Category: 2008 Presidential campaign

In my opinion: meatpacking Somalis have overplayed their hand

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The AP has a story last night about how the Somalis, all of them, employed or now unemployed, are going to meet today in Grand Island, NE and try to figure out what to do next.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Muslim workers involved in a prayer dispute at a Grand Island meatpacking plant are scheduled to meet Sunday to decide what to do next.

Mohamed Rage, who leads the Omaha Somali-American Community Organization, said Saturday that workers at the JBS Swift & Co. plant wanted to hold another protest, but that he urged them not to.

Instead, Rage said, all the Muslim workers — including those no longer with the company because of the dispute — will meet Sunday to talk about a resolution.

Muslim workers — most of Somali background — have been asking for accommodations with break times to allow prayer at sunset. The issue led to walkouts at the plant this week — not only from Muslims, but also from non-Muslims who protested such accommodations as preferential treatment.

We’ve been following this issue for the last couple of weeks on-going in both Grand Island and Greeley, CO and I believe these demands for religious accommodation are not isolated and spontaneous.  See our posts in chronological order here. 

Someone, somewhere, orchestrated this year’s Ramadan accommodation push and now it has backfired.  They thought the company would roll over, but surely didn’t anticipate the explosive response by other workers from all backgrounds.  

Note they (whoever is behind this) are not leaving it to the local Somalis but have brought in a big city community organizer—Mohamed Rage.   Rage is telling them not to protest again right now.    He obviously gets it—as the Somalis continue to act belligerently they lose public support and sympathy and are annoying the heck out of the multicultural workers, and American blacks,  in both plants.

All this is happening at the very time that the Muslim American Society is registering Muslim voters across the country.   Here is a story from Boston just this week:

Local groups, from the Muslim American Society of Boston to Centro Presente of Somerville, are holding events to get immigrants even more involved.

Over the past year, the society has registered more than 4,200 new voters, largely immigrants, hoping to reverse a tide of anti-Muslim sentiment and to influence government policies that affect them, from immigration laws to homeland security. A recent candidate night attracted 150 people, said Bilal Kaleem, the society’s executive director.

Frankly, this is the soft, or stealth jihad, the smart Islamists are working through our system to place their people in elected office.   In August of 2007, another key player in the Muslim American Society, Imam Yahya Hendi told a Saudi audience that we would have 30 Muslim mayors in America in 2015.  A tad ambitious I suppose, but telling nonetheless.    I’m going to bet these smart guys are pissed as hell that the Somalis have shown themselves to be angry and violent in their demands for special religious treatment in the workplace.

Another group that is probably pretty ticked is this American Muslim Democratic Caucus who are asking for a “seat at the table” according to this story in Louis Farrakhan’s publication, the Final Call:

DENVER (FinalCall.com) – American Muslims from around the country met with Joshua Dubois, director of religious affairs for the Barack Obama presidential campaign, during the Democratic National Convention, to address concerns that the Muslim community was being marginalized by the campaign.

“It’s not a smear to be called a Muslim. We have Muslim staffers all over the country,” said Mr. DuBois at a luncheon sponsored by the American Muslim Democratic Caucus.

“You will have a seat at the table,” he said, “The issues today are too critical for us not to work together.”

So, just when they are trying to convince Americans that Muslims are just like the rest of us, these Somalis in Grand Island and Greeley show their colors and their desire for Islamic supremacism.

Much of what organizers conveyed during the press conference was to quell fears that Muslims are different and Islam is violent.

“We are as American as apple pie,” Dr. Lalani. “Sen. Obama stands for everything that we believe in. We believe President Obama will be a president for all Americans. That is good enough for us.”

“Somehow we are not well known by Americans. They’ve been misled by negative news reports and the happenings around the world that make people think Muslims are violent, intolerant or want to impose their religion on others. All of this is false.”

Is it really false?   Seems to me the meatpacking Somalis are telling the world something else.

This is getting way long, but if you are interested in this topic.  Please go back and look at posts I’ve written in the past where American blacks and Somalis are not getting along in various places in the US and where the Immigrant Muslims have apparently looked down their noses at Black American Muslims  (see the BAMs vs. the IMMs).

