Day: June 23, 2010

Poor starving Gazans — not!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Gaza Opulence is an entertaining but important blog post by Benyamin Korn on The American Thinker today. It begins:

It began with an innocent trailer on YouTube — a plug for a club called “Roots.”  The scene showed well-fed women wearing traditional Muslim head coverings but otherwise garbed in chic clothing enjoying themselves at the club’s “fine dining restaurant, banquet hall and terrace cafe.”  What was startling was the club’s location: in the heart of Gaza City.

You can watch the video. Korn comments:

Gaza, the territory which, to judge from international news media reports, is the most impoverished place on the planet earth.  Gaza, which is supposedly suffering from such terrible shortages that “activists” from around the world have no choice but to ram blockades to bring in desperately needed goods.  Gaza, which has managed to capture the sympathies of the United Nations, Europe – and even the White House.

He goes on to cite more examples of prosperity in Gaza — modern fishing trawlers, fancy wedding gowns, a traffic jam which includes late-model BMWs. These are from a New York Times photo piece about Gaza.

And on and on it goes, with each photo providing more evidence that the dramatic claims about impoverished Gaza, which are routinely used to bash Israel and justify billions in Western aid to Gaza are, at the least, vastly overstated.  See for yourself.

These are the pitiful refugees to whom Obama is sending hundreds of millions in aid. But truth doesn’t matter. The world is on a binge of Jew-hating, and the facts be damned.

State Department memo: resettlement agencies can say ‘no’ to more refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

In another memo from the US State Department, resettlement agencies can say they have reached “capacity” and turn down placements as the end of the fiscal year approaches (FY 2010 ends September 30th).  The memo dated June 15th from the Office of Admissions, Bureau of Population Refugees and Migration begins:

The following revised end of fiscal year Adjusted Assurance and Placement Policy is designed to serve the best interests of refugees and to allow the USRAP to admit the greatest possible number of refugees in Fiscal Year FY (2010) within current domestic refugee placement capacities.  No agency or affiliate will be asked or expected to assure more refugees than it can competently resettle under the terms of the FY 2010 Cooperative Agreement.

Apparently to get out of one’s cooperative agreement, the agency can claim “unusual capacity challenges” within the agency or within the community (assuming they mean the broader community, ie. the city).   I guess I should be grateful that capacity in the community is even being addressed.

Frankly though this is a bit confusing.  How can the USRAP (US Resettlement and Placement) admit the largest number of refugees (they are aiming for 80,000 this year according to Obama) if a large number of agencies determine that they have “capacity challenges?”

I’m glad the State Department recognizes there are “capacity challenges,” but I wonder that it’s left to the agency to determine if they are competent to continue resettling refugees or need to halt resettlement especially since I view their work as a kind of ponzi scheme where they are paid by the head to resettle refugees—cut off those coming in and the money stops too!

Many times on these pages I’ve recommended that “capacity” of resettlement towns and cities must be determined in the local community by a legal process I’ve dubbed the ‘social and economic impact statement’ requirement.  It goes like this (patterned after the National Environmental Policy Act, EIS requirement):   In advance of refugee resettlement in a new town or city, or in an existing resettlement city, the federal government initiates a process to assess the capacity of the area to absorb refugees.  Both economic and social factors would be considered.  There would be PUBLIC hearings where experts would report on the job market, schools, health system, affordable housing and so forth.  There would also be a frank discussion about whether the community wants diversity.

If the report produced by such hearings was favorable to refugees, a limit would be set on the number of refugees that locality could handle over say a 2 or 3 year period.  The “capacity” would be regularly reassessed.

The federal government would also assure there would be no unfunded mandates for the state, county or city.

LOL!  Don’t hold your breath that this reform will show up in the White House reform expected out this summer!

AP confirms Detroit refugee resettlement to resume

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update June 24th:  Debbie Schlussel has some good comments on this story, here.

