[gabe]

Hey, I wasn't much a fan of the bail out... (but that was mostly in the states, where they have much less government checks and balances)

The auto Sector bail out was a bit of a joke... but what can you do!

Bit of a joke? Not only were GM and Chrysler jobs saved but also the thousands of jobs at all of the suppliers. Aslo created jobs.

 

[Danielinthecity]

Bit of a joke? Not only were GM and Chrysler jobs saved but also the thousands of jobs at all of the suppliers. Aslo created jobs.

Just out of curiosity, does this extend to all employers? All sectors? Only big companies? Is there a line that's drawn...a rationale or formula for who gets 'saved' and who doesn't? ...what about medium sized badly managed companies? What about Rimms? If they go down, should we give more money to 'save' those jobs too? Where does it end?

 

[jje1000]

Just out of curiosity, does this extend to all employers? All sectors? Only big companies? Is there a line that's drawn...a rationale or formula for who gets 'saved' and who doesn't? ...what about medium sized badly managed companies? What about Rimms? If they go down, should we give more money to 'save' those jobs too? Where does it end?

GM and Chrysler were unfortunately so huge that if they failed, they would bring down along with them countless suppliers and tertiary industries that have to do with the automotive sector. It's the same reason why AIG was deemed 'too big to fail'- if it fell, it would have brought down quite a number of French banks, and the effect would have snowballed. It sucks that governments are forced to socialize private losses, but I guess that's how things roll today in a globalized economy.

 

[W. K. Lis]

GM and Chrysler were unfortunately so huge that if they failed, they would bring down along with them countless suppliers and tertiary industries that have to do with the automotive sector. It's the same reason why AIG was deemed 'too big to fail'- if it fell, it would have brought down quite a number of French banks, and the effect would have snowballed. It sucks that governments are forced to socialize private losses, but I guess that's how things roll today in a globalized economy.

I draw the line before Deco Labels & Tags, wouldn't dare get my business cards from them.

 

[freshcutgrass]

It sucks that governments are forced to socialize private losses, but I guess that's how things roll today in a globalized economy.

But they weren't forced to remove sound legislation that prevents such things from happening. The government changed the rules to suit the greedy corporations....not protect the economy. Occupy Wall Street should really be Occupy Washington, but since Reagan is dead....

 

[Electrify]

Ford's jizz must be very addicting, because I think the Sun cannot stop themselves from sucking him off! I think with this article, this paper loses what little credibility they had and goes from Fox News levels of derp to World Net Daily levels...

The war on Mayor Rob Ford
BY DON PEAT, CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF
FIRST POSTED: SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2011 07:39 PM EST | UPDATED: SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2011 07:48 PM EST

TORONTO - Love him or hate him — but especially for those who hate him — no one has a moderate opinion of Mayor Rob Ford.

Almost a year into Ford suffering the slings and arrows of Toronto’s highest office, those from his inner circle say he’s being pounded by an ongoing war on the right wing mayor that started before election day and shows no signs of dissipating into the second year of his four-year term.

Ford has been cast by his council enemies as the mayor that will make everything worse, vilified by the unions he has played hardball with and repeatedly whacked like a 300-pound pinata — fairly or unfairly depending who you ask — by some elements of the media.

In his first year as mayor Ford has seen his head photoshopped onto nearly naked photos that ran on the frontpage of NOW magazine, been ambushed by comedians in his driveway and followed to his cottage during Pride weekend.

He’s become a favourite muse of the city’s graffiti artists and allegedly repeatedly threatened with death.

Media coverage of Ford has included personal attacks — complete with shots at his weight, fear and loathing over the mere suggestion of discussing budget cuts and questions around his lack of spending a large chunk of his taxpayer-funded mayor’s office budget.

In the latest controversy, Ford called 911 after comedian Mary Walsh tried to interview him for This Hour Has 22 Minutes in his driveway. A day later, Chief Bill Blair had publicly set the record straight that, despite what the CBC reported, Ford didn’t call 911 operators “bitches” or tell them he was “Mayor Rob f--king Ford.”

Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti, stepping up to the mayor’s defence during the controversy, accused some people of being unable to get over the fact that Ford won the election last year.

“I think it is time for the enemies of the mayor to stop using him as a target for their own political reasons,” said Ford’s self-proclaimed council quarterback. “It is time to get down to business at City Hall.”

Easier said than done.

Ford’s opponents are organized, energized and committed to derailing his agenda.

Left-leaning Councillor Joe Mihevc is expected to fire a pre-budget shot at Ford’s administration Sunday, warning four of the city’s least attended museums could be shuttered to cut costs.

