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Rob Ford's Toronto

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Wish the article doesn't have all that "children is suffering" emotional manipulation slant to it. In any case, there is a far more intrusive cut - the funding for TTC, leading to an increase in crowding and customer dissatisfaction. Interesting how someone proposing subways would actually reduce service levels on existing routes now.

AoD
 
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To this day I still have never read an itemized list of what "savings" the mayor has brought to the city budget. All the ones we typically think of (garbage outsourcing, labor renegotiation, etc) do not add up to any subtantial number, relative to a $10B annual budget.

Its incredibly difficult to parse any official statements because they randomly assume long timeframes (ie over 10 years, 5 years, 7 years, etc), and they count cancelling taxes like VRT as "savings" when they are nothing of the sort.
 
I think that one thing that ALL of us have to agree to is - there is no way to know WHAT the Mayor is smoking in his pipe... yet. Based on the actions, the statements, and the newspaper reports (such as Towhey calling the cops when Price said he knows the video's location), it is safe to say that there is a video of some kind, and the mayor's office would appear to know that it will be damaging and/or incriminating - and worth burying/hiding.

But for the sake of the people saying "You can't accuse him of smoking crack until you've seen it and/or he confesses" - they are completely right in that we can't accuse him of smoking crack.
From my second-hand understanding of the neurological effects of drugs, it is far more likely that he is smoking Hash or Meth, or even heroin. They are all downers - and crack is a major upper. I believe that he wouldn't be slumped in his chair, rambling and trailing off, if he was smoking crack.
 
TonyV said:
So, Holyday believe's there's a tape.
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Would that be Video8, VHS or Betamax?

VHS2.jpg
 
guitarchitect said:
I think that one thing that ALL of us have to agree to is - there is no way to know WHAT the Mayor is smoking in his pipe... yet. Based on the actions, the statements, and the newspaper reports (such as Towhey calling the cops when Price said he knows the video's location), it is safe to say that there is a video of some kind, and the mayor's office would appear to know that it will be damaging and/or incriminating - and worth burying/hiding.
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Agreed - the fact that he's sitting there smoking whatever it is with his dealers, and the alleged racist/homophobic comments, are much more damning than whether or not its crack or something else.

If it turns out to be crack, that will just be icing on the cake :)
 
PinkLucy said:
But he's hedging his bets by saying there is still the question of its authenticity.

Guess he's not getting an invite to this year's BBQ.
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He wouldn't get an invite if he said he believes it's real before he has seen it. That's exactly why every single news outlet in existence (I do not include Gawker in "news outlet") has been careful to use the word "alleged". The video "allegedly shows" Rob Ford smoking crack is even different than "the video shows Rob Ford allegedly smoking crack" - the first is easily defendable, the second is grounds for libel if it's an impostor and not actually Rob Ford.

Disclaimer: I am not one of those "it's faked!" people. I believe there is a video of the mayor smoking something.
 
John Cook posted an update if anyone cares to read it.

http://gawker.com/thank-you-the-rob-ford-crackstarter-has-met-its-goal-510094141

As for the purchase: We are working on it. As we noted before the campaign concluded, we lost contact with the people who have custody of the video. I updated the Indiegogo campaign site yesterday morning to reiterate that there had been no movement on that front, and am repeating it here right now. You won't hear anything more from us about our attempts to get the video for some time. This will be a very delicate transaction.
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guitarchitect said:
I think that one thing that ALL of us have to agree to is - there is no way to know WHAT the Mayor is smoking in his pipe... yet. Based on the actions, the statements, and the newspaper reports (such as Towhey calling the cops when Price said he knows the video's location), it is safe to say that there is a video of some kind, and the mayor's office would appear to know that it will be damaging and/or incriminating - and worth burying/hiding.

But for the sake of the people saying "You can't accuse him of smoking crack until you've seen it and/or he confesses" - they are completely right in that we can't accuse him of smoking crack.
From my second-hand understanding of the neurological effects of drugs, it is far more likely that he is smoking Hash or Meth, or even heroin. They are all downers - and crack is a major upper. I believe that he wouldn't be slumped in his chair, rambling and trailing off, if he was smoking crack.
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I questioned what substance he could allegedly be puffing on too until I re-read the Gawker article, then that lead me to also re-read the original Toronto Star article. Both articles state that the owner of the tape says the substance is crack. For whatever that's worth.
 
Never mind the video, I find the photo (partying it up with drug dealers, one of whom was murdered) pretty damning enough. This is not the conduct of a mayor, surely, no matter what your political stripe.
 
dt_toronto_geek said:
I questioned what substance he could allegedly be puffing on too until I re-read the Gawker article, then that lead me to also re-read the original Toronto Star article. Both articles state that the owner of the tape says the substance is crack. For whatever that's worth.
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The "crack" in that is that, if David Price was correct when he was addressing Mark Towhey + The Fords, the original owner of the video (which I would assume to be the recorder) was killed for it.

The Globe and Mail said:
Mr. Towhey asked Mr. Price not to attempt to find the video, according to the source.

That’s when Mr. Price added the information that his source was telling him that the original owner of the video was now dead because someone had killed him for the video. The police have since said the interviews are not related to any ongoing homicide investigation.
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If that's true, the guy peddling the video wouldn't necessarily know what was in it, especially since the video doesn't contain a closeup of the drug or a statement of what it is.

Obviously, it's bad enough even if it's not crack, and the way it is being handle speaks far more to the suitability of Rob Ford to the office than any hobbies he might have.

All of that being said - what can John Cook be charged with if he pays a murderer $200K for evidence in a homicide case? Or, given Ford's confidence - what can David Price be charged with if he had the phone and disposed of it?

If the Star has people who have seen the video ready to come forward about it, I have a feeling we'll see at least one more bomb dropped this week... most likely that Anthony Smith filmed the video and was murdered for it, and his phone has since vanished from the possession of someone on the 17th floor of a highrise on Dixon Rd.
 
When all this started, someone (maybe Holyday but I'm not sure) said the Mayor is such a great guy, he often stops and gets his picture taken with well-wishers. We've seen lots of those "hey, here I am with the Mayor" photos, but the one with the three drug-dealer dudes isn't one of those. Interestingly, I don't believe Rob has ever addressed that photo. He probably thinks that if he doesn't talk about it, it doesn't exist. When a caller asked about it on his radio show this past weekend, he accused her of being racist.
 
Tewder said:
Never mind the video, I find the photo (partying it up with drug dealers, one of whom was murdered) pretty damning enough. This is not the conduct of a mayor, surely, no matter what your political stripe.
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Let's keep this balanced, the photo does raise eyebrows but we know that Ford will take a photo with anybody when he's out and about so I don't buy that he was "partying with drug dealers", unless you or anyone else can prove otherwise.
 
It's speaks to the lack of care in association, which brings into question judgement - but by no means damning.

re: Holyday - I think he is trying to play it both ways and leave himself an out. Let's face it, at the end of it all, life goes on and he still have to worry his own legitimacy and future dealings with the media.

AoD
 
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