Category: Nashville

Big day in Nashville tomorrow; open-borders cabal furious; beat war drums

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

As we reported earlier, tomorrow is the first meeting of a special committee of the Tennessee legislature to begin to address the state’s rights under the 10th Amendment to the US Constitution.  In terms everyone understands, the first order of business is to address the problem of the federal government and its private contractor (Catholic Charities in this case) dumping the cost of taking care of refugees on the backs of the taxpayers of Tennessee.

Avi Poster: Diversity of cultures (Somalis and Kurds) make Tennessee beautiful.

Now the Open Borders activists in the city of Nashville are coming out of the woodwork to try to drum-up opposition and rally their troops to battle for tomorrow’s first meeting of the committee.    Below is Avi Poster, a Chicago transplant and community organizer, with an action alert to his followers.

We first came across Poster in 2009 when RRW went to Nashville for a weekend conference on Islam and Poster’s sidekick, Tom Negri, who managed the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel broke the contract with the organizing group fearing violence, or so Negri said.  A few days after the conference was successfully held in a “welcoming” hotel (with no violence, I might add!), Negri and Poster held a press conference in support of “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” here in the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel.

Avi Poster to his network about tomorrow:

 I hope this message finds you all well. I’ll be brief…

This Wednesday, state representatives will hold a public hearing on refugee resettlement in Tennessee. The hearing was organized by the same handful of anti-immigrant/anti-Muslim/anti-refugee state legislators we so often hear from during the legislative session (Rep. Joe Carr and Re. Judd Matheny to name a few). Their goal is to spread misinformation about the costs of refugee resettlement with the end goal of ending all refugee resettlement in Tennessee. The event is titled “Federal Cost Shifting of Refugee Resettlement.”

Last legislative session, some anti-refugee leaders introduced HB1326/SB1325, which would have required the Tennessee Office of Refugees and any refugee resettlement organization that receives federal funding to reimburse the state for the “cost” of refugees. It was mean-spirited and clearly an attack on refugee communities, and it went nowhere. The bill was sent to “summer study” to die, but has found new life in this public hearing which is lop-sided with anti-refugee advocates.

Helping people get back on their feet after they’ve escaped war or famine is one thing that makes our country, and this state, great. The refugees that have moved to Tennessee, from Kurdistan, Somalia, and elsewhere, are fully contributing members of our community – owning businesses, showing leadership in our neighborhoods, and adding to the diversity of cultures that makes Tennessee beautiful.

We need to fill the room on Wednesday and make our voice heard. Attacking people who are fleeing hard times is pretty low – we need to show these legislators we won’t stand for it. [Community organizers, like Poster, are one-trick ponies!  Demanding financial accountability is code for xenophobia, don’t you know!–ed]

Can you be there?

This Wednesday, August 21st at 9:00am. Room 16 Legislative Plaza. We are meeting outside security at 8:15am.
If you are able to go, email Eben Cathey at eben@tnimmigrant.org or call him at 615-775-1069.

Thanks,
Avi (and Eben)

Wish I could be there as Tennessee takes the lead in demanding accountability from the federal government.  Please let your friends know what Tennessee is doing!

See our category on Nashville, here, with 55 previous posts about the “cultural diversity” Catholic Charities and the US State Department have brought to Tennessee (on your dime!).

Tennessee reasserting its rights under the Tenth Amendment, establishes committee, first order of business Refugee Resettlement

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Nashville: Legislative Plaza where citizens will reassert their State’s rights on Wednesday, August 21st.  Tennessee patriots need you there!

Update August 22nd:  Here is the first report I’m seeing about yesterdays meeting.  More later I hope.  Here is The Tennessean story.  More later!

Update August 20th:  Open borders gang plans to be there in force, here. Also, apologies—I had said in my earlier version of this post that the big meeting is Thursday, that’s wrong it is Wednesday (tomorrow!).

Tennessee is likely the first state in the Nation to set up a model plan for regaining its State’s rights.

Surely some other states are doing their best to begin to wrest control from an over-reaching federal government, but none are coming out of the chute attempting to get under control the federal Refugee Resettlement Program where the US State Department and non-governmental contractors have foisted on the states the cost of caring for destitute people from the third world.

When the framers crafted the 10th Amendment, they surely never dreamed Washington would encroach on the states to the extent it has.

Here is what the 10th Amendment says:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

And surely, the framers could never have imagined a Federal Refugee program placing a financial and social burden on the citizens of certain states.

History will be made on Wednesday, August 21st in Nashville, TN

Below is an action alert from the Tennessee Eagle Forum which I’m posting in its entirety (emphasis is mine).

First for background on the new legislative committee:

Legislators and their constituents have long expressed concerns about the interactions and affects of  federal actions on the manner in which our state government operates, or which could have a potential impact on the rights and privileges of the citizens of Tennessee.

