Stephen Harper's Hidden Agenda (again)

CANADA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper is about to pull the plug on the 39th Parliament and plunge the country into an election because, according to his spokesperson, he could find "no area of common ground" with the opposition that would allow the government to move forward with its agenda.

But just what is the Conservative government's agenda? In his meetings with the opposition leaders over the past week, Harper reportedly played his cards close to his vest. He did not lay out a government agenda for the fall and seek opposition approval to move ahead. Rather, he posed rhetorical questions like (according to Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion): "Do we have common ground about the orientation of the country?"

Perhaps Harper was simply holding back because he had already decided to have an election and didn't want to give away any of the Conservative platform in advance. In other words, instead of an agenda for a minority parliament, during the course of the election campaign we could see an outline of what Harper would do if he had a majority. (The polls say he is on the cusp of one.)

Then again, maybe not. There have been suggestions in recent days that Harper will run on "strong leadership" (see the TV ads that have already been launched) and against Dion (who has been called a weak leader in Conservative attack ads). As for what Harper would do in a second term, we might get no more than generalities.

Which raises the question that has often plagued Harper and the Conservatives: Do they have a hidden agenda?

Unshackled from the requirements of a minority Parliament to temper their policies, would Harper and the Conservatives return to their Reform roots and implement more tax cuts accompanied by deep reductions in government spending, outsource regulatory oversight, privatize the CBC, create a triple-E Senate and even adopt socially conservative stances against abortion and gay marriage?

While Harper has worked hard to moderate his party's image in recent years, there have been recent glimpses that the old ideas are still kicking around inside the government, including the cuts to arts programs and the shifting of some responsibility for food inspections from the public service to the industry.

In explaining the decision to go to the polls rather than face Parliament this fall, the Prime Minister's spokesperson said on Monday: "We are in uncertain economic times. There are a number of things that the government would like to move forward on."

The public ought to know what those "things" are before voting.

Snipers attempt assassination of Pakistani Prime Minister

TODAY - Snipers fired on the motorcade driving to the airport to pick up Pakistan's prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, striking his car's window at least twice.

Neither the prime minister nor his staff were in the vehicles, but the assassination attempt comes as Pakistan's new civilian government – under pressure from Washington – is cracking down on militants along the Afghanistan border.

At least two bullets hit the front window on the driver's side of Yousuf Raza Gilani's limousine on the main highway linking Islamabad with the nearby city of Rawalpindi, officials said.

Zahid Bashir, the prime minister's press secretary, said unknown assailants fired "multiple sniper shots" in what he described as a ``murder attempt."

Interior Secretary Kamal Shah said later that the vehicles were attacked on their way to the airport to pick up the prime minister, who had been in Lahore, and that Gilani's plane had not yet landed.

"The driver reached Islamabad airport, but the prime minister or his staff was not traveling in the vehicles," Shah said.

Television footage showed Gilani's black Mercedes parked at his office in the capital with two impact points clearly visible on the driver's window. The glass was cracked but intact.

Information Minister Sherry Rehman also confirmed that Gilani was not in the motorcade at the time and was safely back in Islamabad.

The attack was the second apparent assassination attempt in Pakistan in quick succession.

Shots were fired last week at a car carrying Lynne Tracy, the top U.S. diplomat in Pakistan's troubled northwest, as she was headed to her office in the city of Peshawar. No one was hurt in that shooting.

On Wednesday afternoon, plainclothes police with a dog searched for clues on a small hill from which they believed the shots were fired at the prime minister's car.

They gathered snack wrappers and juice cartons and took them away from beneath a huge portrait of Pakistan's founding father, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, which greets travellers arriving in the capital.

The road was temporarily blocked, with traffic jammed in both directions.

Four workers for a company that is involved in a construction project on the road said they heard no shots and were not aware anything had happened until police arrived.

"We were working here, and the police came and questioned us," said Mohammad Zada.

Another worker, Shah Zeb, said he had been saying his afternoon prayers when the incident occurred, and when he returned, "Police grabbed me. They searched me."

Pakistani political leaders have repeatedly faced the threat of assassination.