Budget Chief Mike Del Grande echoed Mammoliti’s feeling among Ford’s inner circle that for some of their fiercest critics, the election isn’t over.

In an op-ed in the Toronto Sun earlier this month, Del Grande accused some news outlets of losing their “journalistic compass.”

Del Grande said this week he stands by his view that the anti-Ford forces — including some in the media — are trying to derail Ford’s message by derailing the messenger himself.

The mayor’s office downplayed the notion there is a war on Ford.

“It’s not necessarily that there is a concerted effort by some media to ‘target’ the mayor, but there appears to be a real desire, by some, to have a ‘gotcha’ moment rather than report on the important issues the mayor’s administration is trying to accomplish for taxpayers,” said Ford’s press secretary Adrienne Batra.

Stefan Baranski, a principal at Counsel Public Affairs and former spokesman for George Smitherman’s mayoral campaign, said there is a “pretty obvious” anti-Ford segment in the media.

“It is very apparent,” Baranski said.

He pointed to the 22 Minutes ambush and the subsequent reporting on the mayor’s 911 calls as an example of how “unfair” some media have been to Ford.

A rough ride in the media isn’t new for Toronto mayors, he adds.

“(Sun City Hall columnist) Sue-Ann Levy wasn’t exactly a friend of (former mayor) David Miller,” Baranski said.

And Baranski said while it is easy for politicians to blame the media, Ford “certainly hasn’t done himself any favours” by promising one thing during the election and then letting those slogans evaporate.

“(Ford) has to answer for why these easy promises have not been reached,” Baranski said.

He credited Batra, his former arch-rival on the campaign trail, for doing “Yeoman’s work” in helping Ford get his message across.

Baranski said he thinks Ford had some early successes but now needs to get back to basics of “respect for taxpayers.”

“As of late I think the realities of government has caught up to him,” he said.

Baranski pointed to “nickle and diming” increases like the 9% water rate hike the budget committee approved Thursday and a new city-wide permit fee to repave your driveway approved by the public works committee earlier this month.

“Can you imagine Councillor Rob Ford voting in favour of that?” he asked.

Bob Reid, chief media strategist at Veritas Communications, said push back is inevitable when you have a politician with “a very strong commitment to fiscal responsibility.”

“It is tough to be the guy that has to say no,” said Reid, who worked for Ontario Premier Mike Harris.

One year in, Reid said Ford has demonstrated “very strong message discipline” — a dream in the public relations world.

But Reid said Ford has made some fumbles.

“I don’t think he is comfortable dealing with the media in general,” he said.

Putting lieutenants out to speak in Ford’s place has been a good idea while boycotting some news organizations entirely “is never a good idea,” Reid said.

Rookie Councillor Josh Matlow — a member of council’s political middle — believes the mayor is often his own worst enemy.

“I think that while there are some left wing opposition members here who do everything they can to embarrass the mayor, the mayor is often better at embarrassing the mayor and distracting from his own agenda than are the left wingers,” Matlow said this week.

The St. Paul’s councillor said he hears from Conservatives who voted for Ford and say they regret it now.

“It is not because they disagree with the basic direction of where he would like to go, they just hate how he is going about it,” he said. “Between the Port Lands folly to various embarrassing incidents that have shown up in the papers, that doesn’t garner a lot of confidence from the public.”

http://www.torontosun.com/2011/11/12/the-war-on-mayor-rob-ford

This is from the newspaper which made such classy decisions as to let their City Hall columnist refer to Miller is "his blondeness" regularly, and after the Liberals won the provincial election ran on their front page "WELCOME TO HELL" with a cartoon McGuinty as the devil? THIS paper is trying to draw up sympathy for a politician who they feel has been portrayed unfairly in the media?!?

The moral of today's story: Those in glass houses should just shut the fuck up!

 

[Riverdale Rink Rat]

The moral of today's story: Those in glass houses should just shut the fuck up!

hahahahaha... awesome. LOVED today's Sun cover (through the box, natch... can't bother buying one.) Ford at his most ungraceful as their cover shot for a hatchet job on his CRITICS? How do you find such irony in today's world? It was Shakespearian in its drama.

 

[Mongo]

This is from the newspaper which made such classy decisions as to let their City Hall columnist refer to Miller is "his blondeness" regularly, and after the Liberals won the provincial election ran on their front page "WELCOME TO HELL" with a cartoon McGuinty as the devil? THIS paper is trying to draw up sympathy for a politician who they feel has been portrayed unfairly in the media?!?

