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Rob Ford's Toronto

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kbdid said:
This thread's moving at a million miles an hour but just an aside....John Tory was asked what his wife would do if asked to come down to a presser after he'd used the "p word" and referred to oral sex with her to the press. His response was that she'd be too busy packing his stuff to make the conference.
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That's my kind of political spouse. The Maureen McTeer of municipal politics. :)

pattycakes said:
Hotmail lawyer

Wonder how much he's paying hotmail lawyer.

Don Peat ‏@reporterdonpeat 1h
Rob Ford claims his lawyer told him to check with city lawyer to see if he had a conflict, the city lawyer told him to talk to his lawyer

Don Peat ‏@reporterdonpeat 1h
"I called the integrity commissioner and I can't seem to get a hold of her" Mayor Rob Ford #TOpoli
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I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Hotmail Lawyer™ Is trying to get off the case.


MTown said:
Well....I'm never paying a speeding ticket again. Or am I not important enough?


Oh....I see how it works! Only important people are above the law. I'm just a working-class nobody.
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Run for office in the new Honest Self Interest Party™. A friend of mine wants to run for MP on the open promise that she'll only serve six years so she can get a pension.
 
TJ O'Pootertoot said:
This hasn't all played out. Obviously it's weird they started investigating Ford, amassed 500 pages of not-always-pertinent info...and then arrested Lisi and the dry cleaner. But, call me naive, I still think other things are in play. You can see it in the stuff that's still blacked out.
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I agree that this is far from being played out. The point being made in the NP article is that it is very strange that in the "ITO" "information to obtain" for a search warrant of the dry-cleaners property there are over 2,000 references to Ford but only 184 references to the dry-cleaner himself!

The issue is not that police obtained all this damaging information on Ford through interviews with his staff but that this information found its way into a document used to obtain a search warrant of another persons property. It begs the question if Rob Ford was so critical to obtaining a search warrant of the dry-cleaners that his name was mentioned over 2,000 times - why wasn't a warrant ever obtained to search Fords property?


How is it possible they have nothing with which to charge ford? Maybe that was a political decision, to cut him a break, say, "we have the video" and hope he'll take the hint (which he hasn't)? Why even randomly announce you have the video? Why consult with two lawyers to ask what to say about it when you can, if you want, keep that quiet a while longer? It seems to me that "because the police don't like Ford and want to embarrass him," is an awful shallow answer to explain all that effort.
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I don't think it was a question of the police (Blair) not liking Ford and wanting to embarrass him. Remember we have reports of Ford being caught driving drunk and instead of being arrested Ford was driven home by police officers (no doubt operating on instructions from the highest level). If they wanted to embarrass Rob Ford why not bust him for drunk driving? It is also not a case of the police "covering up" in order to "protect" Ford. This was more a question of control. You can bet long before last spring when project traveler began - police have known of Fords many personal problems e.g. 911 calls for domestic violence that we are only learning about now. IMO Toronto Police (Blair) have worked to keep these embarrassing incidents hushed up. It was only when it became obvious that Ford was damaged goods and of no use to him that Blair made his bombshell announcement regarding the video. Blair also had to be very worried that with the release of the redacted ITO information his own conduct would be called into question (which it has).

Is it possible he wasn't involved in Lisi's efforts to get the video? Improbable, but possible. If anything, it's more likely Lisi won't roll on him, though that seems weird to me; Ford isn't exactly Don Corleone.
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I agree it does not seem possible that Ford was not involved in directing the efforts to retrieve the video. Phone records showed a huge spike in calls between Ford and Lisi (and Ford and Price) in the hours after the Gawker story broke. The fact that Ford has not been charged with extortion yet suggests to me that they did not have a wire-tap on Ford or Lisi's phone and therefore the only way to charge Ford would be if Lisi would "roll" on Ford and as you see that is unlikely. I suspect that Lisi is a "made man" and they almost never cooperate with police (those that do usually end up with a shortened lifespan).


Is it possible that none of the Project Traveler wiretaps mention the mayor? Mention him buying drugs? Mention him looking for a video? I guess it's possible. What about - a whole week ago! - the news that people were showing up with money and threatening people in Dixon? Were they working for Ford? The mob? Why isn't that in the ITO?
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No I don't think it is possible that none of the wiretaps captured mention of the mayor. The police had the Dixon Goonies under surveillance with wiretaps even before Anthony Smith was murdered (which is probably why they were able to make arrests so quickly). It was reported not long after the Gawker story broke that police had overheard discussions of the crack video through wiretap intercepts. Police knew of the existence of the crack video before it was reported by Gawker!

