Ford Desecration Pt IV - the march to Detroit continues

So, what's Slob been up to recently? Well, yet another staffer parted company with our beloved Mayor this week. (In point of fact, she was actually removed from her position and escorted off the premises by security.) Sounds like this one didn't elect to leave voluntarily:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/another-staffer-leaves-rob-fords-office/article13685290/

And here we find Boss Hogg, operating at his habitual level of quiet dignity, drunkenly stumbling around the Taste of Danforth festival, with crowds of people following and laughing at him:

http://gawker.com/toronto-mayor-rob-ford-wandered-the-streets-of-his-city-1087213594

The first of the 2 Youtube viddies included at the above link is really something. Rofo's clearly plastered out of his tits, and is mumbling incoherently throughout...though he can be heard insisting several times that "I'm not driving!" A good thing, too.

Just for laughs, here's a site I discovered recently that has a few less-than flattering pics of ol' Pigface...Though in fairness, I should acknowledge the frank impossibility of taking a flattering photograph of our hideously ugly lumpenfuhrer of a Mayor. "Skin that looks like it's made of bubble gum and ham," indeed.

http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/rob-ford-has-a-terrible-photographer

Here's another story about Drunky bumbling and stumbling and fumbling around the Taste of Danforth. He's a happy drunk! Tee hee!

http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=193911

And here's Enzo Di Matteo's summation of the recent by-elections for Now Magazine:

http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=193885

I'm not sure how much I agree with Di Matteo's analysis at the above link. While it's obvious the Ford brothers are trying to snatch as much credit as they can for Holyday's win at Etobicoke-Lakeshore, it's a debatable claim to say the least. As other posters here pointed out in a thread devoted to the by-elections, Holyday was already pretty well regarded in Etobicoke, and would likely have done ok without all this supposed "help" from the Fords. Indeed, one can't help wondering just how appreciative he is of them trying to grab all the credit for themselves, as if he had nothing to do with it. With 'friends' like these...

Unionist I just read your post from Aug.1

I don't think Ford can be re-elected for a number of reasons.

Here is a story about the most recent polling:

http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2013/08/03/ttc_chair_karen_stintz_could_beat_ford_poll_says.html

You will see that both Chow and Tory hold wide leads on him. Even Adam Giambrone would be competitive (with Ford's margin no doubt supplied by certain Babblers)

I suspect that Ford has a ceiling of perhaps 40% and that the opposition is so disgusted with him that it will turn out in droves and coalesce around whoever emerges as his main competitor.

Ford's supposed subway "win" is starting to turn to dust. It may never get funded and even if it does will be a much more costly and much less efficient alternative to the LRT proposal he has saboutaged. People are starting to realize this.

There is also much more that will come out about the scandals of the Ford family. I know a number of reporters working on these stories as well as criminal lawyers who are starting to receive disclosure in the Project Traveler case. This will not die down. It will escalate.

You will see from the posts immediately above that there are new videos showing Ford apparently enebriated.

Even Conservatives are starting to keep the Fords at a distance. Hence the trial balloons for Karen Stintz and John Tory. 

The Sun is also retreating from its cheerleader role for the Fords. Read this story which is on the Sun's front page today:

http://www.torontosun.com/2013/08/09/why-a-convicted-drug-dealer-burst-into-rob-fords-home-demanding-money

[size=12] Ok, I'm officially joining the Fordwatch club.

[url=http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=170_1376117584#1IL0IsI3WkT8qtJU.01]"You want some blow, I'll get you some blow! I have it, seriously!"[/url]

[/size]

The left has to run one candidate to defeat Ford. If there is a spoiler, he wins.

nicky wrote:

There may be a fresh revelation in the Globe tomorrow.

Meh, how come nobody commented on my revelation??

[url=http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/amy-macpherson/mayor-rob-ford-danforth-disa... Rob Ford Talking About Drugs on the Danforth?[/url]

Unfortunately Rob is so stoned on the video you can't make out precisely what he is saying. I alternately hear "blow" and "cologne" each time I listen.

Meanwhile, here is the Globe story, another link to the drug world:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/rob-ford-sought-meeting-with-inmate-in-after-hours-jail-visit/article13707729/?cmpid=rss1#dashboard/follows/

There is much more to come.

