Critics accuse Mayor Ford of getting all Shock Doctrine-y | Ford Focus | torontolife.com

Critics accuse Mayor Ford of getting all Shock Doctrine-y | Ford Focus | torontolife.com

Writing in Toronto Life, John Michael McGrath draws the comparison but then appears to soften it:

... but given that 96 per cent of Toronto’s services are impossible to cut, as those KPMG audits keep finding, Ford really isn’t going to be able to change people’s lives the way, say, a Latin American junta might. So it’s a mild shock, if it’s anything.

That may be, but the broader picture includes a looming provincial election which could see the return of the Harrisite slash-burn-and-pillage approach in the form of a Hudak government. When we consider that the municipal government is a creature of the province in that light, there's no telling what kind of services will continue to be mandated, and what kind of latitude Mayor Stupid is going to have to wield the axe.

Just something to keep in mind.

Related posts:

• @cityslikr on Team Ford's Soprano wannabes. They wish | #TOpoli
• Some late-night thoughts on Mayor Stupid with @thekeenanwire and @UnionSt | #TOpoli
• Team Ford's malignancy: It's not just the Jarvis bike lanes | #TOpoli #bikeTO
• Core Services Review: Rob Ford is a hazard to Toronto's public health / #TOpoli

SIU Concludes Reopened #G20 Nobody Investigation | #policebrutality

SIU Concludes Reopened G20 Nobody Investigation

... aaaaand, guess what? Can't find any way to charge anyone else.

Who could have foreseen such a thing?

Oh, well. Maybe the Toronto Police will actually come forward and out the other members of Team Curbstomp. Otherwise, the whining they do when witnesses don't step up and their nice words about acting to regain our trust might look ... hypocritical or something.

(Why, yes – as a matter of fact, that was a monkey flying out of my ass. What's your point?)

Related posts:

• I'm sorry, @TorontoPolice Tweeter guy - perhaps I'm being a little harsh | #G20redux
• @TorontoPolice Tweeter guy: Is this your idea of building relations? | #G20
• SIU re-opens another G20 investigation. Stop me if you've heard this before

An Eye-Opener from @fernhilldammit | #onpoli

DAMMIT JANET!: Eye-Opener

Nice reproductive freedom you got there. Be a shame if something was to happen to it.

Go read.

@cityslikr on Team Ford's Soprano wannabes. They wish | #TOpoli

An Addendum « All Fired Up In The Big Smoke

Over at AFUITBS, @cityslikr describes the subtle art of politics as practiced by Team Ford.

Not.

Go read.

Some late-night thoughts on Mayor Stupid with @thekeenanwire and @UnionSt | #TOpoli

Storify: great for aggregating tweets, but you can go blind putting them in order if you're dealing with more than a handful.

If only there were a sort function ...



Tips of the chapeau to @AureliaCotta and @timfalconer and @HiMYSYeD as well.

Team Ford's malignancy: It's not just the Jarvis bike lanes | #TOpoli #bikeTO

By now so much has been written and blogged and tweeted about today's clusterfuck at Toronto Council that there's no point in rehashing it. Go read Matt Elliott's summary at Ford For Toronto if you want a recap.



For Christ's sakes. This isn't just about the lack of any coherent policy justification, or the Machiavellian political gamesmanship, or the schoolyard-bully dynamic evident on the council floor, or the Speaker's obvious bias and procedural cluelessness. It's about all of those, but something worse as well.

Core Services Review: Rob Ford is a hazard to Toronto's public health / #TOpoli

I'm sorry, I had to give my head a shake.

Fluoridation?

Look, we've all seen the passage in Dr. Strangelove where General Ripper talks about what an insidious Communist plot it is, but the thing is, that's not just satire. Fluoridation of our drinking water has been a touchstone for conspiracy-minded whackjobs since the 1950s, but now Mayor Stupid wants to get rid of it under the guise of the "Core Services Review."