Forget the Gong Show, Let's Concentrate on City Council

Well, Matt Galloway on MetroMorning did the best job (so far) of any interviewer's attempt to hold Rob Fucking Ford to account.

Given this, at least:

No interviewer can possibly keep up with the volume velocity of Rob Ford's lies.

— Ryan Day (@lizzhatesme) March 28, 2014

But there are still seven months to go for interviewers and opponents to learn how better to deal with RFF's bullshit. We live in hope.

If RFF's tenure has taught us anything, it's that while a mayor can embarrass the hell out of us, under a weak mayor system, she or he needs collaborators on council to get things done.

I propose turning our attention away from the giant gong show that is the mayoral race to wannabe city councillors.

We need to rid Council of the morons, the toadies, and the mindlessly ambitious, which of course puts Mammo at the top of the heap, overlapping all categories as he does so effectively.

OK, then. Here is an immensely useful graphic (more about its provenance below*). I'm sorry it's kind of hard to read.

It's arranged in rings by year, innermost being 2011, when RFF had max influence. Note how much support he had then.

By 2012, less support, more opposition. Even more so by 2013.

For an overview, this is very handy. For my money, no one with a preponderance of blue and green should be returned to office.

Here is the list of current councillors. Find yours.

Next step, follow @GraphicMatt who has been doing heroic work in tracking how each councillor voted, presented in colour-coded tables.

Some examples here and here. You can also find his work at
MetroNews.

Decide whether your incumbent deserves your support. If so, get your butt out for him or her.

If not, check out who else is running. Here is the current list of contenders. The list will no doubt grow. Some incumbents have not yet registered. And some contenders are probabaly still testing the waters.

Check them out. Find someone with ideas, integrity, and a lively sense of civic responsibility.

For example, Dan Fox is contesting Ward 24, now held by blue/green Ford-supporter David Shiner. Dan could use some volunteers.

Remember that the mayor, while potentially possessed of great persuasive power, has only one vote.

There are 44 others that -- collectively -- matter more.

*Provenance of graphic: It was tweeted by cinemaven. I asked and looked but couldn't find an original, even though it says "thegridto.com" in the corner. I tweeted a couple of times asking for help and got no joy. In particular, I complained about how hard it was to read, how it needed embiggening.

Well. In my email last night was a message from Ace Blogger and Photoshopper Extraordinaire Alison @ Creekside, with an improved and slightly embiggened version of the chart. Yes, that Alison, who to the dismay of the masses does NOT have a Twitter account. So, how did she get my bat signal Alison signal?

She's not saying, is she? Me, I think she has an alter ego on Twitter. Maybe @80sDougFord. Feel free to speculate in the comments.


ADDED: Of course there are municipal elections across Ontario this year. All of us need to do our duty and vote good people in.

What's Missing from The Star's Latest on Ford's Felonious Friends?

The first sentence from The Star's latest story on Rob Fucking Ford and his criminal associates:

Toronto police are investigating attempts by associates of Mayor Rob Ford to retrieve the crack cocaine video.

Notice anything missing there?

No?

Compare to this poll being run by NewsTalk 1010 at the moment, which, by the way is running 84% 'yes'.

The Toronto Star reports that police are looking into Rob Ford's buddies' attempts to get their hands on an alleged video of the mayor smoking from a crack pipe. Do you believe the footage exists?

The Star has abandoned the use of the word 'alleged'.

The crack cocaine video.

No one, not The Star, not the cops, not a significant majority of NewsTalk's audience doubts.

Most significantly, The Star's lawyers do not doubt its existence.

I might blog on the story itself, with its plethora of sketchy characters, most of whom live in their parents' basements while driving pricey cars, later.

But for now, I just wanted to point this omission out.

Ford Follies: Monday Morning Round-up

Your Monday morning round-up on the bizarreness that is the Chief Magistrate of Toronto.

First from the Globe and Mail, Rob Fucking Ford goes to jail.