As the ancient Greeks said, "Character is destiny."

Yeah, Mayor Lumpenfuhrer is slurring his words so badly in that recording that it's a little difficult to make them out, but I'm pretty sure it's "cologne" he's jabbering about, not "blow." More's the pity, but honestly, the truly remarkable thing here is that someone with the image problems that Ford has apparently managed to slip off his handlers' leash at a high profile public event and make a complete drunken spectacle out of himself. Again. (Of course, we all knew it was just a matter of time until the next "incident," the only question being the level of embarrassment it was going to cause.) And again, the simpletons of Ford Nayshun are leaping to his defense as if this were normal, when it quite clearly is not.

The Globe story Nicky links to above is more of the same in its sheer bizarre quality, to say nothing of the borderline criminality it implies. This shit is not normal. Most politicians, as bad as many of them are, do not pull these kind of stunts. At Torontoist, a poster named Scrimbo made a comment about this latest that I found so spot-on I'm going to repeat it here:

And of course that after-hours visit to the jail by Ford -- who probably assumed his title was all he needed to gain entrance at a time of his liking (rules? We don't play by no stinkin' rules) -- will be written off by his faithful flock as just another good-guy thing Ford loves to do, spreading hope and love to anyone who hasn't had his extraordinary luck in life.

Never mind, of course, the apparent subterfuge of requesting a tour of a facility before revealing the real reason he was there after hours... or the question of why he would want to talk to a convicted drug offender and "childhood friend" at a time when he should be distancing himself from anything remotely related to drugs... or the sheer stupidity of not thinking his presence and unusual behaviour wouldn't lead to questions and coverage about his attempts to talk to the guy to talk about, you know, stuff.

At the Grid last week, Ed Keenan commented on the infamous photo Mayor Cracky posed for - you know, the one with him cuddling up to drug dealers and gang members, all of whom are now either dead or in jail - and made the case for the patently obvious, i.e. that something is very, very wrong here.

http://www.thegridto.com/blog-post/the-photo-that-gets-more-incriminating-all-the-time/

This is what really gets me about El Cracko-Drunko's rabid base of fanboy defenders: Their attempts to normalize the over-the-top antics of their hero, dismissing all the shady & potentially criminal weirdness as if it's nothing more damning than youthful highjinks. I realize it's hardly unusual for political reactionaries to excuse behavior in their own people that they'd be calling for the harshest punishments imaginable were said behavior coming from political enemies. We see that kind of blatant double standard all the time, especially across the border, with creeps like Newt Gingrich, Larry Craig, Dave Vitter, et al (God knows there's an exhaustive list of these creatures), but it's surreal to see it here, and in such an undiluted form.

My real worry is that if Ford is allowed to leave office under his own terms, then apart from all the other damage he's going to cause in the meantime (which will be quite bad enough all by itself, natch), the floodgates will be opened for every grifter, con artist, nutcase or political extremist with an axe to grind to enter the fray and take advantage of the road already paved by Mayor Lumpenfuhrer. And why wouldn't that happen? As we can see, our system clearly has no idea how to handle somebody like Ford. He's being left alone to do whatever the hell he damn well pleases, no matter how outrageous, and that's an uncomfortable precedent to say the least. I look at the snake pit the American political system has become, and I can't say I want that replicated here. But if Ford gets away with this shit, he may well be just the beginning.

nicky wrote:

Unfortunately Rob is so stoned on the video you can't make out precisely what he is saying. I alternately hear "blow" and "cologne" each time I listen.

Yeah, that allegation smelled funny. I'll find another scandal.

This story dominates the front page of the Star this morning:

http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2013/08/16/police_probe_mayor_rob_ford_friends_who_sought_crack_video.html

Ford is now facing not just allegations of stupidity and substance abuse. This raises things to a new level - possible obstruction of justice through destruction of evidence.

Incredible. Ford has no business hiring a serial stalker as a bodyguard - is this on "taxpayers' money"?

quote: One target of the investigation is Alexander “Sandro” Lisi, 35, a Range Rover-driving Etobicoke man with a criminal history of threatening and assaulting women, who has been acting as an occasional driver and security guard for the mayor.