Many had been wrestling  for some time with the best way to address this very important issue of providing  an established venue to examine these actions.

Rep. Judd Matheny (who came up with idea) and Sen. Mike Bell, Chairmen of the respective Senate and House Government Operations Committees went to the respective speakers seeking their support  to establish a subcommittee of the Joint Government Operations Committee that would be authorized to review both introduced and enacted federal legislation, rules and regulations and executive orders, then report any relevant findings to the speakers, members of the General Assembly and Congressional delegation. Then decisions could be made about what actions might be appropriate moving forward.

Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey and Speaker Beth Harwell agreed to this plan and the subcommittee was established.  As far as we know, Tennessee is the first state to provide this kind of venue for the review of federal actions.  We can only hope that other states will follow our lead!  You can read the letter of authorization HERE.

Members of this committee are:
Rep. Judd Matheny, Chairman, Rep. John Ragan, Rep. Joe Carr, Rep. Josh Evans, Rep. Mike Turner, Sen. Mike Bell, Sen. Janice Bowling, Sen. Ferrell Haile, Sen. Thelma Harper, Sen. Jim Summerville.

This joint committee will hold their FIRST meeting on August 21st, at 9:00 am in Room 16 at Legislative Plaza.  It is VITAL that we demonstrate support for the important work of this committee by filling the room with folks that support the 10th Amendment.  The first issue that the committee will take up is the FEDERAL COST SHIFTING OF THE REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT PROGRAM. Please make your plans to attend!!

Refugee Resettlement has been a hot-button issue and glaring example of where Tennesseans believe the federal government has gone too far. 

The Tennessee Eagle Forum alert continues:

At what level of taxpayer support for an entity do we stop calling that entity a “non-government organization” or a “religious nonprofit”?

Revenue in 2011 for Migration and Refugee Services, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) refugee contracting arm, was more than $72 million, about 98 percent of which came from the taxpayer in the form of government grants or federal contracts. Would it surprise anyone to find it subject to the same incentives and laws of behavior that have driven federal contractors since the birth of the republic?

USCCB’s main source of contracts and grants comes from refugee resettlement. The U.S. resettles nearly three times the refugees as the rest of the industrialized world combined, and the USCCB wants that number increased.

According to a recent report from the Washington think tank Migration Policy Institute (MPI), publicly funded private resettlement agencies, USCBB being the largest of nine, “meet with state and local agencies on a quarterly basis regarding the opportunities and services available to refugees in local communities and the ability of these communities to accommodate new arrivals. They also consult with the state refugee coordinator on placement plans for each local site. … If a state opposes the plan, the State Department will not approve it.”   [LOL! In theory!—ed}

A July 2012 GAO report was a little more real world than the MPI report stating that “Most resettlement agencies … consult with some public entities such as state refugee coordinators; however, most public entities such as public schools and health departments generally said that agencies notified them of the number of refugees expected to arrive in the coming year, but did not consult them regarding the number of refugees they could serve…”

Both reports assume a state government role in the resettlement process. The state refugee coordinator evaluates the plans of the private contractors, representing the interests of the taxpayer in the process. That’s the way it is supposed to work, in theory.

In Tennessee, however, the state refugee coordinator is an employee of Catholic Charities, an affiliate of USCCB. Resettlement of the U.N.-selected refugees is Tennessee Catholic Charities’ largest mission and largest revenue item by far.

In 2008, Gov. Phil Bredesen thought he was streamlining the process and saving money by outsourcing the state coordinator function to the contractor. Instead, he gave up the opportunity for the state to have any input in a process that affects the state and set up a textbook illustration of a conflict of interest.

The annual cost of the program to Tennesseans went up immediately after the state handed over the position of state refugee coordinator. Today, Metro Nashville alone resettles more refugees than each of 29 states in the U.S.

Read on!  This is the op-ed published by Don Barnett in The Tennessean ten days ago.

If you are anywhere near Nashville, Tennessee on Wednesday, please give your support to the work of the citizen activists and attend this important and history-making event!

For more information on Tennessee, and Nashville specifically, please see our “Nashville” category.  And, be sure to visit this post from this past February about how the contractors, the US State Department, and the religious Left are busy turning ‘red’ states ‘blue’ by changing the demographic make-up of its citizens.

Why is Catholic Charities calling the shots on the demographic make-up of Nashville?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Why?  Because the US State Department assigned the supposed non-profit that role after a foolish Governor gave it up.   Writer and Nashville resident Don Barnett tells us more about this stunning loss of state’s right in his opinion piece at The Tennessean today (posted below in its entirety).

Old graphic, but you get the point! Nashville (the home of country music) has more refugees than 29 other US states.

Be sure to have a look at my post in February, here, also about Nashville and how it’s all about turning ‘red’ states ‘blue.’