The strategy seems to be in disarray.  Maybe the ‘stealth jihadists’ aren’t so smart afterall!  Or, maybe better still, Americans (blue collar Americans at least) are a differant sort of people and won’t roll over as the Europeans have.

Another Presidential campaign tip from the Immigration lawyers

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Well here you go, another “comment” from Immigration lawyers and how they see the 2008 Presidential campaign.  And, although yesterday they said that McCain would more likely take on immigration “reform” in his first year, they are still in the tank for Obama.

This is what they say Obama should do.  He should focus on the Hispanic vote in Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada—the states this group claims are the swing states.

In that case, here is what I say.  All of you voting Hispanics in Colorado consider that if Obama should win the Presidency you can bet, and take it to the bank, that the number of African immigrants will dramatically rise and they will be competing with you and blaming you, Hispanics, for their trouble in the workplace—just as they are today in Greeley, CO.

Immigration under Obama vs. under a McCain presidency

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is a rather bleak opinion piece for those of us who want to see borders closed, immigration severely curtailed and refugee resettlement reformed.    A leading publication for Immigration lawyers editorializes that if Obama should win, the Democrats in the White House and in Congress will be so busy changing everything  they won’t have time right away for immigration.

However, should McCain win, Congress and the White House will be at odds over (almost) everything, leaving only immigration reform (code for amnesty as in McCain/Kennedy) back on the front burner as the only thing the two branches of government would agree upon.

The entire editorial dated September 17 (could not find a perma-link so look for September 17th editorial) is below because it is so provocatively written I wanted you to see it all.

McCain Kennedy Reborn

If immigration is your number one political priority, what should you do this election?

We begin with the observation that Democrats will likely consolidate and expand their control of the Senate and the House. This is good news for the immigration cause. However, in spite of controlling Congress for the past two years Democrats have done virtually nothing on immigration benefits and have continued massive spending on immigration enforcement. So, even though most political analysts are agreed that Democrats are poised for significant gains in the House and the Senate, that alone does not portend any immigration benefits in the coming years.

With that background, let us examine the difference in prospects for immigration benefits on Jan 20, 2009 if we get President Obama or if we get President McCain.

If we get President Obama, Democrats are going to be euphoric on Jan 20, 2009, and rightly so – being back in the White House, at last, after 8 long and bitter years. Democrats have not been able to pursue their priorities for 8 years and we can expect them to act aggressively on their big priorities immediately after a President Obama takes office. There are at least four Democratic priorities ahead of immigration: the Iraq war, universal health care, budget/taxes and energy policy. These are all large, complex issues and Congress will take most of a President Obama’s first term to work on these. In such a scenario, we will not see any significant immigration benefits in the foreseeable future.

If we get President McCain, we will still have a powerful Democratic majority in Congress on Jan 20, 2009. This Congress will be at loggerheads with him on all the major Democratic priorities. Democrats will want to bring the troops home whereas Mr. McCain wants them in Iraq for 100 years; Democrats see a health care crisis whereas Mr. McCain sees none; Democrats will want increased taxes whereas Mr. McCain would like to cut them; Democrats want to conserve oil and work on alternative sources of power whereas Mr. McCain would like to drill for oil all over the map. Democrats and a President McCain will be 180 degrees apart on all major Democratic priorities. In this bitter fighting hardly anything will get done legislatively, and both Democrats and Mr. McCain will be looking for opportunities to show the country that they can work on something together.

While there are a few areas of agreement between Mr. McCain and Democrats, immigration is the largest issue on which Democrats and McCain agree. While the current Republican Party platform is the most anti-immigrant one in memory, there were news reports that Mr. McCain, who has a long track record of being pro-immigration, tried to make it more immigration-friendly and failed. This is the issue on which he is most likely to stab his party’s anti-immigrationist wing in the back both in his political interests and due to his own convictions (Mr. McCain had to fight his party’s anti-immigrationists tooth and nail during the Republican primaries). We expect to see almost all of the original McCain-Kennedy bill become law during the first six months of a McCain Presidency.

The Bush era has been the worst in memory for immigration advocates. However the combination of a powerful Democratic majority in Congress with Mr. McCain as President offers the best hope for speedily obtaining desperately needed immigration benefits.

