The Pigford President: Obama Signs Black Farmers Settlement

In Pigford I settlement the USDA said we had some 18,000 black farmers, and made payments to 14,500 for some loan discrimination. (The original investigation turned up a possible 205 problem loans.) Then in Pigford II they somehow found 97,000 black farmers who claimed discrimination, but not a single government employee has been investigated or fired? Remember that under Bush people went to jail for misspeaking about Valerie Plame's job assignment, but billions during a recession and no one loses his job?

And the Commander in Thief said, these billions (reparations under any other name . . . ) are "the principles of fairness and equality and opportunity."

This was all brought up by then-Senator Obama in 2007, who in a hanging chad moment, decided surely 80,000 black farmers must have missed the deadline for filing, and in probably the only significant act of his senate years, decided to reopen the case.

» The Pigford President: Obama Signs Black Farmers Settlement - Big Government

Pigford: Racism Against Black Farmers or Government Fraud? | The Stir

Weigel : A Black Farmer Against Pigford

CRS: The Pigford Case

Me & Mrs. Sherrod — And The $1.25 Billion Pigford II Black Farmers’ Settlement - Big Journalism

Whatever happened to Shirley Sherrod?

Is her 15 minutes of fame over? The last news I can find about her is dated August 24 and she'd turned down a new job at the USDA and was going to lie low for awhile. I don't know if Obama ever apologized to her or not, but I doubt that firing her was Vilsack's idea. As it turned out, or turned up after her name kept appearing, she and her husband were involved in some payout from the government that needed further investigation, so I think she's smart to disappear for awhile. And consult with her lawyer.

Some new regulations came out of this, and number one is, well, I'm flummoxed that it wasn't in place: "1.) The department should follow existing resignation protocol and review all relevant facts before making a decision." I mean, even political appointees deserve some fair play.

Shirley Sherrod, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack go over 'Lessons Learned'

It is shocking that a federal employee would have been fired on such flimsy evidence as Shirley Sherrod, and just as shocking that she is blaming an internet viral video for her temporary problems with "racism" and plans to sue. Since when can news media not take something out of context. Gosh, the whole coverage of Sarah Palin by the MSM would have gone to court. Sherrod was apparently reinstated because of her position and spouse in the civil rights organizations (Obama being a newbie and Vilsack being white apparently didn't recognize their names), but further investigation needs to be done on that Pigford settlement she's in line to get from the government. From "Lessons Learned" it appears someone has reviewed Employment Basics 101.

Shirley Sherrod, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack go over 'Lessons Learned'

E.J. Dionne certainly got this one wrong

The Obama crowd wasn't cowering before anyone--certainly not Fox News which didn't break the story. Certainly not Glenn Beck who defended Sherrod for the shabby way she was fired. The home team bench is so light (i.e. white) in the Obama White House they didn't even recognize the Sherrod name, didn't realize until after she was fired that she was married to a Civil Rights "hero." Nor did they even bother to give the woman a fair inquiry or check out the story that was going around the internet. Sorry Mr. Dionne, you're calling the wrong people wrong. Obama didn't act hastily because of right-wing propaganda--Shirley Sherrod really did give a full speech that insulted many of us--you can go on-line and read it--but she was fired because that's just what leftists do. Sometime they eat their own. You could be next.

Let's face it, Mr. Dionne. Fox is cleaning your bosses' clocks and you're worried. They have better coverage, more diversity, more topics, and better looking female talking heads. So what to do, what to do. Oh--let's call them names. That works!

E.J. Dionne Jr. - Enough right-wing propaganda

Throwing Others Under the Bus Over Race

Apparently, looking at the Sherrod speech in its entirety, she called pretty much everyone who doesn't agree with Obama a racist. Those of us who don't like socialism/marxism are lumped with the people who enslaved African Americans (but if you go way back that would be other Africans and Arabs who rounded them up and sold them to Europeans). So who is the name caller? I still think the villain in this is the President who without checking the facts (a bad habit of his) had her fired, then had to blame others in his apologies. Does this man ever accept blame for his own mistakes?

She said: "So that's when they made black people servants for life. That's when they put laws in place forbidding them (i.e., blacks and whites) to marry each other. That's when they created the racism that we know of today. They did it to keep us divided. And ... it started working so well they said, 'Gosh, looks like we've come upon something here that could last generations.' And here we are, over 400 years later, and it's still working." McCarthy goes on to quote Sherrod apparently addressing the motives of some of Obamacare's opponents. She said: "I haven't seen such a mean-spirited people as I've seen lately over this issue of health care. Some of the racism we thought was buried. Didn't it surface? Now, we endured eight years of the Bushes, and we didn't do the stuff these Republicans are doing because you have a black president."

Has anyone told her it was a Democratic president who set up the Jim Crow laws, that the KKK helped Robert Byrd get elected, and that Democratic administrations are keeping blacks in poverty through block grants and food stamps in every major city of the U.S.?

Throwing Others Under the Bus Over Race - HUMAN EVENTS

Ms. Sherrod's Speech Was Most Certainly Not About Transcending Racism - Andy McCarthy - The Corner on National Review Online

And you can go to the NAACP site and read her entire speech and be hit up for money.

The strange case of Shirley Sherrod and a big government settlement

Nothing's ever simple or as it seems, is it? There's apparently a lot more about Shirley Sherrod and the USDA that we didn't know. She and her husband, a big Civil Rights leader, were involved in a lawsuit against the federal government and received a big payout. Also Breitbart didn't edit the film--showed it as it was given to him. Was someone setting up Breitbart or the Sherrods? Who was the source? Why were Obama and NAACP so quick to throw her under the bus? They certainly haven't acted that way about other charges of black racism in government. What were the circumstances of her hiring that she could be let go so unceremoniously and from all appearances, illegally? Aren't there rules about that? Maybe this isn't going to go away after all.

American Thinker Blog: Forty Acres & a Mule -- Sherrod Style?

And here's the left-handed view of this, although no mention that in the settlement, 4 times more black farmers showed up for the money than the USDA census recorded.

Shirley Sherrod, USDA, says White House forced her resignation

What is this flap about? Whether it is conservative bloggers, or Fox News, or the President of the U.S., it happened in 1984! No one has done more in recent years to enflame race relations than the President himself, whether it was calling cops foolish in the Gates incident last summer because they tried to stop a break-in, or ignoring Muslim terrorists in our midsts, or letting the DoJ decide blacks can't intimidate whites at the polling place. Come on, let's stick to the real problems, and they aren't Shirley's.


Shirley Sherrod: White House Forced My Resignation - Political Hotsheet - CBS News