As for your second question "why isn't that in the ITO" - much of the ITO remains blacked out although you would think that if they had intercepted Mayor Ford or Doug Ford directing strong arm tactics to retrieve the video that arrests would have been made by now.
 
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There was a flippant little piece in the G&M, but, Canadian stereotypes aside, I think it does a credible job at explaining how the Ford duo completely discombobulate the average Canadian with their scandal management m.o.

Especially this part:
But let’s remove crack from the equation: The mayor’s two new admissions this week, would in normal circumstances result in the confessor either resigning or being removed from office.

Without further explanation along the lines of “Yes, I bought illegal drugs while in office. I bought black-market amoxicillin for a child with pneumonia while visiting a developing nation, shortly after I got behind the wheel after a couple of beers to drive a truck off that poor child’s legs. Anything else?†confessions of the kind Mr. Ford spat out this past Wednesday in the tone of a fifth-grader who has just broken an unloved classmate’s Tamagotchi, justly end political careers.

Why this hasn’t happened understandably confuses the world and I can offer only this explanation: We don’t have a mechanism for recalling a mayor. We’re Canadians and when it comes to getting rid of them at short notice, we mostly rely on our mayors having a basic capacity for shame – a thing both Rob Ford seems to lack.

Sure, he has apologized for smoking crack, driving drunk, being drunk at a public event and for buying illegal drugs. Mayor Ford has repeatedly said “sorry†regarding his lapses. But to put this in perspective, he has said “sorry†about as many times as the average Canadian says “sorry†in the process of buying a newspaper, coffee and a butter tart.

It’s what we do. Saying “sorry†is how Canadians breathe. But whenever Mr Ford says sorry, he whines about how horrible it is for him to apologize.

His brother, Councillor Doug Ford, said of what Mayor Ford has endured, “It is kind of like what they did to Jesus Christ.â€

None of this is Canadian. We tend toward hockey analogies and humility, not entitlement, a quality Mayor Ford has in mind-boggling amounts.

He seems to think he can continue being mayor just because he has said, “I love being your mayor.â€

That’s not Canadian! We love being warm, but we know damn well summer last only 12 weeks. We’re on unfamiliar ground here. We’re not equipped to deal with people like the Fords: In the face of raging, sulking, bullying men, we’re at a loss. Impoliteness is our Kryptonite.

Canadians are a principled and courageous people, sure, but had the Germans walked into our trenches at Vimy Ridge and put their feet up on the furniture, we might have just stared blankly in embarrassment until they won.

Certainly confronted with the image of Toronto’s mayor staggering around City Hall swigging from a bottle of liquor, yelling nonsensically at city staff, our laws and our nature leave us able to do little more than awkwardly suggest he use a coaster while those around him around him actually go about the sober business of being Toronto’s mayor.
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juniorfox said:
THANK YOU! I think "low rent Huey Long wannabes" is the most apt description of the Fords I've heard yet.

In fact I'd like to use that comparison in a post, and I'd be happy to give full credit if you want to email the blog address (its on the site) with a name I can cite
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Ren & Stimpy? Bevis & Butthead?
 
Downtown versus Suburbia

the best part of this is that the burbs can no longer wag it's finger in our face "oh you are so dirty, full of drug addicts and criminals" yeah that's right Etobicoke your brain dead hill billies come downtown to score and we have to clean up the mess. All those nice dandelion free lawns hide some pretty nasty secrets. And as for the Ford brothers three words - fetal alcohol syndrome. No impulse control, no insight, no respect for others - learned in the bosom of a phenomenally dysfunctional family. What a disgrace they all are. He doesn't need therapy he needs a personality transplant.
 
Coltaine79 said:
Talking about comedians again for a second, it's interesting that many American comedians have covered the RoFo story at least a couple of times now, but Toronto's most famous export-comedian does not seem to be aware of it at all!
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Rich Little?
 
TJ O'Pootertoot said:
Good point. It's hard to imagine that someone as obviously intelligent as Towhey would put his chips on this guy. He's obviously an idiot and a substance abuser. Batra talked about how he'd go "off the grid" for hours or even days as far back as the campaign and these guys propped him up to get close to power, I guess.

So, then he's elected and you're trying to put a muzzle on Doug and whether it's Doug or Towhey or Holyday, it's anyone but Rob actually running the show and still you work for him. Still you split hairs over precisely what you said at the Garrison Ball when you KNOW that you helped the mayor of Toronto into the building when he was stoned out of his mind and with his kids in a car driven by his (OK, merely suspected) drug dealer.

At what point do you clue in that's not worth it? Apparently when he ignores your speech in favour of the one his mother wrote, that's the straw that breaks the camel's back. It's not even a moral slight so much as a professional one at that point. Heck, the day the cops announced they had the video Towhey said that until that moment he still wasn't even 100% sure it really existed. Really, Mark? Really? Every blogger in the city totally believed it but your "chief of staff" qualities were so locked in you just had to allow for the vague possibility, even after everything you'd seen?

