Exactly…

But from where I’m sitting out here in left But from where I’m sitting out here in left field, the mayor’s given no quarter, and field, the mayor’s given no quarter, and shown nothing but contempt for his shown nothing but contempt for his political opponents. Seems it’s OK for Rob political opponents. Seems it’s OK for Rob Ford to throw his weight around when Ford to throw his weight around when he’s threatening people. Why should he he’s threatening people. Why should he deserve any sympathetic consideration? deserve any sympathetic consideration?

http://www.nowtoronto.com/mobile/story.cfm?c=186316

It’s easy to blame politics, but let’s be honest about exactly who started and actively perpetuated it all. Remember Ford’s inaugural “pinkos” speech (via Don Cherry, but you know the sentiment is the same)?

“What depresses me the most about right-wing politicians is their belief that they are right and that there doesn’t seem to be any opportunity for dialogue. It’s my way or the highway. I have found that deeply disappointing.

http://www.thestar.com/iphone/news/article/1161454–how-rob-ford-s-mayoralty-has-divided-the-people-of-toronto

Well, and now I’m feeling pretty good about telling Rob Ford, FUCK YOU too.

In case you hadn’t heard, fatty Ford and his gang of five Yes Men voted, in a hasty meeting thrown together while the TTC chair was on vacation, to fire Gary Webster, the TTC’s General Manager. Webster’s crime? Cutting back costs exactly as the mayor asked. Oh yeah, and providing an honest, professional report to both the mayor and Council (as reported on Goldhawk Live, Tuesday, February 21, 2012), about why Light Rail Transit makes more sense than subways in this city.

The mayor repressed this report until it was leaked to The Star, then moved to have it made “irrelevant” (revealed in the same Goldhawk episode), when presented to Council. Council voted in favour LRTs based on this advice (though I thought I heard about some subways in there too), which was obviously way too democractic and balanced for his Rotundness (by the way, it’s not “fatophobic” to call jerks like this exactly what they are, deal with it).

Well heaven forbid we should have experienced public servants give us honest and professional opinions on which direction to go in!

The little mayoral weasel, along with all of his little greasy buddies (there are only five people, six if you count his presstitute, cowardly enough to suck on Ford’s unmentionables), under the weakest premise of “subways were Rob Ford’s mandate!“, decided then that they would just do the most slimy, underhanded, dictatorial, undemocratic thing they could, called together that meeting, and fired Webster.

Webster ended up with roughly two years’ salary after decades of service. I’m not too worried about him — even Rob Ford had to concede that Webster “has served Toronto and the TTC well in his years of service.  He was an important element in the organization’s many successes to date and can proudly point to a list of accomplishments.” So, yeah, thanks for all your hard work and dedication, Webster, now fuck off because we need “change” (even though we have no replacement, i.e. a plan). Your “pal”, Rob Ford.

Well, if Webster can get fired for doing his job, why not Rob Ford and his cadre of grovelling dogs? Thankfully, I’m not the only one with that idea. And by the way, Ford and his buddies are snorting some serious white stuff if they continue the claim that subways were even a small part of his mandate. Here’s RoFo’s entire platform, as mercifully preserved on the WayBack Machine (http://web.archive.org/web/20100830155611/http://www.robfordformayor.ca/issues/). See if you can find the word “subway” anywhere in here:

Rob Ford on the Issues

Stopping the Waste and Getting Spending Under Control

Toronto has a spending problem, not a revenue problem.

The City of Toronto’s budget has ballooned from $5.9 billion in 2000 to $9.2 billion in 2010 – plus a $2.4 billion capital budget.  The City is addicted to spending and the most important job for the incoming Mayor will be to get the City’s finances in order.

Downsize Council from 44 to 22 Councillors.

Toronto has 22 MPs, 22 MPPs and 22 School Trustees.  It only needs 22 City Councilors. Reducing Toronto City Council would make meetings more productive and save taxpayers about $9 million in direct costs (salary, benefits, expense accounts and staffing budgets.) Additional savings from a reduced burden on City Hall staff would equal at least $6 million each year.  There are too many politicians and not enough accountability.

Reduce Politicians’ Expense Accounts.

In addition to their salary of about $100,000 each Councillor receives a budget of $205,000 to hire staff plus a tax-free allowance of $53,100 for “other expenses.”  This budget is what Kyle Rae famously used to throw himself a $12,000 party with your money.

When Rob Ford is Mayor, he will reduce the politicians’ expense accounts to $30,000 (saving over $1 million per year) so that tax dollars are spent only on legitimate purposes.

Limiting the Mayor’s Office Budget.

Leadership starts at the top.  When Rob Ford is Mayor, he will also limit the expense accounts for the Mayor’s Office.  Decreasing the staffing and expenses budget by 20 percent will save the taxpayers about $512,000 per year.