By the way, the Star's paywall has taken effect, so we'll have to keep that in mind.

This is in the Toronto Sun this morning:

http://www.torontosun.com/2013/08/17/sun-questions-mayor-rob-ford-on-alleged-police-probe

Although not quite as negative as the Star story, this is still highly critical of Ford. I know I have said this before, but it is increasingly apparent that the Sun is significantly distancing itself from Ford. It knows there is more out there, much more. I know that some of its reporters are trying to track this down. The paper has ceased to be an uncritical cheerleader for the Fords.

The Sun knows that the Fords are stinking up the Conservative brand and that worse is to come. I think they may want to ease him out of contesting the next election in order to give a more respectable Conservative a clear run.

The comments following the story are also largely critical of Ford, which is significant because the last bastion of "Ford Nayshun" is the Sun readership.

Here are a couple for example:

Gilmour592   Charley33 • 9 hours ago

Well, of course The Sun has abandoned Ford cheerleading. Despite what people might want others to believe, The Sun is a newspaper doing it's best to investigate newsworthy stories like any other paper. They recognize this as newsworthy and are rightfully reporting on it. People have a lot invested in the Fords and it's hard to stop defending someone who you have spent so long defending. It's understandable.

• williamblake1  Gilmour592 • 7 hours ago
  • −

  the SUN is not nor ever has been a NEWSpaper... it may pass as a gossip column or as political propaganda... however it's editorial staff can sometimes be wise enough to see when someone (like FORD) is hell-bent on destroying themselves and decide that maybe just maybe it might be time to cut ties and cut our losses...

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[url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2013/08/20/toronto-rob-ford-... Ford crack stories subject of press council complaints[/url]

Quote:

A complaint against a Toronto Star story that alleged Mayor Rob Ford was videotaped smoking crack cocaine will be the subject of a public hearing next month, the Ontario Press Council announced Monday.

In addition, the council will also look at a separate complaint against the Globe and Mail related to an article it wrote about the alleged drug dealings of Ford's brother, Coun. Doug Ford.

The decision to hold the public hearings follows a deluge of complaints against the newspapers over their coverage of the Fords.

I don't think that the Fords relish the Press Council hearing. It is being held in response not to complaints from them but from individual Ford fans.

The Council will be examining whether the stories were properly sourced, whether there was a public interst in running them, and whether the Fords were given proper opportunity to respond.

I know a couple of the reporters involved and am confident that they have multiple credible sources. They also repeatedly invited responses from the Fords who declined to respond in any detail and who tried to have at least one of the stories killed. The papers sought legal advice at every turn and would not have run these stories unless they thought they were on firm ground.

This will all come out at the hearing. The complainants will likely be individual citizens without legal representation, unlike the papers. The Fords once again will give no explanations nor answer questions.

This time their silence will be even more deafening.

Unionist, apart from the salacious details the public has an interest in the Ford drug connections for any number of reasons:

1. The possible addiction of our mayor which affects his performance of his duties and the dignity of his office.

2. The Fords' credibility in denying any improprieties

3. Hypocricy in promoting a law-n-order agenda.

4. Long -standing connections with the drug world which extend from High School to the present day. A number of their alleged drug-dealing friends from the past have ongoing relationships with the Fords and even positions on staff.

5. A possible of obstruction of justice allegation (which the police are in fact investigting) linked to the supprssion of the video....

6. etc., etc., etc......

You were asking a rhetorical question, weren't you?

Unionist, I agree that it would be preferable to debate Ford on the issues, defeat him at the polls and repudiate his sorry program, such as it is.

But that was the approach Adrian Dix recently took, ignoring questions of character and scandal.

I also think that character and scandal are relevant, particularly when it comes to the Fords. There is a very broad battlefield here but I will try to distill it down to what I think is its essence.

Ever since High School the Fords have consorted with a variety of drug dealers, petty criminals and addicts. They may well have crossed the line into these activities themselves. This association has been ongoing and continues even today. These questionable associates are social friends, political fixers and can even be found in the inner circle of Ford's mayoral staff. Some of them may well have engaged in obstruction of justice in attempting to destroy eveidence.

