Giambrone For Mayor?

I know I said that I was gonna post the eye-opening video from my last post...but I had to push back a couple of posts just to post while this fiasco's still relevant.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Refresher links in case you haven't been following or don't know what's up:

General Info: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/sto...e-affairs.html

His Trick: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/b...ten-lucas.aspx

Giambrone's sorry excuse of a campaign will be remembered in infamy.

I've been really interested in the TTC lately, so I've been following this closely.

He's long been hailed as Toronto's poster boy for THE up-and-coming prominent politician. At 32 years old, he's accomplished a lot... but I guess wise decisions & the ability to make good decisions based on experience isn't included in that. His list of accomplishments include (in this order): NDP youth wing affiliate by the time he was 15, Federal NDP president, Toronto Councillor, Commissioner of TTC, & Chair of TTC, before finally running for Mayor.

Mistake 1: Heading the TTC at a peak of customer dissatisfaction. Rider dissatisfaction has been building up over the years, with the steady increase in fair hikes, bad service, delays, irresponsible fiscal spending, etc. Unfortunately for him, he just happened to be the face to attack when the shit hit the fan - which I think would've been completely avoidable or minimized. If he planned his political career better, he could've resigned. Imagine how well the spin would've worked if he resigned and said it was because "he can't stand by and watch the TTC betray its customers/the city like that".

Mistake 2: the horrible excuse of a campaign video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnOUupt2f9E&feature=related). The editing was horrible, the sound was garbage, and the writing of his script was horrible. If it was meant to be satirical, it was a bad attempt at that. If it was supposed to appeal to the younger audience, it appealed...but not in a good way (check any of his campaign videos & read the comments). Bottom line, Mr. Giambrone, is that corny humour only works if it's actually funny.

Mistake 3: having a mistress. Seriously? Was there any way that this could've gone well? It's like girls who send naked pictures of themselves to their dog of a boyfriend - I'm sure they're gonna keep that all to themselves...*insert eye-rolling smiley*.

& here's pics for you dogs (lol):

- Giambrone + partner both in his private & public life

- The alleged mistress

Mistake 4: Not admitting the truth, to begin with -by trying to deny the affair. First of all, if you TEXTED someone incriminative information, why would it be likely that they wouldn't keep it? The truth(or some distorted version of it) will only eventually come out, and you just screw yourself over even more. Second of all, wouldn't it make more sense to declare something that will eventually be leaked so you can beat them to punch & make it less effective when it inevitably DOES come out?

Mistake 5: Crying during a press conference. If we can look past the fact that he's a grown-ass man...why the hell would you cry during a press conference. Sure, life's stressful, your careers over, you just made the biggest mistake of your life (okay...now that I think about it, why wouldn't you...). But STILL, think of the image that this sends. A mayoral candidate cracks under pressure. It begs a voter to question how he would handle stress if elected for office.

Mistake 6: Dropping out of the mayoral race. Although it's probably a good ting that this guy isn't going to be running the city...from his point of view, he still had a chance. The elections are 6 months away; spin control's an amazing thing, these days; and dude was 2nd place in the race. It would only take a couple of months, a hundred apologies, and the majority of the public would eventually forget that this ever happened. What makes this even worse is that he couldn't do it himself - a representative had to walk into the room after he stormed out to announce that he was dropping out.

Let's open this up for discussion now:

- Was it wrong of her to exploit the situation?

- Besides how it hurt his image, isn't all this irrelevant to his platform? 

- Isn't his personal life his own business? 

- Or are they supposed to give up all rights to privacy when they take up a public position like that? 

- Should "skeletons in the closet" be forgotten or are they ALWAYS relevant?

Take a step back and think: should this REALLY affect what his political agenda is? Does it really take away from his character?

Personally, I'm not a fan of the guy (anti-motorcyclist lobbyists = not a good match for me)...but what he's been able to do with his political career is pretty commendable. I'll admit that it's easy to analyze all the "what if"s and point out what people do when you're on the outside looking in...so of course, nothing I just said holds any weight (except for the fact that it seems to make sense). I can't lie that I'd love to be Giambrone's Public Relations rep right now (no sarcasm). Not that I support his platform, but dude was well-recognized because of his media coverage from his TTC days -  he threw the towel in way too early. I wouldn't be surprised if he decided to retract his dropping-out (remember where you heard it first!...hypothetically speaking)

Btw, this is the pre-curser to the "short-comings of Toronto" series: the TTC chapter.

