Despite the caterwauling about the government shutdown, President Obama and congress didn’t shut down the fake farmer fraud.

Obama helped create it.

Last week, the U.S. government sent out checks for $62,500 each to 18,000 people who claimed that they attempted to farm.

We have no idea who those people are who got those check are or whether they are telling the truth.

Welcome to another Obama administration scandal, rife with fraud, intimidation and racism.

The Pigford Black Farmers Settlement started in the 1990s as a lawsuit by a group of about 600 black farmers who were discriminated against by the USDA.

Instead, Pigford was hijacked by lawyers and politicians. All you had to do was to be black (since it was a settlement for ‘black farmers’) and claim that you or a relative ‘attempted to farm’ and you could collect a $50,000 check plus $12,500 to cover the taxes.

What does ‘attempted to farm’ mean? It means you claimed that you tried to go to a USDA office and get a loan. You never had to actually farm.

You didn’t have to provide any actual proof that you that you ever actually went to a USDA. Simply make the claim, fill out the paperwork the right way and you’d get a checks.

People learned how to fill out the paperwork properly in seminars given across the south.

Tens of thousands of people got those $50,000 checks. The lawyers got tens of millions in fees. Politicians, including the Congressional Black Caucus, bought votes with the Pigford pork.

And the real black farmers? They got shafted. It was easier to collect if you were a fake farmer than if you were a real one.

The is another one of those stories I’ve covered extensively that’s been smothered by the media, even after the New York Times did a front page story on it a few months ago that validated all the reporting I and others had done.

I began working with the late conservative firebrand Andrew Breitbart on the Pigford story in late 2010, when I was writing for The Huffington Post. I went on the road for three months, interviewing farmers, lawyers, former USDA heads and more.

It’s the sort of thing that should offend everyone, Republican or Democrat, Libertarian or Independent; billions of dollars in fraud and waste, all with the direct involvement of Barack Obama.

Senator Barack Obama introduced the Pigford II legislation that opened the settlement to even more people. Senator Obama used his position as Senator to intimidate government employees who questioned Pigford. As President, he signed Pigford II into law. The Obama administration also launched two other settlements with the same lack of proof requirement; one for women farmers and one for Hispanic / Latino farmers.

The 1.2 billion in checks that went out last week with no accountability is all Obama’s Pigford II fraud.

I’ll be doing more reporting on this scandal in the coming days.Stay tuned.

Here are just a few of the videos I’ve posted in the past few years about the Pigford scandal.

Here’s a former USDA employee talking about how she was intimidated for questioning the Pigford II settlement promoted by then-Senator Barack Obama.

Here’s Georgia farmer Eddie Slaughter talking about how he and other black farmers were told to ‘keep quiet’ about Pigford fraud by Congressman Sanford Bishop.

Another black farmer, Willie Head from Georgia, talks about Rep. Sanford Bishop’s knowledge of fraud and Pigford II.

It was easier for fake farmers to collect than real farmers.

One of the chief spokesman for Pigford is the media magnet “Dr.” John Boyd. Is he really a Doctor of anything? Watch this video and see for yourself.