I need some computer geek to tell me what is up!

I admit I am completely ignorant about the inner workings of the internet.   Would someone please tell me why I cannot access any link at the Office of Refugee Resettlement?   Every time I try to get to one of the databases or reports there, or in fact even the main page for ORR, I get an error message.    This has gone on for weeks and I even get the error message coming from google.  Am I just incompetent or paranoid (or both!)

I don’t see how it is possible, but tell me, is it possible for someone to block me?   Are any of the rest of you having problems accessing the Office of Refugee Resettlement?

Happy First Anniversary to us!

Just one year ago today, Judy and I launched Refugee Resettlement Watch.   Our original purpose has not changed—we want to help you, our readers, learn more about this government program which very likely is affecting or will affect your lives.    We also believe very strongly that the program is in need of serious scrutiny and reform which we think can only begin when enough people have a complete picture of Refugee Resettlement. 

Someone sent a comment not too long ago and said something like:  why don’t you write about the good things about refugees?   We figure we don’t need to do that because the mainstream media is busy doing puff pieces every day.   Our goal is to give you the rest of the story.

My one regret is that I haven’t done as good a job as I would have liked in giving you basic information on your state, but promise to work on that section of RRW soon.  I see some daylight coming in my schedule!  Like so many people advocating reform, we are not paid to do this work and must squeeze it in between other work and family duties.

On this July first, we have had just short of 90,000 readers this past year.  That is nothing compared to the big blogs but we are really pleased with the readership and hope you will put us on your daily ‘must read’ list.  Once educated, then please become politically active to help change how all immigration (legal and illegal) is handled in the United States.  Frankly, it’s a mess! 

Where’s Ann?

Ann lost her cable service and has no Internet until it is fixed. She sends her greetings and is itching to get back on RRW.

Today’s Washington Post ‘Storm’ story made me laugh

This isn’t a story about refugees or immigration, it’s about blogging, addiction and some serious things too.  The Post article I could laugh about this morning is entitled “Storms’ Fury Cuts off Data lines that bind.”

Yes, I could laugh moments after the power came back on this morning.   I was reading the Washington Post on the porch with my convienence store cup of coffee in hand, just as I’ve done for a couple of mornings this week, ever since we lost the power in a freak storm on Wednesday.   

I wasn’t laughing as I tripped and stumbled up our farm lane that first afternoon—a lane that had become completely impassable with downed trees and saw our storm ravaged farm.   I wasn’t laughing either when I had to figure out how to haul in hundreds of gallons of water for livestock in ninety degree heat.   And, I can assure you I wasn’t even giggling a little when I packed garbage bags full with our food from the refrigerator and freezer to take to the dump.

All I could think of was how to survive day to day.  Yes, I know it was only two and a half days!    It felt like two and half years without the computer.   That was what was so funny about the Post story.  One more night and I would be checking into a hotel room (like the family in the article) just to have internet service and get back to the news and your e-mails and of course, researching posts for RRW.

It all seems very funny now.   But, it isn’t.   It really hit me this week how vulnerable we are.   My whole town was not affected by this not-quite-tornado and certainly I am not comparing our situation to those who have lost much more in recent real tornados.     I could still get in the car and get what I needed (like my morning cup of coffee), and neighbors not hit so hard came with chainsaws and a bobcat to help clean up, but imagine if our power system was destroyed on a large scale.    (I’m not telling terrorists anything they don’t already know!)  Chaos would follow.

For two and a half days I can assure you I wasn’t thinking about immigration or Iraq, or the latest from the Hillary-Obama-McCain show.   I was cut off from my addiction to the world wide web’s minute by minute news and the security it appears to provide—somehow just knowing what is going on helps one feel somehow in control (I know that doesn’t make sense). 

So, just give it all some thought and prepare your families a little.  It might not be much worse for you than me—trying to figure out what food wasn’t spoiled and could go on the backyard barbecue grill—but then again it could be very very bad and we need to be sure we are ready.  Back in January I wrote about how we all need to get a blog to save free speech and a gun to keep America safe.   To those two essentials I’ll add—-get a grill.

WordPress takes it upon itself to add links to RRW

For your information you might have noticed that we have a new feature at the end of some articles called “possibly related articles”.   WordPress began this feature out of the blue recently.   You might find it useful to learn more about a particular issue, but we want to assure you that some linked articles that appear are not necessarily views that we hold.

Blogging is changing the rules of journalism, and it’s about time!

This article brought a smile to my face when I saw it last night in the Washington Times.   It’s about the woman who taped Obama’s now famous “bitter” comments and it’s subheading says it all:  Dividing line blurred between amateur, traditional journalists.

Mayhill Fowler is no longer an unknown California blogger. In the past 48 hours, she has generated international press coverage, a profile in the New York Times and sparked furious discussion among journalists, pundits and campaign strategists.

The enterprising Mrs. Fowler, 61, and her digital recording device are behind “Bittergate.”

It’s about time!  Those traditional (professional) journalists have been sifting the news for us for my entire lifetime (and way before that), so it gives me great joy to see the mainstream media pooh-bahs brought low. 