I am sure that many UTers can remember how the Sun treated Bob Rae. From the day he was elected, to the day he left office, he was subject to incessant personal attacks. No matter what he did, the Sun would find a way to turn it into a means to vilify him. I recall that a joke started to circulate after some time of this behavior:

One day, Bob Rae was walking along a riverbank when he spotted a drowned woman floating face-down in the river. He immediately walked on top of the water, and pulled the woman out of the water and back to dry land. He then put his index finger to the woman's forehead, a spark flashed from his finger to the woman's, and she suddenly came back to life. A Toronto Sun reporter saw the whole thing, and the next day the front-page headline on the Sun read RAE CAN'T SWIM.

This is obviously a joke, but that was pretty much how the Sun behaved during Bob Rae's entire time as Premier.

 

[Electrify]

This is the Toronto Sun:

"LEAVE ROB FORD ALONE!!!!!"

 

[Marko]

The scary thing is that the 1% cannot see the ultimate conclusion to their greed. Let's outsource all the jobs to poor countries, so then we become a society of a small number of elites in a continent of hundreds of millions of poor people. If these poor people don't have the money to buy the goods the "job creators" produce, then their business goes under and they become poor as well.

You know what the Occupy protesters should do? Go to Shenzhen and protest against the Chinese for daring to improve their lot in life at the expense of the working class here - because it's not the 1% who have sent jobs overseas - it was 100% of the west wanting to consume ever more cheap goods.

The developing world is developing at the expense of segments of the developed world and the 1% remains regardless of what else goes on. They've existed for centuries, regardless of economy or political system, they are always there. It's not the 1% who are the problem, but the bottom 10%, many of whom refuse to improve themselves regardless of how much you do to help them. If you really want to help spread the wealth, then you should wish that the 1% grows to 2%, so that instead of paying a mere 30% of all taxes paid, it can increase to cover whatever social spending you could dream. If wealth is to be shared, then you need more wealth.

(I know it's more complicated than this and corruption/crime should always be prevented, but this is what the Occupy protesters would never admit)

 

[Justin10000]

If you can stomach reading the comments in the Sun, you'll notice a recurring theme: "it's all the overpaid union workers fault, get rid of the unions." Doesn't matter what the topic is, it's always the fault of the unions!

 

[nfitz]

If you can stomach reading the comments in the Sun, you'll notice a recurring theme: "it's all the overpaid union workers fault, get rid of the unions." Doesn't matter what the topic is, it's always the fault of the unions!

Which is fine, if the Sun's market readership was in Rosedale.

But it isn't ... generally there readership is much more blue-collar union than it is Bay Street.

I'm not sure how The Sun has gotten away with abusing it's readership for so many years ... you'd think that "Fool me once" would start to apply here. Maybe blue collar workers aren't as bright as I tend to believe they are? I just don't get it ...

 

[Marko]

There are more non-unionized blue collar workers than unionized, so it still plays to the numbers.

That said, both my dad, brother and 2 good friends are unionized, and even they rail against public sector unions. They are in skilled labor unions which for all their many flaws, still do a lot to protect workers within industries where companies of all sizes have different constraints that might lead them to take shortcuts in safety, benefits, etc... The same cannot be said for public sector workers, or at least not to anywhere near the same extent.

It used to be that people made a bit less when working for government, because the job was sure to be safe and the benefits good. But deal by deal, the unions won more for their members - as they're supposed to - while governments afraid to take a firm stance have allowed the overall wages and benefits to outpace inflation or reasonable benchmarks in the private sector.

The latter part is what people from any level of private employment resent, that it's taxpayer's (their) money used to elevate public sector employees to a level they - more often than not - are unable to achieve. It's not unreasonable to ask why this should be the way it is, and not unreasonable to look at the wages and benefits of employees when trying to get government spending under control.

 

[nfitz]

Still unions aside ... why would anyone who was blue collar be interested in the right-wing, make the rich richer and poor poorer, world that the neo-Cons that the Sun slavishly supports.

 

[jje1000]

An insightful post from the Globe and Mail:

You know why it's so hard for Ford to get traction with the majority of people who didn't vote for him in the last election? Because it seems all that ever gets discussed are cuts to things he doesn't like, or would never, ever be seen partaking in himself.

If he could show us one dept or program that's a favorite of his that's getting cut, just to show he's not playing favorites or acting ideologically, he'd be in a better position to sell his cuts as the result of a dispassionate review.

Of course, the challenge there is finding something public he actually cares about. Besides the cops, that is.