- Housing Rebound Is Far Off
- Home Prices Rise Only In Seattle, Washington DC
- The Dreaded Double-Dip Housing Recession
- FHA Reducing Size Of Mortgages It Insures
- Credit Crunch Ending
- Bank Stocks Remain Near Record Lows
- Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Don't Want More Scrutiny
- Politicians Lick Their Chops At Opportunity To Plunder Banks
- Pending Home Sales Fall
- Banks Stock Shares Stay Low
- Searching For A Sustainable Economy
- Leaving North Las Vegas
- Have Home Prices Hit An Ominous Low?
- Housing Prices Hit New Low
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Don't Expect A Rebound In Home Values Until 2012 At Earliest
I cover refinance, mortgages, real estate and the like here:
Immigration News
Support the Center for Immigration Studies by donating on line here: http://www.cis.org/support.html
[FYI --
1. Reining in Zadvydas v. Davis (Memorandum)
2. The Hispanic Vote in 2010 (Memorandum)
3. Immigration and ‘Secure Communities’ (Op-ed)
4. Mixing a Sub-Par Deal with a Ticket to the USA (Blog)
5. Obama's Emerging Un-Border Policy: 'Acceptable Levels of Illegal Immigration' (Blog)
6. Open-Border Groups in Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting (Blog)
7. Arizona Catches a Break from the Supreme Court (Blog)
8. Creating Facts on the Ground (Blog)
9. The Magnitude of the E-Verify Win (Blog)
10. Arizona 1, Open-Borders Lobby 0 (Blog)
11. Musings on Migration Statistics (Blog)
12. Lamar Smith Acts to 'Keep Our Communities Safe' (Blog)
13. Dear Mr. President: How About a Border Strategy? (Blog)
-- Mark Krikorian]
1.
Reining in Zadvydas v. Davis
By Jon Feere
CIS Memorandum, May 25, 2011
http://www.cis.org/stopping-release-of-criminal-aliens
Excerpt: According to the Inspector General, nearly 134,000 immigrants with final orders of removal have been released into the United States from 2001 to 2004. According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, nearly 4,000 dangerous criminal immigrants have been released into the United States each year since 2008. An untold number of these aliens have gone on to commit additional, horrific crimes.
This Memorandum details the Supreme Court’s problematic holding in Zadvydas v. Davis and highlights some of the issues raised by the decision. It also notes Congress’ attempt to resolve some of the issues legislatively. Ultimately, the political branches must assert their inherent authority over immigration regulation if public safety is the goal.
Return to Top
********
********
2.
The Hispanic Vote in 2010
By Steven A. Camarota and Ashley Monique Webster
CIS Memorandum, May 23, 2011
http://www.cis.org/hispanic-vote-2010-no-trend
Excerpt: Before the 2010 election some commentators argued that the failure to address immigration would increase Hispanic turnout, while others argued it would cause them to stay home. New Census Bureau voting data show that neither of these predictions was correct. Hispanic turnout conformed to the pattern of recent mid-term elections.
Return to Top
********
********
3.
Immigration and ‘Secure Communities’
By Jessica Vaughan and Mike Stopa
Boston Globe, May 24, 2011
http://www.cis.org/node/2820
Excerpt: Most illegal immigrants worry about being deported, so it is not unusual that they fear the police. This fear erupted into protests when Governor Patrick announced in December that Massachusetts would implement Secure Communities, a federal program that helps Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) coordinate efforts with state and local police to find and remove criminal illegal immigrants.
Under this program, the fingerprints of arrested criminal suspects would be checked against federal immigration databases. In Boston, where it was first piloted, in the last two years, ICE put 268 felons on the path to removal to their home countries.
Return to Top
********
********
4.
Mixing a Sub-Par Deal with a Ticket to the USA
By David North
CIS Blog, May 29, 2011
http://www.cis.org/north/mixing-a-sub-par-deal
Excerpt: If the job does not pay much, or if the investment is shaky, the way for big business to close the deal is to add a ticket to America to the formula – and the migrant quickly falls in line with a body for the job, or a sum of money for the investment.
For example, many of the exploited guestworkers recruited to work in the Marianas Island sweatshops a dozen years ago were naive young women from rural China; they were sometimes told that 'Los Angeles is just a bus ride away from the factory site'.
Return to Top
********
********
5.
Obama's Emerging Un-Border Policy: 'Acceptable Levels of Illegal Immigration'
By Janice Kephart
CIS Blog, May 27, 2011
http://www.cis.org/kephart/emerging-unborder-policy
Excerpt: The light is getting brighter and the resolution starker on the 'no apprehension policy' being imposed on Border Patrol agents by their superiors: it may be part of an emerging 'un-border' policy based on a view that we are currently experiencing 'acceptable levels of illegal immigration', which logically means we can reduce the numbers of Border Patrol on the ground.
I just wrote about the president's lack of policy being a major problem in analyzing his El Paso immigration speech. Perhaps it was more fun to discuss border security as being an 'alligator in a moat' solution, rather than fess up to this new policy of operational un-control of the border. Yet it would have been fun. The president could have joked about it like he did border security by calling it an 'operational barely-there control' policy, 'operation blind-eye', or even 'operation open borders'.
Return to Top
********
********
6.
Open-Border Groups in Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting
By Jon Feere
CIS Blog, May 27, 2011
http://www.cis.org/feere/open-border-groups-in-chamber-v-whiting
Excerpt: For many years the open-border crowd has pushed hard to perpetuate illegal employment throughout the United States, but today, in Chamber of Commerce of the United States v. Whiting, the Supreme Court has put an end to their anti-E-Verify effort. Many amnesty groups submitted briefs to the Court in support of the Chamber of Commerce in an attempt to get Arizona's law blocked. The list of groups involved in the lawsuit, below, includes the American Immigration Lawyers Association, La Raza, the SEIU, and the notorious Southern Poverty Law Center. Even though this list represents only the tip of the iceberg, it is a good reminder of what the pro-enforcement crowd is up against:
Return to Top
********
********
7.
Arizona Catches a Break from the Supreme Court
By Janice Kephart
CIS Blog, May 26, 2011
http://www.cis.org/kephart/arizona-catches-a-break
Excerpt: Wow. E-Verify. Our hard-working worker authorization program catches a break from the Supreme Court. Let me first be grateful to Supreme Court Justice Kagan; her recusal helped support redemption for Arizona, our national punching bag for the Department of Justice as of late. As Solicitor General, Kagan had authored the (poorly argued) brief stating that the Supreme Court should review the Ninth Circuit decision and questioned whether Arizona's E-Verify law was pre-empted by federal immigration law. In the end her recusal didn't really matter; the win was 5-3, and a bit of a surprise to those of us that had been watching the E-Verify drama roll out over these past few years and deeply concerned that the Supreme Court would support the administration's position to cancel out Arizona's worker authorization law. Whowouldathunkit?
Return to Top
********
********
8.
Creating Facts on the Ground
By Mark Krikorian
CIS Blog, May 26, 2011
http://www.cis.org/krikorian/creating-facts-on-the-ground
Excerpt:The Supremes' complete repudiation of the Chamber of Commerce/Obama administration opposition to state E-Verify requirements will likely result in such mandates making more progress in the states' next legislative sessions; Georgia passed a mandate this year, and the Chamber's strategy of scaring lawmakers away from E-Verify with the bogeyman of Arizona's SB1070 won’t work any more.
Of course, the point of the push for such state E-Verify mandates isn't really to get all 50 states to sign on separately, but to move Congress to pass a national E-Verify mandate, something House Judiciary Committee chairman Lamar Smith would very much like to do. The state mandates help this along in two ways: First, they obviously create political momentum. But in a more practical sense, as more states require use of E-Verify — whether for all employers or just state agencies and/or state contractors — a larger and larger share of the nation's hiring will be run through the system, increasingly making it a standard part of the employment process. In other words, the goal is to make E-Verify a fait accompli, so that when Congress finally gets around to passing the national requirement, it will be more of a mopping-up operation than the imposition of an unfamiliar requirement on unsuspecting employers. And I think we're already getting close to that tipping ! point.
Return to Top
********
********
9.
The Magnitude of the E-Verify Win
By Mark Krikorian
CIS Blog, May 26, 2011
http://www.cis.org/krikorian/magnitude-of-the-everify-win
Excerpt: The reason the administration and the Chamber of Commerce saw this case as so important is that they want to hold back mandatory E-Verify as their main bargaining chip for what they really want out of a 'comprehensive' immigration deal — amnesty for the Obama administration and massive increases in imported captive labor ('guestworkers') for the Chamber. The decision makes it more likely Congress will be able to pass such a mandate on its own, not bundled with any amnesty or guestworker provisions. In other words, it's not just a win for enforcement but also a setback for amnesty and increased immigration.