An after-hours appearance by Toronto Mayor Rob Ford at a west-end jail in March was deemed unusual by correctional officials and prompted an e-mail describing the incident for the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, multiple sources have told The Globe and Mail.

Mr. Ford went to the jail that night to speak with a then-inmate named Bruno Bellissimo, The Globe has learned. Mr. Bellissimo, 43, is not named in the e-mail, but two sources, including Mr. Bellissimo’s mother, identified him as the person Mr. Ford was trying to contact.

At around 7 p.m. on March 25, about three hours after official visiting hours, Mr. Ford arrived unannounced at the Toronto West Detention Centre and asked if he could have a tour of the jail, four sources with knowledge of aspects of the incident said. After the tour request was declined, the mayor indicated he wanted to meet with Mr. Bellissimo, a source in the correctional system, as well as Mr. Bellissimo’s mother, Maria Bellissimo, said in interviews.

Bruno Bellissimo is described as having 'a history of drug-related activity'. He and Ford have known each other since they were kids.

Note also Ford lied initially, saying he wanted a tour of the jail then revealing he wanted to see Bellissimo.

Back to Taste of the Danforth. On his radio show yesterday, Ford admitted he had 'a couple of beers'. To many people this is the troubling bit.

The mayor said he drove himself to the festival area, and “I was not drinking.” But after having a few beers, Ford said he did not drive home because he was met by members of his staff.

Rob Ford missed official function 8 pm Friday, was in altered state beside car at 9. @siczar @shelleycarroll @michaeljohn1963 @TOMayorFord

— Jude MacDonald (@judemacdonald) August 12, 2013

For me, the tell is that he dodged the official function *and* his staff to go to the festival unleashed. Staff found out through 'social media', presumably Twitter, and came running. Along with about ten cops (?), they caught up with him.

Also. Again from The Star link.

His brother Doug, who is an Etobicoke councillor, added that he also joined the mayor at Taste of the Danforth.

“We go down to a festival. We have a couple beers and you have everyone on you,” Doug Ford said, noting they are just “average guys.”

The Star points out that 'those comments run counter' to what Dougie said in March.

Radio host Jerry Agar questioned Doug Ford about whether his brother has an alcohol problem. Doug Ford went as far as saying he has never seen Rob drink.

“When I’m out at an event, and you can ask any councillor, or anyone, I’ve never seen Rob drink. At family functions, I’ve never seen Rob drink,” he said in March.

All lies. All the time.



Image source and links to videos from Taste of the Danforth.

Is that a politician in your pocket?

So, Jabba the Mayor got wasted last night and wandered around Taste of the Danforth, where he was caught on video. NOW has the story with links to videos here. I may blog on this later, but for now I want to focus on another story about Ford that broke yesterday.

First, though, consider this photo that Edward Keenan wrote about last week under the title, 'The photo that gets more incriminating all the time'.

Anyhow, forget the video for at least a moment. Think about the photograph. In the picture above, there are four men. One is dead, two are under arrest, and one is the mayor of Toronto.

Keenan details all the links the photo has to 'brutal violence and the gun and drug trades, or both', and winds up with:

One murder, two shootings, one stabbing, one home invasion and beating with a pipe, four arrests, many search warrants, and the mayor of Canada’s largest city.

Forget the video. The photo provides enough troubling questions on its own.

Indeed. Many, many troubling questions.

And now there are more.

Late yesterday, the Toronto Sun (the Toronto Sun!) ran this exclusive.

“You owe me money,” a convicted drug peddler screamed at Rob Ford after bursting into the mayor’s home and later threatening to kill him.

Court documents recently obtained by the Toronto Sun reveal stunning new details about the mayor’s frightening run-in with a man who once had close ties to the Ford family — an incident that occurred in Rob Ford’s Etobicoke home and raises more questions in the wake of the crack cocaine allegations that have been dogging him.

A strung out Scott MacIntyre, the ex-boyfriend of Ford’s sister Kathy, entered uninvited through the unlocked front door of the Edenbridge Dr. house around 7:30 a.m. on Jan. 11, 2012, and began screaming about debts that needed to be paid, according to the documents.

