Posted on 08/02/2010 11:27:55 AM PDT by STARWISE
African-American lawmakers are irate that the Obama administration has promised Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) $1.5 billion in farm aid while claiming it can’t pay a landmark legal settlement with black farmers.
Six members of the Congressional Black Caucus wrote to President Obama on Thursday calling on him to find a way to compensate black farmers who suffered discrimination in government loan programs during the 1980s and 1990s.
The letter was spurred by behind-the-scenes deal-making in the Senate as part of an effort to pass small-business legislation.
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel promised Lincoln, who sponsored the provision, that the administration would find a way to pay out $1.5 million in disaster assistance to farmers while they wait for programs in the 2008 farm bill to be implemented.
At the same time, the administration has told black farmers it lacks the funds to pay a $1.2 billion agreement they reached with the Department of Agriculture in 1999 to settle the Pigford class-action lawsuit.
The agriculture disaster relief had been included in the small-business bill until Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pulled it at the last minute in a bid for GOP support.
Members of the black caucus say that if the administration can find $1.5 billion within its administrative funds to pay mostly white farmers in Arkansas and other states, it should be able to pay black farmers who suffered discrimination.
“The current hardships experienced by other farmers should not trump hardships placed on African Americans and Native Americans by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the past,” they wrote.
The lawmakers say that Obama should also take administrative action to pay $3.4 billion the federal government promised to settle claims that it mismanaged Native American trust funds.
Elouise Cobell is the lead plaintiff in the case against the Interior Department.
“At every turn, the response provided for not funding these claims has been a lack of money available to fund the settlements,” the lawmakers wrote.
The lawmakers said they became concerned after learning that Emanuel had promised to address the needs of other farmers with $1.5 billion in assistance.
“As the CBC is well aware, ‘justice deferred is justice denied,’ ” the lawmakers wrote. “The black and Native American claimants across our nation have long waited for a fair settlement of their cases. The continued failure to fund these settlements has exacerbated an economic catastrophe for many of these individuals.”
Democratic Reps. Barbara Lee (Calif.), G.K. Butterfield (N.C.), Artur Davis (Ala.), Bennie Thompson (Miss.), David Scott (Ga.) and Sanford Bishop (Ga.) signed the letter.
Emanuel promised Lincoln that the president would take administrative action to pay $1.5 billion to help farmers waiting for assistance from the 2008 farm bill, as way to secure her support for the bill.
“I don’t forget who I represent,” Lincoln told The Hill. “I’m willing to stand up to my caucus and everybody else to remind them who I represent. And I do represent farmers.”
Despite deleting the disaster assistance for farmers, Reid failed to win any Republican votes to cut off debate on the business bill.
Rest @ link
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Excerpt:
Had Andrew Breitbart dutifully written a column detailing how an obscure USDA official, Shirley Sherrod, and her husband, Charles Sherrod, had scammed the government out of millions, the story would have had the range and lifespan of a fruit fly.
Instead, as the world knows, Breitbart released an edited ((I believe it was EXCERPTED, not edited)) version of Shirley Sherrod's speech before the NAACP that provoked national headlines and caused the NAACP to denounce her and a panicky Obama administration to fire her from her position as the Georgia Director of Rural Development for the USDA.
Then, of course, when the full version of the speech emerged -- which showed Sherrod as a recovering racist, not as a practicing one -- the Obama White House fell all over itself apologizing, and the media turned their guns on Breitbart.
Breitbart, however, had put a potentially huge story into play the only way he could -- through sheer provocation. As he knew, and as we are learning, the story goes well beyond Sherrod's long-ago racist mischief-making with a poor white farmer.
This past Sunday, in his weekly column for the San Francisco Chronicle, "Willie's World," veteran black politico Willie Brown confirmed that "there is more to the story than just [Sherrod's] remarks."
"As an old pro," Brown acknowledged, "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." Brown observed that Sherrod had been a thorn in the USDA's side for years, that many had objected to her hiring, and that she had been "operating a community activist organization not unlike ACORN." Although Brown does not go into detail, he alludes to a class action lawsuit against the USDA in which she participated some years ago.