Let’s hope Sarah will knock some sense into McCain’s head!

Meatpackers recruit refugees, no, you are kidding!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update September 15th:   Chris Coen of Friends of Refugees, who legitimately watches out for the well-being of refugees by keeping an eye on volags (non-profit government contractors), the State Department, and others in the refugee resettlement industry, left the following comment to this Chicago article:

Has anyone asked why 17 refugees are living crammed into a three-bedroom apartment in Chicago’s North Side? Although Dr. Ed Silverman who heads Illinois’s Bureau of Refugee and Immigrant Services claims not to like Tyson recruiting Burmese to leave Chicago, what is he doing to help refugees in Chicago find jobs that can support their families? Does he have any concern for refugees living in squalid, cramped conditions? It has been my experience that Dr. Silverman advocates for as many refugees as he can get into Chicago irrespective of the number of jobs that can support them, or the complete lack of appropriately sized and affordable apartments in Chicago that are available for these families. Christopher Coen Friends of Refugees Minneapolis FORefugees@hotmail.com

Learn more about how Friends of Refugees came into existence—in Chicago of all places here.

 

Here is an article from Chicago about how meatpackers across the country are now recruiting refugees.  If you have been following this blog for the last year, you are probably scratching your head and wondering why this is news.  

The differance in this story though is that Tyson’s, and others probably, are now recruiting Burmese Karen Christian workers (no religious accommodation demands!)  and some refugee resettlement advocates are expressing concern for the well-being of those newest refugees desparate for work.

A lot of the meat and poultry on U.S. dinner tables is cut and packaged by undocumented immigrants. But federal enforcement is shaking things up. Many packinghouses are turning to a different pool of cheap laborers. These workers have immigration papers. They’re war refugees. In Chicago, Arkansas-based Tyson Foods has been recruiting Burmese refugees to work in plants as far away as Kansas. The Burmese desperately need jobs. But it’s not clear they know what they’re getting in to.

Read the whole story, which by the way mentions meatpackers first recruiting Somalis and Bosnians, and consider that we are bringing one and a half million immigrants into the US each year, so no wonder unemployment is climbing.  It is the elephant in the living room that neither Presidential campaign acknowledges.

The Love and Peace crowd scare Somalis at RNC rally

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I must say that a post at a blog called “The Adventures of Johnny Northside” made me feel sorry for the Somalis.  These wacky Leftists obviously pressured this group of immigrants to march in protest of the Iraq war at the Republican National Convention last week.

If you have ever seen these nuts in person (not the Somalis) but the ‘moonbats’ you would know why these fundamentalist Muslims must have been freaked.  The blogger here thinks it’s about the police (maybe it is a little especially if not all the Somalis are legal), but the anti-war crowd is a conglomeration of really looney looking people.  I saw them twice in DC in the last couple of years when I was with the Gathering of Eagles.

The protesters cover their faces with masks (ghoulish ones with fangs and such), dress in garrish costumes, and if it’s warm enough are sometimes half naked.  They wear devil masks, and have horns and tails.  One guy had a pig’s corkscrew tail on his butt (wonder what the Muslims think about that since pigs rank right up there with dogs as dirty).  And they generally march to the beat of a 5 gallon plastic bucket on which they bang with a spoon. 

Anyway, here is Johnny’s description of the Somalis:

It seemed like several folks at the September 1 anti-war rally were looking for the Somali group, trying to find them, wondering where they were. The Somalis finally arrived, together, and it seemed like they made a point of staying together. Their faces had an uncertain, worried look, but…

…there they were. Funny how the sight of the Somalian flag doesn’t make certain folks all livid, unlike (oh, gee) the Mexican flag.

In the first moments after I saw the Somalis arrive, a guy walked up to this woman and casually gave her “know your rights” material, trying to speak loudly above the crowd noise, speaking MORE loudly because he thinks she will UNDERSTAND him better, and saying the material is, “In CASE you are DETAINED by the POLICE.”

“Detained? Police?” she asked, in a thick accent, face full of worry.

There is more here.   It apparently didn’t matter that the Somalis were uncomfortable, the moonbats needed them for the anti-war march—afterall they are Muslim status symbols for the the peace and love crowd.  Real sensitive aren’t they?