Follow the money: New website at the Office of Refugee Resettlement

10/14/2010 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Your tax dollars

Two people sent me this very cool (new!) database at the Dept. of Heath and Human Services, Office of Refugee Resettlement where you can simply click on your state and see where the refugee money is flowing.

After you look at your state, check out Minnesota!

For new readers, Wyoming is the only state in the Nation that does not take refugees.

Reminder: We have a category entitled ‘where to find information’ with all sorts of other sources of information about refugees and immigration generally.

Massive (largest ever!) medicare fraud racket busted involving Armenians(?)

10/14/2010 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Yes, Armenians!

Today it’s all over the news! Millions of dollars have been ripped off from US taxpayers and the Medicare program in 25 states—the perpetrators are Armenian-Americans. Here we go again, another scam to join our growing list of medicare/medicaid and food stamp scams orchestrated by immigrant networks. (Someone really needs to write a whole blog just on these scams!)

From the New York Times:

An Armenian-American crime syndicate stole the identities of doctors and thousands of patients and used them and more than a hundred spurious clinics in 25 states to bill Medicare for more than $100 million for treatments no doctor ever performed and no patient ever received, the federal authorities announced on Wednesday.

Prosecutors said the case represented the largest Medicare fraud operation ever carried out by a single group that resulted in criminal charges. The group succeeded in stealing $35 million in Medicare reimbursements, officials said, before the charges were leveled and arrests were made on Wednesday.

The “highly organized massive scheme” is at the heart of a racketeering indictment and other charges unsealed in federal court against 44 people, including a number of members of the Armenian crime group, according to the F.B.I. and federal prosecutors in New York and Georgia.

“With 118 phantom clinics and over $100 million in bogus billings, this group of international gangsters allegedly ran a veritable fraud franchise,” Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement announcing the charges. “As charged, they stole taxpayer dollars earmarked for the elderly and infirm and got away with it, until now.”

Did we take Armenian refugees?

Sure enough! A little scouting around produced this 1988 article, in the New York Times no less, about bringing an emergency 12,000 Armenians here from the Soviet Union that year. I find it interesting that when something goes down, like this fraud bust, no mainstream media reporter ever asks how did all these Armenian gangsters get here in the first place.

Reagan Administration officials report a sharp increase in the number of Armenians trying to leave the Soviet Union, and the State Department has drafted a proposal to admit 12,000 of them to the United States as refugees.

The proposal suggests that President Reagan should begin emergency consultations with Congress so that the United States can take in the Armenians by doubling the maximum number of refugees who may be admitted this year from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

At the same time, Administration officials said, the State Department is proposing to raise the United States worldwide refugee admissions ceiling to 83,500 for the current fiscal year. That is 15,000 more than the number approved by Mr. Reagan in October.

Refugee numbers are set each year by the President. Under the Refugee Act of 1980, he can change numbers, but must first consult with Congress. Looking for Sources of Funds

Administration officials said they did not know how the Government could pay for processing and resettling the extra refugees. State Department officials estimate the cost at $25 million to $30 million, and they are searching for possible sources of funds.

Guess they found the money somewhere!

The New York Times takes on Pamela

10/14/2010 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update: See Jihad Watch response to attacks on Geller, here.

That would be Pamela Geller of course, the indomitable blogger at Atlas Shrugs who day after day reminds us of the Stealth Jihad in the US (and the not so stealthy Jihad around the world).

She is the front man for all of us

Atlas Shrugs is one of those must-read blogs that is a favorite of mine. I could spend all day commenting on this piece—at times an obvious hit piece on one tough woman. However, this line from a Navy veteran says it all, “She’s the front man for so many of us who feel the same way.”

It is people like Pamela (and Robert Spencer) who will be brave and say what must be said, to give us all the strength to resist the coming Jihad. Read the New York Times article here, and thank God for Pamela.

Getting the message out far and wide

I had been planning to make a point last week about how widespread the discussion of the Stealth Jihad and Shariah law has become. This is a good place to do it since the NYT mentions the power of bloggers to not only get the message out, but to educate and change the language of political discourse. Here is the NYT:

Operating largely outside traditional Washington power centers — and, for better or worse, without traditional academic, public-policy or journalism credentials — Ms. Geller, with a coterie of allies, has helped set the tone and shape the narrative for a divisive national debate over Park51 (she calls the developer a “thug” and a “lowlife”). In the process, she has helped bring into the mainstream a concept that after 9/11 percolated mainly on the fringes of American politics: that terrorism by Muslims springs not from perversions of Islam but from the religion itself. Her writings, rallies and television appearances have both offended and inspired, transforming Ms. Geller from an Internet obscurity, who once videotaped herself in a bikini as she denounced “Islamofascism,” into a media commodity who has been profiled on “60 Minutes” and whose phraseology has been adopted by Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin.

