Rob Ford Drug Tape *UNEDITED*

Much as I disrespect Rob Ford, I agree it sounds like maybe a set-up.  Why would the guy tape the conversation?

Michelle, I strenuously disagree with this

Michelle wrote:

Sure, it was kind of dumb of him to offer to get some drugs off the street for someone, but on the other hand, how many progressives are in favour of legalizing drugs and treating them as a health issue instead of a criminal issue?  I am.  So why should I care any more about Rob Ford offering to score this guy some drugs than I would about a friend who smokes pot?

One of the reasons progressives want to legalize, say, pot, is to disenfranchise organized crime.  The Oxycontin trade is a huge part of violent crime in Toronto: shootings, robberies, etc.  I used to work at a pharmacy that was held up at gunpoint 3 times in a 6-month period - the cops said, that's nothing compared with some stores, and it's all about addiction.  The truly progressive thing for Rob to do is to get the guy into addiction treatment rather than set him up with yet another doctor (Henderson reportedly has seen ten since April - there's no shortage of pain doctors in Toronto).  

And legalizing pot is one thing - I do NOT want to facilitate access to Oxycontin, an evil, evil drug.

Rob Ford knows all about addiction due to his sister Kathy.  For him to play ignorant is offensively stupid even for him.  And for an aggressive alpha male like him to claim he was being "threatened" by this ill person is beyond silly.

I tend to agree that the tape is a setup, and doesn't change my opinion of Ford ... never liked him, but this doesn't make me hate him any worst than I did.

That said, if the citizens of Toronto are dumb enough to fall for Ford's "cut spending" platform, and never for once consider what services he will need to cut in order to meet his goals, nor the fact that he brazenly evades all questions on that subject, then I hope those same fools take the tapes at "face value" and decide to vote for someone else.

Yeah, if anything, perhaps Rob Ford would be less dangerous.  He wouldn't have any allies on council and wouldn't be able to push his ridiculous platform through.  But Slitherman could probably get the more moderate right-wingers and centrists on his side.

According to Sue-Ann Levy, who broke the story, people writing on the Toronto Sun comments page are something like 2/3 in favour of a set-up.  I looked at some of those comments, and it's depressingly predictable: Henderson is gay.  Smitherman is gay.  Therefore, the Great Gay Conspiracy is hard at work to bring down the honest penny-pincher who suffers the burden of being a straight white male in a politically correct world, etc.

Is Enza Supermodel Anderson running this time?  (I voted for her during the Lastman years, if only because she stood on a six-inch platform.)

"What the hell do I want to go to a place like Mombasa?... I'm sort of scared about going out there, but the wife is really nervous. I just see myself in a pot of boiling water with all these natives dancing around me."

"Those Oriental people work like dogs. They work their hearts out ... that's why they're successful in life. ... I'm telling you, Oriental people, they're slowly taking over..."

One of the most annoying things about Smitherman is how he obviously tries to exploit the fact that he's gay as a way of hoodwinking people into thinking he's progressive - when he's not. I'm sure a lot of people who don't follow politics closely just assume that anyone openly gay (as opposed to people like John Baird and other charter members of the J. Edgar Hoover fan club) in politics is ipso-facto left of centre. That should be de-bunked at every opportunity.

It would not surprise me if John Tory jumped back into the race after all!

John Tory and George Smitherman are essentially identical - with two exceptions:

1. George Smitherman is a horrible person who routinely has abusive temper tantrums and hurls office furniture at people and verbally berates people and has no class whatsoever. John Tory, by most accounts, is more of a gentleman and is apparently nicer to the people around him (caveat - unless you or your loved ones actually work at city hall and risk being abused by Smitherman - you're probably thinking "who cares? as long as he makes the trains run on time")

2. Smitherman is an intensely partisan big "L" Liberal and Tory is a not so partisan "PC". This means the following: Smitherman as mayor will try to promote the Liberal Party at every conceivable opportunity. He will go out of his way to get clones of his to take on any progressive councillors who are not fellow Michael Igntieff lovers, he will go out of his way to freeze anyone who is not a card carrying Liberal out of any positions fo power - AND while he will turna blind eye to letting a few "red Tory" types have a piece of the action - he has a major hate on for the NDP (don't ask me why, ask his shrink, its kinda like Harper's pathological hatred of Liberals - it goes beyond anything rational) - so you can be sure that he will spend about 90% of his time trying to figure out how to screw the left on council (who me?? but I'm gay, how could I be at war with the left??). Tory on the other hand is a member of a party (the PCs) that is very very weak in Toronto. He has to build alliances and his own party doesn't have anywhere near enough strength for him to tap into it and in any case, I just don't think that Tory is as partisan in that way as Smitherman. If he runs it will be because he wants to be mayor - not because its his life long ambition to create a Conservative Party of Toronto that will be a Tammany Hall type operation. As a results, I suspect that if Tory were mayor, he would try to work with everyone a lot more and the NDP faction would get some power - like they did under Lastman.

Of course this is all totaly hypothetical.

At some point once people have walked though this all you can eat buffet and decided that the dish called Ford is rancid and the dish marked Smitherman may containe ptomain - the sih marked Pantalone may be start not to look so bad after all.

