Day: April 21, 2011

California food stamp fraud bust and a suggestion

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

If you are a regular reader this will sound like the same old story about immigrants running a food stamp fraud scheme.  It is.

From News 10 in Sacramento:

SACRAMENTO, CA – Two Stockton convenience store owners/operators charged with defrauding the government and taxpayers of $193,608 in food stamp benefits have pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized use of food stamps.

Lauren Horwood, spokeswoman for the U.S. District Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of California, says Sukhwinder Singh, 54, and Charan Singh Dhillon, 58, admitted that beginning in 2007, they began to illegally buy food stamps for cash, typically at 50 cents on the dollar.

As part of the plea deal reached with federal prosecutors, Singh and Dhillon forfeited more than $90,000 in cash and a BMW. [but they ripped off at least $193,000!—ed]

Singh owns Fast and Easy Mart, Dhillon owns Quick and Stop Mart, and they’re co-owners of Quick Stop Mart, all in Stockton. All three stores had been approved to redeem food stamps.

You know they could solve this whole problem overnight if the federal government allowed only large reputable food stores to take food stamps.   No more food stamps redeemed at convenience stores and this taxpayer rip-off would end instantly.

By the way, you too can help identify food stamp scammers.  If you have a convenience store nearby and notice a lot of traffic in and out of the store and especially if the shelves are understocked, those are both tip-offs that the store might be a scam.   Maybe you can engage some frequent visitors to the store in conversation and get a tip that way.   Then report your suspicions to your local police and they will take it from there.   But, be patient, it can take 18 months or more from tip-off until arrest as the investigation requires setting up a sting and then it takes time to unfold.

Use our search function for ‘food stamp fraud’ and see dozens of similar stories.

Why the UN is so hot on pushing the climate refugee issue

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Reader John Williams sent us a link to an insightful post  on the Volokh Conspiracy that explains the motives of the UN on the climate refugee issue that we’ve started to follow again. 

We are used to reading such stories as the politicization of science and its corruption by the politics of the UN, funders, and, to be sure, the desire of some scientists to switch professions from research to policy.  We hear about it because it is correct.

But there is another — no less unimpressive — way to understand the story.  That is from the standpoint of the long term incentives of the United Nations and its many agencies.  Seen from the standpoint of climate change and its scientists and environmental activists alone, this story looks to be about hyperbolic claims about the immediate effects of climate change.  Seen from the standpoint of the longer history of the UN, it is much more about the long-running movements by the UN to find issues that tend to do two things.  One is to increase the institutional UN’s governance responsibilities, authority, legitimacy, and power.  The other is to increase the amount of money that runs through UN mechanisms from rich countries to poor countries, with an administrative cut to the UN itself.

He goes on to point out that environmentalists and others who are pleased when the UN takes up their cause are not aware of these motives, and don’t understand that UN officials don’t give a fig about their particular cause. When the current one has run out of steam, they just move on to another one. Now they’re trying to prolong the climate refugee cause by postponing the date of the apocalypse.

Presidential “call to arms” on immigration

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Hey, wait a minute, what happened to the new civility—call to arms (a summons to engage in active hostilities)?

Two days ago the White House held a meeting of 70 pro- immigration activists (no, that is wrong, they called them “stakeholders”), including Al Sharpton (huh?), former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the AFL-CIO’s Trumka to say it wasn’t going to be easy to get immigration reform and that everyone is going to have to work together.   So, why now, why a hastily called meeting when he had two years with a Democratically controlled House and Senate to get the job done for them?

Pro-immigration forces say Obama screwed up in his first two years and now is in desperation-mode to keep his immigrant base happy.

This is from Southern California Public Radio.   In a quick search, I couldn’t find a larger publication that might have written about the story (emphasis mine):

In what was described as a “last-minute meeting,” President Obama met at the White House on Tuesday with 70 labor, law enforcement and political leaders, including former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the current president of the Los Angeles City Council. The topic – immigration – hasn’t placed high on the list of Congressional priorities.

[…..]

LA City Council President Eric Garcetti said the president issued a “good call to arms” for shared effort on immigration reform. Garcetti said the president admitted it was “not going to be easy,” but he wouldn’t abandon the topic.

“(The president) said, ‘this is not going to be easy, but I am not going to abandon this. I’m going to be alongside you, but I can’t do this by myself. And that we have to change the conversation. We have to get back to a place where we humanize and recognize the contributions of immigrants,'” said Garcetti.

Last year, the US Senate [thankfully–ed] failed to pass the Dream Act. It would have created a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who attend college or serve in the military. Garcetti said the president didn’t want that legislation to be Washington’s last word on immigration reform.

Immigration activists plan a protest Thursday night outside Sony Studios in Culver City where Obama is hosting a political fundraiser.

Maybe that last line gives us a hint as to why the meeting was a “last minute meeting.”  Obama has learned that his immigrant/Hispanic base is going off the reservation.

Immigration lawyer: Most actively anti-immigration White House in a long time!

You think the open borders gang is pretty unhappy about our dear leader?  You got that right!  Check out a couple of posts at Immigration Daily to see just how angry they are!

This is Greg Siskind not exactly holding back in his criticism of the big talker (Obama):

Absent the speeches and the meetings, strictly judging by the ACTIONS of this Administration, this is arguably the most anti-immigrant White House we’ve seen in quite some time. Whether Latino voters and another pro-immigration constituencies support the President in 2012 fearing that the GOP candidate would be even worse is still an open question.

Read it all.

Or, how about this from immigration lawyer Matthew Kolken (emphasis mine):

Obama gathered a bunch of people together yesterday to talk about immigration. Among the invitees was the person who oversaw the deportation of more immigrants over a two-year span than at any other time in the history of the United States, the richest man in New York, an aging movie star, the police, the COO of Facebook (“Like”), and Al Sharpton.

You know who Obama didn’t invite: an experienced immigration lawyer, a seasoned immigration judge, or members of Congress who ultimately vote on immigration reform legislation. The conspicuous absence of any individual who has in-the-trenches experience with the implementation of the immigration law from an immigrant’s perspective, or the lawmakers who can actually do something to fix the problem is very telling.

What it reveals is that this President is more interested in creating a photo-op to garner votes for his reelection than figuring out a way to craft bi-partisan legislation that will infuse some equity into our beyond broken immigration laws. Or better yet, putting an end to his own administration’s draconian deportation quotas.

This President has been giving lip-service to immigration reform for over two years now. His do nothing and blame the Republicans strategy isn’t fooling anyone.

You can’t say he is a completely do nothing President, heck he is over in Libya helping create more poor refugees with his war effort.

Read the rest of Kolken and Siskind’s blasts and note that Kolken lists the invitees to the photo-op and includes a film clip of Rep. Luis Gutierrez, Congress’ greatest Open Borders advocate, saying he might not support Obama in 2012 (yeh, well, who else would he support?).

Just a reminder, I told you about a similar White House meeting to push immigration reform in the summer of 2009 here.    Check Kolken’s White House list and then the one from 2009 and note how many advocacy groups are missing.   These guys (Kolken and Siskind) have a point, Obama wanted a ‘friendly’ group for a White House photo opportunity, plain and simple.