Return to Top
********
********
10.
Arizona 1, Open-Borders Lobby 0
By James R. Edwards Jr.
CIS Blog, May 26, 2011
http://www.cis.org/edwards/arizona-1-open-borders-lobby-0
Excerpt: The U.S. Supreme Court has come down on the side of federalism, the constitutional principle that states reserve the rights not delegated by them to the federal government (that is, over the vast majority of matters). It has ruled in favor of Arizona and against apologists for illegal foreign workers and the businesses that steal American jobs.
By 5-3, with Obama appointee and former solicitor general Elena Kagan abstaining, the high court decided in Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting that states are well within their prerogative to make use of a federal tool (E-Verify) in order to promote a state interest (ensuring a legal workforce).
Return to Top
********
********
11.
Musings on Migration Statistics
By David North
CIS Blog, May 25, 2011
http://www.cis.org/north/musings-on-migration-statistics
Excerpt: Judge Mark H. Metcalf's new CIS Backgrounder, 'Built to Fail: Deception and Disorder in America's Immigration Courts', reminds me that the four cabinet departments dealing with international migration have totally different ways of handling migration statistics, two in deplorable ways, and two in a more or less acceptable manner.
Return to Top
********
********
12.
Lamar Smith Acts to 'Keep Our Communities Safe'
By Jessica Vaughan
CIS Blog, May 25, 2011
http://www.cis.org/vaughan/keep-our-communities-safe-hearing
Excerpt: Every year, ICE releases about 4,000 criminal aliens back into U.S. communities because their home countries will not accept them for deportation, and because the Supreme Court has ruled that they cannot be detained indefinitely. This group includes murderers, rapists, cop killers, child predators, and gang members who are then free to continue their life of crime here, and they get a work permit in case their crime doesn't pay enough. Yesterday, the House immigration subcommittee held a hearing on this problem and on a new bill (H.R. 1932) to address it, introduced by House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX).
Return to Top
********
********
13.
Dear Mr. President: How About a Border Strategy?
By Janice Kephart
CIS Blog, May 24, 2011
http://www.cis.org/kephart/how-about-a-border-strategy
Excerpt: On May 11, the White House issued 'Statements of Support for President Obama's Commitment to Fix our Broken Immigration System', listing business leaders, elected officials, labor unions, and 'immigration reform' advocates. The focus of the comments was on the economics of immigration, and the need to rebuild our businesses and universities with foreign workers and foreign students. Strangely, these comments were affiliated with the president's speech in El Paso, Texas which, strangely again, would seem a venue to talk border security as much as discuss border economics. Instead, it was a speech lined with the soft down of amnesty in a variety of forms. No answers, no strategy, no legislation, just niceties for the illegal population. The words for fellow Americans who oppose amnesty because they live on the border or who believe that laws should be enforced or who are concerned about national security and the spillover of cartel activity in the US – for t! hem, the president held a much harsher tone.
[FYI --
1. Reining in Zadvydas v. Davis (Memorandum)
2. The Hispanic Vote in 2010 (Memorandum)
3. Immigration and ‘Secure Communities’ (Op-ed)
4. Mixing a Sub-Par Deal with a Ticket to the USA (Blog)
5. Obama's Emerging Un-Border Policy: 'Acceptable Levels of Illegal Immigration' (Blog)
6. Open-Border Groups in Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting (Blog)
7. Arizona Catches a Break from the Supreme Court (Blog)
8. Creating Facts on the Ground (Blog)
9. The Magnitude of the E-Verify Win (Blog)
10. Arizona 1, Open-Borders Lobby 0 (Blog)
11. Musings on Migration Statistics (Blog)
12. Lamar Smith Acts to 'Keep Our Communities Safe' (Blog)
13. Dear Mr. President: How About a Border Strategy? (Blog)
-- Mark Krikorian]
1.
Reining in Zadvydas v. Davis
By Jon Feere
CIS Memorandum, May 25, 2011
http://www.cis.org/stopping-release-of-criminal-aliens
Excerpt: According to the Inspector General, nearly 134,000 immigrants with final orders of removal have been released into the United States from 2001 to 2004. According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, nearly 4,000 dangerous criminal immigrants have been released into the United States each year since 2008. An untold number of these aliens have gone on to commit additional, horrific crimes.
This Memorandum details the Supreme Court’s problematic holding in Zadvydas v. Davis and highlights some of the issues raised by the decision. It also notes Congress’ attempt to resolve some of the issues legislatively. Ultimately, the political branches must assert their inherent authority over immigration regulation if public safety is the goal.
Return to Top
********
********
2.
The Hispanic Vote in 2010
By Steven A. Camarota and Ashley Monique Webster
CIS Memorandum, May 23, 2011
http://www.cis.org/hispanic-vote-2010-no-trend
Excerpt: Before the 2010 election some commentators argued that the failure to address immigration would increase Hispanic turnout, while others argued it would cause them to stay home. New Census Bureau voting data show that neither of these predictions was correct. Hispanic turnout conformed to the pattern of recent mid-term elections.
Return to Top
********
********
3.
Immigration and ‘Secure Communities’
By Jessica Vaughan and Mike Stopa
Boston Globe, May 24, 2011
http://www.cis.org/node/2820
Excerpt: Most illegal immigrants worry about being deported, so it is not unusual that they fear the police. This fear erupted into protests when Governor Patrick announced in December that Massachusetts would implement Secure Communities, a federal program that helps Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) coordinate efforts with state and local police to find and remove criminal illegal immigrants.
Under this program, the fingerprints of arrested criminal suspects would be checked against federal immigration databases. In Boston, where it was first piloted, in the last two years, ICE put 268 felons on the path to removal to their home countries.
Return to Top
********
********
4.
Mixing a Sub-Par Deal with a Ticket to the USA
By David North
CIS Blog, May 29, 2011
http://www.cis.org/north/mixing-a-sub-par-deal
Excerpt: If the job does not pay much, or if the investment is shaky, the way for big business to close the deal is to add a ticket to America to the formula – and the migrant quickly falls in line with a body for the job, or a sum of money for the investment.
For example, many of the exploited guestworkers recruited to work in the Marianas Island sweatshops a dozen years ago were naive young women from rural China; they were sometimes told that 'Los Angeles is just a bus ride away from the factory site'.
Return to Top
********
********
5.
Obama's Emerging Un-Border Policy: 'Acceptable Levels of Illegal Immigration'
By Janice Kephart
CIS Blog, May 27, 2011
http://www.cis.org/kephart/emerging-unborder-policy
Excerpt: The light is getting brighter and the resolution starker on the 'no apprehension policy' being imposed on Border Patrol agents by their superiors: it may be part of an emerging 'un-border' policy based on a view that we are currently experiencing 'acceptable levels of illegal immigration', which logically means we can reduce the numbers of Border Patrol on the ground.
I just wrote about the president's lack of policy being a major problem in analyzing his El Paso immigration speech. Perhaps it was more fun to discuss border security as being an 'alligator in a moat' solution, rather than fess up to this new policy of operational un-control of the border. Yet it would have been fun. The president could have joked about it like he did border security by calling it an 'operational barely-there control' policy, 'operation blind-eye', or even 'operation open borders'.
Return to Top
********
********
6.
Open-Border Groups in Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting
By Jon Feere
CIS Blog, May 27, 2011
http://www.cis.org/feere/open-border-groups-in-chamber-v-whiting
Excerpt: For many years the open-border crowd has pushed hard to perpetuate illegal employment throughout the United States, but today, in Chamber of Commerce of the United States v. Whiting, the Supreme Court has put an end to their anti-E-Verify effort. Many amnesty groups submitted briefs to the Court in support of the Chamber of Commerce in an attempt to get Arizona's law blocked. The list of groups involved in the lawsuit, below, includes the American Immigration Lawyers Association, La Raza, the SEIU, and the notorious Southern Poverty Law Center. Even though this list represents only the tip of the iceberg, it is a good reminder of what the pro-enforcement crowd is up against:
Return to Top
********
********
7.
