Memo to the Toronto Star: Beware of Somalis Bearing Gifts

ipsedixit
Yes. I'm bitter . . . but unbowed.

Voted for Ford, did we?

Just out of curiousity, what to you would constitute evidence of malfeasance, cover-up, whatever?

Or is a simple free pass anyway, anyhow?

JohnnyCanuck

Voted for Ford, did we?

Yes, we did.

Just out of curiousity, what to you would constitute evidence of malfeasance, cover-up, whatever?

I usually take all of those things for granted in a politician but confining ourselves to this case, I think any smooth talking criminal defense attorney representing hizzoner would ask if the police forensics lab had managed to extract any illegal substances from the video of the mayor. Absent more in the way of hard evidence I think a quick dismissal of charges would follow.

According to the original reports of the "smoking" incident, the Mayor is supposed to have been heard on video saying words to the effect of, "That thing better be turned off."

Are there words on the video informing the Mayor that a video camera was indeed filming him?

If there are not, then I think it would be hard to find fault with anything said by the Mayor about the, from his point of view, hypothetical video.

He didn't think it existed and said so. He didn't know he was being filmed.

Of course the optics in all of this are bad and bad optics are of primary interest to news outlets politically hostile to the holder of any office.

Or is a simple free pass anyway, anyhow?

It's the old question in Canadian politics, "Who would you rather have in office, George Brown sober or Sir John A. drunk?"

I think Torontonians will stick with the hard partying fat man if he keeps doing what they voted him in to do. Cut spending at City Hall.

Could he handle the press better? Yes. Should he have a driver? Yes.

I don't live in Toronto so it's really not my place to comment. However, my opinion is the public initially gave him the benefit of the doubt. But alas ole' Robbie is indeed a crackhead. Not a particular habit becoming for a mayor. If he had any class he'd resign, but we all know he doesn't have much. Truly the blue collar mayor haha.

The cat's out of the bag. I wonder if he'll get re-elected like Marion Berry did?

I wouldn't put it past the electorate though. They (general N. American public) have been so desensitised to the dishonesty and sleaziness of politicians over the years that nothing really surprises us anymore....it's kind of like "eh, so the fat b*&%$@rd is a crackhead! At least he balanced the books and isn't selling secrets to the Chinese, getting bl*%n during city hall meetings, and murdering babies."

Yup, skeletons in the closet. They all gottem.

They don't need the video, only the implications that the video contains. And they were able to get that without the purchase. I think they did make an offer originally for 40,000... But once the Somalis saw that, they raised the bar to 100,000. Once the story got press, they raised it to 200,000 and now they can't be found.

The Somalis were being opportunist. Unrealistic one's at that. They should have sold the video at 40,000 which was the original offer. B

Am I the only one here who's clueless as the what COMMODITY is being discusses here?

Anyways, Somali's being greedy remind me of the pirates in CAPTAIN PHILLIPS!

gardener
Am I the only one here who's clueless as the what COMMODITY is being discusses here?

Most people believe that the stuff Ford was smoking at the party was that stuff they used to put in Coca Cola, which the T&C doesn't allow us to name on ATS.

I think that if there was a strange substance in the pipe it might well have been another substance more closely associated with the Somalis that Ford was partying with. That substance sounds roughly the same as "cat".

They probably took the video to show their Somali friends that the Mayor was a good guy, but then saw a business opportunity.

At least that's what I, as Ford's armchair attorney would hope.

Substance abuse problems are common in Toronto. Virtually everyone is discrete about them. Ford, being the hefty cherub that he is, is going through the process of re-inventing the wheel of how public figures handle the press.

He's that kind of guy.

But he has cut the budget at City Hall.

reply to post by ipsedixit

So at what point does Robbie use up his free pass, now that he's admitted to smoking what the Star said all along? When does he no longer qualify as a Leader to you?

reply to post by JohnnyCanuck

When he stops doing what he campaigned to do. I intend to vote for Rob Ford again if he runs for mayor again.

He campaigned on issues related to spending and transit. I am more than satisfied with his performance on that front. I support him completely and absent a compelling reason to do otherwise, endorse him without reservation.

I'm not very concerned about his private life. I realize that the optics of an illegal substance smoking mayor are not good but the notion that people who do business with or in the city of Toronto would be affected by the Mayor's private life is not valid in my opinion.

People in this city are doing business with drug takers every day of the week. Mayor Miller, on the other hand, probably wasn't doing any sort of hallucinogen but ran the city as if he was hallucinating.