“You owe me money, your sister owes me money, if I don’t get it, they will kill me,” MacIntyre, then 45, yelled at the mayor, who rushed to confront his sister’s longtime common law partner.

The documents — a transcript from MacIntyre’s court appearance at 2201 Finch Ave. W. on Apr. 23, 2012 — include an agreed statement of facts submitted during his guilty plea.

Scribd version of the transcript here. And here is The Star's report at the time on January 11, 2012.

'An agreed statement of facts'. That's what MacIntyre admits he said.

Here at DJ! we've written about Jabba's strange family, including the sad-case sister who attracts violent drug users, before.

And we've written about Jabba's own possible substance abuse.

Last night on Twitter some semi-professional do-gooders were wringing hands and tut-tutting at those of us who were demanding WHAT THE FUCK NOW? 'Not kosher to go after his family', we were told. 'Substance abuse is complicated', we were admonished.

This has gone waaaay beyond one over-fed dumb-ass bully with a troubled family and maybe addiction problems of his own.

Toronto's Chief Magistrate surrounds himself with criminals, criminal activities, and violence.

There is a reason that politicians and wielders of power and influence (used to) eschew criminals and criminal activities.

Because criminals like nothing better than to have a pol in their pocket.

We need to know: what does Rob Ford owe? To whom? And for what?

Who owns Rob Ford? Or rents him on a regular basis?

We need an investigation. Or several.

Smoking Crack with DRUG DEALERS

OK, so Ford Nation is apparently standing by their asshat guy.

Mostly they're in denial that the video exists.

On Twitter today Ezra LeRant aired a different theory.

It's not just class. It's race. Rob Ford is the 1st black mayor. At least brown. Ask any cabbie or corner store owner maisonneuve.org/post/2013/05/2…

— Ezra Levant (@ezralevant) May 28, 2013

Leaving aside the incredible racism of that, I decided to take the challenge (and I needed cigarettes).

My local convenience store is owned by a bunch of brown guys. Not related as far as I can tell. Some, judging by accent, born here or got here really early, some born elsewhere. I think Pakistan, that part of the world, but I've never asked.

Sometimes, there's a woman in a head-scarf hanging around. She never serves customers and for quite a while seemed to disapprove of me. She's warmed up a little and occasionally smiles at me now.

So, brown Muslim people.

I have a good relationship with the two main guys. One in particular really likes me. I have no idea why but he always gives me a big smile and a free lighter.

My fave guy was behind the counter today. I decided not to ask him if he thought Rob Ford was black, lest he think me nuts and cut off my free lighters.

But I did ask him what he thought about Ford smoking crack.

At first he shrugged, clearly not wanting to answer. But I figure all those lighters put me in a special category so I pushed and he said something interesting.

'In this country, everybody does that.'

Me: 'What? No. Not everybody smokes crack. I don't know anyone who has smoked crack.'

Him: 'Well, maybe not crack, but something. Marijuana. . .'

Me: 'OK, yes, lots of people do or have tried soft drugs. But not a lot do hard drugs like cocaine or crack.'

He shrugged again, trying to dodge. I pushed some more.

Me: 'What do you think of him doing drugs with drug dealers?'

Him: 'OK. That's bad.'

Of course I have no idea how representative his view is, but think about it.

You come from a very conservative society. And land in Toronto, which at the moment has the 'least photogenic human being in the history of the species' as mayor.

This mayor not only looks weird, he does weird shit, but then, in your view, most of your new neighbours do weird shit.

Maybe they all do weird shit like smoke crack. Even the mayor.

This doesn't bear thinking about, so when a pushy customer asks you about it, you try to dodge the question.

In talking to our neighbours about this, maybe we should lean more heavily on the questionable/criminal company Ford keeps.

And, of course, when the video comes out -- and it will -- lean very heavily on the comment FatFuck made about 'f---ing minorities'.

By the way, I still got a lighter even after I was pushy.

Image that inspired 'least photogenic human being' comment.




