Fort Wayne freaking out!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

According to the Fort Wayne (IN) News-Sentinel today, the city and especially its Health Department are bracing for a wave of Burmese refugees.   200 are scheduled to arrive this fall and 800 are planned for 2008.   Catholic Charities and Church World Services are the primary volags involved.

Catholic Charities cannot turn down refugees, and must accept however many the State Department says it is sending.

Oh really?

McMahan  said about 50 percent of refugees arrive with TB infection and must be tested, treated and tracked. The TB clinic is already seeing a surge in patients this year, and they are sicker, she said, adding more nurses are needed now, even without the additional refugees.

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Refugees receive Medicaid benefits for eight months, which is why billing Medicaid will help the department meet the economic challenges. Providing immunizations to kids alone could be cost-prohibitive. For example, in six years, the cost to fully immunize a child by age 2 has risen from $240 to $1,100, McMahan said.

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This year so far, 58 percent of Allen County’s active TB cases are among foreign-born individuals, compared to 22 percent in 2004.

This is all very interesting news on the eve of the Refugee Resettlement forum scheduled for Hagerstown, MD.   Church World Services and its subcontractor Virginia Council of Churches hope to convince us that Burmese refugees would bring lots of good things to our rural county when they meet with the community tomorrow night.

Have you no shame, Herald Mail?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It is unbelievable.  Yesterday we told you that the Hagerstown (MD)Herald-Mail and Virginia Council of Churches staged a publicity stunt to manipulate public opinion in advance of the forum next week—a forum intended to inform the public about how Refugee Resettlement works.   Today, Herald-Mail Editorial Page Editor, Bob Maginnis, published this piece:

Thumbs up to the half-dozen Burmese refugees who spent part of their Wednesday feeding and entertaining a group of residents at Holly Place in Hagerstown, an assisted living home for elderly people who cannot afford other accommodations. We hope they’ll attend the Sept. 19 forum on refugee resettlement at Hagerstown Community College, so more local folks can meet them.

At a meeting earlier in the week to plan for the forum, the suggestion was made and dismissed to parade refugees into the meeting.  Anyone with any sense would see that such an exhibition would very likely just embarrass or hurt refugees’ feelings.   The original intent of the meeting was to have a serious policy discussion with government officials,  non-profit groups, and the public.  It was never intended as a hearing for two sides to give testimony.   My original hope for the meeting was that all facts would be presented and citizens of the community could weigh the pros and cons of bringing more refugees to Hagerstown.  The meeting is not intended to make the present refugees feel unwelcome.   Every day it becomes clearer and clearer that the original concept is being perverted.

It is a shame that the Herald-Mail ,with apparent support from VCC (because they were present at the planning meeting), sees fit to advance their agenda by using refugees as exhibits. 

I guess for people like this, the ends always justify the means. 

The Fix is in, Hagerstown Herald Mail does free publicity campaign for VCC

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 3 Comments

The Herald Mail of Hagerstown, MD is a liberal newspaper (like The New York Times) and uses its position as the only newspaper in town to promote its own political world view.   It does not present all the news so that citizens can weigh the issues and come to their own conclusions.  That became evident again this week on the issue of Refugee Resettlement for Washington County.  The paper has now stepped up its politically-correct drumbeat in support of  the Virginia Council of Church’s (VCC) plan to bring more refugees to our community.   The ‘puff piece’ published yesterday is just the most recent example of tugging at peoples’ heartstrings and using guilt to shut people up.  It is disgusting! 

Read the whole front page story here and note how VCC has crassly staged a media event by taking some Burmese refugees to a local home for senior citizens to sing hymns and cook a meal the week before the public meeting to bring the facts to the public.  But, it’s not just any senior citizens home, it’s one scheduled to be shut down for lack of funds and one many critics of Refugee Resettlement have pointed to when they have complained that we don’t have the resources to take care of our own poor and elderly and then we import more poverty.

The entire Refugee Resettlement is funded by you, the taxpayer.  You have every right to know exactly how your money is used.   In addition, immigration (legal and illegal) is rapidly changing America and it is your right and duty to participate in the debate that will change us all forever, for better or for worse.   The Herald-Mail has purposely kept the facts from you so that they can control the debate.

As a matter of fact, I credit the Herald-Mail with helping give birth to Refugee Resettlement Watch.   I was not particularly concerned with the Virginia Council of Church’s screw-ups.  And, I am sure many of the refugees are fine people.   My driving force is my interest in good government.  I hate it when government teams up with anyone—developer, preservationist, church group— on the taxpayer’s dime, all the while keeping residents in the dark.  It is patronizing and elitist.

I would not have embarked on this if the Herald-Mail had done its job in the first place and researched this issue so citizens knew how refugees came to be in Hagerstown.   But, obviously the Herald Mail editors must have assumed their position in support of more refugees would not have stood up to public scrutiny if the facts were known.   Since they can’t win in the arena of ideas, leftwing publications, like the Herald Mail,  turn to their weapon of choice—manipulation.

Ironically, the  reporter who wrote the puff piece above, is the same reporter I sent many questions* to back in May.  The reporter said he would ask his editor, but the answer came back loud and clear—they weren’t interested in finding facts.  Another editor, Bob Maginnis, told me there was nothing to look into.   So, now I’m looking into it myself!

If you are sick and tired of the news being slanted by the media monopoly (the elitists) in your town or city, start a blog of your own.  It’s power to the people!

*  If you want to read further, below are the questions I asked last May.  They seem naive now!