People do drugs. Everybody knows this. Personally, I've done drugs myself. I gave up consistent drug use after leaving university in the 1970s. I had learned by that time that drugs are mostly a complete waste of the most precious commodity we have in life, time. Once drugs had opened the idea of an interior mental life to me, I didn't need them anymore. I learned to meditate.

Sigmund Freud used coc aine. Sherlock Holmes used coc aine. The only fictional character who hasn't probably used coc aine, other than myself, is Anne of Green Gables.

The Toronto Star may have an internal haemorrhage over the news but I assure you, most Torontonians will not, at least not at the ballot booth.

Memo to Doug Ford: Lay off the police chief. He's been very good through this period and is an excellent chief. Rob is going to have to take his lumps in this situation and go on to win the next election. Leave the chief alone.

Edit: Paragraph removed because of potential T@C difficulty.

ipsedixit
I intend to vote for Rob Ford again if he runs for mayor again.

I vote for the individual that most represents me. I use my voice to help appoint that person 'Leader', in so far as that role applies in our democratic society. Ain't no way I could support someone like Ford, no matter how much his politics align with mine, if his morals and integrity shamed me.

But hey...that's just me.

SHOCKING DETAILS!
Police docs on Ford reveal details of booze, drugs: Lawyer
Mayor Rob Ford's staffers told Toronto Police shocking details about booze, drugs and even a suspected prostitute in the mayor's City Hall office, according to a media lawyer who has seen the redacted sections of police documents that have been ordered unsealed. The Sun

ipsedixit
I intend to vote for Rob Ford again if he runs for mayor again.

Still?

reply to post by JohnnyCanuck

My problem is that I don't know of another candidate who will push the Ford agenda at City Hall.

I don't care about the man's personal life. In politics if the only effective way to fight a candidate is to do an end run around his policies in order to bring him down by attacking his character, that is a very bad sign indicating a seriously flawed political process.

I know that sort of thing goes on all the time. Someone called it the "scandalization" of politics.

If I had complete control over all people and institutions involved in this debacle, I would order Ford to be placed under house arrest until his term ends. He would be brought to and from work by guards. He would have to go off the "junk" cold turkey and would have to do his job as Mayor and only that, until his term ends.

The drug featured in this scandal is a very seriously addictive substance. I looked a little bit into it and learned how dangerous and addictive it is. Ford is undoubtedly a victim of this addiction. The lengths that people will go to in order to feed their addiction are extreme.

At first I wanted to throttle the guy after learning about this drug but after reflection, I sympathize with him. People interested in the problems posed by this drug should view the following video:

www.youtube.com...

I still intend to vote for Ford, unless some kind of Miller-like capriciousness in policy matters comes to light and if Ford resigns I'll be looking for another Ford-style candidate.

I'm sick of the City Hall play pen mentality down there. Maybe part of Ford's problem was that he started to fall into that trap too.

Maybe, to save $$$$, City of Toronto should reverse the Mike Harris amalgamation and cut ties with the burbs, leaving them to their own devices.

Just a bloated City Hall thought...

Part of the tragedy of Rob Ford is that he is obviously, to me at least, a sensitive person, who has been forced and who forces himself, because of the circumstances in which he grew up, to act an exaggerated macho role that is completely out of his true character as a person.

I think he has been in a struggle, throughout his life, to be someone that he is not.

He is not tough. He is not brave. He is not physical. He is not violent. He is not abusive. He is not cavalier with others.

But . . . he pretends to be those things.

He overcompensates and exaggerates that sort of behavior in order to hide his real personality, the personality of a timid, sensitive soul.

He has never undergone the trials that other timid, sensitive souls have had to endure, to forge a heart of courage.

Jean Genet, the French existentialist writer, tells of how, imprisoned, and frightened by violent inmates of the prison, he at first cowered back in fear when confronted by them and how he slowly, through force of his will, transformed that gesture and posture of fear into a defensive posture of readiness to counterattack an assailant. He forged his will and heart of courage out of the raw material of his fear and cowardice.

This is Ford's hour of trial. He must get control of himself and forge his character under fire.

It is in the interest of this city that Ford's character assassins not triumph over policies that Toronto's citizens voted for. Ford is a frail vessel, but he carries the hopes of many for a better city.

I think we need a return to decorum in Toronto. We all might do better if reminded of a little wisdom from the pen of Rudyard Kipling.

www.kipling.org.uk...

If


IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

reply to post by ipsedixit

Oh Rob...