July 2011
56 posts
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America’s Media: Dancing Around the Budget Debate...
America’s Media: Dancing Around the Budget Debate Charade July 31st, 2011 GREANVILLEPOST [Translate] To call the American corporate media “scum” is to invest it with a respectability it doesn’t deserve. By Stephen Lendman NYTimes’ columnist Thomas Friedman, a free-market fundamentalist. Easy for a billionaire to advocate brutal cuts in the social safety...
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Video from Toronto #CriticalMass ride, July 29,...
Related posts:
I always said cyclists were clowns, but this is ridiculous … | #CriticalMass #BikeTO
Images from #CriticalMass ride, July 29, 2011 | #BikeTO
Team Ford and the deputations at Exec Committee | #TOcouncil #TOpoli
On Scofflaw Cyclists & Exemplary Motorists (and other urban myths) | #bikeTO #TOpoli
Via @GraphicMatt - The Jarvis vote: What the hell happened? | #TOpoli...
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I always said cyclists were clowns, but this is...
Ba-da-boom.
More to come.
Images from #CriticalMass ride, July 29, 2011 |...
Bike Nation spins up once again. Special props to those who managed to make it after doing the all-night Executive Committee marathon. Must be raiding the mayor’s Red Bull fridge or something. Video to come. See the full gallery on Posterous Related posts: Video from the #RideforJarvis July 20, 2011 | @meslin #BikeTO #TOpoli Images from the Ride for Jarvis | #BikeTO On...
Drama Button
via dramabutton.com Found this evening by my partner Laura. She always has perfect timing. :)
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Team Ford and the deputations at Exec Committee |...
At the end of the day – which is where we almost are – it’s not about the rigged votes or the procedural mudwrestling or the attempts to shorten time for deputants or narrow the window for follow-up questions, pathetic at those are.
I’ve already shared some observations about what’s been going on today, and what it says about the Ford administration’s sentiments about...
City Hall gravy | #TOcouncil
Executive committee overflow, committee Room 2 … Sent from my BlackBerry See the full gallery on Posterous
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'I’m driving,’ Ford says after learning he won’t...
via citytv.com Isn’t this the same guy who wanted TTC operators fired for using their phones to text while driving?
Never Visit a Murdoch Website Again with This...
via gawker.com The only thing that could make this better: Keith Olbermann doing this in his mutant Murdoch-pirate hybrid voice.
The Cult That Is Destroying America - NYTimes.com...
When devotion to “objectivity” becomes a moral failing … http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/the-cult-that-is-destroying-ameri… Sent from my BlackBerry
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Everything that’s wrong with our oil-soaked...
via grist.org H/t @AntoniaZ.
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Who matters on #PlanetFord? Not @MargaretAtwood,...
OK, so I just want to be sure I understand this: According to Doug Ford, Margaret Atwood isn’t someone he needs to recognize or take seriously because … well, let him speak for himself: “Margaret Atwood, I don’t even know her. She could walk right by me – I wouldn’t have a clue who she is,” he told reporters. “She’s not down here. She’s not dealing with the problem…Tell her...
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On Scofflaw Cyclists & Exemplary Motorists (and...
“Amsterdam, girl cycling from A to B, multi-tasking, like so many do” by Amsterdamize / RateMyVelo.com
You have heard it a million times before: Cyclists don’t deserve any respect on our streets until they obey all of the laws. The implicit message in this fallacy is that drivers have a right to be angry and be aggressive towards cyclists because some cyclists run red lights.
...
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Sun readers react to #JackLayton | #cdnpoli
Who couldn’t help but rejoice in NDP leader Jack Layton’s devastating news (The Sun has now closed the comment section under the Layton story on all individual city websites) Share this: Facebook Tags: Cancer, Comments, Jack Layton, Toronto Sun ...
Republicans, Ayn Rand, #teabaggers and the...
The odious hypocrite Newt Gingrich, who considered himself a serious presidential candidate until his entire staff abandoned him in disgust, rests his appeal on his intellectual superiority to Sarah Palin and Rick Perry — a distinction much like being a faster runner than Dom DeLuise. via alternet.org Again, no lessons in this for us. Nope.
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What happens when you design cities around cars
Bad design kills people. That’s right. It’s not a matter of aesthetics, or of politics, or of opinion. It’s a plain fact: When you design streets solely for cars, people die as a result. The underlying conditions that are responsible for those deaths are rarely or never challenged. The victims often get blamed for their own injuries or deaths. via grist.org Not that...