Making Toronto a Better Place to Live

City Hall has been too focused on the pet projects and perks of politicians and not on the fundamental services that people, families and businesses rely on every day.  These essential services are necessary to make Toronto a more livable city.  As Mayor, Rob Ford will take the following necessary steps to make Toronto a better place to live:

Protecting Our Children and Communities.

100 additional frontline police officers will be hired giving Toronto Police enough new officers to:

o    Protect Children in Schools.  30 additional School Resource Officers will double the number of schools protected by this successful program. By introducing police officers to youth in a positive environment, students are less likely to take a negative view of police and more likely to seek help for issues before they reach a violent stage.

o    Target Gangs, Guns & Violence in More Communities.  70 additional frontline officers will support an expansion of the successful Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy (TAVIS) targeting gangs and violence in priority neighborhoods year-round.  This will more than double the number of officers currently available for TAVIS Rapid Response Teams.

Funding for this initiative ($15 million per year) will not be taken from within the existing TPS budget.  It represents additional funding in two phases.  From 2014 onwards, funding will be in addition to current TPS resources and come from savings accrued through the reduction of City Council from 44 to 22 Councillors.  Until Council is reduced in size, funding will be in addition to current TPS resources and come from a 0.1 per cent reduction in other (non-policing) city spending.

Making Garbage Collection Reliable.

Garbage and other solid wastes must be collected on schedule, without fail.  The strike during the summer of 2009 put the health of people and families in Toronto at risk.

The City must put in place solutions to make waste collection reliable and affordable.  Etobicoke, for example, uses contracted providers and saves the city $2 million each year.  By adopting the same approach for the whole city, taxpayers will save about $20 million each year and can have the confidence their garbage collectors won’t go on unnecessary strikes.

When Rob Ford is Mayor, the City will invite competitive tenders from private companies as well as current unions to provide collection services that are reliable, affordable and represent the best value for Toronto taxpayers.

Making the TTC an Essential Service.

People and businesses in Toronto depend on the TTC to get them from home to work, or school.  When the TTC isn’t running, the city grinds to a halt and commuters and businesses suffer.  TTC service is essential and it must be designated this way in order to prevent costly strikes.

When Rob Ford is Mayor, the City will work with the TTC and its unions to create a reliable, affordable, convenient, rapid and customer-focused transit service that Toronto can take pride in.

Improving Customer Service at City Hall.

Poor customer service frustrates city residents and businesses.  Too often, emails are ignored, telephone calls are not returned, staff are unable to answer questions or help solve issues.

Excellent customer service doesn’t cost a thing.  All it takes is leadership and accountability, and that starts at the top.

When Rob Ford is Mayor, excellent customer service will be the standard for all City Hall employees.

Eliminating Unncessary Taxes

Abolish the Vehicle Registration Tax.

Toronto residents should not have to pay $60 every year to register their vehicle.  It’s an unfair cash grab that hits families hard.  Rob Ford will push to eliminate the Vehicle Registration Tax at the first City Council meeting after becoming Mayor.

Eliminate the Land Transfer Tax.

People who buy and sell homes in Toronto must pay a new Land Transfer Tax to City Hall on top of all the other charges associated with buying or selling a home.  This punishes people and families who live in Toronto and makes the city less affordable for many people.  This tax is driving business, families, and people away from Toronto.  Rob Ford will move to abolish the Land Transfer Tax in his first year as Mayor.

Notes for an Address by Rob Ford 26 March 2010

http://www.thestar.com/news/cityhallpolitics/article/1126884–ttc-chair-karen-stintz-submits-petition-that-could-resurrect-light-rail-plan

At this point the only way anyone could justify supporting Rob Ford or any of his brainless, spineless minions is to literally shut oneself off in a cave somewhere and simply ignore reality.

First off there’s the budget surplus which seems to be growing by tens of millions per day, which runs exactly opposite to the claims that Rob Ford made about a budget deficit which, if they’re to be believed, is also growing ($382 million last February, $774 at present). I use the word “believed” because only a few short months earlier, Toronto was running a healthy surplus. What happened? Rob Ford got elected, that’s what.

The astute reader may say, “but we’re talking about the operating budget here”, to which there’s a simple reply: that’s the proposed budget — the one Rob Ford pulled out of his ass with the help of his overpaid buddies at KPGM, at the start of his term to support his idiotic cuts like the Vehicle Registration Tax. Yes, idiotic, because when you crunch the numbers, the savings for a small household are so tiny compared to all the outrageous cuts that are being proposed that, frankly, anyone who believes that an extra $0.16 per day in your pocket is “respect” has much bigger issues on their plate.

