Topic: News from the North (Read 64096 times)

Büge · « **Reply #800 on:** October 31, 2013, 05:09:42 AM »

I wonder how King Steve's going to react.

Mongrel · « **Reply #801 on:** October 31, 2013, 05:12:00 AM »

King Steve's got problems of his own.

Last thing he'll ever do is remind anyone he ever had anything to do with Ford.

Healy · « **Reply #802 on:** October 31, 2013, 05:14:06 AM »

Hahahaha, oh man.

So what happens to Ford now, if anything?

Mongrel · « **Reply #803 on:** October 31, 2013, 05:42:01 AM »

He could wind up being charged with a number of things. My guess is that the most likely would be criminal conspiracy or something like that - the big questions are how much he knew about a murder without talking to police. He could also be tossed out of office for abuse of power based on the requests he made to his staff to try and find out about the investigation from the police.

Best angle he could play would be to say he only smoked weed and that he was the victim of blackmail (as indeed he probably was). Regardless, this probably fucks him for good. This is way worse in scope than Marion Barry smoking crack. There's murder, abuse of power, links to semi-organized crime or gangs, all kinds of shit here that has the potential to be fatal.

Mayors have been re-elected in spite of worse, but his campaign team and almost all his staff have abandoned him. THAT'S huge.

I tell you one thing though: I want to see him fight the next election.

Büge · « **Reply #804 on:** October 31, 2013, 07:08:56 AM »

Quote from: Mongrel on October 31, 2013, 05:42:01 AM

I tell you one thing though: I want to see him fight the next election.

I believe he said it was gonna be a "bloodbath."

Mongrel · « **Reply #805 on:** October 31, 2013, 10:54:15 AM »

Man, it actually feels really weird to walk down the street and have every conversation I overhear be about the mayor.

Büge · « **Reply #806 on:** November 01, 2013, 06:36:18 AM »

So we've gone from "the video doesn't exist!" to "okay, the video exists, but it might not have been crack in that pipe!"

Friday · « **Reply #807 on:** November 01, 2013, 09:17:43 AM »

Shortly: "Ok, it was crack, but I didn't inhale!"

"Ok, I inhaled, but there was a guy with gun off-camera forcing me to!"

"Ok, there wasn't a guy off-camera with a gun, but I'm actually an alien from planet Xeabloret who needs crack to survive in this hostile environment!"

"Ok, I'm not actually an alien, but a time traveler from the future, here to warn you good people of the impending doom come to visit us all!"

"Ok, I'm not a time traveler, I'm a complete fucking joke and how the living fuck am I a mayor? Like seriously is there some sort of impeachment protocol for Canadian mayors how the fuck am I still a mayor"

Mongrel · « **Reply #808 on:** November 01, 2013, 11:13:05 AM »

Honestly, smoking crack is the least of that guy's problems.

Mongrel · « **Reply #809 on:** November 02, 2013, 07:56:36 AM »

Rob Ford's staff have been known to call in to radio stations critical of him and defend the mayor, claiming to be "Bob from Toronto" or whatever.

This is however, the first time he's done it himself.

What cartoon land do I live in?

Friday · « **Reply #810 on:** November 02, 2013, 09:39:02 AM »

The Great Ford Nation

Geoland

Mongrel's Homobortion and Jizzporium

Kaneda

François · « **Reply #811 on:** November 02, 2013, 11:10:23 AM »

Montréal's last two mayors were basically kicked on their asses due to corruption business, and they're poised to elect mfing Denis Coderre of all people to succeed them, but every time I think they have it pretty bad up there, I remember Toronto, and I think, "it could be worse".

Mongrel · « **Reply #812 on:** November 02, 2013, 12:22:48 PM »

Well, I think people are still laughing about how Laval's replacement mayor was forced to resign.

Mongrel · « **Reply #813 on:** November 02, 2013, 12:27:14 PM »

To be honest, I think Montreal still has it worse. Ford's a buffoon, but he doesn't have half as much actual power as he might elsewhere. The actual track record isn't THAT bad. Montreal's entire municipal political system has turned out to be so rotten it makes New Orleans or Baltimore look clean.

Ironically, his staggering stupidity may just have saved Toronto. A slightly smarter version of Ford (i.e. one still not smart enough to stay out of the pocket of criminals in the first damned place) could easily have been the man who led Toronto to copy Montreal in terms of pervasive municipal corruption.

François · « **Reply #814 on:** November 02, 2013, 07:14:41 PM »

Eh, I'm cautiously and uncharacteristically optimistic about the next few years in Montréal, even if they do put Coderre up there. (Which I believe is fundamentally idiotic because, given the circumstances, it seems to me that the last thing you want to do is elect a guy who was on the HMS Liberal when it ran into the sponsorship iceberg, even if he didn't have anything to do with it. Plus the guy is a douche.) The finances are under a hell of a lot of scrutiny, both from the media and from the new watchdog/transparency organs going up and being promised by basically all candidates, and the criminal element is pretty clearly gonna have to tone it down for at least a bit.

I don't think things are going to be all rainbows and unicorns, but the way I see it, Montréal's sure not the only city on the continent with corruption problems, and given that its pustule has burst in such a gruesome way, it might get at least part of the clean-up it needs where others would keep business going as usual.

Mongrel · « **Reply #815 on:** November 03, 2013, 03:18:42 AM »

I don't disagree with any of that. Once the new watchdogs are actually in place, things will probably be better, so impressive was the implosion. I probably should have said "had" rather than "has" but we're still in the limbo of transition period so I like to hold off on "had" until legislation actually passes.

Near-total government transparency is a move that I think is overdue for all levels of government in the internet age. Ontario's current premier is making rumblings about that, but we'll see.

Büge · « **Reply #816 on:** November 05, 2013, 03:48:57 AM »

Here's something for all of you south of the border:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/toronto-mayor-rob-ford-gets-the-jon-stewart-treatment-video

TA · « **Reply #817 on:** November 05, 2013, 05:06:53 AM »

The official line has changed again, and I love the way it's gone. From "there's no video", to "okay, there's a video, but it's not him in the video", to "okay, that's him, but there's no crack in the pipe". And now, Rob Ford has come forward to set the record straight: "Yes I have smoked crack cocaine. But I am not an addict!"

additional hilarity: ""Have I tried it? Probably in one of my drunken stupors"

Mongrel · « **Reply #818 on:** November 05, 2013, 05:15:04 AM »

Yeah, that line is way more amazing than the bit about having smoked crack.

Ford's supporters have already already baked in an assumption that he'd tried crack and smokes pot (when asked if he'd ever smoked pot, Ford's reply was "Yeah! Lots!") and hey so what. I'm not sure they've fully admitted that the mayor is pretty much pickled half the time though.

TA · « **Reply #819 on:** November 05, 2013, 05:28:01 AM »

It's like ... "One night when I was really drunk" is kind of entirely acceptable? Sometimes folks like to drink until sloppy, that's fine. But "one of my drunken stupors" implies a habitual nature, such that he's known for having them all the time. Pulling a Homer, or such. Which, yes, is obviously the case, but why are you saying that?

News:

Author Topic: News from the North (Read 64096 times)