Rep. Amash Changed His Position On DOMA In 2010: Another Failure Of Libertarian "Consistency"

A former supporter of The Defense of Marriage Act just like former Pres. Bill Clinton who signed the law, Rep. Amash changed his position on it in 2010 saying government has no business defining marriage, changing his position just as Bill Clinton has now changed his, regretting his former support of the law, as reported here:

Early on in his career in federal politics, Amash was a self-described strong supporter of DOMA, which, until Wednesday, barred federal recognition of lawful same-sex marriages. Sometime in 2010, his campaign website was tweaked to replace that assertion with a more libertarian stance.

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Rep. Amash should switch to the Democrat Party, and take Sen. Marco Rubio with him.

Sleeper Story Of The Day: Q1 GDP Revised DOWN To 1.8% From 2.4%

While everyone was fixated on Supreme Court rulings involving homosexuality, the third and final report of GDP for Q1 2013 got buried in the avalanche. A good place for it, too, seeing how bad it was.

The BEA reported here:

Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States -- increased at an annual rate of 1.8 percent in the first quarter of 2013 (that is, from the fourth quarter to the first quarter), according to the "third" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.  In the fourth quarter, real GDP increased 0.4 percent.

The GDP estimate released today is based on more complete source data than were available for the "second" estimate issued last month.  In the second estimate, real GDP increased 2.4 percent.  With the third estimate for the first quarter, the increase in personal consumption expenditures (PCE) was less than previously estimated, and exports and imports are now estimated to have declined (for more information, see "Revisions" on page 3).

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Poor growth is entirely apropos to the situation. Preoccupied by our own narcissism, we aren't PRODUCING.

Gold Miners Starting To Look Attractive As Gold Tanks To $1,230

A relatively diversified precious metals industry fund like VGPMX is starting to look like an attractive investment. The fund NAV has now fallen to within 4% of its March 2009 low of $10.04, trading at $10.47 last night. As a stock fund, however, I would expect this fund to take a further beating in a real stock market correction, which we have not experienced in quite a long time. Overall we are today only 5% off the current highs by broad market measures. One should keep in mind that this fund had once fallen to nearly $5 back in 1998 just before the long gold bull began. So you could get sliced and diced by the falling knives to the tune of 50% in a coming correction if you invest in this fund at current prices. That said, revisiting the March 2009 low certainly would make this fund very tempting from the long term perspective, seeing that between March 2009 and the highs in 2011 the NAV increased over 180%. The fund has the potential to make you a lot of money (NAV+685% 1998-2007), or hand you your hat when it's done with you (NAV-75% 2007-2009). The NAV is down 63% since April 2011.

Vanguard Total Bond Index NAV Down 5.77% In 11 Months

Vanguard shows one year performance, May on May, at 0.75%.

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