Hm, image is too small. Go to the source to get the full effect. Also, a pretty good article.

Rob Ford Gets Bad Lip Reading Treatment

Because I can. And because this made me giggle uncontrollably. And because I will probably want to see it again.




BONUS: If you liked that, you'll like Jackpot Fishy Poopypants


h/t Torontoist

Part-Time Mayor Stupid

Mayor Stupid ducked out on an executive committee meeting to coach highschool football, prompting Adam Vaughan to roll out the 'part-time mayor' meme again.

“The executive committee is the mayor’s committee and he has responsibilities to it,” he said Tuesday. “He’s not being paid to coach football, he’s not being paid to do anything other than being mayor by taxpayers.”

. . .

“People who come to address committee expect to have an audience with the mayor,” Mr. Vaughan pointed out.

Mr. Ford dismissed accusations that he is not doing his job. “I work harder than any mayor ever has,” he said. He added that citizens who missed him at Monday’s meeting can always give him a call.

“I return all my phone calls,” he said. “Everyone has my number. Anyone who wants to call me I’d be more than happy to talk to them.”

Two years before the next election, Mr. Vaughan speculated that Mr. Ford is using his role as a football coach to raise his profile.

“I guess he sees that coaching football gives him a big publicity boost,” he said. “Being a folk hero is not his job. Being the mayor is and if he is not showing up for work he is not respecting taxpayers.”

Seriously. He thinks his job is to return phone calls.

On the other hand, as evidenced by his testimony at the conflict of interest thingy -- the best account of which is Edward Keenan's -- who knows what he thinks his job is?

Ford Nation responds to all criticism with: He won a majority, so STFU.

All Torontonians will remember the 2010 municipal election as having, IMO, the worst roster of mayoral candidates evah.

That said, Mayor Stupid did win. But strictly speaking, he did not win a majority.

Here are the numbers.

Ford: 47.1%
Smitherman: 35.6%
Pantelone: 11.7%

There were about 814,000 votes cast, or 53% of eligible voters.

I just did the math. Mayor Stupid actually had the support of about 25% of eligible voters.

That makes me feel better.

I am going to make it my personal Mission from Gawd to help get the other 47% of Torontonians off their butts next time.

But please Gawd, give us at least one credible -- ah hell, I'll settle for half-decent -- candidate.


Image source.

Charge Him!

Several tight-lipped -- not to say mealy-mouthed -- reports of an 'incident' between Rob Fucking Ford and a TTC streetcar driver.

A TTC operator was counselled about his behaviour after an incident with Mayor Rob Ford on Wednesday.

The driver got up from the  seat of the TTC vehicle he was driving to speak with the mayor,  which he should not have done, according to TTC spokesman Brad Ross.

“The operator was counseled, i.e. spoken to, about leaving his seat, which is not permitted,” Mr. Ross wrote in an e-mailed statement Thursday night. “The matter is now closed.”

The operator was driving a streetcar at the time of the incident, according to a report in the Toronto Star. Mr. Ross told the newspaper that drivers aren't allowed to leave their seats "to have a discussion of any kind with a motorist."

He declined to comment on what the driver said to Mr. Ford. The incident didn’t cause the operator to miss any time at work, according to the newspaper.

Mr. Ford did not immediately return a phone call requesting comment on the incident.

So, what the hell happened? Don Peat has the answer.

Transit union prez Bob Kinnear says Mayor Rob Ford passed open doors of a streetcar sparking run-in with Mayor Rob Ford #TOpoli

— Don Peat (@reporterdonpeat) June 29, 2012

Gee, isn't blowing by open streetcar doors highly illegal? Yep.

And incurs a big fucking fine? Yep.

As a regular streetcar sacrificial lamb rider, I am incensed. Everybody who rides streetcars has seen near misses, pulled people about to step off into the path of an oncoming car back, kicked and spat at these scumbag scofflaws.