Surely it is relevant to the electorate's assessment of Ford that these allegations be aired and either substantiated or repudiated. 

You may remember that Adam Giambrone was crucified on Babble for much lesser sins. Remind me whether you came to his defence.

Yes you have been consistent over Giambrone. Just not between him and Ford.

nicky wrote:

Yes you have been consistent over Giambrone. Just not between him and Ford.

Ok, I'll bite. What do you mean by that? I actually have no clue what you're saying. Let me tell you what I'm saying. Leave both their private lives alone - sex, crack, whatever. Shut down the scandal sheets. Stop with the shock doctrine. Examine their political acts, not their personal ones. Ford, Giambrone, Layton, Mulcair, all of them.

For a start, Layton did nothing wrong or illegal in that smear of a "story,"

Well, by his own account, he didn't. By his account, he had managed to spend his entire life in a major city without acquiring the street-smarts to figure out what sort of services would be on offer at a massage parlour called The Velvet Touch.

And you're free to believe that, if it sounds plausible to you. Just ss others are free to believe that two Toronto Star reporters and an American blogger they'd never even met all decided to start making up stories about a non-existent video, if that sounds plausible to them. 

Gott im Himmel I agree with Unionist. Makes me wonder that I have to be wrong, somewhere.

But anyway, if this was our ox being gored, we'd be screaming media vendetta, and we'd be right to.  This sleazy media machine that's now geared up to save Toronto is the same machine that landed Toronto with Rob Ford.

It's the same machine that, at the behest of Navigator P.R., dragged Darcy Sheppard through the mud.  This isn't a spectator sport where it's only notables that get this kind of treatment.  It can happen to you, or me, or our kids. 

I don't care that for once it may be geared up for a very good reason-- or a reason that warms the cockles of my politically partizan heart.  Because 99% of the time, it's this power structure that works against our interests.

Let's recap. 

The Toronto Star broke the story about Adam Giambrone's infedlity.  Which sank his candidacy, and any hope for anything that resembled a leftish of center candidacy. 

This fit neatly into having the Star's choice, George Smitherman, a right of center candidate carry the flag for "Progressives" in the Mayor's race.  How cynical was that candidacy?  Slitherman chose P.R. specialists from each political party-- the Tories, the Liberals and the NDP.  And they argued amoung themselves about which spectrum of politics they had the best chance of winning on. 

If I lived in Toronto, the temptation to vote Ford out of spite would have had my hands trembling at the ballot box.

This idiot mayor is very much the product of the stupidity and cynicism of the media, and the Toronto Star in particular. 

My goodness, Tommy. I do hope you didn't lose too much sleep the past couple of nights, weeping into your pillow over the cruel treatment poor victimized widdle Wob Fowd has received from the eve-ull liberal media. And you know something, you're right: No other politician in the history of the world has ever been held accountable in the press for falsehoods or habitual dishonesty. And certainly no other politico, anywhere, has ever suffered actual criticism (gasp! swoon!) for the near pathological levels of dissembling and self-aggrandizement that Rofo and his thug of a brother regularly engage in as a matter of course. Oh, my gracious me, heavens to betsy, no! The Fords are entirely unique in the 'persecution' they've faced. Boss Hogg is indeed as innocent as a lamb, practically a modern day Candide. Perhaps he should start showing up at public events dressed as Shirley Temple in order to facilitate that child-like sense of wide-eyed wonder and innocence that seems to affect people like yourself so profoundly. Maybe he should even do a tap dance and sing a few rounds of "Good Ship Lollypop" whenever he's in public, just to hammer home what an adorable l'il cutie pie he is! (God knows it wouldn't be any less dignified than the usual behavior we actually see from the oaf.)

Or to put it another way: Are you fucking kidding me?

