Month: April 2008

Iraq Action Days: Lobbying campaign to bring more Iraqis to US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We told you that earlier this week a coalition of groups joined up in Washington DC to begin a concerted lobbying campaign to Congress on the issue of Iraq’s displaced people (no word from them about Iraq’s truly persecuted Christians).   Check out the wrap-up at something called The List Project.  

Watch the film clip of various speakers that ends with a clip of bully boy Dingell (Congressman John Dingell of MI) where he exhorts the audience to put pressure on Congress.

The List Project is comprised of two law firms and a non-profit called Upwardly Global that appears to be an employment agency for a higher class of refugee and immigrant since they say they work with Fortune 500 companies (no meatpacking jobs here).   I wonder if they could get over to Rhode Island and help the unemployed Iraqi refugee there, or those unhappy Iraqi refugees in Arizona, the ones cleaning motels.  So, where is Upwardly Global for these people?

Before they arrived here, the refugees said they were told by U.N. representatives that they could get jobs based on their professional qualifications. But they said they have now been told that they should work as hotel housekeepers, an occupation many of them have refused because they deem it degrading.

Graduation season will soon be upon us, if you have a kid graduating from high school or college who can’t find work, you might wonder why we need to be bringing in their competition via lobbying campaigns run by lawyers in Washington.

 

NC Congresswoman puts forward plan to fight terrorism in the US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Much praise goes to Congresswoman Sue Myrick, co-founder of the House anti-terrorism caucus, for her ten point plan released yesterday to combat Islamic terrorism creeping into the United States.   However I was disappointed to see that she missed the most important element in what I think is the greatest threat, often called the “quiet” jihad — Muslim immigration.  Here are her ten points (Hat tip:  Islam In Action):

Investigate all military chaplains endorsed by Abdurahman Alamoudi, who was imprisoned for funding a terrorist organization.

Investigate all prison chaplains endorsed by Alamoudi.

Investigate the selection process of Arabic translators working for the Pentagon and FBI.

Examine the nonprofit status of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Make it an act of sedition or solicitation of treason to preach or publish materials that call for the deaths of Americans.

Audit sovereign wealth funds in the United States.

Cancel scholarship student visa program with Saudi Arabia until they reform their text books, which she claims preach hatred and violence against non-Muslims.

Restrict religious visas for imams who come from countries that don’t allow reciprocal visits by non-Muslim clergy.

Cancel contracts to train Saudi police and security in U.S. counterterrorism tactics.

Block the sale of sensitive military munitions to Saudi Arabia.

Now she only needs to add No. 11, reform legal immigration policy by curtailing immigration of Muslims to the US.  No politically correct mumbo-jumbo from me this morning!

Suspicious death of immigrant in Texas linked to Palestinian refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update April 20, 2008:   Jerry Gordon over at the ACT blog has done more work on this story here.

What did I say the other day, we are turning into the immigrant crime blog.   Here is a story from Texas (Hat tip: Infinicat) about a Lebanese man’s body being found in a lake, hands and legs bound and tape across his eyes.  Austin police believe it was a suicide.    Can you see it now, Riad Hamad bound and hobbling, eyes covered, to waters edge and throwing himself in!

Austin police said Thursday that they are leaning toward a ruling of suicide in the death of a middle school teacher and activist whose body was found Wednesday in Lady Bird Lake with his hands and legs bound and tape over his eyes.

There must be a lot more to this story.

She (Debbie Russell of the ACLU) said in the e-mail that Hamad had recently been under investigation by the FBI — federal officials confirmed the investigation — and described him as “NOT a terrorist but a peaceworker.” Hamad was serving as an official for the Austin chapter of the Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund.

I checked to see if the Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund was listed on the Guidestar website for non-profit groups and couldn’t find them.   In fact their website doesn’t mention their status as a 501(c)3 charitable organization.   I don’t think you can just put up a website, solicit funds for your cause (Palestinian “refugees” in this case), send it abroad and not tell the IRS what you are doing.

