The People's Filibuster

Still watching The People's Filibuster*, as Niles styled it.

There are over 300 on the list. About 30 have spoken (they kindly moved people with children and disabled people forward). Score: in favour of service cuts 0; ^NOT in favour 30.

I just calculated that at max speed -- with no questions from councillors -- the earliest I could go on is after 1 a.m. Which is unlikely even if there is a bunch of no-shows.

And I can't imagine Fordzilla going without dinner.

What to do? Stay up? Have a nap? And when to get there?

Advice welcome.

*#peoplesfilibuster is a nice hashtag, yes?

UPDATE: FatFuckFord has just announced dinner break from 6 to 6:45.

UPDATE 2: This is moving faster now. Up to deputant #56. Maybe I should get my butt down there. But then I'd have to give up the Intertoobz and Twitter, having no cell phone, let alone smartphone.

UPDATE 3: Back. Decompressing. More tomorrow.

Take a Ride on the Gravy Train

Torontonians! Rob Ford wants to hear what you have to say.

Of course, it will all be a MASSIVE waste of time if the boneheads running City Hall treat actual human beings as they did its own online consultation.

Almost 13,000 residents who responded at public information sessions or online were asked to rank five funding strategies for the city. Freezing taxes and fees, even if it meant lowering service levels, was ranked as the last option, a fact many left-leaning councillors were quick to seize on as the city prepares to mull cuts.

Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong dismissed the findings.

“It’s not statistically valid, those people self-selected, they decided to fill that form out as opposed to if you were to take a representative sample and have a pollster do it,” he said.

Come out to Rob Ford's executive committee meeting on Thursday July 28, 2011 at 9:30 am, Committee Room 1, Toronto City Hall, 100 Queen Street West.

Get added to the deputation list by emailing exc@toronto.ca or registering with the city by phone 416-392-6627.

I phoned about an hour ago and the nice woman told me that there were more than 90 people already registered.

Here's what Ford said:

“I encourage people to come to the executive committee next Thursday,” he said during an interview on CP24. “Everyone has five minutes to talk to me personally at our executive committee. I invite the whole city. I don’t care if we have to sit there for three days. I don’t want to have people ... they have five minutes to tell me what business do you think we should be in. And it’s next Thursday at 9:30 at city hall. Come and let me know what you think – the average taxpayer out there – what are we doing right, what are we doing wrong. I want to hear from the people and I encourage them to come. “

Hm. Let's do the math for him, because he's clearly incapable.

90 people times 5 minutes = 450 minutes or 7.5 hours

We need just 180 more people to fill up the three days.

Let's do it!

Image source