baldilocks

Kenya Roundup: Ban Ki-Moon, Annan in Nairobi

It’s impossible to know who really won the Kenya election.

Official results gave Kibaki an edge of 231,728 votes, or 2 percent, out of about 10 million cast. Initial results of an exit poll by the U.S.-funded International Republican Institute found that rival Raila Odinga had won by an 8 percent margin.

Election officials allowed five accredited Kenyan observers into the tallying center in Nairobi only in the final phase of vote-counting, and three of them shared their accounts with McClatchy [News Service]. All said that the gravest cheating occurred in that room, where commissioners — all appointed by Kibaki — compiled returns before announcing them to the public. [SNIP]

Results were announced even when documents were missing, incomplete, unsigned by officers or party representatives, incorrectly tabulated, photocopied or forged.

"Both sides stole votes," said Julius Melli, a 31-year-old Kenyan radiographer who witnessed the tallying of Maragua [District]. "But Kibaki stole more, and they stole it inside the tallying center."

Again someone wants to know where to locate the leadership—governmental, moral and spiritual.

Another ODM MP dies—this time at the hands of the police. From the details, the shooting may merely be the result of a romantic triangle, but the timing couldn’t be worse.

The killing has led to the postponement of peace talks in the capital, Nairobi.

The first substantive talks between government and opposition began earlier on Thursday.

"We have postponed this afternoon's session and we will work all day tomorrow [Friday] so that the leaders can attend to urgent matters and call their constituents," said former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who is mediating the talks.

(As you may have gathered, I’m not all that jazzed up about Kofi Annan’s arrival to mediate the conflict. It isn’t as though he has an exemplary track record in such matters during his tenure as Secretary-general of the UN. :::cough:::Iraq:::cough:::)

It’s all about the Rift Valley.

Spiritual warfare made flesh? A Catholic Priest falls to one of the mobs.

This past Saturday, Father Michael Kamau of the Nakuru diocese lost his life to the downward spiraling violence in Kenya. A man of faith, kindness and inspiration, Father Michael will be deeply missed.

His death is the terrible result of terrifying ethnic divisions that are splitting Kenya in two. Father Michael was returning from the seminary where he taught, in Kakamega, to his home diocese. Like thousands of other Kenyans, he was stopped at a roadblock by a gang of vengeful youth. He was asked to show his ID, and when his name revealed that he was of the opposing Kikuyu ethnic group, the gang brutally killed him on the roadside.

Unfortunately, I think that this is an answer to the above question regarding moral and spiritual leadership.

Ban Ki-Moon arrives in Kenya.

The Government and ODM negotiators Thursday gave hope to millions of Kenyans deeply hit by a political crisis by agreeing that the ongoing violence must end in seven days.

The talks are expected to be boosted Friday by the arrival of United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon to offer support to his predecessor, Mr Kofi Annan, who is leading the mediation process.

The two teams will today decide on a proposal to bring on board former African National Congress (ANC) secretary-general Cyril Ramaphosa as the chief mediator of the talks.

The six-member team, which will henceforth be called the Kenya National Dialogue Team, emerged from their inaugural meeting chaired by Mr Annan beaming with optimism at progress of the talks.

African Union chairman: "If Kenya burns, there will be nothing for tomorrow.”

The Kenya Crisis

While the Electorate's Attention Is Diverted

…Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.

--Matthew 22:21 KJV

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between church and State.

--Thomas Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptist Association, dated January 1, 1802.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…

--US Constitution, Amendment One

While some members of the US Senate are busy running for president and other members are picking sides between them, still others are working behind the scenes for the watchword of the day: change. That change, if successful, will most certainly be dramatic. The question remains, however, is whether the prospective change is good, desirable, or whether it is even constitutional.

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the Senate Finance Committee chair, is heading a investigation into the finances of six Christian ministries. Each ministry must provide the committee with all information concerning its expenses, executive compensation, and amenities given to executives. The investigation started in November.

