The Senate Immigration Bill Has One Basic Problem: It's Too Christian

The Senate immigration bill has one basic problem: Its desire to make illegal aliens legal with the sweep of a hand.

Forgiveness is fine in church, but America isn't a theocracy, and Jesus Christ isn't its Lord, unless you are willing to make thought-adultery and a host of other sins crimes, and turning the other cheek and loving your enemies civic duties. Hate crime legislation is already one sign we've gone over the deep end into this sort of thinking. We're the Christian antitype of Sufi Iran.

Amnesty makes a mockery of the rest of immigration law and a mockery of those who have obeyed it both in the past and now, just as it did in 1986. It is cheap grace personified, the epitome of Protestantism gone off the rails.

Unceremoniously Shown The Door, Maybe Bernanke Is Doing This On Purpose

The 10 Year Treasury falls off the cliff on Jun. 19

It is well known from almost every speech given by Ben Bernanke that he views Fed policy much more modestly than most of us do. A recent example was his address to the Economic Club of New York in November (pdf here) in which he said once again that Fed policy is only one part of what must be gotten right to ensure economic recovery. Both the Congress and the Executive must cooperate in his view to produce tax and spending policies which will not jeopardize the full faith and credit of the United States nor continue to grow the long term debt relative to GDP.

Having been unceremoniously shown the door by an ungrateful, ignorant and politically bellicose president on Monday, June 17th, it should come as no surprise that Bernanke reacted the way he did on Wednesday, June 19th, doubling down on the "taper talk" of May 22nd. No one in Congress nor The White House has taken Bernanke seriously about the urgency of the long term fiscal situation since the onset of the crisis, and if they are not going to take the bull by the horns despite his patience, Bernanke can well be understood to have given up, taken his accommodative ball and gone home.

I don't blame him one bit.

What's Worse? Frequent Financial Panics Over Quickly, Or A Long Great Depression?

Unfortunately, you won't read about the Federal Reserve's role in the run-up to the Great Depression from Roger Lowenstein's discussion of the creation of the Fed beginning on this date 100 years ago, here in The New York Times:

One of the plan’s most strident critics, Representative Charles A. Lindbergh Sr., the father of the aviator, predicted that the Federal Reserve Act would establish “the most gigantic trust on earth,” and that the Fed would become an economic dictator or, as he put it, an “invisible government by the money power.”

Savers know the dictator. Executive Order 6102 in April 1933 made them hand over their gold at $20.67 for an ounce only to learn in May the price per ounce was "raised" to $35. Savers now experience the same trick in a different form because they earn nothing for a lifetime of trouble due to ZIRP. It is not a coincidence that Lowenstein just leaves out the fact that one of the world's most gigantic busts occurred not 17 years after the creation of the Federal Reserve, just as it is not a coincidence that the current bust occurred not 10 years after Gramm-Leach-Bliley undid the banking reform of Glass-Steagall which had to be passed to fix what was wrong with Federal Reserve banking.

Particularly insidious is Lowenstein's use of the terms Fed "framers" and Fed "originalism" in discussing the Federal Reserve's origins, which had nothing to do with the framers of the constitution or the originalism which seeks to recover their lost ideas, ideas which were already long lost in 1913. Apparently those ideas still need to be killed.

Methinks the liberal doth protest too much of "ghosts".

David Gregory, NBC's Fascist Tool

During his interview with NBC's Gregory, Greenwald declined to discuss where Snowden was headed. That refusal seemed to prompt Gregory to ask: "To the extent that you have aided and abetted Snowden, even in his current movements, why shouldn't you, Mr. Greenwald, be charged with a crime?"

Story here.

The World Champions Of Spying Accuse Snowden Of Espionage

Glenn Greenwald for the UK Guardian issues a blistering critique of the worst president in US history by almost every measure for his completely hypocritical violation of the 4th Amendment, here:

The irony is obvious: the same people who are building a ubiquitous surveillance system to spy on everyone in the world, including their own citizens, are now accusing the person who exposed it of "espionage". It seems clear that the people who are actually bringing "injury to the United States" are those who are waging war on basic tenets of transparency and secretly constructing a mass and often illegal and unconstitutional surveillance apparatus aimed at American citizens - and those who are lying to the American people and its Congress about what they're doing - rather than those who are devoted to informing the American people that this is being done.

When Republicans find themselves on the same side as former Speaker of the House Democrat Nancy Pelosi who says Edward Snowden is a criminal, it's a dark day for the republic indeed:

 "He did violate the law in terms of releasing those documents," Pelosi said, drawing a thunder of boos from the crowd at the progressive conference. "I understand, I understand, but he did violate the law."

Oh yeah, one more thing. Don't forget that the Italians LOVED Mussolini too, until they didn't.

Michael Hastings Needed More Than A Lawyer To Protect Him From FBI

The story and video are here.

Black Wasichu Obama Speak With Forked Tongue

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a full-time person works more than 34 hours per week.

According to ObamaCare, a full-time person works more than 29 hours per week.