Thank gord, I've never seen a hit (not gonna call it an 'accident'), but I betcha several TTC drivers have. Like one I had once. The same motherfucking driver blew past open doors TWICE. First time, TTC guy yelled, blew horn. Second time, same reaction. (To cheers from passengers, BTW.) Next intersection, streetcar caught up to asshole stopped at a light. The driver got out, knocked on car window, and when asshole opened it, he screamed at him.

Asshole flipped the bird and blasted off.

To more cheers from passengers, the shaking TTC guy got back in his seat.

I'm betting he *had* seen the outcome of squishy human meeting speeding steel penis substitute.

It's no secret that I despise Rob Fucking Ford. Hysterical overreactions to comedians in his driveway and reporters near his house, public drunkenness, scoffing at driving and cellphone use laws, let alone his attempted destruction of a city I love.

Now I've had it. Well and truly had it.

Charge Rob Fucking Ford.

I have just begun.


UPDATE: From Don Peat.

MORE HOLY FUCKING HELL: From the update, Rob Fucking Ford called the TTC to complain about the TTC guy???????

The union boss said it’s not the first time Ford has complained about one of his members to TTC management.

UPDATER: The Star.

MORE: The Storified version from SolChrom.

Rob Fucking Ford: Strange Man, Strange Family

Rob Fucking Ford is in the news. Again.

Again with the 911 calls and police visits, which brings up two interesting questions:

Who's leaking this stuff to the Star?

And, does the mayor get preferential treatment from the cops?

We may or may not ever learn the answers to those, but I started wondering about the guy's psychology.

Specifically, he's a millionaire but also a lying, classless, buffoon. Yes, of course, millionaires can be lying, classless, buffoons, but wasn't he raised or educated better?

Back in April, 2010, Ford was still talking to the Star and was interviewed by Linda Diebel. The article is titled 'Rob Ford's complicated life'.

First bit of news to me: his father grew up 'dirt poor'.

He talks to the Star on a recent Thursday at Deco Labels & Tags, the Etobicoke company co-founded by his late father, Douglas Ford. He’s chief financial officer and offers a proud tour of a wholly family-owned operation that employs 250 in Toronto, Chicago and New Jersey and does close to $100 million in annual sales.

We’re in an office with a framed photo of his father, former offensive guard for the East York Argos, business leader, philanthropist, Conservative MPP in the Mike Harris government and, to his youngest son, an idol. His dad grew up dirt-poor in the east end, the youngest of nine, leaving school in Grade 5 to help his mother, known to the grandkids as “Big Nana.”

Now listen to him talk about his father:

Ford can’t get over his dad’s death. On July 1, 2006, he announced he had colon cancer. He was dead within three months, at 73. Ford calls it “the worst experience I’ve ever gone through.”

“What did he ever do to anyone? It was so sad to see someone who helped out so many people — he donated millions to the poorest of the poor — have to suffer and die like that. He was just gasping at the end. If you’ve ever heard a death rattle, it’s a ghastly affair.”

A long pause.

“Oh man. It’s rough. Terrible. It makes me upset when I think about it.”

Ford is still seething: “He could have lived a lot longer. There was nothing wrong, you know. . . . All his friends (are) still alive. They’re all 75, like my mom. He just got gypped 10 years and I don’t know why.

“He’s the last guy who deserved to go through what he went through . . . he taught Sunday school . . . There are hardened criminals, murderers, that don’t suffer like he suffered . . . . But, like you said, life’s not fair . . . I just can’t figure it out.”

There is a LOT of unresolved strangeness in there. Seething? Wanting 'hardened criminals' to suffer like his father did?

But wait, there's more.

This family is, to say the least, interesting.

“Like my dad said, ‘Many are called, few are chosen.’ It’s on his tombstone. The Ford family was chosen,” he says.

In a manner of speaking, perhaps.

“Our family has been through everything — from murder to drugs to being successful in business,” he says. “We’ve dealt with the very, very poor and the worst, worst tragedies . . . nobody can tell me a story that can shock.”

He talks about his sister, complaining, “the media never got it straight.”

