Category: The Opposition

Get US Conference of Catholic Bishops off the US taxpayer dole!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Your tax dollars!

[Editors note, when I first wrote this none of the USCCB links opened, they do now]

Nothing gets my blood boiling more than the Catholic Bishops running to Washington to beg for money for themselves! That is right, you might think they are standing up for the “poor and vulnerable,” but they are standing up for the millions of federal dollars they receive to run not only their field operations through Catholic Charities but their Washington, DC lobbying office funded by you!   [Full disclosure:  I am Catholic]

Before you read the story I’m steaming over this morning, check out some of my previous posts on how your tax dollars are holding up the Catholic Churches “social justice” activities and funding their far left political activism in the United States.  (And, I don’t want to hear that their position, often squishy actually, on abortion makes them conservatives or right wingers.)

Readers, this is only a small sampling of posts I’ve written to show how your money goes into Catholic “social justice” community organizing.

* In USCCB pushes the Dream Act note:

2009 USCCB annual report tells the story

Now check out the USCCB Office of Migration and Refugee Services annual report here.   Note that in an overall annual income stream of $62 million, $58 million comes from the taxpayer! Only $1.3 million comes from collections taken up during mass.

*Here the Bishops are pushing their global warming political agenda.

*Bishops funding illegal alien activity including CASA de Maryland, here.

*USCCB Catholic Campaign for Human Development and origins involving Saul Alinsky, here.

* Here is Accuracy in Media on the USCCB role in the pro-amnesty March on Washington last year.

O.K. so you get my drift…..Check out the Bishops yesterday using the poor and vulnerable propaganda to try and head off a cut in tax dollars from you to their budget for THEIR POLITICAL ACTIVITY!

From the Catholic News Agency:

Washington D.C., Feb 15, 2011 / 02:31 pm (CNA).- A group of more than 300 Catholic leaders met with members of Congress on Feb. 15, to share a message from the U.S. bishops – urging legislators to remember the needs of the poor and vulnerable, as they make cuts to the federal budget.

Participants in the 2011 Catholic Social Ministry Gathering (Feb. 13-16) took the bishops’ message to Capitol Hill, delivering letters from two committees of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops during a day of visits with U.S. representatives and senators. The letters express concern over what Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of Albany, chairman for International Justice and Peace, described as “disproportionate cuts in programs that serve the most vulnerable” to the Fiscal Year 2011 Continuing Appropriations Resolution.

Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton, California, chairman for Domestic Justice and Human Development, warned lawmakers against the temptation to “secure the nation while at the same time furthering the insecurity of the poor and vulnerable in our midst.”

“Decisions should be made that not only reflect a commitment to national and long term fiscal security but demonstrate justice, compassion and fairness,” wrote Bishop Blaire.

“Our plea, then, is simple: Put the poor and vulnerable first as you consider how to spend limited federal resources.”

You think they worked enough of their ‘social justice’ mumbo jumbo into their appeal for YOUR MONEY to do THEIR POLITICAL WORK!

As I have said on many previous occasions it is not Christian charity to take money from one group and give it to another (and lie about it to boot!).  It is up to the Bishops and Catholics generally to dig deeper for the poor and vulnerable—privately!  Gee, I kind of remember something about Jesus and Caesar and money….

Endnote: The USCCB is one of the top federal contractors resettling refugees and in some states Catholic Charities actually have taken over the role of  the State government in deciding who comes to the state and how many.  It is virtually impossible to track all of their federal funding because it is so widely dispersed through a network of Catholic organizations, but I suspect that the USCCB with its affiliates is the top federal contractor in the immigration field.


So why is a state refugee advocacy organization going to help “organize” Egypt?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Your tax dollars!

And, are they going on your dime?  You bet they are!