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#BikeNation Takes Jarvis | via @Torontoist and...
via torontoist.com More from last night’s ride …
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Video from the #RideforJarvis July 20, 2011 |...
Quick and dirty edit, nothing fancy.
Dave Meslin speaks at Nathan Phillips Square at the conclusion.
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Images from the Ride for Jarvis | #BikeTO
Lots of community-building spirit, more than a thousand cyclists, Jarvis Street packed from Gerrard all the way up to Wellesley and beyond. Pretty damn cool. Ford Nation, meet Bike Nation. Will it have an effect? Depends. I’ll leave the in-depth analysis for others and for later. For now: pictures. Video to come. See the full gallery on Posterous
The taps on the other side serve gravy | #TOpoli
Sent from my BlackBerry
Perhaps the best analogy in the history of the...
For the uninitiated, the Tea Party group running this “Twitter debate” — if one can anoint a Jackson Pollock-style smearing of loose stool across the Internet as a “debate” …via wonkette.com
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Cyclists: What @emmamwoolley said | #BikeTO
Hard to argue with Emma Woolley when she urges those of us who cycle to, basically, not be dicks.
So.
The three guys who blew past me at about quarter after six this evening, westbound on Queen at Shaw, while the streetcar’s doors were open? This means you. Last one actually missed a couple of people getting on the streetcar by about an inch.
What do you think Team Ford would do if...
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Toronto’s Public Libraries under attack by Ford...
via torontoresistance.wordpress.com Are they serious? If they’re giving us an accurate account, then according to Doug Ford, there’s something wrong with a community that has more public libraries than Tim Hortons outlets. Must be steaming bowls of gravy mixed in with the books or something. Never mind the fact that as usual, he’s got the facts and numbers wrong, as the link...
Cynicism is cool and all ...
doaskid:
but it’s a really shitty substitute for FUCKING TRYING TO CHANGE THINGS.
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@JohnLorinc and @thekeenanwire on the city budget,...
In a thoughtful discussion of the current municipal budget discussions at SpacingToronto, John Lorinc floats the idea of a proactive approach to the current municipal budget discussions, and suggests pitching an alternative to the blunt machete-swinging we’re all being led to expect from Team Ford.
In one sense, anything that contributes to a reasoned and considered debate has to be...
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Partisanship and posturing | #TOpoli
Is it just me, or is voting in a way that enables one of the most partisan and vindictive administrations in Toronto history and then sanctimoniously deploring partisanship and revenge in a “why can’t we all just get along?” column just a little … hypocritical?
Not that I’m talking about anyone in particular.
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Guest post from @timfalconer at AFUITBS, and a...
… the bad news is: a lot of things in Toronto are going to get much worse before they have a chance to get any better. By shrinking the planned expansion of transit (and even cutting back on existing service), by making our streets more inhospitable to cyclists and by completely ignoring pedestrians, Ford ensures that our roads will become even more congested. But the good news is:...
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she was disarming: An open letter to my fellow... →
sodisarmingdarling:
[Note: Most people who read this will already be aware of these things. I’ll probably be preaching to the choir. But I had to get it out anyway. And I don’t care if it sounds like a lecture. You know how it is.]
This morning was like any other. I sat stopped at a red light while cyclist after…
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Avenues of resistance, tactical and strategic |...
Ok, so we all know what we’re up against. At the tactical level, we can at least make local councillors aware that there’ll be a political cost associated with being part of Team Ford. Vote with that bunch, Councillor, and you can forget about my support next time.
Strategically, it gets a little more abstract. De-amalgamation? A nice thought, and it would be nice to get people...
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In answer to @graphicmatt – no, this isn't...
Matt Elliott’s post yesterday wonders, perhaps rhetorically, where Toronto Council’s conservatives are. He sums up the incoherence and cumulatively damaging effect of some of the decisions Team Ford’s managed to push through this week – getting rid of bike lanes, turning down free provincial money for public health nurses, voting against community grants, dismissing the results...
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War on the Car, redux | #BikeTO #TOpoli
It’s the meme that just won’t die. After Toronto Council voted yesterday to kill the Jarvis bike lanes, I suggested that it’s time for cyclists to look to their own safety first, and if that means not being so accommodating to motorist traffic, so be it. For years the Fords of the world and their married-to-their-cars supporters have been complaining about a War on the Car....
