This'n'That; July Twenty-Eighth[Pigford;Sherrod]

Political Stripe Not Important!
    There's no difference between the two major political parties or any lesser political parties.  As my dad used to say "There ain't a dime's worth'a difference" between any of the sonsa-bitches!!  Whether they're obamacRATs or republicRATs, they're all out to screw the common man (and woman).
    This is about the 'Pigford vs. Glickman' settlement, which is just so much welfare--but allocated to black farmers, wanna-be black farmers and quasi-black farmers.  Let's have a look at the 'Reader's Digest version' of the details.
    Pigford v. Glickman was a class action lawsuit against the United States Department of Agriculture (the "USDA"), alleging racial discrimination in its allocation of farm loans and assistance between 1983 and 1997.  The allegations were that the USDA treated black farmers unfairly when deciding to allocate price support loans, disaster payments, "farm ownership" loans, and operating loans, and that the USDA had completely failed to process subsequent complaints about racial discrimination.  The plaintiffs settled with the government in 1999.     Far beyond the original 400 filing black farmers, 22,505 "Track A" applications were heard and decided upon, of which 13,348 (59%) were approved. $995 million had been disbursed or credited to the "Track A" applicants as of January 2009[update], including US$760 million disbursed as $50,000 cash awards.[3] Fewer than 200 farmers opted for the "Track B" process.  The USDA has disbursed nearly $1 Billion, with another $1.25 Billion being held in abeyance by the Congress.
Now, to add more scum to the pond: 
    The Office of Economic Opportunity [OEO] The OEO was created in 1964 as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson's great welfare giveaways and perpetual vote purchases, known as the "Great Society" and the "War on Poverty."
    The Rural Development Leadership Network [RDLN], is nothing more than "ACORN" for farmers and the rural poor; community agitators with a different name.  Shirley Sherrod once agitated for them.   
    New Communities, Inc., is a land trust that Shirley and Charles Sherrod established in the 1960s with other black farm families, at one time holding almost 6,000 acres.  Over the years, USDA refused to provide loans for farming or irrigation and would not allow New Communities to restructure its loans. (so obviously they got USDA loans, just not all the loans they asked for) Gradually, the group had to wind down operations.  Through an outright scam, New Communities, Inc., will receive a $13 Million settlement for perceived discrimination from 1981-1985 ($8,247,560 for loss of land and $4,241,602 for loss of income; plus $150,000 each to Shirley and Charles for pain and suffering).

[The cake-holder and urnal cake images from http://www.fubowear.com/ ]

Til Nex'Time....

Where are "the national pamphleteers" on this one?? 

Why did we have to find out about this through an Andrew Breitbart interview on a recent Michael Savage radio broadcast??

Under the consent decree, all African American farmers would be paid a "virtually automatic" $50,000 plus granted certain loan forgiveness and tax offsets. This process was called "Track A".



Alternatively, affected farmers could follow the "Track B" process, seeking a larger payment by presenting a greater amount of evidence — the legal standard in this case was to have a preponderance of evidence along with evidence of greater damages.