How’s this for an explanation: “The killer wasn’t her ex-husband, it was an old boyfriend.”

As Ford tells it, Kathy Ford’s first boyfriend was Mike, before she married Jeff and had a daughter.

After divorcing Jeff, she lived six years with Ennio, bearing a son. She left Ennio and went back to Mike, and they rented a cottage up north.

Ford: In 1998, “from what I was told (by the kids), Ennio knocked on the cottage door and Mike answered it and Ennio shot him in the head” with a sawed-off shotgun. Charges were laid; Ennio went to prison for manslaughter.

In 2005, Ford says someone else “shot the top of her head off.” Press reports suggest it was an accident; two men were charged with firearms-related offences.

She’s functioning well, he says, living with her two children and on methadone for her heroin addiction.

“Bizarre, yeah, it’s really bizarre,” he says. “We all backed Kathy 100 percent; maybe what she was doing was wrong, but you don’t just throw people out into the street for doing the wrong stuff.”

I had never heard of anything about the sister, so I went looking. Look what I found from Sun Media in 2008. Toronto councillor Ford up on assault rap.

Outspoken city Councillor Rob Ford has once again landed himself in hot water, this time as he faces assault charges stemming from an alleged domestic incident with his wife.

OK, I knew about that, but again, there's more.

The councillor's family was also in the news after his sister Kathy Ford, then 45, was shot in the head in their childhood home on March 31, 2005.

She survived the shooting, which was later deemed to be accidental. Her boyfriend and another man were charged.

It wasn't the first time Ford's sister was touched by violence. In 1998 Kathy's ex-husband, Ennio Stirpe, used a sawed-off shotgun to kill Kathy's boyfriend, Michael Kiklas. Stirpe was later found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 13 years in prison.

And now it gets timely. Ennio Stirpe is back in the news again. From December 9 this year:

A sensational attempted-murder case that led Vaughan’s former mayor to decry the justice system two years ago reached its conclusion Friday, with the conviction of Mayor Rob Ford’s onetime brother-in-law in a Newmarket courthouse.

Ennio Stirpe, a serial offender who was once married to Mr. Ford’s sister and later convicted of killing her new boyfriend, had been out of prison for a year when emergency responders found Angela Fantauzzi covered in blood inside his basement apartment on Vaughan’s Harmony Road in the fall of 2009.

He'll be sentenced in January.

Altogether some really weird stuff. Classic low-life shit.

But maybe Rob Fucking Ford is right. The Ford family has been chosen.

To fuck up everything they lay their hands on.

My, What a Classy Place Toronto Has Become

@lannyf tweets:

Rob Ford, in a Walmart, in pajama pants. Our Mayor. #TOpoli #toronto (via my wife's FB friend)

Someone just defended this, saying 'Everyone fucking does it'.

Well, hush my mouth. Having never been in a WalMart, I'll have to defer to the fashion customs of that tribe.

*gobsmacked*

'The Crimson Tub'

The pressure mounts in the Rob Fucking Ford embarrassment.

Left-wing councillor Joe Mihevc said “it's absolutely important for the tapes to be released to clear the air,” adding Torontonians should know how their elected officials treat city staff.

“If the tapes are not released, the absence of them basically verifies CBC’s version of events. If it turns out he behaved in the way CBC says he did, an apology is in order and people can question the appropriateness of his actions and his ability to serve as mayor.”

Dr. Dawg is on it, and while admiring the coinage of 'SchadenFord', comes up with a pretty good description of Robbo without using you know, the word *cough* 'fat'.

Admire:

Compared to this crimson tub of vulgar, stupid ineptitude, Mel Lastman and even Ottawa’s clownish ex-mayor Larry O’Brien look like statesmen. How in the name of whatever gods that be could anyone have voted for this moron?

Have a look at this slideshow about the actual encounter between the Crimson Tub and Mary Walsh and decide who's telling the truth.

As for the 911 recording, we'll just have to wait to see if RFF will deliver.

Let's keep up the pressure, eh?

I guess it's time for this illustrative photo again.