Both EWG and the press are pushing the availability of data on who might be benefiting from farm payments. Their old database showed whose name was on the check, the new one (the one that USDA couldn't figure out how to make available online) shows the beneficiaries (i.e., members of estates, stockholders of corporations, etc.). I haven't seen the data myself--I suspect it'd be best to wait a couple days until the initial burst of activity dies down.
If Charlie Stenholm (former blue-dog Dem Representative from Texas defeated by Mr. DeLay's redistricting scheme) is right, and EWG doesn't give the data a fair shake, one wonders why the farm state legislators didn't make sure that USDA put the data up. Maybe they didn't think that far ahead, or maybe they just didn't know technology that well.
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