Brian Koenig

So there’s a reason Republican senators like Rand Paul are freaking. They should be. Illegal immigrant crossings are up 9 percent.

Meanwhile, the plan in Washington is: Amnesty first, border security last (or, um, never). Or the 1980s plan that did jack to deal with the immigration problem.

Paul makes the point. “First, everyone has to acknowledge that we aren’t going to deport 12 million illegal immigrants,” Mr. Paul asserted. “If you wish to work, if you wish to live and work in America, then we will find a place for you. In order to bring conservatives to this cause however, those who work for reform must understand that a real solution must ensure that our borders are secure. But we also must treat those who are already here with understanding and compassion.”

Seems fair. We won’t deport you, but keep your friends on the other side of the fence until they go through the legal process that lawful immigrants must go through.

Without the latter, there’s no “immigration plan.” It’s blanket amnesty, which relays a rather poignant message to the border jumpers: keep jumping.

Still, Janet Napolitano says the border is as secure as ever. Except the deets don’t tell the same story.

More controversy for the White House, as the National Security Agency’s Big Brother hacking scandal surges forward, with the agency extracting phone logs, video and audio chats, and other communications from a number of prominent tech companies.

Some quick background on the whistleblower: Edward Snowden was employed as an NSA contractor, and defined himself on Sunday as one source of numerous disclosures on the federal surveillance program. Some of the companies include Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook, AOL, and Apple. In other words, it’s no minor project.

Moreover, there was a secretive court order forcing Verizon to provide all its phone records for a three month period, as well as information about the NSA program, PRISM, which harvested emails, chatting logs, and various other information from communication companies.

Snowden was the source of several documents submitted to journalists across the country. I understand his fears, but he seems a little on the paranoid side. “I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions, and that the return of this information to the public marks my end,” he wrote. The intelligence community, he noted, “will most certainly kill you if they think you are the single point of failure that could stop this disclosure and make them the sole owner of this information.”

Killing might be a little much. But I don’t doubt that the feds go through incredible lengths to silence those pesky whistleblowers.

Today, the focus is on Mr. Snowden. But the Big Brother police state is disturbing. And quite Stalinistic. Or a modern policy of the Third Reich.

Similar to what Boehner said about the IRS debacle, it shouldn’t be about who gets fired — but whose ass gets tossed in prison.

John Kerry just announced that the U.S. will sign the U.N. arms treaty, a hyper-regulatory global policy that will pave the way for new gun control measures. Call it conspiracy, but it seems rather New World Order-ish. It’s also a disastraous development in global relations — like the Kyoto Protocol, but painting a picture not of a green-pasture utopia, but a peaceful, no-more-violence-in-the-world utopia.

Over 60 nations signed the treaty on Monday to regulate the global arms trade, providing a bold initiative for an international anti-gun extravaganza. Of course, proponents claim the treaty will help curb the illegal trade in arms that contribute to terrorism and other global conflicts. Sounds noble. And nationalistic. Or global-istic, if you want to be a stickler.

The Blaze offers some insight on the treaty:

The treaty will require countries that ratify it to establish national regulations to control the transfer of conventional arms and components and to regulate arms brokers, but it will not control the domestic use of weapons in any country. It prohibits the transfer of conventional weapons if they violate arms embargoes or if they promote acts of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes, and if they could be used in attacks on civilians or civilian buildings such as schools and hospitals.

Naturally, there’s a whole lot more to it. But they have to be strategic in the wording, not to put out the message that they’re trying to suppress freedom. Because that’s never their intention.

But Mr. Kerry wants to sign it. Meanwhile, Russia, China, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and other prominent (not to mention, hostile) countries have yet to offer support.

Illinois, the last state in the U.S. to authorize it, has pushed through a concealed-carry bill to permit carrying hidden guns in public. The legislation, which was coerced by a federal court ruling, is now lingering on Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn’s desk, who will likely be forced to sign it into law, even though he is a hyper-liberal gun control proponent.

The Senate pushed through the bill with a 45 to 12 vote on Friday, while the House passed it 89 to 28. Pretty impressive, considering it was handily passed even through two Democratically-controlled chambers — a case where political pressure outweighs principles, I’m assuming.

After weeks of fervent debate over the rules that will apply, the bill easily passed both chambers with bi-partisan support—an outcome undoubtedly prompted by the fact that doing nothing would mean concealed-carry would ultimately go into effect with no restrictions, due to the federal court order. …

If Quinn signs it into law, Illinois would become a “shall-issue” state, meaning applicants could only be denied for cause. But the legislation would generally make the state’s concealed-carry system more stringent than those of most states.

So assuming they’re voting on principle, Illinois Dems have finally decided to look up the statistics on gun control, particularly relating to concealed-carry laws: they always result in fewer homicides. Just look at Batman-killer James Holmes. Which theater did he hit? The only theater in Aurora with a ban on concealed-carry.

Interesting how that works.