Tag Archives: Department of Agriculture

Weighty Issue

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What is it about the French fry that heats up our legislators?

A few years back, it was the French in the fry. When the French wouldn’t come to the table on backing us in Iraq, Congress hurried to punish them by dubbing the side dish “freedom fries.” Michelle Obama has been at war with them almost from the day O took office. She’s been on a mission to bust the spud at school lunches, while she consumes them with abandon whenever she gets the chance.

The latest assault came from the Agriculture Department, which wanted to limit the number of times your local public school cafeteria could serve the tuber.

I, for one am not a fan of the fry or mashed potatoes, but I don’t think they should be trashed. If school cafeterias want to serve them, why should Uncle Sam tell them no? No one is forcing a child to take them. At this point, everyone knows that too much fried or rich food will make you fat. The direct correlation is obvious, so let the child learn that decisions have consequences. If he/she overindulges, he/she will gain weight. What better way or weigh to let kids practice decision making? Is this what the government doesn’t want young people to do? Decide for themselves? Is part of the message that every decision is best made by the bureaucrats in Washington?

At least some of the bureaucrats objected. Senator Susan Collins of Maine added an amendment to a funding bill for the Agriculture Department that stopped this ridiculous rule. It passed in what she correctly called “a victory for common sense.”

Who assumes that Washington has his or her best interest at heart? They don’t. Fact of life. There is always something in it for them.

At least on this occasion, this spud’s for you – this time.

Et tu, Issa?

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Representative Steve King of Iowa yesterday introduced a bill in the House aimed at ending the Pigford settlements.

If you recall, Pigford has been called “the biggest ripoff this country has ever known” by a black farmer whistleblower. The government has been paying billions in reparations to black farmers who were once discriminated against. Fine. However, the system has been abused, going from a few thousand farmers to tens of thousands who never got closer to a farm than the potted plant in their apartment.

According to the law, it was not necessary to offer any proof that you ever had a farm or were a farmer. Money was freely doled out.

One of the most blatant abusers has been Shirley Sherrod, formerly of the Agriculture Department. She and her husband received $13 million for their decade long defunct communal farm. Ms. Sherrod came to attention when Andrew Breitbart had a clip of her admitting that she did not treat white farmers as well as blacks.

Here is Michele Bachmann giving a brief rundown of Pigford.

Anyhow, King’s bill failed. Every Democrat voted against it. Unfortunately, they were joined by 78 Republicans. Blackburn, Fincher and Nunelee voted with King.

However, Allen West of Florida and Darrell Issa of California voted against it, too.

This is particularly alarming not just because they are Republicans, but because Issa is the chairman of the House Government Affairs and Oversight Committee. He is the one to start an investigation into this fraud. He can be reached at 202-225-3906 if you want to expression your disappointment at his vote.

Shirley, You Jest

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If you read the newspaper’s big headline in the Local News section this morning, you would think that Shirley Sherrod is a saint.

The former Agriculture Department official was in church giving her sob story account of how bad old Andrew Breitbart used her own words on  videotape against her. She  highlighted her career fighting against racism and poverty, fighting for the civil rights of the poor and blacks, dodging hate mail and unfairness; relying on the Lord to get her through.

Made you want to go put up a statue of her somewhere or rename a street.

However, the truth is somewhat different.

Brietbart learned a different account  from Rep. Steve King (R-Ia). “Shirley Sherrod and her husband, Charles, along with their decades long defunct communal farm, New Communities Inc., were set to receive over a whopping $13 million   in the Pigford settlement, the largest amount of money allocated in the history of the Pigford settlement.”

If you don’t know about the Pigford settlement, basically it involves reparations to black farmers that has been abused to the tune of taxpayer millions, Breitbart has it all at biggovernment.com. Look up Pigford Shakedown or Google it.

As for the blogger being responsible for Sherrod’s firing by the Obama administration, former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown commented in the San Francisco Chronicle.

“As an old pro, though, I know that you don’t fire someone without at least hearing their side of the story unless you want them gone in the first place. This woman has been a thorn in the side of the Agriculture Department for years. She was part of a class action lawsuit against the Department on behalf of black farmers in the South. For years, she has been operating a community activist organization not unlike ACORN. I think there were those in the Agriculture department who objected to her being hired in the first place.”

Sherrod seems have gone to the Pigford trough repeatedly.

Biggest Ripoff Ever Tomorrow

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Tomorrow President Obama is set to sign into law Pigford 2, called by many the greatest taxpayer ripoff of all time.

While everyone has been busy talking about the tax extension, legislators have opened the Treasury to blacks with tens of thousands of dollars going out to people without much requirement at all on their part.

To backtrack; Ever wonder what happened to the issue of reparations? Our own Steve Cohen professed he was behind it. Yet once the Democrats took control of Congress, nary a word was said about it. Why? Because they have found a backdoor way to do it. It’s called the Pigford settlements, first one and tomorrow, another installment. It was passed as a way to repay black farmers for discrimination done to them by the USDA.

Andrew Breitbart stumbled upon the whole issue last summer when he had a tape of Sherrie Sherrod. She was the black woman from the Agriculture Department caught on tape spewing racist remarks against white farmers. Sherrod was fired, then Breitbart got caught in a hate-storm when it appeared the full tape had not been shown.

Of course, he was accused of being racist. When he began digging into Sherrod’s background he found out some interesting things. For instance, Sherrod and her husband, Charles, with a decades long defunct communal farm were in line to get $13 million thanks to the Pigford settlement. Breitbart began researching more when he heard April Ryan of Urban Radio Network mention the Pigford settlement and call it “a litmus test of the Obama administration’s relationship with black Americans.”

It seems Senator Obama, with Senator Joe Biden, introduced the legislation in 2007 with an eye on garnering the black vote in the rural South, the area where most of it is due. He found out that in Pigford 1, billions of dollars were given out to black “farmers” who did not have to prove they had ever farmed; without proof they had ever had a loan at the USDA and without ever having filed paperwork to attain a loan. All it required to get the money was a statement they had attempted to farm, with a family member vouching for it. For this, it appears 94,000 blacks got checks for $50,000 each; “oddly” statistics only recognized there being 18,000 black farmers.

Writing at Biggovernment.com, black farmer Jimmy Dismuke, who has 200 acres in Arkansas to raise hogs, called Pigford “the biggest ripoff this country has ever known.” He details knowing people with a potted plant in their apartments qualifying; eight people in one home getting checks; drug addicts and pushers getting them, too.

Breitbart has released his investigation, “The Pigford Shakedown: How the Black Farmers’ Cause was Highjacked by Politicians, Trial Lawyers and Community Organizers – Leaving Us With a Billion Dollar Tab.” He has been about the only journalist calling attention to this issue and has devoted most of Biggovernment.com to it this week. Go and read the whole of what he has found out.

Rush Limbaugh is quoted as saying “it is corruption right out in front of everybody’s eyes.” Tomorrow, phase two gets signed in Washington.

Where has the media been on this story?