Despite the intentionally deceptive narrative crafted for public consumption by this administration and its accomplices in the news media, the jobs picture in the United States continues to be dismal, as the CEO of Gallup has declared in an extraordinary interview on Fox News recently. Even as millions of Americans fruitlessly scramble for gainful employment, the federal government continues to search for means of hobbling an already anemic economy.

One such method is by increasing the number of visas issued under the fraud-ridden H-1B program, a cause dear to the heart of Senator Orrin Hatch, who has already introduced legislation to that effect in this session of Congress. Yet even as Hatch does the bidding of Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg and his astroturf open borders cutout, extremely skilled IT workers in the state of California are being made redundant by foreign nationals utilizing H-1b visas.

At the purportedly high end of the immigration food chain lies the EB-5 visa for immigrant investors. As Brian Ross points out in this ABC News investigation into the program, the problems inherent in the investor visa range all the way from potential criminality to incipient threats to homeland security. But don’t expect the people ostensibly responsible for protecting Americans to do something about this, because they have more important things to worry about. Namely, enacting President Obama’s program of minting a new class of dependents and future Democratic Party voters.

Part 2 of my debate with supporters of President Obama’s latest amnesty on Tiempo.

One of the most insipid weapons in the arsenal of stupidity which constitutes open borders dogmatism is the argument that building fences does not work as an impediment to illegal immigration. A popular bit of sophistry expertly lampooned by Adam Carolla in his hilarious first book, In Fifty Years We’ll All Be Chicks.

Second only to “torture doesn’t work” in the retarded-statement category is “fences don’t work.” So all those East Berliners who drove around in two-stroke cars and ate stale bread for forty years should have just strolled into West Berlin and gotten themselves a breakfast burrito? Boy, they must be embarrassed, having spent all those years trapped behind a fence didn’t work. 

Notwithstanding the recent reenactment of a scene from The Bourne Identity inside of the White House , defensive barriers and barricades such as walls and fences are actually pretty efficacious at achieving their intended objective, i.e. stopping undesirables from breaching a person-or a nation’s-property. To see just how effective a properly constructed and policed fence can be, I suggest taking a look at the Jewish State, which has a lot of empirical evidence that refutes the canard so often employed by those who would seek to turn this nation into an annex of Mexico.

For a highly amusing, yet incredibly illuminating, overview and history of this subject, I suggest checking out a brilliant post from this past summer on The Passing Parade, which was recommended to me by a dear friend who happens to share my concern about the willful stupidity and malice which seems to animate most government policy, especially regarding immigration issues.

Hat tip: Creaky Pavillion 

As Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies points out, there were many reasons why Thomas Eric Duncan should never have been allowed to enter the United States. It turns out that the simple, prophylactic measures which ensure the fiscal and cultural vibrancy of this country-or which used to do so, at any rate-also have immense public health benefits, e.g. preventing the diffusion of an incredibly fatal pandemic. The fact that lax customs and border procedures have endangered American citizens should come as no surprise to those of us who have been following the epidemiological nightmare which has emerged from this administration’s embrace of the thousands of unaccompanied minors streaming into our country from Central America, via Mexico. 

However, I’d like to briefly explore the way in which this case illustrates the fundamental divide that lies at the heart of immigration to the West from the third world. Namely, the desires of those who are mired in poverty-and in this case, who are forced to rely upon parlous healthcare distribution networks-versus the needs of those who are living in developed nations such as the United States and United Kingdom. Leaving aside the dubious ethicality of  traveling abroad with the knowledge that you’ve contracted the ebola virus, seeking treatment at first-class medical facilities in the United States made perfect sense to Mr. Duncan as a matter of self-interest and survival, especially when he contemplated the alternative.

This is why the  refrain by open borders fetishists that those of us who want reasonable immigration policies are “anti-immigrant” and “xenophobic” misses the point altogether, which I’m sure is intentional on their part. No one is blaming immigrants for wanting to escape the disastrous conditions in which they find themselves-and which many of us would attempt to flee if found in similar circumstances. The blame does not accrue to them, but to the political, corporate, and journalistic class which has enabled scores of such individuals to find safe haven in the west at our expense.

It’s not immigrants who are at fault for the problems you’ve seen catalogued in these pages for the past four years, but the architects of public policies which have allowed these problems to manifest in the United States. The ultimate outcome of Mr. Duncan’s trip to the United States has yet to be determined, but I think we can safely assume that the shortsighted and politically opportunistic policies which allowed him to travel freely around this country will not revisited any time soon, despite their potentially catastrophic consequences for the rest of us.

While kvetching about the State of the Union-its vacuity, its interminable length, or its simple inability to compel the attention of most Americans, despite being  broadcast simultaneously on every major television network-is ubiquitous among Washington observers, I don’t think most people comprehend the malignant influence this ritualistic exercise has upon the body politic.  The SOTU is the embodiment of the modern imperial presidency, from its regal trappings to its very structure, which brooks no dissent from pesky congressmen-with a few welcome, notable exceptions.

