Posted on 09/04/2011 1:28:50 AM PDT by thecodont
Reporting from Nyangoma-Kogelo, Kenya— To secure an audience with the Obama family matriarch at her farmhouse in western Kenya, you are told to pay respects at the local seat of power. This is a run-down government building where the district commissioner, a scowling man in a black suit, receives you without warmth.
You've come to see Sarah Onyango, you explain, the woman referred to as "Granny" by the president of the United States. You are coming with the blessing of the president's half brother Malik Obama, you quickly add.
District Commissioner Boaz Cherutich, who controls the woman's 24-hour security detail, dismisses you brusquely, saying: With the family's permission, you don't need mine. Go.
Down pitted dirt roads, behind a metal gate, you find policemen playing cards in the big front yard of the family compound where the president's father is buried. Grim faced, they turn you away without explanation.
John the Fixer, who has arranged many such visits, doesn't quite understand the problem, but the day is young, and he will make calls. "They have to consult widely," he says.
Security has been tightened, he explains, since President Obama sent a team to kill Osama bin Laden, prompting vows of revenge. Kenya has been hit before, most calamitously when Al Qaeda blew up the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi in 1998.
"We used to love this place. You could walk in and out and see the grandmother," he says. "She is a very social woman, but access to her has been restricted."
::
Malik Obama is nearby, and he's sure to straighten things out. He's having a Coke on the patio of the area's best hotel, the Mwisho Mwisho, whose name, "end end" in Swahili, reflects its reputation among tour guides as a refuge of last resort.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Read the article — interesting that the journalist never got permission to see “Granny”.
It does make you wonder why. Are they afraid that Granny may blurt out that she was present at Obama’s birth in Kenya?
Malik Obama doesn’t understand why someone won’t invest in a fruit juice factory that would employ many people — provide many jobs. Gee, Malik. They are asking the same questions here about your half-brother.
The apple didn't fall far from the tree.
Pretend you LOVE Obama. Insist that America is lucky to have had an American like Obama born in the United States. Get them to trust you and just sit back and listen.
Don't forget to copy all you learn including screen shots :)
- People thought things would get better with 0 elected president.
- People are angry at rampant corruption.
- Failure is someone else's fault.
- In the end, it just doesn't work out -- some sinister, unseen force is to blame for impeding progress.
- No one wants to take responsibility.
- There would be less unemployment if someone would just _____ (fill in the blank).
- Bureaucrats wield their power truculently, and have no really helpful answers -- they won't move you forward, but they sure as he11 can hold you back.
. . . Is the journalist absolutely certain he didn't just loop back and land in D.C.?
Nothing any of the Obamas have to say is worth anyone’s time to listen.
For the same reason you never got access to gram TOOT. She was totally shielded and out of the public’s eyes effectively, and “died”(?) two days before inauguration and took the birth certificate with her to the “grave”!!!
WHAT have you learned???
Man.....you NAILED it!!
It costs NOTHING to keep a place clean ND NEAT...JUST A little effort!
There’s no way it’s because they’re afraid an LA Times reporter is gonna kill Granny in retaliation for the death of Bin Laden. There’s no way it’s a “power struggle” or resentment of Malik Obama’s status in the community. It seems pretty clear that the government of Kenya doesn’t want Granny to be able to answer questions.
As Malik Obama said, the Kenyan government IS sitting on a gold mine, but it’s a gold mine for those who realize Obama is not eligible and that is why it has to be snuffed into silence without any explanation.
Malik Obama might be realizing that if the people in that area answered the questions truthfully they just might get more help from Americans than they will EVER get from Barry Soetoro. Or if there was even any real danger of them telling the truth, they could get a LOT of help from Barry Soetoro - like the Kenyan government itself, which knows what has happened to the records they acknowledged exist by sealing access to them, and has gotten lots of help from Barry Soetoro via the taxpayers.
Why would she say that? She never said it to begin with. She said she was present at Obama’s FATHER’S birth, not Jr.
Whut?
I worked in journalism for 20+ years. It never occurred to me to publish a story about how I failed at my job. The first requirement of producing a story for publication in a newspaper or on TV/radio is to get to the source and have them talk to you. This reporter failed at this, but rather than continuing to plug away until he succeeded, he writes a story about how he didn’t get the story. They didn’t teach me THAT approach in journalism school.
I wasted a couple of minutes of my life reading that pointless drivel. Local African governments are corrupt and dysfunctional? Really? Who knew?
“The Kenyan village where President Obama’s step-grandmother lives hasn’t benefited much from its association with him, and the country itself is still a maddening mystery.”
Just like Amerika.
“They don’t even have the ambition to stand the pole up straight??”
Exactly my thought. Does government have to do everything?
The blacks are treated like incapable CHILDREN, and that’s what they’ve turned into.
The reporter conveniently forgot to tell his readers how in 2006 Øbama promised the village he would build them a new school...obviously they are still waiting.
Dear FRiend,
Please note that this story was posted in the “news” section of the paper. It was not posted in the Opinion or Blogs section of the paper.
I think the MSM is catching on and is beginning to define the story — the REAL story — through the use of “negative space.” In other words, don’t ask what IS, but ask what ISN’T. This is the laying of the foundation of the bigger story, which will come later.
Huh?
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