"Obamanation" Author Willing to Give Obama Presidency "a Chance"

Last night, I listened to Gerri Corsi on Coast to Coast radio talk about the US election results. I had read Corsi’s book, Obamanation, in which he made a case against supporting Obama for President. It left me uneasy about an Obama Presidency. But Corsi said that now that the election results were in, he was ready to "give Obama a chance".

Corsi was asked if he was now “retracting” his claims about Obama. Nothing was being retracted, said Corsi, who had last month accepted an offer from Coast to Coast to appear with someone from the Obama camp to defend his claims – Obama’s camp did not accept the offer.

Corsi, who supported neither the Republicans or the Democrats but the Constitution Party, anticipates that some of the issues about Obama raised in his book will be raised again in a different context. “But not by me”.

Corsi said that in tackling the immense problems facing the U.S., this may be a time for "new ideas" from Obama.

Vision's Eleanor Gregory ‘Pulls a Sarah Palin’ by Using her Private Email to Conduct Potentially Explosive Government Business

When it comes to conducting government business on her private email account, rather than on her official government account that would put the email on public record, Vision Vancouver’s Eleanor Gregory is beginning to look as much like Sarah Palin as Tina Fey.

Just as hackers exposed Palin for conducting business as Alaska’s governor on her private Yahoo account, Gregory, an elected Vancouver School Board trustee, has been exposed for using her private email account for communication on a potentially explosive government issue.

Gregory (pictured above) has a government email address, eleanor.gregory@vsb.bc., which she gives out publicly. Yet when Gregory was contacted at that government address by a victim of alleged illegal “political psychiatry” at the VSB — Canadians Opposing Political Psychiatry have identified the VSB as practicing Soviet-style political psychiatry and “as an absolute last resort” organized an International Boycott of Vancouver School Board Diplomas — Gregory immediately switched to her private email account egregory@gregoryandgregory to respond. “That’s the email of the law firm she runs, I think with her husband,” says the alleged victim. “But that firm isn’t involved in this case.”

The alleged victim received two emails from Gregory, both via her private account. At the end of the body of each email, Gregory’s private email address was re-stated as her contact address. “There was no mention of her vsb address”, says the victim.

Criticism directed at Palin for using a private email account to perform business in her role as Alaska governor could also apply to Gregory in her role as an elected VSB trustee: “E-mail that’s public business ought to be done on public accounts that can become public record”, Charles Davis, executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition in the U.S., told Alaska’s Juneau Empire newspaper during the furor over Palin’s private email.

If government communication on an issue is being investigated, emails sent through a private account will not be readily available. Dave Jones, an assistant attorney general in Alaska told the Juneau Empire, “The difficulty is finding out they exist.”

The use of private email for government communication also increases the risk of confidentiality breaches. The victim of alleged VSB political psychiatry is concerned about who may have had access to Gregory’s private email account at Gregory & Gregory. “I have no way of knowing who has access to the email at her office. Maybe her secretary does, or maybe her husband.” The victim would also like to know whether Gregory used her private email account to communicate about her case with other Board members or staff. “I wrote to the Board last year”, says the victim, “and I said that because of the amount of libel generated by the VSB in this case, extra precautions should be taken to preserve confidentiality.” In fact, the victim had directed Gregory to that written communication addressed to Board Chair Ken Denike, when she first wrote to her at her VSB email. “That was before she switched to her private email.”

Not only Gregory’s switch to a private email account but the content of email she sent through that private account – the content will be examined in a separate article – led the alleged victim to conclude that Gregory was not acting in good faith.

Just as Palin’s conduct reflects on Presidential candidate John McCain who endorsed her, Gregory’s conduct reflects on Vancouver mayoral candidate Gregor Robertson who has been praising her on his campaign website. Robertson presented Gregory to the public as his ally, even after she was exposed for having done nothing as a trustee to ensure a criminal investigation into the practice of political psychiatry at the VSB, political psychiatry which evidence suggests was intended to deter freedom of information requests and election campaigning about VSB mishandling of bullying complaints. Robertson and his Vision Vancouver party face an election in two weeks.

