Obama's half-brother Roy fills traditional role as troublesome sibling

Bill Clinton’s brother Roger was a convicted cocaine dealer who allegedly took kickbacks from criminals seeking presidential pardons.  Billy Carter cashed in on “Billy Beer,” smoked dope on the White House roof and became the second most pathetic member of the Carter clan.  LBJ’s hard-drinking brother Sam moved into the White House and kept the Secret Service busy as he pub-crawled through D.C., getting ripped and ripping his brother in public.

The last three Democratic presidential brothers have all proven the old axiom that “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”  Ooooops, now we have a fourth.  Meet Roy Obama, half-brother of Barack and best man at his wedding.  According to the New York Post:

President Obama’s half-brother runs an off-the-books American charity to support Kenyans-but it lies about its federal status and no one knows how it spends its money.

 

The group, the Barack H. Obama Foundation, was named after the president’s father and founded by his sibling Abon’go Malik “Roy” Obama, a 53-year-old polygamist who recently made headlines by adding a third wife-who’s still in her teens.

The foundation’s web site features pictures of a small school, a Mosque, a “proposed” new latrine and other projects along with a touching photo of Roy and his famous brother.The foundation states:

The Barack H. Obama Foundation is committed to a wide array of development and humanitarian projects which will help mitigate social-shortcomings in areas of education and literacy, health and well-being, poverty, and lack of community infrastructure in such basic needs as water, electricity, shelter and sustenance.  It was the vision of Barack H. Obama, that efforts be made around the globe to address the needs of those most in need.

The foundation was founded during Barack Obama first presidential campaign and promotes itself as a non-profit charity while collecting tax deductible donations from its supporters. 

Alton Ray Baysden, a former State Department employee at whose Virginia home the charity was founded in 2008, admitted the organization has not even applied for tax-exempt status.

 

“We haven’t been able to find someone with the expertise to do this,” he told the Post.  “We are informally scouting for an executive director, someone who knows how to register the charity.”

The president’s half-brother claims that the foundation is in the process of obtaining tax-exempt status. 

Questions about the foundation were raised as far back as 2009, when a group of Missouri State college students visited the Obama family village of Kogelo to donate medical supplies.  After meeting the president’s brother the group got the impression that Roy was a hustler and they chose to give the medical supplies directly to the local clinic.  Former professor (and Nobel Peace Prize co-recipient) Ken Rutherford who led the group said “We didn’t know what he was going to do with them.”

There is no evidence (other than information on the web site) that the foundation has accomplished any of its lofty goals.  The 250,000 annual budget remains largely unaccounted for, although in the Obama’s village of Kogelo does have a Mosque that is supported by the foundation.  Interestingly enough the village of 4,000 Christians has only one Muslim family (the Obamas) and the private Mosque is on Roy’s property.

The National Legal and Policy Center, a Washington D.C., watchdog group, made a formal complaint to the IRS and US Post Office last week alleging fraud.

Let’s just see if anything happens while Mr. Obama is in power, but don’t hold your breath.

May 8, 2011

paboehmke@yahoo.com