@marcusbgee calls Ford on his bullshit, but who helped put him there? | #TOpoli

So a few people – Thor and Nancy for starters – are linking to this piece from the Globe's ideologically reliable urban affairs curmudgeon, who's arguing, not without reason, that Mayor Stupid should have known all along that he couldn't guarantee that there wouldn't be any service cuts or layoffs.

One hesitates to accuse Mayor Stupid of lying, chiefly because it's obvious that he can't tell the difference between true and false. You know those people who are so out of touch that they don't even know what the facts are? The kind who pull facts and numbers out of their asses and know they'll never really have to account for it? The kind who just dispense with facts entirely and go with their gut because ... well ... just because. Shut up and fuck off.

Giorgio Mammoliti: the pride of #TOcouncil | #TOpoli

Someone suggested during yesterday's marathon that the Fords can't help being ignorant and stupid. They are what they are. But this guy, by contrast, does it on purpose.



Did I say he makes the Fords look good? This guy makes the cast of Jersey Shore look good.

Related posts:

• David Olive (@TheGrtRecession), Team Ford, and that whole 'deserve' thing again
• Core Services Review: Rob Ford is a hazard to Toronto's public health / #TOpoli
• Ford's right-wing governance: no vision, no soul, no future

'Respect for Taxpayers' is a load of crap

True, I may be undermining weeks of arguing for engaging the people we disagree with in a spirit of openness and respect. And name-calling isn't going to help us show them how they're actually voting against their own interests, or reveal the corporatist / continentalist / ruling-class Divide-and-Conquer strategy. Class warfare's tricky that way.

@thekeenanwire, #TOpoli and that whole 'deserve' thing, redux

Go and read this piece from Ed Keenan in The Grid.

He's right of course, and you don't need a master's degree in public administration to know that public services cost money. And you don't need cheap childish gimmicks, either.

The troublesome part is that something so blindingly self-evident seemed to elude a majority of Toronto voters last fall. They were all too willing to buy into Rob Ford's bullshit about mountains of wasted cash and municipal inefficiencies and gravy trains, and worst of all, the idea that under David Miller, things were just so irredeemably awful that the only thing to do was to blow everything up.

Cityslikr finds a home at Torontoist

Very happy to see my friend cityslikr writing about city politics over at Torontoist. The man puts in the time, watches and observes, and comes away with insights and analysis that he expresses with wit, verve, and the occasional bit of moral dudgeon. (Everyone needs a hobby.)

He's been doing it for a while at his own place, so it's great to see him getting wider exposure.

A sample:

This executive committee is the ugly manifestation of Ford Nation. Like a jilted lover, it has seized control, determined to prove its worth. It brooks no dissent and counters any disagreement or outside opinion with vitriol and contempt. Retribution, not reconciliation, is its agenda. This is the heart of an administration that has more interest in getting even than it does in governing.

That's awful! Really awful!

Best / worst line from yesterday's massive Blue PR offen – er, funeral! :

"Time to stop the gravy hearse."

Sometimes I just hate myself.

Police budgets, and how a phony narrative gets manufactured

Earlier this week, the Star ran an essay in which the best mayor Toronto's had in the last half-century argues that there's plenty of wasteful spending in the police budget, and that if the Ford regime is serious about trimming fat and stopping the gravy train, there's lots of room to cut there.