No new election for Kansas City candidate alleging possible voter fraud…

….in a case involving a number of Somali voters.

Here is a story a few weeks old now (Hat tip: Joyce) that raises questions about immigrant voting irregularities and shows me that election judges must be too inimidated to question unusual behavior by immigrants.

A Jackson County judge ruled late Tuesday that a Missouri House candidate who officially lost by three votes is not entitled to a new election.

But a re-count in the hotly contested 40th District primary to represent the Northeast area of Kansas City will commence at 9 a.m. today. The official count in the August election had John Joseph Rizzo winning 667 to 664 over Will Royster.

[....]

Some said a Somali man had helped others vote, sometimes going into the voting area and pointing to ballots, even though the voters had not filled out special cards designated for voters needing assistance.

Royster’s petition had stated that a man who identified himself as an interpreter for a group of Somalis stood over them as they looked at ballots and told them how to cast their votes. Royster’s attorney, Phil Willoughby, had said the only solution to the situation was a new election.

New election was denied.

Update September 26th:  More on this story at Emerging Corruption, here.

Book about refugees is Maryland “one book”

Your tax dollars

Yesterday I learned from Cindy that “Outcasts United” had been chosen earlier this year as the “One Maryland, One book” being promoted by the Maryland Humanities Council.

The book by author Warren St. John is billed as an “inspirational” story about how refugee boys in Clarkston, Georgia overcome the odds (which includes a town unhappy with the arrival of large numbers of refugees) to play soccer under a strict coach.  If you don’t want to read the book, you can get the gist of it from reviews at Amazon, but I warn you that virtually all the reviewers are thrilled with what sounds like just another sports underdog story with a multiculturalism is beautiful message.

More importantly though, at least for me, is the question of what is up with this “one book” thing where everyone in the state is supposed to be reading a book of the year chosen by those with a leftwing view of the world….and then we pay for what is clearly indoctrination with our tax dollars.  It kind of gives me the creeps!

Note to all those claiming we need to cut the budget at both the state and federal level—I got about a million and a half dollars right here to start with!

Check out the most recent Form 990 for the Maryland Humanities Council, here.  Note that $1.3 million of the funds for this program come from government grants.  Tracing that back further, the source of most of that government money (your tax dollars) comes from the National Endowment for the Humanities, here.  Maryland taxpayers add to the kitty through the Department of Education.

By the way, the Maryland Humanities Council spent $9000 to influence legislators into awarding them more funding.   Imagine what the Founding Fathers would say about a federal role in all of this.

The One Maryland, One Book  indoctrination project only cost taxpayers $198,143 last year.   Since you paid for this, maybe some of you should attend the upcoming schedule of community discussions about Maryland’s “one book.”

Update:  Here is more about the Maryland book tour.

Another mosque controversy, this one in Kentucky

ACLU steps in to defend Somali mosque plans, from the Courier-Journal:

The American Civil Liberties Union has agreed to represent a man whose application for a mosque on behalf of his fellow Somalis was denied by Mayfield’s Board of Zoning Adjustment.

The Kentucky and national branches of the organization took the case after the board last month reversed its original approval for the mosque, citing a lack of adequate parking. The decision was applauded by an overflow crowd that attended the meeting.

Will Mayfield be another Shelbyville?   How many chicken plants are near Mayfield, does anyone know?

Update September 23rd:  I was only joking about the proximity of a chicken plant but this update story at AP confirms it—chicken plant nearby.

The ACLU said the applicant, Khadar Ahmed, prefers to resolve the issue outside of court but reserves the right to a court appeal. Ahmed is among about 150 Somalis who have moved to the Mayfield area recently to work in a chicken plant.

Be sure also to see this story about NGOs working with meat packers.  And, this one about Khadra’s warning about a huge storm coming to small town America.

France and Germany roiled over plans for Roma

Moving south from Sweden, where elections today will determine whether Sweden’s open door policy toward immigrants and refugees will continue, to France and Germany where a dispute has grown between the two countries about what to do with the Roma (also known as gypsies).

