Rob Ford's Toronto,

[2xx1xy1JD]

He's threatening legal action against his former staffers. Oh, re pussy comment, he says he's "got more than enough to eat at home".

This is unreal.

Thanks for the correction. I just heard it quickly, and they weren't repeating his words on CP24. But yeah - press conferences with the mayor now have an "explicit language" warning.

Now I need some brain bleach to get that image out of my head.

[tropaka]

I am just wondering in what world do you hear the mayor refer to "pussy". Oh, it's not a world, it's a nation, Ford Nation.

[Ariel]

Just heard the "pussy" sound clip....

He's trolling right?

I can't believe this guy seriously thinks he can get re-elected.

[crazyforkate]

I give it two weeks before he's out of office one way or the other.

[Rachel333]

Oh, but the photos of him are amazing. The last one never fails to make me laugh.

[Peas n carrots]

As a disclaimer...I'm from Illinois, land of incarcerated former governors and home to probably the most corrupt city in the US. We have plenty of our own dramz, but holy hell Rob Ford takes the cake.

He takes the cake and eats the whole damn thing, candles and all. :pink-shock: :pink-shock: :pink-shock:

[tropaka]

http://i.imgur.com/4L97Ctu.jpg

political wives (side by side of Anthony Wiener and Rob Ford with their respective spouses)

[Smoochie]

This is also not counting a police call over Christmas a few years ago for a domestic incident, plus the conflict of interest 'conviction' which initially had him being kicked out of office, to which he appealed and managed to stay in office.

I actually work with someone who says, so he made a mistake, we all do and thinks he's fabulous. Oy, I get that and if at the beginning he came out and said, yes it's me, I had/have a problem with alcohol for which I'm receiving treatment, it could have died, but, noooo. This so much beyond a simple mistake, that needs to be 'forgiven'. He has called people liars, some have been fired, some have left their jobs as they can no longer work/support him. He's consorting with they type of people the mayor shouldn't be.

What he's doing to the city is crazy, he really is delusional and would be the first in line to bring down someone else acting this way in public office!

[wtylcf]

I recently moved to Toronto from Montreal, so basically from a horribly corrupt municipality now on its fourth mayor in two years, to one governed by a dude who thinks he's running his own little fiefdom. When the news of the crack tape broke in the spring, I sincerely thought Ford would be out the door by the time we moved in September. How wrong I was.

It may seem a little weird, but I was actually more upset on a personal level by Ford's previous initiatives in closing municipal libraries and changing the waterfront development plans than I am by his crack scandal. Obviously, the scandal shows very poor judgment, a willingness to lie until caught and a lack of moral compass by the mayor. But for me, the previous two incidents are what made me really dislike Ford and to hold the opinion that his "stopping the gravy train" schtick is nothing more than a talking point. The crack scandal just reveals that his personal character is even more flawed than his policies.

When he wanted to close selected municipal libraries to make the system more efficient, he butted heads with Margaret Atwood, one of Toronto's most famous citizens and a celebrated literary figure. At one point his brother, Doug Ford, proudly boasted he had never heard of Margaret Atwood before so why should we care what she had to say about libraries? To boast of one's own ignorance concerning an important literary figure was just appalling to me. It spoke to how little the mayor and his brother value education and literacy. And in the end, Ford had an open house on municipal libraries where hundreds of citizens spoke up in their defense, and, to my knowledge, the plan to close the libraries did not go ahead, so the entire thing wasted a lot of council time and therefore taxpayer dollars.

Ford and his brother also disregarded the work of the Toronto waterfront development council in order to propose a scheme, cooked up solely between him and his brother, involving a navy-pier style amusement park complete with a giant ferris wheel. I think a theme park on the waterfront is not necessarily a terrible idea, but do you know how much it costs to pay architects and urban planners to conduct proper feasibility and planning studies? Hundreds of thousands of dollars. Ford disrupted a process which was already underway, which had already been paid for by taxpayer dollars, because he fancied himself more knowledgeable on these issues than real experts. That attitude is also appalling to me.

He obviously doesn't respect taxpayer dollars enough to stand aside while his personal life completely overtakes municipal politics. The debate over Ford's incompetence for the mayoral position is also a huge waste of city resources, and council time, though Ford made it a necessary undertaking due to his poor judgment and unwillingness to step aside. I don't understand how anyone takes his "saving taxpayer money" claims seriously anymore. Can anyone point out an issue in which he's legitimately saved taxpayers money, which would offset the huge amount of expense involved in unilaterally proposing new solutions to problems that have been already addressed by committees, or the self-generated problems that have been consuming all other municipal issues on debate before city council? I haven't heard of any.

[Joan of Snarc]

Rob Ford - Chris Farley mashup:

EFloKq0FP9o

:lol:

[GolightlyGrrl]

Well, Kidist thinks Rob Ford is an okay guy.

reclaimbeauty.blogspot.ca/2013/11/rob-ford-mayor-of-vicious-toronto.html

[Ariel]

Well, Kidist thinks Rob Ford is an okay guy.

reclaimbeauty.blogspot.ca/2013/11/rob-ford-mayor-of-vicious-toronto.html

For fuck's sake.

[Janes Heir]

Somebody is trolling the Wikipedia page. It states that November 20, 2013 he received the Order of Canada for " educating youth about the dangers of public intoxication, and for enhancing the stature of Toronto and Canada around the world."