The inquiry is part of Grassley’s long-standing interest in making sure tax-exempt organizations are accountable to donors.

"I’m following up on complaints from the public and news coverage regarding certain practices at six ministries," Grassley said. "The allegations involve governing boards that aren’t independent and allow generous salaries and housing allowances and amenities such as private jets and Rolls Royces. I don’t want to conclude that there’s a problem, but I have an obligation to donors and the taxpayers to find out more. People who donated should have their money spent as intended and in adherence with the tax code."

Grassley wrote to Randy and Paula White of Without Walls International Church and Paula White Ministries of Tampa, Fla.; Benny Hinn of World Healing Center Church, Inc. and Benny Hinn Ministries of Grapevine, Texas; David and Joyce Meyer of Joyce Meyer Ministries of Fenton, Mo.; Kenneth and Gloria Copeland of Kenneth Copeland Ministries of Newark, Texas; Bishop Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church and Bishop Eddie Long Ministries of Lithonia, Ga., and Creflo and Taffi Dollar of World Changers Church International and Creflo Dollar Ministries of College Park, Ga.

All of these ministries are familiar to me and, except for the Meyers (who have already complied with the Senate's "request"), all either explicitly say or give off the impression that they subscribe to the "prosperity doctrine"--that a Christian should give his/her church tithes and offerings in order to receive something tangible in return, rather than doing so because God commands it. (I would assume that the private aircraft and the Rolls Royces are evidence that the doctrine is sound. Okay, not really.) The deadline to furnish the information to the Senate Committee was December 6, 2007, so the ball is in the Committee's court.

Are these ministries grossly profiting from the tithes and offerings of their followers? Heaven only knows. And perhaps it's necessary for an earthly authority to look into answering that question.

But should that authority be the US Senate?
And how would the Senate be sure that a religious entity is accountable to its donors?
What will happen to the five ministries who have refused to release the requested information?
After the situation is resolved, what precedents would be set for governmental agencies to make further demands on some other church, synagogue, mosque, etc.?

See, we may say "yeah! go get 'em" for at least one of the above-mentioned ministries, but, as always, the short-term satisfaction of seeing suspected charlatans get theirs must give way to long-term considerations: whether this investigation will lead to more fishing expeditions in the Church.

If they can do it to these churches without actual evidence of wrong-doing, who's to say that yours isn't next?

Of the investigation, Pastor Joel Hunter of 12,000-member Northland, A Church Distributed in Orlando said that there's nothing to fear if the six entities are innocent. "Nothing to fear if innocent." Why do those words always seem to herald some intrusion upon liberty?

UPDATE: Walking the line--the Copelands aren't exactly operating as if their tax-exempt status is in jeopardy.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A Christian nonprofit says a Texas televangelist turned a national ministers’ gathering last week into a fundraising opportunity for Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee [that guy again], a newspaper reports.

The Trinity Foundation, a charity that monitors televangelists and viewed a live Internet broadcast of the event, said the fundraiser took in $111,000 and generated pledges nearing $1 million, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported in a copyrighted article Tuesday.

The fundraiser was held at Kenneth Copeland Ministries’ campus in Newark, Texas.

Russ Florence of Tulsa, Okla., a spokesman for Copeland, said in a statement that the event did not amount to an endorsement of Huckabee by Kenneth Copeland Ministries. He said Huckabee’s campaign rented one of the rooms after the ministers’ conference and Kenneth Copeland Ministries did not make a contribution to Huckabee’s campaign.

“No offering was or has been taken for any political candidate by Kenneth Copeland Ministries or at a KCM event,” Florence said. [SNIP]

“Basically, Kenneth Copeland simply asked him how he could pray for him and the governor asked him to pray for physical stamina for the team and the financial resources that they need each day,” she said. “I’m not sure who called who.”

