Thursday, October 31, 2013

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?


Tuesday, October 29, 2013

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...