It’s simple: $60 saved on the VRT comes out to $0.16 per day, or $1.12 a week. Oooooh — big money! Now, with an increase in TTC fare hikes, assuming one person in the household takes transit only a couple of times a week (-$0.20), you’re now only saving $0.13 per day. Add to that an additional $5 (on average), for a Toronto Hydro rate hike which Ford could’ve helped to offset, you’re down an additional $0.08 a day.

So, really, you have roughly $0.03 more in your pocket thanks to Rob Ford’s cuts — but only if you drive a car. In exchange, everything else is being cut. And if you’re claiming that $10.95 a year is worth it to you in light of all this austerity (let’s call it by its real name), I feel genuinely sorry for you and your situation — you must be living in the most abject poverty imaginable.

But it doesn’t end there.

It was revealed today that the cost of Ford’s anti-bicycle campaign, which resulted in the ripping up of the Jarvis Street bike lane, cost around $272,000 which for some bizarre reason is more than twice as much as it did to put in under David Miller. So much for “efficiencies”. Oh, and in case you were wondering, had Ford not put his hatred of bikes into practice, it would’ve saved each and every Toronto taxpayer about $0.05 — or just shy of half of the stupendous VRT money that only drivers pocket (I’m assuming a population of 5 million for this calculation). Add to this the cost of the KPMG report at $3 million dollars and everyone could’ve had an additional $0.06.

Put all this together and it’s plain as day that Ford is costing taxpayers money, not saving it:

Saving for drivers: $0.03
Cost to everyone: $0.11
Average gain per taxpayer: -$0.08

And, of course, this doesn’t take into account the fact that services are on the chopping block which, if they’re necessary for some residents, could add a much larger chunk to expenditures. And for the home owners out there who think Ford’s other stroke of brilliance, removing the Land Transfer Tax, think they’re going to see more money every year, are sadly mistaken as well. At an estimated $300 million per year, and assuming that only half of Toronto residents are home owners, it averages out to about $0.32 of extra cash in the pocket of each household, or $0.17 per taxpayer. Except that’s a full elimination of the tax which Ford said he wouldn’t do. Instead, he’s pledging to reduce this by about 25% per year, which makes the real number close to $0.04 per taxpayer.

The revised numbers, sadly, are still in the red:

Average gain per taxpayer: -$0.08
LRT saving: $0.04
Average gain per taxpayer: -$0.04

Even under ideal conditions — no VRT, no LRT, etc. — taxpayers will be forking over an additional $0.04 this year, not saving it. And keep in mind this only applies if you drive a car or own a home — for everyone else it’ll be worse. So when Rob Ford then pronounces that we need to cut services in order to make up the shortfall that he created, that’s not “respect for the taxpayer”, that’s a slap to the face of every hard-working citizen of the city.

An astute twiterrer noticed a motion by Councillor Adam Vaughan to not ban press or journalists from City Hall. The full text of the motion reads:

No media conference, no media event or news release by The City of Toronto and/or any agency, board or commission of the City, and/or any staff, hired consultant or elected official of the City of Toronto shall exclude by name any individual journalist or news organization.

The twiterrer in question alludes to this “ban” referring to the Toronto Star which has been quite critical of Mayor Rob Ford — as have many people and organizations. And Robbie doesn’t hide his disdain for the paper so this is certainly believable.

Here’s what I find extremely troubling; freedom of press and freedom of expression are ensconced in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms [section 2 (6)]. For Councillor Vaughan to have to pass a motion to guarantee this freedom at City Hall suggests a very troubling trend of silencing dissent, criticism, and opinions that are not directly shared by Ford and his cronies.

If this motion does indeed turn out to be a response to Ford’s attempt to exclude the Star from reporting on City Hall, his claim that the paper is “openly working against the democractic process” would be beyond hypocritical. Criminal, even. And again, this isn’t unimaginable — Ford has been accused of backroom dealings in things like the Port Lands redevelopment project; even some of his hand-picked Executive Committee are distancing themselves because of the public outcry.

The vote on this motion is supposed to take place next week on September 21 and 22. I’m sure many Torontonians would love to hear the details of why Vaughan thought it was necessary to make the motion. It may turn out to be a simple case of political grandstanding so passing judgement is definitely premature. However, I wouldn’t put it past Robbie to be trying to silence his critics, and if this is the case then we’ve got a serious problem at City Hall.

Here’s what the mayor’s office has to say about a national day of mourning for the recently departed Jack Layton:

Thank you for your email.

As I promised during the mayoralty election, I am dedicated to delivering customer service excellence, creating a transparent and accountable government, reducing the size and cost of government and building a transportation city.

I will continue to work on behalf of the taxpayers to make sure you get the respect you deserve.