Eta: First time reading any thing by this Kidist bitch. I intend it to be my last. *hurls*

[tropaka]

Kidist is such an idiot, although her support of Ford is sadly more widespread even among the less-obviously crazy people. Unbelievable that people who think Ford's saved them money (he hasn't, unless you count vehicle registration taxes, which obviously only affects drivers) are willing to overlook his atrocious, illegal behaviour. Today the City's budget chief is saying that Ford's numbers aren't going to add up and we're looking at tax hikes beyond what was expected to pay for badly-thought-out transit plans and to absorb the cost of the loss of vehicle taxes. This man threw out millions and possibly billions in paid-for, more efficient transit and still talks about the "tax payer". Shame on top of his drinking driving/drug use/thug friends. Oh, and his weight loss/trainer - a convicted 'roid dealer (the sordid stuff keeps coming).

[tropaka]

Oh, and Reddit has a Ford rap thread going:

the name's rofo, i ain't no rat, i'm a sick mofo.

Ridin dirty in my caddy thru etobicoke,

got mad pussy waitin fo me back at home.

You know i'm ballin, savin billions of dollas.

I smoke mad rocks, but i ain't got problems.

This is a warning call to muthafuckas who wanna brawl,

i'll poke your fuckin eyes out, rush you in city hall.

Respect, fordnation4lyfe *drops mic*

[wtylcf]

Oh, and Reddit has a Ford rap thread going:

the name's rofo, i ain't no rat, i'm a sick mofo.

Ridin dirty in my caddy thru etobicoke,

got mad pussy waitin fo me back at home.

You know i'm ballin, savin billions of dollas.

I smoke mad rocks, but i ain't got problems.

This is a warning call to muthafuckas who wanna brawl,

i'll poke your fuckin eyes out, rush you in city hall.

Respect, fordnation4lyfe *drops mic*

Oh my goodness, this is amazing! Good work, Redditors!

I was trying to concoct a rhyme around Jay-Z's "Tom Ford" song with the obvious substitution, but his references to Paris and couture are so much classier than Ford's lifestyle that it was impossible.

[Lainey]

Toronto's mayoral troubles were even mentioned on the Talking Dead last Sunday. Someone called in from Toronto, and the host quipped that he thought he was going to ask David Morrissey as the Governor (the villain, for non-fans) to be their mayor.

[2xx1xy1JD]

I was speaking to my dad last night. They are driving to Florida this weekend, so I asked if they'd tell people that they are from Markham, or from Toronto, so everyone would know about the Ford scandal.

They'll still say Toronto. My dad - a pretty small-l liberal guy who is NOT a Ford supporter - didn't think that the publicity was a bad thing. "All press is good press", he says. He thinks that most people see this as a mayor problem, not a reflection on Toronto as a whole, and it's actually getting the city noticed. I do have to say that I've seen news stories expressing surprise that this is happening in "the sparkling city by the lake", or "in a place where people are so polite", so maybe he's right.

[wtylcf]

I was speaking to my dad last night. They are driving to Florida this weekend, so I asked if they'd tell people that they are from Markham, or from Toronto, so everyone would know about the Ford scandal.

They'll still say Toronto. My dad - a pretty small-l liberal guy who is NOT a Ford supporter - didn't think that the publicity was a bad thing. "All press is good press", he says. He thinks that most people see this as a mayor problem, not a reflection on Toronto as a whole, and it's actually getting the city noticed. I do have to say that I've seen news stories expressing surprise that this is happening in "the sparkling city by the lake", or "in a place where people are so polite", so maybe he's right.

I think the Ford story is turning some internal Canadian cliches on its head. Multicultural and progressive Toronto has a conservative populist mayor; while Calgary, the supposed bastion of Canadian rednecks, has the amazing and quite-liberal Nenshi. It's hard for me to accept that around 42% (!!!) of Torontonians still support Ford in spite of his many scandals, and I do feel this fact, in some way, ought to reflect on the city. Toronto is becoming a cultural shorthand for news stories about politicians using crack, which is hardly positive branding.

Maybe the Ford story will put to death the myth that Canadians are, as a group, so much more polite and gracious and reasoned than Americans. I personally feel it's a fiction we've been relying on too long to feel better about ourselves while being politically quite apathetic. Sure, I am very grateful that we don't have the abortion law reviews and gay-marriage struggles of our neighbours to the south, and I don't take that for granted. But I don't think that should be an excuse to avoid honest self-reflection. Toronto put this guy in place, and for all his crack-smoking, binge-drinking, domestic violence accusations, sexual assault accusations, and lewd language while speaking in an official capacity, nearly half of its residents still support him. That is shameful.

[tropaka]

http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2 ... sting.html

more allegations of drunkenness, possible drug use, domestic situations, possible philandering...happy Friday Mayor Ford

http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2 ... sting.html

[tropaka]

Someone did a mash up of various Chris Farley movies with some clever inserts to create "Rob Ford the Movie"

http://www.fark.com/vidplayer/8028995

ETA: btw, as Farley's character did - Ford - smoked crack, drunk drove, crashed into a camera head long at City Hall, lost his football coaching job, promised jobs and apologized profusely....

[tropaka]

Update. Apparently an APB was put out about Ford after the Pm's BBQ. Of course nothing happened and they interviewed him at his hotel after the fact (although its unclear whether this was about the drunk driving or the domestic issue).

[tropaka]

and this goes on and on - in council, after RoFo made a fake apology to a reporter to avoid a libel suite, it was time to DANCE!

http://www.citynews.ca/2013/12/17/raw-v ... city-hall/

[Lainey]

and this goes on and on - in council, after RoFo made a fake apology to a reporter to avoid a libel suite, it was time to DANCE!

http://www.citynews.ca/2013/12/17/raw-v ... city-hall/

I...don't get it. :?

[tropaka]

No one does; about half way through the clip Ford can be seen gettin' down with the Speaker (Nunziata) who'd spent the previous day chiding him and another councillor and asking for apologies. It's all very kindergarten.