I’m talking about the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

I just learned yesterday (Hat tip: Ed) that Joshua Hoyt, Executive Director of the ICIRR, is on the the board of the Far Left (Socialist/Marxist) “community organizing” outfit—the Organizers’ Forum—which is planning a trip to Egypt in September to help get Egypt on the right track now that the Muslim Brotherhood is pushing for “change:”

Our fall 2011 International Dialogue will be located in Egypt where we will meet with labor and community organizers and other activists in Cairo.  There are exciting changes and developments that are currently taking place in Egypt with elections coming soon to determine leadership transitions in what has been an autocratic regime, now challenged by the Muslim Brotherhood and succession and democracy issues.[they probably think its so cool to hang with the Muslim Brotherhood—ed]

Note that Hoyt is on the board of an organization created by Wade Rathke (ACORN founder), Drummond Pike (Tides Foundation) and “workers of the world unite” Andy Stern (formerly SEIU).    And, the oh-so-smart elitist left-leaning media is making fun of Glenn Beck for saying the Egypt crisis was precipitated by Unions, 60’s radicals, Soros and the Muslim Brotherhood.  Just check out the make-up of the Board of the Organizer’s Forum!  Looks like Beck will have the last laugh.   Note that CASA de Maryland the leading advocacy group for illegal aliens in Maryland is also on this board.

But my focus this morning is the ICIRR, your friendly defender of immigrants in Illinois.   What!  they don’t have enough poor refugees in Chicago to take care of they have to hop over to Egypt to nudge along a revolution.  Well it’s a free country you say, they can do what they want—associate with Marxists and Islamists whatever.  But, what if they are doing it on the backs of American taxpayers?

Check out the ICIRR Form 990 filed with the IRS.  This is the most recent one on record and its for 2009.

The organization took in $6,935,046 and $5,647,288 (page 9) is FROM GOVERNMENT GRANTS.  That means that YOU are paying for over 80% of the budget of this organization!

Now return to the bio for Joshua Hoyt and see what you have been paying for!   You pay for 80% of his salary!  You pay for his trips to foreign countries to organize. You pay for him to agitate and bring unrest to American cities.

WITHOUT YOUR MONEY THEY WOULD BE NOTHING!

And, by the way I thought I recognized the name when I looked at the Board of Directors of the Organizer’s Forum.  I told you about Hoyt sitting-in in the offices of Michael Steele demanding that the RNC support Amnesty for Illegals last year.

DRY UP THEIR GOVERNMENT GRANTS (FEDERAL OR STATE) AND THEY WOULD BE NOTHING!

I’ve also told you previously that the ICIRR is a money laundering organization, here, where I also reminded readers that refugees in Chicago are living in terrible conditions yet ICIRR simply moves money around to advocacy groups and organizes civic unrest.  They move your tax dollars to organizations that you likely would never approve (scroll to the end of the Form 990) and see what I mean.

WITHOUT YOUR FUNDS THEY WOULD BE NOTHING!

In 2008, I told you about the ICIRR, here, in a post about Obama’s taxpayer community organizing money trail.  Of course when I read about all that taxpayer money sloshing around to various Muslim organizations in the election year, I had no idea it might slosh all the way to Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood.

YANK THEM OFF OF THE TAXPAYERS’ TEAT! NOW!

Update! Be sure to read the comment from tatosian who alerts us to the fact that an ICIRR board member was in Cairo for the recent uprising.  That board member is the director of CAIR-Chicago.

Update 2:  In case you are confused about the Muslim Brotherhood’s goals for Egypt, I just saw this report which says:

The Brotherhood’s charter calls for creation of an Islamic state in Egypt…

That means Shariah law, so is ICIRR now in support of a religious government that discriminates against women?  What else can it mean?

Update 3: And, we were told only the good guys (the peaceful freedom fighters) were in the square celebrating the day Mubarak stepped down, see CBS correspondent brutally raped.

Right fractures over Islam

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

That is the title of a story at Politico and something I’ve been writing a lot about elsewhere, but I think its important for readers of RRW to know this is going on within the Republican Party.  Simply stated, two board members of the American Conservative Union and movers and shakers in DC rightwing circles, Suhail Khan and Grover Norquist, are believed to have links to the Muslim Brotherhood and are attempting to destabilize  the conservative movement according to their critics.

Here is a story from Politico which sums up how things went at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington late last week.   I urge you to read it all and do your own research.

I also suggest that you watch the CPAC speech of former Communist and 60’s radical David Horowitz who saw the light, became a conservative and has been an outspoken critic of the Far Left and the Islamists for decades now.

Politico:

While a gay rights controversy drew headlines at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, another — and even more bitter — dispute rippled as views varied widely on how to reconcile the conservative movement with Islam in the United States.

