What are readers reading?

If you are a new reader at Refugee Resettlement Watch you might be interested in having a look at the right sidebar where “Top Posts” are listed.  I always find it informative to see what is interesting people from day to day.  Of course our posts on Somali numbers are almost always in the top ten.  But, today “Fun with Numbers” which gives you a link to State Department databases about what refugees and how many have been resettled in your towns in the last five years was number one—go figure!

See “Top Posts” from time to time

New readers and long-time readers might want to visit “Top Posts” in the right hand sidebar of this page.  I find it interesting to see which posts are the most popular on a given day.  Some are several years old, but are read as search engines direct readers here or when an old issue becomes hot again. Not all ‘hits’ are, however, from search engines.  I am sure in some cases, a reader finds something pertaining to his or her home community and then sends the link around to others.

We’ve written over 4000 posts and had well over a million visitors since RRW began in mid-2007.  For a blog with a very narrow focus, I think that is pretty good!

Use our search function (upper left on this page)—it is really very good—by using a few key words for the topic you wish to research.

Out the door….

Readers, sorry I’ll be away for a few days without internet.  If I don’t answer your e-mails and post your comments you know why.

If you want to read about some immigration issues, about Santorum getting an A grade from NumbersUSA, about Gingrich and CAIR, about Michelle Obama, about Ken Timmerman running for Congress and about a workshop in Maryland to learn how to become an investigative journalist, visit my other blog Potomac Tea Party Report where I have been busy posting these last few days.

To the reader who sent me a film recently!  I lost the e-mail, if you are seeing this, please send it again!

To new readers

If you are new to Refugee Resettlement Watch (we had a big jump in readers yesterday from google searches), you might want to use our search function (top of the upper left hand column) to learn more about the problems with the Refugee Resettlement program of the US State Department, other issues relating to legal immigration, and more about refugee/asylee issues generally around the world.

We have written 3,922 posts since July 2007 and even I need to periodically search for things I’ve written (and forgotten!) that tie in with new issues that come up.

You might also be able to find information using our categories.  I find the one called ‘where to find information’ the most useful.  It’s full of reports, data, and website sources.

And, you might want to check from time to time to see what are the most read posts in the last week or so—see ‘top posts’ in the lower right hand column.

Welcome if you are a new reader, and welcome back to previous visitors!

Break is over…

….back to work, too much is happening on refugees and other legal immigration issues for me to keep ignoring the stories.   As many of you know I had to stop posting here daily because too much was happening in Maryland where I live and there are only so many hours in a day.   Things haven’t slowed down here, but I am still very much interested in tracking the news in the refugee field.

I’m going to try to keep posts shorter, so as not to turn them into massive writing/linking projects and I’ll direct you to our archives instead.

Still taking a break, but I will return to posting daily …

…I’m just not sure when!  As I said here some weeks ago, there is too much going on politically in Maryland where I live that I haven’t been able to keep up my research on the Refugee Program.  I do have a little pile of mostly Somali refugee stories building up and hope to get to at least give you the links in a day or so.

Much to my surprise, our readership has not dropped to any degree since we haven’t posted.  If you go to the right hand sidebar note the Top Posts that are being consistently read and distributed to new readers.

Matthew Lee (AP Reporter) is an activist, not a reporter!

I wondered why an old post I wrote about Matthew Lee was getting so many hits so I googled and at the top of my search appeared this article—Matthew Lee grilling the US State Department over a decision involving UNESCO and the “so-called Palestinians.”   In 2008 Lee was the mouthpiece for the activists trying to get more Iraqis into the US.   Here is that old  post about Lee that is getting a lot of recent traffic.   Please watch Lee in action here on Monday!  Watch him bully the State Department spokesperson.   Matthew Lee is not a reporter but a political activist!

Also that old post on ‘Why so many Somali refugees’ continues to be the most visited post at RRW.

Taking a break!

Judy and I began Refugee Resettlement Watch in the summer of 2007 and now it’s time for a break.

We are entering one of the most critical political years in American history and there is much to do elsewhere.   Don’t get me wrong, this issue is still a very very important one and we aren’t going away completely.  From time to time, we will post things that interest us, but we don’t have time to read comments and sort through them—like (LOL!) the comment from ‘American Boy’ yesterday who speculated that we only write this lousy blog because we probably got fired from a resettlement agency for committing a felony.  Yeh, that’s it!  How did he guess!

Until we return full time, there is still lots of good information posted here.  We have written almost 4000 posts and you should be able to track any subject we’ve written about by using our ‘search’ function (it is really good), or check out our various categories.

If you have a good story or wish to reach me, write to Ann@vigilantfreedom.com.

2008 post has received 17,821 hits….

….and continues to be a top post almost every day.

Which post is it?  This one entitled:  How did we get so many Somali refugees—the numbers are telling.   There is no evidence in the stats to tell us where so many hits come from every day, people must just be forwarding it to friends.  It’s a mystery to me.

Just a reminder that in the right hand sidebar (scroll down) you can see which posts have been the most heavily read in the last few days, check it out once in awhile.

Happy 4th birthday to us!

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been writing about refugees for 4 years this month!  I almost missed our birthday month until I noticed today that we had some time ago passed the One Million Viewers mark—we have had 1,010,143 viewers at RRW over four years!   Now, that is not much by popular blog standards, but for a blog devoted to a rather arcane subject, it’s not bad.

Also in 4 years we’ve written 3,785 posts in 48 categories.    Just a reminder to readers that our search function is really good, just enter a few key words on a subject you are searching and see if we’ve written about it.  You might also enter your city or state to see if we have something from where you live.

Thanks to all of our readers and commenters for your continuing interest in the issue of refugee resettlement and in learning more about Legal immigration in general.

A reminder to commenters

We have a couple of comments lately that personally attack other commenters.  As I’ve said many times previously, I don’t care if you call me names.  Or, you can say stuff like American (liberals, rightwingers) stink or Muslims are fanatics or refugees want goodies or white Europeans are racists, or whatever.  But, I’m not posting any comments that are addressed to another person directly with a statement like “YOU are _____ (fill in with idiot, racist, xenophobe, hatemonger, etc.).”  That is usually the fallback position liberals (and occasionally others) use when shaming someone into silence hasn’t worked—they start the direct namecalling.

I may have from time to time missed some of those sorts of direct attacks, but I do try to catch them and because we have had a rash of those lately, I’m back on the warpath about it.

Oh, and we don’t talk about violence toward anyone.

If your comment hasn’t been posted and you wondered why, you might go back and re-write it with some changes.