Friday, July 23, 2010

While that particular anonymous is pissing and moaning and calling us names

for being mean to Sherrod, here's a little something more he probably won't have a problem with:

...The cash (settlement) award acknowledges racial discrimination on the part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the years 1981-85. ... New Communities is due to receive approximately $13 million ($8,247,560 for loss of land and $4,241,602 for loss of income; plus $150,000 each to Shirley and Charles for pain and suffering). There may also be an unspecified amount in forgiveness of debt. ... (Pigford vs Vilsack)

hm… 1985… That’s about 24 years ago, isn’t it. Just about the time some other farmer was sent to “one of his own kind” for help. Funny coincidence, that.

$8,247,560 is $1,375 per acre. Don’t know if that’s a lot or a little for that particular area in that era. $4,241,602 is $848,320 per year for the years cited. Which might sound like a lot, but ‘taint so much when the costs of seed, fuel, equipment, water [y’all pay for water in The South?] etc. are factored in. 6,000 acres of flat farming land is a helluva big area to work.

OTOH, $300,000 for “Pain & Suffering” ... For being turned down for a loan? [If that’s the going rate, I know some particularly adventurous fellas who would never need a loan again.] I wonder if the ‘settlement’ involved any job offers… Just askin’ questions, here; not like I’m throwin’ anyone through a plate glass window…
...

In addition, USDA’s Farm Service Agency spent over $166 million on salaries and expenses on this case from 1999-2009, according to agency records.

Members of Congress may approve another $1.15 billion this week to settle cases from what some estimate may be an additional 80,000 African-Americans who have also claimed to have been discriminated against by USDA staff.

Wow. That is a pile of our money. And more to come? That’s a heap of discriminating. Or something.

Already, the number of people who have been paid and are still seeking payment will likely exceed the 26,785 black farmers who were considered to even be operating back in 1997, according to USDA. That’s the year the case initially began as Pigford v. (then Agriculture Secretary) Glickman and sources predicted that, at most, 3,000 might qualify.

That’s a lot of folks. And we thought it was just Shirley, waaay back when, and one [1] white farmer; before she changed her ways and realized that race isn’t the issue, class is.

Clearly we’re no longer talking about the Sherrods and their New Communities farm. 26,000 folks is a a good-size town; not a farming group. 80,000 is a city.

Add that to all the stuff she said in that speech, and she doesn't seem all that damned saintly, does she? Especially when she's accusing people of wanting to bring back slavery and other such idiocy.

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