Barnett (emphasis mine):

At what level of taxpayer support for an entity do we stop calling that entity a “non-government organization” or a “religious nonprofit”?

Revenue in 2011 for Migration and Refugee Services, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) refugee contracting arm, was more than $72 million, about 98 percent of which came from the taxpayer in the form of government grants or federal contracts. Would it surprise anyone to find it subject to the same incentives and laws of behavior that have driven federal contractors since the birth of the republic?

USCCB’s main source of contracts and grants comes from refugee resettlement. The U.S. resettles nearly three times the refugees as the rest of the industrialized world combined, and the USCCB wants that number increased.

According to a recent report from the Washington think tank Migration Policy Institute (MPI), publicly funded private resettlement agencies, USCCB being the largest of nine, “meet with state and local agencies on a quarterly basis regarding the opportunities and services available to refugees in local communities and the ability of these communities to accommodate new arrivals. They also consult with the state refugee coordinator on placement plans for each local site. … If a state opposes the plan, the State Department will not approve it.”

A July 2012 GAO report was a little more real world than the MPI report stating that “Most resettlement agencies … consult with some public entities such as state refugee coordinators; however, most public entities such as public schools and health departments generally said that agencies notified them of the number of refugees expected to arrive in the coming year, but did not consult them regarding the number of refugees they could serve…”

Both reports assume a state government role in the resettlement process. The state refugee coordinator evaluates the plans of the private contractors, representing the interests of the taxpayer in the process. That’s the way it is supposed to work, in theory.

In Tennessee, however, the state refugee coordinator is an employee of Catholic Charities, an affiliate of USCCB. Resettlement of the U.N.-selected refugees is Tennessee Catholic Charities’ largest mission and largest revenue item by far.

In 2008, Gov. Phil Bredesen thought he was streamlining the process and saving money by outsourcing the state coordinator function to the contractor. Instead, he gave up the opportunity for the state to have any input in a process that affects the state and set up a textbook illustration of a conflict of interest.

The annual cost of the program to Tennesseans went up immediately after the state handed over the position of state refugee coordinator. Today, Metro Nashville alone resettles more refugees than each of 29 states in the U.S.

A bill introduced in the 2013 Tennessee legislature had the modest goal of requiring Catholic Charities to keep an accounting of the numbers of refugees it places into programs that carry a cost to the state taxpayer. TennCare, for instance, is about 30 percent funded by the state and most refugees are placed in TennCare upon arrival.

Opposition to the bill was led by none other than the state refugee coordinator, whose motto seems to be “the less the public knows about this, the better.” The bill was deferred for “summer study” where bills often die. In this case, however, it may well come up again.

Hopefully, the 2014 legislature will act to require the contractor to record at least a portion of the costs it is running up on the taxpayers’ tab. A reasonable next step is for Tennessee to reclaim the function of the state refugee coordinator. This office should be representing the taxpayer, not the interests of a private contractor.

Note to citizens elsewhere—-you should at minimum be demanding to know what refugees are costing your state for healthcare, food stamps, Section 8 housing, education and other social services.

Nashville is so significant that we have an entire category (53 previous posts!) devoted to the city and the problems there with refugee resettlement, click here.   Be sure to see some of the recent posts on how Nashville’s open borders advocates  are taking their Nashville game plan to other cities.

Tom Negri and ‘Welcoming America’ are planning to “change” Cleveland starting tonight

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Negri, formerly the manager of the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel in Nashville is credited with changing Nashville from the Bible-belt mecca of Country Music into a community that welcomes Muslim diversity and low-skilled immigrant laborers (needed in the hotel industry!).   It amazes me how the media builds a myth around the politically-correct concept that everything is sweetness and light when a city becomes as diverse as Nashville.

Tom Negri, the man behind the growing Muslim population of Nashville. Photo Nashville Scene.

Here is a glowing tribute to Negri’s role in bringing Somalis, Kurds and others to Nashville.  But, here is one thing that isn’t mentioned in the tribute—Negri is opposed to free speech.  In 2009 I was registered to attend a conference about political Islam at the Loews Vanderbilt hotel and just days before the conference, then hotel manager Negri broke the contract with organizers.

He apparently couldn’t abide the idea that people might meet in his hotel with a point of view different from his.  Or, did he bow to pressure from the increasingly powerful Islamists in Nashville?   The conference went on in a pleasant welcoming hotel elsewhere in the city.

Check out our Nashville category (click here) for 52(!) previous posts on Nashville troubles and tensions with its immigrant population.

As we told you just last month, Negri is on the board of the propaganda outfit—Welcoming America.

Tonight ‘Welcoming America’ plans to begin changing Cleveland—bring in the immigrants to save the city!

From the Plain Dealer:

“They’ve been great for our community,” said Tom Negri, a Nashville business leader. “It just took a while for people to realize that.”