Arizona Catches a Break from the Supreme Court
By Janice Kephart
CIS Blog, May 26, 2011
http://www.cis.org/kephart/arizona-catches-a-break
Excerpt: Wow. E-Verify. Our hard-working worker authorization program catches a break from the Supreme Court. Let me first be grateful to Supreme Court Justice Kagan; her recusal helped support redemption for Arizona, our national punching bag for the Department of Justice as of late. As Solicitor General, Kagan had authored the (poorly argued) brief stating that the Supreme Court should review the Ninth Circuit decision and questioned whether Arizona's E-Verify law was pre-empted by federal immigration law. In the end her recusal didn't really matter; the win was 5-3, and a bit of a surprise to those of us that had been watching the E-Verify drama roll out over these past few years and deeply concerned that the Supreme Court would support the administration's position to cancel out Arizona's worker authorization law. Whowouldathunkit?
Return to Top
********
********
8.
Creating Facts on the Ground
By Mark Krikorian
CIS Blog, May 26, 2011
http://www.cis.org/krikorian/creating-facts-on-the-ground
Excerpt:The Supremes' complete repudiation of the Chamber of Commerce/Obama administration opposition to state E-Verify requirements will likely result in such mandates making more progress in the states' next legislative sessions; Georgia passed a mandate this year, and the Chamber's strategy of scaring lawmakers away from E-Verify with the bogeyman of Arizona's SB1070 won’t work any more.
Of course, the point of the push for such state E-Verify mandates isn't really to get all 50 states to sign on separately, but to move Congress to pass a national E-Verify mandate, something House Judiciary Committee chairman Lamar Smith would very much like to do. The state mandates help this along in two ways: First, they obviously create political momentum. But in a more practical sense, as more states require use of E-Verify — whether for all employers or just state agencies and/or state contractors — a larger and larger share of the nation's hiring will be run through the system, increasingly making it a standard part of the employment process. In other words, the goal is to make E-Verify a fait accompli, so that when Congress finally gets around to passing the national requirement, it will be more of a mopping-up operation than the imposition of an unfamiliar requirement on unsuspecting employers. And I think we're already getting close to that tipping ! point.
Return to Top
********
********
9.
The Magnitude of the E-Verify Win
By Mark Krikorian
CIS Blog, May 26, 2011
http://www.cis.org/krikorian/magnitude-of-the-everify-win
Excerpt: The reason the administration and the Chamber of Commerce saw this case as so important is that they want to hold back mandatory E-Verify as their main bargaining chip for what they really want out of a 'comprehensive' immigration deal — amnesty for the Obama administration and massive increases in imported captive labor ('guestworkers') for the Chamber. The decision makes it more likely Congress will be able to pass such a mandate on its own, not bundled with any amnesty or guestworker provisions. In other words, it's not just a win for enforcement but also a setback for amnesty and increased immigration.
Return to Top
********
********
10.
Arizona 1, Open-Borders Lobby 0
By James R. Edwards Jr.
CIS Blog, May 26, 2011
http://www.cis.org/edwards/arizona-1-open-borders-lobby-0
Excerpt: The U.S. Supreme Court has come down on the side of federalism, the constitutional principle that states reserve the rights not delegated by them to the federal government (that is, over the vast majority of matters). It has ruled in favor of Arizona and against apologists for illegal foreign workers and the businesses that steal American jobs.
By 5-3, with Obama appointee and former solicitor general Elena Kagan abstaining, the high court decided in Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting that states are well within their prerogative to make use of a federal tool (E-Verify) in order to promote a state interest (ensuring a legal workforce).
Return to Top
********
********
11.
Musings on Migration Statistics
By David North
CIS Blog, May 25, 2011
http://www.cis.org/north/musings-on-migration-statistics
Excerpt: Judge Mark H. Metcalf's new CIS Backgrounder, 'Built to Fail: Deception and Disorder in America's Immigration Courts', reminds me that the four cabinet departments dealing with international migration have totally different ways of handling migration statistics, two in deplorable ways, and two in a more or less acceptable manner.
Return to Top
********
********
12.
Lamar Smith Acts to 'Keep Our Communities Safe'
By Jessica Vaughan
CIS Blog, May 25, 2011
http://www.cis.org/vaughan/keep-our-communities-safe-hearing
Excerpt: Every year, ICE releases about 4,000 criminal aliens back into U.S. communities because their home countries will not accept them for deportation, and because the Supreme Court has ruled that they cannot be detained indefinitely. This group includes murderers, rapists, cop killers, child predators, and gang members who are then free to continue their life of crime here, and they get a work permit in case their crime doesn't pay enough. Yesterday, the House immigration subcommittee held a hearing on this problem and on a new bill (H.R. 1932) to address it, introduced by House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX).
Return to Top
********
********
13.
Dear Mr. President: How About a Border Strategy?
By Janice Kephart
CIS Blog, May 24, 2011
http://www.cis.org/kephart/how-about-a-border-strategy
Excerpt: On May 11, the White House issued 'Statements of Support for President Obama's Commitment to Fix our Broken Immigration System', listing business leaders, elected officials, labor unions, and 'immigration reform' advocates. The focus of the comments was on the economics of immigration, and the need to rebuild our businesses and universities with foreign workers and foreign students. Strangely, these comments were affiliated with the president's speech in El Paso, Texas which, strangely again, would seem a venue to talk border security as much as discuss border economics. Instead, it was a speech lined with the soft down of amnesty in a variety of forms. No answers, no strategy, no legislation, just niceties for the illegal population. The words for fellow Americans who oppose amnesty because they live on the border or who believe that laws should be enforced or who are concerned about national security and the spillover of cartel activity in the US – for t! hem, the president held a much harsher tone.
Is Matt Drudge A Racist Or A Truth-Teller?
Here are the stories he's linking on top of his site now:
UPDATE: MIAMI 'WAR ZONE' DURING URBAN WEEKEND...
'I was scared for my life'...
Poet 'Da Real One' Gunned Down In Front Of Miami Poetry Cafe...
Violent crime explodes in Myrtle during Black Bike Week; 8-hour hell...
Rib Fest At Rochester beach turns rowdy...
Riot On Long Island...
Urban Melee In Charlotte...
Chaos causes DNC concern for convention...
Unruly urban crowd shuts down Nashville water park...
Emanuel shuts down packed Chicago beach; 'heat-related illnesses'...
REPORT: 'Dozens of gang bangers'...
UPDATE: MIAMI 'WAR ZONE' DURING URBAN WEEKEND...
'I was scared for my life'...
Poet 'Da Real One' Gunned Down In Front Of Miami Poetry Cafe...
Violent crime explodes in Myrtle during Black Bike Week; 8-hour hell...
Rib Fest At Rochester beach turns rowdy...
Riot On Long Island...
Urban Melee In Charlotte...
Chaos causes DNC concern for convention...
Unruly urban crowd shuts down Nashville water park...
Emanuel shuts down packed Chicago beach; 'heat-related illnesses'...
REPORT: 'Dozens of gang bangers'...
Monday, May 30, 2011
Housing Prices Hit Record Lows
Real estate. Refinance. Mortgages. I cover all such topics here:
- Case-Shiller Housing Price Index Expected To Hit New Low
- One Writer's Pursuit Of A Mortgage
- What Do You Think About Making Over The Mortgage Disclosure Form?
- The Case For Simplified Mortgage Disclosure Forms
- Getting a Mortgage after the Age of 40
May 29, 2011
- Mortgage Rates Drop For Six Straight Weeks
- What Are The Consequences Of Defaulting On Your Mortgage?
- Barney Frank Helped His Gay Lover Get A Job With Fannie Mae
- Are U.S. Mortgages Doomed Without Government Backing?
- Another Judge Rebukes Foreclosure Practices
- Ignorance Is The Biggest Enemy Of Those Seeking Mortgages
- What Is The Future Of Mortgage Financing?
- The Return Of Shadow Banking
- The Return Of The Two Bedroom Apartment
- Foreclosing On Military On Active Duty
- RECKLESS ENDANGERMENT BY GRETCHEN MORGENSON AND JOSHUA ROSNER
May 28, 2011
May 27, 2011
- Why Are Home Sales Falling With Mortgage Rates?
- Forcing Banks To Keep A Skin In The Game Of Mortgage Lending
- ARMs Looking Better Than Ever
- Foreclosures Centered In A Few States Such As California, Florida
- Banks Remained Overwhelmed By Foreclosures
- Why Are Foreclosures Centered In A Few States?
- Falling Home Sales, Prices
The Day President Reagan Was Shot
On the day Reagan was shot, I was walking home from the bus stop in Auburn to my home more than a mile away.
I was just off Interstate 80. The day was hot. I passed by a car parked beside the road. Inside, I saw a man flogging himself.