Was it Kouvalis who took soooo much pride in all his lies (Queen's Quay Karen etc.) that smeared other people in favour of his obviously unqualified candidate? Whose idea was it to figure out how to spin the fact Ford was caught with a DUI and then lied about the pot charge? Are you all proud of the fine POLITICAL work you did to get this man elected? When did you clue in that everyone on the campaign (save Lisi!) was smarter and more qualified to be mayor than the empty husk you were trotting out every day to deliver bullshit stump speeches about an imaginary gravy train? Fuck the city, is your attitude - I just want my guy to beat those socialists!

I don't know how you look yourself in the mirror when that's your job, day in day out.

"Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul."
-Dylan, Masters of War

I feel better now :)
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DAMN WELL SAID! Was wondering when someone focused on the staff enablers, who are now holier than thou......yes thats you twohey!
 
juniorfox said:
Yeah but those are apt only in a "duo of dumbasses" way. Which fits, don't get me wrong. But low rent Huey longs is fitting in a very specific way
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it should be said that politically, Ford is the polar opposite of Long, who was the very definition of a tax-and-spend Democrat. But in terms of they way they tapped into class resentments to whip up support, the corruption, and the blustering, pandering campaign-style, there are similarities. It's mainly that it's a style of politics that no doubt seems glamourous to the Fords, and their version is sort of a hoser-ized cartoon of that. I'm surprised Rob and Doug aren't handing out straw hats at those Ford-fests of theirs, just to get the full effect.
 
TJ O'Pootertoot said:
This hasn't all played out. Obviously it's weird they started investigating Ford, amassed 500 pages of not-always-pertinent info...and then arrested Lisi and the dry cleaner. But, call me naive, I still think other things are in play. You can see it in the stuff that's still blacked out.

How is it possible they have nothing with which to charge ford? Maybe that was a political decision, to cut him a break, say, "we have the video" and hope he'll take the hint (which he hasn't)? Why even randomly announce you have the video? Why consult with two lawyers to ask what to say about it when you can, if you want, keep that quiet a while longer? It seems to me that "because the police don't like Ford and want to embarrass him," is an awful shallow answer to explain all that effort.
....

These are just some of the many huge, unanswered questions, any combination of which could explain why you have this voluminous ITO that's not even about the people who got arrested, one of whom only seems indirectly connected to the mayor via Lisi. (Ironically, I think it would seem even weirder if they had this 500-page document and then just jacked Ford up on a DUI.) I think there's more coming, ongoing investigations and it would be wrong to assume Ford is scot free as far as criminal charges. Maybe that's wishful thinking but it's the most logical way to explain the police service's actions, if you ask me.
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Project Brazen 2 was an investigation triggered by the reported existence of the Rob Ford crack-smoking video. Obviously there's going to be a lot about Ford in the documents. But they didn't dispatch a police aircraft and spend money on surveillance just to find the video and charge Ford with one charge of smoking crack. They are looking into other possible crimes, including the possibility that someone was killed for the video, and that Lisi might be trying to obtain the video (maybe using threats) -- either on behalf of Ford or on behalf of someone else.

Things that Rob Ford does/says are relevant to the investigation: Is he directing Lisi? Is he getting his staffers involved in the search for the video? Remember it was in the early days of PB2 (May 17) that Ford said to members of his staff that he knew exactly where the video was and mentioned two apartment numbers. Police interviewed Price (and possibly Towhey) the next day. So maybe it's not weird that police are looking into the seemingly mundane details of what Ford staffers (like C. Fickle) are doing outside of their City Hall duties. For all the cops knew, Ford was sending his staffers on errands related to recovering the video. If he's reckless enough to tell them he knows where a video (that "doesn't exist") is, who knows what else he'd ask them to do?

Is it possible he wasn't involved in Lisi's efforts to get the video? Improbable, but possible. If anything, it's more likely Lisi won't roll on him, though that seems weird to me; Ford isn't exactly Don Corleone.
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Rob Ford maybe isn't, but what about Doug? 25 years later, no one is willing to go on camera to say they bought a little hash from Doug.

Is it possible that none of the Project Traveler wiretaps mention the mayor? Mention him buying drugs? Mention him looking for a video? I guess it's possible. What about - a whole week ago! - the news that people were showing up with money and threatening people in Dixon? Were they working for Ford? The mob? Why isn't that in the ITO?
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Maybe there's some legal reason not to bring info from Project Traveller wiretaps in an ITO that relates to Project Brazen 2. At least at this point in time...
 
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