“This situation clearly illuminates the fact that in the citizen blogger, amateur journalism world, the rules that govern the relationship between traditional journalists and their sources are not present. A traditional newsroom would not have allowed someone who was a campaign donor to cover that candidate,” said Mark Jurkowitz of the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Too bad, Mr. Jurkowitz. 

For the first time in my adult life, I see some hope for reforming our political system by getting the sifters of the news out of the way.   The public should be given all the facts so they can then make up their own minds about public officials or public policy.

Blogger busts — an online exclusive amplified in big media with serious repercussions — have emerged as an increasing threat to unwary public figures and a cautionary tale.

Yup!   And, as I have said on several previous occasions:  Start a blog! 

RRW: a couple of housekeeping issues, new category

We have had some changes in wordpress, so if posts look less professional (mine!), it’s because I haven’t got it all sorted out.    Judy, however,  has caught on to the changes and is doing fine with them.

I just wrote another crime story involving refugees and decided we really needed a new category.   I’ve entitled it simply “crimes”, but it will include posts where refugees committed crimes as well as those where a crime was committed against a refugee.      I went back about a month and edited other posts to include this category and hopefully I can go back farther to add the ”crimes” category to appropriate posts.

By the way we have written 588 posts in 27 categories since we began Refugee Resettlement Watch last July.

Jen: Assimilation is out and integration is in

The blogger’s name is Jen and she posts from Fargo, ND.   It’s pretty clear from a quick tour of her blog, Notes from the North Country, that she is a liberal political activist and refugee resettlement supporter.   Go and check out this post entitled “Integration” for a look at her views on refugee resettlement.   I found some of her comments enlightening.  First she tells us that “assimilation” is officially out.   She and the Pittsburgh student we wrote about here are reading from the same refugee lingo book.

Assimilation is no longer an official goal (that was more when we were a melting pot); the latest buzz word in refugee resettlement is “integration.” The number one goal of refugee resettlement is “early economic self-sufficiency.” Put another way, welcome to America! Get a job. Now. Seriously. Right now. And lest you think refugees get special favors, not only do they pay taxes from the get go, they also arrive in the U.S. with a debt: they must repay the U.S. for their air travel here, an interest-free loan.

Well, not exactly on that loan bit,  many don’t ever repay it and the State Department carries hundreds of millions of unpaid debt that they periodically just write-off to make the books look good.

Then she confirms that in the early days, the 1980s, refugees were resettled by individual churches.  Today it involves an assortment of taxpayer funded agencies and actors.    Does she wish it was done in the old way?  It almost sounds like it.

Even in the 1980s, most refugees in the Fargo region (most were Vietnamese) were sponsored by churches. Now there are multiple agencies, committees, and partnerships to serve the needs of refugees and to integrate them into their new society.

Here Jen gives us another look inside the mind of a refugee advocate and it comes back to our theme of recent days—gratitude and whether we (America) owe something to the world.    The Obama/preacher brouhaha has brought this to the forefront in many minds.   The best way to turn off people with whom one wishes to “integrate” is to act as if ones misfortune is all America’s fault, to insist that one is owed something and thus appear ungrateful.   In this passage Jen admits refugees are complaining.   What are they complaining about, the weather, or are the resettlement agencies falling down on the job? 

Some locals in Fargo respond to complaints by saying if newcomers aren’t grateful, then they should go back to their home countries. In most cases, the conflicts in those countries had something to do with wheelings and dealings of the U.S.

Yup, and thus we owe them.

RRW reaches a milestone! 50,000 visits!

I know, I know.  We aren’t one of the big boys, but we are happy to report we have just a few minutes ago reached our 50,000 visitors mark.   We began this blog back in July 2007 and have to date written 524 posts as part of our mission to inform and to ultimately bring about reform of legal immigration.

Our little graph which shows daily visitors by day, week, and month is climbing steadily and we hope that is an indication that we are bringing useful information to you and that visitors are returning and telling others about us.   We also hope that by challenging your thinking, even if it makes you angry sometimes, we will one day see Refugee Resettlement changed to make life better for refugees, for the communities in which they live,  always mindful of our paramount concern for the future well-being of our country.

Women Against Shariah has arrived

Our friend Janet Levy has started a blog—an important blog!  It’s called Women Against Shariah and you must read it here.  

Without a doubt one of the most puzzling aspects of the debate about the expanding Islamist agenda is the utter silence of feminists who are otherwise demanding rights for all women.  I guess if the perpetrator is some white male chauvinist pig he is fair game, but by golly they don’t say a word about the brutality some women in the world (and increasingly in America) face under Shariah law and from Muslim men.

Women Against Shariah could not come too soon.   We have a growing number of refugees and other immigrants importing to America practices which all civilized people must reject—polygamy, female genital mutilation, and even honor killings.

Go now and visit Women Against Shariah and check out the informative sidebar on the demands the Koran makes on women regarding their clothing by instructing them on how best to hide their “ornaments.”

And, if you are a blogger add this important site to your blogroll.  Congratulations Janet!