The @Large Conference held recently in Baton Rouge, Louisiana brought people together from around the country to discuss issues related to black conservatives. In a time when the GOP is talking ‘outreach’ in the wake of Mitt Romney’s 2012 Presidential defeat, the conference was an important first step in the Republican party reclaiming its heritage as the party of individual rights, colorblind justice and equality of opportunity. The panelists and speakers also showed that many black conservatives are right in line with the new generation of Republican rabble rousers like the late Andrew Breitbart, pushing against the radical left and the GOP establishment with fierce conviction.

The mention of Andrew Breitbart is not gratuitous. A longtime champion of black conservatives, his presence was felt throughout the day and a half event from moments like his appearance in conference keynote speaker Rev. C.L. Bryant’s powerhouse film Runaway Slave and in Breitbart contributor Anita Moncrief’s tough love talk about the dismal state of the GOP ground game during the 2012 election.

The @Large event, sponsored by Louisiana political blog The Hayride, is one of the first gatherings to specifically discuss black conservative issues. The conference had an estimated attendance of around two hundred but as Fredrick Douglass Republicans founder KCarl Smith said, “Jesus started with twelve, so we’re doing okay.” Although the conference had one piece of breaking news–the party switch of state senator Elbert Guillory, who became the first black Republican in the Louisiana legislature since Reconstruction–the event was primarily a chance to discuss both real-world political strategies and ideology. Speakers included Star Parker and Mississippi politician Bill Marcy.

A side note about Marcy; he told me a story about when he was a National Guardsman at the 1968 Democratic National Convention and was attacked by the leftist demonstrators, who hurled insults, feces and bottles of urine. Marcy’s wife mentioned “the protestors would always get a photographer first” in order to document the ‘police brutality.’ It’s amazing how little has changed in forty years, because we documented the same techniques used by Occupy Wall Street in the Stephen K. Bannon film Occupy Unmasked

One thing immediately noticeable was the racial mix of the crowd. One conference attendee who had been inside the Black Caucus at the Democratic National Convention said there was a marked contrast in the atmospheres between this event and the Democrat gathering. At the DNC event, there was palpable, even open hostility towards white people; they were pressured to leave. At the @Large event, the attendees were of Americans of all skin colors and the conversation and ideas flowed freely.

The conference was also significant because it was held in The South, where the history of race relations including slavery and Jim Crow simply can’t be ignored. History was a key point in many presentations, in fact, because the Democrat party’s history on race has been literally whitewashed; recast in such a way to cover up Democrat complicity in everything from the founding of the KKK to voting against civil rights legislation.

Even though the attendees were in favor of the ideal of a color blind society, there are still a number of issues that have special significance to black Americans. Policies on school choice and second amendment issues take on a new perspective when faced by citizens facing the dangers and failures of Democrat programs on a day-to-day basis.

Abortion is a another key issue for many black conservatives because of the out of proportion abortion rate in black communities and the unique historical targeting of black Americans by Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger and her Negro Project from the 1930s. A prime example of powerful cultural pro-life push came from conference speaker Ryan Bomberger, whose Radiance Foundation has produced slick, modern and extremely compelling messaging that anyone interested in political activism could learn a thing or three from.

Another theme that was repeated time and again is that the Democratic agenda has created an attitude of anger and defeatism among many black Americans. The liberal message that America is still a country mired in racism where black people can’t get ahead has brainwashed generations into hopeless passivity, while the reality is that skin color isn’t stopping any American from success today. The impact of this cynical political messaging has been staggering.

The bias and suspicion against Republicans has become so ginned up that electability is an issue for black candidates who choose to run under the GOP banner. Many in the black community simply will not vote for anybody with an R next to their name, no matter who the candidate is or what their stance is on issues. “I ain’t voting for no Republican” is a hard hurdle to overcome. Some black conservatives have been forced to run as Democrats in order to get the black vote, hoping that white conservatives will know their record and support them at the polls.

Many establishment Republicans still see black Americans as a demographic category and a minor one at that. No wonder so many strong black conservative voices came out of the Tea Party movement, who rejected the status quo, watered down Republican party that sometimes seems to be afraid of its own shadow and called for bold activism.

The establishment GOP had ceded black voters to the Democrats or viewed them like flavor of month ‘special interest groups’, a fatal mistake because black Americans are first and foremost Americans; here from the country’s start and an integral, indivisible part of our history, culture and heritage. The steady progress from slavery to the Civil War to civil rights is a central spine of our nation’s story and evidence of our greatness. The stagnation of so many of our fellow Americans in the past few decades is a lesson in what happens when we move away from our founding principles.