In the way of background, in 1997, a black farmer named Timothy Pigford, joined by four hundred other black farmers, filed a lawsuit against Bill Clinton's Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman, claiming that the USDA treated black farmers unfairly in all manner of ways, from price support loans to disaster payments to operating loans. Worse, they charged that the USDA had failed to process any complaints about racial discrimination.
The notion that the Clinton Ag Department had spent four years consciously denying black farmers their due defies everything we know about Clinton's use of race and should have made the media suspicious about Pigford's claims dating back to 1983.
Rest at above link.
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And financial shakedown proxies for reparation and redistribution will continue until this racist's resident's term ends.
THOSE JOOOOOOOOSSSS!
Black American stop crying
Black lawmakers irate over [insert text here]
Along with Sharrod who is a believer in Black liberation theology like B. Hussein and MEchelle Obama’s pastor the Reverend Wright.
Racists rushing out of the closet surrounding the Racist in Chief Present Obama.
It’s not going to help Blanche Lincoln (get reelected) no matter how much she gets. It will probably help her family personally but that’s nothing new.
Lincoln and her family have received millions of dollars in agricultural subsidies for the family rice farm over the past several years. Lincoln has tried to hide accountability on this by receiving the subsidies under her maiden name, Blanche Lambert. Lincoln/Lambert and her family members received $715,000 over the period from 1995-2005. Lincoln co-owned the farm receiving the subsidies, Grand Acres LLC, with her mother and her siblings. She actually held the largest ownership share.
Lincoln is also a beneficiary of the Jordan B. Lambert trust, her late father’s organization. All the Lamberts receiving Ag subsidy payments is quite a family business.
But that’s just the family farm. Lincoln’s father was on the board of Riceland Foods for 23 years until his death. Riceland was the recipient of $554 MILLION in subsidies from 1995-2006, roughly the same period as studied before. This includes at least $100 million in USDA subsidies each year from 2000-2002
Juice?
Many legislators are getting farm subsidies
_____________________________________________________
2007
Excerpt:
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Only one subsidy recipient in Congress wants to dramatically pare direct payments to farmers: Richard Lugar, R-Indiana, whose family farm received $126,555 from 1995-2005.
Lugar backs a plan to cap federal farm payments at $30,000 a year.
Rep. Marion Berry, D-Ark., says the system works well. He and his family’s farming interests received almost $2.4 million in federal payments from 1995-2005, records show.
His net worth in 2005 was $1.7 million to $6.6 million, according to his financial disclosure statement. “He has firsthand experience of how this really benefits farmers,” said his spokeswoman, Angela Guyadeen.
Subsidies to Congress members and their families
Subsidies to members of Congress and their families from 1995 through 2005:
Senators
Total subsidies Notes
Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa $878,854 The payments went to Grassley and his son, who has a separate farming operation in addition to a partnership with his father.
Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark. $715,000 The payments went to a family partnership the senator co-owned until 2005, and to Lincoln’s mother and brothers. Lincoln said she personally was getting $10,000 a year.
Sam Brownback, R-Kan. $643,000 The payments went to Brownback, his father and his brother. Brownback says he personally waives most subsidies because he thinks people with high non-farm income shouldn’t get most types of federal assistance.
Jon Tester, D-Mont. $232,311 The payments went to him and his wife.
Max Baucus, D-Mont. $230,237 The payments went to a family ranch; the senator sold his interest in the ranch in 1995, though he still has reported receiving mineral royalty payments.
Richard Lugar, R-Ind. $126,555 The payments went to a family partnership.
Gordon Smith, R-Ore. $45,400 The payments went to the senator’s frozen foods business, but are forwarded to growers who lease the land, a spokesman said.
Ken Salazar, D-Colo. $770 Subsidies received in 2002. Brother is Rep. John Salazar.
House members
Marion Berry, D-Ark. $2,357,094 The payments went to corporations co-owned by him or relatives, and one company that pays his wife as a director.
Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D. $789,575 The payments went to her father, a former South Dakota state legislator.
John Salazar, D-Colo. $161,085 Salazar no longer receives subsidies personally because the farm is now leased, a spokesman said.
Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. $25,000 The payments went to Hastert and his wife.