Long post - I know. Hopefully you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Here's a funny .gif for being a trooper and reading the whole thing:

Figuratively speaking, guess which one's Giambrone & which one's Toronto? ;)

Peace,

- knowledge

Facebook & Its Implications On Our Generation

Have you ever realized how big of a part of our lives facebook has become?

It first struck me(more than a year ago) when I tried tagging a friend in a picture, and I got this:

It's almost scary how electronic we've become. Our interactions, our networking, etc. Everything can now be done through an online personas or account that we maintain (it's even questionable to say whether it's really "us"). People don't even chop for numbers any more...they chop for facebooks. Call me a traditionalist, but it doesn't seem right. Whatever happened to real-life interaction? We've got lava life, eharmony, and even facebook for hooking up with people. Have we really lost the backbone to just approach people? In a city like Toronto, it shouldn't be that hard to find someone that you get along with.

Every now and then, I feel the need to get off facebook. Why? Because it's so far from the real world, that it's almost scary. People maintain friendships through online posting when it's convenient for them, or when they have "nothing better to do". I'm sorry, but that isn't how I choose friendships.

Out of all the friends you have added, how many can you truly say were really friends at one point? I can honestly say that that about 50 are for networking, 2 are models which were just so damn hot that I couldn't NOT add them (:D), and about 20-30 are acquaintances.

I suppose being on my/having my blackberry on me all the time isn't much better - but at least it's closer to "real" than Facebook will probably ever be. I also suppose I'm guilty of maintaining friendships via phone...but I do try to see friends when I can find the time. What makes this a little bit more legitimate for me is that people answer as soon as they can, not as soon as they're bored.

With the introduction of facebook comes the intrusion of your privacy rights. Do a google search for lawsuits against facebook, and you'll see many examples. Have you guys taken the time to read the agreement (probably not...who does that, anyways?! Right?). You're exlusively signing over your information to them. When you delete your account, your information doesn't actually get deleted. In fact, there's actually no way to delete your account, unless you do it manually. Meaning: when you deactivate your account, all of your information stays on there. The only way to get rid of the information is to manually delete everything (your wall posts, your notes, your pictures, etc.) you've ever done, said, or posted. And who knows...maybe after all the manual deleting, it still might be there. A bit fishy, isn't it?

Who's to say that it isn't some tool to keep tabs on the population? Cops do have access to facebook, and I wouldn't be surprised if your network/privacy settings were by-passed by authorities. Students have gotten expelled, suspended, or charged based on information & pictures found on facebook. Cops in Toronto have facebook accounts (although they're HORRIBLE at trying to act like normal people...which reminds me of that time when there were undercover constables on the bus, but we all knew it was them. The TTC bus was a chartered bus ONLY for uniformed Neil students...and we look over and see 2 plain-clothed, grown-ass men sitting, trying to play it off like they belong there. Seriously? Who comes up with such witty strategies?! I wonder if they do stake-outs with their uniforms on too...)

BUT It goes to show that you should be careful what you put on there. A picture of you smokin' a big fat doobie might be taken into consideration when your employer 10 years down the road decides to do a background check on you. The picture of you passed out posted on the day you called in sick might end up screwing you over, too. So will the picture of you using "X's" body as a jungle gym at a jam 'cause everyone's drunk and trying to get their grind on. The possibilities are endless. It's not even about caring what people think about you...it's more about how it WILL affect you.

There's no denying that facebook has had implications on us students. Next time you go to a lecture, see how many screens are lit up with people perusing on facebook (nothing wrong with that; to each their own). I've used it to keep in touch. When I was doing the music thing & networking, I've managed to get in touch with people I would've never gotten in touch with. I've gotten in touch with lots of childhood friends that I lost contact with. I've even used the forums on facebook for Philosophy discussions (RIP original ATP). But, it's also distracted me way too much.

It has its draw-backs, but it also certainly has some good things with it, too. But on a larger scale, I urge you guys to think about how Facebook has changed society, or even just people you know.

For anyone who cares: I'm off it until probably around April (I think this would be an appropriate time to randomly yell out "FUCK THE SYSTEM!" & run around drawing anarchy signs everywhere).

Peace,

- knowledge