When the civil rights movement shifted from a Judeo-Christian concept of universal brotherhood and worth to the Marxist oppressor / oppressed model in the mid 1960s, it sent America into a tailspin over issues of race. The Black Power movement’s idolization of Mao and Ho Chi Minh was emulated by the privileged white kids of the Students for a Democratic Society & Weather Underground and that has given way to the mainstreaming of radicalism and permanent racial strife as a political axiom. President Barack Obama was literally and ideologically born out of that era and philosophy. Dependance, white guilt and racial resentment came to rule the day, then created the Democrat chokehold on black voters for the intervening decades.

Just because of national dialogue on race has been driven into helter skelter accusations by political opportunists, however, doesn’t mean that conservatives need to stick to left’s script of racial division. The @Large conference proved powerfully time and again that because of the wreckage left behind in the black community by nearly fifty years of one party rule, it’s imperative that conservatives actively support one of the last remaining open vestiges of racism in the United States; the struggle for black Americans to be openly patriotic and proudly Republican without being assailed with slurs and threats.

Organizers say another @Large conference is being planned for the future.

Guess again: with almost no media scrutiny, no political courage to call fraud FRAUD, and President Barack Obama in the White House, Thomas Burrell and others are actively planning Pigford 3 to open up the bank vaults again.

Don’t take my word for it; listen to this segment of a longer interview and here Burrell tell you himself.

Don’t forget; we exposed Thomas Burrell years ago as the man traveling around the country for years teaching people how to commit undetectable fraud.

As Dave Weigel said on Slate recently:

Andrew Breitbart and journalist Lee Stranahan ran around, respectively, trying to get media on the story and doing interviews with angry would-be whistleblowers. I did a little reporting on it and was overwhelmed. The New York Times assigned investigative reporters to the story, though, and their epic treatment made A1 today.

There’s a lot here, and an overwhelming amount of people admitting, yeah, the settlement process was/is a mess. The Times quotes a “lawyer familiar with the Clinton administration’s stance”: “It was better to err on the side of giving money to people who might not qualify if they went through litigation than to deny money to people who actually deserve it.” But the piece ends with the stunning scene of Thomas Burrell, president of the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association, telling black churchgoers how to file for claims .

Lucky for us, Lee Stranahan managed to get a tape into one of Burrell’s 2011 meetings.

Here’s that video and it’s as clear as can be.

There’s an industry here with billions at stake. People like Burrell aren’t going to give up easily.

And please note that Burrell is based in Memphis; a lot of people with questionable claims that I point to here and here are within an hour’s drive of Memphis.

I would never attack someone exposing fraud because they were black.

Yet that’s the sort of blatant racism that helping to cover up the Pigford scandal. It’s not just being covered up the lawyers and politicians; it’s being covered up by regular people who make no bones about doing it for racist reasons.

There’s a lot of people freaking out over at the My Settlement Claims website right now. A lot of the posters seem to be people were waiting on a Pigford 2 settlement claim check and they are not at all happy with the fact that I am exposing fraud in the case.

A few days ago and woman who uses the name Paula Rich put a post saying that she personally knew of a woman who collected a half-million dollars in fraudulent claims.

Here’s what she wrote:

To be honest, not shooting myself in the foot, I know of 1 person who actaully did that in the first pigford case (bless her heart, she is deceased now), but she actually got at least 500,000 (all of the checks came to her address). I don’t think in pigford I you had to have a death certification and she had actaully filed in Pigford II about 10+ claims of different names, I don’t know if the people she filed for are deceased or living, but by her being deceased, no one followed up on it, because there again, it was fraud. She was an older lady, very swift and very greedy – THIS STORY IS TRUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then later Paula Rich said:

@cc: she was very, very slick. She got money for family membersand they did not know anything about it. If she had not pass away, shw was planning to doing the same thing. Again, I know of at least 10 letters from the administration office that came to her house after her death. She died right in 2010 (right before they starting mailing the application out). Her family got the applications, but they did not even know the people that she was applying for. I KNOW THIS FOR A FACT.

Someone followed up with:

Paula….I haven’t responded because I know of two people who got over 250000.00 each filed over 5 claims and got the money….so I know that Mr Stranahan is telling the truth…..these people these cheaters liars and greedy people are the reason we are over a year into the settlement.

I posted and said I would like to speak to her about that story.