Huckabee’s campaign released a statement saying it rented a room for “a separate event that was hosted by a private individual” and was not affiliated with Copeland’s ministry. The campaign said the event conformed with campaign finance laws and tax regulations.

The Trinity Foundation is helping in a Senate investigation, headed by Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. Grassley began the probe into spending by Christian television ministries last year.

Copeland’s actions “should raise enormous red flags,” said Trinity Foundation founder Ole Anthony. “This is not appropriate as a part of American church life or American politics.”

Kenya: Weapons and Words (UPDATED)

ODM MP Melitus “Mugabe” Were was murdered by a mob; Obama appeals for peace via a Nairobi radio station.
*****

It is inconceivable how people who have all along lived in harmony, shared resources and common utilities, can turn around and start butchering each other senselessly. [SNIP]

Most surprising, President Kibaki, at whom the buck stops, and his rival Raila Odinga, other than that photo-ops session last week, have not taken the message of peace to the doorstep of their followers.

Is there an echo in here or is that just plain common sense?
*****
Many reasons for the implosion. One result.
*****
US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer says that the situation in Kenya is an example of ‘ethnic cleansing’ rather than of genocide. The difference?

The aim originally was not to kill, it was to cleanse, it was to push them out of the region[.]

Normally, I'm just as much the pedant as the next blogger over, but I doubt that this distinction makes a difference to the dead and their families.
*****

Granted, this was started by politicians. The elections were just the flint that set alight the situation. However I refuse to absolve the participants of the mayhem of their share of the blame. The fact of the matter is that at the end of the day you must take responsibility for your [own] actions.

If you threw stones, hacked people, burnt houses or looted then you are also to blame.

If you didn’t throw stones or hack or burn or loot but you spread hate through your blogs, your text messages, your emails and your conversations, please believe you are just as bad as the panga wielding youths. You are equally to blame.

PERSONAL: I asked my sister whether my father and step-mother wanted to get out and, if so, if there was anything I could do to facilitate them doing so and coming here—with me being the lone American in the bunch. However, the only way out is via land vehicle into a neighboring country--such as Uganda--and then by air. And the initial part of that method is more risky than hunkering down at home—at least for some.

Oh and then there’s this.

Reporters Without Borders urges the Kenyan authorities to use all necessary means to quickly identify and punish those responsible for the death threats sent to leading journalists [via email] in Nairobi yesterday, hours after an opposition Orange Democratic Movement parliamentarian was murdered.

My father’s name wasn’t listed, but I don’t think that he’s reading his email anyway.

To those who are praying for my family, I thank you and I urge you to keep doing so for them and for all of the others.

UPDATE: State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack on Frazer's words:

...he would let Jendayi Frazer’s comments stand but did not say they represented Washington’s official position.

He stressed that the State Department’s Office of War Crimes Issues continues to closely monitor the post-election violence between Kenya’s ethnic groups for “any incidence of atrocities” and is documenting all cases being brought to its attention.

The Kenya Crisis

Snub on This

I rose and shined early this morning only to catch the consistent refrain on the news regarding last night’s SOTU address. It isn’t about the president’s speech, of course; it's all about the “Snub.”

They call that a snub? Clinton has been "recklessly eyeballing" Obama the whole campaign. Then her husband starts recklessly wagging his tongue. (Ew.) So when Obama doesn’t grin and say “I’se ain’t mad atchoo Miz Hill’ry” all of a sudden it’s a frickin’ snub. (Oops! Did I just play the Race Card there? Entertainment value, nothing more.)

Seriously speaking, Brian Kilmeade of Fox and Friends mentioned that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently received similar treatment at the hands of Russian President Vladimir Putin. But because the secretary is a Republican, she has forfeited all the victim chits to which she has “rights.” Therefore, to the Usual Suspects, that was ‘all in the game.’ Well guess what? So was the fact that Senator Clinton got a chance to look at Senator Obama’s back side. After the campaign-sanctioned behavior of her husband, Clinton’s lucky that she didn’t get an invitation to kiss it.

