Listen live to Rob Ford's radio show on CFRB at 1 pm to hear the much anticipated announcement he will make surrounding the recent disclosure by Toronto's Police Chief of the existence of an elusive video containing the mayor.
Click here to hear the show at 1 pm today.
UPDATES:
- Ford calls on police Chief Bill Blair to release video so Torontonians can judge for themselves.
-Ford admits "I am not perfect" "I have made mistakes." Ford apologizes to City, family and Council colleagues and says he wants to move forward.
- Ford will "continue fighting for the little guy, fighting for the taxpayers."
-"There is no one to blame but myself and I take full responsibility for it"
- "Will continue" with his job
- pleads with media to stay away from his home and cease harassing his young family
- commits to exploring privatization of garbage pick-up east of Yonge St.
- His new musical theme is The Bee Gees "Stayin' Alive"
- Will try to get 10% reduction in Land Transfer Tax
- wants to implement coordinated Traffic Light system and storm water system
- "I am obsessed with customer service"
- "we are going to keep taxes as low as possible"
- Ford pledges to definitely run for reelection in 2014
- Says he supports public housing, but it should not be built at the Waterfront where property value is so high.
-Rob Ford says the cost of living increase for the highest paid City employees is too high. Doug Ford says all city employees should get raises if they meet targets.
-Doug Ford calls David Suzuki one of the best entrepreneurs and businessmen he knows of. Rob accuses Doug of being sarcastic. Doug denies it, but it the irony, if not the sarcasm is pretty clear.
- Rob says he "shouldn't have gotten hammered on the Danforth." Commits to less public drinking.
- The Ford brothers are upset after a caller refers to Doug as Ford's enabler. Both assert that Doug has been consistently tough on Rob over his behavior.
- A caller asks Ford to specify for what he is apologizing. Ford describes "mistakes" and mentions incidents involving public drinking. Makes no mention of issues related to video.
- Ford says he will not stop but will moderate his drinking.
- Ford says that when it comes to fiscal policy, he's the best mayor that Toronto's ever had.
- Rob Ford: "I know a lot of things about a lot of politicians, but I'm not a rat"
8 comments:
Jesus, what a sad, stupid spectacle.
- Unless Ford is a complete half-wit, he knows that Blair can't release evidence from a pending criminal trial.
- The only thing he appears to be apologizing for is "getting hammered on the Danforth," which he previously lied about.
- Ford can try to continue with his job all he wants, but it hardly matters. As far as Council is concerned, Etobicoke Slim is a political corpse and has been for a year. Even that cur, Mammolitti, can't be counted on to be loyal, and he's a brain-damaged mess.
Even if he manages to get himself re-elected, Rob Ford will be the Mayor Absolutely No One Listens To.
- Government isn't about "customer service," politics is. There's a difference. If there were a chance that a shitty government product could be returned for a refund, I doubt we'd even be having this conversation right now.
- When has Doug ever been tough on Rob's fuckheaded behavior? As far as I can see, he's only repeated his little brother's lies about them, when he wasn't actually crafting them himself.
To suggest that this is about Hizzoner's drinking is like the Manson Family saying they're sorry for littering.
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Look, I've been following politics for a long, long time, and there's one thing that I can tell you with absolute certainty: The Brothers Ford are trying to shut down this story with ha-measures and half- truths.
The problem with that strategy is that it never works. If anything, it only feeds oxygen to the story and challenges their enemies and the media - and remember, even the Sun has finally turned on those assholes - to dig deeper.
That's going to be fun, considering that we're going into a campaign and all. Just wait for the fucking ops to start leaking material to both the media and rival campaigns, which is exactly what they did to Layton without consequence.
Anything that comes out between now and next October is going to inflict maximum damage, especially if it flies in the face of Ford's previous lies.
Can Ford survive the constant drip, drip, drip of this story for another year? It'll be a blast finding out.
Crackhead Rob had his last chance to save himself today, which I think he could have pulled off, and he fucked it up. He and his dopey fucking brother went full Nixon, and challenged their enemies to finish them off.
Remember how well that worked for Richard Nixon?
He also apologized for getting drunk at the military ball, having previously referred to claims that he was intoxicated as a "complete lie" and yet a hard core of idiots still support him.
Because his getting drunk in public is so much more important than effectively managing the city.
It's so much better that we have a provincial government that is robbing us blind, but at least it's headed by someone who is never intoxicated in public.