This note is to confirm that we have received your email and that we are looking into your matter.

Please feel free to follow up to check the status of your email.

Thanks again and have a great day.

Yours truly,
Mayor Rob Ford
City of Toronto

Brimming with commitment! Contextually insightful! Not an automated response at all!

But if you doubt these statements, perhaps enough people signing on to the petition might do the trick:

https://www.change.org/petitions/mr-harper-ndp-leader-jack-layton-deserves-a-national-day-of-mourning

As a source of information, I’ve never been a huge fan of the Sun newspaper, a tabloid rag that panders to the lowest common denominator with a few blurby bits of print parading around on each page awash in seas of advertising. The vast majority of their content comes in off the wire via AP or Reuters, often to the point where you can read entire articles — verbatim — in other local papers.

The Sun “newspaper” carries skimpily-clad Sunshine Girls on the back page, features way more sports coverage than international news, and is filled to the brim with bright, colourful photos, eezee-to-read sentences, and sensationalist headlines up the wazoo.

Basically, if you want to have your news predigested and regurgitated for mindless consumption along with a heaping bowlful of red-blooded stereotype, the Sun is for you!

Normally, I wouldn’t give a toss about the Sun. Live and let exist to wipe my ass with, I say. But recently it’s become painfully clear that this “newspaper” is a reflection of the myocardial infarction we currently have sitting in Toronto’s mayoral chair, as well as his ruddy-faced lap dogs like Giorgio Mamolitti who whine like little girls whenever their precious feelings have been hurt by public opinion, contradictory free speech, or that terrible terrible thing we call a democracy (I’ll have to post his bitchings during the last marathon depositions on YouTube).

And to be honest, I’m getting fucking sick and tired of hearing clamoring idiots calling for myopic, one-dimensional, all-pennies-and-no-brains bullshit with which to fix this city’s problems with.

Most meat-headed partisans like to think they’re in the clear, the “he was voted in so he must have majority support” fallacy. Except that only 47% of the people who voted actually voted for Rob Ford. That means that less than half of the people who voted directly support His Rotundness. Moreover, only about half of Toronto actually voted, so the bellowing loudmouths milling around in Ford Nation account for only about 25% of Toronto. And guess what, most of downtown didn’t vote for Ford — the people who will be most affected by his actions are the ones who can’t stand him the most.

The other fact that Fordites continue to forget is that there are 44 councillors at City Hall which must approve stuff before any of Ford’s ridiculous plans can ever come to fruition. “But Ford is going to do blah blah blah…” Yeah, no he’s not, because he’s a bully and he can barely make friends with a fire hydrant let alone a thinking councillor.

Fordites also can’t seem to come to grips with the fact that their portly hero is full of shit.

… Continue Reading

The really sad part about this story is that for Rob Ford, it’s not out of character, not to mention that he neither denied the allegations nor the claim that he was driving while talking on his cell (illegally).

Here’s an encounter between Robbie and Ottilie Mason, as posted on her Facebook page this past Saturday:

“ROB FORD, MAYOR OF TORONTO SEEN TALKING ON CELL PHONE WHILE DRIVING THEN GIVES CITIZEN THE FINGER I N FRONT OF HER 6-YR. OLD DAUGHTER.

I was driving east on Dundas St. last night at around 9pm. towards Spadina Ave. and who should I see driving beside me but our new mayor, Rob Ford, talking on his cell phone while driving !!! My 6 yr. old daughter and I have a game of thumbs up or thumbs down when we like or dislike something, so when we get to the intersection at Dundas and Spadina, we aptly give him a thumbs down and say, “get off your cell phone!!” Rob Ford, our mayor, then gives us the finger, I roll down my window and again shout, “get off your cell phone!” He keeps giving us the finger and I can see him mouthing swear words through the window.I only wish I had taken a picture with my camera but as you know that would be illegal while driving a vehicle! I find this kind of behaviour really unbecoming of a mayor who not only is in charge of the largest metropolitan municipality in Canada, is supposed to follow the laws of that city, set an example, and serve and respect the rights and lives of it’s citizens. It is appalling that we have a mayor like this who so quickly resorts to this kind of infantile responses to his constituents. I have witnessed first hand just what an embarrassment he is to us all. My advice to the very porcine-looking and acting Mr. Ford, hey get off your cell phone and on your bicycle, you need the excercise and we would all be much safer!!”

Today TORONTO’s Mayor Rob Ford voted against MANY community grants needed and necessary for them to run and to do business in this multi-cultural city.

You know what I think and believe but please read. I wish i had video but really, who needs to see how huge he is, really.

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1023558–ford-votes-against-every-community-grant-program?bn=1#.ThzVM-aeK_d.facebook