Rob Ford does Mary Tyler Moore

To the tune of The Mary Tyler Moore Show theme song...

Who can turn the world on with his bile?

Who can take a slow news day

And suddenly make it all seem worthwhile?

Well, it's you Rob and you should know it

With each prance and every little presser you show it

Ford is all around, no need to waste it

You can have a mic, why don't you take it?

You're gonna spill it after all

You're gonna spill it after all...

Jon Stewart on Rob Ford...again...

It just doesn't get any better than this...

Rob Ford Video Rant

Wow.

Exclusive from The Toronto Star: Rob Ford caught in video rant

“I’m gonna kill that f**king guy. I’m telling you, it’s first-degree murder,” Mayor Rob Ford rages as someone in the room secretly uses a cellular phone to film the chief magistrate’s addled tirade.

The target of the mayor’s anger is not in the room and is not known to the Star.

“I’ll rip his fucking throat out. I’ll poke his eyes out. . . . I’ll make sure that motherfucker’s dead,” Ford says, then hitches up his pant legs as if bracing for action.

Ford says he "was extremely, extremely inebriated".

"Again I've made mistakes, all I can do is reassure the people that … I don’t know what to say," he said.

"I just want to come out and tell you that I saw a video … it's extremely embarrassing."

He added: "Obviously, I was extremely, extremely inebriated… that's all I have to say for now."

Somebody needs to drag his butt to rehab. Pronto.

The Senate: Where due process went to die today...

Senate votes to suspend Brazeau, Duffy, Wallin

This is a dark, dark day for Canadian democracy and justice. The unelected senate took it upon itself to create a new system of so-called accountability by unceremoniously turfing 3 senators who haven't been legally charged or convicted of anything - all at the behest of Control Freak Steve. And then the Con leader in the senate, Claude Carignan, whose office quietly received a $600,000 raise in its budget last week had the nerve to attack the Liberal senators after the votes - conveniently ignoring the fact that several Con senators also voted against the unconstitutional motions to suspend while the rest of the clapping seals went right along with the dictates of the PMO.

Due process? I think not.

But this isn't over - not by a long shot. The RCMP are still investigating and there will be more bombshells dropping on the Con party by the time this is done. Incoming!

Rob Ford: "Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine."

"Probably approximately about a year ago."

(Probably? He can't even admit it to himself. You don't say you've smoked crack in a drunken stupor unless you KNOW that you did.)

"One time in one of my drunken stupors."

"There's been times when I've been in a drunken stupor."

"No, I'm not an addict. No, I do not do drugs."

Rob Ford just admitted to reporters that he smoked crack.

News link coming soon...

It's the media's fault that he didn't come clean before now:

“I wasn’t lying. You didn’t ask the correct questions,”

Very raw video of Ford's admissions.

So, Toronto voters, what now?

Meanwhile, Ford's brother came out swinging against police chief Bill Blair.

Update: Better video of Ford's admissions.

Steve's Senate: The Grift That Keeps on Giving

The average Canadian can be forgiven for not being able to follow all of the bouncing balls being bunted about in the PMO playHouse as Stephen Harper fancies himself the prime mimicker of everything decent and upstanding while failing to keep his senate scandal stories straight from one day to the next. Absolute control corrupts absolutely (to bastardize an old cliché).

Last week, CBC/The National's Peter Mansbridge summarized some of the history quite well in this video clip, in case you need to refresh your memory or catch up on the sordid affair. 

Caution: may leave a bad aftertaste, especially if you're a Conservative...

Two Key Dates in the Senate Story

Master of the straw man this past Friday nite, Steve proudly told Conservative convention thunderstick enthusiasts:

“Our opponents accuse us of being unfair, nasty and ruthless and portray the offenders as victims, even martyrs. Friends, in terms of such opponents, I couldn’t care less what they say.”

Well, we already knew he couldn't care less - about a lot of things. But to not care less about imaginary  ideas you've concocted about your enemies...well...that takes a certain sort of something, doesn't it? The word "strength" does not come to mind. "Delusion", maybe.

And, ironically, it is exactly the classic Martyr personality that when confronted with its own weaknesses and mistakes, blames them on anything it can shake one of those thundersticks at. He blamed the courts, the Liberals, the NDP... never mentioning the fact that Conservative senators are also opposed to the senate motion to suspend Brazeau, Wallin and Duffy without pay. Something about "due process" - a concept Steve doesn't seem to understand.

Due process, however, has now come knocking on the PMO's door:

Duffy allegations bring RCMP to PMO doorstep

They may be paying a little visit to the office of Senator Irving Gerstein any day now as well - he who let it slip out (rather loudly and in front of hundreds of people) that he was in the thick of L'Affaire Duffy.

Whoops.

The chamber formerly known as that place as sober second thought will finally vote on the fate of the senators three on Tuesday.

What's the rush, Steve? What's the rush?

No matter what, this isn't over by any stretch of the imagination. Even a delusional man can figure that out. Well, most of them can, anyway.

The Crack in Rob Ford's Story...

“We have recovered a digital video file, which is consistent with that which had previously been described in various media reports, and that file forms part of the evidence of the charge that we have laid today [against Lisi],” [Chief] Blair said.

So, it looks like the media "maggots" were right after all and Ford was busy doing his own version of "get off my lawn" (video) today while said maggots confronted him yet again following the press conference by Toronto police chief  Bill Blair this morning.

We'll find out exactly what the extortion charge against Alexander Lisi encapsulates later today but the huge document dump of evidence has some clues.

Meanwhile, there are no charges pending against Ford - yet - but the outcry for him to resign is deafening once again. He is, of course, resisting that.

One can only assume that this is Good News for Stephen Harper since it takes the spotlight off of the senate scandal. But, it may just suck the life out of the coverage of the CPC convention in Calgary that starts tonite though. Speaking of sucking...it must suck to be a conservative right about now.

Related:
7/10/2013: Rob Ford mum on Lisi pot-for-cellphone allegations
22/10/2013: Rob Ford lauded Lisi’s ‘tact and diplomacy’ after death threat conviction, letter reveals
31/10/2013: What's in the Alexander Lisi police document?

I'm back...

I stopped blogging a couple of years ago because my cynicism got the best of me. Years of covering the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, human rights abuses, torture, war crimes and the flagrant misuse of power by those who are supposedly elected or chosen to represent the populations they're meant to serve left me feeling as if I had a semi-truck parked on my chest. The crush was more than palpable.

I didn't walk away from following most every nuance of the political world, however. I was buoyed by the Occupy movement and the awareness it bestowed to those who clearly were not cognizant of how little power they had as citizens. I was impressed by the tenacity of Idle No More. Revolutions in time. I applauded the whistle blowers. We needed to push back and we need to continue to shine the light on the utterly brutal corruption that rules our lives while trying to find a way to cope with the devastating effects. We need to continue to disabuse ourselves of the fantasy that our political leaders have our best interests at heart and this idea that we live in totally free societies. They don't and we don't. We must stop granting power to those who abuse us and we need to reconsider the twisted belief that blatant partisanship is a useful tool in democracy. It isn't.

Before I move on to blogging about specific topics again - including the current implosion of the Canadian senate and the PMO - I'd like to leave you with this Russell Brand interview. Who knew the actor was such a revolutionary thinker? It's a must see.

Note: I need to upgrade my template to see if that will enable commenting. Stay tuned!

Done! New look and all...