Iraqi Refugees headed to Denver and to a city near you

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This afternoon, just as General Petraeus is telling Congress that things are looking up in Iraq, I see the Denver Post is reporting on 1400 Iraqis on their way to the US as refugees.  The article is your typical story with accounts of injured translators used as the reason we must bring 12,000 Iraqis here by next year.    You can bet all 12,000 are not injured scared translators.  Echoing one of my concerns:

I don’t trust the (government) to vet them correctly,” said U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo.

And another:

We’re directly affected by what’s happening in Iraq and the rest of the world. … I’d like to see what tangible we can do to help fulfill our moral obligations,” said Colorado state Rep. Joe Rice, a Democrat who served as a civil affairs soldier in Iraq and hears regularly from Iraqis wanting out.

But Rice said he’s also deeply conflicted. Many of those fleeing Iraq “are the very people who are needed to try to stabilize things, to build a new society there,” he said.

“If all the good people leave, who’s left to build a new society?”

We need to set up a safe refugee camp in the region, perhaps in Kuwait, and take care of people until the country is stabilized and they can return home to rebuild Iraq.    While our soldiers are fighting and dying  for their country, we don’t need to bring thousands of Iraqis here to live on welfare.

Hagerstown is ready for Hookahs?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

O.K., what’s going on here?   You can’t smoke in restaurants and bars in Maryland unless you are an immigrant from the Middle East I guess and you use a cool nifty multicultural pipe instead of dirty old American cigarettes.  Yesterday’s Herald-Mail has a story lots of people in Hagerstown, MD are smoking over!   It seems that one, Ham Abu-Zayyad, has plans to open a Hookah Cafe in downtown Hagerstown.  And, he says that “Hagerstown is going in the right direction.”— not according to all the calls I’ve gotten on it.  He says he envisions Hagerstown as the next Frederick (MD).   That last is the ultimate slur!

Hookah cafes are increasingly popular in the United States as places where mostly Middle Eastern and Turkish men go to smoke a communal pipe and talk politics, according to several articles I’ve just read about the unhealthy practice.   You can go here and learn about the history of hookah smoking and how it was intially a method for smoking opium.

You can go here and learn about health hazards associated with the practice:

The social aspect of hookahs also puts smokers at risk for diseases such as tuberculosis and viruses such as hepatitis and herpes. Shared mouthpieces and the heated, moist smoke may enhance the spread of such diseases.

These diseases are already on a dramatic upward trend anyway due to the haphazard and often non-existent health screening of immigrants entering the US.

And, you can go to the Mayo Clinic warning here and read about the myths surrounding hookah smoking.  

What concerns me is how did Abu-Zayyed get the notion that there were going to be enough people to patronize such an establishment here? Is he hoping for more Turkish Russian refugees who are by several accounts such heavy smokers they couldn’t get through their English language lessons without leaving the class frequently for a smoke.

And, I’ll be waiting for an outcry from all the anti-smoking folks, or is this somehow outside the bounds of criticism because of our national reverence for multiculturalism.

Iran, flexing muscles within our gates

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

In our zeal to bring the world to America, we not only bring the interesting aspects of the world’s many cultures we bring the dark side of the culture as well,  [I guess that is the ‘multi’ part of multiculturalism].  One of America’s greatest strengths is our freedom of speech and most of the world has little experience with that brilliant and beautiful concept.  Silencing us is one of the primary strategies being employed daily by Islamic organizations gaining increasing power in the US. 

Just this week the National Iranian American Council  (NIAC) objected to a cartoon in the Columbus Dispatch depicting Iran as a sewer with cockroaches crawling out into the surrounding countries.   So what!   Is NIAC making the illogical leap that by suggesting that depicting the Ahmadinijad regime in an unfavorable way, in a political cartoon no less, the Dispatch is racist?  And thereby is propagating hate against Iranian Americans?  Whah?  Yes, that is exactly what they are doing (they must be using the Democratic party play book—ten easy steps to victimhood).    Here is what NIAC says about the Dispatch:

By publishing this racist cartoon, the editors of the Dispatch have insulted and propagated hate against the Iranian American community.

NIAC Board member Dokhi Fassihian sent a letter to the Editors of the Dispatch protesting their action. She wrote: “The bigotry demonstrated by the publication of this cartoon not only betrays the mission to inform your readers, it endangers our country at an extremely sensitive time in our nation’s history by serving to further divide us at home and thrust us toward further conflict abroad.”

According to statistics compiled by Center for Immigration Studies,  we have allowed 331,000 Iranian immigrants to come to American through 2005.   The latest available statistics on refugees (Appendix A) from Iran put the number of refugees through 2005 at 63,979.  That number places Iran in the top three Muslim countries sending refugees to America.  What are we thinking?

For more on NIAC, go to Center for Vigilant Freedom here.

Good overall look at immigration and its impact on America

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

 Your tax dollars:

Someone just brought to my attention an excellent report by Steven Camarata at the Center for Immigration Studies entitled “Immigrants at Mid-Decade.”  It includes some useful statistics on refugees too.   But, if you had been wondering why in recent years it seems that immigrant numbers have increased dramatically, well its because they have.   Here is just a part of Camarata’s conclusion:

The latest data collected by the Census Bureau show that the years 2000 to 2005 are almost certainly the highest five years of immigration in American history. Immigration continues to be the subject of intense national debate. The 1.5 million immigrants arriving each year have a very significant effect on many areas of American life. Immigrants and their young children (under 18) now account for one-fifth of school age population, one-fourth of those in poverty, and nearly one-third of those without health insurance, creating enormous challenges for the nation’s schools, health care system, and physical infrastructure. The low educational attainment of many immigrants, 31 percent of whom have not completed high school, is the primary reason so many live in poverty, use welfare programs, or lack health insurance, not their legal status or an unwillingness to work.

More on Female Genital Mutilation

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is a little bit of information to follow up on Judy’s post yesterday about Female Genital Mutilation.  This is from the Center for Immigration Studies report we cited a few days ago.  FMG could be happening here already.  This conversation  took place among the non-profit “church” groups and other agencies involved in resettling refugees.

…… we are told that CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) can be used to educate refugees about the dangers of female genital mutilation (FGM), though there was disagreement as to how to do this in a “culturally appropriate” manner. CDC (Center for Disease Control) recently estimated that more than 150,000 women and girls in the United States may be at risk for or have already been subjected to the operation. Conferees confirmed a back alley practice in the operation, which leads one to wonder just how safe America is for women fleeing FGM in their home countries.

What is a “culturally appropriate” manner?   You just tell anyone coming to America that there is no tolerance here for any abuse of women and children.  You tell them they must leave their brutal practices behind.   You tell them they will go to jail for a very long time, or you tell them they will be deported.   How is that for “culturally appropriate?”