Category: blogging

Refugee Resettlement Watch’s year in review

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Happy New Year to one and all! 

I can’t believe RRW will be six years old this year!  Time flies when you are having fun!  I don’t know that much has changed with the refugee program/legal immigration (from our point of view!) in the last five years, but you surely are more informed.   I’m looking forward to many more years ahead as a blogger (assuming our free speech isn’t killed in the next four years) and might even write a book about why this program needs to be reformed or completely abolished.

WordPress kindly sent us a review for 2012 (it is the first time I’ve seen this) and here are some facts they reported about RRW:

~ We had about a quarter of a million visitors this year.  The largest numbers were referred to us by facebook. (But, sorry folks I haven’t figured out how to use our facebook page effectively.  Others of you must be kindly putting our links on facebook—thanks!).

~  We had visitors from 193 countries.  The largest numbers (since Feb. 2012 when wordpress began keeping these stats) were, of course, from the US, Canada and the UK.  But rounding out the top ten were Australia, India, Sweden, Malaysia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, and Germany (in that order).

~  We posted 458 new posts and increased our overall number of posts to 4,417.

~  Here are the top posts of all time (NO!  this is not Somali Watch, but it sure looks like it based on which posts are the most viewed!):

1. Although not a post per se, our fact sheets were number one!  (26,240 views).  We need to update this for you!

2. How did we get so many Somali refugees—the numbers are telling  September 2008 (23,602 views)

3. Asylum seekers head for Israel    January 2009 (12,693 views)

4. Muslim immigration killing Sweden  March 2009 (10,967 views)

5. Why so many Somalis in Minneapolis?  January 2011  (10,959 views)

6.  Somali Migration to Maine: it’s the welfare magnet, stupid   November 2009 (7,185 views)

7. State Department:  Possibly tens of thousands of Somalis in the US illegally   November 2008 (5,394 views)

8. Holy Cow! Now 40 young Somalis are missing in Minnesota  November 2008  (5,149 views)

9. How many refugees and from what countries  May 2008 (4,760 views)

10. Canada refugee problems and programs March 2008  (3,790 views)

You also might want to keep an eye on the TOP POSTS (see right hand sidebar) every day.  It is very interesting to see what readers find most interesting on a daily basis.

We still have work to do!  In addition to updating our fact sheet, our blog roll needs review and updating, and some of the pages need to be deleted or kept up, but I must admit it is much more fun simply to bring you the news almost every day while that ‘housekeeping’ type of work is so boring!

Thanks for reading Refugee Resettlement Watch, don’t get discouraged, keep sending us story ideas, and have a Happy New Year!

WaPo: Who is Grover Norquist?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Oh goody!  Is the Washington Post really going to tell us the answer to the question—Who is Grover Norquist?  Not a chance.  See here.

Ol’ Grover is in the news these days (momentarily Fox News will trot him out) over his taxpayer pledge battle with revolting Republicans, but not one mainstream media outlet ever mentions what else Norquist is.  He is an open borders advocate and a friend of Islamists.   We have written many times on these pages and elsewhere about the real Grover Norquist.   Typing ‘Grover Norquist’ into our search function produces dozens of stories on his pro-amnesty, pro-Muslim immigration activities.

He told Soros’ Think Progress that Shariah law was compatible with the US Constitution, here, and called those who disagree with him “Islamophobes.”   In fact, you might want to visit the many stories I’ve written on Norquist (he of the ruling class), here at Potomac Tea Party Report.

His group, Americans for Tax Reform endorsed the Bush/Kennedy/McCain amnesty bill in 2007.   And, here is just one post from the summer of 2007 when he was pushing for more Iraqi refugees to be admitted to the US.  Considering his supposed position as a defender of the taxpayer, how does Norquist reconcile the cost to the US taxpayer of mass immigration?

The WaPo reporter, Aaron Blake, and other mainstream media faux journalists will never tell you what else Norquist is because that doesn’t fit the story they are promoting, that he is a Svengali holding the Republican establishment hostage with a piece of paper.

Are you looking for a way to become a warrior to save America?  Write a blog (until they wrest free speech and the internet from us).  But, not a ‘gadfly’ blog, a focused research blog!

Remember Saul Alinsky!

Alinsky’s Rule 13 (one of Obama’s favorites!):

Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.

How about Grover Norquist News Watch?  Or, Susan Rice Revealed, or here’s one I like—Samantha Power Exposed ….you get my drift.  Focus!  Focus!  Focus!

Renewed effort on US mass immigration policy

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Because I’m overloaded, and the time I spend researching and writing this blog and the other blog I publish(ed) consumes my free time (this is a volunteer effort after all!), I’ve decided to take a break from writing about national and Maryland political issues generally to re-focus my efforts here at RRW where we discuss legal immigration programs that are changing your towns and cities.

Except for occasional mentions at the websites of large immigration restriction groups, there is very little written on a daily basis to educate citizens about the negative side of legal immigration (except VDARE!).  LOL!  The goal here is to balance the news being fed to you daily by mainstream media stories about the American melting pot mythology (you know! ‘nation of immigrants,’ blah! blah! blah!).

Here is what reader, Paul, said when I announced a hiatus at Potomac Tea Party Report.  I believe this is right on!