A press release from Robertson’s campaign office quotes Gregory as saying that her “priority is to do what I can to assist his campaign.” It may be assistance he can do without.

"Last Man Standing" After Shootout Over Drug Turf Granted New Trial

Photo: The former New Wings Hotel on Powell St. The entrance is at the side, on Dunlevy St. to the right of the photo. Photo taken Nov. 3/08

The “last man standing” after a shootout over drug turf at the New Wings Hotel on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside in 2005 has been granted a new trial by the BC Court of Appeals. Three judges unanimously agreed that Justice Arne Silverman erred in instructing the jury on the issue of self-defense during a 2007 trial which saw Dennis Knibbs Jr. convicted of second degree murder.

Knibbs, who was in his late twenties at the time, shot to death 21 year old Trumaine “Echo” Habib, just minutes after Habib shot Knibbs’ cousin 35 year old Ian Liscombe. Liscombe would die hours later in hospital.

Knibbs and Liscombe were a drug dealing duo at the New Wings Hotel at Powell & Dunlevy, across from Oppenheimer Park on the Downtown Eastside. Habib was also dealing drugs out of the New Wings. Liscombe believed Habib was infringing on his turf, “mowing his grass” as his former girlfriend Susan, a drug addict, put it at trial. Liscombe and Habib had already been a physical fight at the New Wings, a fight which the evidence suggests Knibbs helped break up.

After that fight, Habib sneaked a sawed off shotgun to the hotel, on the day he was killed actually. On that day Habib was laying low in the room of a friend when Liscombe began pushing on the door, attempting to force it open. Knibbs was standing behind Liscombe. That’s when Habib pulled the trigger. When the close range shotgun blast hit Liscombe, he stumbled into the room onto the bed where he lay groaning with his guts hanging out.

Knibbs whipped out a police-style baton and entered the room, whacking Habib a few times with it. He also pumped three bullets into Habib with a handgun. Then he used Habib’s own sawed off shot gun to finish him off, shooting Habib at a range close enough to leave a hole in his chest the size of a “silver dollar”, according to a paramedic.

Photo: On the right is the former New Wings Hotel and on the left the Mar Hotel. The trees in the background are at Oppenheimer Park. A former heroin addict testified at Knibbs' trial that he bought heroin at Oppenheimer Park when he wasn't buying it from Liscombe at the New Wings Hotel. Photo taken Nov. 3/08.

After this evidence was heard, the deliberating jury returned to the judge with a question about whether Habib had a legal right to fire that first shot or was that first shot to be considered a “wrongful act”?

The jury’s question was pivotal. If Habib hadn’t needed to go to the extreme of shooting a gun to defend himself, he could be seen as having provoked Knibbs with a ‘wrongful act”. Knibbs' response could then be seen as manslaughter.

Judge Silverman responded to the jury’s question by telling them to use “common sense”. But common sense is a standard looser than the law. That’s what Knibbs’ lawyer Glen Orris argued to Silverman at the time – I was in the courtroom – and it’s basically the position that the Appeals Court has since taken:

“I am concerned that the lack of focus in the judge’s guidance may have allowed the jury to apply a law of the jungle to the consideration of the questioned act”, Appeals Court Judge Ian Donald stated in a written decision. “That in the drug milieu, lethal force in self defense is justifiable regardless of the immediate circumstances.”

The first thing that ran through my mind when I heard that the Appeals Court had ordered a new trial was, “Will some of those drug addicted witnesses even be alive for a new trial?” There’s always the possibility of a plea bargain with Knibbs, who is now a year and a half into a 25 year sentence with no parole eligibility for ten years, settling for manslaughter. The last man standing could soon be walking.

Man Finds $100 Bill on Floor in Regent Hotel

On Halloween night, a Downtown Eastsider found a $100 dollar bill on the floor as he left the Regent Hotel. It was in the exit corridor. "It was crumpled up like trash", he said. So he picked it up and opened it. "It was a crisp new bill".

It was a nice bonus for the guy who has recently gotten off welfare and taken a job in a warehouse in Richmond for $11 an hour.

Is This Your Son? Come and Get Him.