 He was described as a nice guy by friends and family.

The family’s statement described him as a “peace activist who worked tirelessly on behalf of those less fortunate than him and was loved and admired by many members of the local, as well as international community.”

 Kind of funny though, don’t you think, that he was fired by a Junior College and then hired as a Middle School teacher.

Hamad had taught at Austin Community College but was fired in June 1998 after officials said he violated the school’s nondiscrimination policy by making “sexist and off-colored jokes” in class, school officials said.

Judy has written before how Palestinians have been kept in camps for over a half century and none of their Arab brothers take them in (aren’t Muslims supposed to be charitiable to fellow Muslims).   We hear all the noise from the United Nations about how important it is to resettle refugees who have been in camps for 20 years in other parts of the world. 

Heck on the Iraqi displaced persons, the UN and the NGO’s are screaming bloody murder about how hundreds of thousands of Iraqis must be resettled after only a couple of years.

 Why isn’t the UN getting busy resettling the Palestinians to say Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Egypt, etc?

It is increasingly obvious that the Palestinians are kept in camps to put political pressure on Israel and allow the likes of Riad Hamad to continue raising money for the “children”.

NOTE:   See “crimes” category to your left for other posts on crimes involving refugees and immigrants.

Blogging is changing the rules of journalism, and it’s about time!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This article brought a smile to my face when I saw it last night in the Washington Times.   It’s about the woman who taped Obama’s now famous “bitter” comments and it’s subheading says it all:  Dividing line blurred between amateur, traditional journalists.

Mayhill Fowler is no longer an unknown California blogger. In the past 48 hours, she has generated international press coverage, a profile in the New York Times and sparked furious discussion among journalists, pundits and campaign strategists.

The enterprising Mrs. Fowler, 61, and her digital recording device are behind “Bittergate.”

It’s about time!  Those traditional (professional) journalists have been sifting the news for us for my entire lifetime (and way before that), so it gives me great joy to see the mainstream media pooh-bahs brought low. 

“This situation clearly illuminates the fact that in the citizen blogger, amateur journalism world, the rules that govern the relationship between traditional journalists and their sources are not present. A traditional newsroom would not have allowed someone who was a campaign donor to cover that candidate,” said Mark Jurkowitz of the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Too bad, Mr. Jurkowitz. 

For the first time in my adult life, I see some hope for reforming our political system by getting the sifters of the news out of the way.   The public should be given all the facts so they can then make up their own minds about public officials or public policy.

Blogger busts — an online exclusive amplified in big media with serious repercussions — have emerged as an increasing threat to unwary public figures and a cautionary tale.

Yup!   And, as I have said on several previous occasions:  Start a blog!

Asylum for those persecuted because of sexual orientation

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Frankly we haven’t paid much attention to asylum but we need to.   Briefly stated asylum is the other side of the refugee coin.  Refugees are identified primarily by the United Nations and some sort of screening process occurs abroad (we can only hope it is a serious and thorough process because no one will tell us about it).    Asylees, on the other hand, can get into the US illegally and then say they are persecuted with the help of lawyers like this one.

Just now as I was searching for something else I came across an ad* for an immigration lawyer that goes like this:

That’s why I have a special interest in the developing area of gender-related claims (gay/lesbian/transsexual/domestic violence); I’ve always been interested in issues involving persecution, be it political or gender- based.

 If you believe you have been persecuted because of your sexual orientation, you may be eligible to apply for political asylum in the United States.

Although this particular lawyer works mostly with Hispanics who apply from abroad for asylum, one could arrive illegally in say New York from Egypt, Iran or Saudi Arabia or any other Muslim country where homosexuality is illegal and where gays have been killed and seek asylum based on sexual orientation.

Asylees are eligible for all the welfare, housing subsidies, food stamps and so on that refugees receive.

You learn something new every day.

* Sorry I have no link.  I accidentally closed the article and when I opened it again the advertisement was gone.  I know her name was Hedi something.   Maybe just as well I lost it because she isn’t paying us for promoting her business.