I think you’re 100% correct to focus on the immigration issue. Bad laws can be repealed, evil politicians can be voted out, stolen lands can be reclaimed and lost fortunes rebuilt. But a lost people are lost forever.

It should be clear to all after the recent election results that  the Socialist/Communist/Islamist Left (with some help from the corporatist Right) isn’t so much changing minds as they are changing the people—including the make-up of the US population.  In addition to turning a blind eye to illegal immigration, the US government provides myriad programs through which third worlders are entering the US (besides the Refugee Resettlement Program) and people need to learn about them.  Surely, some of those new immigrants are here to try to improve their lives through hard work, but there are many more who are here for a handout (sorry to sound so harsh, but it’s the truth).

You can’t have mass immigration and a welfare state (for long)! (ask Sweden, Denmark, the UK, France, Belgium, Spain, Greece, etc.) 

We also need to understand that there are government contractors and political operatives who have other agendas for the people they are importing, and using.

I humbly encourage everyone to find your niche, and focus on something that will help America survive the coming onslaught.  It’s fun and tempting to be a news junky, a gadfly and to pontificate across a whole range of issues, but we need workers/researchers to focus and educate (through blogging, facebook, opinion writing for your local paper, etc) the public on specific topics on which you have become the expert.   Remember, there are no real investigative journalists anymore in the mainstream media.  (Where are the investigations of food stamp trafficking fraud for instance?)

For new readers:  We have written 4,350 posts to date (since July 2007).  We’ve had 1.3 million readers since we began and they come from all over the world.   There are 52 categories in which those posts have been sorted.  Also, the search function here is very good, so type in a few words about what you are looking for and I feel sure you will find the information.

Reminder: See TOP POSTS

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’m off to a meeting this morning and no time to post.   But, just a reminder, see our right side bar TOP POSTS which tells you every day what posts are being visited the most.

Today, the post on Somalis opening businesses in Minnesota, which I wrote on Monday, is being widely read.  Check it out!   You will see older posts there that continue to be Top Posts on most days.

If you comment today, know that I will review and post your comment when I get back later.

Happy 5th birthday to us!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Refugee Resettlement Watch was officially five years old on July 1st.   Somehow I thought our bday was later in the month and had planned to pat ourselves on the back sometime this next week.   What prompted me to have a look was that yesterday lots of visitors were clicking on this post from 2007 which gave me great satisfaction to know that we are being useful (and, LOL!, it reminds me of things I’ve forgotten we knew!).

So, when I checked the archives for 2007, I see we opened for business on the first of July 2007!

Since that time Judy and I have posted 4,189 posts in 50 categories.  And, although by big blog standards our 1,224,432 visitors is tiny, for a blog on a very specific topic it’s not bad.   Our top most-visited post is this one—How did we get so many Somali refugees—with 21,724 visitors to date.

In February wordpress added a very cool feature to our stats and tells us where our readers are coming from.  The top four countries are understandable—US, Canada, UK and Australia.  But, here are the next eleven that make up the top 15 countries from which we have readers: India, Malaysia, Iceland, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, Germany, Norway and Kenya.

How did we get started?  I credit our local newspaper, the Hagerstown Herald Mail, with inspiring me to become a blogger because they steadfastly refused to explain to the public how the Refugee Resettlement Program of the US State Department worked when refugees were quietly being resettled to Hagerstown by the Virginia Council of Churches.

Take a minute and look at this post (The fix is in….) I wrote in 2007 which includes questions I thought the mainstream media—the Hagerstown Herald Mail in this case—should answer for their readers in our rural Maryland county.   Pretty reasonable questions aren’t they?  But, the truth is that the powers at the paper were helping promote the resettlement and didn’t want to tell the public more.   So, Judy and I figured we would do the job—and here we are 5 years later still trying to get all the answers for you!

If you have any interest in following the history of our Hagerstown refugee story, please see our category entitled September Forum, here.

Features readers shouldn’t miss!

If you are arriving here for the first time, here are some of the ways you can use RRW:

Note, first, the categories in the left hand column where you might find topics of interest.  For example, the category Rohingya Reports includes five years worth of stories that will become important to you all as we begin resettling more and more Rohingya Muslims.  It’s been fascinating to watch the media drumbeat increasing over the years for resettlement of these controversial Burmese Muslims.  And, you won’t get this history anywhere else.

One of my favorite features is the Top Posts in the right hand sidebar.  I like to see every day which posts are being read the most and you might find that of interest as well.

If you are looking for basic information on the refugee program, our fact sheet, in the header is what you need.

Where to find information is a category we use for reports, statistics and other documents you might need to understand the program and help your community know what is happening to them.  With nearly 200 posts in that category it might be getting too unwieldy, so use our search function for specific topics.   I think you will find it pretty good!

There are other topics I now wish we had made categories for, but didn’t know early-on that we would have so many stories on the topic.  For example, you will laugh, we have no category on Somalis which likely would now be our largest and who knew 5 years ago that food stamp fraud would be so hot when we had the convenience store rip-off artist in Hagerstown named Mohamad (who arrived about the same time the refugees did—hmmmm)

So again, use the search function and see what we have available.

And, thanks for visiting!  We hope you have found our charitable work at Refugee Resettlement Watch useful!

Ann & Judy