Listening to a president who not only regularly flouts the Constitution but boasts of how he will do so in the future only adds to the frustration conscientious Americans experience during this annual exercise in statolatry. Thankfully, the inestimable John Derbyshire has taken the time to not only digest the presidential blather, but to explain its larger political/historical significance. His analysis is well worth reading, and certainly worth pondering more than any of the dreary proposals outlined by Barack Obama last night. For what it’s worth, I agree with Mr. Derbyshire that Senator Sessions would have been an ideal sparring partner for the President. Unfortunately, considering the views of Republican leaders regarding immigration patriots, I don’t think that prospect was in the offing at any point leading up to yesterday’s presidential address.

As we noted in our last action alert, the open borders mob decided to mobilize this past weekend in hopes of reenergizing its crusade to abolish the last remnants of American immigration enforcement. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the sparsely attended demonstrations failed to capture the full attention of a news media intent upon crafting their own government shutdown metanarrative. Luckily, Brenda Walker went to the trouble of documenting the meager coverage local news outlets did devote to the latest pro-amnesty  agitprop. It should come as no surprise that this reportage was lacking in honesty and accuracy. After all, coverage of the stealth congressional plan to enact amnesty has been equally slipshod. 

When it comes to reporting honestly and accurately on immigration, the fourth estate has been AWOL for quite some time. 

As the gangsters in the Senate continue to thwart any attempt at improving an irredeemable piece of legislation, many people are wondering what’s happening in the lower chamber of Congress. Jonathan Bernstein has a surprisingly insightful entry on the Washington Post’s Plum Line blog which partially answers that question. My own view tends to agree with the assumption that most of the real action on the Gang of Eight scheme will take place in the Senate, once this dross is rubber-stamped through the Judiciary Committee. 

House conservatives-actual conservatives, not shills for the cheap labor lobby-have come out with their own plan for preventing this disaster from taking place. Of course, the open borders mouthpieces in the media-including those at the quasi-news, liberal website Buzzfeed-have taken pot shots at the few congressmen willing to buck elite consensus. Nonetheless, I think the concerns of the conservative leadership of the House are worth listening to, especially when the elected leadership of the House of Representatives is sorely lacking in courage and discernment.

Wisdom is a neglected virtue, and is in short supply in the halls of Capitol Hill. Yet there are still those with the ability to apply their knowledge to an important task. Let’s stand with them, however few in number.

A great symposium sponsored by the Center for Immigration Studies, featuring the inimitable Mickey Kaus, which examines the self-serving narrative constructed by journalists in order to manipulate news coverage of immigration issues. Very lengthy, but well worth watching, especially for those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of attending one of CIS’s fantastic talks in New York City, which we’ve documented in the past. It’s of the upmost importance that we understand the psychology driving one of the Gang of Eight amnesty’s most fervent backers if we’re going to be able to confront it successfully.

President Obama has spent the past week trolling for votes among undocumented Democrats, purportedly as a way of strengthening historic ties between the United States and its neighbor to the south, which-as we’ve pointed out in the past-have always been a little tetchy. While the irony of issuing paeans to Mexico as a patriotic, John Phillips Sousa march plays him out is lost on Obama, some of us took note.

Of course, no Obama itinerary would be complete without some brazen dissembling about who is chiefly responsible for the wave of narco-terrorism sweeping that country. Hint: It has nothing to do with Barack Obama’s patently illegal, reckless gun-trafficking operation. Although many observers stateside have become inured to these lies, one wonders how the thousands of relatives of Mexican casualties feel about our President’s indifference to admitting culpability in this tragedy. Something tells me they’re not elated at his visit, despite the apologia included in the Los Angeles Times’s obsequious coverage.

So, instead of reflecting upon an historically marginal battle that’s insignificant to most people outside of the  state of Puebla, or imploring Congress to ratify and expand upon Barack Obama’s unconstitutional series of administrative amnesties, I say we join in appreciation of a great moment in American history. Namely, the day that Alan Shepard became the first American-and only the second person-to travel into space. In addition to watching the fantastic video above, I highly recommend reading a fascinating essay from The Atlantic which explores the way in which history and myth-making intersect, often in misleading ways. It’ll be a nice departure from how people traditionally celebrate this holiday.

Update: The brothers’ legal status has been corrected from an earlier post.  Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev is in police custody! More details, courtesy of the Boston Globe. 

Video footage from the initial shootout between the two terrorists and police officers. Live Wire from WCVB. Atlantic Wire coverage, including a link to what’s been verified as his Twitter account. 

Metro Boston SOPS scanner. Police have withdrawn from the part of Watertown where they suspected the bomber might have fled to. Military helicopters are circling the town. 

New information about Boston Marathon bombing suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, seen here. More details from Mother Jones and Deadspin. The Lid also has some updated news about what we know about this Chechen terrorist. According to Buzzfeed Politics, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was an American citizen, while his older brother was a legally permanent resident. Despite being arrested for domestic assault, he was not deported. The father of the deceased terrorist describes him as a true angel. 

 Here’s a photo of deceased MIT officer Sean Collier. Suspect’s father calls on him to surrender to police.