A former Secretary of Agriculture has now expressed concern about the obvious fraud involved in the multi-billion-dollar settlement of the black “farmer” and other lawsuits against the government — but why has everyone failed to note that all of these settlements are actually illegal under federal law?
When Congress was stampeded to pass unprecedented legislation in 1998 to facilitate the Pigford v. Glickman suit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), some wise but unknown person included a limiting provision in that bill to minimize participation by phony claimants.
But, when the Clinton Administration agreed to a settlement of the case in 1999, that provision was carefully evaded in the consent decree, opening the door to massive fraud. Judge Paul Friedman, a Clinton appointee, quickly approved the deal, resulting in payment of more than $1 billion to nearly 16,000 black claimants, virtually none of whom met that statutory requirement.
Now the Obama regime is on the brink of settling a second Pigford suit for another $1.25 billion, and the proposed settlement again subverts and ignores the law to encourage and reward massive fraud — this time by as many as 80,000 prospective claimants. Obama recently signed legislation appropriating $1.15 billion more for black farmer claims, and his administration claims there are safeguards against fraud in the settlement.
In fact, not only has the Obama Justice Department facilitated fraud, but it has continued the practice of ignoring and subverting the statutory provision designed to stop fraud.
It’s a dirty little, seldom mentioned secret that Pigford was certified by Judge Friedman as a class action not for discrimination in making loans, but based on the allegation that plaintiffs’ civil rights complaints against USDA were mishandled by the department’s civil rights apparatus.
This being the case, the law passed to allow the suits limited participation to individuals who had “a nonemployment related complaint that was filed with the Department of Agriculture before July 1, 1997, and alleges discrimination at any time during the period beginning on January 1, 1981 and ending December 31, 1996 . . . .”
Now, a reasonable person would conclude that this created a very finite, verifiable pool of applicants, since any bureaucracy keeps careful track of the cases it handles, if only to justify current and additional staffing and resources. Any plaintiffs could be checked against the USDA record of discrimination complaints for that period, and those who had filed no complaints could be excluded from participation.
Not in Bill Clinton’s America! In the original 1999 settlement, USDA pleaded its own incompetence to help claimants avoid meeting this requirement, saying its records were in such a state of chaos that they could not be relied upon to filter out fraud.
Therefore, the original settlement openly invited fraud by allowing claimants to substitute “a communication from a class member directly to USDA, or to a member of Congress, the White House, or a state, local or federal official who forwarded the class member’s communication to USDA, asserting that USDA had discriminated against the class member on the basis of race in connection with a federal farm credit transaction or benefit application.” But there was never any requirement to prove that USDA was actually contacted by any third party and put on notice of the existence of a complaint.
And it gets worse: claimants who didn’t have such a letter were allowed to “submit an affidavit from a non-family member stating that he or she has personal knowledge that a discrimination complaint was filed and describing the way in which it was filed.” For 99 percent of the claims, the settlement eliminated the government’s right to challenge even the most obviously untrue affidavits. In the one percent of claims where they could be challenged, a significant number failed because, under penalty of perjury, the non-family member quickly admitted that there was no first-hand knowledge.
It can easily be proven than USDA Secretary Dan Glickman was wrong when he asserted that discrimination was “rampant” in his department — that his outburst was a blatant effort to aid the plaintiffs at a crucial moment in the legal process. So, how true was his claim about the civil rights records?
In 2005, the USDA Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights advised a congressman: “Regrettably, the Office of Civil Rights underwent several organizational changes during 1981-1997, and the responsibility for handling program discrimination complaints was not centralized during that time. Thus, there is no central repository for data regarding program discrimination complaints that were filed between 1981-1997.”
This is not a claim that records do not exist, just that there is no central source. But is even USDA really so incompetent that it has been unable to gather together those documents in the 13 years since the Pigford lawsuit was filed? It’s far more likely that they never existed — because very few complaints were really filed.
In that letter, the Assistant Secretary went on to admit that the department had records of only 1,376 program-related civil rights complaints filed during entire 17-year period. And less than 1,000 of those involved the Farm Programs and Farm Loan Programs that are the statutorily limited subjects of Pigford and the other lawsuits.
