as if the two parties have different points of view. They promote themselves as being loyal to their constituent's hopes and wishes, and will say what the Gallup Polls or senior advisors tell them what they had better say. But in reality, bipartisan politics have raped the American people of their moral conscience and self-respect. Simpson has served drinks to heavy-hitters from both sides of the political circus and after inebriation sets in, public enemies become intimate friends. The power lunches are about tactics to impose new policies and laws, who to lobby and pork spending, and the dinners are to celebrate the ignorance of their constituents. Simpson believes that many elected politicians are working together to strangle the life out of Americas endangered constitution.

Simpson says that Americans should be concerned with special interests like the Matthew Sheppard/James Byrd Jr Hate Crimes Bill, which was signed into law on October 28, 2009 by President Obama. This is believed by many to be a successful strategy to establish government controlled regulations that will eventually be used to restrict free speech. The examples of what has already happened in Europe and more recently in Canada, proves the direction in which the federal government wants to take the American people. And if politicians are successful in the amending of, or rewriting the First Amendment to appease special interests, the class separations will fall. This is when the proponents of hope and change will realize the fools they were played to be.

Socialism has only two classes. Those with authority, and everyone else.

Living in the Hope of My Imagination a must read for those who long to know what it will take to bring these criminals to justice, and then restore hope in a nation's people who have lost all sense of who they really are.

About the Author:

Looking to find answers, then visit wsimpson.wordpress.com to find the best advice on Christianity and politics.

Dutch Scientists Developing Sixty Five % Efficient Nanowire Solar Cells

By Esther Alarcon

High efficiency solar cells tend to be for this moment limited to space applications, on account of their prohibitive prices. The Eindhoven University of Technology from The Netherlands, with a EUR 1.2 million help from the Dutch administration desires to develop ultra-effective solar cells that are in addition cheap. They visualize their cells having a sixty five percent efficiency, something even the satellites might be jealous of.

Presently, thin film solar cells have an effectiveness somewhere about forty percent. Recent studies as well as prototypes made with concentrated solar panels disclosed a conversion of 41 percent, though the researchers coming from TU/ want more. They will use mirror systems which concentrate the particular light one thousand times and make use of hardly any substance for the actual solar cells, which would be very expensive usually if used at complete level.

Jos Haverkort, one of the researchers, stated: "Any time the Netherlands desires to timely take part in a commercial exploitation of nanowire solar cells, there is a good desperation to get on board today." The research is conducted together with Philips MiPlaza.

Their concept concerning how to make their dream possible banks on putting a lot of subcells(junctions) within each cell, by which each subcell has to transform a specific spectrum of light optimally into electricity. The very best nanowire solar cell made to this very day comes with an 8.4 percent performance. The Dutch researchers want to encase the nanowires inside protective shells to be able to have the same high efficiency just like thin-film cells. Haverkort believes that five to ten junctions are going to be enough to improve the solar cell having the desired sixty five percent efficiency.

Production expenses are additionally cut by their proposed technology, because the nanowires which make their solar cells can be grown on cheap silicon substrate as well as grow more quickly. Gallium together with Indium, the 2 expensive and rare materials that they will utilize for the tiny solar cells are going to be used very scarcely.

Not too long ago, the price tag on solar cells was at approximately $3/watt. Now it is almost $2/watt (even less). Right after the particular researchers coming from Eindhoven will have finished their particular work plus the market will have happily approved their solar cells, the price should drop lower than 50 cents per watt, which sounds extraordinary. We will wait and we will see.

About the Author:

In case you truly value your future, be eco friendly. We could accomplish this by using eco friendly products and engaging in environment helpful activities. We just have one world to exist in so we should stand up for it!

U.S. Army Corps Of Engineers Promotes Sustainability With New LEED Gold Building

By Esther Alarcon

In yet another example of the U.S. army leading the private world straight into a much healthier and less traditional energy reliant future, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is planning to be eligible for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold accreditation for that brand new energy efficient office building at Fort Belvoir in Virginia. The structure was initially built to satisfy a smaller standard but the Department of Defense has developed a policy of heading beyond minimal compliance with environmental regulations, in order to stimulate a lot more aggressive action regarding environmental protection by the public sector specifically regarding climate change.

USACE Commanding General Lt. Gen. Robert Van Antwerp recently blogged regarding the Corps's sustainability policy with a line from one of his predecessors: "Environmental integrity and beliefs must be more than an overlay. They have to be described as a bone-deep portion of our method of doing business." Van Antwerp has also observed that climate change is actually "a very real concern that could have very real consequences worldwide." That does not leave much wiggle room for helping our troops inside the drill baby drill ethos but then again, that's the whole point.

The Durability Bridge from Military to Civilian

Partly, the new building will function as a highlight for new energy and water conservation plans which help the final outcome and can be used by companies, market, and institutions such as research institutes and medical care facilities. One highlight is actually a visitor facility which will have an energy cost-efficient eco-friendly roof literally covered with greenery to supply insulation and relieve the "heat island" effect. Green rooftops are becoming common at government installations such as military bases and also prisons, but they have yet to make significant inroads somewhere else in the U.S. Having a similar goal in sight, the armed service is also showing cost effective microgrid and solar energy technology at a couple of other bases inside California and Hawaii.

Sustainability for Everyone

The new structure will make use of roughly 30 % less electricity as compared to conventional buildings, and about half the water. Even though some savings results from new construction methods, technology and materials, others derive from good sense answers which could effortlessly be used as retrofits on current buildings and grounds. For example, there's no need for outdoor irrigation, because the landscaping design makes use just of drought resistant native plants. Low-flow water system fittings and energy efficient light bulbs are utilized throughout, and the usage of natural daylight is maximized by simply putting in cubicles with lower walls, that also helps air to circulate more efficiently.

Sustainability together with Alternate Transportation

The modern complex will likewise test the ability of city planners to pull more people out of their cars and into mass transport and some other alternatives. The structure was created to satisfy recommendation #133 of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission, and when finished in 2011 it will shift a large number of new workers in offices straight into Alexandria, an area which by now struggles with excessive congestion.

About the Author:

If you truly care about your future, be eco friendly. We could do this by choosing eco friendly products and participating in environment helpful pursuits. We just have one world to exist in so let's stand up for it!