Not just Newt and Sarah! Last week I noted that Sharon Angle, the Tea Party candidate running against Harry Reid in Nevada, raised the issue of Shariah law and the stealth Jihad in America. Coincidentally, also last week while attending a Tea Party class on the Constitution, an older gentleman, a student in the class, raised the issue of Shariah law as it relates to the US Constitution. We owe Pamela Geller and other brave Americans and Europeans in the counterjihad movement who are willing to talk openly about the threat we face for the fact that Angle and the local gentleman are knowledgeable and willing to speak so freely—something that would never have happened if we were dependent on the likes of the politically-correct and timid New York Times to inform us.

Clash of Cultures in Community gardens: is there really a need for refugee/immigrant gardens in Fort Wayne?

10/13/2010 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Readers, this is a guest column by Ellen Ley, a horticulturalist from Ft. Wayne, IN, to further inform us about the refugee “community” gardens we told you about here a couple of days ago. I found this an interesting report from someone with firsthand experience with one city’s gardening projects.

Grassroots community gardeners are wrapping up the community garden season this October, picking the last of several gallons of peppers, cow peas, green beans, tomatoes,okra etc. We wandered around one of the larger community gardens that had been plotted out for various groups, such as several plots for the Africans, plots for the African American, Mexican, South American communities, just checking to see what has been picked and such. We have made several observations about the need for community gardens. After working in at least 3 large community gardens over the years, to plant, maintain, harvest, I have observed that the work is too hard for the majority of people if they are too young, too old, too weak, too infirm, too busy, or just too lazy. We have made exceptions for the elderly, too young, and the sick, but when it comes to able bodied, there should be no exceptions, including in the refugee populations where the need for sustainable community gardens is the greatest, it would seem.

The city, and the parks department has had it’s own community garden agenda for years, and has had sites to garden, available for a minimal fee to the general public along the St. Marys river, and other locations. The program ‘Food for the Fort’ focuses on the cities most needy, and even more on the refugee crisis. The city has created an exclusive refugee garden. This is a garden next to the Burmese Advocacy Center down on ‘main street’. This garden ….fully funded, raised beds, mulched paths, privacy fence, gazebo, built in irrigation system, market tent, on approx. 1/2 acre lot located downtown ‘Main street’ is well tended by city employees, and a few Burmese.

Whereas a non-funded, not a non-profit Fort Wayne Urban Farming/gardening Project located a refugee/Burmese community garden in 2009 on a approx. 25+ acre vacant city lot miles away from downtown ‘main street’, in a neglected area of the city within the largest Burmese resettlement apartment community in the nation. It was well tended by homegrown volunteers. Go figure.

I was a manager of this large refugee garden, intended not just for the refugees, but for all citizens in the vicinity. One large 50×50 square foot plot was planted in June, and the plan was for a large number of plots for many refugee families. This was only after the city gave permission to use the city lot after dragging its feet, and only after I got signatures from homeowners neighboring this large Burmese garden to agree to it. The reaction from the neighbors was in the majority negative, they did not want a Burmese refugee garden located there, they did not want the Burmese refugees living next to them, period.

The garden was planted anyway, and that is where the frustration began with the refugees. We communicated with the apartment community managers about the need for refugee gardens next to their particular complexes, they were supportive, and did try to make an effort to communicate to their refugee clients about available garden space. We communicated with some tribal leaders at the refugee complexes, they were questioning, asking if there was a need for refugees to garden….say what???….. The Burmese advocacy center was inquisitive about a refugee garden planted at that site by a group not affiliated with the city.

The refugees observed us preparing, planting this particular garden as they walked/biked daily on a path cutting through the large vacant lot connecting 2 large refugee apartment communities, only their children would stop and lend a hand for several minutes moving rocks, or doing a little bit of planting, tilling, weeding. The refugee adults would not lend a hand, would not come to the garden when asked to be there at 9 on weekday mornings, and would not be seen for the rest of the gardening season, except for a few scurrying across the lot The African Americans that I encountered in the area, and offered garden space to, refused to garden at this site because of the Burmese. We planted 62 Sour Leaf plants for the Burmese, tomatoes, hot peppers, squash, onions. Even though they refused to work in the garden, they apparently did glean from it, and I am sure others in the area did too. This particular garden was not planted again in 2010. Several of the Burmese/ refugees were seen planting small gardens in the green space back of their apartments this year, we assume this is what they prefer instead.

