Day: August 7, 2008

Answering my lament about the mainstream media

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

My friends at the Blue Ridge Forum sent this little story, perhaps you’ve seen it already.  It’s a reminder that in this business we are in, we have to laugh sometimes!  Here is “A Biker Story”:

A biker is riding by the zoo, when he sees a little girl leaning into the lion’s cage.

Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the cuff of her jacket and tries to pull her inside to slaughter her, under the eyes of her screaming parents.

The biker jumps off his bike, runs to the cage and hits the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch.

Whimpering from the pain the lion jumps back letting go of the girl, and the biker brings her to her terrified parents, who thank him endlessly.

A New York Times reporter has watched the whole event.

The reporter addressing the biker says, ‘Sir, this was the most gallant and brave thing I saw a man do in my whole life.’

The biker replies, ‘Why, it was nothing, really, the lion was behind bars.

I just saw this little kid in danger, and acted as I felt right.’

The reporter says, ‘Well, I’ll make sure this won’t go unnoticed. I’m a journalist from the New York Times, you know, and tomorrow’s paper will have this story on the front page… So, what do you do for a living and what political affiliation do you have?”

The biker replies, ‘I’m a U.S. Marine and a Republican.’

The journalist leaves.

The following morning the biker buys The New York Times to see if it indeed brings news of his actions, and reads, on front page: *

U.S. MARINE ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT AND STEALS HIS LUNCH

Asylum Crisis in Norway from Gates of Vienna

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Go over to Gates of Vienna here and read about how Norway could soon be dragged to financial ruin over the large number of asylum seekers flowing into that country.  I don’t think this article mentions anything about who the asylees are, but I doubt they are Britons bailing out of the UK.    Other reports say they are Russians (Chechens), Somalis, and Iraqis among others from Muslim regions of the world.

This article at GOV today focuses on the financial situation the country finds itself in (didn’t Osama bin Laden say he wanted to bring down the west financially?), but the large number is causing violence as well.  See our report here at the end of July.

Then just now searching around I found this article about a sniper shooting a Somali teen at an asylum center in Norway just a couple of weeks ago.

ASKER, Norway (AP) — Several shots were fired at a center for teenage asylum-seekers in Norway on Friday, and a 16-year-old Somali boy was seriously wounded, police said.

Police believe the shots were fired from long range, with a “heavy-caliber” weapon, police spokesman Einaar Aas said, without giving further details.

The boy was in his bed on the top floor of a two-story Hvalstad asylum center in Asker, outside Oslo, when a bullet pierced the wooden wall and hit him in the stomach, asylum center director Ahmed Bozgil told The Associated Press.

Aas said the boy was in critical condition at an Oslo hospital and would undergo surgery.

“It’s to early to speculate about motives, but we are taking this very seriously,” Aas said. Violence against refugees is rare in Norway, but an influx of immigrants recently has led to calls for tighter immigration controls.

It was unclear exactly how many rounds hit the building in the 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) shooting.

“It’s the first time we have had any serious incidents like this here,” Bozgil said. He said there were 121 youths from 13 countries at the center at the time of the shooting, but only the 16-year-old was hit.

Police helicopters and sniffer dogs searched the area for suspects, but no arrests had been made by Friday afternoon, the police spokesman said.

Last year about 6,000 asylum-seekers sought refuge in the Scandinavian country, and the number is expected to more than double this year.

The biggest numbers are coming from Iraq, Eritrea, Russia and Somalia.

Vijay Kumar:  Demographic conquest!

Krikorian on the origins of the Somali flood to the US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday in reponse to questions about the Tyson Foods’ religious accomodation of a minority of Somalis working at a chicken processing plant in Tennessee, Mark Krikorian head of the Center for Immigration Studies said the following:

“Tanzania and Mozambique actually offered to take these people. But they needed the United States and the U.N. to provide funding for resettlement,” he adds. “Instead the State Department said, ‘No we’re just going to bring them into the United States.’ It’s insane!”

This all happened before my time of writing about refugee resettlement, but I have heard this before.  I would love to know just how we decided to take 80,000 and counting Somalis.  Just now I wanted to go to the Office of Refugee Resettlement databases to see in what year we began bringing Somalis to the US and guess what, they have apparently blocked my access again.

I found this article by Thomas Allen at VDARE that tells us something about the Somali Bantu influx in the earlier days.  It chronicles some of the towns that fought back against resettlement in their communities and it shows what a hypocrit Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) is.

I suspect that businesses like Tyson’s Food had a hand in pressuring the government to bring them some cheap workers.  And, a lengthy report written by Heidi Boas tells us the Congressional Black Caucus had a hand in promoting refugee resettlement from Africa.  (Sorry I can’t give you a link, it’s a report you have to pay for now, but I got a copy awhile back).  Here is what I wrote previously.

“The New Face of America’s Refugees: African Refugee Resettlement to the United States:”

….several of the individuals interviewed for this paper identified the Congressional Black Caucus as one of the most influential groups advocating over the past decade for increased African refugee resettlement to the United States.

Gosh, why do you think the Congressional Black Caucus directed our attention to Africa which prior to this time had not been a major refugee resettlement feeder continent?   Wouldn’t you love to know the history of all this!

I’m sorry we didn’t make a category for posts on Somalis, but you can just use our search function to find out what we have found out over the last year.

They are at it again: blocking my access

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update:  I am back on, obviously having jumped to conclusions!  Now I’ll search for that Somali data I wanted….

About a month ago I reported to you that I couldn’t get on any Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) databases that I use regularly to write this blog.  So, I started calling all over the ORR and the Administration for Children and Families at the Department of Health and Human Services. 

I got one computer techy guy who told me that my IP address could be being blocked.  So, I called all over the place (over a couple of days) within those agencies and made a ruckus.  Lo and behold a few days later I had access to the PUBLIC INFORMATION again and have had it ever since.   Today I needed the database to see what year we started bringing Somalis to the US and you guessed it!  I cannot get onto anything at the Administration for Children and Families (and consequently cannot get ORR databases).    Urghhh!

Anyone else having problems?