I’d never seen this before. I’d never done this myself. I was shocked and appalled.
I walked on. A minute later, the guy drives up beside me and asks me if I want a ride.
“No, thanks,” I said and walked on, scared to death.
I had never encountered anything like this. This was not the way Seventh-Day Adventists behaved.
Should We Celebrate The Death Of Evil People?
Dennis Prager writes a magnificent column for the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles:
We live in a time very different from any in the past.
As a rule, little changes in basic human responses. For example, it is probably fair to say that throughout human history, just about all decent people have celebrated the death of those human beings understood to be truly evil.
The Danger Of Tasting Sexual Variety
Luke Ford writes: A 28 yo man calls Dennis Prager’s show today. “I noticed with my first girlfriend I didn’t have an interest in being with many women. It wasn’t until I had my second that I was interested in being with my third and fourth. I’ve noticed the same thing with some of my friends. It seems that the more experience you get, the more interest you are in being with many women.
“Places with arranged marriages. It’s claimed they are unlikely to end in divorce. I always thought that was because they were in places where the male and female were likely to be virgins when married and that’s a powerful thing to keep a couple together.”
Dennis: “I would be curious to know if men who’ve married the only woman they’ve been with are less likely to be unfaithful.”
I Like People With Strong Identities
I love people who know who they are and what their place is in life. I love strong identities. It makes relating to someone much easier. Generally, I prefer to deal with a committed Muslim than a wishy-washy Jew. With a devout Muslim, I know who I’m dealing with. I know most of their boundaries. I know what they stand for.
A Jew not rooted in Judaism, by contrast, can be all over the map. It takes a lot of effort to extract their values.
A Jew in a black suit and white shirt and a long beard, I know what to expect from such a creature. They’re going to be observant of Jewish law.
My Anxiety About My Voice - Alexander Technique Helps
I quickly fell in love with the TV. I had decided in eighth grade that profession would be journalism, so I watched the news and imagined myself delivering it.
I transferred to public school for the first time in tenth grade (the fall of 1981). I took a journalism class and a media class, where I began a weekly news report on the school broadcast on the local radio station in Auburn, KAHI 95 AM.
I wasn’t very good. After a couple of years, the station dropped me.
Take Responsibility For Your Health
I have a friend with a bad back. He had surgery on it a year or two ago. And by the way he uses himself, I can tell he’s going to have nothing but trouble with his back in the future.
Despite this, he has zero interest at looking at his habits that are causing his problems.
This man — in his twenties — walks around with a chronically compressed neck and spine and hunched shoulders. There’s nothing he can do to overcome this. He can only learn to undo his habits that are causing his back problems.
This guy is big into exercise but every time he exercises, he only ingrains his bad habits deeper and deeper.
The First Hot Female Rabbi?
And as Heshy Fried points out below, she plays for the other team!
“I wanted to lead a halachically observant community so decided it was best to transfer to JTS where it would be far more likely I’d be working at a congregation that kept kosher, was more Shabbat observant and had more davenning with traditional nusach — things I grew up with that were part of my personal practice,” said Rachel Isaacs who on May 19th became the first openly gay frum female rabbi to be ordained by the JTS.
All Beliefs Are Unnecessary Muscle Tension
I felt the tension in my face, particularly around my eyes, and released it. As I did so, all of my annoyance and anger disappeared. I wasn’t upset at anyone, not myself and not the organizers. As I walked, I found I could only feel annoyed if I tensed and compressed my facial muscles. By contrast, when I released unnecessary tension, I could only feel serene.
Every emotion is only possible with a certain alignment of the musculature. Anger, happiness, joy, serenity, disappointment, rage, all of these emotions require a particular alignment of the head, neck and back. Leave that alignment and you leave that emotion behind.
If you’re poised in your body and in your use of yourself, you’re going to be emotionally poised. If you are stiff in your body, you’re going to be emotionally stiff. All of the severe emotions require you to tense and to compress your neck. Let go of this compression and you let go of the severe emotions.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
But Is It Torah? The Rabbi Goes Off On My Lurid Stories
I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs every Monday at 7pm PST on my live cam and on YouTube.
This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20).
* Tonight’s show comes from the House of Rabbs.
* Life is not mainly dramatic revelations from God. Life is mainly wandering in the wilderness, like this book.
* The tabernacle, and later the temple and the synagogue, serve as substitutes for and reminders of the divine revelation at Mount Sinai.
But Is It Torah? Luke's Lurid Stories
I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs every Monday at 7pm PST on my live cam and on YouTube.
This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20).
* Tonight’s show comes from the House of Rabbs.
* Life is not mainly dramatic revelations from God. Life is mainly wandering in the wilderness, like this book.
* The tabernacle, and later the temple and the synagogue, serve as substitutes for and reminders of the divine revelation at Mount Sinai.
Looking For The Godly In Spread Legs
I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs every Monday at 7pm PST on my live cam and on YouTube.
This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20).
* Tonight’s show comes from the House of Rabbs.
* Life is not mainly dramatic revelations from God. Life is mainly wandering in the wilderness, like this book.
* The tabernacle, and later the temple and the synagogue, serve as substitutes for and reminders of the divine revelation at Mount Sinai.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Computer Is A Tool For Spreading Torah
I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs every Monday at 7pm PST on my live cam and on YouTube.
This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20).
* Tonight’s show comes from the House of Rabbs.
* Life is not mainly dramatic revelations from God. Life is mainly wandering in the wilderness, like this book.
* The tabernacle, and later the temple and the synagogue, serve as substitutes for and reminders of the divine revelation at Mount Sinai.
Immigration News
WASHINGTON (May 26, 2011) – An analysis of new Census Bureau voting data from November 2010 shows that Hispanic turnout conformed to the pattern of recent midterm elections. Before the 2010 election some commentators argued that the failure to address immigration would increase Hispanic turnout, others argued it would cause them to stay home. The new data shows that neither of these predictions were correct.
Among the findings:
- Prior to the 2010 election, the Center for Immigration Studies projected that Hispanics would comprise 6.8 percent of the national electorate in congressional elections. The new Census Bureau data match this projection, with Hispanics comprising 6.9 percent of the vote.
- Our projection was correct because it was based on the assumption that Hispanic turnout would follow past patterns and that they would be neither especially animated nor especially disengaged in 2010.
- The 31.2 percent of Hispanic citizens who voted in 2010 is very similar to the 32.2 percent who voted in the 2006 mid-term election and the 31.2 percent who voted in the 2002 mid-term election. All of these values fall within the margin of error of ± 1.7 percentage points and indicate that 2010 was not unusual.
- In addition to the 6.9 percent of voters who identified as Hispanic in the 2010 election, 77.5 percent of voters identified as non-Hispanic white, 11.5 percent as non-Hispanic black, and 2.4 percent as non- Hispanic Asian.
- Hispanics are a much smaller share of voters than they are of the general population. In November 2010, Hispanics were 16.3 percent of the total U.S. population, 14.1 percent of the adult population, 10.1 percent of the adult citizen population, and 6.9 percent of those who voted.
- The size of the Hispanic vote varied significantly by state. In 2010, Hispanics were less than 5 percent of the vote in 39 states plus the District of Columbia, and more than 10 percent of the vote in only five states (New Mexico, California, Arizona, Texas, and Florida).
- Polling of Hispanics indicates that immigration is not one of their top issues. Like other voters, education, jobs, healthcare, and the federal deficit all rank above immigration in importance.
- This does not mean immigration is unimportant to Hispanics. It does mean it was not an issue that was important enough in 2010 to have a discernable impact on their overall turnout.
- Only 27 percent of Hispanic voters in the 2010 election were immigrants themselves (naturalized U.S. citizens) and just 14.9 percent lived in the same household as a non-citizen. The lack of direct personal experience with immigration may explain why the issue does not rank higher in importance to Hispanic voters.
- CNN’s national exit polls showed that in 2010, 60 percent of Hispanics voted for Democrats and 38 percent voted for Republicans. This compares to 69 percent and 30 percent in the last mid-term election in 2006. If the failure to address immigration played a role in Hispanic voting, it seems to have helped Republicans.
- However, the increase in the Republican share of the Hispanic vote in 2010 is almost certainly related to general voter dissatisfaction with the economy and the Democrats, and it parallels gains that Republicans made among many demographic groups.