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Anything to break the bank!
Reparations if you please.
"We want more bread and circus!" – members of an unruly mob to the Roman Emperor Caligula.
Sorry – it was actually the Emperor Nero.
Clovin Piven at it's best!!
"No matter how incompetent USDA may have been, this scenario simply beggars belief."
….?beggers belief? more like buggers belief.
Where do I get a form so I can file a claim? I have always wanted to be a black farmer.
sad thing is it wont stop here… these ppl are learning how to snooker the Feds and will think of other ways to get more money
IT IS CALLED FREE MONEY
The Black Farmer is ripping us off, the Mexicans are ripping us off, the Politicians are ripping us off, the lazy people that are on welfare are ripping us off and pretty soon the Rag Heads(Muslims) will be ripping us off and yet we Americans that were raised on good work ethics stad by and let this happen, Shame on us.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah Bobb…I'm sure you're a real asset to this country. A guy without a working brain.
What do you have going, Reggie boy?
Race doesn't matter, everyone is ripping off the government, from white to black. This just proves it's easier if you are not white. BTW, just because you are black or mexican doesn't mean you cannot be American. Just pay your dues like everyone else and stop ripping off the hard workers who are citizens and of every color. Represent the Americans with class and dignity, don't be racist, arrogant and make the race war worse. Represent us,, Americans, with class or please don't represent.
I'm sorry Bobby D. Sloan, but do you really think there was a mechanism for voters to know Pigford vs. Glickman was underway, while there was still time to protest and/or somehow stop it? These things are done "on a dark night, when the moon does not shine". Both parties do it. The system is not working the way it was designed. Get behind one of the minor parties, and let's see if we can nudge the Democratic or Republican Party out of it's nitch.
Cheers! Stu.
You hit the nail on the head…Stu!….too bad we can't really get a smaller party to gain enough support to actually make a difference…but we can dream..
Actually, Dennis, I hear ya, but I believe ANYTHING can happen if we apply ourselves with vigor! We CAN get a smaller party to gain enough support, IF we do not depend on the media (purchased) or the politicians (purchased) to get it done. We need to do it ourselves, and go at it daily for the next few years. It CAN happen. The funniest thing about the media is that they actually bend whichever way the wind blows their advertisers. So, the very best way to get it right is to talk to the advertisers, and set a new precedent. See who is advertising on each of the networks at newstime, and go to their blogs, FB pages, twitter branches. Respectfully, (EVERYONE needs to go) say what you believe needs to happen. Only a few will make no difference, but thousands or millions WILL make a difference. THEN, watch the way the media shifts. We only purchase from vendors who share our views! Hit'em in the moneybag! They will listen.
I say FIRE them all and start over with accomplished business CEO's & the like. When all is said and done it is really the responsibility of the voters to make it happen.
GET INVOLVED AND STAY INVOLVED.
This is exactly what I have been preaching! Kick ALL the politicians out on their a$$es and put in proven hard working, successful business people that know what a budget is and how to keep it balanced, and pay their bills. They don't give 'hand outs' to every Tom, Dick, and Harry that's too lazy to work. I support Herman Cain 100% for President. He certainly has proved his knowledge and success. There is one politician that I believe fits the same description as Cain, and that's West in Florida. He has bucked the system, been ridiculed for doing it, but he sure knows how to handle the Muslim situation, and the illigal immigrant situation. I honestly think Cain and West could get this country back on the right track. I just hope they are given the chance.
The American people are now comfortable with being lazy. Staying informed and involved has become way to difficult. So now we have a mess in our country, one that won't go away. We have no one to blame but ourselves for this outrage. Another 6 years of this disgracful administration in Washington and the United States is finished. Get off your behinds and vote this incompetent, self-serving person out. People are picking on the wrong person, the only one with guts and a real wish to make everything better for America. Yes, I'm talking about Sarah Palin. Get involved, get your facts right, get her records and resume so you can all see what she accomplished in AK. You might be surprised to find out that, YES, she does have what it takes to become a real positive force and leader for the U.S. Please people, do not keep these squatters in the White House. We have a disaster and it's growing and growing!
