| Author | Message | ||
     Johnnymceldoo |
"Submitted by meekandmild on Mon, 08/02/2010 - 18:42 in * Daily Paul Liberty Forum From an Email: He proved it originally with his brilliant handling of the ACORN ‘hooker’ scandal which he skillfully manipulated so that the corrupt media was forced, against its will, to broadcast corruption in one of Obama’s most powerful politicalsupport groups. But Breitbart’s handing of that affair is nothing compared to his brilliant manipulation of the Shirley Sherrod ‘white farmer’ scandal. It all began last Monday, July 22, 2010. As the country watched in horror, Breitbart released a snippet of a tape on his “Big Government” site which showed an obscure black female official of the Dept. of Agriculture laughing to a roomful of NAACP members about how she’d discriminated against a destitute white farmer and refused to give him the financial aid he desperately needed. As she smirked to the room, she’d sent him instead to a white lawyer – ‘one of his own kind’ – for help. The black woman was Shirley Sherrod – and almost immediately she became the center of a firestorm of controversy which exploded throughout the country. Within a day of the release of that infamous tape, the head of the Dept. of Agriculture, spurred on by Obama, demanded – and received – Sherrod’s resignation. Breitbart had won. But then seemingly Breitbart’s actions began to explode in his face. As Sherrod screamed in protest, FOX News released the entire text of her speech last March to the NAACP. And there on tape Sherrod was shown supposedly repenting of her racism against a white farmer and instead championing his fight to win funds to keep his farm afloat. Within hours of that entire tape being revealed, the entire world turned against Andrew Breitbart. Conservatives throughout the country were enraged that he’d endangered their reputations by releasing a ‘doctored’ tape. Breitbart, they thundered, had dealt a fatal blow to the conservative media. I confess that I also was horrified at what I saw as the clumsiness and stupidity of Breitbart in ‘doctoring’ a tape to make a supposedly innocent woman look guilty. But now I discover I have been as guilty of haste to judgment of Breitbart as the Dept. of Agriculture was of Ms. Sherrod. Only now am I realizing the real purpose for Breitbart’s release of that tape snippet. It was to allow him to cunningly trick the media into exposing one of the most shocking examples of corruption in the federal government – a little known legal case called “Pigford v. Glickman”. http://pajamasmedia.com/zombie/2010/07/27/pigford- v-glickman... "In 1997, 400 African-American farmers sued the United States Department of Agriculture, alleging that they had been unfairly denied USDA loans due to racial discrimination during the period 1983 to 1997.” The case was entitled “Pigford v. Glickman” and in 1999, the black farmers won their case. The government agreed to pay each of them as much as $50,000 to settle their claims. But then on February 23 of this year, something shocking happened in relation to that original judgment.In total silence, the USDA agreed to release more funds to “Pigford”. The amount was a staggering $1.25 billion. This was because the original number of plaintiffs – 400 black farmers – had now swollen in a class action suit to include a total of 86,000 black farmers throughout America . There was only one teensy problem. The United States of America doesn’t have 86,000 black farmers. According to accurate and totally verified census data, the total number of black farmers throughout America is only 39,697. Oops. Well, gosh – how on earth did 39,697 explode into 86,000 claims? And how did $50,000 explode into $1.25 billion? Well, folks, you’ll just have to ask the woman who not only spearheaded this case because of her position in 1997 at the “Rural Development Leadership Network” but whose family received the highest single payout (approximately $13 million) from that action – Shirley Sherrod. Oops again. Yes, folks. It appears that Ms. Sherrod had just unwittingly exposed herself as the perpetrator of one of the biggest fraud claims in the United States – a fraud enabled solely because she screamed racism at the government and cowed them into submission. And it gets even more interesting. Ms. Sherrod has also exposed the person who aided and abetted her in this race fraud. As it turns out, the original judgment of “Pigford v. Glickman” in 1999 only applied to a total of 16,000 black farmers. But in 2008, a junior Senator got a law passed to reopen the case and allowmore black farmers to sue for funds. The Senator was Barack Obama. Because this law was passed in dead silence and because the woman responsible for spearheading it was an obscure USDA official, American taxpayers did not realize that they had just been forced in the midst of a worldwide depression to pay out more than $1.25 billion to settle a race claim. But Breitbart knew. And last Monday, July 22, 2010, he cleverly laid a trap which Sherrod – and Obama – stumbled headfirst into which has now resulted in the entire world discovering the existence of this corrupt financial judgment. Yes, folks – Breitbart is a genius. As for Ms. Sherrod? Well, she’s discovered too late that her cry of ‘racism’ to the media which was intended to throw the spotlight on Breitbart has instead thrown that spotlight on herself – and her corruption. Sherrod has vanished from public view. Her ‘pigs’, it seems, have come home to roost. Oink!" http://dailypaul.com/node/141470 Dont know how much truth this story has but it will be interesting to see if anything unfolds. | ||
| Kc10_fe |
I doubt anything will come of it. Remember what happened to anyone who opposed Clinton. Somehow they all committed suicide in prison. | ||
| Cityxslicker |
When the coyote guards the chicken coupe, there are no new chicks, the old hens cackle all day and lay no new eggs, and even the boisterous rooster is silent so not to draw attention. but be of good cheer, He will probably only kill one or two a day, you still have the rest of the coupe. | ||
| Ducbsa |
I though Breitbart's point was the "anti-racist" NAACP crowd showing approval for her initial intention of turning down the white farmer. She certainly did disappear as a poster child, though. | ||
| Iamike |
Now why would our 'fair minded' media ever report on corruption on the left. The avoid it at all costs. | ||
| Davegess |
