Democrats' Energy Bill Efforts Are Running Out of Gas

This "issue" about the white farmer is all spin. There was an incident but the USDA employee apologized and personally reconciled with the farmer for an incident that occurred about 24 years ago. As usual, the right wing spin machine omitted the most important part of the story in a deliberate effort to be misleading. This shows how unprofessional FOX News is;

Sherrod, 62, told the paper the short clip left out the rest of the story, when she says she eventually worked with the farmer to help him avoid foreclosure, and became friendly with him and his wife. At the time, Sherrod worked with the Georgia field office for the Federation of Southern Cooperative/Land Assistance Fund...In an interview with the newspaper today, Eloise Spooner, the wife of the farmer, called Sherrod a "friend for life." She said Sherrod helped her and her husband save their farm in rural Georgia and "kept us out of bankruptcy." Spooner, 82, said she spoke to Sherrod on the phone today and will publicly support her."

http://www.aolnews.com/politics/article/black-usda-official-shirley-sherrod-resigns-in-flap-over-white-farmer/19560922

The real story is USDA obstruction of justice for thousands of Black farmers.

"Under the 1999 settlement, the government paid more than $1 billion to about 16,000 farmers. John Boyd Jr., a third-generation farmer from Baskerville, Va., and founder of the National Black Farmers Association, says his group pressed for more aid because as many as 80,000 farmers didn't know about the settlement and missed filing deadlines...Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who is also a farmer, pushed for legislation included in the 2008 farm bill, co-sponsored by Obama when he was in the Senate, to give farmers excluded from the first settlement "another bite at the apple."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-02-24-black-farmers-usda-settlement_N.htm

Congressional action was, indeed necessary for about 86% of the farmers covered by the suit who were denied restitution by the USDA.

"For the 81,000 farmers denied compensation, there is no future opportunity to obtain relief. Even though USDA has admitted to civil rights abuses, it withheld some three quarters of the $2.3 billion that the settlement was worth. Without intervention by the United States Congress, these farmers will never receive the compensation they so clearly deserve."

http://www.ewg.org/reports/blackfarmers

According to the very same report;

"...the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) willfully obstructed justice by deliberately undermining the terms of a 1999 landmark civil rights settlement with African American farmers. As a result, the vast majority of African American farmers have been denied compensation that the court, in approving the settlement, described as "automatic."

Historic discrimination against Black farmers is a far bigger issue than the phony one the race baiting right is drumming up just to foment more hate in an already highly charged atmosphere.

steve of IL 3:23PM July 20, 2010