Jeanie, I agree with most of what you say. Yes, Palin is an excellent choice, and she will NOT lead you down the slime-filled greased path like someone else has been doing. They certainly ARE squatters! More like squatters who have found the open purse lying at their nasty little feet, and they cannot help but spend, spend, spend. Also, the con artist in the WH right now has an attched-to-spending us empty agenda. Oh, you'd better believe it! His intention IS to Break the bank, collapse the system, and a new system will be smoothly slid on the slime-path into place… Ah. yes, BIG money paid for his slither into place, and quelled all the legality questions, and also paid for the media to try to shame anyone who wanted the truth about B.O.'s origins. WHY? So those who greed can get even more money. Its all tied to money. Greed is worse than a killer virus. It knows no bounds. -BTW- I can imagine if the economy collapses, there will be martial law incurred, as there will be a select group of folks who, (the lazies from above post) finding their FS bennies missing, will trash enough shops and streets that some good, non-lazy, hard-working folk will get scared. Maybe the lazies will even be promised food if they DO riot. Gotta have a BIG SCARE to get Martial law. Then, with the onset of martial law, there is, basically, a king in place. No need to have the congress in place at that point, and then they can be even phased out. You watch. Or, better yet, do NOT let it happen! Part of his plan is to get us all ticked-off, like in the above news story about the black farmers. Hogwash. Don't allow it to get you riled-up, since that is what they (his inner team and financier) want. NO reason to have race riots, since that is enough to get martial law, if its in enough areas. You haven't seen anything yet, kids! Don't worry about that much money going to non-deservers. The money isn't worth the match it takes to burn through it anyway! Its to get you up in arms.
YOU ARE SOOOO RIGHT!!!!!!!!!
I want to file a claim. I am black and have a potted plant in my den. Whaddya think?
The government want the American people lazy so they can do as they please!
United we stand, VS divide, and conquer. Yes, apathy with reward leads to desperate, and desperate will do anything to keep that non-deserved reward coming in! Take that reward away and you have a slave who will do about anything to keep it coming. My eldest son, who has rarely ever worked for more than a few months at a time, worked in the grapes for a vineyard a while back, and he is STILL collecting unemployment – I guess for that little 2-4-week stint in the grapes! He didn't work very long, as he got fired for being late, and the gov just keeps on contacting him to sign up for MORE unemployment! Its run out several times! He has made FAR more money on unemployment than he ever did picking grapes. Seems odd, doesn't it? -Unless you understand the willing-slave concept. Don't misunderstand me- I love my son, but he has his problems, and at this point, if the gov asked him to drag me down the middle of the highway in order to keep sending him free bucks, he'd likely grab my collar and tell me he how much he loves me before he started us for the road! Especially if they somehow tried to paint me into some ugly thing. You ain't seen nothing yet!
Justin, I'm thinking most likely the potted plant in your den is pot!
that makes it a cash crop and there for he would be a farmer and entitled to the money
How about that black farmer in t he White House–Michelle. does she qualify as part of this farmer handout?
People like you scare the hell out of me! It's easy to post these comments and then sit smugly by thinking that you have had your say and everything will be magically all right from this point on! Well folks, I've got news for you…….as Jeanie stated , "get involved"! It does matter who we pick as our next candidate for the highest office in this nation. However, it is perhaps equally if not much more important to choose COMPETENT and SELFLESS individuals to serve as Senators and Representatives, who aren't manipulated by big money, special interests, and above all, BIG UNIONS! If you do nothing else between now and election day 2012, get informed, AND get involved.
I love this in theory. HOWEVER..the question of the day REMAINS:
WHO in our government IS….i repeat…IS COMPETENT AND SELFLESS?!!! Lmao…you do realize that getting to the highest posts in government these days virtually means you have SOLD YOUR SOUL!
