Category: Obama

Part I: Refugee Council USA has recommendations for Obama and Congress

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Refugee Council USA is a consortium of groups involved in the refugee industry.   Recently I came across their briefing book for the new Administration and the 111th Congress.  You will find it here.

There are many recommendations and so I’ll write about this in a couple of posts.    Since we have been discussing the Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance (ERMA) funds recently, I’ll start there.  First go back and read Judy’s post of two days ago in which she clarifies a misunderstanding that had developed in the blogosphere about ERMA funds going to Gaza.    The  US taxpayer-funded ERMA account is used for “humanitarian assistance” elsewhere in the world and is not for the purpose of resettling refugees in the US.

Here is what the Refugee Council USA says about ERMA.  Not surprisingly they want more money, but they also want the President out of the loop.

ERMA provides the Bureau of Population Refugees and Migration (PRM) of the Department of State with an emergency pool of $100 million that it can draw on in the event of an unexpected crisis.  Currently, draw downs must be approved by the President.  This requirement can considerably slow down the process.  Moreover, the $100 million ceiling on the account has not been updated in over a decade, even though costs and demands on the account have risen significantly.  The ERMA ceiling should be raised to $200 million and the Secretary of State should be given the authority to approve ERMA draw downs.

Children’s Health Insurance law includes funds for legal immigrant children

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We missed this story last week.   Hat tip to Joyce today for tipping me off.

President Barack Obama’s administration has brought to Washington a new attitude toward the issue of immigration, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said Thursday.

In comments to a small group of Hispanic journalists, Emanuel cited Wednesday’s ceremony where Obama signed into law a bill reauthorizing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

The chief of staff pointed out that the law increases the number of youngsters covered by SCHIP, as the program is known, from 7 million to 11 million, including – for the first time – children of legal immigrants.

More immigrant goodies on the way?

The expansion of SCHIP to immigrants’ children represents “an advance” on what the Obama administration plans to do on behalf of immigrants during the next four years, Emanuel said.

Somaliland government not telling all it knows?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Dinah Lord has a post yesterday in which she speculates about whether Obama renditions may have already begun!   Do  you remember we told you two weeks ago that Americans were captured in Somaliland and there  were some musings about whether they were our missing Somali former refugees turned terrorists.

Dinah links to a Voice of America article which reports that Somaliland spokespersons are saying, no not American, we were mistaken, we let them go.   However….

The Washington-based president of the Somaliland American Council, Rashid Nur, says he believes the Somaliland government is not revealing all it knows.

“As you have said, it is really difficult to get the true picture of who these people are and their identities. But from versions coming out of the government and from other people, some of these people are U.S. residents,” said Nur. “There are also some Somalilanders who went to some of the regions in the south, received training, and came back.”

Hint to CAIR and the families back in Minneapolis, ask Obama if he’s got your boys!

Uigher squabble continues, China says, hand them over!

~ Ann Corcoran

The controversy continues over what to do with 17 Uigher (Uyghur) Chinese Muslim detainees being held at Gitmo.   Now a German city says it will give them asylum, although the German government is so far noncommittal.  From Canwest News Service:

NEW YORK — The German city of Munich added its name Friday to communities offering to welcome members of the Chinese minority Uyghur group detained at Guantanamo Bay — presenting possible alternatives to Canada as activists press Ottawa to accept at least three.

The US says the Uighers caught on battlefields in Afghanistan are not a terrorism threat to the West, but to the Chinese they are terrorists.

The Uyghurs are somewhat of an exceptional case in that the 17 are the only remaining Guantanamo detainees who have been totally cleared by the U.S. authorities of having terrorist links.

But the United States fears they may face torture or other abuse if returned to China, which does consider them terrorists who seek an independent Muslim homeland in the northwestern part of the country.

China wants them back.  Could we have an uptick in international tension over what to do with the prisoners from the soon-to-be-closed military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and whether they will be given asylum in the West?

Beyond any security concerns, there remains the possibility that settling Guantanamo Uyghurs will lead to friction with China, whose embassy in Ottawa Friday issued a statement calling on governments to reject the “Chinese terrorist suspects.”

Ho hum, another hot potato for the Obama Administration which will ultimately make the decision.

Alinsky’s son boasts that Obama uses his father’s methods

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Ann has been writing a series of posts summarizing and commenting on Saul Alinsky’s book, Rules for Radicals. I recommend you read them all, because President Obama is well trained in Alinsky’s subversive and radical methods. It is easier to understand what Obama is doing if you keep Alinsky in mind.

Today Phyllis Schlafly has a column, Alinsky’s Rules: Must Reading in Obama Era, which is a good summary of this dangerous man’s thoughts. It begins:

Immediately after the Democratic National Convention in Colorado, the Boston Globe published a letter from David Alinsky. He boasted about how Barack Obama had made effective use of his training in the methods of David’s late father, the famous Chicago radical, Saul Alinsky.

David Alinsky gloated: “I am proud to see that my father’s model for organizing is being applied successfully beyond local community organizing to affect the Democratic campaign in 2008. It is a fine tribute to Saul Alinsky as we approach his 100th birthday.”

Here are a couple more good paragraphs. Think of Obama as you read them:

He wanted a radical change of America’s social and economic structure, and he planned to achieve that through creating public discontent and moral confusion. Alinsky developed strategies to achieve power through mass organization, and organizing was his word for revolution.

Alinsky didn’t want just talkers. He wanted radicals who were prepared to take bold action to organize the discontented, precipitate crises, grab power and transform society. He taught his organizers how to infiltrate existing institutions such as churches, unions and political parties, gain influence in them and introduce change.

And now an Alinsky organizer has infiltrated the most powerful institution in the world: the executive branch of the United States government. No wonder David Alinsky is proud.

Addendum: Here’s an audio/video of Mark Levin discussing Alinsky. There are many other links on the page that might be relevant, but I just listened to this one.