At the 38th annual conservative gathering, there was no shortage of accusations of Islamist sympathies, Muslim Brotherhood infiltration and charges of fear-mongering. Republican presidential hopefuls, including Newt Gingrich and John Thune, also drew applause with suggestions that the Obama administration has taken a politically correct blind eye to the connection between radical Islam and terrorism.

Freshman Rep. Allen West also drew thunderous applause in his keynote speech about the threat to America posed by Islam and other security threats. And as Republican candidates define their national security stands in the 2012 elections, conservative discomfort with Islam in America will be a feature of the debate.

“We are also faced at home and abroad with a mortal threat in political Islam,” conservative activist David Horowitz said in his address to the conference. “Political Islam is a totalitarian movement that seeks to impose Islamic law on the entire world through the seizure of states by stealth and electoral means where possible and by terror where necessary and sometimes by a combination of the two. There are hundreds of millions of believers in political Islam.”

CPAC organizers held an official panel on the threat of sharia law, with several other affiliated, but unofficial, events on inclusion, religious liberty and the so-called ground zero mosque controversy, featuring the controversial blogger Pam Geller and Jihad Watch’s Robert Spencer.

[…..]

“For 10 years, people have been asking for moderate Muslims to speak up,” said Spencer. “We’re going to be waiting for those guys until doomsday.”

Read on.

Longtime readers know that Pamela Geller (Atlas Shrugs) and Robert Spencer (Jihad Watch) are  among our favorite bloggers and are often quoted on these pages.  Check out their blogs in our blogroll.

Dragging out the refugees to protest in Washington State

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

No sooner had I written this short post earlier today on Washington State cutting taxpayer-funded benefits for refugees, when I came across this piece by the Associated Press about refugees going to the state house to demonstrate against the cuts.   Oh brother, have these groups like the International Rescue Committee (IRC) no shame—using the refugees for their own political and financial gain. This sort of gambit only makes Americans less “welcoming” to refugees when they see they are out demanding stuff from government (from taxpayers)!    If fewer refugees are sent to Washington State then the IRC loses bucks for their salaries, offices etc. and the Far Left loses reliable leftwing voters.

Note that no where do these volags (federal contractors) EVER say we need to slow the flow of refugees until we can better afford them.

Let’s talk about the demonstration (community!) organizer, the IRC, before we get into this story.

According to the IRC’s Form 990 for 2009, the organization is a nearly THREE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLAR A YEAR organization ($281,328,534) which pays NO taxes.  It received in 2008, $175,150,651 from YOU (the taxpayer). Take note Kansas lady! (By the way, the government grants have now been hidden on Page 9 of the Form 990, thanks to the IRS, it is no longer at the top of Page 1.)  The IRC’s CEO, George Rupp, made $429,705 in salary and benefits in that year and he was one of ten employees with salaries in the 6 digits.  Maybe they could share some of their largesse with the poor and struggling refugees!

Now back to those refugees the IRC brought to Washington State (they were paid by the head to do so) and the demonstrations at the state capitol.

From KLEWTV-3 in Lewiston, Idaho:

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) – For 18 years, Devi Prasai lived in a packed refugee camp after fleeing from ethnic tensions in his native Bhutan. Prasai waited for a chance at a better life for himself, his wife and children. It finally came, when the United States agreed to welcome thousands of Bhutanese and Prasai was approved to come to America.

But now in Washington state, he’s struggling to keep a roof over his head.

Prasai’s monthly state cash assistance has decreased from $662 to $561. Rent for the one-bedroom apartment in Kent – where he, his wife and two children live – costs $599 monthly.

“No job,” Prasai said through an interpreter. “Both of us have no English, so we have not found job.”

Prasai is one of thousands of refugees who have resettled in Washington state over the years, with many struggling with a tough job market and decreasing assistance from the state.

And it may get worse.

Gov. Chris Gregoire has proposed wiping out completely programs that subsidize English classes, job search and pathways to naturalization. Those proposed cuts also go along with budget reductions to other programs that serve refugees, such as waivers for dental exams.