From the New York Times:

BERLIN — European tempers over the treatment of Roma immigrants flared again on Friday, as President Nicolas Sarkozy of France said the Germans were preparing to follow France’s lead and expel migrant Roma, while German officials denied they had said any such thing.

The altercation marked a significant widening of the diplomatic repercussions spreading across Europe after France in July began deporting Roma to their homes in Romania and Bulgaria.

Read on.

Is this just one more example of the growing rise in ethnic nationalism?

Look for the Roma to appear soon on the list as refugees being resettled in the US.  Afterall, there are lots of precidents.  How is this attempt by France to keep France for the French any different than the Bhutanese wanting Bhutan for the Bhutanese?   When Bhutan expelled the Nepalese and sent them back to Nepal, we scurried in (critical of Bhutan) and promised to take 60,000!  (See the latest post here at RRW on how many have arrived.)   One could say Burma has done the same—expelled those it believes not to be truly Burmese.  Now we take their minorities.   So, will the Roma be next?  Just wondering.

Swedish elections today could change balance of power in Sweden and beyond

And, it’s all about immigration!   See this story (with a pro-socialist spin) from the Guardian and watch for news later today.

The Swedish Social Democrats are no ordinary party. If Mona Sahlin, their leader, loses tomorrow’s election, as seems almost certain, she will become the first leader in the party’s history never to have been prime minister. The party has been in government for 65 of the last 78 years, and in that time no non-socialist government has ever been re-elected. But today a far-right party that blames Muslim immigration for almost all the country’s ills is poised to enter parliament and hold the balance of power. It already has members in local government across more than half the country. The local paper in Malmö, the country’s third-largest city, publishes a Google Map marking all the shootings in the city – there have been 46 this year, though no one has been killed. What on earth is going on in this tranquil, ordered and progressive country?

If you believe the international rightwing press, the answer is simple, and has been since 2004, when Fox News made a special report on the subject: Sweden, and especially Malmö, has become a laboratory for the creeping Islamisation of Europe. The most common child’s name there is now Muhammad; police dare not go into immigrant districts, where only sharia law is respected; and soon all the Jews will be driven from the city. All this, flecked with varying amounts of spittle, is recounted as fact on the net and in US papers.

Paulina Neuding, a neoliberal Swedish commentator, wrote in Rupert Murdoch’s Weekly Standard, “Too many of the country’s Arab immigrants have brought anti-democratic values from their home countries; values that neither ‘dialogue police’ nor the world’s most generous welfare system has been able to cure. And [Sweden] is also becoming a symbol of a western country that is prepared to compromise with those values.”

To get a much better understanding of how Sweden has come to this point.  See this important history lesson at Gates of Vienna from earlier this month.  Hat tip:  Richard Falknor at Blue Ridge Forum.

We have written many posts about the growing tensions in Sweden over Muslim immigration and this post continues to be one of our most read posts at RRW.  I think it must be the title that brings readers, “Muslim immigration killing Sweden.”   However, I thought this was a much more significant post on Sweden—Jews leaving Sweden—here.

Update September 26th:  More biased reporting from the Guardian on the Swedish vote, here.

Immigrants treated as slaves in Florida

And, they came here under a LEGAL program.   This is one more reason why ALL legal immigration programs must be scrutinized right along with all of the illegal immigration everyone focuses on.

From AFP News:

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A Florida couple pleaded guilty to conspiring to hold 39 Filipino employees against their will working in country clubs and hotels, the US Justice Department said Friday.

Sophia Manuel, 41, and Alfonso Baldonado Jr., 45, were owners of a labor contracting service based in the Florida city of Boca Raton. [I would like to know the immigration status of Manuel and Baldonado--ed]

Manuel and Baldonado “conspired to obtain a cheap, compliant and readily available labor pool, by making false promises to entice the victims to incur debts,” read a Department of Justice statement, quoting court documents.

“The defendants then compelled the victims’ labor and services through threats to have the workers arrested and deported, knowing the workers faced serious economic harm and possible incarceration for nonpayment of debts in the Philippines.”

Imagine this, the alleged slave owner lied on his H2B visa application.

