Today the San Jose Mercury-News gives us yet another example of why the drive-by media is not trusted by the public.

Speaking of the cheap labor on visas, the Mercury-News tells us, "The U.S. caps the number of H-1B visas at 65,000 a year, an allotment typically exhausted in a single day. The limit should be doubled."[AGENDA 2008 | TECHNOLOGY CRUCIAL PROPOSALS ARE STILL WAITING FOR POLITICIANS TO REACH CONSENSUS Mercury News Editorial, January 3, 2008]

But if we go to the official counts [PDF ], we find the number of visas approved has been 116.927 in FY 2005 and 130,497 in FY 2005—nearly double the Mercury-News figure.

The Mercury-News has conveniently omitted the 20,000 visas for those with U.S. graduate degrees and the unlimited visas to academia and research labs.

All of the current H-1B expansion bills employ the same technique of exempting more and more people from the quota. This allows the dishonest folks at the Mercury-News to tell us the country needs an increase of 65,000 to 130,000 when the actual legislation gives an increase of 117-130,000 to unlimited.[Email the San Jose Mercury-News]