Alaska panel:Palin Abused Power In Firing

ANCHORAGE- A legislative committee investigating Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has found she unlawfully abused her authority in firing the state’s public safety commissioner. The investigative report concludes that a family grudge wasn’t the sole reason for firing Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan but says it likely was a contributing factor.

Investigator Stephen Branchflower, in a report by a bipartisan panel that investigated the matter, found Palin in violation of a state ethics law that prohibits public officials from using their office for personal gain.

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The dangerous politics of intimidation and threats in Canada – Car and home vandals aim at Toronto Liberal supporters

Brake lines cut, cars damaged at homes. Toronto police patrolled a midtown area overnight, after vandals cut brake lines on at least 10 cars parked at homes with Liberal election signs on their lawns.

“We’re investigating. Officers are paying special attention to the designated area and we take this very seriously,” Staff-Sgt. Shawn Meloche, from 53 Division, said last night. “This is a danger to life as well as to property. Regardless of the motivation – and there appears to be a connection (to the signs) – this is a public safety issue.”

Affected residents live in the riding of St. Paul’s, in a swath of the city around Eglinton Ave. between Bathurst St. and Mount Pleasant Rd., and had Carolyn Bennett signs on their property. Although Meloche confirmed 10 cases of vandalism last night, Liberal riding headquarters said the number was going up, reporting 14 by 9 p.m.

The cars were also damaged in other ways; some were scratched and keyed with L signs. Phone and cable lines of some homes were cut.

“There are two child seats in the back of my car,” said Andrew Lane, chief financial officer for Bennett’s campaign. “To cut the brake line on a car like that is just evil. Awful.”

Added Lane, whose children are 6 months and 22 months: “You have to crawl under someone’s car and cut the brake line, knowing that it could kill someone, or their whole family.”

Lane discovered his brakes didn’t work on his silver Saturn View as he tried to pull up at a stop sign near his home yesterday. He kept slamming the brakes and, in a “moment of terror,” narrowly avoided slamming into a bus.

Later, the garage called to tell him it had been no accident. When Lane expressed disbelief, the mechanic told him: “Look, this is a big, heavy rubber hose and it’s been cut through with a very sharp knife. You should phone the police.”

Police later said Lane was not alone and asked if he had an election sign, telling him, “The Carolyn Bennett sign seems to be the one thing linking events.”

“I’m just sick to my stomach about this,” a shaken Bennett told the Toronto Star last night. She spent the day visiting the vandals’ victims. “It is so upsetting. I’ve spent my life encouraging people to get involved in the democratic process and now it would appear they are targeted for doing so.”

Brent Johnston, former chief fundraiser for the provincial Liberals, was backing his Volkswagen Golf slowly out of his driveway when alarms went off. He then discovered brake fluid in his driveway. When he called Volkswagen, they told him he wasn’t the first to call, and to check his car for damage.

He, too, has two young children and shudders to think what might have happened if he had driven the car with a cut brake line.

“This isn’t about party politics. Putting people’s lives at risk is a whole different thing,” said Johnston. “We’re not taking the sign down. We won’t be intimidated. But I am really disappointed this is happening in Canada. It’s beyond comprehension.”

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Why you should not ignore Jack! Is it time for a new vision for Canada?

Maybe its time for change? Maybe its time for a new Prime Minister? We like to think the Tories are the best for managing deficits, however, Ronald Reagan, Brian Mulroney, Mike Harris (Ernie Eves), George Bush and now maybe Harper, will show us that maybe those ideologies just do not work? The Conservatives say that our fundamentals are sound. However, who are they fooling. They are not true Libertarians. There own platforms calls for an approx 1-2 % growth. Economist say that this is highly optimistic, if not deceptive. With the U.S slowdown it is more likely to be a 1-2 % downward turn. That amounts to, in a recent broadcast on CBC Newsworld of a 3.3 billion dollar shortfall. Hmmm! Sounds familiar? Remember Ernie Eves? Yes, Ontario was left with a large deficit, even though our “fundamentals were sound” in Ontario. Makes me wonder, what are the Conservatives going to cut in order to balance the books? Will there be some form of privatization of Healthcare or key Government corporations? Read more below from a recent National Post article on Jack Layton. It maybe time for Canadians to give the guy a chance.  By: Isaac Thomas / G.T.A Patriot Contributor

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By: John Ivison, National Post
Published: Monday, September 29, 2008

Jack Layton

Jack Layton has never really been taken seriously. Beyond the fiercely partisan types who crowded into a community centre just off Danforth Avenue yesterday, the NDP leader has always been regarded as a harmless buffoon — a man so smug, he’d drink his own bathwater. Jack — let’s call him Jack — has always said outrageous things and nobody has paid too much attention to this point.

But perhaps it’s time people actually started listening.

The NDP leader unveiled his party’s platform yesterday in front of a boisterous crowd in his own riding. It was a virtuoso performance.

“Friends, I sense a real excitement out there. A sense of hope that this time, in this election, we can really make a difference,” he said.

“And maybe we can even make a little history.”

If current polling trends continue, he could do just that, by taking possession of the keys to Stornoway, the residence of the leader of the Official Opposition. The NDP started the campaign as much as 19 points behind the Liberals — some polls now put them in a statistical tie.