Manuel also pleaded guilty to lying in an application filed with the US Labor Department to obtain foreign labor certifications and visas under the federal H2B guest worker program.

We reported a very similar story back in June 2009 in Kansas.  I put some of the blame on these hotel owners as well. 

And, weren’t there some big wig hotel owners working with Republicans Grover Norquist and Tamar Jacoby (along with Leftwing Open Borders advocates) to plan a strategy to get more immigrant labor into the US.  Yes, there were, here.

Even my US Senator, Democrat Barbara Mikulski (up for reelection this November), busied herself in 2006 and got the H2B visas increased to supply labor supposedly needed by big business in Maryland, here.

Pretending to be Rohingya?

This is a discussion thread  that gives us some more insight on the scams that are occurring in the refugee resettlement program in Canada (and I suspect in the US as well).

They don’t take Bangladeshis?  Then be a Rohingya

Commenter TIslam reports:

I wasn’t aware of people seeking “political asylum” or applying for Canadian immigration under “refugee” status by Bangladeshis, until recently. I came to learn about it because my wife’s cousin’s friend got married to one such hapless character, who is now getting his papers straightened out owing to being married to a Canadian citizen. He was to be deported from Canada as he became illegal. The fellow entered Canada with a student visa but wanted to remain permanently. Apparently he hired an immigration lawyer who advised him to apply under the refugee status. Initially they thought that his application was accepted and the petition granted, however, he was notified that his application has been rejected after a year or so, owing to the backlog of applications. The poor guy met his wife-to-be, in the nick of time, thus saving himself from deportation.

The woman told me that there are many unscrupulous immigration attorneys who dupe many unknowing and helpless people by advising people to seek Canadian immigration under the refugee status or political asylum, when in fact they would not be eligible.

Refugee status for a Bangladeshi is pretty far fetched because by definition, that status is meant for people whose country is at war for which a large number of people have become displaced or for people who belong to a certain segment who are being persecuted like the Rohingyas, or like in Darfur, or those Iraqis who actively assisted the coalition forces, who perceive of being in danger if they continue to live in Iraq. Political asylum is more plausible since it is always possible to show that one was active in politics and that the current regime seeks to persecute him/her, etc.

Samaruf responds:

I have heard of Bangladeshis seeking asylum in Scandinavia and Canada by calling themselves Rohingyas as it is hard to tell the difference.

We have a whole category (94 previous posts!) on Rohingya Muslims.  For the longest time they were not accepted as refugees for resettlement to the US, but all that has changed.  Earlier in the month we reported Rohingya being resettled in Atlanta, here.

Shelbyville, TN in the news again as subject of propaganda film

Although it hasn’t been released to the general public, the US State Department is busy showing its propaganda* film (‘Welcome to Shelbyville’) on how the citizens of Shelbyville, TN have come to supposedly accept and embrace the Somalis who were lured to the town by jobs at a nearby Tyson’s chicken plant.  

The problems with Somalis in Shelbyville was extensively covered in articles in the Times-Gazette beginning in 2007.   We covered the issue as well (use our search function for ‘Somalis Shelbyville’ for at least a dozen posts on the controversy).

Here is how the AP now enthuses over the film that is clearly meant to show immigrants as warm and fuzzy while Tennesseans (some depicted as trailer park rednecks) hearts and minds are magically transformed as they come to know their new neighbors:

SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – A new documentary that will be broadcast nationwide in the spring follows the reception of a group of Somali immigrants in Shelbyville – a small town about an hour south of Nashville best known as the home of the Tennessee Walking Horse.

The film chronicles the difficulties some longtime residents have in accepting the changes that immigration is bringing to their community, as well as the evolution of some residents’ attitudes as they get to know the Somalis through a series of shared meals and dialogues.

“Welcome to Shelbyville” saw its U.S. debut this week at a screening in Shelbyville for community leaders. One of those present was Bedford County Mayor Eugene Ray.

Ray is seen at the beginning of the film complaining that Somali immigrants, unlike Hispanics, are “not nice” and “not easy to deal with.”