I UNDERSTAND THAT OBAMA IS FILING
This makes me sick at my stomach. My late father always taught me nobody owes you nothing. You have to work for everything you want in life & you will lie your tired body in bed at the end of the day & feel so good about yourself for doing it the right way. I always believed him until i read this garbage. Somehow someway we have got to get control of our country again. Too many womwn having babies collecting big money from welfare. Young males robbing, looting,shooting, doing home invasions, taking what is not theirs. Come on, This has to stop. We are running out of prisons to house them all.Like my Grandma used to say"Correct them in the high chair, & keep them out of the electric chair.
Rhetoric doesn’t work anymore, action does. Look what happened to Congress..Action!!
Come November 2012 VOTE Obama and his minnions out, once and for all times!!ACTION!!
Dear CA, its making me feel funny in the pit of my stomach to think of the welfare mommas and then the millions of abortions in the same thought. So, do some of the states really still reward women for having little ones at home? I know they used to here, but changed that years ago, so all the momma would get now is food stamps, no more welfare checks…but they still give the babies WIC foods and foodstamps and free healthcare, and free infant car seats… I don't know that they get any more than that here. Still, maybe some states DO! In that same vein, there is Planned Murderhood who everyone still thinks is a great little friendly program, that is pumping the abortions out. I wonder if that was to help stem the tide of welfare mommies when it was started? Our morals have sure disappeared in this country, at least in anything connected with government, or disconnected from churches. -You know, I tried to teach my kids morals and values that were taught to me, as a child, and I discovered that one simply cannot teach them effectively by oneself at home. My kids' Daddy had gone through church wars at home between his parents, and thus, forbid me to take ours to church. Since I was raised to be a good little wife, and not question one's husband, and MIND him, as the head of the household, I obeyed that directive, thinking I could still get it taught at home. Kids just do NOT listen to their ONE parent they are around all the time, as they don't think that parent is all that wise- especially because they see all of us make the occasional mistake, and they lose confidence in us a little Then, the kids they school with reinforce their doubts. Kids, in order to get a really good education in spiritual affairs, need to attend a church- or get the taught info reinforced to them by relative strangers! The more people they hear it from, the better it sticks. I have three kids- all grown, now. One with serious emotional/ dependency problems, from hanging out with the wrong people for many years, one is special-needs since birth, and one is my greatest joy. I love them all, but can surely see the difference in their turnouts by how they were taught their spiritual/moral education. Perhaps we need more – massively more influx into that teaching environment. When I was a kid, getting premarital sex, and getting pregnant out of the bonds of marriage was just awful. It was sure to make life difficult for that child and for the entire family. Now, no-one even cares if they are married, have two parents to help with that difficult task of raising children to be good people, or even have income to support them! The government will not stop making slaves of us by supporting us when we do not deserve it. The only way it will stop is if we REFUSE to accept the government's help in leading us to the slavery path. They can call in those favors anytime.
There are plenty of white farmer's who have never been allowed to receive free money from the Government. I believe every white farmer during that same period are due the same claim for being discriminated against by the Government. Our family has been farming for over 100 years and we have received Government aid out of 2 of those years. 1 year a drought wiped out 4000 acres of soybeans in Alabama (we got fertilizer money from the Government), and the other a late freeze on our citrus crop in Florida (we got free fertilizer money from the Government). Certainly not millions of dollars.
I find it hard to believe you are a farmer and do not recieve any subsidy payments…..if you do not – you are probably the only one in the entire USA. Subsidies are, in my opinion, the same as "free money", reparations, welfare, etc. I certainly am not putting you in the same class as the fraudulent claimants, but the truth is the truth. I operate a construction company, have never recieved a government loan or payment of any type, and have no recourse for any type of financial disaster what so ever from the government…..and will not have it any other way.
JW
It's easy for Congress to do that, since it's not their money – it's ours. If they managed the money like it was their own, you'd see a big difference!!!!!!
Well heck, here we are, the begining of the largest commodity boom in the past 30 or 40 years. Agriculture, according to experts like Jim Rodgers, is going to experience at least a decade of growth & farmers will have a chance to really make money. What about our friends who experienced this so called discrimination by the Federal Government? Will they file another lawsuit because they are left out again? Or how about the children of those who filed lawsuits & were awarded money, do they now have a claim? Where does it all end? Maybe with a broke & bankrupt nation!
