Posted on 04/26/2013 4:46:15 AM PDT by kristinn
In the winter of 2010, after a decade of defending the government against bias claims by Hispanic and female farmers, Justice Department lawyers seemed to have victory within their grasp.
Ever since the Clinton administration agreed in 1999 to make $50,000 payments to thousands of black farmers, the Hispanics and women had been clamoring in courtrooms and in Congress for the same deal. They argued, as the African-Americans had, that biased federal loan officers had systematically thwarted their attempts to borrow money to farm.
But a succession of courts — and finally the Supreme Court — had rebuffed their pleas. Instead of an army of potential claimants, the government faced just 91 plaintiffs. Those cases, the government lawyers figured, could be dispatched at limited cost.
They were wrong.
On the heels of the Supreme Court’s ruling, interviews and records show, the Obama administration’s political appointees at the Justice and Agriculture Departments engineered a stunning turnabout: they committed $1.33 billion to compensate not just the 91 plaintiffs but thousands of Hispanic and female farmers who had never claimed bias in court.
The deal, several current and former government officials said, was fashioned in White House meetings despite the vehement objections — until now undisclosed — of career lawyers and agency officials who had argued that there was no credible evidence of widespread discrimination. What is more, some protested, the template for the deal — the $50,000 payouts to black farmers — had proved a magnet for fraud.
“I think a lot of people were disappointed,” said J. Michael Kelly, who retired last year as the Agriculture Department’s associate general counsel. “You can’t spend a lot of years trying to defend those cases honestly, then have the tables turned on you and not question the wisdom of settling them ina broad sweep.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
free money, FRAUD ODUNGO STYLE....don’t forget to donate to the rat party when you get your checks
(Bribery is one of the two specific crimes listed in the Constitution that a sitting President can be impeached for. Treason, which Americans don't even know a definition for anymore, is the other. The rest are "high crimes and misdemeanors".)
I remember this, and also remember (as you've implied) we were probably the only ones that were informed.
Stands to (their) reason that it would come out now.
Now .. about that monster that performed thousands of aborticides ...
This story correlates with another one today. The NYT had a 11% drop in income last year. They may have come to realize that they can’t survive with just left wing propaganda.
Reparations
Gee, at far less than 50K, we would have provided air fare for them and their families to the nation of their choice where they would be freer?
they are due the stimulus money soon they only need a few people to push the agenda, watch for a few billion to roll in in order to keep the American people "informed"
Too Red to Fail.
This was one of the first things that occurred after ‘08 election. From the article.
“From the start, the claims process prompted allegations of widespread fraud and criticism that its very design encouraged people to lie: because relatively few records remained to verify accusations, claimants were not required to present documentary evidence that they had been unfairly treated or had even tried to farm. Agriculture Department reviewers found reams of suspicious claims, from nursery-school-age children and pockets of urban dwellers, sometimes in the same handwriting with nearly identical accounts of discrimination.”
Claims could exceed 4 billion.
Lee Stranahan has been at the forefront of keeping sunlight on Pigford. Ironically, the original farmers, who actually had a case for discrimination, haven’t gotten bupkis from USDA.
I am a white Southern small farmer-rancher and did all my own work and paid for my supplies and tractor by selling 40 years of my own labor. A black friend from the Caribbean got about $20,000 of his work and supplies done by contractors hired and paid for by gov’t agencies (deprived farmer act?) and it cost him $300. His ancestors were not slaves here but mine were poor farmers near Augusta who had their farm buildings totally ripped apart and every scrap of food taken; my grandmother’s grandfather starved to death as a result. Many friends refuse to vote Republican period.
did people really think NOT voting for Romney was going to make a huge statement?...
look what we have now....
God forbid you worry about erring on the side of giving out money on behalf of the taxpayers!
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