End Question: Will the Usual Suspects holler “You Chauvinist Beasts!!! Respect the Vagina!!!” every time that someone doesn’t kiss the next President Clinton’s ring on cue? Feminists! :::rolls eyes:::

Comment on GWB's Final SotU

Would it kill Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, to at least pretend as though she's paying attention to the speech? How unprofessional.

UPDATE: Is Pelosi reading the speech in that pamphlet? If so, I retract my venom.

So It's All About the Sisterhood, NOW?

The Great Identity Politics War is like the Mother of all Pile-ups; I just can't look away!

The latest salvo sees Ted Kennedy's endorsement of Barack Obama cause New York's NOW chapter to flip out.

Women have just experienced the ultimate betrayal. Senator Kennedy’s endorsement of Hillary Clinton’s opponent in the Democratic presidential primary campaign has really hit women hard. Women have forgiven Kennedy, stuck up for him, stood by him, hushed the fact that he was late in his support of Title IX, the ERA, the Family Leave and Medical Act to name a few. Women have buried their anger that his support for the compromises in No Child Left Behind and the Medicare bogus drug benefit brought us the passage of these flawed bills. We have thanked him for his ardent support of many civil rights bills, BUT women are always waiting in the wings.

And now the greatest betrayal! We are repaid with his abandonment! He’s picked the new guy over us. [SNIP]

This latest move by Kennedy, is so telling about the status of and respect for women’s rights, women’s voices, women’s equality, women’s authority and our ability – indeed, our obligation - to promote and earn and deserve and elect, unabashedly, a President that is the first woman after centuries of men who “know what’s best for us.”

I suppose that the 70+% of black women who voted for Obama in the South Carolina primary aren't really women. Or perhaps black women are too stupid to figure out that Hillary Clinton has their best interest at heart while Obama couldn't possibly have that, being a tripod and all. And see how these tripods stick together?

Somewhere, Mary Jo Kopechne (pictured) is laughing uncontrollably.

(Thanks to Hot Air)

I'm Confused

Toni Morrison, author of Tar Baby and the black woman who dubbed Bill Clinton "the first black president," endorses Barack Obama for president. But if Bill Clinton was the "first black president," doesn't that make Hillary Clinton half-black just like Obama? (Think about it.) And if Obama wins would he be the second black president? So many questions in need of answering. (Not really.)

BTW, if I read just one more person asking the stupid question of why Obama is thought of as black when he has one white parent, I'm going to send that person a load of US History links...or perhaps I'll just ask them how they think all we millions of not-jet-black black Americans came out not-jet-black. (Hint: not through osmosis.)

(Thanks to Dan Collins at Protein Wisdom)

Kennedys Claim Their Own

In the wake of Senator Obama's landslide primary victory in South Carolina, the Kennedys have made a big to-do of formally endorsing him for president. First it was JFK's daughter Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg over the weekend. Today it's Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and his son, Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI). Considering the questionable state of sobriety at a given moment for those last two, I'm not so sure that they won't regret it in the morning, but I am sure that Obama will make the most of their seal of approval.

Says Allahpundit:

Having him and Caroline endorse as a pair will go a long way towards sidetracking the post-Carolina “black candidate” narrative Team Hillary’s trying to jump-start, so either Obama’s the luckiest pol alive or this is a master stroke of media management by him and his campaign

A dead-on assessment, but what I find interesting is the convergence of the Kennedy family and Obama's existence. Don't forget; the Kennedy Foundation is directly responsible for Obama being here. (Of course, the foundation is responsible for me being here also but I'm not exactly "on-message." Story of my life.)

Do you wonder what's going on behind the scenes at Team Clinton? These lines from the Politico article might give some indication:

Rejecting a personal entreaty from President Bill Clinton, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy plans to endorse Barack Obama for president in a joint appearance on Monday, Democratic sources said. [SNIP]

“This is the biggest Democratic endorsement Obama could possibly get short of Bill Clinton,” said a high-level Democrat.