Never vote into office another lawyer or judge period! Every time I hear someone talk about lawyers it's always a negative comment, yet people keep voting them into office. Vote in proven businessmen/women that give a sh*t about the taxpaying citizens of this country. Taxpayers have always taken the back seat and I'm more than tired of it!
We must get rid of Obama,,another 4 years and this country will be in the tank,,also need to get rid of Pelosi,,but the idiots in N.California,,keep voting her in,,also need to get rid of Boxer ,,but the idiots in S.California keep voting her in,,and then get rid of Harry Reid,,but the idiots in Neveda keep voting him in,,so I have come to the conclusion ,we have a lot of idiots in this country (besides illigals) and Obama may just get reelected if these idiots have their way….
I CANNOT GET ANYONE IN OUR AREA THAT HAS ANYTHING TO DO
WITH MY FARMING TO TALK TO ME ANY MORE, LET ALONG GET
A HAND OUT FROM USDA. THERE IS NEVER ANY HELP OR MONEY.
IT ALL IS SPENT ON ADMINISTRATION.
BEARTOP
These lame slackers will file and win money. If any of them were truly farmers, do you think they will turn that money back into their farming adventures?
Hell NO! A WalMart we will go!!
An interesting footnote to "The Pigford Affair" from Snopes –
"As of January 2011, a total of $769,400,000 had been paid out 15,388 claimants.
In response to claims that a large number of applicants were not fairly considered because, due to a lack of notice, they filed late and were denied review, Republican Senators George Allen and Charles Grassley introduced unsuccessful Congressional bills (in 2006 and 2007, respectively) to provide a mechanism for these applicants to have their claims considered. Finally, in January 2008 several members of Congress (one of whom was Senator Barack Obama of Illinois) urged the Senate and House Agriculture Committees to include in an upcoming farm bill a provision allowing "certain claimants who submitted late-filing requests under Pigford v. Glickman consent decree opportunity to receive determinations of their claims on their merits." These additional claims ultimately resulted in a $1.25 billion settlement"
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/pigford.asp
THAT IS THE SAME GEORGE ALLEN WHO IS RUNNING FOR U.S. SENATOR FROM VIRGINIA AS A FISCAL CONSERVATIVE IN THE 2012 ELECTION. GRASSLEY AND ALLEN – IF THEY'RE "FISCAL CONSERVATIVES" THEN I'M SANTA CLAUS.
Well, for once, someone gets it right! While Obama perpetrated the biggest scheme in the WORLD by getting the "uninformed" voters to listen to his gilded tongue and convince them that HE would change the way of life in AMERICA, it is not his actions alone that have carved the path of destruction that this nation presently finds itself traversing. The Congress, believe it or not has the power to determine our fate. Uninformed and very likely illegal voters put Obama in office, however, citizens from every state of this Union elected those imbeciles that presently occupy both the Senate and House, along with the SCOTUS Judges that were handpicked by them throughout the past several decades, both Dems and Repubs. Until a thorough housecleaning takes place in Washington, DC AND in every state of the UNION, then we will continue to rant and rave, casting blame at everyone except OURSELVES! Get with the program people and start learning your political lessons!!!!!
The President happens to be a figure head that we managed to elect into office. What most voters are not paying attention to is that there are other opportunities to vote that are being ignored. The Primary on 23 August 2011; how many of you voted? less than 15% of the Nation…..very sad. Each opportunity you have as a voter you should be "getting involved" within your community and this folks is what will make a difference; it all starts at home, just like raising our children.
It now is a requirement to show i.d. at the local bank to open an account. Before that auto dealers were required to report all cash transactions over $10,000, you can only carry a certain amount of cash on a commercial aircraft. With this Pigford nonsense and the big 45million bank job why does it seem as though the shady characters have far more advantages than the honest folks? Could it be that not only are the inmates in charge of the the asylum but it still hasn't been recognized as an asylum and they get benefits and retirement pay.