Hugh Fitzgerald and Wafa Sultan on Colin Powell

I think its important for readers to be aware of the growing controversy over former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s comments regarding Islam in the press conference in which he threw his support to Barack Obama.   However, I don’t have the energy tonight to explain all this to you, but go here (Jihad Watch) and read Fitzgerald’s  post.

Here is how Wafa Sultan began recently in an article entitled, “Contemplating Islam:”

There was an episode during the current Presidential election that greatly disturbed me. It was former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s interview on “Meet the Press.” For me this interview was a defining moment. He expressed his displeasure at some of his colleagues’ accusations that Obama might be a Muslim, and stated: “And what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim?”

Continue reading.

Atlas Shrugs exclusive today links Obama, Blago and SEIU

If you are thinking this is off topic, it isn’t.   First, go read Atlas Shrugs today where Pamela Geller has done extensive analysis of Obama’s connections to the now disgraced (corrupt!) governor of Illinois and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).   I warn you it is tangled!

One of the most perplexing questions for those of us who follow Muslim immigration is, why the big push for Somalis to get into the US?   I’m not saying that the SEIU helped make it possible for Somalis to get into the US, but they sure are taking advantage of the large number of Somali immigrants and working to organize them.  Here is a post I did in October where I reported that SEIU was hiring Somali community organizers.

I’ve been wondering who funds the Somali community organizers in Greeley, CO and Grand Island, NE.   These Somali uprisings at meatpacking plants in those cities are not spontaneous.

In order to bring about “change” in our form of government one needs to destablize communities and what a better way then to bring in large numbers of angry and demanding immigrants.

Asylum Access lawyer suggests Obama reform Refugee Resettlement Program

Writng in the Seattle Post Intelligencer yesterday, Michael Kagan, an attorney with Asylum Access laid out his proposals for how the Obama Administration should proceed with refugee resettlement reform.

He begins with chastisement:

In European elections, rising xenophobia leads politicians to compete to show their hostility to asylum seekers. But Americans are supposed to be different. As Obama told Europeans in Berlin in July, “Our allegiance has never been to any particular tribe or kingdom — indeed, every language is spoken in our country; every culture has left its imprint on ours.”

But in recent decades, we have neglected that part of our heritage. That is why Obama has an opening. He needs to restore our country’s moral standing, and American refugee policy is in dire need of restoration.

In 1980, we invited 200,000 refugees to our shores, but that figure has since declined by a startling 80 percent. Effective control of the U.S. refugee program is split between the United Nations, a few private organizations and two different federal departments.

In a world with 16 million refugees, this Byzantine system somehow fails year after year to find enough refugees to fill a meager resettlement quota of 70,000.

Although I disagree with his goal of dramatically increasing the number of refugees entering the US from its recent rough average of 50-60 thousand a year to hundreds of thousands (where are they all going to work?), I agree that the system is Byzantine.  It is a tangled web involving the UN, the State Department and 10 major non-profit group federal contractors and nearly 400 subcontractors.   It is a system that is frankly a morass—unfair to refugees and to the citizens of the resettlement towns and cities.

Mr. Kagan goes on to make 4 suggestions:

* Increase our refugee quota.

* Let average Americans sponsor refugees who want to come to the United States.

* Establish a U.S. Refugee Corps to recruit young American professionals to go around the world and be the face of our refugee program.

* Do it all with high-profile presidential leadership.

We simply cannot increase our number of refugees.    We have written many posts lately about unemployed and unhappy refugees leading miserable lives in the United States, some wishing to return home.    If we are going to bring refugees, then we need to be able to take care of them and our present Byzantine system has too many falling through the cracks.

Which leads me to whole-hearted support for his second proposal and one we have been making for the last year—refugees should be sponsored by individual families, churches and other groups, and preferably not sponsored by some family member who has been here for such a short period of time that they are still struggling themselves.

Completely get rid of the volags (these non-profit government contractor middlemen).    And, we should only bring the number of refugees for which sponsors have been identified.  The sponsors would be wholly responsible for the care of the refugee or refugee family for however long it takes for the refugee to be on his or her feet— not placing the burden on the US taxpayer.  

Such a system would also, most likely, assure that the refugee would become assimilated to life in America with American sponsors.   The present system basically dumps refugees in cities with a few months supervision by a volag and then bam they are on their own.

I can’t imagine though a bunch of young people running around the world identifying prospective refugees.  It almost sounds like the writer wants government sponsored junkets for him and his friends.   Isn’t that what the State Department should be doing?

And, finally, if I were a betting person, I bet Obama isn’t going to do anything with high-profile Presidential leadership, at least judging by his recent rather pedestrian decisions.

Visit Jihad Watch for your mid-morning humor break

This is great!   Take a few minutes and read this post at Robert Spencer’s Jihad Watch.    An MSNBC ‘anchor babe’ expresses legitimate shock that the Mumbai Massacre could happen in the wake of the election of The One as US President.   And be sure to read the hilarious Iowahawk piece posted there as well.  

Humor is a marvelous weapon.  And, have you noticed that it is one arrow missing from Obama’s quiver?

Is Barack Obama a natural born citizen of the United States?

Update July 26th:  SPLC going after Lou Dobbs on birth certificate issue, here.

Update July 15, 2009:  Soldier challenges orders to report to Afghanistan claiming Obama is not legally the President of the United States, here.

A U.S. Army Reserve major from Florida scheduled to report for deployment to Afghanistan within days has had his military orders revoked after arguing he should not be required to serve under a president who has not proven his eligibility for office.  

His attorney, Orly Taitz, confirmed to WND the military has rescinded his impending deployment orders.

“We won! We won before we even arrived,” she said with excitement. “It means that the military has nothing to show for Obama. It means that the military has directly responded by saying Obama is illegitimate – and they cannot fight it. Therefore, they are revoking the order!”

Update Jan. lst, 2009:   It is not over yet, two US Supreme Ct. conferences remain, new cases filed, here.

Update Dec. 13th:  The Birth Certificate issue leads to a discussion of democratic tyranny at Gates of Vienna today.

Update Dec.12th:  Diana West has a good column on this subject here today.

Update Dec. 9th:  Blue Ridge Forum has a good post on the issue here.

Update  Dec. 8th:  Excellent discussion of the issue, here.

Update  Dec. 6th:   More news here, press conference Monday in DC

Update Dec. 4th:  Atlas Shrugs has a very thorough summary of where this issue stands today.

Off topic I suppose, but maybe not so far off because I have grave doubts about whether an Obama administration would ever even think to begin reforming the Refugee Resettlement program.  I will even bet they quickly lift the suspension of the P-3 family reunification program that primarily effects African immigration to the US.

Gates of Vienna yesterday has a very interesting article about the birth certificate controversy with a whole new angle.  Read it here.   For more detail be sure to follow the link back to Atlas Shrugs—the blog that did the groundbreaking work on the subject.

Then also be sure to listen to the MSNBC commentary on the topic.

The US Supreme Court has scheduled a conference on the issue for Dec. 5th.   I gotta say it is really creepy and wierd that the mainstream media isn’t talking about this—the silence is deafening.

And that reminds me.  Atlas Shrugs has a post  yesterday about Fox News going over to the “dark side,” that as a long-time Fox News viewer I was disheartened to read.   But, lo and behold, one day recently I just flipped over to MSNBC and couldn’t believe my ears, they were harder on Obama then Fox has been recently.  Maybe it was a one time deal, but it might be worth some revisits to confirm.