Another 2 acre community garden that has been in existence for 8 years, Garden Angels Community Garden(non-profit),has been ignored by the city, until now, has not even been mentioned in ‘Food For the Fort’, and has served the African American, Mexican, South American, white communities, also saw a problem with the Burmese/ refugees when they were invited to work in this garden, harvest the produce. Burmese refugee families volunteered in the garden, but when it came time to harvest, they overwhelmed the other volunteers by bringing carloads of extended Burmese families to pick, leaving little left of certain crops for others. This led to disgruntled African American volunteers, and others, to quit this garden unless the Burmese were kicked out. This garden did really well this year, despite the refugees, in spite of the lack of ample volunteers, in spite of the extreme heat, drought that occurred, in spite of shortage of funds.

The Burmese/refugees did not volunteer at the Garden Angels site, except for a chosen few which leads us to another community garden site. Fellowship Church community garden. This site was turned over to the manager of the Garden Angels site this year after being somewhat of a failure last year for Fellowship. Fellowship Church had tried the Burmese/refugee garden thing, and ran into problems also. Burmese/refugees were not happy to work in this large , 7 plus acre garden site, and complained about the lack of water, about the soil, about the small size of their preferred produce when grown there. This year 2 1/2 acres of this site was planted by The African American community, African refugees/immigrants, white community, but no Burmese/refugees. I worked hard in this garden along with the manager, a few other volunteers, where again we lacked enough ample volunteers, funds, but it has been deemed a success.

Back to my observations of these 3 community gardens. I have observed the lack of volunteers, lack of funds, lack of interest by the refugee community. The refugees will, and do harvest select plants growing in the garden sites not planted as a crop, considered as ‘weeds’ by most, Purslane, Amaranth(pig weed) to name a few.These plants should definitely be grown as crops, if just for the refugees, it is what they prefer as a food source. As we harvest the rest of the produce this month I have observed African refugee/immigrant garden plots, and the lack of attention to their crops. They are not harvesting, other than again, the plants considered ‘weeds’, they are letting tomatoes, squash, cantaloupe rot on the vine, corn to go to seed on the stalks. This group of refugees/immigrants has been told to harvest the fruits of our/their labor, to no avail.

This begs me to ask the questions, are the refugees/immigrants receiving enough governmental handouts in money/food that they don’t really need the community gardens? Why are city officials starting up a new program, ‘Fort Wayne Urban Gardening Project’,with an agenda to gain control over existing community gardens, and/or create new community gardens to involve refugees with one of the pretexts that the refugees/immigrants need these gardens, if not for food, then for income? And who do they think is going to do all of the intensive, backbreaking work to sustain these gardens if the majority of refugee/immigrants, and others refuse to do so?

Good questions!

Obama greeted by former refugee protesters in Philadelphia

10/13/2010 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is a story that didn’t make the mainstream media news this week. The Obama Administration is in the process of aggressively deporting refugees who have committed crimes in the US. I previously reported the story about the Philadelphia Cambodians here.

This is from a website called “Citizen Orange.” It’s probably some Far Left Open Borders website, but I’m going to surprise readers and suggest that I have some sympathy for refugees who committed small crimes long ago (assuming we are being told the whole story!) and have established productive lives. Imagine if you came to the US as a child, speak English and perhaps none of your native tongue, and are deported and literally dropped off in what is now a foreign country and expected to fend for yourself.

Honestly, readers know me, I’m the first to say let’s enforce the law, but I don’t get what Obama is doing with this. He doesn’t want to close the border to illegal aliens but his administration is eager to deport some legal immigrant who committed a small crime years ago, served his prison sentence, reentered the community and did not commit another crime since his first offense and he will be just dropped off in Phnom Penh leaving a wife and kids on welfare in Philly.

There has to be more to this story, if anyone knows please let me know. The suggestion by the author of this posting that this is the Obama administration’s attempt to look tough on immigration in advance of the elections seems to me ridiculous. They could have chosen a more clearcut way to prove a newfound toughness.

From “Citizen Orange:”

Survivors of the Cambodian genocide who came to the U.S. as child refugees are now being deported by the Obama administration for crimes committed in the U.S. years ago. These refugees are longtime permanent residents who have reintegrated into their Philadelphia communities after release from prison. Many have U.S. citizen wives and children. Some have started small businesses. The Obama administration has the discretion to exercise lenience in cases of compelling humanitarian or family interest like these, but is more interested in appearing tough on immigration ahead of the elections.

A group of the refugees’ family members and supporters confronted President Obama on his visit to northwest Philadelphia on Sunday, spelling out the message “STOP DEPORTING REFUGEES” to his motorcade as it passed by on the way to a rally in support of Democratic candidates in Pennsylvania.

[…..]

President Obama didn’t acknowledge the suffering of the families gathered at his rally on Sunday, hoping to catch his attention. The government has remained silent about its recent campaign against the Cambodian community in Philadelphia.

Again, I don’t get it. What is up with this? What is up with Obama?