Methods and Data
The data for this analysis come from the public use file of the Voting and Registration Supplement of the Current Population Survey (CPS) collected by Census Bureau, which contains about 100,000 adults. The Voting and Registration supplement is conducted in November every other year after Election Day. The public-use file of this data was recently released. Among other questions, the survey asks individuals if they are registered and if they voted. The Hispanic and race questions are separate. Hispanics are individuals in the CPS who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino, which means that they or their ancestors came from a country that derives its language and culture from Spain.
How Do You Find The Divine Image In A Nude Model?
I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs every Monday at 7pm PST on my live cam and on YouTube.
This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20).
* Tonight’s show comes from the House of Rabbs.
* Life is not mainly dramatic revelations from God. Life is mainly wandering in the wilderness, like this book.
* The tabernacle, and later the temple and the synagogue, serve as substitutes for and reminders of the divine revelation at Mount Sinai.
Two Girls, One Cup: Luke Ford's Reaction
I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs every Monday at 7pm PST on my live cam and on YouTube.
This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20).
* Tonight’s show comes from the House of Rabbs.
* Life is not mainly dramatic revelations from God. Life is mainly wandering in the wilderness, like this book.
* The tabernacle, and later the temple and the synagogue, serve as substitutes for and reminders of the divine revelation at Mount Sinai.
Stopping By A Wanker On A Lonely Road
I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs every Monday at 7pm PST on my live cam and on YouTube.
This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20).
* Tonight’s show comes from the House of Rabbs.
* Life is not mainly dramatic revelations from God. Life is mainly wandering in the wilderness, like this book.
* The tabernacle, and later the temple and the synagogue, serve as substitutes for and reminders of the divine revelation at Mount Sinai.
Prophets Have To Abstain From Sex
I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs every Monday at 7pm PST on my live cam and on YouTube.
This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20).
* Tonight’s show comes from the House of Rabbs.
* Life is not mainly dramatic revelations from God. Life is mainly wandering in the wilderness, like this book.
* The tabernacle, and later the temple and the synagogue, serve as substitutes for and reminders of the divine revelation at Mount Sinai.
Mexican Cleaning Women Confuse Me For A Rabbi
I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs every Monday at 7pm PST on my live cam and on YouTube.
This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20).
* Tonight’s show comes from the House of Rabbs.
* Life is not mainly dramatic revelations from God. Life is mainly wandering in the wilderness, like this book.
* The tabernacle, and later the temple and the synagogue, serve as substitutes for and reminders of the divine revelation at Mount Sinai.
When Two Hot Jehovah Witnesses Come To Your Door
I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs every Monday at 7pm PST on my live cam and on YouTube.
This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20).
* Tonight’s show comes from the House of Rabbs.
* Life is not mainly dramatic revelations from God. Life is mainly wandering in the wilderness, like this book.
* The tabernacle, and later the temple and the synagogue, serve as substitutes for and reminders of the divine revelation at Mount Sinai.
Google Your Way To Orthodox Judaism
I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs every Monday at 7pm PST on my live cam and on YouTube.
This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20).
* Tonight’s show comes from the House of Rabbs.
* Life is not mainly dramatic revelations from God. Life is mainly wandering in the wilderness, like this book.
* The tabernacle, and later the temple and the synagogue, serve as substitutes for and reminders of the divine revelation at Mount Sinai.
How To Select Your Sponsoring Rabbi For Conversion
I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs every Monday at 7pm PST on my live cam and on YouTube.
This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20).
* Tonight’s show comes from the House of Rabbs.
* Life is not mainly dramatic revelations from God. Life is mainly wandering in the wilderness, like this book.
* The tabernacle, and later the temple and the synagogue, serve as substitutes for and reminders of the divine revelation at Mount Sinai.
Two Girls, One Cup In Los Angeles, CA 90035
I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs every Monday at 7pm PST on my live cam and on YouTube.
This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20).
* Tonight’s show comes from the House of Rabbs.
* Life is not mainly dramatic revelations from God. Life is mainly wandering in the wilderness, like this book.
* The tabernacle, and later the temple and the synagogue, serve as substitutes for and reminders of the divine revelation at Mount Sinai.
Her Rebbitzen Did Not Approve Of My Wiki - Too Large!
I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs every Monday at 7pm PST on my live cam and on YouTube.
This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20).
* Tonight’s show comes from the House of Rabbs.
* Life is not mainly dramatic revelations from God. Life is mainly wandering in the wilderness, like this book.
* The tabernacle, and later the temple and the synagogue, serve as substitutes for and reminders of the divine revelation at Mount Sinai.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Can You Make Shiksas Jewish Through Injection Of Kosher Salami?
I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs every Monday at 7pm PST on my live cam and on YouTube.
This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20).
* Tonight’s show comes from the House of Rabbs.
* Life is not mainly dramatic revelations from God. Life is mainly wandering in the wilderness, like this book.
* The tabernacle, and later the temple and the synagogue, serve as substitutes for and reminders of the divine revelation at Mount Sinai.
Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20) XI
I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs every Monday at 7pm PST on my live cam and on YouTube.
This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20).
* Tonight’s show comes from the House of Rabbs.
* Life is not mainly dramatic revelations from God. Life is mainly wandering in the wilderness, like this book.
* The tabernacle, and later the temple and the synagogue, serve as substitutes for and reminders of the divine revelation at Mount Sinai.
Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20) X
I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs every Monday at 7pm PST on my live cam and on YouTube.
This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20).
* Tonight’s show comes from the House of Rabbs.
* Life is not mainly dramatic revelations from God. Life is mainly wandering in the wilderness, like this book.
* The tabernacle, and later the temple and the synagogue, serve as substitutes for and reminders of the divine revelation at Mount Sinai.
Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20) IX
I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs every Monday at 7pm PST on my live cam and on YouTube.
This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20).
* Tonight’s show comes from the House of Rabbs.
* Life is not mainly dramatic revelations from God. Life is mainly wandering in the wilderness, like this book.
* The tabernacle, and later the temple and the synagogue, serve as substitutes for and reminders of the divine revelation at Mount Sinai.
Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20) VIII
I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs every Monday at 7pm PST on my live cam and on YouTube.
This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20).
* Tonight’s show comes from the House of Rabbs.
* Life is not mainly dramatic revelations from God. Life is mainly wandering in the wilderness, like this book.
* The tabernacle, and later the temple and the synagogue, serve as substitutes for and reminders of the divine revelation at Mount Sinai.
Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20) VII
I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs every Monday at 7pm PST on my live cam and on YouTube.
This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20).
* Tonight’s show comes from the House of Rabbs.
* Life is not mainly dramatic revelations from God. Life is mainly wandering in the wilderness, like this book.
* The tabernacle, and later the temple and the synagogue, serve as substitutes for and reminders of the divine revelation at Mount Sinai.
Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20) VI
I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs every Monday at 7pm PST on my live cam and on YouTube.
This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20).
* Tonight’s show comes from the House of Rabbs.
* Life is not mainly dramatic revelations from God. Life is mainly wandering in the wilderness, like this book.
* The tabernacle, and later the temple and the synagogue, serve as substitutes for and reminders of the divine revelation at Mount Sinai.
Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20) V
I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs every Monday at 7pm PST on my live cam and on YouTube.
This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20).
* Tonight’s show comes from the House of Rabbs.
* Life is not mainly dramatic revelations from God. Life is mainly wandering in the wilderness, like this book.
* The tabernacle, and later the temple and the synagogue, serve as substitutes for and reminders of the divine revelation at Mount Sinai.
Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20) IV
I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs every Monday at 7pm PST on my live cam and on YouTube.
This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20).
* Tonight’s show comes from the House of Rabbs.
* Life is not mainly dramatic revelations from God. Life is mainly wandering in the wilderness, like this book.
* The tabernacle, and later the temple and the synagogue, serve as substitutes for and reminders of the divine revelation at Mount Sinai.
Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20) III
I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs every Monday at 7pm PST on my live cam and on YouTube.
This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20).
* Tonight’s show comes from the House of Rabbs.
* Life is not mainly dramatic revelations from God. Life is mainly wandering in the wilderness, like this book.
* The tabernacle, and later the temple and the synagogue, serve as substitutes for and reminders of the divine revelation at Mount Sinai.
Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20) II
I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs every Monday at 7pm PST on my live cam and on YouTube.
This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20).
* Tonight’s show comes from the House of Rabbs.
* Life is not mainly dramatic revelations from God. Life is mainly wandering in the wilderness, like this book.
* The tabernacle, and later the temple and the synagogue, serve as substitutes for and reminders of the divine revelation at Mount Sinai.
Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20)
I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs every Monday at 7pm PST on my live cam and on YouTube.
This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bemidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20).