What was that about idiots?
I wasn't aware that Ford was running against Wynne to become premier, Richard. Do you know something that the rest of us don't? Everytime Hizzoner disproves that cocaine is not, in fact, slimming, you constantly point at another level of government as a contrast.
Is that how the indefensible is defended these days? And I ask that as someone who has never voted for the Liberals at any level. It is possible to hate the Fords and the Liberals at the same time, you know.
But since you insist on using criminal phrases like "robbing" and "stealing," it might be fair to apply that standard equally.
Your boy wrote a character reference on city letterhead - the improper use of which nearly cost him his job once before - for a guy convicted of assaulting one woman and threatening to kill another. Oh, and dealing drugs, which seems slightly germane, given recent circumstances.
Then between May and October, Ford and Sandro meet over a hundred times at strange times and in odd places. They exchange well over 400 telephone calls and text messages.
And this all happens as Lisi is trying to retrieve a video that Mayor insisted "doesn't exist." Sandro is subsequently charged with extortion due to his ... unorthodox negotiating tactics.
Now, I might be missing something here, but doesn't that look an awful lot like Boy Rob might just be involved in a criminal conspiracy?
I strongly suspect that the fact that he's a drunk and a crackhead is soon going to be the very least of Etobicoke Slim's problems.
I look forward to hearing how Kathleen Wynne and Dalton McGuinty are to blame for that.
I keep mentioning our Queen's Park Liberal betters to put some perspective on this, Skippy. You're someone whose writing I enjoy and whose insight I welcome, but for whatever reason, I think you've lost perspective on Ford's mayoralty.
I'm happy with the job he's doing.
Sure, I'd like to see fewer of these silly distractions, but do you know of someone who is going to do the job well and stands a chance of winning instead of Ford in 2014?
My perspective of Ford hasn't changed at all, Richard. I've thought that he's a shithead for well over a decade. And he keeps proving that I'm right.
On the other hand, you earlier pointed to Jack Layton's "hypocrisy."
What about a "law and order" politician that can't seem to help constantly surrounding himself with criminals? or a "straight talker" that cops to trivialities that he's previously lied about, because he tinks it allows him to dodge far more serious allegations?
Is there anything about Ford that you won't excuse? Anything at all? Because I'm really beginning to think that the cops are teeing up to charge him with conspiracy. Given the circumstances, there is a pretty strong case for it. Do you keep supporting your boy if he's charged with an indictable offence?
If fiscal discipline is what you're looking for, why don't we have the Mafia run the city? they'd be fantastic!
As to your question, I think if Ford got out of the fucking way, Stinz or Tory could win the next election. But if the left can get its shit together and unite behind one candidate, Ford is basically begging to have his ass kicked.
Look, Clinton got the support that he did during impeachment because he couldn't run again. And even then, voters took Clinton's sins out on Al Gore's hide.
That's not true in Ford's case. I think the dumb prick is going to run eve if he faces a criminal trial. And it matters not at all how many other conservatives he takes down with him.
"Rob will only get worse, and for one reason: He has never been held accountable for anything he's done. Whenever he transgresses — however public and pitiful the display — his first response is always a lie. ("I wasn't even at the game," "I wasn't driving, I wasn't driving.") When evidence begins to surface, he attacks the messenger. When incontrovertible proof emerges, he goes penitent — apologizing for his behavior, saying he's going through some stuff, begging our indulgence and swearing he'll do better in the future.
I'm sure he thinks he means it.
But every time Rob Ford says he'll clean up, he winds up doing something even worse, because he can't help but escalate. Apologizing for unspecified behavior and announcing it's time to "move forward", as he did on Sunday's radio show, isn't the way to fix things; that's how a child gets out of trouble when he's caught red-handed. "Fine, fine, you got me. I don't want to talk about it anymore." It's not enough to say "sorry" and move on. You have to admit what it is you're sorry for."
url=http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=195151
I don't think you got what I meant, Skippy. Indeed your position on Ford has been consistent. By perspective, I mean assessing Ford in the wider spectrum.
His vision as a politician, for good or ill, whether done effectively or not, is to achieve more fiscal responsibility and to get government to provide decent, accountable customer service.
Now put that in perspective with what Kathleen Wynne and Dalton McGuinty, or David Miller had, or any number of current Toronto City Councillors is providing, and I'll happily take Ford over them, warts and all.
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