The group that helped convince middle Tennessee that new Americans represented progress is about to embrace a new challenge. Welcoming America is bringing its message to Cleveland, a city that has not witnessed an immigrant stream in 50 years.

Its top executives will be in town this week to join discussions and strategy sessions designed to foster a “welcome world” attitude on Ohio’s north coast.

‘Welcome to Shelbyville’—that damn film again!

David Lubell, the founder and executive director of Welcoming America, will address an audience Tuesday night at MetroHealth Medical Center and join a panel discussion that follows the screening of “Welcome to Shelbyville,” a documentary about cultural change in a small Tennessee town.

For new readers, we have traced the development of that propaganda film—‘Welcome to Shelbyville’—from the arrival of the Leftwing-funded filming team in Somali-disrupted Shelbyville, TN five years ago.  This is what I said, here,  in 2008:

Shelbyville BeWare BeCause, they are using your town!   They will gloss over the tensions and problems of the Tyson’s African employees and then show what great work the TIRRC and the Somali Community Center are doing to bring you all together in harmonious unity.  This is a politically motivated campaign.  Your film, your town, will then be used to shame other towns into silence.

Here is our archive of dozens of posts in which that propaganda film is mentioned. If you read nothing else, be sure to read this post on the truth about the film.  My prediction of 2008, that the film would be used to “shame” communities has turned out to be accurate!

Back to Cleveland and community organizers ‘Welcoming America’ getting ready to target Cleveland tonight:

Training sessions on Wednesday could mark the first step toward Cleveland or Cuyahoga County or both joining the growing roster of “welcoming communities.” These are cities and counties that welcome immigrants with official proclamations and then work to assimilate them, making it more likely that immigrants will come to stay.

“It takes time for different sectors of the community to come around to this,” said Lubell, a Philadelphia native recognized nationally as a leader in immigrant welcome efforts. “We’re not in a rush. We want to meet the community where it is and help get them to a new place of greater prosperity.”

Cleveland readers must go out to this event tonight!

Representatives of ethnic communities have been invited to Tuesday’s reception, which begins at 5:30 p.m. in MetroHealth’s Rammelkamp Atrium and is open to the public.

Egyptian wanted in Tennessee for questioning in murder of wife

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Subheading #1: Meat packer brings the joys of multiculturalism to small town America!

Subheading #2: Nashville famous for its diversity.

Subheading #3: Did David Lubell and the folks at ‘Welcoming Tennessee’ know this creep?

Subheading #4: The murdered wife worked at a Nashville hotel—surely it wasn’t Loews Vanderbilt? (just wondering!)

Alaa Youssef went to Egypt with his young daughters after allegedly depositing his wife’s body to rot along a highway in Kentucky.

Diversity is strength alert! Youssef is suspected of killing his wife with blunt force trauma to the head and fleeing to Egypt with young daughters.

He worked in Shelbyville, TN  at Tyson Foods (although most news accounts are leaving out the Shelbyville/Tyson Foods connection).  Hmmmm!

For longtime readers of RRW, do you remember the controversy back in February 2009 when Egyptian diversity visa lottery winners were being bused from Nashville to compete for jobs with Americans lined up at Tyson Foods?  When I saw this AP story (thanks to a friend from Tennessee), I wondered if he was one of the winners (or perhaps the now dead wife was the lottery winner).

Here is the AP story at Kentucky.com:

 NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A Nashville man who fled to Egypt with his two children was charged on Thursday with criminal homicide in the death of his wife.

The body of 27-year-old Madiha Roshdy was found last month by a highway mowing crew in Kentucky, but authorities were unable to identify her until this week.

She was not reported missing until June 20 after a friend learned that family members in Egypt were worried about her.

Police searched the couple’s Nashville apartment and the car belonging to the husband, 39-year-old Alaa Youssef. Police believe it is likely that Roshdy was killed at the apartment a few days before her body was found May 29 along the northbound lanes of Interstate 65, north of Elizabethtown, Ky. That is some 115 miles north of Nashville.

She died of blunt force trauma to the head.

Roshdy last reported for work at a Nashville hotel on May 25. She was last seen by neighbors on May 26.

Youssef, who worked for Tyson Foods in Shelbyville, flew out of Nashville with the couple’s two young daughters on June 7. They arrived in Cairo on June 8.

Police have begun preliminary discussions with the U.S. Justice Department about the international issues presented by the case.

Nashville Police spokesman Don Aaron said he did not know whether Roshdy and Youssef were Egyptian citizens.

They are not likely refugees (they could be asylees), but apparently gained entry to the US through some LEGAL immigration program—diversity visa lottery is a possibility, but surely Tyson Foods has some record of Youssef’s immigration papers!  Or, didn’t they even ask.

Changing the subject (slightly!)—be sure to see Senator Jeff Sessions calls out the meat packers as major players behind-the-scenes on amnesty bill (S.744).