Hi Andy,

Here are questions that I believe need to be answered….  I think people in a community are always better off knowing all the facts.  When all the facts are gathered then a political solution can be found.   And, of course that’s why we have a newspaper!   

Here are some (maybe more than you were looking for!) questions:

1)  Under what authority can a private religious group choose to bring refugees into a community?  Why Hagerstown?

2)  Are assessments done of the community and its ability to absorb more people who will, at least initially, live below the poverty line?   Do we know how many people in Wash. Co. live below the poverty line?  How many in Hagerstown?

3) Is there any accounting done of the cost to the community?   For instance, is there high demand now for low income apartments in the Hagerstown area?  Will more immigrants push up the cost of housing for all low income people in the county?

4)  Are elected officials consulted before and during the process?  Is there any legal authority that requires such consultation?    Was there any outreach to Commissioners and City Council prior to the establishment of Virginia Council of Churches program here?

5)  Who pays for the immigrants housing, food, medical until they are fully established? 

6) Is there a saturation point determined, or can this program just go on indefinitely?  Who determines saturation point?

7)  Since these refugees will have low skilled work, is health insurance available to them, or must they depend on public health care?   Is there any accounting of how many in the first group are now covered by medical insurance?  What has been the response of public health services?

8)  Are schools in Washington County overcrowded?  Maybe the initial 200 refugees have not put a burden on the schools, does anyone know?   Will the next 200 put a burden or the 200 after that?

9)  Have there been any crimes committed or use of police services during the first wave of immigrants?

10)  How well has the original group of refugees learned English?  Did all adults attend ESL classes regularly enough to learn?

11)  What programs are in place to encourage other assimilation to living in America?

12)  Who were the volunteer groups and churches in Washington County that helped support the first wave?  Are they still helping with the newcomers?  What sort of support did they give to the immigrants?   Are there such people lined up to help with the next wave?

13)  Are there regular meetings in Washington County to assess the problems/progress of the first group?

Do elected officials attend?  Does the public attend?

14) Is it a normal practice for a group such as Virginia Council of Churches to go to elected officials and ask for funds ($15,000 in this case)?  

15) Why did VCoC leave Carroll County?  Why are they not locating these people in Virginia?  Have those cities in Virginia been saturated?

16)  Does VCoC get government funds for its overhead?  If so, how much? 

Thanks for your interest.  If the Herald Mail editors do decide to put some time into investigating this, let me know and I can steer you to some agency contacts I’ve found.   Ann Corcoran

Illegal aliens become refugees–again!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here we go again,  every modern country in the world is struggling with the illegal alien issue.   Unfortunately,  advocates of open borders everywhere have turned illegals magically into asylum seekers and refugees.   Where we have illegal aliens flooding across our southern border by foot, the Australians have them coming by boat from everywhere.  

In the most recent flap, Sri Lankans that had attempted to enter Australia illegally are kept at a detention facility on the island of Nauru until they can be sorted out.   Now 72 have been granted “refugee” status.    But, guess what?   There have been suggestions that Australia  pass them off to the United States!    By the way, the United States takes the largest share of refugees in the world.

“Australia is now exploring resettlement options in other countries for the Sri Lankans that have been assessed as being refugees,” he said.

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Mr Andrews (Immigration Minister) played down suggestions the Sri Lankans could be sent to the US under a refugee exchange deal agreed to in April between Canberra and Washington.

I think the American public assumes refugees are families that have lived for long periods in squalid refugee camps, not men in boats who try to break into other countries.   See our earlier post about Malta’s illegal aliens being sent here as refugees.

It’s all about the ‘D’

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I know you are saying what, “It’s all about the ‘D’?”     Yeah, that’s what was running through my dreams at 3 a.m. today so I’m up writing about it.   It’s about demography, Deobandi, Dearborn, dhimmi Dean, Democrats, Debbie, diversity, and death.    

First, if you have read Mark Steyn’s  America Alone or Pat Buchanan’s State of Emergency, you  have gotten the message loud and clear that we are gradually being knocked off by numbers, by demographics!   Muslim’s are rapidly populating Europe through immigration and high birthrates.  The British, French, Russians, etc. are just not having babies, or at least not enough to keep the European stock alive for long.  In America we are barely breaking even.

Then here comes the Deobandi sect leader quoted in The Times of London last week:

Justice Muhammad Taqi Usmani argues that Muslims should live peacefully in countries such as Britain, where they have the freedom to practise Islam, only until they gain enough power to engage in battle.

Next you have Democrats pandering to Islamic organizations, most notably Howard ‘Dhimmi‘ Dean, chairman of the Democratic party.  Over Labor Day, Dean got a standing ovation at an Islamic Society of North America (unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror trial) meeting when he told Muslims to run for public office.  ‘Dhimmi’, by the way,  is the term used for second class Christians and Jews living under Islamic rule throughout history.

Dean didn’t need to tell them to get involved in politics because they already know that.  Imam Hendi of the Islamic Society of Frederick and Georgetown University told us they aim for 30 Muslim mayors by the year 2015.

Debbie Schussel reported yesterday that Dearborn and Hamtramck, Michigan are “ground zero” and “ground zero and a half” for Muslim controlled cities in America.  She attributed the jump in Muslim population to illegal immigration but the numbers have been ballooning in Michigan from LEGAL immigration through the disastrous family reunification mission of our federal government and through refugee resettlement.  See our story on one Iraqi refugee headed to Dearborn.

So now what do we do to head off American death by demographics?  We give up our reverence for diversity and halt all immigration, or at least slow it to a trickle,  as we did from 1925 to 1965.