Grand total $6,204,111
Sources: U.S. Department of Agriculture records compiled by the Environmental Working Group; lawmaker financial disclosures
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Wow .. farmers sweat and work like animals to make a decent living, and Arkansas farmers gets huge payments. I’m sure they’re not alone, but I never knew there was this much moola in farming:
Recipients of Total USDA Subsidies from farms in Arkansas totaled $9,543,000,000 in from 1995-2009.
Rank Recipient
(* ownership information available) Location Total USDA Subsidies
1995-2009
1 Riceland Foods Inc Stuttgart, AR 72160 $554,343,039
2 Producers Rice Mill Inc Wynne, AR 72396 $314,028,012
3 Tyler Farms Helena, AR 72342 $36,294,630
4 R A Pickens And Son Company Pickens, AR 71662 $13,943,762
5 Wabash Farms Helena, AR 72342 $11,546,220
6 Benwood Farms Earle, AR 72331 $10,909,990
7 Soudan Farming Co Marianna, AR 72360 $9,948,245
8 Big-mo Farm Partnership Stuttgart, AR 72160 $9,418,461
9 Lockley Brothers Parkin, AR 72373 $8,540,021
10 Hawkins Farms Leachville, AR 72438 $8,513,156
11 Bobby Roark & Sons Partnership Lake Village, AR 71653 $8,395,014
12 M & M Farm - Marr Hickory Ridge, AR 72347 $8,213,472
13 Riverside Farms Wynne, AR 72396 $7,849,242
14 Catron Farms Helena, AR 72342 $7,706,391
15 Henderson Land & Cattle Co Altheimer, AR 72004 $7,634,283
16 Don Eifling & Son Farms Grady, AR 71644 $7,509,587
17 Yocum Farms Dermott, AR 71638 $7,272,265
18 Four Star Partnership Portland, AR 71663 $7,087,086
19 Agri Ventures Texarkana, AR 71854 $7,068,448
20 Victoria Partnership Osceola, AR 72370 $7,068,144
* USDA data are not “transparent” for many payments made to recipients through most cooperatives. Recipients of payments made through most cooperatives, and the amounts, have not been made public. To see ownership information, click on the name, then click on the link that is titled Ownership Information.
http://farm.ewg.org/top_recips.php?fips=05000&progcode=total®ionname=Arkansas
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Data search results for Blanche Lincoln’s family/maiden name, LAMBERT, in Arkansas:
Individual Subsidy Recipients 1 to 20 of 42 in Arkansas
Last Name: LAMBERT
Rank Name Location Subsidy Total
1995-2009
1 Glendon Lambert Dumas, AR 71639 $ 471,921.71
2 Martha K Lambert Helena, AR 72342 $ 170,269.06
3 Dennis Lamberth Brookland, AR 72417 $ 164,181.12
4 Glenn Lambert Dumas, AR 71639 $ 134,588.49
5 Sheralee J Lambert Springdale, AR 72766 $ 90,390.47
6 J B Lambert Jr Helena, AR 72342 $ 88,681.12
7 Dale Lambert Danville, AR 72833 $ 76,717.00
8 Eleanor R Lambert Little Rock, AR 72201 $ 68,091.15
9 Jordan B Lambert III West Helena, AR 72390 $ 67,571.02
10 Jeremy Lamberth Brookland, AR 72417 $ 55,848.50
11 Robert Lambert Dumas, AR 71639 $ 50,248.65
12 Amy Elizabeth Lambert Blytheville, AR 72315 $ 35,026.52
13 E Russell Lambert Pine Bluff, AR 71611 $ 25,802.96
14 Tony G Lambert Prescott, AR 71857 $ 20,612.00
15 Robert Lambert Jr Emmet, AR 71835 $ 18,905.00
16 Moka M Lambert Fort Smith, AR 72901 $ 15,706.16
17 Robert Lambert Jr Dumas, AR 71639 $ 9,640.05
18 W C Lamberth Jonesboro, AR 72401 $ 9,057.18
19 Michael C Lambert Piggott, AR 72454 $ 7,518.95
20 Bill Lambert Glenwood, AR 71943 $ 4,628.82
Is it pitchfork, tar and feather time yet? I hate politicians! Most of them come to congress with barely two nickels to rub together and leave millionaires! How long are we going to put up with the fleecing of America?
Pathetic crooks!
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