It’s a drastic change in how this state treats refugees. Historically, Washington has been one of the most welcoming. It’s one of a handful of states that provide significant money to refugee programs, on top of what the federal government provides. [Hello! Kansas lady]

“Historically, Washington state has been very generous in providing dollars,” said Bob Johnson, executive director at the Seattle office of the International Rescue Committee and a veteran in refugee resettlement. But, he said, “Everybody’s got a problem. It’s not like moving (money) around, there’s nothing to move anymore.”

Prasai and Johnson joined hundreds of refugees this past week as they lobbied lawmakers in Olympia in an attempt to stop more proposed cuts. Many carried white poster board signs calling for “equal access to jobs” and boasting that refugees are “legal” immigrants.

The narrative now is that Washington State is bad and unwelcoming!   There is more, read on and note near the end there is this revelation.

The welcoming environment soon ushered other private resettlement agencies and the refugee community here boomed.

The lesson for taxpayers:  generous welfare=welcoming=more immigrants.  Cut welfare=unwelcoming=mean and greedy taxpayers, BUT less immigrants!

Here is the basic strategy:

The Far Left (and the IRC is definitely in the George Soros one-worlder sphere of influence) is to create the classic Alinsky war of the have-nots against the haves.  Cloward and Piven (here and here)  understood it well.   Give the people lots of government goodies, then foment unrest if it’s taken away.  The poor refugees understand that the Democrats distribute stuff and the mean Republicans take away their stuff.  They don’t know that they are pawns in the grand socialist scheme to bring down our form of government.

Where do I voice my concerns about the refugee program?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It’s probably been two months since a couple of readers asked me where they could voice complaints and concerns about the refugee program.  Sorry, I’m finally getting around to answering (this isn’t so much fun to write about compared to some other stories!).

You can forget about complaining to the Volags (the supposed voluntary agencies that are funded with your tax dollars).  They will not listen.

Although he should be part of your repertoire for filing complaints, the US State Department, Asst. Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration won’t listen either—he is a hardcore Leftist ideologue on George Soros’ team—and won’t likely answer your concerns.

Most states have state coordinators.  You can let them know how you feel.   And, of course don’t forget to try to get your local media involved—an uphill battle because most are now so politically correct and raising any question about this program will get you labeled a racist, but don’t be deterred that is their tried and true strategy to silence good questions.   [An aside:  one of the reasons we write RRW is to balance the media puff pieces we see so frequently about anything to do with refugees—you know, we gotta balance the ‘refugees see first snow’ type of stories. You can’t make good policy decisions unless all the facts are known.]

But….

The State Department and the Office of Refugee Resettlement in Health and Human Services will sit up and listen if a Member of Congress or a US Senator is on their case (your tax money is the lifeblood of refugee resettlement and Congress holds the purse strings).  So readers with concerns about the program must reach your own Representative or US Senators.  As a matter of fact, there is a new report out from the Congressional Research Service seeking to answer the many concerns voters have already expressed to their members of Congress.  It is dated January 4th and you should write and request a copy (US Refugee Resettlement Assistance) from your Congressman.   Unfortunately after addressing a litany of questions that must have been going in to the Congressional Research Service, one glaring omission in its final recommendations is the option of severely cutting the number of refugees entering the US in a recession!

One of the big concerns mentioned in the report was the virtual non-existence of any consultation with local governments about refugees being resettled in large numbers in some locations.

And, this is very important.  If you write to the Asst. Secretary of State, be sure to cc: your letter to your Member of Congress and both of your US Senators.

Find your Representative here.   Find your US Senators here.

More important than just writing to your elected officials (write to governors too), is to put pressure on them otherwise. Visit them at home offices, write letters to the editor, contact influential campaign donors and others who share your concerns about large numbers of immigrants entering the country.

Keep on top of the issues in Congress.

A good place to check in daily is MicEvHill (a pro-migration blog, but a good source of what they are thinking and what is happening in Congress).   Here is the February archive (you have to scroll down the whole month).   Note that the open borders gang are not happy with the direction of the “immigrant restrictionists” in the House Judiciary Committee now that the Republicans control the House.

By the way, if your Representative or one of your Senators sits on the Judiciary Committee, its especially important for you to contact them with concerns and reform suggestions for refugee resettlement. 

House Judiciary Committee

I see the Senate Judiciary Committee doesn’t have its subcommittee assignments.  But the full committee is here.

Hope that helps.  Take those comments you are sending my way and turn them into letters to your elected representatives.