:::snort:::

UPDATE: Obama has an uphill battle in the big states with the exception of Georgia and, of course, Illinois.

That the Kennedys, Senator John Kerry--you remember him, don't you?--and several other Democrat senators are going out of their way to give Obama a push in the face of these numbers says more than their estimation of him as "the face of hope"--it says that there's some bad blood between Senator Clinton and some of her colleagues. Juicy.

[Re-edited]

(Thanks to Gabriel Malor at Ace of Spades HQ)

Kenya Descends

I'm tired.

After a month of bloodshed, Raila Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki finally met face-to-face last week for that proverbial photo op. It was the first time the two had met since the country fell into ethnic violence as a result of Kenya's December 27th election.

The meeting didn't do anything to stop the violence, which, of course it wasn't meant to. Good thing too.

At least 19 people were killed here on Sunday in battles between members of President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe and Luos and Kalenjins who backed his rival Raila Odinga in disputed elections a month ago.

A Reuters reporter heard screams late into the night. Mobs stopped cars on the main highway and demanded passengers' identity cards. One man was beaten before being kicked under the wheels of a minibus as it sped to safety.

At least 750 people have died since the December 27 polls plunged Kenya into a spiral of violence, battering its image as an east African trade and tourism hub and one of the continent's more stable nations.

And the backlash has begun in earnest.

Kikuyus torched the homes of Luo rivals in the center of Navaisha. Police, apparently overwhelmed, did not intervene. Gunshots rang out into the evening.

Looters used iron bars to smash the windows of shops belonging to non-Kikuyu businesspeople, and made off with television sets, groceries and clothing.

One woman came screaming down the road from a blazing house.

"They set it on fire, they are killing my brother and sister," Alice Okoth said.

Mike Aringo, a 27-year-old resident, said hundreds of men swarmed the area Sunday morning.

"They told us if you are a Luo, you will be killed today," Aringo said. Odinga is a Luo.

PERSONAL: My father was fine as of yesterday. His English grammar/usage column and his political column ran on successive days. However, I am under no illusion that his renown or his age would grant him permanent immunity to the blood lust of murderous gangs were they able to catch up with him, my step-mother or anyone else in my family. But I pray and I hope.

Here's the best from Father's political column, in which he tells the story of a low-ranking Kenyan police officer talking a mob down from their intended actions:

Said he: “Listen, my brothers and sisters. This is our country. We have built it together for many arduous years. What can we possibly gain by destroying it with the same single ‘stroke of havoc’ with which uncaring people once ‘unselved’ the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins’ “aspens dear’?”

The words are mine. But the message was the policemen’s. [SNIP]

And it showed that the mob is not always completely deaf to reasoned appeals. As soon as my hero finished his words, I saw the crowd balk and turn back. I saw a number throw away their “crude weapons”...[SNIP]

This was where [Kibaki and Odinga] let the nation down. [SNIP]

Even when they finally made the appeal, it left a great deal to be desired. For, as I say, appeals which are not didactical are almost always worthless.

An appeal must be explanatory. It must teach Kenyans why it is useless and dangerous to kill one another for the sake of parochial politicians.

The reason we kill one another as tribes at critical political moments is that none of our institutions of governance and moral upbringing has done anything serious to demystify and demonise the tribe as a vehicle of politics.

We usually lay the blame on the Government, the Church and the university.

We should. But, in my opinion, the living room is the chief culprit.

It is there that we introduce our children to some of the most grotesque tribal stereotypes. As they say, prevention is cheaper than cure.

UPDATE: Ninety dead over the weekend.

The Kenya Crisis

The President Stands By Saddam WMD Claim

...on this day in 1998, and, um, it's not the president you thought it was.

(Thanks to Gateway Pundit and to the Anchoress)