Now Paula Rich has posted this:

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
For the record, when I posted about the scenerio that I knew about, I did not know that Mr. Lee was on this blog. I am as real as they get and at the end of the day, the true is the true. What dog does Mr. Lee have in this fight, I don’t know and personally, I don’t care. As far as Ms. Waller is concern, I posted the information that she has given to me (whether it is true or not true) – I don’t know. I am not on anyone side as stated from the some of the bloggers. I do have an opinion on certain issues and I may respond or not respond. I want to see everyone get their long over due monies that is my prayer each day. So if I offended anyone, I am truly sorry.
It is distrubing to me that all this focus is on fraud in the Pigford II Settlement, but when the Indians got their monies last year, it went smooth as a cucumber. Either you are approved or not approved, NOT Mr. Lee or anyone else can stop what God has for you – beleive that!!!!!!!

This is backtracking and apologizing for bringing up a case of fraud. It’s immoral.

This sort of racist circle-the-wagons mentality that is on display everywhere in that forum exposes the ends justify the means mentaliy of common criminals.

My opinion only: From what I have read and researched; Lee Stranahan is a freelance writer, A NOBODY who wants recognition or attention. I noticed this is not his first nor last story he plans to bash. He needs to kick up some dust and continue to keep his name circulating in the media….that is how he makes his living. He is man version of “Wendy Williams” although I like Wendy; however; she talked her way to a talk show. Anywhoo, this case is closing and the fat lady is about to sing. Thanks Paula for the info…#waitingpatiently

I’m always a nobody when they can’t refute the facts.

And the settlement may be closed, but the story is far from over. If anyone who committed fraud in Pigford thinks cashing those checks will never come to back to them, good luck with that. The lawyers and the politicians who set this up are the people I think need to be brought to justice but it’s a safe bet they are going to throw the people who lied to get a $50,000 check under the bus faster than you can say Monica.

Once participant doesn’t understand the word ‘tease’ has more than one meaning. And he’s a racist.

Hello everyone, allow me 2 introduce the word (teased) to you. The definition of teased-To make fun of; mock playfully. Pigford 2 article is nothing more, than a white right wing nut, making fun of the pigford settlement. He clearly stated that it’s a teased article.Quote…..I teased a number of things last night on Twitter, so I decided to put all the teases here in one place for reference. unquote.So, the article is not true, it’s only a teased article. It never seem to amaze me, how low the white man will go, to keep the black man down. Who would be stupid enough to file 22 claims with the same address? Dam, I think I’ll go over on this white boy Twitter page & give him a piece of my mind.

I was using the word ‘tease’ in the sense of a movie teaser; the definition of “a short introductory advertisement for a product, esp. one that does not mention thename of the thing being advertised.”

In other words, I obviously have names to go with all these addresses and other information. I just haven’t mentioned them. Yet.

And of COURSE this bozo didn’t say anything in my Twitter timeline. I’ll debate anybody. They never want to talk about it.

This forum writer gets it, however:

That’s nothing more than reverse racism! White right wing nut?!!! He is not trying to hold the black man down! Meanwhile while you attack him saying he is a racist, you fail to see the forest beyond a few trees! These multiple claims at one location and others at addresses that don’t exist, he never said it was just black people trying to get an easy paycheck, he is exposing a corruption here! The very corruption that every discriminated black farmer who is a claimant as well as those in the first Pigford are having you just settlement money stolen, siphoned right under your noses by the people who are supposed to be your advocates! I hate seeing that some old timer who has lost everything he toiled over to obtain in his life only get a mere $50k check while his lawyers who did nothing more than push pencils making sure their ends got covered first rake in hundreds of millions! That’s the fraud!

Here’s a few more examples, in case you missed them on Twitter today.

#Pigford : 13 claims worth $650,000 filed for an address in Flint, Michigan that should be between these two houses twitter.com/Stranahan/stat…

— Lee Stranahan (@Stranahan) May 22, 2013

#Pigford : This cute little house is the Chicago address used by 9 people for 9 separate claims worth $450,000. twitter.com/Stranahan/stat…

— Lee Stranahan (@Stranahan) May 22, 2013

#Pigford: This 3 bedroom / 1 bath home in Memphis was listed on 26 claims worth $1,300,000; 15 claims by same woman twitter.com/Stranahan/stat…

— Lee Stranahan (@Stranahan) May 22, 2013

#Pigford: Correction: 1 woman in Memphis filed 16 claims, not 15. Name / address redacted. For now. No alarms bells? twitter.com/Stranahan/stat…

— Lee Stranahan (@Stranahan) May 22, 2013

#Pigford : Yawn. Only 1 claim for a $50,000 check was made from Beverly Hills, California, at this P.O. Box place twitter.com/Stranahan/stat…

— Lee Stranahan (@Stranahan) May 22, 2013

Photo: John Boyd is not happy when I confront him on fraud allegations.“