Rob Ford on his new TV show Ford Nation: “I know in my heart everyone has personal problems. I urinated in a parking lot … what does that have to do with anything?”
I’m not sure it quite got everyone’s attention down here in the States. But it seems like today was the breakthrough day in the on-going, endless (and admittedly sublime) Rob Ford psychodrama. We linked to this boffo moment when ‘Mayor’ Ford ran across the Council Chamber to jump into an apparently imaginary melee involving his brother (City Councillor Doug Ford) and managed to clothesline City Councillor Pam McConnell. Beside that there wasn’t so much any one admission or profanity or bonghit or body check as the city government degenerating into a sort of post-modern hostage drama in which two bulbous goon brothers were holding this once proudly boring city hostage. At certain moments, I found myself thinking that the old John Candy/Eugene Levy era Second City TV was actually just a documentary about life in Canada.
As many wise people wrote during the height of the Trayvon Martin case, public morality plays don’t always align neatly with the deep-seated social injustices we connect them to. It was never clear to me that Zimmerman was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of racially profiling and then intentionally killing Trayvon Martin. Based on the evidence that was a difficult case to make. But that’s what Florida prosecutors charged him with. I don’t remember the ins and outs of Florida law. But what seemed more clear cut was something like manslaughter or negligent homicide. It always seemed possible to me that Zimmerman was just a coward with a gun and something to prove who got scared and killed a kid.
New George Zimmerman mugshot, from latest domestic violence incident.
I’ve been hearing from all day today that this afternoon has been the big final epic meltdown in the endless Mayor Ford crackalacka drama. But I guess a short time ago Mayor Ford had some kind of phantasm, imagining his brother, City Councilor Doug Ford, was being attacked in the Council Chamber. He ran across the Council Chamber and Ford – who has substantial inertia mass when at speed – inadvertently body slammed Councillor Pam McConnell. Watch.
Longtime TPM readers may remember TPM Cafe’s Book Club. We’re pleased to re-introduce a version of that today with prolific and award-winning academic Larry J. Sabato as he promotes his new book, The Kennedy Half Century: The Presidency, Assassination, And Lasting Legacy Of John F. Kennedy. We kick off the week with Sabato’s piece on whether the Kennedy assassination was inevitable, with excerpts of the book to follow throughout the week Sabato will also be answering questions on Thursday at noon with readers, so be sure to tune in then.
Even as the Obamacare rollout stumbles, struggles on, Sahil Kapur focuses on a key point few are noticing. In their criticism, congressional Republicans are assuming the need to coverage people with pre-existing conditions, recision, life time limits and more. But they have no policy proposal to achieve any of those goals. It’s a good example of how Obamacare has now seemingly irrevocably changed the terms of the acceptable in Health Care policy debate. Read it here.