* Tonight’s show comes from the House of Rabbs.
* Life is not mainly dramatic revelations from God. Life is mainly wandering in the wilderness, like this book.
* The tabernacle, and later the temple and the synagogue, serve as substitutes for and reminders of the divine revelation at Mount Sinai.
Capitalism: A Love Story
I cover the real estate and mortgage industries:
- Why Are Home Sales Falling With Mortgage Rates?
- Forcing Banks To Keep A Skin In The Game Of Mortgage Lending
- ARMs Looking Better Than Ever
- Foreclosures Centered In A Few States Such As California, Florida
- Banks Remained Overwhelmed By Foreclosures
- Why Are Foreclosures Centered In A Few States?
- Falling Home Sales, Prices
May 26, 2011
- How To Cope With A Foreclosure
- The Qualified Residential Mortgage (QRM) Rule Threatens Mortgage Market
- Should Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Be Responsible To Freedom Of Information Requests?
- Mortgage Applications Tick Up Slightly
- Mortgage Delinquencies Grow Down Under
- Reckless Endangerment - Barney Frank And The Fannie Mae Meltdown
- Imperfect Foreclosure Operations By Bank Of America
- Largest Mortgage Lender Targeted In Foreclosure Probe
- Mortgage Interest Rates Hit 2011 Low
- Foreclosures Hit 'Astronomically High' Levels
- Barney Frank Knocked On His Fannie
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
The Rush To Rent
I cover real estate, refinance and the mortgage industry:
- Home Values Fall As Foreclosures Rise
- Time To Raise FHA Downpayments?
- Perverse Incentives In The Housing Market
- Retiring Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac
- Who Profits From Jumbo Mortgages?
- Do You A Debt-Free Retirement?
- What You Need To Know Before Getting A Reverse Mortgage
- New York's Attorney General Leading The Way In Bank Investigation
- What Did Banks Do Wrong?
- Mortgage-Only Defaults Are Good Credit Risks
- Forcing Banks To Write Down Troubled Mortgages
- CA's Mortgage Fraud Strike Force
- What Kind Of Person Defaults On His Mortgage?
- The True Cost Of Your Mortgage?
- How Do You Like Obama’s $20 billion mortgage shakedown?
- Should The FHA Require Higher Down Payments?
- The Next Housing Crash
May 23, 2011
Obama Versus Netanyahu
Daniel Pipes writes for NRO:
This is Obama’s third gratuitous, unprovoked, and unilateral picking of a fight with Israel. The prior two took place in May 2009 and March 2010. In the one, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared an end to Israeli building, even in eastern Jerusalem; in the other, Vice President Joe Biden got (mock-?) outraged when such building did take place.
In all three cases, the fight dwelt on a secondary issue that few had been focused on — Israeli building in the first two cases and the June 4, 1967, ceasefire lines as the basis for a permanent border agreement — until Obama turned them into headlines.
Obama’s picking a fight led in all cases to an immediate hardening of positions by both Israelis and Palestinians. Israelis retreated, wounded, disinclined to make concessions, while Palestinians added Obama’s demands, Jerusalem and the 1967 lines, to their prior list of demands of Israel.
When Obama realized his mistake — that Israeli governments make concessions more readily when relations with Washington are strong, and that Palestinians need to be pressured, not coddled — he crawled back to the Israeli prime minister, making nice as though nothing had happened. This has occurred twice already, in September 2009 and July 2010. The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank used choice language to describe the latter episode, describing a “routed and humiliated” Obama in a White House flying “the white flag of surrender.”
Monday, May 23, 2011
New Home Buyers Hit Market
I cover real estate and mortgages here:
- More First-Time Home Buyers
- Banks Plan To Profit From Jumbo Loans
- State AGs Develop Mortgage Probes
- California Launches A Mortgage Fraud Taskforce
- Banks Hold Almost A Million Foreclosures
May 22, 2011
- Existing Home Sales Decline In May
- The True Cost Of The Adjustable Rate Mortgage
- Too Big To Fail
- Inside Job
- We've Been In An Economic Recovery For Two Years!
- Is The Foreclosure System Broken?
- Government Steps Back From Guaranteeing Expensive Mortgages
- Should You Buy Or Rent?
- What Was The Role Of Banks In The Mortgage Meltdown?
- Two Prototypes For The New Mortgage Form
- Should Google Be Your Mortgage Adviser?
- Politicians Still Eager To Blame Banks For The Mortgage Meltdown
- Do You Know Mortgage Terminology?
- Mortgage Applications Boom As Rates Dip
- Refinancing Your Mortgage Loan To A Shorter Term
- What You Need To Know Before You Refinance
- Mortgage Rates Hit 2011 Low
May 21, 2011
- Late On Your Mortgage Payment
- The Case For The ARM
- Latinos, Blacks Hurting In Mortgage Crisis
- When To Walk Away From Your Mortgage
- Mortgage Consumers Might Find Out What They've Signed Up For
May 20, 2011
- Closing Costs For Your Mortgage
- Why Are Mortgage Rates Going Down?
- Simplifying The Mortgage Process
- Should You Raid Your Retirement Money (401K) To Pay Off Mortgage?
- Reducing Mortgage Principle For A Million Borrowers
- The End Of The 30 Year Fixed Rate Mortgage
- More Than Ten Percent Of Mortgages In Danger Of Foreclosure
Immigration News
Support the Center for Immigration Studies by donating on line here: http://www.cis.org/support.html
[FYI --
1. The Problem with Obama's Immigration Plan (Op-ed)
2. Romney and Huntsman on Illegal Aliens (Blog)
3. New Wrinkle in H-1B Fraud: Stealing from the Taxpayers, Not the Workers (Blog)
4. 9/11's Triumvirate of Terrorist Travel: al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Iran (Blog)
5. DoJ Zaps Discrimination vs. U.S. Citizens, but Very Rarely (Blog)
6. Golden Parachutes for Illegal Chipotle Workers? (Blog)
7. Amnesty for All Haitians in U.S., Save those Arriving in Last Four Months (Blog)
8. Security Gaps Still Present in Visa Waiver Program (Blog)
9. Senate Holds Hearing on Immigration Courts, II (Blog)
10. Senate Holds Hearing on Immigration Courts, I (Blog)
11. NYT Exposes Fraud in Yet Another Foreign Worker Program (Blog)
12. Border Exchange (Blog)
13. Post-Modern Journalistic Partisanship (Blog)
-- Mark Krikorian]
1.
The Problem with Obama's Immigration Plan
By Steven A. Camarota
CNN, May 13, 2011
http://www.cis.org/node/2803
Excerpt: In his speech Tuesday, President Obama was right to call for reform of our broken immigration system. But the president's plan to create a 'pathway to citizenship' (translation: amnesty) for 10 million to 12 million illegal immigrants and increase legal immigration is not only out of touch with economic reality, it repeats the mistakes of the past.
The president seems to believe there is a shortage of workers. Yet the April jobs report looked terrible, particularly for the young and less educated, who compete directly with illegal immigrants at the bottom of the labor market. For example, unemployment was nearly 15% for those age 25 and older without a high school diploma and 25% for teenagers (16 to 19).
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2.
Romney and Huntsman on Illegal Aliens
By Ronald W. Mortensen
CIS Blog, May 23, 2011
http://www.cis.org/mortensen/romney-huntsman
Excerpt: Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman have many things in common. They both have Utah roots, are members of the Mormon Church, have been governors, come from a business background, and are potential Republican presidential candidates. But when it comes to illegal immigration they are miles apart.
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3.
New Wrinkle in H-1B Fraud: Stealing from the Taxpayers, Not the Workers
By David North
CIS Blog, May 23, 2011
http://www.cis.org/north/new-wrinkle-in-H1B-fraud
Excerpt: While the abuse of immigration systems is as old as national borders, there are creative new types of fraud (at least new to me) that pop up from time to time.
One of the typical frauds in foreign worker programs is that the worker is charged for fees that should be paid by the employer. Recently the school board in Prince George's County, Md., adjacent to Washington, D.C., was caught, as we recorded in a blog, doing exactly that to its overseas school teachers brought to this country under the H-1B program.
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4.