That is irrelevant. What is relevant is getting the vote out for the best candidate, which is Joe Pantalone. Winging about his lack of star power isn't going to get anyone anywhere, and feeds into the negative imaging.

We actually don't need a high powered idealogue, or showboating glamour puss at city hall, we need a competent adminstrator and deal maker, and this is precisely what Joe Pantalone is. He is indeed the best candidate, precisely because he lacks the qualities of Ford and Smitherman, the first being an idealogue, the second being a showboating glamour puss.

There is still 40% undecided, and at the end of the day a strong showing for Joe will have a number of postitive impacts. For one thing it could split the Smitherman vote, and kill him and leave us with the completely ineffectual (and somewhat entertaining) lame duck Ford, and also establish that there is no mandate for mass privatization.

At the end of the day, the stronger the Smitherman vote is, the more clout he will have. Giving him a clear mandate is the worst possible option, even if Joe does not win.

Panatlone has a kind of charm anyway. For one thing he doesn't come of like a street hood, which is what Ford and Smitherman feel like. He could easily grow on people.

Don't know much about Rob Ford but him and King Sam Sullivan seem to be cut from similar cloth. Sullivan because he was active in disability issues was seen as somewhat progressive by many non-leftists until he became Mayor.  When elected he then showed his autocratic dictatorial side in spades.

A recent article on the state of the race in the Notional Pest (with a somewhat unfortunate headline): 'Rob Ford tops George Smitherman in Toronto mayoral race'.

Pantalone seems to be holding his own at this point, placing third in the polls with just over 10%, versus 18% for Ford and 16% for Smitherman. Rossi is hot on Pantalone's heels with 9%.  With a 3.1% margin of error, it might still be anyone's game at this point.

I'm not too familiar with Toronto municipal politics so someone can feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but haven't mayoralty races historically been quite unkind to early front-runners? (I'm thinking in particular of Barbara Hall in 2003 and Jack Layton in 1991). Seems to me that Miller went from virtual obscurity to victory in 2003, so I'm not sure that 'second-tier' contenders like Pantalone and Rossi can be counted out just yet.

Can anyone shed any light on why Liberal Rossi and Liberal Smitherman are running against each other? Is this the result of some sort of Liberal factionalism or are these just two ambitious guys who happen to belong to the same party and won't stand down in the other's favour?

Wow, I'm stunned!

it's very disappointing to see so many of my fellow Rabble readers, buying into the outright lie, that was generated by the Toronto Sun & Sue-Ann Levy, who is, by the way, a VERY close Ford Family friend and who I will be suing for defamation & slander.

What Sue-Ann and Ford failed to mention, is the fact that 3 days before that call was recorded, I was rushed by EMS, to Emerg, because I was taking a small seizure, coming off the medications I have been on since 2007. It should be added that Oxycontin was only ONE medication and not even the primary one, which I have had to take, by DR's orders, since 2007. Another fact, Ford "forgot" to mention.

Fortunately, the hospital checked my blood that day, because that turns out to be, the single biggest piece of evidence my lawyers & I have.

That blood test, returned ZERO for Oxycontin, Methadone and Codeine - Is the hospital setting Ford up too?

I have also seen that a number of users, seem to be under the false impression that Rob Ford was somehow setup by me.

I know that was widely reported due to Sue-Ann's piece & Ford's own fantasy, but since when is the Toronto Sun, to be believed, over 20+ DR's and Specialists in Ottawa?

To those who think I was setting Ford up - You should know that I am ANYTHING but a Smitherman supporter. I'd rather cut off both my arms, than support the WASTE, that is Smitherman - ehealth anyone?

What people should be asking themselves, is what do I have to gain, by setting Ford up? Until this goes to court, it was my name and reputation that was dirtied, so why would I do that?

Here are two links, which are fair and honest, in describing the WHOLE situation, as both the Globe and Rocco Rossi, were provided more evidence than anyone else was and they reported on the FULL evidence, which they were provided.

http://bit.ly/90ff4E & http://bit.ly/bjpunb

Love & Peace,

Dieter

Quote:

I agree with the consensus here that Rob Ford is the "lesser evil."

Not so sure I agree with that contention but it probably doesn't matter because I won't be voting for either of them. Ford has no idea on how to compromise. He can afford to be a demagogue as councillor. As mayor, he will never get an agenda passed by staying true to his "core values". 

In any case, Toronto Labour Council endorsed Pantalone at last week's meeting as well a bunch of councillors and trustees (incumbent and new). Smitherman made it to the interview stage but Pantalone won "the nod". 

I don't like Panatalone's chances for the same reason David Miller chose not to run again. If things were good for the Municipal Left, Miller would still be in the race and his re-election would be a given.

Someone I know who has never voted Reform or Harris-flavour PC said "we need to get some kind of right wing asshole in there in to run the city and deal with the unions."

There is a positive legacy of David Miller, which no one seems to be talking about. Despite fiscal constraints by the Feds and Ontario, Miller has tried to put Toronto on the map. Who is going to build on these accomplishments and bring Toronto further forward? Which of the current candidates is going to try to bridge the natural Miller people and the centrist stragglers?

rob ford's new personal blog : http://www.robfordmayor.com