A manager of McDonald's restaurant at Terminal & Main says he picks up two or three needles a day left by drug users. The manager was chatting with a customer who had asked him to pick up a needle that the above heroin user had just dropped on the floor. The manager fetched a plastic red and yellow "Bio-hazard" box and a pair of tongs from the back of the restaurant and picked up the needle.

McDonald's also picks up the expense for this. The manager said that it is the responsibility of McDonald's to drop off the used needles at a depot downtown.

The young guy in the photo above had come into McDonald's restaurant at Terminal & Main with his skateboard on Friday evening, October 24. That McDonald's is a popular spot for Downtown Eastsiders to have coffee. It appeared that this young guy was on heroin. There's a reason heroin is referred to as "down"; people on it seem really calmed down, moving in slow motion.



This heroin-skateboarder would kind of nod out and lean on the table, then in slow motion he would lean backwards on his stool to the point where we thought he would topple, then he would sit up. A few minutes later, he would do the same thing again. The manager approached the guy twice during this performance and politely instructed him to pack up his stuff and leave. A customer sitting adjacent to me took out a camera and snapped the photos posted here.

Eventually the guy on heroin crouched on the floor by his stool for at least five minutes, with customers watching and saying things like, "Sad". Finally, he stood up and a needle dropped out of his pocket onto the floor. The needle had no cap. A customer said, "I'm going to tell the manager; there are kids in here."

What became of the guy on heroin? He was back last night at McDonald's. It was again Friday, this time Halloween. He was again moving in slow motion. A different manager attempted to reason with him, to get him to leave. But he wanted to purchase some food and the manager eventually allowed him to do that. He went to the counter and was slowly trying to get his money out of a large black wallet attached to his pants with a chain. I left.

Hard to Get to Know Jenn McGinn

Above photo from Jenn McGinn's campaign website

Although "Get to Know Jenn McGinn" is the headline on the website of the NDP candidate in the current by-election in Vancouver-Fairview, it is not so easy to get to know her. McGinn ignored a written request by CUPEwatch to state her position on alleged abuse and illegal conduct by her campaign funders, CUPE, BC Federation of Labour and their respective leaders Barry O'Neill and Jim Sinclair, in what has become known as the “secretary scandal”. The alleged illegal activity was reportedly intended to silence secretaries about unfair labour practices inside CUPE.

The secretary scandal involves documented evidence that CUPE, with the cooperation of BC Fed President Jim Sinclair, allegedly employed intimidation tactics in an attempt to muzzle a secretary from CUPE Local 116 after she blew the whistle about unfair labour practices. The secretary had complained to Sinclair and O'Neill about the fact that CUPE was staffing the Local 116 office exclusively with non-union secretaries and then firing them when they complained about triple workloads. The whistle blowing secretary was highly credible as she was the only woman NOT fired from Local 116; she had earlier resigned her secretarial position and received a glowing letter of reference.

There is evidence to support allegations that CUPE, the BC Federation of Labour, and lawyer Ian Aikenhead (a former NDP President) arranged for the Vancouver Police to “harass” the whistle blowing secretary at her home. (The Vancouver Police do not have jurisdiction at Local 116 which is on the UBC Endowment Lands.) The secretary was shocked to discover that a polite, professional, letter she had sent to Sinclair about working conditions at Local 116 was filed in the Police Property office. A similar letter she had sent to O'Neill was filed there too.

There are also allegations of “evidence tampering” in this case. The secretary learned from the police report that a woman pursuing the issue of unfair labour practices with CUPE or the BC Fed is considered to be engaging in “WORKPLACE HARASSMENT”. The secretary then told Sinclair that she intended to ensure that this labelling stuck to his reputation. Later, she discovered that the label on the “CLOSED” police report had been retroactively – and illegally – altered to drop the word “WORKPLACE” and substitute “HARASSMENT/OBSCENCE COMMUNICATION”.

Although McGinn won’t state her position on the secretary abuse issue, the whistleblowing secretary has always been clear about her own position: If CUPE and the BC Fed think it is obscene or harassing for a woman to bring abuse of non-union secretaries inside CUPE to their attention, Jenn McGinn should not have been taking money from them. “She should have told them to stuff it”.