9/11's Triumvirate of Terrorist Travel: al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Iran
By Janice Kephart
CIS Blog, May 20, 2011
http://www.cis.org/kephart/triumvirate-of-terrorist-travel
Excerpt: The Commission had no choice. The statute that created it had already been amended to provide a short extension. Our doors were statutorily shutting, and as extensive as the Final Report was, we all knew that there were still places to dig. What is clear now is that perhaps the biggest hole of buried information was regarding the shadowy connection of Iran to 9/11. As the 'terrorist travel' affiant in the case filed yesterday in New York City federal court on behalf of 9/11 families suing primarily al Qaeda and Iran, I am now personally convinced that indeed, al Qaeda did not act alone on 9/11. Rather, a triumvirate of terror created 9/11: al Qaeda carried out the deed, while Hezbollah and Iran helped direct and support the largest terrorist event on U.S. soil.
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5.
DoJ Zaps Discrimination vs. U.S. Citizens, but Very Rarely
By David North
CIS Blog, May 20, 2011
http://www.cis.org/north/OSC-discrimination-against-citizens
Excerpt: The Good News is that an H-1B employer has been penalized by an obscure Justice Department entity for discriminating against U.S. citizens.
The Bad News is that this small agency, in the last 13 years, has publicized actions of this kind only five times, while issuing press releases on taking action against employers who discriminated against foreign-born workers 25 times.
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6.
Golden Parachutes for Illegal Chipotle Workers?
By David Seminara
CIS Blog, May 20, 2011
http://www.cis.org/seminara/golden-parachutes-for-illegal-chipotle-workers
Excerpt: If you entered a country illegally, secured work with fraudulent identity documents, and were subsequently terminated once your employer detected the fraud, what would you do? I would slink out very quietly, thanking my lucky stars that the boss didn't immediately turn me over to the police for prosecution or immigration authorities for deportation. But I'm clearly out of step with the modern day sensibilities of illegal immigrants in America, or at least those employed by Chipotle in Washington.
A group of 40 illegal immigrant employees at a Washington, D.C. Chipotle location were recently terminated after the identity documents they submitted to the company were proven to be fraudulent. But rather than go quietly, hoping not to be prosecuted for identity fraud, and/or deported, the workers have staged two rallies to assert their 'rights,' one of which featured D.C Council member at large Michael Brown as a featured speaker.
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7.
Amnesty for All Haitians in U.S., Save those Arriving in Last Four Months
By David North
CIS Blog, May 19, 2011
http://www.cis.org/north/haiti-tps-extended
Excerpt: Amnesty for all Haitians who arrived legally or illegally in the U.S. by January 12 of this year has been offered by the Department of Homeland Security.
Previously this form of amnesty, Temporary Protected Status (TPS), had been available to Haitians who were here on January 12, 2010, at the time of the earthquake in that country. Now the arrival date has been extended by one year. According to DHS about 48,000 had secured this status during the earlier amnesty, a number smaller than the government had expected.
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8.
Security Gaps Still Present in Visa Waiver Program
By Jessica Vaughan
CIS Blog, May 19, 2011
http://www.cis.org/vaughan/GAO-gaps-in-visa-waiver-program
Excerpt: A new GAO report discloses a fairly lackluster implementation of security enhancements to the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) by the Department of Homeland Security. The report reinforces the reputation that DHS has for putting travel facilitation above security considerations. Proponents of VWP expansion often tout the security enhancements as a justification for extending visa waiver privileges to more countries, but these GAO findings provide no support for this perennial proposal.
The GAO was asked to evaluate the implementation of the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), which was mandated by Congress after 9/11. As a result, VWP travelers must now submit an electronic application so that their biographical information can be screened electronically through various watchlists and databases prior to travel. Travelers who do not receive electronic approval must apply for a visa. Airlines are required to verify that travelers have been approved through ESTA before being allowed to board. Good idea. Before, VWP travelers usually were not screened until they reached the U.S. port of entry and, occasionally, someone would try to blow up a plane en route (such as Richard Reid, the 2001 shoe bomber).
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9.
Senate Holds Hearing on Immigration Courts, II
By David North
CIS Blog, May 18, 2011
http://www.cis.org/north/senate-hearing-immigration-courts-5-11
Excerpt: An alien caught up in the immigration courts does not have a right to government-funded counsel; as a result many aliens argue their own cases, sometime through an interpreter. These pro se situations exist not only in the Immigration Courts but in the two appellate levels as well, before the Board of Immigration Appeals, and, less frequently, before the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal.
Julie Myers Wood, who had been an Assistant Secretary of DHS in the previous administration, and who was one of the three witnesses today, was one of several voices at the hearing pointing out the delays often caused in the system by the lack of counsel. Aliens, acting on their own (and without benefit of legal training), will often file inherently useless appeals of decisions when a lawyer could have told them that there were no 'grounds for relief.'
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10.
Senate Holds Hearing on Immigration Courts, I
By Jon Feere
CIS Blog, May 18, 2011
http://www.cis.org/feere/senate-hearing-immigration-courts-5-11
Excerpt: This morning the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing titled, 'Improving Efficiency and Ensuring Justice in the Immigration Court System.' (See my colleague David North's report on the hearing here.) The focus of the hearing was the chronic backlogging in the immigration court system, and most of the discussion was about how the court system could be streamlined in order to meet growing demands. Very little discussion was given to the idea of reducing immigration, both legal and illegal, as a means to alleviate some of the problem. The only panelist to look at the issue from this perspective was former Assistant Secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Julie Myers Wood.
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11.
NYT Exposes Fraud in Yet Another Foreign Worker Program
By David North
CIS Blog, May 17, 2011
http://www.cis.org/north/nyt-exposes-P1B-fraud
Excerpt: It was nice – and out-of-character – of the New York Times to run an exposé of yet another foreign worker program (P-1B) on its front page this morning.
The headline was written to attract the eyes of music-lovers, not immigration policy specialists:
Orchestras on Tour: Names Strike False Note
The thrust of the Times story was that the players in many well-publicized visits of overseas orchestras had only the most tenuous contacts with the big name organizations listed on the programs
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12.
Border Exchange
By Mark Krikorian
CIS Blog, May 16, 2011
http://www.cis.org/krikorian/exchange-with-codevilla
Excerpt: Angelo Codevilla, a Boston University professor of international relations, and I have been engaged in a back-and-forth on the need for (or futility of) border enforcement:
His article which got the whole thing started ran in the Claremont Review of Books entitled 'Our Borders, Ourselves'.
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13.
Post-Modern Journalistic Partisanship
By James R. Edwards Jr.
CIS Blog, May 16, 2011
http://www.cis.org/edwards/post-modern-journalistic-partisanship
Excerpt: A Washington Post Sunday editorial is titled 'Twisting the truth on the Mexican border'. But it's the Post that twists the truth, not the Republican foils jabbed at in President Obama's El Paso speech.
The Post charged congressional Republicans with using 'scare tactics' and 'trying to distort the debate.' Pretty tough language. It might be justified were the charges true. But the president is the one guilty of falsehoods, distortions, and misleading. The Post editorial's calumny displays its partisan bias.
Sure, editorials express a newspaper's opinion. But when the editorial commits the very same sin it accuses political opponents of, someone should cry foul. This blog is confined to addressing the border control issue that's been raised.
[FYI --
1. The Problem with Obama's Immigration Plan (Op-ed)
2. Romney and Huntsman on Illegal Aliens (Blog)
3. New Wrinkle in H-1B Fraud: Stealing from the Taxpayers, Not the Workers (Blog)
4. 9/11's Triumvirate of Terrorist Travel: al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Iran (Blog)
5. DoJ Zaps Discrimination vs. U.S. Citizens, but Very Rarely (Blog)
6. Golden Parachutes for Illegal Chipotle Workers? (Blog)
7. Amnesty for All Haitians in U.S., Save those Arriving in Last Four Months (Blog)
8. Security Gaps Still Present in Visa Waiver Program (Blog)
9. Senate Holds Hearing on Immigration Courts, II (Blog)
10. Senate Holds Hearing on Immigration Courts, I (Blog)
11. NYT Exposes Fraud in Yet Another Foreign Worker Program (Blog)
12. Border Exchange (Blog)
13. Post-Modern Journalistic Partisanship (Blog)
-- Mark Krikorian]
1.
The Problem with Obama's Immigration Plan
By Steven A. Camarota
CNN, May 13, 2011
http://www.cis.org/node/2803
Excerpt: In his speech Tuesday, President Obama was right to call for reform of our broken immigration system. But the president's plan to create a 'pathway to citizenship' (translation: amnesty) for 10 million to 12 million illegal immigrants and increase legal immigration is not only out of touch with economic reality, it repeats the mistakes of the past.
The president seems to believe there is a shortage of workers. Yet the April jobs report looked terrible, particularly for the young and less educated, who compete directly with illegal immigrants at the bottom of the labor market. For example, unemployment was nearly 15% for those age 25 and older without a high school diploma and 25% for teenagers (16 to 19).
