Rich Man's Justice

Let's sum up. In the last few days, Rob Ford has had a hefty election law violation fine waived and has avoided being charged with distracted driving. Rob likes to portray himself as a man of the people, but you and I know, we wouldn't be treated as well as Mr. Ford if we broke the law. Ford is just another rich and powerful guy who flaunts flouts the law, consequence free. Same old same old.

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The Meek May Inherit The Earth

But the accountants have first dibs on Toronto. Poor Toronto. Btw, the group responsible for the report calling for the gutting of Toronto has this as its company song. Surely, they must know what they are doing.

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I Don't Judge A Man...

By his sexual orientation, but by the state of his dress. Charles Adler gives a hysterical "Some of my best friends are Gay" defense of Rob Ford. This is a case where the defense is about as stupid as the original offense.

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Rob Ford Has Seen The Enemy

After enduring the worst recession since the Great Depression, and seeing income distribution rates at their most skewed in decades, Rob Ford has identified the cause, garbage workers. Crushing them and taking away their pensions, will I'm sure usher a new era of prosperity for the average Torontonian.

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I Drink Coffee

Does anyone else see the irony in the glorification of the modern Tea Party, by the idiot squad surrounding Rob Ford, in a country founded by people running away from the thugs responsible for the original?

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Fords Declare War On The Working Class

The Fords are dreaming if they think city workers will stand by and let themselves be pushed over a cliff, just so they can reach the bottom first. I admire the Fords in some ways, they are open in their belief that those at the top have too little money and those at the bottom have too much. At least they openly declare their bias toward the ruling class.

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Ford To TPL

What's a Libary?

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Is Rob Ford Ralph Wiggum, Grown Up?

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I Wonder

Do you suppose the Conservative Party of Canada is lending Rob Ford its direct mail expertise, in this endeavor? The text reads like warmed over Doug Finley.

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Coming Soon To Toronto

Tea Party fiscal management.

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Welcome To Toronto

Leave your brain at the door. Here, in his own words, is Don Cherry, Toronto's new goodwill ambassador:

"Actually I'm wearing pink for all the pinkos out there that ride bicycles and everything. I thought I'd get it in. What'd ya expect, Ron MacLean, here? To come here?

You know, I am befuddled, because I thought I was just doing a good thing, coming down with Ron—Rob—and I was gonna do this here, and it was gonna be nice and the whole deal.

I've been bein' ripped to shreds by the left-wing pinko newspapers out there. It's unbelievable. One guy called me a pink...a jerk in a pink suit, so I thought I'd wear that for him too, today.

You know, it's funny. In those articles I was made fun of 'cause I go to church. I'm easy to do it that way. And I was called maudlin for the troops, because I honor the troops. This is the kinda, uh... You're gonna be facin', Rob, with these left-wing pinkos. They scrape the bottom of the barrel, but AGAIN, I was asked, why I was asked, and I asked Doug, "why?" And he said: "We need a famous, good-looking guy." And I said, I'm your man, right? Right off the bat.

You know, I was asked: why, why, why [the] landslide. And I was in their corner right from the start. They phoned me. Doug phoned me, the morning. They'll get a landslide! And why? Because Rob's honest. He's truthful. He's like Julian Fantino. What you see is what you get. He's no phony. And I could go on right now, all the millions and millions and thousands of dollars he's gonna save and everything, but I'd just like to tell a little story that was in the Sun, I think it was in the back pages. It was just a little, little thing. And Fiona Crean, for eighteen months, has been trying to get something done with City Hall. And then the story—I think some of you know the story—that there was a little old lady and all of a sudden she got banged on the door and two guys were there and said: "We're cutting your tree down." You know that's just a little thing, but to me that's a big thing. "We're cutting your tree down!"

And she's, well: "I don't want it. That's my favourite tree. A hundred year-old..."

"No! It's down. Cut it down." And then they give her, send her a bill for five-thousand dollars, for cutting it down. And for eighteen months her son and Fiona were: "City Hall. City Hall. Please help us." Thirty, forty calls. Unbelievable. Nothing. Laughed at. Rob's the mayor one day, apology comes, and a five-thousand-dollar cheque.

And that's why I say he's gonna be the greatest mayor this city has ever, ever seen, as far as I'm concerned! And put that in your pipe, you left-wing kooks.

Thank you very much."

Toronto has never been in such capable hands.

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I Am All For Subways

But I thought the reason why Toronto went the LRT route was because no one wanted to fork over the money for Subways (which are many, many times more expensive). If Rob Ford can squeeze blood from the senior government, he will be celebrated in song (but only if he can convince the province to eat all of the penalty costs for canceling the LRT). Color me doubtful. Dalton has a way of weeping for you, while he is slipping you the shiv. Besides, is it even reasonable for the city of Toronto to tell the province to cough up more money for transit and pay for the penalties, because Rob Ford hates LRT's?

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Mr Ford's Movie List

I am with Peter Howell. If Rob Ford meant this when he talked about the "Gravy Train", I would be right beside him. Sadly, when Mr. Ford says "gravy train" he means people who make union wages. Like all dangerous class warriors, Ford disguises himself as a friend of the "working man", while safeguarding the real elites in a fog of faux populism.

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Understatement Of The Day

Marcus Gee on Rob Ford's shelf life:

Marcus Gee:
I think the O'Brien story is instructive. Mr. Ford has promised to make sweeping spending cuts and tax cuts AND no cuts in services. When he falls short, people will be disappointed.

When you promise to give everyone money for nothing and services for free and then don't deliver, you might have a short career in the big chair.

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The Garbage Man Can

A lot of the euphoria on the right this morning, reminds a lot of the post-election euphoria in the Simpson's episode, entitled "Trash of the Titans". Homer ran for Trash Commissioner on the promise of more service for less money. Hilarity ensued. Sadly, the outcome in Toronto will be a lot less funny.

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Sure Chris

Chris Selley is chuffed about Ford's election in Toronto and breezily dismisses concerns about working conditions for employees of the city:

Opening up garbage collection to competitive bidding will be another interesting debate. This is not an “anti-union” measure. The replacement workers — if they were indeed replacements; CUPE could easily win the contract — would themselves almost certainly be unionized. But it would be a quick declaration that things are not as they were, that we’ve simply passed the point in history where something like trash pickup needs to be the exclusive domain of the public employee.

Quite true, CUPE could win the contract, as long as it was willing to take non-union wages and benefits. Chris isn't worried by the race to the bottom, and I suspect most of Ford's supporters don't, but in the end, by adopting this attitude, they are simply cutting their own throats. Screwing public sector workers, is the new opiate of the masses.

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