I find it ironic that the US Chamber of Commerce is promoting a report "America's Perfect Storm: Three Forces Changing Our Nation's Future," [PDF] (press release here). The report, by ETS's Policy Information Center, contends that the convergence of three forces—inadequate literacy skills among large segments of our population, the continuing evolution of our economy and the nation's job structure, and an ongoing shift in the demographic profile of our country driven by the highest immigration rates in almost a century—will have "dire consequences for America".

Dire consequences for America? Translation: bankruptcy or civil war or both.

The report's executive summary is here. [PDF.] 

Summarized and sanitized for political correctness, the report in layman's terms is here. [Coming US challenge: a less literate workforce, by Amanda Paulson, Christian Science Monitor, February 06, 2007]

The ETS report's three factors are really one factor: immigration.

The irony: US Chamber of Commerce is America's biggest advocate of immigration, both legal and illegal.   Senior Vice-President and Counselor to the President of the Chamber of Commerce, Arthur J. Rothkopf, appeared at the ETS press conference and his name is on the press release. Strange, they put out a report warning of dire consequences for America because of their own immigration policies—which they continue to advocate. [VDARE.COM note: Not surprisingly, The Chamber of Commerce seems not to want you to email it, but its snailmail address and phone numbers are here].

This gem of a quote from the press release really cracks me up:

"Our nation is at a crossroads and must determine whether to continue on a path that could turn the American dream into an American tragedy, or invest in new policies that will help reduce the impact of the storm and allow us to grow together."

They can't even state the obvious: WE NEED TO CUT IMMIGRATION—not continue on the path to our own destruction. Instead, they recommend even more "investment" i.e. taxpayer spending on their members' immigrant workforces (as if $9 trillion in debt isn't enough) and no change in immigration policy. (Wow, talk about not noticing the 800LB gorilla standing in the room.)

Even more ironic is that the report is merely a reiteration of the Alan Greenspan's November 3, 2005 (two years ago) "State of the Economy" speech available on video here I bought a copy, I thought it was the most important speech in my lifetime.

Greenspan must feel like Cassandra, knowing what's in our future warning everybody of the peril yet unable to stop it.

Mr. Greenspan was coincidently asked by Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (the former member of the Socialist Mexican invasion caucus who left because they called her a whore and then lied about it) if "more investment was needed". (Always looking for more money for "her people"!). He paused, stumbled, carefully thought, then replied "NO" and diplomatically said we're already wasting far too much on education now, we don't need any more investment, we need to dump the current wasteful union-mired public education system. (My words)

No place in the speech did Mr. Greenspan specifically mention "immigrants or illegal immigrants", he just mentioned their characteristics, numbers and projections.

This is all old news. We're just following the path of the Roman Empire (except they lasted about 1000 years). Coincidently their empire began its decline in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq/Iran) under Emperor Valens (a legacy leader like George II).

Valens was also an advocate of diversity, immigration and amnesty—right up until the moment his own hubris killed him at battle of Adrianople, when those he gave amnesty turned on his army and killed him.  

Bush, I mean Valens, was looking for a military victory, trying to outshine his nephew—just like Bush with his dad.

You can still find coins today with Valens' image—they're relatively cheap in spite of their 1600+ year age.

They must have made a lot.

We too have a lot of coinage I wonder if 1600 years from now historians will refer to Bush as emperor? Nah, they probably won't even know his name.

Steve Smith (e-mail him) is a VDARE.COM reader. This is his first column for us, although he's written letters.