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Via @GraphicMatt - The Jarvis vote: What the hell...
Today’s decision does little except increase the speed of automobile traffic, foster a substandard pedestrian realm and prop up Jarvis Street’s mid-century-to-now legacy as the tragic story of a once-great street in perpetual decline.
via fordfortoronto.mattelliott.ca
Matt Elliott’s summary of today’s procedural bullshit is required reading. And his analysis is bang-on in every...
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Instagram | from a comment on @torontoist |...
via instagr.am Because really, what’s the point of being subtle any more?
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It's not a War on the Car, it's a war by cars on...
So #TOCouncil votes to screw cyclists. No big surprise there.
I’ve been struggling, for weeks, to think of a way to reach out and engage with people we don’t agree with in a way that doesn’t come across as arrogant or condescending or elitist or anything, and while I don’t want to give up on that, at the moment I’m stymied.
What’s just happened at City...
The gold standard in #new911calls | #TOpoli |...
via youtube.com In all the smart-assery regarding yesterday’s suggestion that people should call 911 if they see someone writing graffiti, I felt it was important not to lose sight of this …
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michael murray - Rob Ford Toronto Mayor--Carelton...
via michaelmurray.ca I have no idea who Michael Murray is or whether this is true or not, but Jesus this is funny.
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Incredible. At #TOcouncil, we're watching a city...
And @goldsbie, @dreahouston, @jm_mcgrath, @GraphicMatt, @HiMYSYeD, @larrylarry, @paisleyrae, @justinsb, @cityslikr and others are there to enjoy it in person. Has this ever been done before? Witnesses to history. Lucky stiffs.
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The phantom #TTC pisser | #TOpoli #smear...
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Toronto's Core Services Review = barbarians in our...
Following the tweets from @Goldsbie, @jm_mcgrath, @c_9 and others. Mind-boggling.
No, @larrylarry, why would they? Facts just get in the way of ideological stupidity.
Why don’t these people just admit it: they don’t think government should be in the business of advancing the public good at all.
CTV Journalist Kai Nagata has quit his job -- and...
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/media-watch/2011/07/journalist-kai-nagata-has… Sent from my BlackBerry
@bqmburger drops the #poutine gloves ...
OK, BQM. I’ve always wondered whether a guy can OD on poutine. Let’s dance. Sent from my BlackBerry
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More on Ford Nation and the question of maturity |... →
Former TTC boss Michael Warren cites a Pembina Institute study which suggests that Team Ford’s approach to governance is going to hurt a lot more than it helps.
Another reason to replace bumper-sticker slogans with genuine, thoughtful engagement. Are Toronto voters ready for this? I’d like to think so, but I’m big on self-delusion …
@lornepw | Politics and its Discontents: The Real... →
Read this site. The author’s got a great perspective and a thoughtful, considered approach to things.
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@cityslikr has a perhaps-too-charitable take on...
In a discussion of golf and the disfiguring legacy of the Common Sense Revolution, @cityslikr writes: Thus, neo-conservatism in a nutshell: what’s in it for me? I wouldn’t call it selfishness. It’s more of a hermetically sealed self-centredness. Instilled is the idea that what benefits you will benefit others. The atomization of the political impulse to its simplest, purest form. The...
@thekeenanwire, road tolls and maturity |...
In his weekly Grid column, Ed Keenan notes the Ford tendency to fantasize about magical solutions to Toronto’s traffic-congestion problem — multi-level tunnels with premium access, privately funded subways every other block — and thereby divert focus away from practical, realistic solutions that could be implemented right now.Road tolls, for instance. There’s a compelling...
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Parsing @TOMayorFord's robo-mail | #TOpoli...
There’s a lot of action on the Tweeter about the Jarvis Street bike lanes. Just do a search on the #saveJarvis hashtag. And there’s been a lot of valuable grassroots work from the likes of Dave Meslin, Justin Beach, Matt Elliott, the Toronto Cyclists Union, and other activists.
But even automatic form-letter responses can be instructive. This is from Rob Ford’s office, in...
Twitter / @goldsbie shows @macdonaldfraser how...
Why I hope, when I grow up, to be as principled as @goldsbie . From the Tweeter yesterday … See the full gallery on Posterous
