RUTHFULLY YOURS

In light of the recent presidential pander-cation to Africa, it was timely to find the following link, from a simpatico, in my e-mail inbox: White House Pays $53 Million for Voter ID in Kenya While Opposing Same in US

At first, given the source link, I was suspicious that the article might be a hoax because the prime source for the article was not included.  With some targeted searching, I traced the prime source for the Minuteman News article to a Whitehouse Fact Sheet, which confirmed the essence of the Minuteman News article.  From FACT SHEET: U.S. Support for Strengthening Democratic Institutions, Rule of Law, and Human Rights in Sub-Saharan Africa:

In Kenya, the $53 million Yes Youth Can program empowers nearly one million Kenyan youth to use their voices for advocacy in national and local policy-making, while also creating economic opportunities.  In advance of Kenya’s March 2013 general elections, Yes Youth Can’s “My ID My Life” campaign helped 500,000 youth obtain National identification cards, a prerequisite to voter registration, and carried out a successful nationwide campaign with Kenyan civic organizations to elicit peace pledges from all presidential aspirants.

The Fact Sheet includes a second disbursement:

In Tanzania, the United States has dedicated $14 million to strengthening government accountability institutions and linking them with Tanzanian civil society watchdog groups and civic activists in a constructive partnership to further government transparency.  The program focuses on improving access to information for Tanzanian citizens in four key development sectors: health, education, natural resource management, and food security.

And a third, for which the monetary outlay is, as yet, unspecified:

The United States will soon launch a program in West Africa to build the capacity of civil society organizations to responsibly advocate on land tenure issues, including land rights, working closely with governments and the private sector to improve responsible natural resource utilization and the protection and advancement of human rights and economic development.

Could anything be more hypocritical, when “progressives” are stonewalling and vilifying the states’ attempts at simply implementing voter ID, let alone a National ID?

And, what of “creating economic opportunities,” “strengthening government accountability,” “responsible natural resource utilization,” “human rights,” and “economic development” right here, at home!?…

Progressives’ apparent motto: “Better thee than me.”…

M. L. Pershern is a retired architect and, in accordance with the Pew Research Center’s “Political Typology” quiz, a “staunch conservative,” although he describes himself as an independent constitutional conservative, with a 7.6 rating on Prof. Tim Groseclose’s Politcal Quotient survey.