This "story" is one of the single most distorted pieces of right wing lying I have seen. The women is clearly making the point that she had a racist reaction, she recognized it, and rose above it to do the right thing and that we all need to do that. Shame on him for lying to the public to score points. Shame on the administration for not looking closer before reacting and firing the woman. | ||
| Strokizator |
Where was the lie? I saw the tape and it didn't look doctored. Sure he only used snippets so you would draw the wrong conclusion, but where was the lie? Do you deny she said those words or initially felt those racist sentiments? Or still doesn't after sending the farmer to "one of his own". Heck, address a group of blacks as "you people" and you're done. I'm tired of it and have decided to not give a $hit anymore. Breitbart didn't do anything hundreds of other sleazy "journalists" haven't done. Except this time the "lies and distortion" were directed at the left. (Message edited by strokizator on August 05, 2010) (Message edited by strokizator on August 05, 2010) | ||
| Buellkowski |
Some interesting facts about this issue. http://www.nationalaglawcenter.org/assets/crs/RS20 430.pdf | ||
| Sifo |
This "story" is one of the single most distorted pieces of right wing lying I have seen. The women is clearly making the point that she had a racist reaction, she recognized it, and rose above it to do the right thing and that we all need to do that. Shame on him for lying to the public to score points. Shame on the administration for not looking closer before reacting and firing the woman. I don't know this to be fact, but I understand that Breitbart had the part about her "rising above the racism" posted from day one. Lazy media and a lazy White House got a hold of the first part and jumped to their own conclusions. That sad thing is that while Sherrod claims to have learned that racism is wrong she has seized upon class hatred in it's place. She has simply replaced one form of bigotry with another. I'm not sure she has really learned anything.  | ||
| Davegess |
The lie is showing her saying one thing when she said something different. Lying by omission is just as wrong and particularly by someone claiming to be a journalist. | ||
| Sifo |
So who exactly are you accusing of this "lie"? Breitbart had the entire thing available from the first day. Many folks in the media and apparently the White House pick up on the first part and never looked any further. I see incompetence and laziness, but lying? I'm not sure where that fits. | ||
| Rwven |
It wasn't a lie. It wasn't an omission. Sherrod was guilty of discriminating against the poor white farmer at that moment in time. She was a public official at the time, so firing her would have been entirely appropriate. In fact, if you listen to her speech she is well aware of this and only sent him to "one of his own kind" so that he would not report back to the Department of Agriculture that she had failed to help him. Her subsequent (and suspect given her remarks in the wake of the revelation) "redemption" does not change those facts. The white farmer nearly lost his property due to her failure to provide the "full force" of what she could do. I believe in redemption, but I also understand that actions carry consequences. | ||
| Sifo |
Redemption is not simply substituting one form of bigotry for another though. I see little in the way of redemption in what she says. It was simply a shift to the more politically correct bigotry. The really sad thing is that she was probably ahead of the curve on her shift. Now bigotry against the rich is becoming the accepted norm. Not a good place to be in a free society. | ||
| Xl1200r |
The women is clearly making the point that she had a racist reaction, she recognized it, and rose above it to do the right thing and that we all need to do that. She was in violation. Whether she apologized or not, she did it, and that's the end of it. If you get pulled over for speeding and tell the cop you knew you were speeding, you now know it's wrong and are sorry, is he going to let you off? If you break into someone's home and shoot them in head, and then tell the cops it was wrong of you and you're sorry, do you get off? Actions have consequences. | ||
| Johnnymceldoo |
Guys the meat of the story I posted is not the of admission racism. The story here is corruption in regards to the court case. | ||
| Whisperstealth |
Johny, and that's why the case will get buried. People and the media will argue tooth and nail whether she should have gotten fired, and let the corruption go. In fact that is exactly what the media WILL do. Give people something to argue about, while the bigger crime goes untouched. Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large group. - Especially when they are getting feed some good bullshit by some pretty smart people. | ||
| Buellkowski |
Corruption, eh? "Race fraud", eh? Read the link in my earlier post. | ||
| Sifo |
Johnnymceldoo, A few observations. According to Breitbart his intent was to show that the NAACP itself was racist, not Sherrod. That is his claimed reason for the short version of the video that doesn't show Sherrod's "enlightenment". It simply showed where she explained how she had failed to help out some white folks as best as she should have and the room of NAACP people applaud and cheer. It is the NAACP reaction to that part that demonstrates that they are currently and openly a racist organization. I have my doubts that Breitbart's intent had anything to do with the Pigford case. So why did the White House insist on her resignation so quickly? This could have something to do with the Pigford case. If BO was involved in this with Sherrod as alleged in your original post, it certainly explains a lot. BO has shown himself to defend those around himself to a fault, yet in this case threw Sherrod under the bus before the media had a chance to even report on what was happening. This does create a stir about the merits of the firing/forced resignation which seems quite unfounded based on this speech. It will keep the media focused on this aspect rather than any aspect of the Pigford case. I can't say if this was intentional on BO's part, but he certainly would be aware of what went on in that case if it was not up to snuff. With the easy to understand question of Sherrod's firing there is no way the media will spend any time exploring questions of the Pigford case. It's just too involved for the talking head media. Much easier to pick the low hanging fruit. If this was intentional on BO's part I can't say, but the dots are there for those that want to connect them. |