Hey, gang, get a load of this: I place a couple of links to articles that point out in merciless detail how the Fords seem incapable of opening their mouths without lying, and the first - and so far, only - response is exactly the sort of self-defeating, empty headed posturing that I've come to expect from certain types on our side who are supposedly against the Fords and what they stand for but who can't wait to start rolling around in puddles of their own piss at the very thought of seeing the Fords politically damaged in any significant way. Never mind that the Fords themselves would never be suicidal enough to indulge in such cheap, masturbatory self-sabotage if the shoe were on the other foot (hell, no; they'd move in for the kill immediately), and never mind that the rotten fuckers just plain don't deserve such consideration. Need it be pointed out yet again that these two assholes are not normal politicians? Doug, espcially, is an extremely nasty piece of work, not that the pair of them wouldn't be more than bad enough even if they were what passes for "normal" Tory politicos these days.

No, let's set all that aside, because I've got bigger fish to fry. What really gets me about the dribbling horseshit Tommy spouts above is its real life consequences. In the real world, whenever non-political types get fed up with the status quo, and start to think about voting for, say, the NDP, they witness people on our side deliberately shooting themselves in the foot in just such a manner, and it scares them straight into the arms of whatever lesser reactionaries happen to be available, as long as they're advertising themselves as being in opposition to the official right wing and they at least appear to be minimally competent. When people who don't follow politics closely get a good look at the kind of stupid shit just above, it horrifies them. It doesn't look principled or ethical or fair or even-handed or even remotely moral. No, it looks like nothing other than rank, straight-up incompetence, and a preening, narcissistic brand of incompetence at that: "Lookit me while I help out a fascist troglodyte who'd never return the favor if our positions were reversed! Lookit! Lookit! Lookit! Me! Me! Meeeeeee!" No, if they're actually hoping you'll protect them from the Rob Fords of the world, then it doesn't look good - to say the least - if you do nothing but make excuses for the bastards you're supposed to be opposing, particularly if you do it in the most cringing, bootlicking manner possible: "Wah! Wah! Wah! The Toronto Star said mean things about Ford! That means everything he claims is true! It proves it! And I have credibility when I say that, 'cause I'm an accredited lefty who's unneccesarily defending a brutish, lying, far right nut! Now, vote for me, even though I've just shown I'm never going to try and inconvenience my opponents in any real way!"

Uh, no, this doesn't work. It pisses off and demoralizes the people on your side, and it doesn't impress the genuine true believers on the opposite side of the fence who'd sooner cut their own throats than vote for commie-pinko-fhaggit types. (Ford Nayshun, in this particular case.) But the non-ideological folks who voted for a Rob Ford the first time around and might be pursuaded to vote against him next time because they've been alarmed at his conduct since then? Well, their reactions to such displays can usually be summed up thusly: "This is who we're going to trust to stand up to the likes of Stephen Harper or Mike Harris or Rob Ford? Really?" It drives them straight into the arms of the Liberals. Or back to the Conservatives, since they culturally identify with them anyway, and if they're not going to get any significant change that benefits them by voting for the party of the left, then they may as well go with what they know. At least that way, they get their egos stroked and their cultural prejudices catered to...and if nothing else is on the menu, they're generally willing to settle for that. (It may not get them anything tangible, but it's better than nothing. Fuck, it's usually more than we on the left get.) Or they just don't vote at all. And the poor fools who are at least partly responsible for this outcome by their completely unnecessary aid-and-comfort to the enemy invariably scratch their heads and wonder how in the hell did that happen?

But anyway, if this was our ox being gored, we'd be screaming media vendetta, and we'd be right to.

No, actually, we wouldn't. The fatal flaw in your little analysis is the automatic - one might even say magical - removal of Ford's own conduct from the entire equation, as if his behavior had nothing to do with anything. Let's say, just for the sake of argument, that this really was the vendetta you claim it to be. If so, then Ford's done plenty of damage to himself, with no prodding whatsoever, by giving the media loads of grist for the mill, wouldn't you say? For Christ's sakes, nobody put a gun to Ford's greasey head and forced him to consistently act like a wild-eyed lunatic or repeatedly break every rule or law that happened to get in his way. That's entirely his own fault. He has nobody but himself to thank for that. And that would be the case, even if you were correct here. Which you're not.