At least four attempts were made on the life of former president Pervez Musharraf, recently forced from power by Pakistan's new government. He was despised by militants for allying with Washington after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

In December, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto died in a gun-and-bomb attack during an election rally two months after returning from exile.

McCain gambling with the Republican nomination

What the hell is John McCain thinking?

The man is gambling with the Republican nomination like a drunken frat boy in Vegas. He chose Sarah Palin as his running mate at the last possible minute, without checking her background credentials and any controversial dirt on her (like Troopergate and her views on Alaskan Independence).

Palin's unmarried 17 year old daughter is pregnant (again?) and is getting a shotgun wedding to 18 year old slack-jawed hockey player Levi Johnston. They're even taking the young man to the Republican National Convention, where they will pray to God he doesn't gaff something up and make the Republicans look like complete imbeciles.

McCain is trying to free himself from the image that he's a carbon copy of George W. Bush. A little controversy might help take the limelight off of him, but is this the right kind of controversy? Should they really be pinning their election hopes on an 18 year old hockey player from Alaska who knocked up the governor's daughter?

Traditionally elections are fought on several key battlegrounds: The economy, the environment, education, health care, freedom, family values and war. So yes, they can preach family values because poor Bristol Palin won't be getting an abortion, and she will be forced to marry young Levi Johnston.

But what about freedom? We're talking about forcing a young woman (still very much a child herself) to have a child and get married against her will? Sure, she says she's okay with it now, but what about two years from now when she's getting a divorce, blaming herself and her parents for forcing her into a decision she didn't make?

Right now Bristol Palin is no better than a slave to the whims of politicians. Her womb has become the proverbial property of the Republican Party. Shouldn't she be allowed to make her own decisions?

And what about Levi Johnston's rights? When he unzipped his pants and got her knocked up, he certainly wasn't thinking about the future of anything. He was thinking about the present and getting his rocks off. He definitely wasn't thinking of how this might effect the young girl's life and any other unforeseen events in the life of the governor's daughter.

Sarah Palin has other issues to contend with too, like the fact she's a devout creationist who honestly believes Adam/Eve really existed and were tossed out of Eden for talking to snakes/eating forbidden fruit. The Alaska legislature is probing whether she forced a safety commissioner to quit, whether she tried to fire a state trooper who was divorcing her sister. Sarah Palin also has alleged ties to the Alaskan Independence party, which wants a vote on leaving the United States.

Alaskan Independence? Now that is certainly controversial and way more important than the Palin family's domestic problems.

In choosing Palin, John McCain gambled that her appeal to the Republican base and to women would outweigh her shortcomings. As more questions arise about his judgment and her suitability, McCain must reassure a broader electorate that she is vice-presidential material... because at this point she's more liability than benefit.

Troopergate

The little-known Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin faces accusations of firing public safety commissioner Walt Monegan in a messy Palin family drama dating to her pre-gubernatorial days. Monegan refused to fire a state trooper who had divorced Palin's sister.

The accuser is executive Andrew Halcro, a Republican-turned-Independent who lost to Palin in the 2006 governor's race.

The accused is Palin, the rising Republican star with a dubious reputation who has the most to lose now that she's John McCain's choice as running mate.

The man in the middle is former commissioner Monegan, who says Palin and her administration pressured him to fire the state trooper.

Then there's trooper Mike Wooten, who jokingly used a Taser on his step-son, Palin's nephew Payton. Wooten has been reprimanded for violating nearly a dozen laws and departmental policies since December 2001.

Palin denies the allegations, claiming Monegan wasn't a team player.

Monegan was fired in July, after he declined a transfer to become the director of the state's alcohol control board (an attempt to put him out to pasture). State lawmakers want to know if Palin abused her power and if Monegan was fired for personal rather than work-related reasons.

In late July the state approved $100,000 to hire an outside investigator, and former Anchorage prosecutor Stephen Branchflower, to look into the firing.

Monegan recently told the Anchorage Daily News he was never directly told by Palin or anyone to "fire Wooten", but she and her staff repeatedly harassed him about the issue. But he maintained Palin, members of her administration and her husband, Todd Palin, raised the issue about Wooten's employment many times.

A month after Monegan was sacked, Palin's staff made at least two dozen calls to the Department of Public Safety, questioning Wooten's employment. She denied orchestrating the calls.