Mar. 12, 2007 - 15:48 MDT

CHEAP AT HALF THE PRICE

Heather doing well today, had her out for a time.

There was an article in the The Rocky Mountain News on the Seventh of March by Mary Clare Jalonick of The Associated Press that hints that our feds are feeling a bit guilty and owning up to a modicum of guilt, perhaps. Quoted in full here :

U.S. PROPOSES $7 BILLI0N TO SETTLE INDIAN LAWSUITS

WASHINGTON -- "The U.S. government has proposed paying $7 billion to settle lawsuits over the management of Indian trust lands -- an offer met with immediate objections from Indian plaintiffs."

"At issue is a decade-old lawsuit by Indians against the government claiming that the government has mismanaged more than $100 billion in oil, gas, timber and other royalties held in trust from their lands dating back to 1887."

The litigation, filed in 1996 by Blackfeet Indian Elouise Cobell, deals with individual Indians' lands. Several tribes have also sued, claiming mismanagement of their lands."

"Senate Indian Affairs Committee Chairman Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said he will hold hearings on the proposal and said that the settlement offer is the FIRST TIME the federal government has acknowledged a multibillion dollar liability for mismanagement of the trust funds over the past century."

"That is a significant admission," Dorgan said, adding that he believes the conditions attached to the settlement offer will be controversial."

"Cobell and one of her attorneys, Keith Harper, said the Interior Department is asking for too much."

"Under the terms of the offer, the government would pay $7 billion over 10 years, WITHOUT INTEREST. In exchange, tribal and individual mismanagement claims against the government would be dropped."

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So, in otherwords the government is willing to pay a few billion dollars, over ten years WITHOUT INTEREST to cover $100 billion inequities beginning from the year 1887, if the Indians will drop all actions against the government.

Of course, seeing that every treaty we ever made with the Indians has been grossly violated, and the Indians moved from their "homelands" to desolate, arid, desert country, such as the land the Navajos occupy now. Not too much different today I guess.

For why ? To spend more tax money on war in a foreign land ?

Looks to me that the bean counters in our government are reluctant to give money where it is due and are trying to go for much less than CHEAP AT HALF THE PRICE . . . . . . . . . . .

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