Toronto, or Toto for short, is once again in world news, thanks to our beloved mayor, Rob Ford. It is nearly a year since I mentioned him in a post I should have deleted by now, for being merely topical. I explained why every left-thinking person in the Greater Parkdale Area had been teased to apoplexy by the contemplation of this gentleman. This because he was: 1. fat, 2. colourful, 3. rightwing &, 4. freely elected by a large margin over some gay leftwing establishment darling. (Some other reasons have accumulated since then.)
Turns out, the police have recovered some video in which it is alleged our peerless mayor is shown doing crack with local low-life. Whether smoking or snorting or otherwise ingesting, we do not know, & neither apparently does our splendid mayor, who now says he was actually too drunk to remember the occasion. Dear Mayor Ford: among our living national treasures.
I am in receipt of several emails querying the judgement of the fine people of Toronto for having elected this giant of a man. And as, despite my distaste for democracy, I voted for him myself, I feel some sort of reply may be indicated.
Quite frankly, we tried mayors who were not crackheads. They didnt work out. Also, the last one didnt drink enough. Thats why we elected Ford. Hes doing great: slashing through the city bureaucracy & privatizing everything he can. He even holds the civic unions in subjection: not one has dared to strike. And ho, hes trying to build subways. Anyone who has attempted to ride a trolley across this town will understand our need to tunnel. So what is the problem?
As our good, excellent mayor told his Police Chief: bring on your video! Ford says hes curious to see it himself, & that the rest of Toronto would surely also like a chance to catch it on YouTube.
Gentle reader knows I am a traditionalist in most things, & a loyal Canadian. Our very first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, was a magnificent drunkard, who managed to hold office for nearly twenty years. There is an Arabian Nights of anecdotes that our primly officious historians have been too shy to tell. Verily, half of Macdonalds Cabinet were awash most evenings, & the debates in Parliament were enlivened thereby. Almost all the damage ever done to this country was by sobersides.
#2
Hes doing great: slashing through the city bureaucracy & privatizing everything he can. He even holds the civic unions in subjection: not one has dared to strike. And ho, hes trying to build subways.
Mr. Wife was in Toronto last week, and his colleagues there said much the same: Mr. Ford is a successful businessman who ran on putting Toronto on a businesslike footing. He is doing so without fear or favour, much to the dismay of the various local power brokers, whose usual cumshaw has failed to appear. There is some suspicion the videos are a set-up.
h/t Instapundit, Althouse
Dave Wilson chuckles as he talks about his unorthodox political campaign.
"I'd always said it was a long shot," Wilson says. "No, I didn't expect to win."
Still, he figured he'd have fun running, because he was fed up with what he called "all the shenanigans" at the Houston Community College System. As a conservative white Republican running in a district whose voters are overwhelmingly black Democrats, the odds seemed overwhelmingly against him.
Then he came up with an idea, an advertising strategy that his opponent found "disgusting." If a white guy didn't have a chance in a mostly African-American district, Wilson would lead voters to think he's black.
And it apparently worked. In one of the biggest political upsets in Houston politics this election season, Wilson -- an anti-gay activist and former fringe candidate for mayor -- emerged as the surprise winner over 24-year incumbent Bruce Austin. His razor thin margin of victory, only 26 votes, was almost certainly influenced by his racially tinged campaign.
"Every time a politician talks, he's out there deceiving voters," he says.
Wilson, a gleeful political troublemaker, printed direct mail pieces strongly implying that he's black. His fliers were decorated with photographs of smiling African-American faces -- which he readily admits he just lifted off websites -- and captioned with the words "Please vote for our friend and neighbor Dave Wilson."
#4
Sounds like he violated someone's civil rights and AG Holder will be checking him out personally. As will the IRS and the election rules people. And the EPA, and the Post Office, and DEA, and so on. But none of them will notice the mob of his melanin-rich neighbors with the firebombs in his front yard..
#7
Reading this, I'm not so sure this is an accurate recount of the interview.
If all he did was not show a picture of himself on the direct mail then whats the deal? If he put his name directly underneath a picture of Marshan Lynch then yeah, but at the box there would still be the olde d and r signage. Sounds like enough educated or pissed off voters wanted to kick out the 4 time elected Austin.
#13
Dunno if it's just race-preference in voting. One can look at the Irish community in the Northeast as having been another sterling example.
The tendency now is to vote for the ethnicity or skin color as well as the leftist political leaning, just to prove that one is not racist/biased. I'm sure the reader (outside of our insipid and tiresome Canadian Godwin's Law-violator,) can come up with a few examples on their own.
#16
That looks like it was badanov, Jerk. He has a low tolerance for ... what is a good term for it... purposeful slow learning. I missed whatever idiocy it was that triggered him, but have little doubt it was deserved.
#20
Just how much a role Wilson's mailers played in the campaign is unclear. Other incumbents running for re-election were forced into runoffs, perhaps because the community college system has come under intense criticism for insider business deals and spending money on overseas initiatives. And after 24 years in office, Austin's name should have been somewhat familiar to his constituents.
The unasked questions are:
Was there another African-American running for the same office?
If not, what would be the likelihood of Mr. Austin becoming a 30-year incumbent?
How about a Hispanic candidate -would that change the odds?
Or an African American, but one known for Christian fundamentalist, political conservative, or libertarian views - would Mr. Austin still get elected to another 6-year term?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.