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2.
Romney and Huntsman on Illegal Aliens
By Ronald W. Mortensen
CIS Blog, May 23, 2011
http://www.cis.org/mortensen/romney-huntsman
Excerpt: Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman have many things in common. They both have Utah roots, are members of the Mormon Church, have been governors, come from a business background, and are potential Republican presidential candidates. But when it comes to illegal immigration they are miles apart.
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3.
New Wrinkle in H-1B Fraud: Stealing from the Taxpayers, Not the Workers
By David North
CIS Blog, May 23, 2011
http://www.cis.org/north/new-wrinkle-in-H1B-fraud
Excerpt: While the abuse of immigration systems is as old as national borders, there are creative new types of fraud (at least new to me) that pop up from time to time.
One of the typical frauds in foreign worker programs is that the worker is charged for fees that should be paid by the employer. Recently the school board in Prince George's County, Md., adjacent to Washington, D.C., was caught, as we recorded in a blog, doing exactly that to its overseas school teachers brought to this country under the H-1B program.
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4.
9/11's Triumvirate of Terrorist Travel: al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Iran
By Janice Kephart
CIS Blog, May 20, 2011
http://www.cis.org/kephart/triumvirate-of-terrorist-travel
Excerpt: The Commission had no choice. The statute that created it had already been amended to provide a short extension. Our doors were statutorily shutting, and as extensive as the Final Report was, we all knew that there were still places to dig. What is clear now is that perhaps the biggest hole of buried information was regarding the shadowy connection of Iran to 9/11. As the 'terrorist travel' affiant in the case filed yesterday in New York City federal court on behalf of 9/11 families suing primarily al Qaeda and Iran, I am now personally convinced that indeed, al Qaeda did not act alone on 9/11. Rather, a triumvirate of terror created 9/11: al Qaeda carried out the deed, while Hezbollah and Iran helped direct and support the largest terrorist event on U.S. soil.
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5.
DoJ Zaps Discrimination vs. U.S. Citizens, but Very Rarely
By David North
CIS Blog, May 20, 2011
http://www.cis.org/north/OSC-discrimination-against-citizens
Excerpt: The Good News is that an H-1B employer has been penalized by an obscure Justice Department entity for discriminating against U.S. citizens.
The Bad News is that this small agency, in the last 13 years, has publicized actions of this kind only five times, while issuing press releases on taking action against employers who discriminated against foreign-born workers 25 times.
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6.
Golden Parachutes for Illegal Chipotle Workers?
By David Seminara
CIS Blog, May 20, 2011
http://www.cis.org/seminara/golden-parachutes-for-illegal-chipotle-workers
Excerpt: If you entered a country illegally, secured work with fraudulent identity documents, and were subsequently terminated once your employer detected the fraud, what would you do? I would slink out very quietly, thanking my lucky stars that the boss didn't immediately turn me over to the police for prosecution or immigration authorities for deportation. But I'm clearly out of step with the modern day sensibilities of illegal immigrants in America, or at least those employed by Chipotle in Washington.
A group of 40 illegal immigrant employees at a Washington, D.C. Chipotle location were recently terminated after the identity documents they submitted to the company were proven to be fraudulent. But rather than go quietly, hoping not to be prosecuted for identity fraud, and/or deported, the workers have staged two rallies to assert their 'rights,' one of which featured D.C Council member at large Michael Brown as a featured speaker.
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7.
Amnesty for All Haitians in U.S., Save those Arriving in Last Four Months
By David North
CIS Blog, May 19, 2011
http://www.cis.org/north/haiti-tps-extended
Excerpt: Amnesty for all Haitians who arrived legally or illegally in the U.S. by January 12 of this year has been offered by the Department of Homeland Security.
Previously this form of amnesty, Temporary Protected Status (TPS), had been available to Haitians who were here on January 12, 2010, at the time of the earthquake in that country. Now the arrival date has been extended by one year. According to DHS about 48,000 had secured this status during the earlier amnesty, a number smaller than the government had expected.
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8.
Security Gaps Still Present in Visa Waiver Program
By Jessica Vaughan
CIS Blog, May 19, 2011
http://www.cis.org/vaughan/GAO-gaps-in-visa-waiver-program
Excerpt: A new GAO report discloses a fairly lackluster implementation of security enhancements to the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) by the Department of Homeland Security. The report reinforces the reputation that DHS has for putting travel facilitation above security considerations. Proponents of VWP expansion often tout the security enhancements as a justification for extending visa waiver privileges to more countries, but these GAO findings provide no support for this perennial proposal.
The GAO was asked to evaluate the implementation of the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), which was mandated by Congress after 9/11. As a result, VWP travelers must now submit an electronic application so that their biographical information can be screened electronically through various watchlists and databases prior to travel. Travelers who do not receive electronic approval must apply for a visa. Airlines are required to verify that travelers have been approved through ESTA before being allowed to board. Good idea. Before, VWP travelers usually were not screened until they reached the U.S. port of entry and, occasionally, someone would try to blow up a plane en route (such as Richard Reid, the 2001 shoe bomber).
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9.
Senate Holds Hearing on Immigration Courts, II
By David North
CIS Blog, May 18, 2011
http://www.cis.org/north/senate-hearing-immigration-courts-5-11
Excerpt: An alien caught up in the immigration courts does not have a right to government-funded counsel; as a result many aliens argue their own cases, sometime through an interpreter. These pro se situations exist not only in the Immigration Courts but in the two appellate levels as well, before the Board of Immigration Appeals, and, less frequently, before the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal.
Julie Myers Wood, who had been an Assistant Secretary of DHS in the previous administration, and who was one of the three witnesses today, was one of several voices at the hearing pointing out the delays often caused in the system by the lack of counsel. Aliens, acting on their own (and without benefit of legal training), will often file inherently useless appeals of decisions when a lawyer could have told them that there were no 'grounds for relief.'
Return to Top
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********
10.
Senate Holds Hearing on Immigration Courts, I
By Jon Feere
CIS Blog, May 18, 2011
http://www.cis.org/feere/senate-hearing-immigration-courts-5-11
Excerpt: This morning the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing titled, 'Improving Efficiency and Ensuring Justice in the Immigration Court System.' (See my colleague David North's report on the hearing here.) The focus of the hearing was the chronic backlogging in the immigration court system, and most of the discussion was about how the court system could be streamlined in order to meet growing demands. Very little discussion was given to the idea of reducing immigration, both legal and illegal, as a means to alleviate some of the problem. The only panelist to look at the issue from this perspective was former Assistant Secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Julie Myers Wood.
Return to Top
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********
11.
NYT Exposes Fraud in Yet Another Foreign Worker Program
By David North
CIS Blog, May 17, 2011
http://www.cis.org/north/nyt-exposes-P1B-fraud
Excerpt: It was nice – and out-of-character – of the New York Times to run an exposé of yet another foreign worker program (P-1B) on its front page this morning.
The headline was written to attract the eyes of music-lovers, not immigration policy specialists:
Orchestras on Tour: Names Strike False Note
The thrust of the Times story was that the players in many well-publicized visits of overseas orchestras had only the most tenuous contacts with the big name organizations listed on the programs
Return to Top
********
********
12.
Border Exchange
By Mark Krikorian
CIS Blog, May 16, 2011
http://www.cis.org/krikorian/exchange-with-codevilla
Excerpt: Angelo Codevilla, a Boston University professor of international relations, and I have been engaged in a back-and-forth on the need for (or futility of) border enforcement:
His article which got the whole thing started ran in the Claremont Review of Books entitled 'Our Borders, Ourselves'.
Return to Top
********
********
13.
Post-Modern Journalistic Partisanship
By James R. Edwards Jr.
CIS Blog, May 16, 2011
http://www.cis.org/edwards/post-modern-journalistic-partisanship
Excerpt: A Washington Post Sunday editorial is titled 'Twisting the truth on the Mexican border'. But it's the Post that twists the truth, not the Republican foils jabbed at in President Obama's El Paso speech.
The Post charged congressional Republicans with using 'scare tactics' and 'trying to distort the debate.' Pretty tough language. It might be justified were the charges true. But the president is the one guilty of falsehoods, distortions, and misleading. The Post editorial's calumny displays its partisan bias.
Sure, editorials express a newspaper's opinion. But when the editorial commits the very same sin it accuses political opponents of, someone should cry foul. This blog is confined to addressing the border control issue that's been raised.
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