For example, “When they go to a store, they feel like they can negotiate,” he says. Haggling over prices is commonplace in Somalia.

But toward the end of the film he seems to be on better terms with the Somalis, many of whom are refugees who settled in Shelbyville to work at a chicken processing plant. In one of the final scenes, Ray is seated at a banquet table with several Somali residents, including the imam of a local mosque, Mohammed Ali.

No surprise, the US State Department loves the film and is showing it around Africa.  No sense waiting until the film is out in the US.    They want to make sure Africans want to continue to come and be part of the cheap legal labor force the State Department supplies to the likes of the meatpackers!   The message that we are all one big happy world is just the cover and the lie.

Film director and producer Kim Snyder, who attended the screening and participated in a panel discussion afterward, said the film was selected by the U.S. State Department to be shown abroad as part of its American Documentary Showcase.

Dear Kim, please tell me why the Far Left is busy helping giant corporations get cheap immigrant labor?  I cannot wrap my head around that.  What is in it for you?  Did big companies pay for this film?

Here is what I said about the far Leftwing film project when I first heard about it in November of 2008 and it sure looks like my prediction has come true:

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.

To be sure, we will have more on this film in future posts because some local residents are charging that the film distorts the facts and no where will the media report that politically incorrect information.

For new readers:  This post I wrote in September 2008 about the 100,000 (by now!) Somalis the US State Department has admitted to the US since 1983 is daily still one of our top most visited posts.

* This is as good a time as any to mention Adolph Hitler’s definition of propaganda and how and why the BIG LIE works.

All this was inspired by the principle–which is quite true within itself–that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying.  [Emphasis mine]

More on the PR campaign on the film, here.

New regulations on family reunification available for comment on Federal Register

The long-awaited new regulations for the fraud-ridden (P-3) family reunification program of  the US State Department were published in the Federal Register on Sept. 8th.   Concerned citizens have 60 days to weigh in on whether the proposed (limited!) DNA testing will be enough to stem the tide of fraudulent claims for family reunification mostly from Africa.

We first reported the scandal here in August of 2008 after learning about it from the Wall Street Journal.

Almost a year ago we reported that the program that allowed as many as 80% of Somalis claiming to be ”family,” but in fact not related at all, to enter the US illegally.  The State Department estimates that from 2003-2008, 36,000 Africans arrived fraudulently and it has no plans to determine who they are.

Again, see the Federal Register notice here.

Lewiston, ME: Professor implies that refugees financially benefit Lewiston

Your tax dollars

Yes, that is correct.  Professor Catherine Besteman (with Ishmail Ahmed) says in a report (seeking to dispel rumors, she says) that federal grant money flowing into the Lewiston/Auburn area has positively benefited the community and offsets any expense the Somali refugee influx has cost Maine.  Hat tip:  Susan  [ The report is a pdf file so let me know if you would like a copy, or if someone finds a link, please send it.]

Besteman:

In other words, to date the refugee demographic has been economically beneficial to the Lewiston/Auburn area.

Professor Besteman, grant money does not grow on trees.  Any money flowing to Maine from the federal government comes from taxpayers in other states, so while it may not cost Lewiston, it costs the country!

I note that the professor is on the Board of advisors for the local Somali ECBO (Ethnic Community Based Organization).  ECBO’s as I have reported on many occasions are basically mini-ACORNs.  They are run with tax dollars, teach immigrants how to access ‘resources’ (welfare benefits), and then act as a political voice for their respective ethnic group.  See our whole category on ECBO’s here.

By the way, it is my observation that ECBO’s do not foster assimilation but act as divisive forces in communities.

I can’t find any record at Guidestar that this Somali ECBO exists.  I suspect their money is coming through the State of Maine Dept. of Health and Human Services (among other government sources) that gets federal ECBO funding here.  

It is my suggestion that folks concerned about tax dollars in Maine do some serious investigative digging into the documents and learn who is and who is not benefiting from the refugee influx to Maine.

New readers might want to visit this older post to understand how the secondary migration of Somalis to Maine began and why.