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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (622514)	8/2/2011 7:50:18 AM
From: Alighieri	Read Replies (6) \| Respond to of 1579900

China, India and South Korea have led the world in sending students to U.S. universities, which according to the two best-known world university rankings — Britain’s Times Higher Education Supplement and China’s Shanghai Jiai Tong University index — remain the best in the world. My son is in a PHD program at UT (Knoxville) and he says that a large share of his co-candidates are foreign, with Chinese making up a large majority...now I suspect that they send their best here, but he also tells me that these kids are really well prepared...so our competitors hone up while we "cut pell grants" and republicans want to kill the dept of education... Al

To: tejek who wrote (622514)	8/2/2011 8:58:42 AM
From: Brumar89	1 Recommendation Respond to of 1579900

Do those countries have powerful teachers unions?

To: tejek who wrote (622514)	8/2/2011 10:34:36 AM
From: longnshort	4 Recommendations Respond to of 1579900

"we’re living through yet another failed presidency." nytimes.com

To: tejek who wrote (622514)	8/2/2011 11:50:10 AM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 1579900

Reagan never did this. Biden collects rent from Secret Service $2,200 a month for cottage use The U.S. Secret Service does more than protect Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. — the agency also pays him rent. Since April, Mr. Biden has collected more than $13,000 from the agency charged with protecting him and his family for use of a rental cottage adjacent to the waterfront home he owns in a Wilmington, Del., suburb. Mr. Biden, listed not as vice president in federal purchasing documents but as a “vendor,” is eligible for up to $66,000 by the time the government contract expires in the fall of 2013, the records show. Officials say the arrangement came about when a previous tenant moved out of the cottage and the Secret Service moved in. Edwin M. Donovan, special agent in charge at the Secret Service's Office of Government and Public Affairs in Washington, said the agency pays $2,200 in rent per-month, the same amount a previous tenant had paid before moving out. He said the close location provides a level of security for the Biden family the agency might not have had otherwise. Asked if the Secret Service typically pays rent to the people it protects, he said, “It’s a rental property so we pay rent there.” Taxpayer watchdogs say the Secret Service should do everything it can to protect Mr. Biden, but they wonder whether he should be collecting rent from the agency while it’s doing its job. “He should be afforded every single protection available to him and his family, as should every vice president and president,” said Leslie Paige, spokeswoman for the Washington-based Citizens Against Government Waste. “But this arrangement seems bizarre to me,” she added. “You’d think the vice president, who shepherded the deficit committee, would think twice about charging the Secret Service rent. Why would he need the money? I don’t get it.” According to Mr. Biden’s office, the vice president’s mother lived in the cottage until she died in January 2010. At that time, the Secret Service had been renting properties in the Wilmington area for agents who were providing a protective presence at Mr. Biden’s personal residence. Mr. Biden later asked the Secret Service if the agency wanted to rent the cottage property, but the Secret Service declined and Mr. Biden rented it instead to a private tenant, according to the vice president's office. But almost a year later, when that tenant moved out, the Secret Service approached Mr. Biden about renting the cottage. “The cottage was an existing rental property at the time the Secret Service signed its lease,” said Kendra Barkoff, a spokeswoman for Mr. Biden. Last year, Mr. Biden and his wife, Jill, reported earning $379,178, including $11,000 in income from the cottage, according to the Bidens’ tax return. The Bidens did not list any rental income for 2009. The Secret Service was the contracting agency on the two purchase orders so far that have paid Mr. Biden $13,200 combined for use of his cottage. The first purchase order to Mr. Biden, for $2,200, was signed April 1, and the second, for $11,000, was signed June 2. The records both list Mr. Biden by name as the vendor under a section of the purchase order called “contractor information.” The purchase order describes Mr. Biden as a sole proprietor with no employees and no annual revenue.