I told you the other day about the State Department memo where the State Department gives its blessing for more resettlement of Iraqis in the Detroit area.  Here is an Associated Press story on the announcement.

DETROIT – The U.S. State Department has decided to relax a two-year-old policy that limited refugee resettlement to the Detroit area because of Michigan’s struggling economy.

An influx of Iraqi refugees have come to the area in recent years, many of whom were attracted to the Detroit area because of its large Middle Eastern population. But authorities said two years ago only those with close relatives could resettle there, in part out of fear that they would be unable to find work.

Now, the State Department says anyone with family and friends can come to the area, Lawrence Bartlett, the department’s deputy director of refugee admissions, told The Associated Press.

Why do they say they can lift the restriction—because they got more of your federal tax dollars to redistribute.

One big reason for the change was the State Department’s decision in January to double the payments to resettlement agencies on behalf of each refugee to $1,800. That money is designed* to help refugees with their expenses, such as food and housing, for up to 90 days.

With the increase, “we were able to take a new look at this restriction,” Bartlett said.

Meanwhile in the Detroit area, Christians are arrested attending an Arab festival.

By the way, those Iraqis flowing to Michigan are both Christians and Muslims.  If they weren’t getting along in Iraq, why would we assume everything will be peachy in Detroit?

* “Designed” is the operative word here, readers should know that the agency gets to keep some of the money for its own overhead.  The program was originally ‘designed’ as a public-private partnership.  That means that the agency was supposed to raise money on its own to contribute, but over time most volags (the big federal contractors) and their subcontractors are largely funded by taxpayers’ dollars.

Don’t believe them, there is no meaningful reform coming

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I can’t write about it one more time—this (bleep) coming out of the White House that they are reforming the “broken” Refugee Resettlement program.  The reform is being run by a bunch of insiders who care only about three things—bringing in more refugees from the third world to shove diversity down your throats and about taking (redistributing) more of your tax dollars to the program (to themselves!).  And thirdly, it’s about more voters for the Democratic party.

The volags (federal contractors who bring refugees to your cities and frankly lead the State Department around by the nose) have built up little fiefdoms all sheltered under the story line that this is about being humanitarians.  It isn’t!  Maybe for the volunteers and the lower level staffers this is about caring for the downtrodden, but there is a large political and financial agenda at work.

I know its hard to wrap one’s mind around, but this is a strategy (remember Cloward and Piven).  Bring the largest number of refugees into the US since 9/11 in a recession, create a crisis (suffering refugees) and then demand “reform” of the system.  Reform will be taking more of your money and ultimately transforming our government.  The refugees are simply pawns.

See the Los Angeles Times story yourself and also read Friends of Refugees comments on the latest P.R.B.S. out of the White House.  I simply cannot write about it one more time.

Christians arrested at Muslim festival in Dearborn

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I never thought I would see this happen in America said one witness.   Another example of the stealth jihad as the Muslim population grows in Michigan (thanks in part to the Refugee Resettlement program).   Hat tip:  Robert

From World Net Daily:

Four Christians were arrested and thrown out of a public Arab festival in Michigan – and at least two people claim a crowd cheered “Allahu akbar!” while the Christians were led away in handcuffs for doing nothing more than engaging in peaceful dialogue and videotaping the event.

Nabeel Qureshi, David Wood, Paul Rezkalla and 18-year-old Negeen Mayel attended the 15th annual Dearborn Arab International Festival on June 18 in Dearborn, Mich., where an estimated 30,000 of the city’s 98,000 residents are Muslim.

The American Arab Chamber of Commerce announced the event was expected to draw “over 300,000 people from across the country, Canada and the Middle East.” The festival covers 14 blocks and is free and open to the public.


Qureshi and Mayel are former Muslims who are now Christians. Mayel’s parents emigrated from Afghanistan. Wood is a former atheist. All are from a Christian group called Acts 17 Apologetics.

Read it all.