Why? Because none of the reports on the shit surrounding Mayor Lumpenfuhrer is made up. None of it. You do understand that, right? Then again, maybe you don't, seeing as the two links I posted above that had you clutching your pearls were entirely accurate summaries of Ford's (and his scumbag brother's) habitual, near-pathological, self-promoting tendency to often and repeatedly - and demonstrably - lie through their teeth every time the opportunity presents itself. "Oh, but how cruel to actually report on that!" Give me a break. Most of what we could term genuine vendettas in the media are at least partially built on bullshit; they have to be, since the facts need to be twisted to fit pre-conceived outcomes in actual media hit pieces. Not this time. With the Fords, we have a practical tsunami of sleaze, unethical behavior, law breaking and extremist politics. Add in the clownish personal antics, and you have the makings of a carnival sideshow. It's not much of a vendetta that merely points a camera and accurately records what the freakshow does, now, is it?

I could go on. And I will. Point #3: For all the suppposed "the media have it in for the Fords" crap that keeps getting shovelled by his apologists (as well as self-involved leftist lackwits who really should know better), the fact remains that Ford has gotten plenty of support from the local media, and continues to get it every time they promote one of his idiotic p.r. stunts (like, say, wrasslin' with Hulk Hogan) as if it's actual news. Even the Sun, which has supposedly turned against Ford to some small extent in recent weeks, continues to hedge their bets with additional puff pieces about what a great guy he is published alongside the more critical reports about what the man actually, y'know, does. CITY TV, CFTO, the usual talk radio suspects, they all love Ford. Oh, but Little Orphan Fordie doesn't have a friend in the world! Boo hoo hoo hoo hoo!

This idiot mayor is very much the product of the stupidity and cynicism of the media, and the Toronto Star in particular.

I happen to agree with that - not that Ford or his imbecile fanboys in Ford Nayshun are capable of understanding the point, nor would they care if they did - but what of it? Yes, the Star is a neoliberal rag that bears a good portion of the blame for Ford being in power to begin with. I don't disagree in the least. Does it matter? Now that's he's in an actual position of power, I prefer to focus on getting him out of City Hall, and if the Star is willing to do its part in eliminating this particular Frankenstien Monster that they're partially responsible for creating, I say let them. It may even be the Star is trying to make up for their part in propelling Ford into the Mayor's office to begin with. I'm cynical enough to doubt that myself, but I think the case could be made. Not that it matters, in any event. In this particular instance, I'm perfectly willing to capatalize on whatever assitance happens to come my way. We're not exactly in a position to be picky, here. This is an imperfect world, and sometimes you just have to take what you can get.

Look, I don't mean to come off as an asshole here. I freely admit my anger at Ford may come off as harsh (though I've spoken to people whose hatred of Ford makes me look like the Sweet Voice of Reason by comparison), but it honestly drives me nuts having to explain kindergarten levels of shit to otherwise intelligent people who shouldn't need to have such things explained to them. I hardly think I'm the Amazing Kreskin by assuming Ford's theme for the next Mayoral campaign is going to be along the lines of "I'm History's Greatest Victim!" At the very bare minimum, I don't think we should give him credibility by doing his propaganda work for him.

Hard to believe that Rob beat Hulk.

Could it have been the performance enhancing medicine?

Apparently the city's debt has grown under Ford.  link

Paul Moloney wrote:

The City of Toronto has gone deeper into debt under Mayor Rob Ford.

The city’s net long-term debt grew by about $800 million in Ford’s first two years of office, 2011 and 2012.

As of the end of 2012, it stood at $3.7 billion, compared with $2.9 billion at the end of 2010, former mayor David Miller’s last year in office.

"For instance, he was pretty casual about the whole Giambrone news item (Adam's affair)."

Yeah, I recall the radio interview he gave on that. Even after the reporter argued that there were issues besides sex involved in the case, eg. possible leaking of information, Ford still refused to criticize Giambrone, and even pointed out that it was unproven whether he was the source of whatever leaks were under discussion.

[url=http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/toronto-mayor-rob-ford-says... Ford says he has smoked a lot of pot[/url]

That's it. He's gotta go. No video needed here. We have a confession!!!

Same with Kathleen Wynne.

Chow would beat Ford 57 to 33%

http://www.forumresearch.com/forms/News%20Archives/News%20Releases/78102_TO_Trial_Heats_Release_%2829082013%29_Forum_Research.pdf