On the surface, much of the New Democrat platform will seem appealing to many Canadians — families would receive an enhanced child benefit payment of up to $400 a month; billions would be spent on affordable housing; students would be given a $1,000-a-year grant; more doctors would be hired and their loans forgiven if they work in family medicine; and everyone would get an extra day off work in February. Unlike in days of yore, this would not mean plunging the country into deficit. Budgets would be balanced and personal income taxes would be held steady.

In short, Jack made a convincing case that if he became prime minister, we could trust him to spend our money wisely. There he is in his campaign literature, sleeves rolled up, in the living rooms of the hard-pressed Canadian families helping them make ends meet. No wonder he’s flying high in the polls — he’s identified real problems, real issues and promised real solutions.

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Families torn by grief because of a drunk driver on the 403 going in the wrong direction. This madness must end!

This is why the laws must be changed. A life has been snubbed out because of a possible drunk driver. I am not sure how one can justify going in the wrong direction on a provincial highway? The way the laws stand he will probably get a “slap on the wrist”, if convicted in Ontario. I am not sure how anyone can condone these actions anymore. If any political leaders are listening, its time for the laws to change, now and protect the public against this serious and unforgiving offense.
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Several years ago, before he moved to Canada, met his wife and had two beautiful daughters, Herminio Del Valle was told in a dream not to drive.

So he never bought a car, thinking all the while he was preventing a horrible accident.

To get to work, he turned to long-time pal Pablo Guzman, who had also emigrated from the Dominican Republic and got Del Valle his job at a Burlington aluminum factory. A trusted employee, Guzman was given the keys to the factory to open the shop early each morning.

That’s how the two men found themselves on Hwy. 403 in Mississauga around 4:45 a.m. Friday, when an allegedly drunk driver in a pickup truck going in the wrong direction hit their car head-on. “He was always driving people here and there,” Guzman’s friend, Patricia Moreno, said inside his Woodbridge home yesterday, Guzman’s crying wife, Rocio, and three children sitting next to her.

“Especially widows. He was always helping them,” she said, her voice drowned out by sobs. “Now, she’s a widow.” About 15 km south in North York, Del Valle’s widow, Carmen, sat with daughters Catherine, 9, and Natalie, 7, surrounded by family who had flown in from the U.S.

“Everything was for his family,” a shattered Carmen said in Spanish with a family member translating. Carmen had arrived at the Guzman home hours after the crash Friday with condolences, only to learn her husband was also dead.

“My dad was the best daddy,” Catherine said, tears rolling down her cheeks. “He used to try to get me the stuff that I need.”

Each of Guzman’s children — Victor, 8, Gleny, 6, and Santiago, 4 — have been coping in different ways.

“Where’s daddy?” Victor asked Moreno yesterday. “Heaven,” she said.

“I want to go to the CN tower to be closer to daddy,” he replied.

Gleny was found in her closet Saturday, holding a dress her dad had just bought for her.

Santiago clutched a toy truck in his hand while he sat on his mother’s lap.

“He knows it was a truck,” Moreno said. “So he says that truck killed his dad.”

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Harper calls election for Oct. 14, ignores own fixed-election date law

Bruce Cheadle, THE CANADIAN PRESS

Harper and the Conservatives call an election

The move sends Canadians to the polls for the third time in four years.

Against the backdrop of a weakening economy, Harper asked Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean to dissolve Canada’s 39th Parliament so that a national vote can be held Oct. 14 – the day after Thanksgiving.

Harper said this election will be a choice between certainty and risk at a time when the world economy has entered a period of instability – a statement aimed at scaring voters away from Liberal Leader Stephane Dion’s proposed overhaul of Canada’s tax system,

“Between now and Oct. 14, Canadians will choose a government to look out for their interests at a time of global economic trouble,” Harper said after meeting with Jean.

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In calling the election, Harper ignored his own fixed-election-date law – legislation he’d explicitly pitched as a means of stopping prime ministers from calling snap votes whenever the political tide felt favourable.

Read more from the Canadian Press

also, read Election Call Hypocrisy

John Tory to Unlock $1 Billion For Social Housing

Ontario PC Leader John Tory committed that a Progressive Conservative Government will invest to improve the living conditions for low-income families who reside in social housing throughout Ontario.

“As the former volunteer chair of the United Way in Toronto, I have seen first hand the challenges that face the most vulnerable people in our community,” Tory said. “Whatever reasons or circumstances may lead people into poverty must not be allowed to rob them of their right to hope, opportunity, dignity, government services and protection under the law.”

Tory made his comments at Toronto’s Flemingdon Park neighbourhood. A large number of Flemingdon Park residents currently reside in social housing, where there are persistent complaints about issues ranging from leaking roofs, substandard plumbing, poor air circulation, poor security and general deterioration.

“It is clear that something needs to be done to improve these living conditions. We need new leadership to fill this gap,” Tory said.

Under John Tory’s plan, a PC government will unlock $1 billion for capital repairs and new construction over the next ten years.Currently, social housing operators lack the funding flexibility to raise funds needed for capital repairs.

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