White/Black man heap big liar.

London Gold Is Down 31.77% From The 2011 Peak

The London PM fix yesterday was 1292.50, while the high water mark was 1895.00 on September 5-6, 2011. Compared to what can happen, it's been a relatively long, slow slide from the top.

The gold decline in 1980 went from 850.00 on January 21 to 481.50 on March 18, for a loss of 43.35% in just two months.

The Broad Market Of Bonds Has Lost 4.88% Of NAV Since July 2012 High

The Vanguard Total Bond Market Index net asset value has declined from a high of 11.25 in July 2012 to 10.70 yesterday after the close, a decline of 4.88%.

Obama, Red Diaper Doper Baby, Calls George Osborne "Jeffrey" 3x

Jeffrey and George Osborne, twin brothers of different mothers

Oops. World's smartest president strikes again, three times calling the British Chancellor of the Exchequer "Jeffrey" instead of "George". Who knew George moonlights as an R&B singer, stage name "Gideon"? 

Oh, sorry Vladimir, I vaporized your Moscow by mistake. I meant Moscow, Idaho. My bad.

Story here.

How To Write To Your Democrat Senator On Immigration

Dear Senator,

I don't understand how you can support conservative Republican Sen. Marco Rubio's Senate immigration bill.

The bill undercuts the wages of working people by exempting people receiving legal status for the first time from the Affordable Care Act provisions. Employers will have added incentive to hire them at a lower cost instead of currently unemployed citizens.

I urge you to vote against the Republican bill. It is not in keeping with the Democratic Party's liberal ideals of equality.

Sincerely,

How Do You Round Up 11 Million Illegals For 462 Million English Classes?

ESL Meets Tu/Th/F 10AM-NOON For 3 Months

If we can't round up millions of illegals to deport them, we are supposed to believe each one will show up multiple times for English classes? At a cost of $330 million?

The English as a Second Language class highlighted at the left, chosen at random, met for a total of 42 times between late January and early May in 2013.

That's only 462 million class sessions for 11 million illegal aliens.

Like that'll happen.

Michigan Fuel Prices Fall 20 Cents Below National Average On Flood Of Supply

The lowest price in Grand Rapids, Michigan as of this hour was $3.39/gallon, which is 20 cents below the current national average of $3.59. Just weeks ago we were paying $4.29/gallon in many places, with discount retailers like Sam's Club charging 20 to 25 cents per gallon below that. Refinery delays in Joliet, IL and Whiting, IN were to blame, combined with a refinery fire in late April in Detroit, MI, drying up supply.

Gold Tanks Below $1,300 Overnight In HKG After The Bernank

Almost another 4% after the NY close.

Bond Market Broadly Down 4.4% Overall In Less Than A Year

The recent carnage commencing just six weeks ago continued today, reaching tonight below this chart's lower bound.

We Spend 4x More On Spying Than On Controlling Foreign "Visitors"

Customs, Immigration & Border most recent year: $18 billion

Estimated National Intelligence budget (secret):     $75 billion

Ve Haf Vays Of Makingk You Pay!

Why Critics Are Unpopular: They Don't Exaggerate Our Virtues

 

A critick is a man who, on all occasions, is more attentive to what is wanting than what is present.

 

 -- Joseph Addison

No One Likes A Rat, Even When He's Right

Which is why critics remain unpopular.

Story here:

A CNN/ORC International survey released Monday morning indicates that 52% of the public disapproves of Edward Snowden's actions, with 44% saying they approve of the leaks by the former government contractor who worked for the National Security Agency. ...

Fifty-four percent of those questioned in the poll, which was conducted Tuesday through Thursday, say the government should attempt to bring Snowden back to the U.S. and prosecute him for his leaks.

Let that be a lesson to you would-be whistleblowers out there: "No good deed goes unpunished".

Senate Amnesty Gooses Crossings: Build A Magnet For Illegals And They Will Come

Apprehensions of illegal crossers have shifted big-time to Texas, and soared, up 55% from a year ago.

The New York Times reports, here, and here (notice the politically correct terminology "migrants", and the appeal elsewhere in the story to "scholars" who deny the Senate amnesty has anything to do with the new surge):

Several parts of the border, like one 25-mile stretch west of McAllen, are at times not being watched, so the number of migrants who cross from Mexico without getting caught is surging, too, three agents said in interviews last week.

“It’s really demoralizing because there’s so much traffic passing through here and we can’t do anything about it,” one agent said Friday while on patrol, asking that his name not be used because he was not authorized to speak publicly. “And when you try to do something and they won’t let you do it,” he added, having been ordered during recent shifts not to drive his truck, “it’s just really demoralizing.” ...

Mike Salinas, an alderman in La Joya, Tex., a tiny city on the Rio Grande, said border agents there were frequently outnumbered. Last week, a single agent tried to round up a group of 20, most of whom he watched scatter and get away.

“People are just crossing without fear,” Mr. Salinas said, recalling crowds right in his backyard in recent weeks.