The mainstream media has treated accusations of large-scale fraud in the Pigford settlement with overt skepticism and a distinct lack of journalistic curiosity. The press has blindly repeated the Obama Administration’s claim that there are only a handful of fraud cases among the twenty thousand or so paid Pigford claims. Worse, the media has helped promote the narrative that those raising concerns about fraud in Pigford are racist.

You’re about to watch a video clip where Othello Cross, an attorney for Pigford claimants with about fifteen years of experience on the case, admits that he is personally aware of hundreds of cases of fraud in the state of Arkansas alone. Furthermore, he explains how easy it was to commit that fraud and receive a $50,000 check from the government; it’s appropriate to deduce from Cross’s revealing statement that the actual number of fraudulent claims is likely much higher than the hundreds he knows about.

You’re about to watch this clip for the first time, but the USDA watched it over a week ago — I sent it to them for comment about 10 days ago.

After a number of phone calls to the USDA, I was given the response that Secretary Vilsack now acknowledges around ten cases of fraud, up from his original statement that there are only three known cases. If I were inclined to spin the government’s response, I’d praise the USDA for finding 300% more instances of fraud in just a few days, but the reality is that the USDA can watch a video where a pro-Pigford claimant lawyer says in no uncertain terms that he knows about hundreds of cases of fraud — over ten million dollars worth at bare minimum — and still will only acknowledge ten cases.

As Andrew Breitbart points out, the media simply doesn’t want to cover Pigford. I also sent this video to a few major media outlets that stated they wanted to “research” this. I haven’t heard back from any of them. (more…)

I knew I was going to be whacked hard, but I didn’t know when.

On Thursday, July 15th, I warned NAACP president Ben Jealous to stop the race-baiting. I directed my ire at Jealous on the Scott Hennen radio show:

“I have tapes, a tape, of racism, and it’s an NAACP dinner. You want to play with fire? I have evidence of racism, and it’s coming from the NAACP.”

This was part of an ongoing defense of the Tea Party, and in particular, a volley back against the NAACP for creating a week-long mainstream media-enabled attack built upon the provably false premise that a “mob” of the Tea Partiers hurled racial epithets at Congressmen Andre Carson (D-In) and Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga).

“You are manufacturing this in a summer in which the economy is the No. 1 issue affecting blacks and whites in this country,” I said on Hennen’s show. “This country can ill-afford the schism of race to be exploited the way you are, based upon the false premise of the Tea Party being racist… This is absolutely manufactured for political gain.”

My warning to Jealous was received with modest coverage in the conservative blogosphere.

I strongly believed, and still believe, that I had irrefutable evidence that showed the NAACP caught in an act of racism far worse than anything the media and the Democrat Party had attempted to manufacture in a year and a half of relentlessly trying to destroy the Tea Party. (more…)

Taking a look at the big media picture, and especially among our brethren, on the Right such as Fox and Breitbart, it might seem that the biggest story of the year is the Tea Party movement. It’s supposed to be indicative of a deep-seated anger among voters, a sign that people are all but ready to stage a Second American Revolution to take their country back.

As such, the Tea Party is being met with some confusion from those in the political center and outright hatred from bastions of the Left. So, as a reporter with 14 years of experience at both major dailies such as the Chicago Tribune and big weeklies in Chicago and Los Angeles, I’m here to declare that the real story of change in America in 2010 isn’t coming from Barack and the Democrats on the left, nor from the tea party movement on the Right.

In prepping a children’s program where I’d be recording all the Duggars from TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting, I read a lot about this family on the Internet.

Boy was that unhelpful.

I wanted to make sure I got their characters right while scripting the dialogue for an episode of Life at the Pond.  And even though well over a million people watch this show weekly, the Internet was fraught with misinformation. I’ll spare you the gory details, a quick Google of “Duggars” will provide a couple hundred thousand results and you can get a bowl of popcorn and make a day of it.

But there was one common theme, sometimes from quasi reputable sites, that permeated the Internet:  The Duggar children are captives in their own home.

Before traveling to Arkansas to record, I’d only spoken on the phone with Jim Bob Duggar, the father of all 19.  I watched the TLC program, and that was my only exposure to the children.  They seemed pretty well behaved, which explains why I wanted to use them in this episode in the first place.

Jim Bob was kind enough to invite my entire family into his home.  We ended up spending parts of three days there, and I can tell you first hand, this is no ordinary family.

You won’t find a television in their giant living room.  The Internet is greatly restricted. The girls’ room (9 of 10 sleep in one room – the only exception is temporary, newborn Josie) didn’t have Hanna Montana or boy band or vampire posters or anything like it.

Lady Gaga did not make the cut. (more…)

Leave it to PETA to push the envelope.

“Doggies Multiply Faster Than Duggars: Be Responsible. Always Spay and Neuter.”  That was a billboard campaign that the controversial animal-rights organization wanted to launch in Springdale, Arkansas, near where America’s most fertile homeschooling family resides. But the company that rents the billboard space (wisely) backed out.

It’s hardly the first time, nor will it be the last, that Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and their many children have become a contentious national talking point. But People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals was downright respectful, compared to how unhinged liberal pundits have smeared them.

Back in 2005 when the Duggars had only 16 children, a San Francisco Chronicle writer named Mark Morford insulted the devout Christian family, sneeringly describing them as:

spotless white hyperreligious interchangeable people with alarmingly bad hair, the kids ranging in ages from 1 to 17, worse than those nuked Smurfs in that UNICEF commercial and worse than all the horrific rubble in Pakistan and worse than the cluster-bomb nightmare that is Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise having a child as they suck the skin from each other’s Scientological faces and even worse than that huge 13-foot python which ate that six-foot alligator and then exploded.

Morford also managed to both give Michelle Duggar crude advice and blaspheme the Lord: (more…)

Once upon a time former Governor, Presidential candidate, and Chairman of the Democrat National Committee called the GOP the “White Party.”  CNN commentator Lou Dobbs took Dean to task for his language.

So was Dr. Dean, and those among the Left who share his understanding of history, accurate?  Is the GOP the party of white people?  Let’s test the good doctor’s diagnosis.

Fifteen questions follow.  The correct answers are provided at the end. No peeking!

Question #1.  During whose administration did the signature of an African-American first appear on U.S. currency? During that of a Republican or a Democrat President?

Question #2.  Was the first African-American diplomat appointed by a Republican or a Democrat President?

Question #3.  Was the first African-American popularly elected U.S. Senator a Republican or a Democrat? (more…)